N4Footsoldier

Aye it's his fault Marshall got lobbed from 50 odd yards 😄

I'm not sure I can agree at all with that take on Hendry. The way I see it his break at Celtic in his early 20s never panned out but he went outside the box to carve himself out a good international career in plying his trade in Europe when countless others in the same position have remained in the UK and gone on to be just another name in the general football wilderness. Rather than just money (which was undeniable) I still see benefit in playing in that league with many world class players, many of whom still in their prime. And I don't particularly remember him having any bad games for Scotland. Actually quite the opposite.

More along the lines of him being seen as an SPFL journeyman unproven outside of Scotland. His one stint away was a handful of goals on a team that finished 12points adrift at the bottom of the league in Belgium. I do agree 2-3mil would probably be the going rate for him, and maybe there is a team that needs a striker who have a bit of insight up here that would go for it.

Rangers appear to have a done deal in Fabio Silva coming in on loan from Wolves, which would reduce the likelihood of Shankland moving across. Unless an English Championship club comes in (unlikely for a 28 year old), I think he could be staying put

Just watched the Steve Clarke sky sports interview posted the other day. By the sounds of it there's very little likelihood of trying to swing any of the English born players eligible over into the squad. "Open minded" on adding some new up and coming players in but has enough of a task on his hands trying to get a 23 man squad out of the existing player pool.

I think those are a few interesting examples. Ralston unfortunately for him has 2 better full backs ahead of him. Taylor has generally made squads when we are shortish in his position and Clarke trusts him to do a job (Stephen O'Donnell similarly until recently). Turnbull hasn't featured enough at Celtic really to justify being called up. Forrest was an older staple under Strachan but had a very long absence in the last couple of years and honestly was ineffective in a Scotland jersey bar a handful of games. On those Rangers players, Souttar and Jack would be in every squad they are fit for, but famously are injured often. Wright really isn't up to scratch as an OF player tbh. The blue/green bounce players are perceived to get to get more call ups I have always seen as a bitter dig from non OF fans at favouritism, but if they are playing in squads with generally better players with more of a winning mentality it does make sense that it should be favourable

I think this is all spot on, back to the point on football ethos. Not only do people generally not have a clue what the rules and application of rules are, they have no interest in trying to understand to bridge the gap. Headlines over dodgy decisions and controversy is a staple item for the media which drives click rates, newspaper purchases etc and in general is part of the money making machine that is the football industry. And no one in any position of influence who benefits from said commercialism really has any motivation to try and make things better in this regard as long as the gravy train keeps running.

Classic agree to disagree mate 😀

In the eyes of the on field officials and the VAR team who look at the replays, the answer would have to be yes. Without rewatching 80 games to hyperanalyse for the sake of argument, that is the long and short of it. The tone in the messaging that just assumes something is afoot is far from helpful either, and doesn't really help any case anyone is trying to make to that effect just due to it being maliciously slanderous in nature. Like I say, I can't wait til it happens now so that everyone can move onto the next gripe.

If teams like Rangers or Celtic have 70-80% possession like in most games versus domestic teams who rarely get out of their own half then yes the team with all of the play will get more penalties than others, that's just a clearly symptomatic fact behind the stats. Anything else, harking back to specific incidents of "this decision, that decision" is purely anecdotal.

Hypothetically speaking, if Shankland ends up at Rangers this January would it be a good or a bad thing for him and/or the National Team? Rangers will definitely be in the market for a striker in January, especially if Dessers and Sima get selected for the Afcon, and Shankland has appeared on every rumour I've seen. He could probably be available at a relatively modest fee given his age. But the point is whether that helps him get in the squad, there's a suggestion (which I agree with to an extent) that as soon as any Scottish player signs for Rangers or Celtic they automatically get into the squad, but on the other hand he might get much less game time if and when Rangers squad gets back to full fitness as I'd see him struggle to get a look in ahead of the likes of Danilo or even a fit Kemar Roofe.

I wasn't sure what to expect on this thread but honestly I just look forward to the next penalty against Rangers whether deserved or not just so everyone can stop banging on about it and move on to the next thing that serves as apparently irrevocable evidence that Scottish Football is a wider masonic conspiracy. As for the VAR process, we know ourselves from every other league that applies it that it is highly imperfect. The concept of "clear and obvious" is something they need to look at to get right, which will come from IFAB and filter through every association. Honestly I think VAR does actually work 9/10 times and no one ever remembers the times when it comes in useful, just the minority of incidents that are debatable, although it should be 100% effective, there are still humans behind the technology who can make mistakes whether on the technical side or just out of misjudgment. We really don't have the transparency at present to understand what they are using it for. Take the Motherwell penalty appeal from Sunday. Any number of factors could lead to it not being a penalty such as handball in the build up, O'Donnell kicking Butland in the head while trying to get the loose ball, or the fact that in no way should the Motherwell player have gone down like that with his legs totally giving way at just a tiny tug on the arm. This would have been run through the ref's earpiece. Honestly I think the next step for the VAR process would be transparency on the comms in real time, like rugby for example. They are trying to introduce it in England with Howard Webb on TV after the fact, but the overall refereeing community I'm not sure has a level of comfort yet with that type of transparency. Especially because football as a game has such subjective judgment-based rules versus other sports, not to mention the terrible ethos within football towards officials from the grassroots up, and to be honest the level of self importance that does exist within football officials to the point they just don't come across like real people, are all factors that block any progress here.

Honestly they could just wear the 150th anniversary kit for the foreseeable and I wouldn't have any complaints

You could probably revisit this forum in another 10 years and the same subject will pop up. My two cents on the consideration of OF moving away basically aligns to the below comment. But then you need to revisit what the objective of such a change would be. Do we mind a lower standard as a sacrifice for a competitive league? The Scotland National Team should be unaffected by this as they will still have access to players who leave to go to England (and elsewhere) - see the likes of Ireland, Norway, Sweden National teams for example. It actually might be helpful in fact for aspiring players to get out of Scotland younger. My guess is the powers that be will continue to milk the gravy train that comes with the attraction of the OF and the larger revenues from that, and everyone else will moan and brainstorm various different solutions for further decades.

That's could fuck you for a mortgage considering they are by far the biggest mortgage lender in the UK now but I respect it 🤣

Bad news on Doak and it's exactly the kind of badly timed injury during his development years that a young player may not recover from/get back to the same level. Seen it happen a lot. Hopefully a speedy and full recovery and he can find his full potential.

First I've heard of that. I'm from just a mile down the road and I always knew it as a bit of a Rangers pub.

I genuinely doubt anyone other than Dundee fans who were there in person will recall the outcome of this game beyond the next few weeks. To take such a wild swipe at the state of the game, and indirectly his own colleagues' faults for the same seems over the top even if he was trying to deflect any blame from himself. I dare say he has had conversations and reflections since then bringing regret for the outburst.

The key point I take from the thread is that it is harder and harder to dissuade young kids from either glory hunting or becoming armchair fans given the sensationalism that is underpinned by the TV era and marketing behind said era when we think about premier league and champions league. I do empathise with this since its much easier for kids to watch and "support" teams on TV from hundreds of miles away, pester their parents to buy them the famous team's shirts and merchandise and not be too bothered about the result relative to investing the time and energy to watch a game in person 3 hours each way from Aberdeen to Glasgow for talking sakes.

Surprised this hasn't come up anywhere I've seen on here: Scottish Premiership: Is the standard 'really poor' or just 'very competitive'? - BBC Sport Thoughts? Honestly it's quite an embarrassing interview. Maybe he thinks he has made a mistake by coming back to Scotland and realizing it is a tough environment to manage in over the EFL which is much less of a bubble. To say the 4th tier team he ran was "miles better" than his Ross County team wasn't far off the normal English social media trolls who claim Accrington Stanley would win the Scottish Premier League.

Yeah agree. He never really got a look in until post-Strachan when we were absolutely dreadful for at least 18 months. But then again everyone looked poor during that period,

I agree, I did like the fact they focused quite heavily on his development at St. Mirren, which a lot of people nowadays would gloss over. But it did feel like after that they jumped forward seemingly quite randomly and rushing to the end missing out on some key highlights like his general ascent at Hibs, adaptation to premier league and of course very limited mention of his international career, although I wouldn't be surprised if that was to do with imaging rights contracts for internationals.

Your full backs in the squad will be: Robertson, Tierney, Hickey, Paterson. Then an additional 4or so centre backs to complete the defence

I think the most likely scenario with everyone being fit, Livramento will not opt for Scotland, and Paterson just about makes the squad as 2nd choice RB behind Hickey, who can also play LB, with Robertson then Tierney filling that position and Taylor missing out. The rest of the defenders to be made up of centre backs, where Tierney can also double up.

At the time I was convinced there wasn't a team in the world we were capable of putting 6 goals past. So when they equalised after Strachan played that mental formation with 2 recognized defenders in the starting 11 I feared the worst. At least you've not had to wait too long to have that Hattrick Dram again!