Gordon Strachan

[RadgerTheBadger]

2 good games against Croatia and a decent first half against England in the friendly at Wembley. We were bossing the second half in Dublin but he shat his breeks and took a forward player off for Berra so he could sit in for the draw. Eire where there for the taking and if we'd kept at them then the result in Tbilisi wouldn't have mattered a jot. The Dublin game should be looked at the same scrutiny as the Tbilisi game

[Diamonds are Forever]

2 hours ago, Lex said:

Not surprised to be honest, this Kafka-esque nightmare is showing no signs of ending. I also wouldn't be surprised if we finish fourth and he ends up getting a new deal for 2020 campaign, precedent and that.

There's a triangle of delusion, on one corner we have his slavish media fan boys, led by Keith Jackson. They're scared of him giving them a telt in a press conference and they're all good pals, so they toe the line. Listening to Keith defend Strachan on sportsound the other night was one of the most bizarre bits of radio I've ever heard.

Then we have the tartan army 'No Scotland no party' brigade. The same group who sang his name in Portugal after we finished 4th in the group. They lap up whatever shite is served by Scotland and almost seem to revel in supporting such a poor team. You can also find them saying stuff like 'our players are shite, therefore we shouldn't expect any better'. Wha's like us?

Then at the tip of the triangle we have Reagan and the SFA board. They seem to exist in an alternative reality at the best of times. These people at the top of our game genuinely believe that we can still qualify for Russia. It's beyond comical to be honest.

The reality is this is the worst Scotland team of all time. We have a manager who is failing in every facet of the job. His squads are wrong, his teams are wrong, his tactics are wrong and he treats fans and journalists with a poorly concealed, arrogant contempt.

The beatings will continue until the triangle is bust open. I don't know how many more disastrous results it will take. I thought failure to beat Lithuania at home and then thorough pastings by very average Slovakia and England teams would be enough to get him out the door. I was wrong.

 

 

 

Jackson's interview was the best example I've ever seen/heard of the press being in a manager's pocket. He conceded that results weren't good enough, that he could see the argument for sacking him, but he just wouldn't sack him, just 'because', from what I could tell. Same with that other guy on the programme, Jamie (Fullarton?), he sounded very stupid, his main argument was that it was individual errors costing us. I never get that argument, if you discount individual errors then surely you have to also discount individual moments in creating/scoring goals too, which would lead to discounting virtually every goal. And obviously he is selecting these individuals, if they are making mistakes then it's the manager who takes the blame for poor selection I'm afraid.

Interestingly Graham Speirs and Tom English, two journalists who are now no longer reliant on access to the manager given their change of roles were happy to say he should be sacked. Fullarton being a 'football man', and Jackson wanting to retain his relationship, and thereby access to Strachan, couldn't bring themselves to say he should be sacked.

[mizfit]

I wonder if the current outrage directed to the STV, SFA & BBC twitter accounts is enough to make them change their minds.


Less and less backing him by the day, albeit a lot more aim at Regan.

[Monkey Tennis]

1 hour ago, Randy Giles said:

What I will say is that Strachan is a selfish wee b*****d, but I also think he's within his rights to be. He's got a well paying job with a decent chance of not getting another for a while, so why not milk it for what it's worth? Especially when he seems not to be someone who cares about the outcome of this. It's up to the SFA to do the right thing here, not him. And they simply don't have the balls to do it.

I think Strachan's failure to resign is pretty bloody disgraceful to be honest, but I totally see where you're coming from here.

I can't think of any parallels at all where a badly failing manager has publicly been allowed to consider whether he'd prefer to press on, or not.  Now, bizarrely, Strachan has twice been granted this extraordinary privilege.

It's As bizarre as it is sickening.

[Paganshoplifter]

The thing that winds me up most about this is that the decision is being justified because we 'can still qualify'. Which of course we technically still can, but isn't only mathematically unlikely, would require a truly unprecedented run of form.  So the faith in Strachan is strong enough to give rise to the belief he can do something amazing, which not only has he never done, but hasn't been seen for the national team - erm - I'm not going to get statistical, but - ever? I'm not saying that anyone else would be able to achieve that, but my strong suspicion is, that when we get to the end of the campaign, and inevitably haven't qualified - Strachan walks. I'd be astonished if he had the appetite for a third full campaign (as much as the SFA might want him). So the next manager gets no running start - damaging our chances in the next campaign.

[1320Lichtie]

A quite tremendous summary of this ongoing utter clusterfuck. 

I genuinely hope we are absolutely dicked in every remaining qualifier if there's even a chance that it would force a major change. It won't though, Strachan will f**k off into the sunset with a sizeable reward for abject failure, then Regan and his fucking idiot cohorts will then appoint someone even less imaginative and so the cycle of shiteness will continue. A succession of risibly poor Managers have left us in a position where we are absolutely fucking shite. However bad we get though, the TA will buy the season tickets and fund the gravy train, because getting pished somewhere abroad is all that matters. 

There were just 36k at our first Saturday home qualifier after a 5-1 away win and a new 13 million quid wonder kid in the team, if you think the TA are happy at this then you're kidding yourself on. Many people have stopped going and I expect this to become even more now seeing what's happened since Lithuania.

Fans who actually back the team through thick and thin getting pelters here.

Yet if this was a club side they'd be getting praised for it.

[AMMjag]

A 5 hour meeting

Wonder what they did to drag it out over another 4 hours and 57 minutes.

[HibeeJibee]

7 minutes ago, Paganshoplifter said:

The thing that winds me up most about this is that the decision is being justified because we 'can still qualify'. Which of course we technically still can, but isn't only mathematically unlikely, would require a truly unprecedented run of form.  So the faith in Strachan is so strong that given rise to the belief he can do something amazing, which not only has he never done, but hasn't been seen for the national team - erm - I'm not going to get statistical, but - ever? I'm not saying that anyone else would be able to achieve that, but my strong suspicion is, that when we get to the end of the campaign, and inevitably haven't qualified - Strachan walks. I'd be astonished if he had the appetite for a third full campaign (as much as the SFA might want him). So the next manager gets no running start - damaging our chances in the next campaign.

If you adhere to the conclusion that we need 5 wins & 1 draw from the remaining 6 qualifiers... to reach 20pts in the group, and 14pts in the runners-up ranking (which would not have been enough in some recent campaigns)... then such a run hasn't been witnessed since the end of WC 1998 qualifying to start of Euro 2000 qualifying. However, that run was versus Belarus > Belarus > Latvia > Lithuania > Estonia > Faroe Islands so all the bottom seeds...

It was achieved at the end of Euro 1996 qualifying (Russia > San Marino > Faroe Islands > Greece > Finland > San Marino) which is the only other time we've ever done it - and the only time we've done it within a single campaign.

It will take a quite remarkable improvement.

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, Randy Giles said:

What I will say is that Strachan is a selfish wee b*****d, but I also think he's within his rights to be. He's got a well paying job with a decent chance of not getting another for a while, so why not milk it for what it's worth? Especially when he seems not to be someone who cares about the outcome of this. It's up to the SFA to do the right thing here, not him. And they simply don't have the balls to do it.

That's 100% my take on this tbh. Ultimately he's the SFA's employee, if they're not happy with results etc then it's up to them to do something about it.

As it stands it looks like they've been waiting on Strachan to make a decision for them. What they're doing is what is easiest for them, they let him continue if he wants and whatever happens, happens. They give him until March and avoid dealing with the situation for another few months. If they reach the point where it becomes official we won't qualify then chances are they're hoping he'll walk and take it out of their hands. Right now it seems as if they're backing him just so they don't actually have to do anything or think about the situation.

The fact that they've got previous for farcical levels of indecision really shouldn't be ignored

[Paganshoplifter]

If you adhere to the conclusion that we need 5 wins & 1 draw from the remaining 6 qualifiers... to reach 20pts in the group, and 14pts in the runners-up ranking (which would not have been enough in some recent campaigns)... then such a run hasn't been witnessed since the end of WC 1998 qualifying to start of Euro 2000 qualifying. However, that run was versus Belarus > Belarus > Latvia > Lithuania > Estonia > Faroe Islands so all the bottom seeds...

It was achieved at the end of Euro 1996 qualifying (Russia > San Marino > Faroe Islands > Greece > Finland > San Marino) which is the only other time we've ever done it - and the only time we've done it within a single campaign.

It will take a quite remarkable improvement.

Thanks for the stats! Interesting.

But by run of form I was thinking not just about the points, but about the points gained vs quality of opposition faced.

The only supposed easy game in our schedule is Malta. It's a Herculean task vs. what has been achieved by any modern Scotland manager.

[shawfield shed boy]

4-4-2 please. Let other far most successful countries play the modern game. Done f**k all for us

[Alert Mongoose]

What's most galling here is that the SFA have now incurred a likely fine from FIFA for the poppy shambles (disciplinary action now underway) when we could have used some of that to pay off Strachan. Scunnered.

[RadgerTheBadger]

What's most galling here is that the SFA have now incurred a likely fine from FIFA for the poppy shambles (disciplinary action now underway) when we could have used some of that to pay off Strachan. Scunnered.

You can bet your bottom dollar that Stewart Regan who authorised poppygate will still award himself a bonus

[54_and_counting]

3 hours ago, williemillersmoustache said:

Probably the most depressing statement ever.

Same 'group' of failed players, "maximise our chances" , absolutely no progress, no improvements, no changes for the next 4 months before we get embarrassed at a hopefully empty Hampden in March. 

What a load of utter pish.

"this group of players" aye the ones that havent ever came fucking close to a major finals, by my count thats

Gordon, 7 campaigns since his debut
Hanley 4 campaigns
Berra 5 campaigns
Anya 3 campaigns
Wallace 5 campaigns
Fletcher 8 campaigns
Brown 7 campaigns
Snodgrass 4 campaigns
Forrest 4 campaigns
Morrison 5 campaigns
Griffiths 3 campaigns

Now obviously some havent been constant in the scotland squads over their years, but still that is a shocking record of failed campaigns for some of they guys that started against england, Brown and Fletcher especially
 

[Malcolm Malcolm]

35 minutes ago, HairyBawz said:

 

You can bet your bottom dollar that Stewart Regan who authorised poppygate will still award himself a bonus

 

A bonus for getting bogged down in the country's shambolic political culture to add another layer of farce to our shambolic football culture?

[Monkey Tennis]

10 minutes ago, Paganshoplifter said:

The thing that winds me up most about this is that the decision is being justified because we 'can still qualify'. Which of course we technically still can, but isn't only mathematically unlikely, would require a truly unprecedented run of form.  So the faith in Strachan is strong enough to give rise to the belief he can do something amazing, which not only has he never done, but hasn't been seen for the national team - erm - I'm not going to get statistical, but - ever? I'm not saying that anyone else would be able to achieve that, but my strong suspicion is, that when we get to the end of the campaign, and inevitably haven't qualified - Strachan walks. I'd be astonished if he had the appetite for a third full campaign (as much as the SFA might want him). So the next manager gets no running start - damaging our chances in the next campaign.

Spot on.

If the reason for keeping Strachan is that we're still very much in it, then that is simply bonkers.  It defies any kind of analysis.  

How is it possible that this is something they feel they can offer as a rationale?  Do they honestly believe that we're all desperately stupid people?

[Thistle_do_nicely]

I demand that we arrange a friendly against Wales so they can scud us 4 or 5 nil again to end yet another Scotland managers dismal failure of a tenure.

That'd be quite a novel way to shame him into resigning actually. Just arrange frequent friendlies against any one of the numerous "unfashionable" sides that are vastly better coached/more talented than us, watch as we get our arses skelped time and again until the Tartan Army themselves come to an agreement to fund a comfy wee membership at a comfy big-name golf club in order to be rid of the sarcastic piece of shit once and for all.

I jest, of course - he has absolutely no shame whatsoever.

edit: christ, am I right that it really is Burley - Levein - Strachan we've had as our last 3 managers and it's not some sort of fevered nightmare?

[lanky_ffc]

If we really want to hit the SFA in the pocket, we could go down the Croatia route of launching flares onto the pitch to get matches abandoned, closed-door games and the SFA hit with heavy fines. 

[Monkey Tennis]

There's no longer even any point in hoping we get gubbed in a match that's already lost, so that it prompts change.

It simply doesn't matter.

 

[sidofthesouth]

I'm obviously in the tiny minority here, but i think keeping Strachan gives us the best chance of qualifying (although its definitely a long-shot now). Changing managers in mid campaign would surely damage our chances? I also think his record is not too bad, given the  dearth of talent he has to work with. In the last campaign (and in a tough group) we were unlucky not to beat the Poles twice, were unbeaten against the Republic and gave the world champs 2 decent games. In friendlies in Strachan's time we have beaten Norway, Poland and the Czechs away and Denmark & N,Ireland at home. Everyone is disappointed at the start we have made to this campaign, especially the Slovakia defeat, but Strachan has proven he is a decent football manager and deserves the chance to have the remainder of the campaign before we pass final judgement on his tenure. The SFA actually showed some balls today by keeping him when the popular decision would no doubt have been to rip it up and start again (and again and again.....) with some other poor b*****d who is expected to achieve beyond the player's current capabilities. Strachan was the popular choice at the time, so lets try a bit of continuity for a change and see where we end up.