I'm sure some people saw the article on The Athletic from a few weeks ago about us being 'the biggest underachievers in world football'. I don't think that article was discussed on here.
The full article is below:
I had been thinking about getting a subscription to The Athletic prior to this World Cup, but some of the articles have made me reconsider that. This is certainly one of them.
Just some observations from this article:
It largely blames anti-Englishness for our relatively disappointing performances.
Takes no account of context of why certain players didn't play much for Scotland (such as competition for places; personal matters; players constantly withdrawing).
Doesn't look at the role the SFA and clubs play in improving the player pool for the national team, nor the wider societal issues when it comes to getting kids involved in sport regularly.
The idea we should be the footballing equivalent of New Zealand in rugby is laughable.
If we're talking about the biggest underachievers in world football, countries like Mexico; Russia; and Turkey have to be in that debate at the very least.
None of this is to say we couldn't or shouldn't be doing any better, but this misses the main issues completely.