BookhouseBoys

Only few I can think of that haven’t been mentioned are: Erhahon - had a great season and apparently has championship clubs after him Oné - seems to be doing well in the youth team at Sheffield Utd and made their first team bench a couple of times Borland - still only 16, but getting rave reviews for the Aston Villa EPL2 team. Sounds like he might be of a similar mould to Gilmour

Looking more long term, I’m hoping one of Erhahon or Leonard might be options for that role. Both had good seasons in EFL1 and are being touted for moves to the English Championship. If that happens and they kick on next season, they could be considered. Lennon Miller might be an option there too eventually.

Agree with this entirely. I think MLS and Scottish Prem are much of a muchness for now, but even that might be looking at it with tartan specs. I’m convinced that the MLS will end up being one of the top leagues in the world along with the top 5 in Europe soon enough because they’re pumping that much money at it. That’s likely why Gauld went there in the first place. There was lots of press of interest from all over Europe when he was finishing up in Portugal, but Vancouver offered him what players at the top end of the EPL are getting. It sounded like Sporting pissed him about a lot, though, so it’s not much of a surprise that he chose to go there. The crowds are also getting better and better and they’re already attracting younger and better players to the league. It isn’t just a retirement home anymore. Adding to that, ‘soccer’ has grown a ton over the past twenty odd years for kids. They’re pouring money in at the grassroots, too. That brings more potential spectators because they love the game, but also more American/Canadian players of a higher quality. So yep, player quality in MLS might be roughly equivalent as the Scottish Prem, but it’s likely to be a good bit higher soon.

Although it's true that the MLS has generally been fairly suspect defensively (I think this may have been down to Americans being Americans and wanting to make sure that there's as many 'goalshots in the dangerzone' as possible), I'd say that it's starting to move away from that and is becoming a bit more well-rounded. They've started bringing in a lot of players from Latin America and that is increasing the standard significantly. It's currently probably of a similar level to the Scottish Premiership, but with the amount of money being spent, it'll be superior soon. Gauld and Morgan should both definitely be considered for the squad.

Fucking hell. You're a maniac. Armstrong has been a solid Scotland player for most if not all of his career. He's scored crucial goals for us, has been an excellent sub many times and deciding not to bloot the ball out the park sunday league style one time won't change that. Contrition...! Fucking hell....

Yaas! It’s like a reversal of his goal away to Spain…!

Just noticed that Robbie Ure (striker, former Rangers and still only 20) is on the bench for Anderlecht today. Seems to have done well for their B team this year and hopefully he can cement a place in their first team squad.

Scraping about for some good news: DeZerbi said today that Gilmour is available for tomorrow against Bournemouth. Could be interesting to see him vs Christie as long as they don’t conspire to injure each other…

Hasn’t happened yet, but it’s increasingly likely… Ryan Gauld walking into his first Scotland training session:

Put it this way. He looked raging, as if he knew it was a bad one. Fingers, toes, eyes crossed that it’s not. What the hell is going on?!

Oh shit - McTominay…….

Leonard is a midfielder and Bowie a forward. From the sounds of things they both might be looking at moves to Championship sides for next season. If that goes well then I'd imagine they'd be in the mix but I don't think we're at the stage of picking league one players for the euros just yet.

I didn't see the game, but read that Luis Binks played very well against Man Utd today. He's on loan at Coventry from Bologna and has vocalised his eligibility and interest in representing Scotland in the past. Anyone see the game and how he played?

Max Johnston came on for Sturm Graz the now.

Ooft. Every silver lining has a cloud, eh? Realistically, even if Hickey weren’t to make it (I think that he will), our squad is a still a good bit better than the last time we went to the euros.

This is a pretty impressive post for a goldfish..! In the NI, yep, his crossing was all over the place. He's had plenty of good crosses over the years - only 8 assists might be more to him not always having the same level of targets to aim for, though.

Couple of wee bits from the Liverpool game tonight. Robertson was looking sharp when he came on and produced one of his signature assists for the third. Hopefully that injury is behind him. Also, noticed Ben Doak on the bench, although not part of the actual match day squad, so maybe he’s getting closer to being back in training.

The word that you used is far more offensive. Seriously, fuck off.

Agree with this. For all of the tongue in cheek, "we're just lulling everyone into a false sense of security and then we'll pelt them at the euros" patter, there's possibly an element of truth to it, however unintended it's been..! The past few games should hopefully keep all of the players down to earth and with a wee point to prove. I also feel a similar way about our opposition at the euros. Both Switzerland and Hungary are beatable, but good enough that we won't take them for granted. Ideal for our mentality IMO. I think that for better or worse, the team took both the Czechs at the euros and Ukraine in the WC playoff a wee bit for granted for different reasons (Czechs at home and had beaten them recently, Ukraine's first game since the war had started so thought they'd be rusty) and it came back to haunt us. When it comes to Germany, in the opening game in Germany, well that's ultimate underdog territory so we'll be in our element. The other two games, I think we'll respect them enough that there'll be no complacency (I hope..) especially after what's just happened in the friendlies.

I don’t think he’s quite there yet, but for me the long term solution is Josh Doig coming into that Tierney slot when KT is unavailable. He seems the most similar in style of the other players that would get put there. As I say, though, I don’t think he’s quite there yet.

Never mind that. There was a midfield three of Lennon Miller, David Watson and Bailey Rice. Three technically gifted players who all have experience of senior football and Stark’s like: “punt it o’er the top of thum, lads”. Bypassed them completely and put the entire game on a plate for Italy. We’ve finally got players that can play a bit but we’re using managers at u19 and u21 that stick to the tactics from the times when we didn’t.

It wasn’t malicious. It was just the follow through of a 50/50. If he’d pulled out, he’d probably have been the one injured. Still a red, though.

Haven’t seen much of him. That’s good that they’re managing his minutes. Do you think he’d be the type to continue on the newly founded Scottish pipeline to Serie A? Seriously hope that a few more take that leap - I’ve been thinking that possibly Barron at Aberdeen would be one that’d benefit if the option came up. Maybe Miller at Motherwell eventually, too.

Totally agree with you on Shankland. I think Christie might have a chance of being tried further back since there’s a ton of evidence now from his domestic games that he can be really effective there. I remember him being good defensively for us even when playing higher up - Denmark at home sticks out in particular. Would be great to have that extra option back there along with Gilmour and McGregor either way, since most of our other midfielders are either AMs or box to box.

Don’t mean any of this personally, but I see this point being made about Clarke fairly often and I just don’t see it as being true. He’s never seemed afraid of adding or dropping players as and when necessary. Gilmour, Patterson, Hickey and the players that they replaced all being examples of this. He’s used McTominay in just about every position except goalkeeper(!) at this point and he has also done a fair amount of experimenting between 5 and 4 at the back, sometimes mid-game. It was said about him during the last Euros and then he went and stuck Gilmour in against England… There is always going to be a certain amount of consistency required to create cohesion that comes naturally with international football and since as a nation we have a smaller pool of players to choose from, it’s probably accentuated even more, but I do think that Clarke has pushed on that as and when is sensible, be that with the system or players. All that to say that I wouldn’t be surprised to see a two of Christie and Gilmour in one of the friendlies because they seem to be the most in form for those two positions that we have at the moment. I’m still a big fan of McGregor, though and think he’d be brilliant to come off the bench for one of those two.