mccaughey85

I would. I believe in free speech no matter how daft or hateful it is. Does that guy get arrested much anyways? I thought one of the far rights main gripes was that hate preachers like him get away with spouting bile.

No international manager drops his established players because of a dip in club form. We wouldn't have any players if that was the case. None of our rightbacks would get near the Everton side barring hickey so I don't understand that point.

Form can dip at times. Overall the trajectory has been upwards. We were in a tough group for the euros as well. The Czech rep game was probably the only realistic chance at a win. Croatia pulled out a big performance and England are easily a couple of levels above us. We could have done better but that's life. Clarke has done a great job since. Surely you can acknowledge that our results under Clarke have vastly improved. Theres only really been one or two upgrades in the past 4 or 5 years. As I pointed out with the match day squad against Poland in 2014 I would say we are only marginally better players wise. Steven fletcher, Naismith, Griffith's. That's a better selection of strikers than we have now. Griffiths was a cut above shankland. Fletcher on paper was better than dykes. Naismith and Che Adams were probably similar level. Fletcher was scoring double digits for a relegation battling side for 4 or 5 seasons. David Weir would walk into our side today. That europa league final rangers side were built on a strong defence with Weir and cuellar providing that. Also the epl was still really strong when Weir played. Theres been crazy money there for the last 20 odd years and the best talent from around the globe. Fair enough in the early 90s it wasn't nearly as strong but by the early 00s the league was full of the best foreign talent and players were getting stupid money at that point.

Yeh he wanted attention and the police helped him get it and have now given him a opportunity to rinse his followers of more money and have given his supporters a legitimate gripe to complain about. What law did he break. Was there actually a restraining order against him attending that march?

Yeh I agree and I also dislike Tommy as well but I fail to see what hes done wrong here. Now he can set up another gofundme page and rinse his stupid supporters for "legal fees".

Usually I am quite vocal about my dislike of Tommy Robinson and his right wing supporters but I don't think it's justifiable for him to be arrested for simply attending a protest or march. The organisers should really accept that if they hold a protest or march in the street then they might end up getting ppl that they dislike attending. Same with the police. It's incidents like this that make Tommy and his right wing supporters seem like victims and helps legitimise their views.

Yeh but is there a massive gulf in class between the three players? I wouldnt say so. They are all similar level imo. Not sure Ferguson was good enough for a top 6 side. If he was then a better team than Blackburn would have signed him. As much as I like hickey, I am still unsure wether he makes it at a big club. It's also a big prediction that he will win more than robbo. Gotta remember that robbo is top of the epl assist table for full backs as well. He's considered one of the best full backs in the world. Hickeys career will have to be amazing if he's gunna match Robertsons who still has 4 or 5 years at the top competing for trophies.

Pretty much yes. I think dykes and Adams are pretty much guaranteed to be going to the euros no matter how poorly they play for their clubs this season. Mcburnie can still get himself that 3rd or 4th striker spot but it's unlikely unless he goes on a good run of scoring. I think shankland and brown will be the other strikers.

I would say in terms of Scotland performances mcginn is head and shoulders above all three. In terms of club careers I would say all four are about the same. Maybe mcginn might edge it slightly especially if he continues his club form over the next couple of years. I think it's slightly unfair to brown and McGregor to downgrade their careers just because they stayed loyal to Celtic. I think both could have easily played for a mid table epl side in the same way mcginn has. James mccarthur did and he was nothing special. Ferguson was a good player as well who was unlucky with a leg break at Blackburn. He was a key player in rangers teams that were stronger than most epl sides at the time. Especially in the early 00s.

Shankland deserves a decent shot at being third choice. I was a bit pissed off he never got a proper chance in the last 2 games. Our striking options are poor but dykes and Adams have done enough to make themselves first and second choice.

Brown and Ferguson were not light years ahead of McGregor and mcginn. They are probably on a par, I would say maybe mcginn is slightly better than all three. They were all mid table epl players imo with mcginn maybe good enough for a top 6 club. You think hickey will surpass Robertsons achievements? I think that could be tough.

I already made the point about our midfielders scoring more goals in a previous post. That's probably the main difference between the 2 squads and maybe better full backs. Other than that I think you are more or less agreeing with me?

Had a look at our 2014 match day squad that played Poland and I would argue it's similar in standard to todays squad. Theres about 10/11 epl regulars in there and about 2 or 3 star Celtic and rangers players. Probably better strikers on paper in Griffith's, fletcher, McCormack and Naismith. Midfielders are scott brown, charlie adams, Darren Fletcher. You have defenders and full backs like Bardsley, Hutton and Russel Martin who all played epl on and off. Andy Robertson comes off the bench. James Morrison was a good epl player as well. Even the likes of Ross McCormack Barry bannan and ikechi Anya were good players even though they were in the English championship. It's not exactly a world away from what we have now imo. Right now we have about 11/12 regular epl/top league players and the rest play English championship or spl. The difference is good management and a system that suits the players.

I think your clutching at straws. These things happen in football. Lots of countries benefit from slips or defensive errors. Every country gets lucky moments but overall we have deserved everything we got from the campaign. Perhaps we should look at what went against us like the Georgia and Norway penalties. Not sure either were penalties. Mctominays goal v Spain that was chalked off. The point I was making with the squad comparisons was that our current squad isn't that far ahead of what we have now. Darren Fletcher was a regular for a great man utd side. I reckon brown and Ferguson were similar level to McGregor and gilmour although I think gilmour could be better in the future. The main point is that overall our midfield options today isn't a world away from that 2008 squad. I would say our midfielders today have more goals in them which is probably the big difference between the 2. David Weir was easily a cut above anything we have today. He was a epl regular for years and played in a decent rangers team that reached a European final. Not sure hickey is currently better than Hutton, I think he might eventually be better with time but Hutton was seriously gifted as a full back and he pretty much pissed his career down the pan. When he was at rangers he was brilliant and could easily have had a better career than what he had. I would argue that Darren Fletcher was up there with robbo and Tierney and he was a long way better than hickey currently is. If you factor in we had Naismith and mcfadden doing quite well at Everton and Maloney who was Celtics best player then that squad wasn't too far behind overall. Clarkes the main reason we get results and what hes built is pretty impressive considering our squad limitations.

Yeh i agree. Better off avoiding home nations imo.

I think they will have decent chance of making the euros most years due to it being 24 teams but world cups will not be happening for them. I still think they have decent group of players, if managed right they should do ok. I would fancy us to beat them right now but it would still be a tight match imo.

What went for us? I don't remember any dodgy decisions that we got. We also got slightly fucked over with the Norway pen as well although they maybe deserved it based on an earlier incident. The Norway away win is the only bit of luck we got imo and even then it wasn't from dodgy decisions or the ref giving us favours. We snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat with a bit of luck and well worked goal and that can sometimes happen in football. I also think it's a slight myth that Clarke has significantly better players. We quite often line up with three guys who play English championship. Dykes isn't even a particularly great striker at that level either. I think our teams that lined up 15 years ago were not that much weaker. Miller was a better striker on paper than dykes. You had midfielders like Ferguson, brown and fletcher. David Weir was a better centre back than anything we have now and a young Craig Gordon was probably better than Angus Gunn. Hutton at that time was arguably better than hickey and Patterson although I think those two might end up being better eventually. Then you had the likes of Naismith, Maloney and mcfadden. Those three would make our squads today. That squad wasnt far behind today's squad imo. If the current team were struggling under Clarke then the excuses of not having quality players would come flooding out. I remember making those excuses for Clarke after the euros and our poor start to the world cup campaign. I was vocal on here about how we relied on championship and spl players like dykes, McKenna, marshall etc and how Clarke can only make do with what is available. Clarke is the main reason we are doing well imo, our squad isn't better on paper than Norway's yet we have totally destroyed them in this group. Serbia were probably slightly stronger than us on paper yet we dominated them away from home and qualified. Ukraine are probably equal to us in squad strength and we managed to beat them and win our nations league group. I don't think any English championship sides would consistently do well in the euros or world cup except the ones that get promoted to the epl. Northern Ireland did well in 2016 with alot of English championship players but I can't think of many sides with such a poor squad getting out of the groups in a tournament. Northern Ireland and Iceland are the only countries I can think of that have achieved success in modern times with really weak squads. Maybe theres one or two others but it's still a rarity for squads like that to achieve anything.

So who would you have as third or fourth choice strikers? Gotta consider possible injuries as well.

We were the better team against Serbia. They didn't look like scoring the whole match whereas we created plenty of chances. Serbia were lucky that it went to extra time and penalties. Clarke and the team got what they deserved out that match. Your perspective is pretty negative if you think we/clarke are constantly lucky and don't deserve our victories. I am usually first on here to admit when we are lucky but Clarke overall hasn't relied on luck. He's been patient and has built up a strong foundation that makes us hard to beat meanwhile playing some decent football as well. What's us getting a doing against Ireland got to with Clarke being lucky. Can't remember the Armenia sending off but if he deserved to be sent off then I don't see how that's luck. We relied on Armstrong putting in a big performance to beat Armenia which is why he's in the squad. He's a good player who has been relatively successful in the epl and at Celtic. Clarke recognises this and picks him because he's a good player. A manager picks the players he thinks will perform and Clarke mostly gets it right with his player selection.

Clarke is far from lucky. If you look at it that way then everything a country or manager achieves could be attributed to luck. We played well for most of the campaign and defended well and our best players scored vital goals when needed. Most goals in football have a certain element of defensive error. Overall we deserved our results imo, maybe the Norway away game was a bit of lucky one but every country gets these results from time to time. Clarke has the team well drilled and we play some decent football at times. Any bits of luck we get are usually well deserved because we have played well and created chances.

I would hazard a guess that his bed will often have some of most beautiful looking women in it so it probably isnt the worst place for him to be.

Our u21s usually look out of their depth in the games I watch. It's frustrating because on paper they should be able to play much better or you would hope so. We seem to pull out decent results from time to time which papers over the cracks but it's just not good enough overall. Saying that their is some positives to be had from this group of players. Slicker looks pretty good and will probably play a reasonable level of football. I think if he starts getting any sort of gametime for his club then our 3rd place keeper spot should go to him. Maybe a loan move to a league 1 or spl club could help him. Mullin and bowat look good defenders. I was particularly impressed by mullin, he reads the game well and makes key blocks and tackles. Would like to see him get a loan move as well. Although doak is raw it's obvious that the talent is there. He looks dangerous whenever he gets the ball and even if he doesn't make it at Liverpool I think he will still make it in a top league. End of the day the results at u21 really don't matter to me much. It's a case of getting 2 or 3 players from this group who can go on to play for the main team that matters. Doak will probably be with the main team soon enough and guys like bowat and slicker will be too old for the u21s in a year or so. Just need them to get playing regular club football and eventually see where they go from there.

A few interesting points from these two games. 1. Doig should really have gotten a proper chance in these games. I think he could potentially be a much better player than Taylor who didn't impress over the 2 matches. 2. We need Angus Gunn in goal and we need Craig Gordon to return and become 2nd choice. I don't trust either Kelly or Clark in goals especially in a major tournament. 3. We need to keep the back 5. Not sure a back 4 works best for us. Really surprised Clarke went with a back 4 in both games. Especially the Norway game after seeing how average we were in the Georgia game. 4. Not sure why Clarke didn't give shankland more gametime. He bailed us out in the Georgia game and deserved a proper chance against Norway. Ferguson should really be getting more chances as well. Not the worst set of results but expectations are higher these days and even with our injury problems I still expected slightly better from us. Especially considering haaland and odegard were out injured. Anyways we made it to Germany and Clarke and the squad deserve massive praise. I doubt there will never be another campaign quite like this one.

I agree with pretty much all of that. I think shankland especially deserved a bit more gametime.

Not sure I would call it suffering but I do agree that it's unfair to be losing such a huge amount of money. Surely a fairer system could be in place that only taxes a much smaller amount although personally I think it should be scrapped altogether. Are the royals still exempt from inheritance tax?