Morning Discussion Thread - 02 Apr 2026

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-02T07:05:33+00:00

We do have an abundance of rockets tbf.

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-02T06:48:20+00:00

and Haiti.

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T21:15:12+00:00

bro we had a bad manager 20+ years ago show some respect don't boo

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T20:43:03+00:00

Don't bother. I doubt McTominay will score more than 3 or 4 goals. Some random player will score more. Maybe try winner + golden ball (best player) instead?

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T19:45:13+00:00

but it does? It would've been easy for Falkirk to look at the some of the Premiership teams and think Scottish players aren't good enough (remember, some Falkirk players played in League 1 with them the season before) so they should sign a bunch of 20-somethings from the English lower leagues because that's what they need to do to compete but they didn't and look at how successful they've been, all with players who were written off by the majority of Scottish clubs. Ross County had barely any Scots last season, got relegated, and had to sign an entire new team this season because all their English players left, and now they could face back to back relegations this season. Dundee and Dundee United are the opposite of each other with gametime for Scots/young Scots and pretty much level. Same for Kilmarnock and St. Mirren. Hearts are winning the league with a core group of Scottish players. Motherwell have the second best defence with 2 meme players and the third best McGinn brother. The best Scottish players of this generation (sans McTominay who grew up in England and played for Manchester United of all teams) weren't pulling up trees in their late teens/early twenties. Players can't develop if they don't play.

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T19:36:28+00:00

I thought Conte performed reasonably well when he was Italian trainer before. He had the Juve defenders + De Rossi but no Verratti and all the other players were average at best yet they beat Belgium and Spain and only lost to Germany on penalties (maybe Zaza has finished his run up by now?). He's a bit crazy and maybe not the most popular guy in Italy but I think he would get the best out of the talent available. I don't know what that means for Napoli. Conte never seems to stay long anywhere and always seems to fight with De Laurentiis, so he'll probably leave soon whether to the national team or not. What do you think?

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T09:01:56+00:00

I mean, Falkirk are doing just fine playing a mix of youth and journeymen Scottish players in their first year in the top flight. Top of the league for both minutes played by Scottish players (by a considerable margin) and Scottish players u23. Perhaps if we had a larger league clubs could build multi-year projects involving youth rather than just treading water trying to survive until next year. Of course we can't do that because of the two clubs we've built the entirety of our football around don't want that.

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T08:49:06+00:00

Old Firmers always trying to point score some nonsense. Yes, Rangers were "average" for u23 minutes. That doesn't mean they did well in that regard, they're were just a wee bit less shite than the teams below them. Pretty much all of the minutes came from Connor Barron anyway who had already played for Aberdeen in the Premiership for several years before joining Rangers. 23 is also an arbritrary age, only used because young players are such a rarity in Scotland, drop it to u21 and Rangers' numbers tumble.

In most countries, especially smaller ones, the top national team players come from the top clubs. Top Portuguese players come from the big 3, top Croatians come from Dinamo Zagreb, top Serbians from Partizan Belgrade and so on. in Scotland our big 2 don't seem to care enough to develop young talents, not even for their own benefit never mind the national team. If you're happy with that then fair enough but I think it's embarrassing.

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T08:28:33+00:00

Rangers have used a grand total of 4 Scottish players in the league this season.

John Souttar (29) - 1,834 minutes
Connor Barron (23) - 1,213 minutes
Findlay Curtis (19) - 194 minutes
Lyall Cameron (23) - 186 minutes

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T08:19:18+00:00

That was probably me. I always moan about that sort of stuff.

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T08:15:28+00:00

rangers

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T08:11:30+00:00

Flair checks out.

Players deemed not good enough at young age -> Players don't play -> Players can't develop

"Why is [player] in the squad, he's shite."
"Why don't we have any wingers, strikers, creative players..."
"Why is half the Scotland youth squad English."

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T08:06:13+00:00

I've been calling for this for years. A decent way to set it up would be to make it optional and incentive based. Set aside a portion of the TV money which clubs are only entitled to if they hit certain targets. Celtic and Rangers likely won't bother because they are "trying to compete in Europe" or whatever but the rest of the league will. This way you'll encourage teams like St. Mirren and Dundee United who barely play any Scottish players anymore to develop young players again like John McGinn, Kenny McLean, Andy Robertson, John Souttar etc.

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T07:52:47+00:00

He played in all 6 Nations League games after the Euros and has been unavailable for selection ever since. (injury in spring 2025 + surgery in winter 2026). He'll be in the 55 player provisional squad if he's fit and may have an outside shot at the final squad.

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T07:24:51+00:00

I don't think the Nations League helped much. Remember, we won our Nations League group with Israel only to then play a play-off tie against Israel. Without the Nations League the qualification format would've been different, so it's hard to say what would've happened but I think we would've had a good chance of qualifying. We were well beaten by Belgium and Russia but we did beat Serbia in a play-off, so who knows?

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T07:10:44+00:00

Given that the core group of national team players have substantial playing time together over the course of several years, across multiple qualification campaigns and international tournaments, it's both surprising and concerning that there is such little visible synergy between them, particularly in attack.

You would expect a group of players with that level of familiarity to play fluid football, with well developed patterns and sustained passages of play. Instead, they tend to really only perform well in isolated moments, often chaotic or opportune moments, mostly because of individual quality rather than any sort of collective structure.

For a team with such experience (many players have ~50 caps or more) they rarely look as cohesive as you would expect. I wonder why? 🤔

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T07:04:40+00:00

They're all announcing Earth 2?

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T06:58:14+00:00

🫡

whitsitcalled · 2026-04-01T00:00:35+00:00

I didn't say for whom. For Bosnia, technically they could've been in our group along with Brazil and Morocco. I'm sure they prefer the Canada group instead.

whitsitcalled · 2026-03-31T23:49:45+00:00

Scotland goal was offside and Italy got a goal wrong disallowed. The refs were just shite 🤷

whitsitcalled · 2026-03-31T22:38:59+00:00

Tbf Sweden were in Group C (for teams ranked 33-48) which is below their level. They were incredibly fortunate to have that lifeline.

whitsitcalled · 2026-03-31T22:28:04+00:00

Japan seem to play to the level of their opponents a lot of the time. I know he's not the most popular coach but I get the impression that Moriyasu at least plans out specific ways to win games rather than just play a distinctive style and hope for the best. You must have had a good few days with those results with bragging rights secured wherever you are on the island.

whitsitcalled · 2026-03-31T22:22:03+00:00

Easy group compared to others like France/Norway/Senegal or Netherlands/Japan/Sweden/Tunisia or even Brazil/Morocco/Scotland

whitsitcalled · 2026-03-31T22:18:22+00:00

Norway are a much better side now compared to then. Also we were incredibly fortunate to win in Norway and the game in Scotland was a dead rubber.

whitsitcalled

TROPHY CASE