Standards

[vanderark14]

This is something a few of us have mentioned but why are the players, managers, SFA And fans standards for Scotland so low?

Is just in our nature to accept the scraps?

During the the 28 seasons documentary, Andy Robertson said he disagreed with the fans booing after a poor performance. He plays for Liverpool where the standards and expectations are unbelievably high so why does he think it's ok for Scotland to turn on shite performances?

 

[DoonTheSlope]

7 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

This is something a few of us have mentioned but why are the players, managers, SFA And fans standards for Scotland so low?

Is just in our nature to accept the scraps?

During the the 28 seasons documentary, Andy Robertson said he disagreed with the fans booing after a poor performance. He plays for Liverpool where the standards and expectations are unbelievably high so why does he think it's ok for Scotland to turn on shite performances?

 

Absolutely 💯 

A charlatans who has stole a cap haul in recent years

[kumnio]

There’s an answer to that, but it’s tinfoil hat stuff. 

The SFA don’t actively want us to succeed, getting close is good enough for them. If we succeed, then we want better as a nation, and they don’t want that. 

Ally McCoist, Alex Ferguson, Alex McLeish are their champions, the masters of know your place Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇬🇧 

[vanderark14]

13 minutes ago, kumnio said:

There’s an answer to that, but it’s tinfoil hat stuff. 

The SFA don’t actively want us to succeed, getting close is good enough for them. If we succeed, then we want better as a nation, and they don’t want that. 

Ally McCoist, Alex Ferguson, Alex McLeish are their champions, the masters of know your place Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇬🇧 

Yet for their clubs none of the above mentioned would accept such low standards for their clubs 

Edited June 28 by vanderark14

[DoonTheSlope]

6 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

Yet for their clubs none of the above mentioned would accept such low standards for their clubs 

They know fans at their respective clubs wouldn’t accept it. We as the TA though have a built a reputation for being a parody of ourselves and that the football doesn’t matter as long we have a good time and we make friends with the locals. They know we’ll scurry back into our box when they call us out on showing our dissatisfaction

Thankfully in recent months the highlighted part is becoming ever so slightly less prevalent but there’s still a long way to go before they realise that we aren’t going to take their poor performances seasoned with pathetic excuses and feeble soundbites of but we’ve qualified for 3 tournaments, first WC in 28 years blah blah blah

[Malfaetheburgh]

His remit was to qualify for tournaments which he achieved surely they would add another remit if they did qualify would be to get past the first round.

sums the sfa up and time for a clear out of all the hangers on in that association that accept mediocrity, too many here for the party crowd, what about the team actually achieving something at a tournament which has been shown by other small nations getting into the last 32.

[exile]

1 hour ago, vanderark14 said:

This is something a few of us have mentioned but why are the players, managers, SFA And fans standards for Scotland so low?

Is just in our nature to accept the scraps?

During the the 28 seasons documentary, Andy Robertson said he disagreed with the fans booing after a poor performance. He plays for Liverpool where the standards and expectations are unbelievably high so why does he think it's ok for Scotland to turn on shite performances?

 

I wonder if the booing - and the fact he mentioned it - meant it did get to the players and helped spur them to secure home wins rather than draw, which we could easily have ended up with. 

The 'just glad to be playing as a country' probably in there somewhere.

Also maybe, players (and supporters) know the national team can't just hire higher standard replacements. 

[DoonTheSlope]

20 minutes ago, exile said:

I wonder if the booing - and the fact he mentioned it - meant it did get to the players and helped spur them to secure home wins rather than draw, which we could easily have ended up with. 

The 'just glad to be playing as a country' probably in there somewhere.

Also maybe, players (and supporters) know the national team can't just hire higher standard replacements. 

This is spades. Too many primadonas turning up for international duty knowing their place in the squad is all but guaranteed 

[Clyde1998]

On 6/28/2026 at 7:10 AM, kumnio said:

There’s an answer to that, but it’s tinfoil hat stuff. 

The SFA don’t actively want us to succeed, getting close is good enough for them. If we succeed, then we want better as a nation, and they don’t want that. 

Ally McCoist, Alex Ferguson, Alex McLeish are their champions, the masters of know your place Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇬🇧 

For us to succeed to a comparable level of Denmark; Croatia; Norway; etc. it would require reform of the SFA and the structures of Scottish football.

The SFA don't want to reform our game, as it would lead to most of the higher ups being booted.

[Andy C]

Oil rich North Atlantic country of circa 5m population happily going toe to toe with Brazil as we speak, in their first World Cup for 28 years. I personally think they’ll be edged out in the end, but there’s no doubt that they rightly see themselves as equals. 
 

No ‘beaten before they start’ mentality here. 
 

I wonder what the difference could be.

Edited July 5 by Andy C

[Andy C]

On 6/28/2026 at 7:10 AM, kumnio said:

There’s an answer to that, but it’s tinfoil hat stuff. 

The SFA don’t actively want us to succeed, getting close is good enough for them. If we succeed, then we want better as a nation, and they don’t want that. 

Ally McCoist, Alex Ferguson, Alex McLeish are their champions, the masters of know your place Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇬🇧 

Post I just made was meant to quote that. It’s late. 

[jailender]

Sometimes the self loathing on here just proves the case

[Andy C]

5 minutes ago, jailender said:

Sometimes the self loathing on here just proves the case

Quite.👍

[csinclair]

Obviously we don’t know what he’s like behind the scenes but have always found Robbo to be quite defeatist in interviews, especially as captain. Always one of the first to defend poor performances (unlike players like McGinn and McTominay who’ve been quite candid when we’ve played poorly).

Had my worries before the Brazil game when Robbo kept mentioning ‘our little country’ several times in interviews the day before. Sounded like a man who’d already lost the game in his head

[mccaughey85]

24 minutes ago, Andy C said:

Oil rich North Atlantic country of circa 5m population happily going toe to toe with Brazil as we speak, in their first World Cup for 28 years. I personally think they’ll be edged out in the end, but there’s no doubt that they rightly see themselves as equals. 
 

No ‘beaten before they start’ mentality here. 
 

I wonder what the difference could be.

They have a better first team and a much stronger squad than us. 

The low expectations come from us not having a strong enough squad of players. If we improve our squad then I would expect a fair bit more. 

[mccaughey85]

20 minutes ago, jailender said:

Sometimes the self loathing on here just proves the case

It's not self loathing to acknowledge our weaknesses. I am all for us trying to improve our standard of player but that never seems to happen.

We need a stronger squad. No point in comparing ourselves to Norway. They are level above us and they currently have one of the greatest goalscorers in history.

[kumnio]

33 minutes ago, jailender said:

Sometimes the self loathing on here just proves the case

World Class at it.

Always excuses, always downtrodden, always negative.

[Andy C]

31 minutes ago, kumnio said:

World Class at it.

Always excuses, always downtrodden, always negative.

Aye, a permanent issue which goes far beyond just football.

[ProudScot]

52 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

It's not self loathing to acknowledge our weaknesses. I am all for us trying to improve our standard of player but that never seems to happen.

We need a stronger squad. No point in comparing ourselves to Norway. They are level above us and they currently have one of the greatest goalscorers in history.

Norway are better than us.

Cape Verde aren’t though but they performed significantly better than us as they had an actual go and no doubt were encouraged to attack by their manager 

[mccaughey85]

9 minutes ago, ProudScot said:

Norway are better than us.

Cape Verde aren’t though but they performed significantly better than us as they had an actual go and no doubt were encouraged to attack by their manager 

Yeh I don't think anybody is suggesting that we couldn't have done better but it's also important to remember that our squad isn't the strongest and just because Cape Verde and a couple of other countries did well doesn't mean we have a divine right to replicate that.

Theres dozens of countries who didn't make it to the world or they did poorly at the world cup just like us.

If we want to guarantee our success and be consistently successful we need to produce a stronger squad. Theres no point in looking at every world cup and seeing some average team doing well and suggesting that should be us. We need to be a country that has a good side that can almost guarantee that when we go to a tournament that we will get out the groups. We currently don't have the players to do that and that needs to change. 

Edited July 5 by mccaughey85

[exile]

3 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

If we want to guarantee our success and be consistently successful we need to produce a stronger squad. Theres no point in looking at every world cup and seeing some average team doing well and suggesting that should be us. We need to be a country that has a good side that can almost guarantee that when we go to a tournament that we will get out the groups. We currently don't have the players to do that and that needs to change. 

It's not just about 'the players' but forging a team that is greater than the sum of its parts.

[Pluto]

4 minutes ago, exile said:

It's not just about 'the players' but forging a team that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Surely they're not mutually exclusive. We can aspire to both

[kumnio]

5 minutes ago, exile said:

It's not just about 'the players' but forging a team that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Seven years to prepare for Haiti. Club spirit buzzword. Yet we looked like complete strangers on the park yet again. 

We were nowhere near greater than the sum of our parts. Oh for that very basic concept to be true. 

[mccaughey85]

2 minutes ago, exile said:

It's not just about 'the players' but forging a team that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Yeh I agree with that. 

Our performances in tournaments have been poor and I think it's right that Clarke stepped down but I think ppl might get a rude awakening when they find us continuing to do poorly at the future tournaments assuming we get to them. We need a stronger squad and expecting us to get lucky and do a Cape Verde is not a certainty.

I also think it's unlikely we get to the next world cup unless a couple of really good young players come through or we are incredibly well managed.

We probably have a squad that is just outside the top 16 so we have to be well managed to get to the world cup in the first place.

[ThistleWhistle]

Our mentality is fucking awful- we’re happy with a day out and getting our bus fare home.  Maybe a Mini Metro or a jet ski was out our reach, but a little bravery we could have gone for Bully’s Special prize and won the bunk beds along with a sandwich toaster. 

Our two main clubs revel in winning 627 domestic trophies or whatever bollocks it is like it’s a badge of honour whereas it’s absolutely loser mentality as they’re celebrating the equivalent of a coin toss.  Show some bollocks and do what Bodo Glint did - grow your own and build; fuck what the other side are doing and look long term. 

Instead the main objective this summer is to destroy Hearts which in a nutshell epitomises everything wrong in Scottish football.  If Rangers finished second last year they’d have a lot less interest in McInnes and their players.  
 

That was the worst Brazil side by a mile in my lifetime but we played the shirt, we played the reputation- Norway played the 11 geezers on the pitch and deserved what their bravery earned them. 
 

Our mentality is woeful- the football is secondary to the holiday.