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Scotland fans deserve more than this abject mediocrity cheered on by a paralysed media.

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Image for Scotland fans deserve more than this abject mediocrity cheered on by a paralysed media.

In the moment, deep, deep into injury time, when Che Adams looked to have bundled the ball across the line, Rob Maclean and Michael Stewart were both of the view that all the negative headlines and stories that otherwise might have been written could be shredded.

Just before that, Maclean said something that gave me a laugh.

He remarked that Scotland were pushing to end their winless run. He said this with a minute left of normal time and Scotland 2-1 down. What they were actually pressing for was to continue that winless run by snatching a late draw.

For a brief moment, it looked like they had.

When Michael Stewart realised it might be offside, he sounded genuinely pained.

I hate to say this, especially on a day when we’ve lost a great Scottish political titan in Alex Salmond, but I would have been more pained if that had counted. Because then we’d have had to paper over the cracks and pretend everything was fine, to pretend the winless run isn’t an embarrassment, pretend this can go on much longer.

When a club is in trouble, they can shake things up by buying new players. National teams don’t have that luxury.

When a national team is in trouble, they stay that way until they change the coaching staff. I don’t know what people expect to happen when we break this winless run. One win, and we’ll just start another poor streak.

Any credible football association would have terminated Steve Clarke the minute the Euros were over.

But instead, we’re just dragging out the national joke. All we’re doing is persisting with something that isn’t working.

The SFA is a rudderless, gutless ship.

The fact we had to watch that game on YouTube instead of BBC Scotland is an insult to the tens of thousands of Scotland fans who would otherwise have had it on the box. I blame the SFA entirely for that situation. But they’re guilty of much more than that.

They’re guilty of letting this national side regress while they sit back and do nothing.

What exactly do they see when they watch us right now? What improvements do they imagine are taking place?

What big leap forward do they think we’re taking under this manager?

Brendan Rodgers is getting hammered in the media because he won’t change our tactical approach in Europe—or he says he won’t. Is there any sign that Clarke will do that? Why is he getting such an easy ride for this stubborn, foolish stance?

No credible association would have tolerated this. And no credible media would have cheered on a late goal to secure a draw in a game we had to win.

The cringe factor has a hold of these people to the extent that they see something like that as a triumph. The fact that, had that goal stood, there would have been euphoric headlines claiming we’d achieved something incredible just infuriates me. This has to end. I’m not in favour of kicking this further down the line. He should have been sacked already, and if we don’t win the next game, then he should be fired the moment the final whistle blows.

We’re far too content in this country to settle for mediocrity. We’re far too happy with our perennial hard-luck stories. The media are loyal to their friends, not to the national interest. They like Clarke, and they think he’s a good guy.

He might well be, but whenever I hear it, I think of Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross, delivering that devastating speech to Moss; “Nice guy? I don’t give a ****. Good father? **** you! Go home and play with your kids. If you wanna work here, CLOSE.”

We don’t ask much of our national coaches, although we should.

And we should certainly ask more than we do.

But is it too much to ask that we win once in a while? That we don’t just scrape a draw by the skin of our teeth at the last possible second and celebrate like the Ibrox club did at home in the last derby there of last season?

So what of the headlines now, Rob Maclean and Michael Stewart?

Now that we haven’t snatched some kind of phony victory, which wouldn’t have been a victory at all? What now? What do we say about this continuing run of bad results? Is it finally permissible for critical articles to be written? Is it now okay to ask how much longer we have to put up with this?

Because, honestly, I’m done with it. I’m done with Steve Clarke.

You know I’m in a bad place emotionally when I’m quoting David Cameron, but here goes; “He was the future once.”

But those days are gone.

We’re on the downslope now, and when you’re on the downslope, you’ve got to pull the brakes.

We can’t change the players out there, but we can change the system, we can change the style of play, we can change the setup of this team, and we can restore some ambition and pride. None of that will happen with Clarke at the helm.

One win from the last 15 games, folks. That’s the only stat that matters.

Talk about how excellent the football has been in the last three games leaves my blood cold.

We are accepting mediocrity as if we have no choice to.

We do have a choice though, and it’s time people fronted up.

It’s long past time for a change.

Does anyone in charge of Scottish football—provided, of course, that someone is actually running Scottish football—have the guts to make it?

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16 comments

  • Brattbakk says:

    To be fair to Clarke, he’s a victim of his own success to some degree, being in the top group of the nations league but the winless streak is too much. He should go, not that I expect whoever gets the job to do much better.

    • Jim Duffy says:

      Watched the game on YouTube and according to the commentators the only player in Scottish colours was gilmour, closely followed by souttar it was embarrassing listening to McLean gushing about gilmour.

  • John mcghee says:

    We all know the corrupt SFA are a bunch of wankers and not interested in the Scottish game including the spfl they want there cheats at liebrox at the top we’re they think they should be but we all know oldco ranjurs can only won titles and cups when they cheat in the spfl and thats afact and the corrupt sfa.spfl know this cos they let them use EBT AND SIDELETTERS for years untill the police from down south bursted liebrox and found out want oldco we’re up to and guess want the corrupt sfa.spfl done nothing about the cheating titles and cups they where then liquidated 2012 leaving £165 million in debt and the corrupt still say its ranjurs so this is Scottish football at its best with clowns like Maxwell Doncaster running the sfa spfl thats why our game is a laughing stock honestly shower of masonic fuckpigs

  • SFATHETHENADIIROFCHIFTINESS says:

    The rot will persist as long as we have a parochial Football Administration that acts like the local Bowling Club Committee.

    Where ‘Meritocracy’ has been replaced by inclusion and advancement by dint of ‘Brotherly’ handshakes and short trooser legs to expose your ‘Staunch Broon Brogues’. For as long as that is the criteria that defines the organisational structure then we will get nothing but mediocrity.

    It’s the ‘Mediocrity’ that gives them the ‘Power’. No one will or can challenge them. They operate as a ‘’Closed Shop’ where any internal challenge is met with sanctions and exclusion.

    They don’t care if our International standing is in the pits. We are no threat to anyone and as long as our Clubs don’t mount a Challenge to the SFA then EUFA will turn a blind eye. They have more pressing problems in other leagues

  • DixieD says:

    I agree, however I have absolutely no faith in the SFA choosing a suitable successor! We’ll end up with Derek McInnes!!

  • Valentine's day massacre says:

    Bbc sport sound could not get off the air quickly enough….they could not stick around long enough for an interview with Steve Clark . Spending a small fortune to cover the game (our money) they were Joe the Toff toute suite…….

  • Pat says:

    I was fine with Clarke getting the job. However his anti football, insistence on bringing in mediocre players from out with Scotland and a stubborn refusal to play with wide men has done me with him.

    Hanley and McLean should be nowhere near the team. Are you telling me he has honestly scouted Gauld and Morgan ahead of players in our league? Nope. He has failed at a time when he could have brought on the national side

  • Scud Missile says:

    Lol I’m in America, just now on a wee tour of a few places,Nashville,Memphis and moving on to Vegas in the next couple of days, so it’s perfect timing once again to use my favourite saying.

    The SFA are are nickel&dime organisation with a nickel&dime manager and Scotland have nickel&dome players.

    Clark looks as dopey as Sam Dingle with that stupid glekit look on his coupon like a rabbit caught in the headlights,why that fud is still in a job poncing a coin in is a joke.

    We have now been getting beat on a regular basis than sevco,and punters are screaming for Kojak’s head so why is gumsie Clark getting it easy.

    Bag that useless James Hunt and bring in Moyes.

  • Captain Swing says:

    His dazzling future is well behind him now!!

  • Bryan Coyle says:

    Am sure Rory Hamilton was the commentator.

  • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

    I think the best time for Stevie to go would’ve been after Euro 2024…

    He’s been very good for Scotland but has probably stayed on too long –

    Will they give him a shot at Qualifying for The 2026 World Cup ? – Who knows…

    The way I am with Scotland these days – Obviously I want the country of ma birth to win…

    But I don’t lose even one minute of sleep if they don’t !

  • Billybhoy says:

    Hey guys. Live in Alabama and played all over the world at a good level. Just have a few thoughts:

    Christie n mckenna should never have another minute.

    The art of passing from forward to ch was used in euros. Ask Bulgaria. Watched us pass up our own goalies bum rather than a direct and fast move forward. No vision from back to front

    Substitutes? He leaves awful footballers on and take off our best going forward and removes forward when chasing a goal??

    Late substitutes and never removes his pet choices. See above.

    Injuries….

  • Eldraco says:

    Can someone tell me what davis brings to the front?

  • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

    Regarding the paragraph on The Late Alex Salmond (R.I.P.)

    Firstly condolences to his wife, family, and friends –

    A Heart of Midlothian fan by all accounts, he came so very close to achieving greatness for Scotland through independence and freedom for the country of my birth – tragically just falling short at the time…

    It’s up to us to keep the fight going and the young generation thankfully will…

    He made one big mistake however –

    When ‘Rangers’ as they were known as then were on life support, he suggested that they were part of the ‘fabric’ ? of Scotland and that The Excise should go easy on their ‘debts’ to The Brit Treasury – Probably it was a futile attempt to curry favour with potential fans from Liebrox to vote SNP (There are a significant amount around these shores here that do – though I doubt it’d be that way in Glasgow and Ayrshire) However I lost a helluva lot of respect for him after that though of course I still voted SNP after it and probably will until I kick the bucket as I dearly desire freedom for Scotland !

    Once again – R.I.P. Alex and thanks for your efforts in freeing the country of ma birth away from the shackles of Brit Butchers Apron Tyranny !

    • SFATHENADIROFCHIFTINESS says:

      Clach, there ARE a considerable numbers of Hun Pro Indy, if not exclusively SNP followers, if my
      personal experience in the Glasgow & Central belt area is not an outright fluke. They just don’t broadcast it
      knowing what their fellow Huns’s reactions would be.

      As an aside, did you know that the predictive text on this site give ‘Coach’ when you type in ‘Clach’

      • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

        Yeah – They’re a wee bit more open about it here SFATHENADIROFCHIFTINESS…

        Interesting that Clach comes up as ‘Coach’ – I used to teach quite a few how to drive to keep me outta the pub when I was night shift…

        Don’t think that I’d be much of a sports coach in ma old age though !

        Didn’t like The Coach journey home after three days and nights partying in and around Glasgow back in the good old days of goin to Celtic games every two weeks !

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