No Scotland, no loss
Sad but true
Hello
As I write this a spirited Iran have almost beaten Egypt but their draw now leaves Scotland with a 0.07% chance of reaching the next round. Cape Verde are through too, a tremendous feat which destroys this idea peddled by Steve Clarke and his believers that Scotland faced an impossible task with the draw. Some teams rise to the challenges, some shy away from it. Under Clarke, Scotland have shit the bed in their last three tournaments. Lessons have not been learned. . His post match demeanour and behaviour have left a lot to be desired. Despite the ill advised contract extension I think it’s time to part ways. There are a bunch of mid 30s players who should be collectively saying goodbye to international football now. A fresh start is needed with fresh ideas, positivity, a style of play and a structure in place. We may not be neck deep in great players but we’ve got a few and a proper coach can make a team greater than the sum of its parts as we are seeing elsewhere in the tourney.
What’s your take on Steve Clarke and why?
The World Cup really comes alive when the knockouts start on Sunday night. I’m dead excited for this round of 32 coming up and am going to attempt to watch them all so look out for daily souped up turbo charged editions of the newsletter from Monday.
Domestic front
There’s been some happenings in club football as teams return from holiday for preseason training.
The Rangers club shop is now selling this beautiful leather attaché case bound in pure Derek McInnes hide. Grab yourself one before they sell out.
On a serious note Derek really does need to lay off the sunbeds. It’s not healthy and sends a terrible message to young supporters who will be nagging their parents to take them to the nearest Tanz.
Through his own admission Derek had no hand in recruitment at Bloomhearts as Jonestown Analytics did all the heavy lifting. Now that he’s a manager at Rangers rather than a Head Coach his little black contact book has been returned to him.
Whilst the Rangers minded media is absolutely frothing over McInnes like he’s the second coming of Walter Smith (he’s not), Del’s minuscule contact book has landed, erm, Ross McCrorie. There’s a theme developing here already - to get back to the staunch era we hire folk that the club didn’t want before. Derek was absolutely rejected by the fans in 2017, Shankland not deemed the right buy last season, McCrorie farmed out and sold to Aberdeen. It’s a Back to the Future set up to rival Martin O’Neill’s comeback story.
Talking of which, after lowballing Martin’s coaching staff the band is finally back together at Lennoxtown.
In order to cover the cost Celtic have binned half of the women’s team and moved their home games to a community centre.
Bloomhearts are free from the shackles of Leatherface, the nearly man of Scottish football. Now Tony Bloom is free to go full Jonestown with his new appointment.
Lo and behold - here comes the Belgian!
Wouter Vranckenstein comes with a nice line in regular denim jeans and a decent track record in Belgian football. The fact that we’ve never heard of him is a sure sign he’s the right man for the job. I truly believe Bloomhearts are in a better place without McInnes.
Another new man in place at Motherwell - it’s Alfred Johansson! He’s only 35 you know.
Same playing style, different hair. That’s the Alfred sales pitch. I hope he’s right.
Finally, we head to Pundit Club which has been enjoying its wee holiday but is back for pre-season training. There was some brilliant news for the Club and for anyone subjected to his brutal punditry as Stephen Craigan has taken on a coaching role at Aberdeen.
I doubt many Dons fans are celebrating. I remember early last season when Craigan bemoaned Askou’s easy on the eye football as he was getting draws rather than wins. Clearly Stephen likes his hoofball which would marry nicely with fan fears that Stephen Robinson is going to make Aberdeen very difficult to watch. The one guarantee is that the players will be doing plenty of ’hard yards’ in training. Crags loves those hard yards. What a honking appointment.
Right then. Back to the World Cup on Sunday night. Really excited to be going full Row Z for the rest of the tourney.
Cheer
Keith
A man who plays with the handbrake on, the anchor dropped, the engine off and with the batteries removed all at the same time isn't who I want in charge of the team. He makes Gareth Southgate look like Big Ange.
Shame that McInnes took Rangers job his ability to finish second would have seen us through to the knock outs
Should have been sacked after his first Euros. Tournaments have never been easier to qualify and all this nonsense that he is our most successful manager ever is just down to a poor understanding of maths. The most arrogant uninspiring negative manager ever and I look forward to supporting Scotland again when he is gone.