Did you hear the one about a Scotsman, Englishman & Irishman?
No-one’s joking about Israel clash
A petted lip in the wake of poor performances isn’t a good look.
It smacks of self-indulgence. Steve Clarke and Scotland’s captain Andy Robertson (far right) both had wobbly facial expressions after our international double- header against Israel and a Czech Republic Select.
“People would have found negatives in whatever we did,” Robertson said after the narrow squeak away from home on Monday night.
No they wouldn’t. That’s unfair. People would simply have looked at the live TV coverage of the game and arrived at the perfectly understandable conclusion that, much to their personal disappointment , Scotland’s performance was seriously flawed.
After the draw with Israel at Hampden, Clarke said: “The good outweighed the bad.”
No it didn’t. That’s inaccurate.
If that had been the case Scotland wouldn’t have drawn with a side who are a lowly 93rd in the world rankings.
Then the manager said of the dire display against the fourth-best Czech national team in the Czech Republic: “We were on a hiding to nothing.” No we weren’t.
We had players of quality and pedigree and we were up against a team who barely knew each other’s first names. Deal with it.
Clarke used both internationals to trial a system and personnel.
Trials tend to have verdicts when they are over. You can’t, under those circumstances, object to the formation of a jury to deliver them.
People are not just digging to find negatives.
They are using the evidence of their own eyes and are perfectly entitled to express a view so long as it stays within the guidelines of the laws relating to libel, slander and common decency.
Supporters might be currently disenfranchised when it comes to obtaining a means by which they can enter a football ground.
But they simply cannot be disenfranchised when it comes to retaining the right to offer an
opinion on what is good and what is bad.
There’s an old media trick I’ve been watching in press rooms for the last 50 years.
An exasperated manager, or player, comes in and attempts to deflect attention away from what everyone has seen for themselves out on the park by telling you that black is, in fact, a dazzling shade of white.
Manager, or player, then sits back and defies the assembled audience to contradict that statement to his face or to question it in print.
Anyone who gets too stroppy in either regard runs the risk of a ban to discourage others from joining in and creating a dissident movement. Believe me, I’ve been in and out of enough sin bins over the decades to know what I’m talking about.
When you’re not the best, or anything like it, at international level you need to take a pragmatic view of events.
Eleven Scots is too many for one Scotland team, which is why it was a good to see an Aussie, Lyndon Dykes, masquerading as a Scot seize his chance up front after setting sail on his journey under a flag of convenience.
We’ll see what he can do against better quality opposition before we decide if he’s the new Joe Jordan.
We will be on a hiding to nothing in the Euro 2020 play-off semi-final against Israel next month because some people will, in advance, be looking for negatives. There’s always apathy before Scotland games and then apoplexy af terwards if anything goes wrong.
That’s what happens in courtrooms. There’s a jury and then there are unruly people in the public gallery.
That’s it in black AND white where this country’s concerned.
Nobody’s cal l ing for anybody’s head. Nobody’s trying to get under your skin, Steve and Andy.
All the people ask is a right to express an view without being accused of being out to get anyone. We wish you well in the game that could define us for a long t ime if it doesn’t go according to plan.
But consider this, when John Carver was brought into the backroom staff beside Steven Reid and Clarke that meant there was an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman.
That’s normally the start of a joke, right? You might care to disbelieve this but the people would rather not be in a position to provide their own punchline after the game against Israel. We would far rather it was no laughing matter. Honestly.