Earlier in the week, I wrote that the worst thing about the Billy Gilmour love-in was the certain knowledge that having heaped all that hope on his shoulders that the hacks would not be prepared to give him a hard time if he flopped and Scotland went out.
It seems natural to assume that if you’ve made one player the focal point of all the optimism that if it proves groundless that you should blame him for it. There was no chance of that here.
He didn’t flop; let’s be honest here. He wasn’t brilliant, but no-one else was either. Still, there was to be no criticism of him in much of the mainstream press. There was one exception, and I’ll get to it in due course, and it might well come as a surprise to regular readers when they find that I’m praising someone I don’t normally single out for much of that.
In their need to find scapegoats, and with the certainty that Gilmour was untouchable, they focussed on the ones within reach; Ralston got it in the neck from Jackson, still repeating his idiotic idea that we could have played James Forrest in his position instead. Did he not watch what happened to McLean playing out of position? We’d have turned the Swiss draw into a defeat and ending hope against the Hungarians long before the final minute.
The real sniping was focussed on McGregor, with one outlet even promoting the idea that John McGinn had singled him and Ralston both out for special criticism. If McGinn was going to be critical, I could suggest starting in the mirror, but the story is just nonsense anyway. It’s selective use of TV footage and still photography to manufacture something out of nothing. He probably expressed his frustration at everyone in a Scotland shirt.
It’s a pretty underhanded way of operating though, like the hacks saying “Look! We’re not the ones blaming the Celtic players, that was John McGinn …” It doesn’t stink any less. In fact, it’s gutless. I’d prefer it if they just stuck their necks out and blamed our guys openly rather than resort to this sort of cowardly tactic.
Others, like McCoist, want to overlook the startling decision not to offer game-time to James Forrest, and focus on Shankland. I agree with him on one point; bringing Shankland on for Adams instead of putting him up front with him was ridiculous and speaks to the stupidity of the Scotland tactical plan … but Forrest is a far better player than Shankland will ever be.
The whole tournament was a disaster, and it is only natural that there is a lot of blame-casting in the aftermath of it. The manager failed to put together a coherent plan and we paid for it. Blaming it on individual players is for the birds; no combination of footballers could have made that system better than it was, and that’s my genuine belief. Look again at those horror stats from yesterday; four shots on target over three games. That’s atrocious.
But the truth is, a lot of these players aren’t as good as a lot of people in the media seem to think and it’s amazing to me that the best sense has come from one of the people I frequently criticise. Ewan Murray’s writing during the Euros has been first rate.
In his latest piece, entitled “Scotland exit with a whimper amid worrying questions about team’s future” he echoed one of the concerns I expressed yesterday; our lack of a top player at the top end of the pitch. But as he points out, the malaise runs much deeper. You look at the SPFL right now and you cannot see where the next crop of decent international players is coming from. We’re in a much bigger crisis here than one revealed by one bad tournament.
The most impressive section of the piece was this one;
“Scotland’s success or otherwise in Germany depended so heavily on the form of John McGinn and Scott McTominay. Both will surely admit to being short of their best. Yet this reliance is in itself damning. It is the reason so many Scots want to portray Billy Gilmour as something he will never be: a gamechanger. If Lawrence Shankland is the underutilised striking sensation many say he is, umpteen managers beyond Clarke are wrong given there have been no offers to Hearts for the forward.”
This cuts right through the nonsense which proliferates elsewhere. Gilmour will “never be” a “gamechanger” he says, rightly in my view, and considering Murray is a Hearts fan that realist’s verdict on Shankland could not be more savage.
There are times when you remember that Murray is writing for a real newspaper, and that he’s surrounded by next-level sports writers there. This is not a guy slumming at a Glasgow tabloid surrounded by purveyors of clickbait, and his analysis often reflects that.
When he goes on in the piece to criticise Celtic and the Ibrox club (who he rightly point out “should be embarrassed” by having no representation in the national team) it is hard not to recognise the truth in what he’s saying; we certainly don’t produce enough quality from the academy. That he caps his critique by pointing out that ourselves and Hearts send our kids to play in a league of ploughed fields he could not hit closer to dead centre if he was using a laser sight.
“There is nothing by way of joined-up thinking,” he says, and this cannot be denied.
When people were criticising this blog for my anger at the idea that we should make Jonny Hayes our Under 18 manager, I was astounded at the inability some people had in understanding why I considered that a ridiculous decision. We require someone with the experience and strategic vision to chart an over-arching strategy or we’re going to continue being stuck in the mud. That “joined up thinking” has never been more necessary, and that’s why I hope when we do make that announcement that we’ve got it absolutely right.
It was refreshing to read a piece which got to the root causes of this and didn’t just blame the manager or the players. It was even more interesting to read one that shattered two of the prevailing myths, the one about Gilmour and the one about Shankland.
Let others play their wee games. There are still people out there who want to find answers and dig into what has gone wrong with the bigger picture. That way lies something like hope.
Everybody has their own ideas on what shouldve been done, tho as this article points out, the 3 match stats are shockin. Jackson actually referred tae gilmour today as ‘talismatic’. Since when ? As ah think everybody agrees, gilmour has talent, tho the unmerited praise the likes of this gushin idiot heaps on him is embarrassin.
Gilmour is the sort of player who looks very good when the calibre of player around him is much higher than it is a Scotland level. He is basically just the center of pass network in human form… a press resistant out ball that always finds a teammate but he’s not Modric and it’s unfair to treat him as such.
Shankland might have had an impact if utilised properly but he wasn’t.
I like Forrest but I have no idea why Clarke took him as he has literally never fielded a winger in a Scotland jersey… same applies to Doak. Gauld can play centrally and has been consistently excellent in Portugal and The US for 3 years now… why wasn’t he looked at?
McGregor didn’t play well against Germany but nobody did so criticism of him is a bit unfair.
You definitely noticed that Ralston hadn’t played all season in the first 2 games… he tried hard but was definitely culpable against the Swiss and suffered quite a bit against both them and the Germans. If we had no right backs a new system should have been found to mitigate the issue maybe.
The common denominator behind many of the failures and one person Murray levelled almost no criticism at at all was his mate Clarke in my opinion.
Clarke has done a decent job getting a mediocre squad back to position where it can believe in itself but he’s the most tactically one dimensional coach I’ve ever seen.
That he learned absolutely nothing from the Northern Ireland friendly in March is particularly damning. His system that he is so satisfied at himself for creating to shoehorn two left backs into the team is absolutely useless against a low block. We don’t have forwards that are good enough at turning in tight spaces to play through the middle and we don’t have wide forward that can hug the touchline high up the pitch to stretch the defence and are left with no way through.
It was clear how that Hungary game would finish from 5 minutes in. No criticism at all for the manager for this or the awful subs he made either.
The players aren’t great but they have got some great results in the last 3 years… they aren’t all rubbish either… Rubbish teams don’t beat Norway, Ukraine and Spain.
Teams have just cottoned on to our system in the last year and it doesn’t work at this level anymore. The failure to recognise this has to fall on Clarke. We haven’t beaten a serious opponent in almost a year and nothing has changed in personnel or tactics in that time. Judging by his reaction he isn’t going to be reflecting on his own performance though.
He needs to go now with his head held high. He has achieved a lot but he is too stubborn and change is drastically needed.
Recently the lack of players from our academy graduating to the first team is disappointing, CalMac and Jamesie are approaching the veteran stage> Other than those two the only players in the 1st team squad that came through the academy, are fringe players like Mikey Johnston[if he’s still here], Tony Ralston and Stephen Welsh and none of them are young boys. Daniel Kelly looks as if he could make the breakthrough, that is if Celtic can agree a future contract with him.
Celtic and to be fair The Rangers seem to be running their Academies to supply the rest of Scottish Football with players, most of them playing with bottom half SPFL teams or lower League teams. You do wonder what’s the point if there are no players making the breakthrough, and EPL and European teams are even luring your most promising young players away at an early age.
With the new facilities at Barrowfield I would hope that there is a noticeable increase of young players making the breakthrough in the future.
Scotland is rotten and that’s afact they are not good enough and for the Masonic media who always jump on Celtic players to blame they ought to open there blue tinted eyes and start writing the truth the journalist in this country are just scum cowards scared to write the truth incase the union scum go after them dirty low life cowards the media rats..
The other night, my wife, who does not have much interest in football, asked why “smaller” nations like Denmark, Slovenia and Croatia produce much better teams than Scotland.
My response was simple. These countries have football governing bodies which work hard to develop and support the sport at all levels but in Scotland we have the SFA.
Spot on when you have said no CFs coming through. Not much coming through at all.
A Point I have made on many blogs. Football is not a winter sport in Scotland. I coached boys team for 10 seasons in all weather, all manner of atrocious surfaces and it is ridiculous we are not shifting to playing football when the playing surfaces are, well playable.
The council run parks are a disgrace. cut every 3 weeks and the grass left on top. Park lining non existent or at best done with a guy with a hangover. Sports centre’s shutting so no indoor options when training is not possible outside. Cost for pitches thru the roof.
What happened to the think tanks and money for grass roots football from the SFA a decade or more ago??
All the best sides in the world have a nice climate to play in. We haven’t got that luxury in this country, our football changes with climate, the ball skill levels change when we are playing in hail on water logged pitches. I have played against teams from many countries usually they have an age advantage which is significant in younger boys BUT their focus is on playing the ball, movement, strategy coached into them so that the end score is not the ultimate target but player progress is.
We are needing a major overhaul and a bold move to playing when the weather isn’t shoite. More fans would go to matches on a nice summer night. More boys would turn up to their team’s games when it’s not -4 at 9am on a Sunday morning.
More players would be coached to have more ability, simple as that just my thoughts.
On Scotland, better Scotland teams than the one we put out have failed to qualify. Move on.
The SFA old Boys network are not fit for purpose. SPL management are very similarly, Inept. But nothing changes in Scotland it’s a closed shop.
Totally agree about Gilmour, I actually think Christie was treated poorly. After 10 minutes of the Germany game, what would happen in the remaining 2 and a bit games was obvious. Shankland should’ve got a proper chance because we couldn’t have been worse. The players aren’t great and the tactics done them no favours. At least we got there I suppose
I’m concerned from a Celtic point of view as we are failing to bring through our own youth players, or players we have spotted from other clubs. In recent seasons, Brown, Griffiths, Armstrong and Christie have all developed to some level or other at Celtic and then with Scotland. MacGregor at 31 and Forrest won’t play in another tournament, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both don’t announce retirement. In MacGregors case, where he has been unfairly castigated, I will be surprised if he doesn’t. Of course there is Greg Taylor and Anthony Ralston, but neither are going to win regular caps going forward. As a club we need to start unearthing good Scottish players for us first, such as Hickey, Doig even Ferguson and give them the European experience that can help the national team. We are spending far too much time and development on “gems” and projects and neglecting those closer to home.
Great points and great post JimBhoy
From my own perspective ……….
Beyond nurturing the youth we then hit a brick wall from pro youth and B teams to make the jump to first team.
Reserve team football has to return to give the non playing first team squad games to stay match fit and to give the youngsters a chance to play a proper game with experienced pros/first teamers returning from injury.
The jump from B team to first team is simply too big.
Also with fans now having the patience of a five year old being told no sweeties today, then how on earth do managers take the risk of blooding these youngsters for fear of them being overly criticised or dropping points or being dumped out the league cup (the tired old excuse I get is “play the youngsters in the league cup” yeah and if we lose in early rounds these same oracles will do their nut)
It also doesn’t help that some of our youngsters get seduced by more money down south or annroad before they have proved annything and they disappear into obscurity there instead of being patient.
We need to do all we can to improve opportunities though and everything must be looked at including government funding.
I think we all know the reasons for Scotland flatlining so frequently.
It can all be traced back to 2012, the SFA and their links to whatever regime is in charge of the Crumbledome.
Cue Conspiracy Theory… woooohh.
They, The SFA, have abrogated responsibility for the game below the SPFL Level.
The problem is that the lower leagues struggle to keep the game alive with the pittance they get from the SFA’s Sponsors, their own gate money and what little local Sponsorship they can muster themselves.
The SFA has no intention of developing the game at the lower end of the leagues.
The money that the SFA receives from the Scottish Taxpayer through the Scottish Government Grants never reaches the Schools, Junior and Youth leagues for which it was intended. It is absorbed into the SFA’s coffers and disappears.
It’s the reason that any promising youngsters are identified early by the English Scouts. The youngsters realise they have little or no chance of making it if they go the Academy route at the SPFL. The standard of Coaching, Facilities, Sports Science and Grounds in the lower leagues is a bar to the beneficial development of our young players.
So you might ask why do the lower leagues not challenge the SFA on this lack of positive investment in the game ?
The first thing we have to ask is who owns and runs the Clubs at this lower level?
We Celtic fans know from bitter, historical experience that when people / peepul say that Scotland is a Protestant Country they are not necessarily speaking solely about religion. The latest Census shows that the majority of People in Scotland do not see themselves as or belonging to any particular religion. However the ‘Protestant Work Ethic/ is still alive and flourishing in local, family owned businesses up and down the land and is reflected in the makeup of Chairmen and Directors at the lower league Clubs. You would tend to find that, in no particular order that they owed their position due to the fact that their father previously owned the Club and now it was their turn. Or that they were the epitome of the local Businessmen who made good and who now wanted the Club as a vanity symbol.
These people are realists. They know that they are not going to transform the ( Forfar 5 East Fife 4) of this world into the top of the Leagues as a challenge to Celtic, Aberdeen , Hibs or Hearts. ( we’ll come to the Tribute Act after they have sorted out their ground capacity issues).
Local businessmen rely on networks to develop their businesses. Scotland has a unique ready made network ‘peepulled’ by brothers who are only too happy to assist a fellow brother.
As well as assisting each other they are reluctant to allow the SFA any more oversight than they actually have to. It also helps in that this ‘Network’ is also viewed by some as a stepping stone to the ‘Greasy Pole’ that leads to a well rewarded sinecure in the Offices at Hampdump. Don’t believe me? Well just look at the numpties from Maxwell, Petrie downwards. If that is the best they can offer then they truly are taking the piss with us.
Small, narrow minded, insular, culturally Racist and Sectarian. That’s the Games Administrators ‘ in the best wee bigoted Kuntry inra wurld’. They are supported by this networking fraternity. Unless, or until the owners and Directors of the Clubs outwith the SPFL push for change then nothing will happen, ever.
The blame lies squarely with clark,who’s strategy and team selection was baffling to say the least,playing tippy tap football in our own half and one striker up front in a must win game. Scotland teams of yester year would have laid siege on their opponents and went down fighting. This squad is burnt out and so is clark, time for change.
Whatever happened to them since they qualified for the competition??
Every match since has been absolutely shocking.
It’s not like any player played at all…. everyone of them has played crap.
Managers are fault 1000000000% at end of the day!!!!!
He should’ve been sacked after Israel game ?????
Aged 10-15 some 40-45 years ago in my estate EVERYONE including the girls were out in green grassy spaces straight after school and were there until darkness playing all manner of football…
Thereafter it was under a wee tarred triangle inside a car park boundary wall with ‘floodlights’ (street lights) until 10pm…
I simply don’t see it happening whatsoever nowadays anywhere around these shores…
Ok our lot had at 15 part time jobs at holidays and weekends and we got alcoholics to get us cans of lager and whisky to drink in a disused Esso pump house with music in ghetto blasters and snogging and fingering and drinking took over from the football but the fact is we did play it for years even though nobody came near the grades to progress !
Far too many TV channels and far too must play station nowadays and far too much Netflix as well me thinks !
Please re watch the Hungary game. Look at the so called captain of Scotland, and how he never wanting the ball past to him. Pointing to pass back, even with no op player near him. How we missed KT in that game. To me he was our weakest link till near the end. But the hacks would never say anything about him,