Life is Great Just Now

[Caledonian Craig]

If you are a Scotland fan life is great just now. Four wins out of four in our opening qualifying games (a record) and qualifying for Euro 2024 seems within reach.

There is so much to enthuse over as we deal with every challenge handed to us and come out winning. Beating the lauded group favourites Spain at home, facing defeat against Norway but turning that into a victory in the dying minutes, handling so-called banana skin bogey teams with a degree of comfort and handling stressful nights like last night's potential abandonment to come away with a key win.

The spirit within the camp is superb. It is really like a club spirit where the lads have really gelled, have formed close frienships and look out for each others backs. A real comaraderie. And as we have stitched together an impressive unbeaten run the confidence and belief is clearly visible.

Also for me our squad's have virtually no padding. By padding I mean in the past you could look at a few players in the squad (outfield players) who you felt were only there to make up the numbers and you hoped we would not have to need to use them. That, for me, is not the case now. There are players on the bench you would be happy to see get a run as their form is great such as Lewis Ferguson and so many who are proven performers such as Christie, Patterson, Armstrong, Cooper and more all waiting in the wings. There are also others outwith the squad who I'd be excited to see get a call-up so we have plenty of options.

Roll on September.

 

[borojock]

Also the players look like decent people, you can engage and connect with them which i think is important 

You couldnt see any of these players doing the v signal while sat on the bench - would be a brave man doing that with Clarke as manager 

[Texas Pete]

The first half of the campaign has been brilliant. Even if we hadn’t turned the Norway game around and were sitting on 9 points we would still be on course to qualify. Having 12 points just now is amazing and I don’t think even the most optimistic Scotland fan would have thought that possible when the draw was made. 

I just hope we get 3 points in Cyprus because things could get a bit uncomfortable if Spain and Norway both go on winning runs (obviously something has to give in their game in Norway) and we start to falter. 

15 points really should be enough enough to qualify so let’s hope we get to that number as quickly as possible.

 

[fringo]

1 hour ago, Caledonian Craig said:

If you are a Scotland fan life is great just now. Four wins out of four in our opening qualifying games (a record) and qualifying for Euro 2024 seems within reach.

There is so much to enthuse over as we deal with every challenge handed to us and come out winning. Beating the lauded group favourites Spain at home, facing defeat against Norway but turning that into a victory in the dying minutes, handling so-called banana skin bogey teams with a degree of comfort and handling stressful nights like last night's potential abandonment to come away with a key win.

The spirit within the camp is superb. It is really like a club spirit where the lads have really gelled, have formed close frienships and look out for each others backs. A real comaraderie. And as we have stitched together an impressive unbeaten run the confidence and belief is clearly visible.

Also for me our squad's have virtually no padding. By padding I mean in the past you could look at a few players in the squad (outfield players) who you felt were only there to make up the numbers and you hoped we would not have to need to use them. That, for me, is not the case now. There are players on the bench you would be happy to see get a run as their form is great such as Lewis Ferguson and so many who are proven performers such as Christie, Patterson, Armstrong, Cooper and more all waiting in the wings. There are also others outwith the squad who I'd be excited to see get a call-up so we have plenty of options.

Roll on September.

 

I sense that even a Hampden full of 50000 bucket hats wouldn't dampen your spirits right now.😆

We're halfway there........

 

[Burj_Alba]

My biggest fear for the bubble bursting is that SSC might be poached away, say by a low premier league / non performing championship club like Leicester, Leeds or Everton etc. I don't think he would go before the EUROS but first managerial vacancy of 24/25 season and they might be thinking " Clarke has done a fantastic job with Scotland", definitely an upgrade on Allardyces, Pardews, Dyches of this world.  

SSC might want another crack at the premier league and his currency would never have been higher. Could we begrudge him that?

The problem is that this an incredible young team with no couldn't miss retirements after EURO 2024 ( maybe Cooper, Jack, Gordon and McLean ) so the potential going forward is extraordinarily. Hopefully with replacements like Doak, Wilson, Conway bolstering the forward line. Keeping SSC is such an important part of it.

Yes, brilliant time to be a Scotland fan but always looking at the next twist of fate. 

 

 

[mccaughey85]

7 minutes ago, Burj_Alba said:

My biggest fear for the bubble bursting is that SSC might be poached away, say by a low premier league / non performing championship club like Leicester, Leeds or Everton etc. I don't think he would go before the EUROS but first managerial vacancy of 24/25 season and they might be thinking " Clarke has done a fantastic job with Scotland", definitely an upgrade on Allardyces, Pardews, Dyches of this world.  

SSC might want another crack at the premier league and his currency would never have been higher. Could we begrudge him that?

The problem is that this an incredible young team with no couldn't miss retirements after EURO 2024 ( maybe Cooper, Jack, Gordon and McLean ) so the potential going forward is extraordinarily. Hopefully with replacements like Doak, Wilson, Conway bolstering the forward line. Keeping SSC is such an important part of it.

Yes, brilliant time to be a Scotland fan but always looking at the next twist of fate. 

 

 

Bound to be loads of clubs interested. Just hope he stays as long as possible.

How much is he on salary wise?

We need to try and match any offers that might be made. Hes worth every penny.

[Caledonian Craig]

No I do not think Clarke is a quitter. He is one who wants to really achieve much in the job such as being first to get us through the group stages and back to the World Cup Finals again.

He is not like McLeish either who was younger and had not tried managing in England which is what lured him. Clarke has been there and done that so that pull is nowhere near as strong plus he has tasted the lows of league management. 

I think he relishes this current challenge and working with the lads too much to walk away from it.

[romanticscot]

I can't fathom losing Steve Clarke, I believe he is 59 under contract for another 3 years.  Surely, he is making good money, appears to be loving the job, most of the fan base are happy with him and has challenging goals.  If he wants to go back to domestic football, he can get us to a World Cup and then go off to a top 10 English team, or even a team on the continent. 

[Burj_Alba]

I did not have a problem with McLeish walking away. I thought we had a 2008 brilliant campaign despite him rather than because of him. (Obviously didn't know at the time he was going to be replaced by Burley and then Levien 😞), Completely different scenario with Clarke but wouldn't begrudge him if that's what he wanted. 

Don't think there is any way the SFA can / would match the salaries in the premier league.

[mccaughey85]

6 minutes ago, Burj_Alba said:

I did not have a problem with McLeish walking away. I thought we had a 2008 brilliant campaign despite him rather than because of him. (Obviously didn't know at the time he was going to be replaced by Burley and then Levien 😞), Completely different scenario with Clarke but wouldn't begrudge him if that's what he wanted. 

Don't think there is any way the SFA can / would match the salaries in the premier league.

Dunno i felt both him and smith really took the mickey. Both literally just took the job and then fucked off at the slightest better offer. They both just used it as stepping stone in the worst possible way.  Smith especially was dirty. To piss off in the middle of a campaign was dirty as fuck.

I think clarke has little more class to him and i wouldnt begrudge him leaving at the end of the euros in 2024. That would three campaigns hes had and thats a fair length of service imo.

[bigfingers]

1 hour ago, mccaughey85 said:

Dunno i felt both him and smith really took the mickey. Both literally just took the job and then fucked off at the slightest better offer. They both just used it as stepping stone in the worst possible way.  Smith especially was dirty. To piss off in the middle of a campaign was dirty as fuck.

I think clarke has little more class to him and i wouldnt begrudge him leaving at the end of the euros in 2024. That would three campaigns hes had and thats a fair length of service imo.

He might want another crack at getting us to a World Cup. 

[Toepoke]

2 minutes ago, bigfingers said:

He might want another crack at getting us to a World Cup. 

Especially in North America. 

 

[Ally Bongo]

Nothing will ever be greater than the elation between 1976 and 1978

Those that experienced it, even as young boys, will always remain grounded forever ...............

[vanderark14]

20 minutes ago, Ally Bongo said:

Nothing will ever be greater than the elation between 1976 and 1978

Those that experienced it, even as young boys, will always remain grounded forever ...............

That will be topped if scotland get passed a group stage at a major tournament

[mccaughey85]

1 hour ago, bigfingers said:

He might want another crack at getting us to a World Cup. 

Lets hope

[Ally Bongo]

53 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

That will be topped if scotland get passed a group stage at a major tournament

Would only be topped if we were to win a World Cup because we believed we were the best in the World

[Texas Pete]

3 hours ago, Burj_Alba said:

My biggest fear for the bubble bursting is that SSC might be poached away, say by a low premier league / non performing championship club like Leicester, Leeds or Everton etc. I don't think he would go before the EUROS but first managerial vacancy of 24/25 season and they might be thinking " Clarke has done a fantastic job with Scotland", definitely an upgrade on Allardyces, Pardews, Dyches of this world.  

SSC might want another crack at the premier league and his currency would never have been higher. Could we begrudge him that?

The problem is that this an incredible young team with no couldn't miss retirements after EURO 2024 ( maybe Cooper, Jack, Gordon and McLean ) so the potential going forward is extraordinarily. Hopefully with replacements like Doak, Wilson, Conway bolstering the forward line. Keeping SSC is such an important part of it.

Yes, brilliant time to be a Scotland fan but always looking at the next twist of fate. 

 

 

If Clarke gets us to Euro 2024 and we have a successful tournament and he then decides to move on to a new challenge then fair enough I would say.

As long as we get someone decent to replace him (which should be a lot easier if we are on a successful run compared with the state we were in when looking to appoint recent managers) then it wouldn’t be the end of the world. 

Hopefully he would want to stay on for another crack at qualifying for the World Cup but he isn’t going to be in the job forever so he will leave sooner or later. 

[0Neils40yarder]

4 hours ago, Burj_Alba said:

My biggest fear for the bubble bursting is that SSC might be poached away, say by a low premier league / non performing championship club like Leicester, Leeds or Everton etc. I don't think he would go before the EUROS but first managerial vacancy of 24/25 season and they might be thinking " Clarke has done a fantastic job with Scotland", definitely an upgrade on Allardyces, Pardews, Dyches of this world.  

SSC might want another crack at the premier league and his currency would never have been higher. Could we begrudge him that?

The problem is that this an incredible young team with no couldn't miss retirements after EURO 2024 ( maybe Cooper, Jack, Gordon and McLean ) so the potential going forward is extraordinarily. Hopefully with replacements like Doak, Wilson, Conway bolstering the forward line. Keeping SSC is such an important part of it.

Yes, brilliant time to be a Scotland fan but always looking at the next twist of fate. 

 

 

Clarke is doing a great job, but were he to be poached away I'd be confident that a) we are now a much more interesting proposition for any mangers out there b) our squad seems to be full of captains, characters, extremely confident and very talented players, which can't be underestimated c) we appear to have another batch of players also pushing through at their back.

 

Someone said earlier on that this could be the start of a golden generation...it certainly looks that way to me 

[Ally Bongo]

59 minutes ago, Ally Bongo said:

Would only be topped if we were to win a World Cup because we believed we were the best in the World

And if you don't believe me - here is a time machine to take you back and see for yourself

Interestingly Ian Archer is the narrator and after Argentina said that he was the only cunt that thought we wouldnt win it ..conveniently

 

[Toepoke]

45 minutes ago, Ally Bongo said:

And if you don't believe me - here is a time machine to take you back and see for yourself

Interestingly Ian Archer is the narrator and after Argentina said that he was the only cunt that thought we wouldnt win it ..conveniently

 

That looks a fascinating watch cheers, I don't remember seeing it at the time.

Ian Archer did a good job of hiding not thinking Scotland would win the tournament...

[Dave78]

All this chat about losing Steve Clarke... 

There's only one thing he wants to do after winning the Euro cup. Retain it! 😜

[Orraloon]

1 hour ago, Toepoke said:

That looks a fascinating watch cheers, I don't remember seeing it at the time.

Ian Archer did a good job of hiding not thinking Scotland would win the tournament...

Aye, Ian Archer hyped us up even more than Ally McLeod did. His column was a "must read" every single day in the build up.

[mccaughey85]

22 hours ago, bigfingers said:

He might want another crack at getting us to a World Cup. 

Having a quick look at the qualification process for world cup 2026. Its going to be 16 teams from europe who qualify. That gives a slightly better chance. We need to make sure we are a pot 2 team for that qualifying campaign and hope for a favourable group. 

"The qualifying group stage will feature twelve groups of four or five teams. The winner of each group will qualify for the World Cup finals, while the second-placed teams will either qualify directly or participate in play-off matches.^[3]"

Pulled that from wiki. Not sure i would fancy our chances in that system. We would likely play more than 1 play off match i think. Assuming we finished second. Tough ask for us to finish 1st. We would probably have to be a pot 1 team for that to happen.

World cup will always be a tough ask for any scotland manager tbf.

[Texas Pete]

8 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Having a quick look at the qualification process for world cup 2026. Its going to be 16 teams from europe who qualify. That gives a slightly better chance. We need to make sure we are a pot 2 team for that qualifying campaign and hope for a favourable group. 

"The qualifying group stage will feature twelve groups of four or five teams. The winner of each group will qualify for the World Cup finals, while the second-placed teams will either qualify directly or participate in play-off matches.^[3]"

Pulled that from wiki. Not sure i would fancy our chances in that system. We would likely play more than 1 play off match i think. Assuming we finished second. Tough ask for us to finish 1st. We would probably have to be a pot 1 team for that to happen.

World cup will always be a tough ask for any scotland manager tbf.

As far as I know the seeding pots for the World Cup qualifiers are still derived from the FIFA world rankings so we would currently be in pot 2 if there are 12 groups as we are the 19th best ranked European team.

We would need to get up to around 21st in the world to have a chance of being the 12th best European team in the next year or so depending on when the cut off for the draw will be. Presumably the draw will be around November next year so we would need to continue our winning streak for the rest of the year and have a good Euros to have a chance of pot 1 I think. 

Being in a group of 4 doesn’t sound very appealing. 

[adamntg]

15 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

Having a quick look at the qualification process for world cup 2026. Its going to be 16 teams from europe who qualify. That gives a slightly better chance. We need to make sure we are a pot 2 team for that qualifying campaign and hope for a favourable group. 

"The qualifying group stage will feature twelve groups of four or five teams. The winner of each group will qualify for the World Cup finals, while the second-placed teams will either qualify directly or participate in play-off matches.^[3]"

Pulled that from wiki. Not sure i would fancy our chances in that system. We would likely play more than 1 play off match i think. Assuming we finished second. Tough ask for us to finish 1st. We would probably have to be a pot 1 team for that to happen.

World cup will always be a tough ask for any scotland manager tbf.

Why are they having 12 groups of 4 or 5 with play offs instead of a more sensible 8 groups with 6 or 7 and top two qualify?  Seems unnecessarily complicated.  
Too many fixtures maybe?