AJF

If you knew he played for us then why did you make a statement that was wrong

Which is precisely the reason I’d rather not be assumed as someone I’m not

Precisely haha.

As in ex Killie and Hibs manager? No, sadly not me haha.

I’m still haunted by Menga scoring against us

Haha, if there was a way for me to prove it to you, I would. I’d rather folk formed their opinion of me for what I say rather than them imagining who they think I am.

When those around you improve but you stay static, you’re trying to justify that as no decline? Fair enough, but if other countries are capable of it then so are we. And we need to find out why we haven’t been able to (you already know my thoughts on that).

It was obviously an old poster right off the bat. Just a question of when the correct identity was landed on. You lot are absolutely mental I’ve no idea who Tedi is and I’ve never posted in this forum under any other name than this one. If you don’t want to accept my word on that then fair fecks to you but I’m not going to get landed with the transgressions of other folk, no danger.

Again, you’ve lost me too.

But we are not in the same position if you compare us to other nations. Close to home, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have all qualified for major tournaments since we did last. Countries like Belgium, Iceland and Finland have all done it too while we are sat at home on our scratchers. It’s not just a case of “we never qualified then and we haven’t qualified now so we’re not worse off” - it’s a case of not keeping up with countries that were previously on a par or inferior to us now pulling away and putting us to shame.

I would agree, but the scoring records are only one part of the issue. The players that i mentioned before, I honestly can’t remember watching them for Scotland and thinking they were performing well enough. Whether that be their hold up/link up play, creativity or effort. You need forwards that score goals but when they aren’t doing that, they need to at least be ticking boxes in the other areas which I don’t think they were.

Fletcher has scored 10 goals in 22 competitive appearances for Scotland. On the face of it, that doesn’t seem bad at all but when you consider 6 of those goals are made up of hat-tricks against Gibraltar then that’s a lot of games without doing much. Similarly, Griffiths has only 4 goals for Scotland. His 2 free kicks against England probably paint a rosier picture in some fans eyes but he has largely been useless. None of the players have really hit it off for Scotland. I can’t remember watching any of them and thinking that they were up to standard in a Scotland shirt.

It seems to be a common theme where Scotland strikers can’t seem to carry over their performances from club to national level. I’m sure if you ask Sheffield United fans they’d be happy with McBurnie’s performances, but he is the latest in a long line of strikers that slump in a Scottish jersey. Rhodes, Griffiths, Fletcher etc. Have all went through prolific periods at club level but have all been useless for Scotland. It’s very frustrating.

The only way I could see Fraser end up at Celtic is if they sign him on around 30k a week wages but give him a massive signing on fee with the money they’ve saved in a transfer fee. But, I think it would be unlikely.

Don’t think I can disagree with any of that. I’m hopeful as he matures as a player, his decision making will improve. He is still (relatively) young at 23.

I sincerely hope they do, however I think that may be down to the fact it is being made easier to qualify for major tournaments nowadays (competitions having more teams at the finals and the new nations league format). For example, if we put the current crop of players in the group we had in Euro 2008 qualifying (France, Italy, Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia, Faroe Islands) I don’t think the current team would have fared much better than Scotland did that year (we won 8 out of 12 matches). We are still woefully short in options at centre back and up front.

You’ve completely lost me here. What difference? You said Sevco can’t play an Irishman in the first 11. If I humour your reference to Sevco, your claim that they can’t play an Irishman in the first 11 is proved to be incorrect - with Jon Daly being the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Whit Your original point said: I’ve just proved that claim to be absolute nonsense.

And I told you. Then you asked if I thought it was the coaches rather than the players that were the issue so I assumed you had a differing view (that the players were the issue and not the coaches). Without the right coaching then the players are irrelevant. With good coaching you should get better players. Yes, some players may not apply themselves correctly but on the flip side, if you have bad coaching then the chances of getting good players is vastly reduced. So, yes. I think the issue is with the coaching rather than the players.

Haha, your theory debunked. Back to the drawing board for you.

So, what exactly are you proposing should happen? They’ve already explained why they can’t report it to the Scottish FA. And don’t make it out as if you care about how youngsters perceive a red card in a friendly match

I’m not really sure what you are getting at here, sorry. If you have a different view then please, by all means let me know.

We can’t? Jon Daly must be Jamaican or something then.

You do know the only way for Kent to be suspended was if the French FA reported it to the Scottish FA? The French FA have since come out and said the friendly was not played under their jurisdiction (or something to that effect) so they couldn’t report it even if they wanted to.

Again, I don’t know what is feasible or at all possible. I would suggest sending a large team of coaches to go and study abroad or get mentored by coaches in the countries we should be trying to emulate with a view to introducing a national programme to be rolled out for coaches to follow for all age groups. This would obviously depend on the other nations cooperating so I don’t know if they’d be willing to offer something like this.