Texas Pete

So if we only had three good wingers you’d be happy with Clarke calling up some Clyde winger just because we needed a fourth? We should only be picking international class players. Not that I’m saying Johnston isn’t good enough, he just hasn’t proven it yet. Who says we’ll play with two wingers anyway? Clarke could play with wing backs or two up front for all any of us know.

Maybe they have and he’s told them to bolt? If they have approached them and he said yes then they’d have called him up already. I’m sure the boy isn’t stupid. He’ll know that if he does well consistently for Celtic he’ll get called into the Scotland squad.

What are you basing that on? Just because they’ll take anyone (much like us) doesn’t mean they’ve tapped him up.

Not off the top of my head but you don’t just pick someone because there’s nobody better. You just have less wingers in the squad.

It’s hardly the same as the McGeady situation. He played for the Irish youth teams. Johnston has played for our unders teams. If he changes to Ireland whilst still being a fringe player at Celtic he’s an absolute fud.

I’m not sure prospects merit a call up to the senior squad. Other people disagree which is fair enough. I won’t lose any sleep if Johnston gets a call up but I haven’t been that impressed with him so far so I’m not sure what the fuss is about. I’ll be ecstatic if he does get selected and scores a hat-trick in Brussels! 😂

By that logic we should be calling up McCrorie and Hastie and guys like that. If Johnston is good enough then he’ll force his way into the starting 11 at Celtic and he’ll stay there. He will then deserve a call up to the Scotland squad.

If he’s as good as you say he is why isn’t he in the Celtic starting 11 more often? He quite often doesn’t even make the bench. I’m not sure Rodgers had a choice as Celtic we’re missing a lot of players in December and the league was over by the last Old Firm game so Lennon gave him a run out. I can almost guarantee he won’t start tomorrow. If I’m wrong and he impresses in the final then I’m sure he’ll catch Clarke’s eye and we’ll know he can do it in big matches.

I only saw the highlights of the Hearts game so can’t really comment but he was pish against Rangers and didn’t even make the bench at Pittodrie last month. Not saying he’s a bad player but he doesn’t appear to be ready for big matches. Players in that position should not be called up to the senior international team. If he starts tomorrow and plays well then I wouldn’t have a problem with him getting picked in the next squad but he doesn’t merit a call up based on one meaningless game against Hearts. If he panics and jumps ship to Ireland whilst warning Celtic’s bench or playing in their reserves then fuck him. He obviously doesn’t want to play for us anyway if he does that.

Are you for real?

We weren’t seeded for those playoffs though so they were a lot more difficult to win. I’d rather have a home game against a team like Finland and even an away game against Serbia than have to play England or Holland. I could have got us to the Vogts playoff. We were shite in that campaign and still finished second at a canter.

You know we’ve qualified for the Euro 2020 playoffs don’t you? McLeish was in charge when that happened.

Fair points. If Johnston wants to play for Scotland though he’ll wait until he’s established in the first team before jumping ship to Ireland. It’s not like the Scott Arfield situation where he was a mainstay in a team at a decent level and was consistently overlooked so he went to Canada instead.

In fairness there probably will be times where Clarke will need to pick someone that’s not starting regularly but I don’t believe Johnston deserves a call up yet. He’s only started the last couple of games because Celtic are resting players. He scored two goals against Hearts but was rotten at Ibrox and was subbed early in the second half and wasn’t even on the bench at Pittodrie. Now if we’re talking about giving him a cap just to trap him then I suppose that’s another matter but it’s a bit unfair to do that. What if he fails to fulfil his potential and is never capped again? If Ireland fade back into obscurity they won’t be able to pick him.

Yes we can.

It will probably take more than that. If De Bruyne and a few other top players were to pull out for example then we might start to dream. They are a class team but don’t have the strength in depth that some other top teams do.

Johnston hasn’t been playing regularly at a high level either though. Someone who hasn’t even made the bench for two of Celtic’s last three games (in fairness he could have been injured?) should be nowhere near the Scotland squad. He only started against Hearts because Lennon was resting players for the cup final. Now if Johnston does start on Saturday and plays well then I’d maybe agree he should be considered. He won’t start the final though. He’ll probably not feature at all.

He’s only started a handful of games and was rank rotten when he started against Rangers but yeah let’s cap the boy since he started Celtic’s last game and scored a couple of goals. We don’t need 3 or 4 wingers in the squad. I won’t have a major problem if Clarke likes what he sees and thinks he’ll add something to the squad but I’d rather he was starting regularly. Once Forrest is back he won’t get a look in at Celtic. I don’t even think Johnston made the bench at Ibrox or Pittodrie so saying he deserves a call up now seems a bit strange to me.

My maths was shite as we’ll still need to play Belgium at home so can’t win 5 of our last 6 and draw in Russia but 13 points out of our last 6 games wouldn’t be bad. Hopefully we’ll keep the score respectable in Brussels. I wouldn’t exactly say I would take 0-2 now as I will remain stupidly optimistic and hope for a draw but that score would be reasonable against a brilliant Belgian team.

I think there are just under 20,000 people on the points table but the vast majority have less than 7 points. Unless the table changes drastically over the next 6 months, anyone with 7 or 8 points at the end of the qualifiers should be fine for finals tickets if we qualify.

I get what you’re saying about Belgium away but it could work to our advantage to get it out of the way. We were always very unlikely to get anything out of the game so once that’s out of the way we can potentially go on a good run and win 5 out of our last 6 games and maybe get a draw in Russia. Might not be enough to qualify directly but it would put us in a great position confidence wise going into the playoffs.

That’s one point of view. You’re not necessarily wrong but I still think that playing for Scotland should be the pinnacle of any Scottish footballer’s career and call ups should be earned by fighting your way into your club starting 11 and being consistent enough to stay there. Caps shouldn’t be handed out like smarties.

I do agree Berti gets a bit of a raw deal but do you remember that group? Levein would have got us the playoff it was that easy. We drew with the Faroes, lost to Lithuania and were still a comfortable second.

As committed as the fans that have been staying away from games? Our attendances have been terrible of late. Understandable based on the product on the pitch and UEFA’s pain in the arse week of football but you could hardly call most fans committed. We’ve maybe got a core support of 15,000-20,000 fans that go to most games now.

There will be tickets available for Scotland fans if we qualify. I assume they’ll use the points system to allocate them so there should be no need for us to buy tickets in June unless you’ve got no, or very few, points.