Who’s on the plane?

[Highlandmagar]

40 minutes ago, Lyle Lanley said:

Souttar being dropped from the squad too. 

Thank god. He's a carthorse!

[Busta Nut]

11 minutes ago, Alert Mongoose said:

I get that Liam Kelly is relatively shite for international level but I wouldn't be having Clark as backup keeper.

Are people forgetting that he came through the ranks at St Johnstone?

Clark is dugshite too. Hearts fans deny it now but they weren't standing up for him 2 years ago

[allyo]

I think a lot of folk with extremely strong opinions about the minor places in the squad think very little about people management.

Edited June 6 by allyo

[eez-eh]

7 minutes ago, Highlandmagar said:

Oh dear! Fall  back on you aren't are a real Thistke fan post. Idiot!

It was a (quite amusing) joke. Why are you so raging all the fucking time?

[Highlandmagar]

5 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

It was a (quite amusing) joke. Why are you so raging all the fucking time?

An Ayr United fan? Oh dear!

[Junior_Arab]

Very brave, unsentimental move from Clarke to punt Gordon. I think he’s been a tremendous goalkeeper over the years, one of the best I’ve ever seen. He’s done incredibly well to come back at all after that horror injury.  But the fact of the matter is he’s managed a handful of games and hasn’t looked particularly convincing in any of them. I could still see the argument to have him in the squad from an experience / good-guy-to-have-around-the-place angle but if that was all it was we’d be as well adding him to the coaching staff as having him taking up a squad place. 
 

And Souttar is just bang average. Decent on the ball but a poor, poor defender. 

[Chripper]

Nothing is set in stone yet.

If the worst comes to the worst, and there's an injury leading up to the opening match, teams are allowed to call up replacements.

Once the tournament begins, the squads are locked.

[Skyline Drifter]

6 hours ago, Quentin Taranbino said:

If Craig Gordon is out for Liam Kelly then I owe @Skyline Drifter one massive apology, he absolutley nailed that call. Literally the only person on this forum that was adament it wasn't clear cut. 

I think it's the wrong call but absolute fair fucks to SD for going against the grain and correctly calling that.

Mmm, its not the first time I've gone against this entire forum (with the honourable exception of @craigkillie) with an opinion that turned out to be correct. The last time the cascade of abuse I got for it led me to sign out of the forum for a month! 

If this time gets a couple of civil acknowledgements then 'fair fucks' to those doing so!

[CM.]

7 hours ago, Jaggy McJagface said:

Would I be right in saying that Shankland will be assigned number 9 in Dykes’s absence, or will Adams take it and someone else take the number 10?

Imagine the numbers will stay as they are/were with Conway taking 9 and Morgan taking whatever number Doak was (18 I think)

[Skyline Drifter]

10 minutes ago, CM. said:

Imagine the numbers will stay as they are/were with Conway taking 9 and Morgan taking whatever number Doak was (18 I think)

I'm not certain what, if any, number waa being used by Souttar but Gordon had 24. If he is confirmed as dropped then someone will move to that. The final squad will be numbered 1-26. 

[2426255]

6 hours ago, Tony Wonder said:

Aye but he's also had lots of injuries and little football. If the other options were sharp he'd have been in bother.

Don't agree. Cooper has only missed Scotland camps if he's injured or is on a recovery from injury and he was once excused for a his wedding. He is past the point where what he's doing at club level is decisive. He was never at risk beyond if he picked up an injury.

I said he's a grey man because he goes under the radar for a lot of people. If you look beyond the superficial element of club form then it's obvious he's quite an important piece in the squad. Once you gain Clarke's loyalty, club 'form' just isn't that important a factor. I don't think people realise that.

[GordonS]

6 hours ago, Stevie Kirk said:

I find it incredible that we don’t have any better back up keepers than Kelly or Clark. Are there no young keepers coming through, even down south? 

On keepers, we've been getting away with it for a long time. Our third choice keeper last time was Jon McLaughlin, in 96 it was Nicky Walker and in 92 it was Henry Smith. It feels like we've been alright for keepers through Leighton, Goram, Sullivan, Douglas, Gordon and Marshall.

But below the top one or two the situation has deteriorated badly. If it weren't for England-made Gunn we'd be relying on Zander Clark, who will turn 32 during the tournament. Then it's Kelly and then presumably 26 year old Robbie McCrory, who has 7 appearances in the last 3 seasons.

Our first-choice U21 keeper is Cieran Slicker at Ipswich, who made 2 League Cup appearances last season - and who is also English-trained. 

It's similar in central defence and centre forward. Who are the five best current centre forwards produced by Scottish youth football? Dykes, Adams, Conway and Jacob Brown all learned their trade elsewhere.  Shankland... Nisbet? Morgan? Then who? It's not exactly the 80s and 90s when we produced Ally McCoist, Mo Johnstone, Brian McClair, Gordon Durie, Kevin Gallacher, Duncan Ferguson, Frank McAvennie, Steve Archibald, Charlie Nicholas, Graeme Sharp and many more.

 

[Pocketman]

8 hours ago, JS_FFC said:

 There’s Jon McCracken as well. 

Hope goes onto better things than his dad, Phil. As schoolboys in the 90s his name was mentioned every day - expected big things but just didn't work out for him. Now a Facebook da occasional reference like his team-mate, Pat McGroin

[JS_FFC]

Reckon the numbers will be:

 

1. Angus Gunn

2. Anthony Ralston

3. Andy Robertson

4. Scott McTominay

5. Grant Hanley

6. Kieran Tierney

7. John McGinn

8. Callum McGregor

9. Lawrence Shankland

10. Che Adams

11. Ryan Christie

12. Liam Kelly

13. Jack Hendry

14. Billy Gilmour

15. Ryan Porteous

16. Liam Cooper

17. Stuart Armstrong

18. Lewis Morgan

19. Tommy Conway

20. Ryan Jack

21. Zander Clark

22. Ross McCrorie

23. Kenny McLean

24. Greg Taylor

25. James Forrest

26. Scott McKenna

[Skyline Drifter]

3 hours ago, GordonS said:

Who are the five best current centre forwards produced by Scottish youth football? Dykes, Adams, Conway and Jacob Brown all learned their trade elsewhere. 

Not the first time that comment's been made. Whilst I take the point, Lyndon Dykes was in our youth setup at 17 years old. He's not a Club Academy product, he was in Australia till 16 years old, but the notion that he parachuted into Scotland as a fully fledged senior player isnt true either. The game here, and Queen of the South in particular, have certainly been significantly involved in his development.

[Butters Scotch]

6 hours ago, SlayerX said:

Nothing is set in stone yet.

If the worst comes to the worst, and there's an injury leading up to the opening match, teams are allowed to call up replacements.

Once the tournament begins, the squads are locked.

Cheers Geoff

[GordonS]

7 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Not the first time that comment's been made. Whilst I take the point, Lyndon Dykes was in our youth setup at 17 years old. He's not a Club Academy product, he was in Australia till 16 years old, but the notion that he parachuted into Scotland as a fully fledged senior player isnt true either. The game here, and Queen of the South in particular, have certainly been significantly involved in his development.

Dykes was two months shy of his 19th birthday when he signed for QoS U20s in August 2014. He was there a year before going back to Australia. Obviously players continue to develop as adults but Scotland can't claim any role in his youth football development.

[Butters Scotch]

5 hours ago, 2426255 said:

Don't agree. Cooper has only missed Scotland camps if he's injured or is on a recovery from injury and he was once excused for a his wedding. He is past the point where what he's doing at club level is decisive. He was never at risk beyond if he picked up an injury.

I said he's a grey man because he goes under the radar for a lot of people. If you look beyond the superficial element of club form then it's obvious he's quite an important piece in the squad. Once you gain Clarke's loyalty, club 'form' just isn't that important a factor. I don't think people realise that.

Despite him not playing a lot at club level, Cooper still gets in because he's a decent CB in a good league and we have a lack of quality alternatives. If he dropped down into league one or if we have a quality CB coming through then I doubt Clarke would keep on picking him, I don't believe it's a loyalty thing as Clarke has proved he can be ruthless when he wants to be. The same applies for the rest of the bench warmers also. 

[CM.]

 

6 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

I'm not certain what, if any, number waa being used by Souttar but Gordon had 24. If he is confirmed as dropped then someone will move to that. The final squad will be numbered 1-26. 

Aye just realised Gordon was given 24 (and Taylor 17 which has almost always been Armstrongs number for Scotland from memory) so a couple of reshuffles for the final number allocation, presumably Armstrong to his usual number and Taylor to 24.

 

Edited June 7 by CM.

[Butters Scotch]

9 hours ago, Highlandmagar said:

Chances are that Conway and Morgan get very lttëe game time. So they are inconquessational to our ovetall  performance in the Euros.

You're a right negative Nancy on here min, there is a very good chance they will get replaced 20 plus minutes each at the euros and make an impact. It's clear Clarke wanted attacking options in the squad so I doubt he would be taking them along if he didn't think they can bring value