Steve Clarke ....... bad decision?

[stoneyburn hibs]

He has to be given time to turn our fortunes. We're hopeless just now but I think we have the players to perform much better, and certainly against teams like Russia.
The only concern I have is his constant chopping and changing of the starting eleven. He should have somewhat a fair idea of his first picks by now.

[Here’s Lucy!]

He’s not a great manager and he’s not a poor manager.

It’s the fact that Scotland has some absolutely rank footballers at its disposal that is the problem.

Mulgrew

[cad]

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We've been 5hit for pretty much 20 years, arguably longer. There's no sign of improvement or the hope of improvement. Our game is broken because its structure, management and purpose is focussed primarily on the interests of two teams, secondarily on the interests of the larger minnows around those teams - and in any event it can't even properly shape its top league in the best interests of the wider game.

The two top teams - top because they are bloated and dominant due to their sectarian history and its contemporary pan-Scottish catchment area which no other teams have - can't improve themselves or their players past a glass ceiling imposed by the lack of serious competition in our premier league. The two top teams also won't share resources on a fairer basis in order to allow those other teams to provide more meaningful competion. Catch 22. This gives us a game which TV deals will only fund to a relatively minor level because the only games they really want to cover involve the two top teams - because other teams are not seen as serious challengers so the tv advertising audience is largely followers of the Ugly Sisters,. Neutrals don't watch in large enough numbers to fuel the advertising revenues and never will because, again, the league is rightly seen as a two-horse race plus also-rans.

There's a cancer at the heart of our game. It doesn't care about Scottish football, it just cares about dominance within Glasgow, nurturing its own monopolistic tribal rivalry, the mind numbing meaninglessness of getting to or stopping 10 in a row and sustaining its position as two bigger fish in a tiny pond. All the action plans, all the grand ambitions, all the supposed innovation, all the demand for change will always, always, always break on the rocks of pleasing these two teams and the governing body that protects them. The need to serve their interests will inevitably mean compromising, undermining,diverting or delaying any substantive change that threatens their vested interests directly or indirectly.

It is unfix-able and it literally cannot be turned around.

Steve Clarke isn't to blame, he's just the latest fall guy.

Excellent post, had about 10 paragraphs but could be arsed mate suffice to say Steve Clark is a good manager I question his sanity in taking the job in the first place but thats for another day ..If you look at the Scotland job as a monopoly board how many "Get Out Of Jail Free Cards" over the years has the SFA used it cant always be the manager .????
30 years plus of diddly how do you do that, no improvement in 30 years and I mean zip zero nothing heehaw XXXX all with no light at the the end of a very very long in fact a never ending tunnel,to say its not looking good is an understatement .,I cant see Scotland qualifying for anything in the next 50 years we are not geared up for it ,its all very asking well asking Iceland Belgium and Afghanistan how they got their acts together what we should be asking is not how it happened but who`s going to fix it , but then that means getting shot of the weegie influence so it aint happening

[GreenArmy1875]

We should play international football at 100 mile per hour and direct as possible and see what happens

[MinceAndTatties]

In looking for positives from the latest debacle, I thought Palmer at right back did pretty well. He looked an upgrade from O'Donnell.

[Spike Mandela]

Should have stuck with Strachan, he was getting somewhere. No patience.

[Hibernia&Alba]

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Andorra has won a game.Nothing is impossible.

Liechtenstein got a draw yesterday. Those two are probably catching us up

[pontius pilate]

I think clark can turn scotlands fortunes around. Looking at the team against san marino I'd say it is full of youngsters with maybe an eye to the future. We still have the likes of cooper Griffiths Teirney could Souttar and Porteous do a job at the back? So yeah give him time I say

[CloudSquall]

I think he needs years to turn this mess around but if we don't see any sign of slight improvement (a shoring up of the defence, some sign of organisation) he has to go.

[B.H.F.C]

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I think clark can turn scotlands fortunes around. Looking at the team against san marino I'd say it is full of youngsters with maybe an eye to the future. We still have the likes of cooper Griffiths Teirney could Souttar and Porteous do a job at the back? So yeah give him time I say

Until we have a proper centre half and a proper striker, we’re toiling. There are some good player dotted about but we really need a solid spine before we can improve.

[lyonhibs]

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Should have stuck with Strachan, he was getting somewhere. No patience.

Don't know where "somewhere" was, but certainly not a major tournament.

Sadly, as noted elsewhere, the fundamental reason for the cliff-like decline in Scottish football's standing over the past 20 years cannot be solved by simply changing the poor sod on the touchline.

[Walter]

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I think he needs years to turn this mess around but if we don't see any sign of slight improvement (a shoring up of the defence, some sign of organisation) he has to go.

I agree. Let him build. If he can't do it no one can so there is no point changing his role.

Its going to take a long time for him to establish a system that works with the players we have and develop the spine of the team, but If anyone can do it he can. We need to get behind him.

[SlickShoes]

It was sort of an impossible task to start with because we are dire but when your first 5 games are Belgium x2 Russia x2 and Cyprus, it was never going to go well. We beat Cyprus, and got horsed by two teams that were in the last 8 of the Wolrd Cup, one of which is ranked 1 in the world.

If we can win our last two games and finish 3rd in the group, plus put in a decent effort in this playoff I will be relatively happy.

Like others have said we have two gaping holes in the team, CH and Striker. Other teams are either very solid defensively and/or have a striker that can get you a win out of nothing, at the moment we have neither.

[AugustaHibs]

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It was sort of an impossible task to start with because we are dire but when your first 5 games are Belgium x2 Russia x2 and Cyprus, it was never going to go well. We beat Cyprus, and got horsed by two teams that were in the last 8 of the Wolrd Cup, one of which is ranked 1 in the world.

If we can win our last two games and finish 3rd in the group, plus put in a decent effort in this playoff I will be relatively happy.

Like others have said we have two gaping holes in the team, CH and Striker. Other teams are either very solid defensively and/or have a striker that can get you a win out of nothing, at the moment we have neither.

What about Kazakhstan away

[Fergus52]

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Don't know where "somewhere" was, but certainly not a major tournament.

Sadly, as noted elsewhere, the fundamental reason for the cliff-like decline in Scottish football's standing over the past 20 years cannot be solved by simply changing the poor sod on the touchline.

He came very close to taking us to the world cup.

Armstrong clearing the ball against England would have been enough for us to come second in the group.

The eventual finalists Croatia had a much easier qualifying group than we did and finished with only two points more.

[Here’s Lucy!]

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Should have stuck with Strachan, he was getting somewhere. No patience.

Yes, wee Gordon is the best manager we have had for years.

[ancient hibee]

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What about Kazakhstan away

What about it?