albagubrath

I would be surprised if even 1 of these got called up. It will be something like Gordon, McLaughlin, Kelly/Clark Cooper, Hanley, Hendry, McKenna, Tierney, Hickey, Patterson, Ralston, Taylor Armstrong, Ferguson, Gilmour, Jack, McGinn, McGregor, McTominay, Turnbull, Christie, Campbell, McLean Adams, Brown, Dykes, Shankland, Fraser Thats a 28 man squad, probably 1 more midfielder to be added. Clarke picks from a settled group, I wouldn’t expect much change.

I’m definitely not advocating for him, but Josh Doig deserves to be in the conversation now given he is starting (at LWB) for Verona (I’m aware he’s already in the 21s). Of the 3 potential competitors for the LWB position (assuming Tierney LCB), he is probably the one starting in that position at the highest level. His very advanced role in the Verona team is possibly most similar to the role Robertson plays for Scotland too.

On the basis of the above I would probably go for something like this: Gordon Patterson - McTominay - McKenna/Hanley - Tierney - Robertson Jack - McGregor McGinn - Christie Adams Jack to come in instead of Gilmour due to fitness concerns (and to be honest he might have played in any case) but otherwise this is our (Clarke's) first choice 11 IMO. I think we possibly have squad concerns, but the first 11 looks healthy enough from a minutes perspective if not universally in form.

Just realised you are (I think) talking about the full squad. 100% agree he is nowhere near a full squad while playing youth football. His callup to the U21 squad is fine though IMO.

Generally this is right, but I would point out Doak starred in Liverpool’s youth Champs League victory over Napoli this week which is predominantly an U19 tournament. I expect him to play at least PL2 this year. It will be great to see how he gets on at U21 level, and let’s not forget he played (limited) minutes at first team level for Celtic too.

To be fair, and on reflection, it was an overreaction from my side and I apologise for that. It did come across exactly as you describe though and it’s frustrating because I know from personal experience that it discourages some from posting or engaging in discussion. I lurked on here for years before posting because I didn’t want to have interactions like that. You might say that is a little bit sad but the human psyche is a complex thing. I’m sure we all, including me, can do better.

I bet you are the kind of guy that sits in the corner of the pub while all your 'mates' are chatting and fact check their conversation. You are a terrible bore who loves to be right all the time so continually corrects posters on trivial facts. Yes, you are right, but does it really make any difference to the general thrust of my post which was there are some really talented players breaking through? No. Does it add anything to the topic discussed? No. Is it well received? No. If there was a mute button I'd use it on you. Before you post next time, maybe you want to think about how you come across on this forum as it has already been pointed out to you that your current approach is unwanted and uninteresting.

Did either of these happen? Lots of articles saying the Dapo deal was going to happen, but none confirming it. I presume Dire would be a loan so that could still happen.

You really are an insufferable bore.

Made his debut last night. From my list, the underlined players have now made their first team debut, those in bold are getting fairly regular first team football (temporary squad exclusions/injuries accepted): 21: Gilmour (midfield, Chelsea) 20: Patterson (rightback, Everton), Hickey (leftback, Bologna), Harrison Ashby (rightback, West Ham) 19: Eliott Anderson (midfield/attacker, Newcastle), Connor Barron (midfield, Aberdeen), Liam Morrison (centreback, Bayern Munich) 18: Leon King (centreback, Rangers), Alex Lowry (midfield, Rangers), Calvin Ramsay (right back, Liverpool), Dire Mebude (forward, Man City), Barry Hepburn (forward, Bayern Munich) 17: Kerr Smith (centreback, Aston Villa), Charlie McArthur (centreback, Kilmarnock), Dylan Reid (midfield, St Mirren) 16: Rory Wilson (striker, Aston Villa), Ben Doak (forward, Liverpool) 15: Lennon Miller (midfield, Motherwell) I think that's fairly promising from a development perspective.

I suppose its useful for us. His attacking was the most well developed part of his game, if he can also bring his defense up to the same standard we'll benefit hugely.

Ignore EPL fans, if you think Scottish football fans are fickle, EPL fans are another level. All three of the ‘disliked’ players were fan favourites last year and before. I honestly couldn’t care less about their opinions. As long as they are all playing regularly then I am happy. Gilmour needs a move, but hopefully the delay is him being more discerning on his choice of move this time.

Lennon Miller was on the bench yesterday for Motherwell, just a few days after turning 16. Lennon is Lee Miller’s son.

Even the best teams need a 'water carrier' type player - and I mean that with the greatest of respect. The Galacticos were only able to be Galacticos in the early 2000s because of Makelele for instance. McTominay is nothing like Makelele was as a player, he is much more dynamic, but in some ways I think he performs a similar role. His job is to create the environment for the flair players to play, and he does it well.

Don't quote me on it, but I believe Jack is a centre back and Tyler is a midfielder. I'm not sure if Rory is Steven's lad - I think he might be as I have a vague recollection of Steven's boy signing from Spartans for Hibs...?

U16 squad announced this afternoon for Denmark friendlies: As part of your regular reminder that, yes, you are really feckin old, those are Darren’s twin boys at City.

The former I would think. Of the current emerging fullbacks/wingbacks, two came through the Performance Schools (Ramsay and Patterson), two didn't (Ashby, Doig). Of the established fullbacks none did (Robertson, Tierney, Hickey, O'Donnell, Ralston, Taylor). If you look at the best PS players (IMO), there is representation breaking through into the professional game in most positions, the notable absences being forwards (there are some very good ones coming through though) and goalkeepers. Fullbacks: Ramsay, Patterson, Centrebacks: Kerr Smith, Leon King, Liam Morrison Midfield: Gilmour, Alex Lowry, Connor Barron Forwards: Rory MacLeod, Dire Mebude, Ben Doak, Rory Wilson

McTominay is better than most people think, but not as good as we want him to be.

Is that relevant to their tournament record or to your claim that their record is 'pretty dire'? Is your point that they should have produced better players over the period based on the relative success of their league in Europe? I would agree, but generally I would say they have rarely if ever in that period had a squad anywhere near the quality of their peers. For what they had, they did okay IMO. Agreed, but being worse than Italy, Spain, France and Germany doesn't make their record dire. Those teams all had comfortably better squads in most of their tournament runs, albeit there were some notable exceptions (maybe Germany 2014, Italy 2006?). Perhaps our view of what makes a good tournament performance is different, but I'd argue making a final makes it a successful tournament. The media made out England were favourites to win most of the tournaments in the period, but I would say that was a view widely held only in England. Certainly my impression of the view outside of England was generally that their squad was relatively weak compared to their peers. Okay, again not sure Scotland's performance is at all relevant to your claim that their performance has been dire. By all objective measures they have been pretty effective at tournaments. They haven't won one, but that doesn't make them dire. I understand the point that, relative to resource levels, their performances haven't been as effective as they maybe should have been, but that is a different point. I think it has taken them a considerable amount of time to get their youth structures right to allow them to leverage the huge amounts of money and world class coaching structures they have. I think you are starting to see the impact of that with some of the players they are now bringing though. As I say, I think they now justify the hype and will probably win a tournament in the foreseeable future.

Not sure if this is a joke. England are our primary rivals, but to say they have a poor tournament record is surely stretching the truth. Since 1996 (i.e. the last 25 years) they have managed the quarter finals 7 times across the Euro and the WC, with a 4th, 3rd and 2nd place amongst those 7. Yes, they have failed to win a tournament in the period, but they have qualified for all but one of them and have performed reasonably well. That's a comparable record to the likes of Argentina and Netherlands and substantially better than Belgium for instance. Unfortunately for us, the current team is the first in my lifetime that I think are genuinely as good as the hype, I think they may well win a couple of tournaments over the next decade or so.

It's not happened yet to us on this level, but Rice and Grealish switching from Ireland to England stick in the mind. Ireland 'lost' two generational standard players for them (and they would also have been for us). That's a bit of a sickener.

Wotte might well have been a slavering c**t, but that doesn’t mean all his ideas were wrong. I conceded there is probably a point where tactical inflexibility becomes a problem but I would argue avoiding that is about the quality of education you give the kids. Remember that the performance schools are just one strand of it, they will still also be at club academies at the same time where they will learn something different, although hopefully also based on developing high quality technical players. Having them well drilled in a particular style or system (or more likely a series of related systems) is hugely beneficial to helping with transition between age grades and ultimately into the full side. It’s exactly what Barcelona and Ajax do, for instance. The players who come out of those systems are still able to adapt and play elsewhere.

This is definitely part of it. Whilst the SFA are to be commended for their Performance School initiative, their view of the whole strategy is lacking. They've implemented a programme to bring through more technically able players than ever before, then dumped them in a regressive national team coaching platform that uses pump-it-long kick-and-rush tactics that were seen as out of date almost 30 years ago. The PS strategy should also have come alongside a coaching strategy, as originally was the blueprint from Mark Wotte, to use the same style and system throughout the player's football education that both draws on the 'Scottish way' as well as focuses on the main skills they are learning in the PS system. If you teach them how to do it one way for years, but then when it comes to using the skills ask them to do it a different way, you are likely going to get poor results. That and everyone else has been doing this sort of development for the best part of 50 years, so we are only playing catchup really, not getting ahead of the game. Our small player base means we will always struggle at unders levels, but if we bring through a number of top players every year we will have plenty of success at the top level.

Interesting chat on the Performance Schools too. Having the ex-head of the PS system telling everyone its great is a bit pointless, but at least to my untrained eye the system seems to be making a real difference.