Scotland returned to their Glorious Failure nation status last night after completing their final five games of the World Cup qualifiers with three wins and two draws, a decade high-water mark. Glorious Failure being a status well ahead of the recently-discarded Pathetic Failure nation status.
We can now compete with decent sides, like Slovenia, Slovakia and England, and win comfortably away from home against Lithuania, who we were unable to beat at Hampden one year ago yesterday.
Problem is, I have a niggling feeling that this recent success has more to do with Brendan Rodgers than anyone else. In delivering an Invincible season and two Champions League group stage qualifications with overwhelmingly Scottish players, Brendan has effectively said: “Gordon, check out the really good players you have here”.
It is not all Gordon Strachan’s fault that he didn’t pick any Celtic players in the 1-1 home draw with Lithuania, whereas he selected six Celts in the recent 0-3 away win. Scott Brown was temporarily retired from international football then, and Stuart Armstrong and Callum McGregor were struggling to get into the Celtic team. But the omission of Gordon, Tierney, Griffiths and Forrest for large parts of the early campaign, in retrospect, looks unforgivable.
The reason Scotland didn’t qualify for the World Cup has less to do with our genetics, than the fact that we didn’t select our best players for the home game against Lithuania (for example). The fact that Gordon didn’t pick so many Celtic players early in the campaign, as he did later, reflects the corresponding appreciation in Celtic players’ stock over the period. But picking the right players is a big part of the job. We have a relatively small pool of talent and the manager missed a lot of value.
For you and I there is a compensation. We will not have the stress of worrying about having to play Champions League qualifiers with up to a dozen players on World Cup duty. The bulk of the squad will go through a preseason routine designed for Celtic’s needs. The Scottish players will also not have to compete in a play-off round amid Champions League games against Bayern Munich and the final stages of the League Cup.
The rest of the country will have no compensation, only disappointment that they are unable to participate in a Celtic dividend.
Fancy yourself as a collector of Celtic memorabilia? James Forrest’s match-worn National Famine Memorial Day shirt is available for raffle later today. These shirts are go for incredible sums at auction, but this one is open to the wider community.
Oh! And if you know your history, you will know what good you will do by participating. Laters…………
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NEW CQN PODCAST – A CELTIC STATE OF MIND OUT NOW!
A NEW CQN Podcast is out now featuring interviews with Celtic legends Bobby Lennox, John Fallon, Tommy Callaghan and Kenny Dalglish.
This week, ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ pays tribute to The Quality Street Gang.
In the second of a two-part series, Paul John Dykes interviews:
Bobby Lennox, John Fallon, Tommy Callaghan and Kenny Dalglish!
The discussion is all about one of the finest crops of youngsters ever to emerge from Celtic Park…
And we finally reveal just where that nickname came from.
Enjoy the new podcast…
The new Invincibles treble disc DVD is now available from CQN Bookstore HERE. It is quite simply unmissable. What a season that was!
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James
He is delighted that he is coming to Scotland for Hogmanay and you are giving him a ticket for the Glasgow Derby match. Good man ye are.
HH
Great result for MON and his bhoys.
Corkcelt vote done for Niamh.
HH
KTF
UTLR
My thoughts re Scotland
Yorkshire has about the same population as Scotland.
Around 5 million give or take a percentage point or two.
Now I don’t know how tall the average Yorkshireman is, as the only thing I do know about a Yorkshireman for definite is that he is like a Scotsman but with the generosity gene removed.
Anyhow, on a whim I decided to check how many first tier football teams the county slash region supports.
And to my great surprise I found out that there are only 10 Yorkshire clubs in the Premiere League pyramid. 1 in the Premier League, Huddersfield Town, 6 in the Championship, 3 in the third tier and none in the fourth.
As an aside only two of the sides have stadium capacities less than 20k and they are both in the third tier and there is no separate structure of a Yorkshire FA.
Meanwhile further north there are 42 teams in the SPFL structure.
Too many?
Do we need a complete overhaul? An overthrow of the existing bloated structure and a pruning of the club’s under the umbrella of the SPFL and the SFA?
Blazers on the bonfire?
Would an overhaul improve our national team? Would it result in streamlined processes, more transparency and less bureaucracy?
Maybe aye maybe naw.
But continuing down the current route seems to only result in failure.
Glorious or abject it doesn’t really matter.
DD
A pleasure my Fhriend.
GNGB
While I’m on anyone know of any Celtic bars or places to watch the game on Saturday and Wednesday in Kefalonia. Going for a week on Saturday morning so any help would be appreciated.
HH
KTF
UTLR
Oh the irony.
It’s Scottish whisky.
Bréa
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/international-soccer/so-youre-saying-theres-a-chance-jon-walters-shares-video-of-ecstatic-irish-dressing-room-after-famous-win-36212097.html
Quiet in here
Bring in a bit of class
Alison Krauss
I believe in you
https://youtu.be/b5dpkBV2ifs
HH
INVINCIBLE’GG
It’s patently obvious that there are to many teams in the Scottish league.
Self interest has always come first.
And definitely to many huns in the the SFA.
We need creative thinkers not bigoted dinosaurs running the game.
It’s probably to late for football in Scotland as the self interest and bigotry is to entrenched.
I believe Celtic realised such after the dead club debacle and subsequent blatant ignoring and bending of the associations own rules for the benefit of one liquidated club and have set their future elsewhere.
Only when Celtic go to a different league will the idiots realize how bigotry led to their own demise.
Fanatic
Sxorrish football must reform or die.
And the Yankees win.
7-3 in the Bronx against the Indians to level the series 2-2.
Game 5 decider in Cleveland on Wednesday.
Yankees have come back from 2-0 so hey may have momentum.
Earlier in Boston, Red Sox lost 5-4 to the Astros and lose the series 3-1.
Hello again all you young rebels.
Just catching up on the blog and seen CORKCELT’S wee lass needs a
vote or two so done and dusted from down under and with probably
more to follow from Oz.
Best of luck .
H.H Mick
In the National League
Chicago Cubs beat the Washington Nationals 2-1 and now lead the series 2-1.
The LA Dodgers lead the 1-0 after 3 innings. A win for LA will sweep the D-Backs.
In response to Weet Weet Weet @ 1:31am
Another Divine Allison, this time MOORER
ALLISON MOORER. Carrickfergus
WEETWEETWEET 131
Great stuff,big fella. A fantastic version.
Bob Dylan’s three-album religious period was-rightly-criticised. I don’t think many doubted his sincerity,but,ffs,don’t inflict it on us! But there were some good tracks hidden amongst the dross.
That was one. Here’s another.
https://vimeo.com/61822795
Here’s one from Maggie Reilly’s most recent album-which really is a peach,btw.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1_SzYrO-ji8
For any of the 20,000 or so going to Bayern next week, don’t forget the factor 50.
Weather Man reckons it’s going to be warm and sunny.
And for the avoidance of confusion, Munchen is very close to Bayern. On the same strasse, apparently.
;-)
Vote cast and verified
Good Luck to Niamh
BATEENBHOY
Is it near Munchengladbach?
Or Bayeux?
Or is that only if you’re flying Ryanair,which frequently lands you about 100km from where you thought you were going(!)
Corkcelt vote cast for Niamh…..good luck.
HH
Bobby,
Or Dusseldorf Weeze””’closer to Amsterdam than Dusseldorf :-)
MMHOME
You’ve got it,bud. I think their version of Florence is nearer to Florida than Italy!
Corkcelt. Voted and confirmed. Some on here will confirm that I know nothing about makeup, etc. But then I had to vote to help out a CQNer.
Incidentally I also voted for Redcastle Spa and Golf Hotel. The Donegal relatives would be happy with that and I have attended a wedding reception there on two occasions.
Best of luck Niamh. Welcome to CQN. Would never get away with calling you one of them. My Cork cousins would not stand for it.
Bobby, you are not far off the mark there neebs ;-)
Corkcelt , congratulations to your national team your good daughter, and last but not least doubling the amount of recent posts HH
Good morning CQN from an overcast and still dry East Devon.
http://celticbynumberscom.ipage.com/cool-for-cats/
Top CATs and overall Scoring Contributions. Who is the moggy with the mouse? (Ok I’ll stop).
Morning all.
CORKCELT
Vote for Miamh cast and verified. Best of luck to the lass!
Congratulations to Ireland on making the play-offs.
HH!!
On RS this morning, the spokesman for the West of Scotland Tartan Army got it dead right. Scotland’s problem isn’t genetics; it’s lack of technique. For way too long, we have the “get tore into them”, running about for 90 minutes, blootering the ball (and Celtic players) employed by much of the SPFL to compensate for technique. And Strachan seems to have a preference for such journeymen.
NIAMH ffs!
Good luck Niamh – another vote submitted.
And Good Luck Ireland in play offs – that was nail biting but such a very MON performance. Watched it with my Donegal Dad, great stuff.
Corkcelt
vote registered for Niamh. Guid luck.
Catching up after my Night shift
Great result for Ireland last night!!
2 votes confirmed for young Niamh, good luck with the competition and welcome to the Celtic family here on CQN, your Dad is a good man, met him briefly on his last visit to the BV.
HH
To all of the Bhoys heading for Munich we are now on a Jobo type countdown – 6days – cant wait :)))
HH
Well done Ireland! Really enjoyed a gritty team performance and thought James was the man of the match. He is a really brave person in every respect – and a true Celt into the bargain.
CORKIE
Voted and confirmed….
…. She better not be one
;-)
22 degrees and sunny at 10am -way down south ..
Wasted 90 minutes of my life watching Albania 0-Italia1 . Another dreadful performance from the shambles that is the current Italian National team . Looks like something is seriously wrong .A collection of good players playing very badly The players and those on the bench celebrated the goal like it was the winner in a World Cup Final . The Manager stood motionless and expressionless on the touchline . Much speculation in the media that the Manager will be ditched before the play offs ..
This morning’s get oot n do something choon- much to do before a wee jaunt to Munich . The woman from Padova wasn’t interested -that suggests that there are no shoe shops worth the name in Munich . Paris ,however , is a very different matter.
https://youtu.be/hKID2i3IpVM
http://www.independent.ie/style/celebrity/celebrity-news/meet-erin-mcclean-james-proud-wife-and-mother-of-their-three-children-36213019.html