Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v St Mirren - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - May 18, 2024 Celtic's Callum McGregor arrives at the stadium before the match REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
Watching Scotland is not like watching paint dry. There are differences.
But there are similarities too.
Paint dries much more quickly than some of our defenders move.
The stuff itself is often thick, but not as thick as the average ex—Ibrox studio pundit.
Today it was the turn of Kenny Miller. Watching them watching as our players hoist trophies into the air is mildly amusing.
The rest of the time they are just irritating.
The game was terrible. I was not impressed in the least. Scotland are a really poor side to watch at times. You know what a lot of those times have in common?
The times when Callum McGregor isn’t in the side. There was a spell last season when some of the pro-Ibrox Twatterati had suggested that he might “struggle” to get back into the midfield after he’d been out with an injury … a couple of rank rotten performances later, without him, that was held up as the stupidity we all thought it was.
This evening, Scotland benched him. Don’t get me wrong, I’m on the record here as saying that I’m always glad when the man gets an extended break. But that midfield was a shadow itself without his drive and his energy in it. I cannot believe the talk in the media this past week about Ryan Jack; I will be astounded if the ex-Ibrox player gets a kick in competition football. The beating heart of this Scotland side is the guy it’s always been.
Callum didn’t feature in any player of the year lists this time around; they couldn’t wait to give the award to Shankland, and I am not really arguing with that, but Tavernier appeared on those lists as well and that’s a joke considering how completely McGregor ran those games against them where he was fit and on it. He’s almost always on it.
I would prefer we had no players at this tournament, but I will be cheering on the guys who are and it’s obvious that none of them is more important than our captain is.
Some in the media have been in denial about this for a long time, but without him this Scotland team does not stand a chance. They spend a lot of their time, of course, praying for Ibrox to develop a midfield general who can stand up to him, and the rest of their team acting as if he’s somehow inferior to those in the Scotland squad who play south of the border.
The thing is, McGregor is better than all of them.
And when he is not in this team his absence stands out a mile.
Here’s a point for debate James, on our main man McGregor. Who is better, him or McGinn? I know who I’d rather have.
Celtic do not owe the sfa any favours,I would have been more than happy if no Celtic player was in the Scotland squad.
This team will be lucky to win a game,never mind winning a point.
Big embarrassment on the way.
For those Scotland fans that are going to Germany, I hope they have a good old time and get well pished and get back to Scotland safe n’ sound…
But the thought of the likes of the bent, corrupt, and dishonest mob from The SFA and The SPFL lording it over there and leaching it thanks to the hard work of the likes of Cal-Mac makes me feel like spewing bucket after bucket of vomit like I did on Cal-Mac (The Ferry that is And not our esteemed captain) !
Like I say, I wish the Scotland fans well and as an ardent independence supporter, I wish the team good luck as well…
But not the sleazy crooked con-men though !
Certainly the whole team looked a bit ponderous without him last night. I know it was a warm night in Faro and that probably affected things, but Gibraltar are a very very poor team, this should’ve been a cakewalk.
Clarke’s team is better in competitive games than friendlies, but I expected more last night. Calmac’s absence may well have been a part of it. Though I also thought golden boy Shankland was awful.
@ the joker,so do I mate I’d love the Germans to take at least 5 off them,plus get pumped by the other 2 in the group and Celtic players home injury free.
This is one of the reasons I don’t understand why Calum is underestimated as a player.
I go to the Scotland games and watched him boss the midfield against Denmark and Spain in qualifying group matches. Our other midfielders such as McGinn, Gilmour and McTominay all look up to Calum as he’s the beating heart of the National side just as he is the Celtic side.
Lat night was no more than a training match though, to get minutes in the players legs and get them back on the field together. We didn’t have to start with Calum as we know exactly what he brings, but you could see a massive improvement when he came on.
I’ll be in Germany cheering on Calum and the rest of the Scottish Team, regardless of the numpties at the SFA and SPFL, I would never let them stop me from supporting my country in a major tournament.
Hopefully we have a good tournament and put in a good performance . I don’t think we will win any of our games unfortunately . So it will be interesting who gets slated for their efforts. I agree with the point someone made that our players (Celtic ) are a easy target and looked on as inferior to the ones who play in other leagues wherever that may be.