Wolfgang Overthebar

I can assure you Phil McFud as you call him is not my source. The FAI have approached him. As I said it's no secret in the world of football journalism. Phil is the first to make it public.

An open secret in the world of football journalism. Check out the YBIG forum on Republic of Ireland football team. Ireland's fans are all over this and can hardly believe we their luck that another talented young Scottish player is being snubbed by SFA

Rumours Martin O'Neil and the FAI are going to persuade Johnston to choose Ireland and fast-track him into the Ireland squad. Irish grandparents apparently and has never been selected for Scotland at any age group. (too small apparently)

That to me is the perfect post. Like you i quite like Arnstrong but it is all about levels and consequently difficult to judge if he should be in the team at the expense of Fletcher and Morrison. It will be interesting to see who Rogers brings in during the January window. They have been heavily linked with James McCarthy who similar to Charlie Adam and James Morrison has been in and out of his side this season but if he signs for Celtic he will walk into their side possibly at the expense of Armstrong. Plus i feel there seems to be a degree of inconsistency on this board about the quality of the SPFL and its quality in comparison with other leagues. When it was pointed out that James Forrest was excellent against Aberdeen in the League Cup final and has been one of Celtic's best performers this season many on here were quick to claim that he only looks good because he is playing for the best team at a poor level. When it comes to Armstrong (and Grrffiths for that matter) that argument, for many, doesn't seem to be so relevant.

I'm pretty sure Paul Scholes has Irish grandparents but has/had no link to Scotland whatsoever - not that would have stopped Craig Brown approaching him of course. Nicky Butt, on the other hand, had a Scottish parent but, unlike others - Graham Alexander for example, didn't feel Scottish. On the issue of young Dembele - I hope he sees himself as Scottish but if he wants to represent England or the Ivory Coast instead I hope it is because he regards himself as such and not because an agent as told him its in his best interests to do so.

Its nothing new, is happened for decades - Denis Law, Jimmy Johnstone, Kenny Dalglish, Gary McAllister, Brian McClair and plenty others all been booed whilst playing for Scotland. And just look at the hatred on here towards certain current players

And who is this man? If its Griffiths? - he couldn't score from six yards out with a free header (and with his eyes open)

I assume you are right and it is the roll of honour the OP is referring to - and that is different from the hall of fame. If he looks at the actual hall of fame, he'd realise the number of great Scottish players who didn't manage 50 caps (or in some cases even 25) - McFadden can take his place alongside them as I'm sure he will be inducted into that within the next couple of years

You don't need 50 caps to get into the SFA hall of fame. The hall of fame is full of players with less than 50 caps.

i think that's a very fair assessment. Dont know the answer for the defence - Robertson and Paterson are better going forward than defensively - ok for tonight but you'd suspect the other sides will fancy their chances attacking down our flanks. The central defence is two players that are struggling to get into championship sides but who is better?

I've no problem with that. They probably are the amongst the best we have at the 21 year old level. But i dont think we should get that excited about them, because if they were that special they'd be playing first team football at a decent level. And sadly they are not. And i would hope anyone that was at Pittodrie last season -as i depressingly was - for the under-21 international against France would agree with me. A Scotland under-21 side with so many great hopes of ours - Gauld, Christie, Paterson, McGInn, Kingsley, Nicholson, Cummings, Hamilton - were given the runaround. And before people say yes but it was France - it was a weakened France U-21 side as six of their players were selected for their full squad.

You seriously getting excited about a 21 year-old that cant get a game for Celtic and another player who is 21 this year that is so far away from the Sporting Lisbon first team he has been loaned out for the season. They were both in the under-21 team last year that were out-played by France at Pittodrie - and looked seriously out of their depth. I was at that game, it was embarrassing - i would temper that excitement and enthusiasm, If i was you. Plus If they were as good as you think they are they'd surely be playing first team football at aa decent level at 21 years of age.

I agree with you - however there is no reason why young Scots (as Kieran Freeman has shown in the past couple of days) cant move to academies in the rest of Britain - assuming they have some potential. Also - there are many posters on here argue that the best Scottish youngsters shouldn't leave Scotland at a young age for those considerably better academies outside of Scotland. Claiming they should learn their 'trade' and then move on in their 20s. Plus correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there at least five young Scots at Swansea? I was glad to see Kingsley get called up after a handful of premier league games for Swansea but plenty on here were not.

not just Rossy - there are a number of posters on this board who have argued that the current Scotland team are better than Wales or 'Bales' as they have ridiculously preferred to call them. Hopefully they might finally accept that more than half of that Wales would walk into the current Scotland team and - dare i say - half of the Ireland team too

Well played Wales. yes hopefully the buffoons on this board who called them Bales for the past couple of years will now accept they are more than a one-man team. Ramsey, Allen, Williams and his fellow premier league defenders would walk into our side. Well played Wales and shows how far behind, Scotland is, of that tiny country (with football as their second sport)

Agree with you 100% We need our young players to leave Scotland and the poor facilities, poor diet, their mates and the drink culture behind. And test themselves against the best youngsters from elsewhere and become professional footballers. And realise what it takes to become really top players

Very true, we will always have the Kirin Cup to cherish. My point as I'm sure you are aware was more regarding Mox's quote about Ferguson You could easily (Kirin Cup win allowing!?!?!) replace Ferguson with McFadden and Rangers, Blackburn.. then Rangers again with Motherwell, Everton, Birmingham then Motherwell again and make sarcastic comments about cherishing memories of McFadden shining a light on the world stage. Whats the difference - McFadden worshipped and Ferguson ridiculed?

I think Ferguson played in the same number of tournaments as McFadden

And conveniently forgotten European Cup winner Paul Lambert?

But you wouldn't be dreading the campaign if we were playing a Celtic reserve and a Sporting Lisbon B team player in the team? Or selecting someone playing in the Scottish championship where some of the opposition is part-time? I'm all for bringing in young players if they are proving their worth - reserve football and scottish championship level of play is not proving their worth. These young players have to prove themselves at a decent level.

Really? Did you pay attention to the last qualifying campaign. Our head to heads with Poland and Ireland (the equivalent of Slovakia and Slovenia this time) were decent. It is possible that England - like Germany in the last group - wont win every game. Except of course we dont see it like that - first seed should win every game, so lets just assume they will. And Ireland and Poland took six points off of Georgia - we didn't. i agree with you that we should be looking for 12 points from the games against Malta and Lithuania. Slovakia and Slovenia will be expecting to do so. With our attitude though, we'll probably be happy with an away point here and there.

Has Kingsley done any less than McKay or McGinn who have received caps recently? And in fairness to Kingsley he didnt look out of place whilst playing for Swansea against Arsenal's international payers at the end of the season - and looked one of the better players tonight

Not disagreeing entirely with what you suggest. (the question of course is where is best for young Scots to develop? - not for this thread) However, Deila has picked a 19-year-old scotsman Tierney over Izaguirre - a 29 year-old with 82 international caps - this season. Its entirely possible Tierney's form will drop and he will lose his place but it cant be denied that Deila is prepared to give youth a chance and play at least a handful of scots every game.

In fairness to Deila - he is playing Scottish players in Celtic's first team. At least 5 or 6 Scots are regularly starting for them. Thats more than some sides - eg Inverness If Christie, Allan and Armstrong aren't good enough to play regularly for Celtic then they aren't good enough for Scotland. Think next season will be critical for all three (Christie has a bit more time), although suspect Allan will be in English championship/league 1 next season.

We had Ian St John and Alan Gilzean up front alongside Law during that period, so dont think Baker would have made that much difference. 1962 - lost in a play-off to Czechoslovakia who went onto play Brazil in the actual final. So it was already a great Scotland team. DIdnt qualify for 1966 because of a stupid defensive final five minutes against Poland at Hampden. Two very,very narrow defeats were reasons we didnt qualify - nothing to do with a lack of qualities in the forward department.