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Handsome22Devil

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  1. Managed to miss the home end sales so if anyone bought a couple yet also succeeds through the SSC I'd happily take two that turn out spare.
  2. Does anyone know anywhere in Porto I could watch the game on Saturday? Cheers.
  3. Interesting because I would take the completely opposite view - to me there is absolutely no point in making a long-term appointment. We're in a unique situation firstly because of how the new play-offs work and then because of how Euro 2020 - and only this edition - works if we make it. Given how football changes you can never say never but it will probably be generations before we have such a structural advantage to do this well again. The success or failure of our next manager will be defined exclusively on winning or losing the play-offs. Nothing else. (We obviously don't have a prayer of finishing ahead of Belgium and tbh even knocking off Russia would be a big shock). So we don't need anyone to develop youngsters or who has a long-term vision - indeed, if such a manager exists and is available, there's a strong case to be made for not risking him in two all or nothing play-offs. We need the best internationally experienced coach we can afford, on a contract to April 1, 2020, with an extension to July if we win the play-offs. Realistically this means a foreigner - Bilic, Dardai, whoever, take your pick. Fail and we pick a long-term option in April next year, succeed and we pick the long-term option three months later. Whoever got us there would obviously be welcome to apply but it would be a different job description - they may not be interested or suitable. Sadly, however, I have as little confidence of the SFA in getting this appointment right any other!
  4. A good manager would definitely do that if he was sure the newcomer was better. Sadly the chances of us attracting and picking a manager that good is 50-50 and there's no guarantee the newcomer would succeed in proving anything... Anyway, it's been a fun way to kill a boring afternoon at work...laters guys.
  5. The strength of England is achieved by a handful of teams spending hundreds of millions...those below are technically inferior to the equivalent elsewhere. If I could bestow Scottish nationality on any random from the middle of the pack in these countries, an EPL player would be a bad choice. I absolutely did not miss that narrow win over 10 men but if you're adding up evidence it's somewhat outweighed by the absolute skull- we got over there and the respective Euro 2016 campaigns. And the minor fact they finished above us, should you wish to count this year - though that's getting away from the fact we started on why I thought they'd finish above us at the start of the campaign.
  6. Fairynuff, in contrast I'd say you're doing the classic Scottish thing of believing Sky's marketing of the Premier League, outside the top clubs it's complete dross. On technical ability I would take average Bundesliga players over average EPL players for our international team any day of the week. Slovakia are no better than us if you ignore all the evidence which says they're better than us. Righto.
  7. I really didn't think we'd make it...why on earth would you? We'd just finished fourth in Euro qualifying and were up against a Slovakia squad which reached the last 16 having beaten Spain, Russia and drawn with England. They have a centre-half with 200-plus games for Liverpool, a world class guy on the verge of becoming Napoli's top-scorer and various other players from Serie A, the Bundesliga and now a bloke in La Liga. You honestly thought we were likely to finish ahead of them? McGinn may or may not have been better than Bannon (and like you I'd have started him) but it was a marginal call, one of dozens made over the course of a campaign...and Martin's goal against Slovenia in March kept us alive after Griffiths started and missed an almost empty net. Time and time again we build up the players not playing because we have so many interchangable average faces...remember the incessant demand for Fletcher to replace Miller? Then he gets ditched and the demand is for someone else...there will no doubt be someone called upon to replace Griffiths shortly which will work everyone up into a frenzy for a few months again.
  8. This sums up my position almost entirely. For perspective, we're giving serious thought to sacking a manager after our best qualifying campaign in a decade and - apparently - our best run of form since the 1990s because we missed a play-off virtually no one thought we could make by one goal/point. Someone like McInnes would be beyond mental to leave Aberdeen and his seemingly safe path to England to bet his reputation on Scotland. Strachan has made plenty of mistakes but some of the elevating of the non-picked players in this situation is ridiculous. I expected to see John McGinn on the Ballon d'Or shortlist from reading some comments and it's completely forgotten Griffiths couldn't hit a barn door for Scotland prior to June - he missed a gimmie v Lithuania, a one v one in Slovakia and an open goal against Slovenia. Oh, and it's also almost universally acknowledged we do not have a single proven centre-back good enough for the level we wish to play at. So by all means weigh up the pros and cons and if you decide Strachan should go, fair do's...but the case is not nearly as clear cut as many suggest. And I'd ask what gives you any confidence at all the SFA will pick the right man this time rather than another Burley or Levein? This is a group who ignored Lagerback - a man whose CV was dominated by finals reached with a modest country - for a guy whose career highlight was par performances with Hearts and Dundee United... After the blow of being knocked out, the cry can always be made for change because it can't get any worse - and I did that myself under the last two jokers - but it can. One thing for certain, it's going to be a long 11 months.
  9. Utter nonsense because we have so few "very good" players the notion any of them wouldn't be included is ridiculous. We have, at a generous push, one or two "very good" players by the standard of international football. A few better than average perhaps but little more and essentially we're spoiled by average choices...if you'd offered anyone the chance of a play-off being in our own hands going into the last game in August 2016 you'd have taken it. I don't love Strachan by any means, and indeed would have punted him last autumn, but he's done the job required from nine games. Whether he makes it 10...we'll see.
  10. It's impossible to say before the next two games...if we get the play-offs (assuming we don't do a Berti when there) it'll be up to him. If the next two are a disaster, I think it will be hard to justify him staying. The middle point is, say, if we play well v Slovakia but are robbed due to a dodgy decision, then beat Slovenia anyway. We've seen the grass isn't always greener and with the first list of pros and cons being pretty fair, there is very, very little to suggest there's 1) an obvious better replacement, 2) the SFA are capable of a successful innovative appointment. So all in all, unless we get horsed coming up, the fact he is - by far, it's not even close - our best manager since McLeish will keep him in the gig for another campaign if he wants it for me.
  11. I love a bit of mindless optimism as much as the next person and only wish I shared the hope we could still do it but we're done, it's just not going to happen. Beating Lithuania at home or holding on against England wouldn't have had us on easy street right now but failure to do so means we have absolutely no margin for error in what's left. We'll beat Malta of course but other three remaining games are 50/50s...so realistically we need to win one massive away game to set up the next massive game and win that to get into a massive must win (or at best must not lose) decider away from home. And if anyone sees any evidence, rather than mere wishful thinking, that we can go on a run like that, they've not been watching the same campaigns as they rest of us. It is much more likely it will be over after Lithuania than the comeback be on...we've managed two goals there in six hours of football, winning once in four attempts. We haven't won a meaningful (Croatia, impressive as it was, was a dead rubber for us by then) game away to anyone other than absolute dross since Iceland in 2008 (and that was well before they were actually good, they took only five points in that campaign). We can analyse everything for the fun of it and argue the toss over the manager or which average player we stick in most positions but until we get two centre-backs from outside our current group up to something approaching the required level, we are going absolutely nowhere.
  12. Nah, I'll be watching from home (Köpenick) rather than heading in, got a three-month-old little man now which makes it a bit too much hassle atm.
  13. The Oscar Wilde on Friedrichstraße will show it - a right shithole but also right in the middle of town so could be convenient. The Irish Harp is giant barn just off Ku'damm, they'll have it. The Lir just along from Bellevue S-Bahn/U-Hansaplatz is probably the nicest of the Irish pubs, they'll be showing it and do good food as well. And I imagine Belushis at Rosa Luxemburg Platz is another option - they used to do good pub food too though I've not been there for years.
  14. Jürgen Klinsmann could well be available soon...Los Angeles or Lochee, hmm...
  15. McLeish also dismantled the best Motherwell team in generations, left to confirm Hibs' relegation, took Birmingham down etc. He seems to frequently do an incredible job when he arrives before tailing off - I've no doubt he'd boost us short-term if he returned but whether he'd be a long-term solution I'm less convinced. Anyway. It's hard not to think Michael O'Neill would be the good candidate if interested but I really don't see why he'd want to ditch NI for Scotland - the risk/reward ratio on that move for him would seem massively skewed against us. I'd also be happy if we gave it to Anna Signuel but I doubt that's realistic either. It's worth remembering that a lack of viable replacements was one of the main reasons the SFA were happy GS decided to stay in 2015. We're now all but out of the World Cup so if we're going to tempt a foreigner to lead a diabolical team into semi-meaningless games until late 2018, we're going to have hand out a very generous contract - does anyone trust the SFA to get that right? Strachan, for all his flaws, is still by far the best of the last three coaches they've picked! So with that in mind, I'm not actually in a rush to have Strachan punted...he clearly needs to go before the next Euro campaign starts but taking time to get the right decision and even waiting for changes in the managerial market - most likely next spring/summer - would seem preferable to a new marriage in haste just for the sake of it.
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