[dawyckstag]

Scotland to win tonight and Eire to draw with the Germans.

[Spain]

Scotland to win tonight and Eire to draw with the Germans.

Would actually suit us best, as Poland would have something to play for against Eire on Sunday.

Not a great start though.

[Spain]

I hate watching repeats. It's just the same old story every campaign isn't it?

[dawyckstag]

For the love of the wee man(and not Chic who'll just go back to his other team in blue) where do Scotland go from here? How can NI qualify with a population less than ours with a league not as good as ours?
How can the likes of Jose et al come to Largs for coaching courses yet we can't seem to produce Scottish coaches to bring through Scottish talent to benefit the Scottish national side?
We have players at County deemed not good enough for Celtic and the Highland league is littered with players whom passed through both us and ICT, if all our top teams took a chance on Scottish talent instead of raiding the English lower leagues and foreign shores would Scotland start qualifying for Euro's and World cups again?
Then again we're not alone, Holland are in danger of not qualifying as well and they generally have a better youth structure than us and although England have qualified at a canter they will again struggle against the big boys at the Euro's.
Our only consolation is we can cheer on Boycee in France next year and hopefully Jackson in Brazil!!

[IDW16]

That goal hurt.

Best atmosphere at Hampden in a long time.

[frankthetank]

Okay so a couple of days have passed since the poland match, what's people's thoughts on Gordon Strachan.

Should he be sacked/walk after the Gibraltar game on Sunday, or should he be allowed to continue and take us into the next qualifying group??

[JailendLoyal]

Okay so a couple of days have passed since the poland match, what's people's thoughts on Gordon Strachan.  

Should he be sacked/walk after the Gibraltar game on Sunday, or should he be allowed to continue and take us into the next qualifying group??

I think we've seen the best that Strachan can offer.

Great motivation, but very average tactically. His managerial record in the last 10 years is nothing special. I look at Wales in particular and look at how well Coleman has done there tactically. Finishing behind an ordinary Republic of Ireland team is disappointing.

The problem is; who would replace Strachan? I'm not sure.

[JailendLoyal]

I was initially disappointed when I saw tonight's team to face Gibraltar. I thought, "no young players in a meaningless game is poor".

Then I looked at our squad and the lack of young players is very worrying.  Hanley (23), Robertson (21), Shinnie (24) and Forrest (24) are the only players under 25. Ryan Jack (23) and Stuart Armstrong (23) should be in there. This isn't a young team that's going to improve in the next campaign, this is a pretty average squad which has peaked. Griffiths (25), Anya (27) and Ritchie (26) are all talented players at a good age aswell, but majority of the squad is in their late 20s.

I had a look at the Scotland U21 squad and there's not too many who are ready to be called up yet. Callum Paterson and Ryan Fraser are probably the two closest to being ready. The likes of Ryan Gauld, Ryan Christie, John Souttar and Jordan McGhee are all very talented with lots of potential, but it's still too early for them right now. Gauld and Christie could be ready in 12 months though.

I think for the next campaign, it's time for Strachan to rebuild the squad and start replacing the tried-and-failed players in their late 20s/early 30s and replace them with talented young players. Build the squad around the likes of Griffiths, Robertson, Anya, Hanley, Ritchie, Armstrong, Jack, McLean, Gauld and Christie.

[frankthetank]

I'm not sure if we should allow Strachan to continue, I mean what can we take from this campaign that says , "Yes wee Gordy Strachan is the man to get us into the World Cup finals in Russia"?

If we're falling short of finishing above Poland and the republic of ireland then it doesn't bode well for the next group which has Slovakia and Slovenia , two countries who have qualified for tournaments more recently than us! I'm already assuming that england will finish above us in the group, so we need to be above these two to finish second, then progress through a two legged play -off.

Usually after a campaign there is a break through player, a youngster, some chink of light but instead players like Robertson and Anya seem to have regressed!

[Forfinn]

I would ask anyone who doesn't want Strachan to continue; who could we get in that's better?

[Ross shire buff]

I would ask anyone who doesn't want Strachan to continue; who could we get in that's better?

Big Eck
Sir Alex

[Forfinn]

Big Eck
Sir Alex

Alex McLeish is out of work, but better than Strachan? I think that would be hard to prove when you compare their career stats.

Alex Ferguson would be great, but I think we can safely say he won't be interested.

[Ross shire buff]

Alex McLeish is out of work, but better than Strachan?  I think that would be hard to prove when you compare their career stats.

Alex Ferguson would be great, but I think we can safely say he won't be interested.

Me thinks Eck stat better than Strachan, plus humble with it, no sarcascim in reply, Strachan has little regard for the supporter  his  snide remark  !! When I talk to real people !! Because support don't or did not agree with his selection at times , on the other hand Eck woukd never decry the support but  hold his  hand up admit HE got it wrong ,


Who would you go for n a situation like this

[frankthetank]

I would ask anyone who doesn't want Strachan to continue; who could we get in that's better?

I know what your saying and I deliberately didn't go into the subject of who i;d like to become the new boss.

Is the lack of a decent replacement the one redeeming feature for wee Gord? 

I want to look at what has just happened, where we now are and what we know that lies ahead.

Point one, what has just happened; we've failed poorly, i mean fourth behind poland and ireland and beaten 2-0 (without a shot in anger too) against Georgia!

Point two; We have an ageing mediocre team, we ARE a team which was more than could be said under Levein.  Strachan's over reliance of celtic players has cost him in this last campaign Brown, Forrest, Mulgrew are all way over rated and should be squad players at best if indeed they are even playing well for their club team.

Point three; What we know the lies ahead, as in the World Cup qualifying group with england, slovakia, slovenia and lithuania. After failing to even get into the top three in the last group I just can't see how we can hope to get into the top two in this new group

I just don't see the fact that there isn't an obvious replacement to Strachan as a reason to reward him with an extended contract, it smacks of rewarding failure imo.

Personally I'd like to see Steve Clarke offered the job, he's a renowned top coach and has done at the highest level and without the day to day club manager stuff to deal with like the buying and selling of players I think he could do a good job.  A big plus for me would be that he has no old firm connection, so i'd hope he would pick players on merit not reputation.

[Ross shire buff]

I know what your saying and I deliberately didn't go into the subject of who i;d like to become the new boss.

Is the lack of a decent replacement the one redeeming feature for wee Gord? 

I want to look at what has just happened, where we now are and what we know that lies ahead.

Point one, what has just happened; we've failed poorly, i mean fourth behind poland and ireland and beaten 2-0 (without a shot in anger too) against Georgia!

Point two; We have an ageing mediocre team, we ARE a team which was more than could be said under Levein.  Strachan's over reliance of celtic players has cost him in this last campaign Brown, Forrest, Mulgrew are all way over rated and should be squad players at best if indeed they are even playing well for their club team.

Point three; What we know the lies ahead, as in the World Cup qualifying group with england, slovakia, slovenia and lithuania. After failing to even get into the top three in the last group I just can't see how we can hope to get into the top two in this new group

I just don't see the fact that there isn't an obvious replacement to Strachan as a reason to reward him with an extended contract, it smacks of rewarding failure imo.

Personally I'd like to see Steve Clarke offered the job, he's a renowned top coach and has done at the highest level and without the day to day club manager stuff to deal with like the buying and selling of players I think he could do a good job.  A big plus for me would be that he has no old firm connection, so i'd hope he would pick players on merit not reputation.

Did he not fail with Blackburn though ,

[frankthetank]

Did he not fail with Blackburn though ,

You could say that to almost every manager, even sir alex was sacked at st mirren.

With the Venkies or whatever they're called calling the shots at blackburn, i;d imagine it wasn't an easy manager chairman relationship. That's way i say without the day to day crap to deal with in club management Clarke could stick to the coaching and player management which he's made his name in.

But what I'm trying to get across is WHY Strachan after what's just happened, can anyone put up some positives other than the media like him??

[VanderDalgarno]

With the Venkies or whatever they're called calling the shots at blackburn, i;d imagine it wasn't an easy manager chairman relationship. That's way i say without the day to day crap to deal with in club management Clarke could stick to the coaching and player management which he's made his name in.

That's Steve Kean you're thinking of
Steve Clarke's not long in the door at Reading, and would be a decent shout other than the fact there's no way the SFA would/could match the salary on offer in the Championship, never mind any compensation due
Alex McLeish was alright in 2007, but jumped at the first big offer that came his way, and has been a total failure as a manager since. He's also currently very lucratively employed as a pundit with Al-Jazeera
There are approximately 2 million reasons why SAF won't be taking the job were it to become available
If we do lose Strachan, a long red-haired, tough-tackling midfield tyro in his playing days, it wouldn't be a huge surprise if the SFA simply promoted Stuart McCall, a long red-haired, tough-tackling.....oh

[Iker]

I think a lot of people are also underappreciating the fact Ireland picked up 4 points against Germany.

If Germany won both games against the Irish (which they should have), we would have finished third and Strachan would have done no wrong.

Strachan has had one full campaign. Give him the World Cup qualifiers and then take it from there.

People shouldn't expect a manager to suddenly come in and instantly revitalise the current crop of players we have. Look at how long Coleman and O'Neill have been in their respective jobs, at least a year longer than Strachan.

We also don't have the luxury of picking world class players (Wales, not Northern Ireland). If Mackay-Steven/Anya/whoever suddenly turned into the world's most expensive player, then we could give him a free role and work around that, but we do not have anything close to that and won't for at least 5-10 years.

[frankthetank]

I've nothing against Strachan and I'll fully support and wish the best to him or whoever else gets the job, I'm Scottish and been a tartan army member for years.

I've just never before seen so much apathy for our national team after a failed qualifying campaign.

If Strachan was in a job interview for the Scotland managers job, would his point of selling himself to his employers be that although he couldn't finish above Ireland or poland, he's the guy to get us above Slovakia and Slovenia. And there's no point trying anyone else as they're all rubbish? 

I believe that we can and should be better than fourth behind Ireland and I'm not convinced Strachan can do that!

[Ross shire buff]

I've nothing against Strachan and I'll fully support and wish the best to him or whoever else gets the job, I'm Scottish and been a tartan army member for years.

I've just never before seen so much apathy for our national team after a failed qualifying campaign.

If Strachan was in a job interview for the Scotland managers job, would his point of selling himself to his employers be that although he couldn't finish above Ireland or poland, he's the guy to get us above Slovakia and Slovenia. And there's no point trying anyone else as they're all rubbish? 

I believe that we can and should be better than fourth behind Ireland and I'm not convinced Strachan can do that!

Is that including Strachan Very Strong word Rubbish  Frank ,tye way it panned out one could say anyone could Do better than Strachan his 2nd in command takes up a post with Motherwell and already knows If Strachan takes up the post ,he will,still be2nd in command. Naw Frank clean sheet ,let's put job out for tender no old firm connections need apply