scotlad

If we have a terrible Euros - and for us the bar for that is pretty low! - but if, for instance, we lose every game heavily, then I think he might call if a day. Other than that though, I expect him to still be there for the Nations League games. We should be careful what we wish for though. Apart from Davie Moyes there are no Scots managers available of real calibre and the SFA won't (or can't) splash the cash to get a really good foreign coach to lead the team. Clarke's achievements stack up favourably amongst any Scotland manager: back-to-back qualification for the Euros, a World Cup playoff, promotion to League A of the Nations League. The only thing lacking is World Cup qualification.

That really is an achievement. Excellent news. 😊

Unfortunately, I think you're probably right. England's weakest position currently is central defence; if Quansah is playing even semi-regularly for a team like Liverpool at the age he's at now that's a strong sign that's he's got something, and that won't be lost on England's management team.

He was a bit of a rocket in his early days at Thistle too, but since then he's looked like someone who'd screwed the nut and grown up a bit - until now. It could just be a blip, TBF, and I guess we all make mistakes. That said, it's still not clear what he's been up to!

That's how he qualifies for Scotland. 😏 Not sure where to post this; it sounds like Kevin Nisbet has been involved in some sort of action but I don't think it's footballing action: What the hell the boy has done to fall short of the "culture and standards" of Millwall FC - a sort of English equivalent of Airdrie - I dread to think! 😂

Brilliant 🤣

Brilliant 🤦‍♂️

You've a better chance of finding a gay bar in Kabul than a good journalist in Scotland! Consequently Anas Sarwar is rarely asked anything more difficult than what his favourite breakfast cereal is. Of course, there are far more searching and relevant things Anas Sarwar could - and should - be getting asked about, like his connections to a business that doesn't recognise trade unions or pay the real living wage (a slightly jarring position for someone who claims to lead a Labour party) or even to add some detail to the "change" that he insists people in Scotland want. Then again, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

I don't quite understand the sudden clamour for Ross Stewart to be included, considering he's barely played for the better part of a season and a half, and during the fleeting appearances he has made for Scotland he hasn't exactly set the heather alight. I'd consider Tommy Conway or Ryan Hardie before Stewart at this point in time, or even Kevin Nisbet, who's back playing for Millwall and has at least managed to score at international level. In any case, barring injuries Adams, Dykes and Shankland look nailed on to be the CFs.

What bothers me is the sudden clamour to have him installed as FM, not just from the party establishment but from people who normally wouldn't see the SNP in their way. In a sense that could be a good thing: the SNP crowd genuinely might believe he's the best man to lead their party at this moment in time, while others might just want the country to be governed as efficiently as possible and believe he's the best person for the job. The seemingly almost coordinated attacks on Forbes in the press this week make me suspicious though. HJ might be many things but centre-left is pushing things a bit! Wasn't the SNP at its most conservative (post-devolution) when he led the party in the early '00s? To return to the football manager analogies, this feels a bit like when George Burley - pleasant man, slightly unlucky, but ultimately out of his depth - was sacked as Scotland boss, and despite there being more interesting potential candidates available to replace him, the SFA installed Craig Levein as soon as they got their hands on him. "At least he'll make the team hard to beat", I thought. He won three competitive matches.

Humza's full of shite though. He practices a faith that forbids women from marrying men from outside that faith, let alone people of the same sex. Gun to his head, there's no chance he'd defend what he claims are his views on the subject, he was simply saying what he knew people wanted to hear. Seemingly he isn't generally very popular amongst other Muslims, most probably because they know he's full of it too. In any case, same-sex marriage isn't a live issue anymore. It's done, it's been decided; it's legal and no one in politics that I know of is proposing banning it anymore than they're talking about banning homosexuality itself.

What, gay slaves? 🤨

Disappointing, if true, but depending what the deal is there may be some logic in it.

Very much so. It's much better seeing our young players being linked with moves to good sides abroad, as opposed to just English second tier teams and the OF.

Mibee that's how Armstrong's wife and girlfriend get on.

I've mainly seen him playing for the Scotland U21s but he's always impressed me. Maybe Cagliari feel they can coach him into the finished article. He certainly has time on his side anyway.

That's to her credit, and if she stands she'll almost certainly get my vote. My concern, though, is if she gets the job now this rubbish about her religion will continue unabated, infecting everything else she does to the point where her position becomes untenable. A potentially good party leader and political career over before it really began, and the SNP back to square one, scrabbling around looking for a new leader. Swinney, on the other hand, already semi-retired, wouldn't be there any longer than a couple of years, so Forbes could return to her former role, where she was effective, and possibly act as deputy FM too, thus giving herself a platform and the opportunity to show her abilities and remind the country what she's really about. There's a succession plan, right there.

Confirmed by Forbes's "people", seemingly. I wonder if HJ has potentially offered her her old job back as a sweetener for not standing. 🤔

Another factor though is who they'd be up against in an election. In 2011 most polling put Labour in front until quite late on, as the prospect of Iain Gray as FM began to sink in with people. The end result, as we know now, was an SNP majority victory with Salmond returned as FM. At this point in time I feel confident either Forbes or Swinney would be preferred over the alternatives leading Labour or the Tories.

It is mad how a wee Christian young mammy fae the heilans is being painted as some kind of far-right fundamentalist monster. 🤣 I'd hope if - IF - she gets the job the stuff about religion would soon be forgotten. Unfortunately the media are capable of keeping slurs going for as long as necessary. The SNP's opponents sense that it's weakening and they don't want anyone strengthening it, regardless of the consequences.

I said it in another post, but we really do get the country we deserve. In any normal country, after a near-disastrous head of government was preparing to leave office, there would be a clamour to install the best person for the job. However, some of Scotland's prominent churnalists - Farquharson, Hassan, Hutcheon - have declared Forbes unsuitable to be FM for no other reason than her religious faith. I'd really hoped we'd moved past that, but, of course, for most of our press it isn't in the interests of those paying their wages for Scotland to have an effective government, especially one led by the SNP.

It really is. If he has a groin problem he probably needs an op.

And he's the biggest crock-waiting-to-happen of them all. 🤦‍♂️ I have a mental image of him breaking down about 25 minutes into the Germany game and that being his tournament - and Scotland's - fecked!

Absolutely; I am sure most of us know some of them personally too. They'd be in for a rude awakening if they lost their "free stuff" or had to pay for their little darlings to be tutored at university though. It wouldn't be the end of the world if Swinney took the reigns for a while - I can't for the life of me see him being as disastrous as Humza - but he is far to managerial to "shift the dial" on independence, and the fact that the powers-that-be in the SNP seem desperate to install him as leader - possibly even more so than they were Humza - makes me suspicious. Why go all-out on a guy who a year ago made clear that his time on the frontline was behind him? Cretin backs cretin for leader 🤣 Kelly Given was threatening (if that's the right word) to leave the party if Forbes becomes leader - if that's not a vote winner for Forbes I don't know what is!

Only in the same way Alex McLeish wasn't a bad call for Scotland manager in 2018, when the only other names in the frame were Gary Caldwell and John Hughes. 😕 I'd still back him to beat Ross or Sarwar in a HR election. Ross leads a toxic party that's in the middle of its own self-destruct cycle and Sarwar is a gibbering moron that no one apart from completely intransigent tribal Labour supporters would see as FM. Swinney would still have his work cut out to avoid the drubbing that's appears to be on the cards at WM though. If I was Swinney and I was serious about taking the job I'd be on the phone to Forbes offering her her old job back in exchange for a clear run at the leadership post. I'd also do what I could to scrap the daft, unnecessary rule preventing SNP MPs from sitting as MSPs (and vice versa). The SNP's current talent pool isn't deep enough for them to impose such restrictions on themselves. Absolutely, and if they can't accept that they should put their money where their mouths are and leave the party.