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SKII

SKII

Private Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2004
Heading to the 1970s office block this evening to watch Stevie Mallan and Co. Only a fiver, so what the hell.
5.30pm ko at the Bus Shelter
 
Oh man. This is poor.
0-0 ht
So many prejudices in one place...nae wonder it's club over country for me. Full fats and diets in their pomp
 
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How are you enjoying the super duper megastand, SKII?

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
 
Any reason Stevie Mallan never featured? Not that I’m particularly bothered as I don’t want any of our players getting injured. But he must be THE form player in our U21 squad?
 
We weren't even on the same page as England. Pace, power and playing with us in the way a cat toys with its prey. They didn't get out of 2nd gear and when they occasionally put on the burners you got a glimpse of the real difference between the sides.
Oli was anonymous, unfortunately. Ryan at least put everything into his battle with Dominic Solanke. Mallan warmed up for 10-15 min 2nd half and took dogs abuse from some of the banjo playing locals but his response was classy and completely at ease. The laddie from Chelsea is clearly the favoured son in his position.
As for the superdoopermegadome...
They put the cash turnstiles in the Gorgie Stand then you had to walk round and into the latest side of the Bus Shelter. Inside, the floor isn't finished, it's not even got a skim on it. There's lots of open space due to lack of stairwells or lifts - all the steps are on the outside of the only one tiered 2 tier stadium in the world. The stand has the same wobbly metal hand grips as all the other stands and seats from China built clearly for wee Chinese peepil and not the Orc heffer sat next to/on me.
Fair few Orcs in full marching gear. The hefty one next to us filmed the rendition of GSTQ and uploaded it onto social media before calling Ryan for everything all game, whilst praising the big ginger flapper beside Porto because of a past life. Sitting with both Sky bet and Bet365 open, both accounts with bets on for Ryan to get booked first. GIRUY.

Combined with sad wee diets giving out the most schizophrenic racist undertones of every hue imaginable and abusing our 3 players, it had me longing for Saturday and just supporting the good guys with our ain.

I actually didn't really want Mallan to come on. The size and strength of the opposition had me thinking id rather have our man unscathed before the weekend.

We walked home after the game and on our hour long dawdle, we debated why the game was at a half finished bus shelter. I reckon it was because we were trying to avoid a horsing. On a bigger pitch we'd have definitely been even more exposed. Tynie by name and tiny by nature.
 
England last night, in beating Spain, had several players who could still have played tonight at U21 level. Rashford, Gomez, Alexander Arnold. Winks has only just turned 22. Maybe that's really the difference between us and the top international teams. We've nobody in that bracket at that age.
 
SKII said:
England last night, in beating Spain, had several players who could still have played tonight at U21 level. Rashford, Gomez, Alexander Arnold. Winks has only just turned 22. Maybe that's really the difference between us and the top international teams. We've nobody in that bracket at that age.
Click to expand...

I know Gordon Strachan was mocked for his "giants" comments, but I there is something IMHO. We seem behind top level physically as well ability and tactically.

I wasn't there tonight, I watched about 5 minutes on BBC but the stats were frightening - it wasn't Scotland having an off day it was a huge gulf between the teams.
 
Purple & Green said:
I know Gordon Strachan was mocked for his "giants" comments, but I there is something IMHO. We seem behind top level physically as well ability and tactically.

I wasn't there tonight, I watched about 5 minutes on BBC but the stats were frightening - it wasn't Scotland having an off day it was a huge gulf between the teams.
Click to expand...
It's part of the equation but it doesn't explain it all. Spain won the WC and Euros not that long ago with a team of relatively small players. The top player in the world last year, Luka Modric, is absolutely tiny.
England have 10 x the population, so will always statistically be better off for player pool but Croatia have a population smaller than ours.
During the summer, we debated how Denmark or Croatia or Iceland could consistently produce better teams and players than Scotland. It's not better weather or facilities.
Unfortunately, the elephant in the room is culture. Drinking culture particularly.
Scotland's truly world class athletes - and we do still produce them - are middle or upper class. Murrays x2, Hoy, Grainger and so on...

For a country that loves its sport, and we do, we continue to lose ground on other countries who manage to continue to produce working class heroes. Modric's story includes surviving the conflict in the former Yugoslavian states, seeing close family members slaughtered. He had nothing, growing up. The challenge for the country as a whole, not just the inept dinosaurs running Hampden, is how we get working class kids engaged and willing/able to look after their bodies whilst putting in the hours required to succeed. Until then, continue to expect your genunely world class heroes to play middle class sports like tennis or cycle or row.
 
Purple & Green said:
'Dramatic' drop in teenage drinking

That’s heartening if unexpected.

I’d be interested to look at the age group football across Europe - I dare say it won’t be hard to spot the trends.
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Iceland have a curfew at nights for young people. Drastic action to address their own youth alcohol problem. Since then a whole load of positive indicators have shown through strongly. Including their football team's performance. Young Croatians don't have a drink culture. When we were there this summer the press was full of articles slamming the drink culture of young Australians who holiday in Hvar. It's the Croatian equivalent of Magaluf, though not by design.
 
SKII said:
It's part of the equation but it doesn't explain it all. Spain won the WC and Euros not that long ago with a team of relatively small players. The top player in the world last year, Luka Modric, is absolutely tiny.
England have 10 x the population, so will always statistically be better off for player pool but Croatia have a population smaller than ours.
During the summer, we debated how Denmark or Croatia or Iceland could consistently produce better teams and players than Scotland. It's not better weather or facilities.
Unfortunately, the elephant in the room is culture. Drinking culture particularly.
Scotland's truly world class athletes - and we do still produce them - are middle or upper class. Murrays x2, Hoy, Grainger and so on...

For a country that loves its sport, and we do, we continue to lose ground on other countries who manage to continue to produce working class heroes. Modric's story includes surviving the conflict in the former Yugoslavian states, seeing close family members slaughtered. He had nothing, growing up. The challenge for the country as a whole, not just the inept dinosaurs running Hampden, is how we get working class kids engaged and willing/able to look after their bodies whilst putting in the hours required to succeed. Until then, continue to expect your genunely world class heroes to play middle class sports like tennis or cycle or row.
Click to expand...
scotlands truly world class athlete at the present moment aint middle class or maybe you dont like boxing
 
dibo said:
scotlands truly world class athlete at the present moment aint middle class or maybe you dont like boxing
Click to expand...
Ive known him since he was a kid.
He's not a world champion yet. Hopefully he will but it's not comparable yet to those others.
 
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