Texas Pete

Fair enough.

Georgia were better than us on the day as they beat us. Who’s accepting failure? I didn’t say third place was out of reach or acceptable I just said it was harder to achieve than second place in Berti’s group was as that was pish easy. Ireland are as good as, if not better, than us based on recent results, world ranking and qualifying for tournaments in the last few years. We should have got third place in that group based on how it went but everyone else took points off Germany and we didn’t and we made an erse of ourselves in Georgia. I doubt Berti would have done much better, if at all. I also think Strachan, Smith, McLeish and even Levein would have achieved second place in Berti’s group.

If you’re referring to me, I haven’t said Strachan has done better than Vogts because I don’t believe that. Strachan has done nothing for us. Vogts got us a playoff in a ridiculously easy group which is all we could really ask of him but he wasn’t a good manager for us. We drew in the Faroes and lost to Lithuania. We got second place in that group due to how crap our opponents were. Not how magnificent Berti Vogts was. If you weren’t referring to me then ignore the above.

It’s the last campaign I’m talking about. I said 3-4 but changed it to 3. I could have left it at 4 as Georgia did appear to be better than us at times in Tbilisi and we didn’t exactly destroy them at Ibrox. The three teams were Germany, Poland and the Republic of Ireland. It was tougher to get third in that group than it was to get second in our Euro 2004 qualifiers in my opinion. It’s not easy to get 3rd place when there are three teams ranked higher you in the group. I’m no fan of Strachan and I’m glad he’s gone but Berti was a poor manager for us as well and getting a playoff in a walk in the park of a group doesn’t convince me of otherwise.

That’s true but we had 3 teams who were as good as us, if not better, to compete against in that group. In the group Berti got us a playoff from we had Germany, Iceland (who were crap at the time), Lithuania and the Faroes to compete with. I dare say even Strachan would have got us a playoff out of that group at that time. A good manager may even have won us the group since Berti managed to draw in the Faroes and lose in Lithuania.

Well he has done nothing for us so I’ll stick by my comment thanks. A six match unbeaten run which includes wins against Lithuania, Malta and a 10 man Slovakia is hardly awe inspiring and has got us the sum total of sweet FA. If he had got us a playoff I would agree that he had actually achieved something for us but he didn’t. 6 game unbeaten runs mean nothing if you don’t progress out of the group.

What did this run get us exactly? That’s right. Hee haw.

To you, me or most people in Scotland/the rest of the world, yes. To someone from the Faroes who probably has another profession, maybe not.

He got us to a playoff in the easiest group we’ve probably ever had. Do you remember the teams in that group? I’m certainly not defending Strachan but you can’t say Vogts was the better manager because he got us second place in a group that I could have got us a playoff from.

You seem to be under the assumption that the SFA can just appoint who they like as manager. The person would need to want the job. Sure, the SFA can make approaches to the current employers of managers in work or to out of work managers directly. Doesn’t mean they’d be interested though.

Well Strachan did nothing for us really. The new guy won’t do any worse than not making the playoffs as you can’t really get any worse. Ok so we could finish bottom of the group but that’s unlikely. Any manager worth his salt would have got us a playoff for Euro 2016 and we really should have got one this time as well.

I wouldn’t be averse to a foreign manager but that can bring its own problems if the manager is not familiar with Scottish players although I suppose a completely fresh pair of eyes could actually work in our favour. We could end up with Dick Advocaat though. He seems to drop his drawers for the highest bidder, club or country. I would rather have a young, hungry Scottish manager than a foreign mercenary looking for a pay day.

He might fancy a new challenge. He still lives in Scotland as far as I know.

Two years wages of the Aberdeen manager wouldn’t put the SFA off I don’t think seeing as they got rid of Strachan for free. I doubt McInnes would leave the Aberdeen job for Scotland though.

If they qualify he will definitely take them there. I meant the SFA might wait on him and make the appointment in July.

It could be him even if they do. I’d rather see the new man in place we’ll before the World Cup though.

Who would you go for then?

Well who do you suggest then? I can see a lot of people in here are terrified that it’s going to be Moyes or McInnes but nobody seems to be making any alternative suggestions. I wouldn’t want Moyes or Coyle, MacKay’s racist controversy will stop him being considered but I wouldn’t mind McInnes. He’s a young, forward thinking manager and wouldn’t do any worse than Strachan. I wouldn’t mind Walter Smith having another go but I doubt he’d fancy it and lots of people would moan because he left us before. People seem to want a manager who has managed at the highest level, won’t cost too much and is a big name. Not asking for too much are they?

The guy is a buffoon. I wanted rid of him ages ago but as soon as he started blaming genetics instead of admitting responsibility there was no way back for him. To be fair, I’m not sure if he wanted to stay anyway. He looked like he’d had enough. I won’t miss the drivel he comes out with in press conferences. Let’s hope the next man is more professional and takes responsibility for his decisions.

Thank God. We can stop all this ‘let’s keep the muppet because we can’t think of anyone better’ pish. We have lots of time to get a suitable replacement in. Whoever it is won’t do any worse than Strachan.

Why are we even having this debate? We should have made the playoffs in the last two campaigns and we didn’t. That means two failures. Time and time again Strachan’s baffling decisions have cost us. How long do people who are saying he should stay think he should be given? Another 2 or 3 campaigns? With the possibility of 2 games at Hampden in Euro 2020, we MUST qualify for the next tournament in my eyes. Strachan has proven that he can’t get the best out of his players for a full campaign and should be thanked for his service and politely asked to GTF.

Go

Looks like it. Seems like people would be happy for another third place with Strachan than risk another manager in case we get fourth. Doesn’t make sense to me.

The guy should have been binned after the last campaign. We might have been in the playoff draw next week (or better) if he had been.

I thought you were suggesting Dick there for a minute. We did deserve to beat Slovenia at home but we damn near didn’t. Maybe with another manager we might have won more convincingly? The guy has has his two chances to get us a playoff (one of them third place would have done) never mind qualifying and he hasn’t managed it. Time for a change. End of story.