May and June face Peru & Mexico

[wastecoatwilly]

16 minutes ago, skippy2015 said:

Getting hammered by Barcelona than starting a fight with neymar because he got owned the whole game is not necessary better for a players development.

Case in point some the most successful Scottish players in the last 10 years McArthur Mcarthey Robertson Adam Snodgrass all played Scottish championship football or below then moved up.

Tony watt another prime example - hope ralston does well and develops as we need a great right back. playing in championship for United probably done him good.

It was PSG mate i wasn't downing the championship i was just asking how he got on hopefully a future right back for scotland as he is part of the squad going to toulon.why did you go on the defence?

[Guest DAVIDB69]

Some interesting stuff in the papers today , Northern Ireland off for a similar trip to panama and Costa Rica as well. No one of their media saying it’s a waste of time. Just two call offs , one of them someone who played in the play off yesterday.

Michael Stewart asking a interesting question , if they had gone Michael O’Neil would there have been so many calls offs. I think we know the answer to that one.

Mcleish is old school old firm mindset so was always going to give in to old firm players. Why are these trips only tiring for Scottish players.

There should be no connection between our lowly standard at club level in Europe and the national team should not be accountable for that

[wastecoatwilly]

1 hour ago, skippy2015 said:

Andy Robertson was realised by Celtic. Celtic and in particular Rogers have been great for the national team the last 2 years improving players like Forrest and mcgregor. The players look fitter technically better and have a winning mentality.

However the club effectively not releasing players for these games is not acceptable in my opinion. These are important games and will give invaluable experience the Celtic players who only really have experience of being hammered in Europe regularly and playing in the poor standard which is the Scottish league.

Also if we qualify for say the next World Cup in Dubai trips like this are invaluable in terms of overall experience, adapting to difficult conditions in another continent, playing in front of a 90,000 fans in a hostile environment ( as opposed to Celtic Park or fir Hill ). Etc.

I see you have just jumped in skippy there isn't anybody down the well,i don't think players are robots either celtic players are getting 4 weeks off that should be enough to recharge the batteries.

[gannonball]

1 hour ago, DAVIDB69 said:

Some interesting stuff in the papers today , Northern Ireland off for a similar trip to panama and Costa Rica as well. No one of their media saying it’s a waste of time. Just two call offs , one of them someone who played in the play off yesterday.

Michael Stewart asking a interesting question , if they had gone Michael O’Neil would there have been so many calls offs. I think we know the answer to that one.

Mcleish is old school old firm mindset so was always going to give in to old firm players. Why are these trips only tiring for Scottish players.

There should be no connection between our lowly standard at club level in Europe and the national team should not be accountable for that

I heard O’Neil on sportsound last week last week and he said he left out some lot of senior players as he wants to see how well the next potenital crop will cope at that level. Martin O’Neill has done the same for the republic tour. 

They also wont admit it but alot of the senior ones would most likely have called off so they have clearly avoided the furore from this by calling up ones who want the chance to shine.  You will get the naive Tartan army types that are sickened by this but has been going on all the time. I read Tommy Gemmells autobiography a few years ago and he said it even happened back then even when the financial incentive was greater to get a cap.

The difference right now  is the two Ireland managers are competent where as Scotland appears to have a drunken bumbling idiot in charge.

[Gordopolis]

48 minutes ago, gannonball said:

I heard O’Neil on sportsound last week last week and he said he left out some lot of senior players as he wants to see how well the next potenital crop will cope at that level. Martin O’Neill has done the same for the republic tour. 

They also wont admit it but alot of the senior ones would most likely have called off so they have clearly avoided the furore from this by calling up ones who want the chance to shine.  You will get the naive Tartan army types that are sickened by this but has been going on all the time. I read Tommy Gemmells autobiography a few years ago and he said it even happened back then even when the financial incentive was greater to get a cap.

The difference right now  is the two Ireland managers are competent where as Scotland appears to have a drunken bumbling idiot in charge.

 

Re the current Ireland and Niron squad: haven't looked but I'm guessing neither of them have such a low cap tally?

As for the drunken bumbling fool thing - that's poor form. And he many drink driving convictions does McLeish have?

[gannonball]

1 hour ago, Gordopolis said:

 

Re the current Ireland and Niron squad: haven't looked but I'm guessing neither of them have such a low cap tally?

As for the drunken bumbling fool thing - that's poor form. And he many drink driving convictions does McLeish have?

Yeah the republic squad especially is pretty much a development team.

As for McLeish, there is definitely something not right with him, Im obviously speculating what it is but seeing/hearing him in the past year or so hes slurring often,swearing on  air and making bizzare comments on players. Sad to see but Im guessing with the extra media attention he will be getting now something may catch him out sooner or later.

[Scotty Tunbridge]

I hope players don’t look back in 20 years time with regret and think I played 500 games in Scottish football won 10 league titles but done nothing in European football and never made a World Cup or Euros and nobody outside Scotland knows who I am!!!

Mental how you have mapped out Kieran Tierney’s career for him.

[RandomGuy.]

5 hours ago, wastecoatwilly said:

It was PSG mate i wasn't downing the championship i was just asking how he got on hopefully a future right back for scotland as he is part of the squad going to toulon.why did you go on the defence?

He was pretty awful in the U21s draw with Togo today, although the whole team looked utterly inept, Burke especially.

[JamesM82]

McLeish saying after the Peru game that Stevenson and Phillips are going home early. Presumably Johnny Russell will play v Mexico.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/scotland/44298793

[Paco]

Even Lewis Stevenson, a 30 year old bog standard Premiership left back in his only international squad, can’t be arsed sticking around for another match.

Meanwhile Wijnaldum and Van Dijk are away with the Netherlands straight after the CL final to play two friendlies. I think the difference is these guys will feel they have the summer unexpectedly off, while ours never thought it would be anything otherwise...

[JamesM82]

6 minutes ago, Paco said:

Even Lewis Stevenson, a 30 year old bog standard Premiership left back in his only international squad, can’t be arsed sticking around for another match.

Meanwhile Wijnaldum and Van Dijk are away with the Netherlands straight after the CL final to play two friendlies. I think the difference is these guys will feel they have the summer unexpectedly off, while ours never thought it would be anything otherwise...

I'm sure the 5th choice left back for Holland was sitting by the phone and not making any arrangements for the off-season.

[Paco]

I'm sure the 5th choice left back for Holland was sitting by the phone and not making any arrangements for the off-season.

It wasn’t a particular dig at Stevenson who at least showed up, but it is pretty symptomatic of the attitude the players have to their national team - encouraged by their own clubs and, shamefully, the media.

I’m sure the Netherlands fifth-choice left back would’ve been over the moon to be there though...

[forameus]

You do wonder with these players.  I would really like to know what the reason is for them being sent home - was McLeish forthcoming with anything?  The only valid reason I could think of was an injury that meant they would be unlikely to be able to feature.  But I suspect McLeish told them they wouldn't be in the plans and let them go.  Because there's no way we might actually get other injuries and maybe require all the players  we called up to the squad, right?  

The attitude of some does seem to be lacking.  Hopefully as the meaningful games start (although every game should be treated as meaningful, without question) we start to foster the sort of attitude that leads to the players - shock horror - actually looking forward to getting called up.  If that gives us that extra little 1% that arguably poorer sides get that pushes them to qualify, then great.  

[craigkillie]

This will be the pinnacle of Lewis Stevenson's career, so I find it very unlikely that he has left early for anything other than a valid reason.

[JamesM82]

1 hour ago, craigkillie said:

This will be the pinnacle of Lewis Stevenson's career, so I find it very unlikely that he has left early for anything other than a valid reason.

*Resisting the temptation to post "Lewis holding cup "picture*

From the reports of what McLeish said, it sounds like he had already booked something else (a holiday?).

[Savage Henry]

1 hour ago, craigkillie said:

This will be the pinnacle of Lewis Stevenson's career, so I find it very unlikely that he has left early for anything other than a valid reason.

I'd imagine these will have been agreed with the clubs prior to the trip, or as you say there'll be an injury/otherwise valid reason.  I have no particularly gripe with those two players.

These were, in retrospect, ludicrous friendlies to arrange.  A goal would be nice.

[accies1874]

Shinnie's the only option to start at L(W)B for the Mexico game, then? 

That leaves us a bit short on midfield options that didn't play this morning (you'd be looking at Christie and/or Paterson playing deeper), so hopefully the small rest given to McGeouch and McGinn helps them recover. 

My worry is less about the conditions and more about the number of games some of them have played: McLean's played 50, McGinn's on 47, and McGeouch has played 43. Granted, not all of these will be 90 minutes, but McLean's season will almost end up lasting an entire year; McGeouch hasn't played more than 30 games in a season since arriving at Hibs; and the way McGinn plays is almost always at 100% (except this morning), so could experience burnout. 

[sergie's no1 fan]

Surely Stevenson has been sent home early because Hibs are playing in Europe early?

[JamesM82]

12 minutes ago, sergie's no1 fan said:

Surely Stevenson has been sent home early because Hibs are playing in Europe early?

That doesn't seem likely, as there are several players still there who will be playing in Europe. And in any case, Europe only starts about 2 days earlier than the Betfred this year.

Seems more likely to me that he's booked a holiday for about this time of year, having not expected a call-up. 

[Peppino Impastato]

7 hours ago, accies1874 said:

Shinnie's the only option to start at L(W)B for the Mexico game, then? 

That leaves us a bit short on midfield options that didn't play this morning (you'd be looking at Christie and/or Paterson playing deeper), so hopefully the small rest given to McGeouch and McGinn helps them recover. 

My worry is less about the conditions and more about the number of games some of them have played: McLean's played 50, McGinn's on 47, and McGeouch has played 43. Granted, not all of these will be 90 minutes, but McLean's season will almost end up lasting an entire year; McGeouch hasn't played more than 30 games in a season since arriving at Hibs; and the way McGinn plays is almost always at 100% (except this morning), so could experience burnout. 

That's pish tbf.  To be a top player those are very average numbers and the life of top players for fifteen years.