Just on the last topic of the World Cup and the point you made about finding players from countries who might have Scottish grandparents. Do you think it kind of ruins the World Cup/international football scene if you had 11 players with no real connection with Scotland? I know we’d lose out on McTominey etc but feel the rules have been so relaxed now that it’s closer to club football where players pick their national team based on their best chances of winning tournaments rather than the country they feel most attached to?
Olise being an example. Born in England to French Algerian mother and British Nigerian father but picks France?
I thought the analysis of Steve Clarke and Scotland was fair, small margins in probably the hardest group section of the competition didn’t help. On the wider discussion about development of talent it’s obviously complex so there isn’t one answer, you could argue that what we are doing just now isn’t working, the way the country seemed galvanised by qualifying what would it be like if we had a better chance ? Scotland would probably spontaneously combust 😂 I wonder just how much does local and national government support grassroots football given the potential benefits?
I suppose we could always just sell Hampden and put the money into crypto currency to fund youth development 🙈
On the Scotland globalisation topic (foreigner POV):
Every culture has its unique strengths and challenges. In fact, one could say most "traits" serve as double-edged swords depending on moderation vs excess, and of course we can't generalise everyone.
But the more I follow the league the more I feel Scottish football has this strong "cynicism masked as pragmatism" survival mindset to it, which is odd to me given the sheer passion and authenticity. It's a bit confusing to me relative to other fanbases.
Just on the last topic of the World Cup and the point you made about finding players from countries who might have Scottish grandparents. Do you think it kind of ruins the World Cup/international football scene if you had 11 players with no real connection with Scotland? I know we’d lose out on McTominey etc but feel the rules have been so relaxed now that it’s closer to club football where players pick their national team based on their best chances of winning tournaments rather than the country they feel most attached to?
Olise being an example. Born in England to French Algerian mother and British Nigerian father but picks France?
I thought the analysis of Steve Clarke and Scotland was fair, small margins in probably the hardest group section of the competition didn’t help. On the wider discussion about development of talent it’s obviously complex so there isn’t one answer, you could argue that what we are doing just now isn’t working, the way the country seemed galvanised by qualifying what would it be like if we had a better chance ? Scotland would probably spontaneously combust 😂 I wonder just how much does local and national government support grassroots football given the potential benefits?
I suppose we could always just sell Hampden and put the money into crypto currency to fund youth development 🙈
On the Scotland globalisation topic (foreigner POV):
Every culture has its unique strengths and challenges. In fact, one could say most "traits" serve as double-edged swords depending on moderation vs excess, and of course we can't generalise everyone.
But the more I follow the league the more I feel Scottish football has this strong "cynicism masked as pragmatism" survival mindset to it, which is odd to me given the sheer passion and authenticity. It's a bit confusing to me relative to other fanbases.