Fans can’t keep up but Stevie has to
“You going to the Scotland game this week big man?”
“Scotland game? Who are they playing?” “Ukraine.”
“Did we no’ just play Ukraine?”
“Aye, but that was the World Cup play-offs, this is the Nations League, we’ve got three games in the next fortnight.”
“Who else we got?” “Ukraine. And Ireland. “Ireland? Did we no’ get gubbed by them recently?
“Aye.”
“So when do we play Israel...?”
It’s a conversation that will have taken place in boozers up and down the country this weekend.
These are confusing times for international football fans and it’s nothing to do with the bevvy being consumed.
FIFA and UEFA’s constant meddling with the competition and the calendar has left most folk’s heads spinning.
We’ve got a World Cup in November, the mind boggling Nations League condensed into short bursts that leave players and fans knackered and the mixture of qualifying campaigns means no one has a clue where we stand in any of them.
But just because the punters can’t work out who we are playing or why, it doesn’t make the next few weeks any less dangerous for the manager.
Fact is, the fans want results regardless of the tournament or what the heck it means. Which is just as ridiculous as the fixture list.
Steve Clarke has been a very good Scotland manager.
Sure, there have been disappointments. Some right sore ones.
But in the grand scheme of things, he has more than achieved pass marks. He got us to a major finals for a start, which is more than the rest managed in more than 20 years.
The long unbeaten run to get us to the
World Cup play-offs was hugely impressive and there’s a structure and plan about this team we’ve rarely seen. We can give anyone a game these days. That’s not always been the case.
Yet, there is a sense some are sharpening the blades for the gaffer.
The defeat to Ukraine
was painted as a huge failure – a country at war and a squad with half their players unable to play for months.
All true but it’s also a right good team and while some of their men might have lacked game time, it was the opposite for our side.
They looked out on their feet after gruelling seasons in Scotland and England.
Getting spanked by Republic of Ireland a week later put Clarke on the back foot, with the wins over Armenia either side of it not doing much to appease anyone.
There’s no doubt the Irish game was a shocker. It was as bad as any chasing we’ve had.
This was a poor Irish side that couldn’t buy a win under beleaguered Stephen Kenny and we served them up three points on a plate.
But again it was a perfect storm. Wrung out after the Ukraine game, it was tough for everyone to give much of a monkeys about a Nations League game in Dublin and that’s how it came across.
No one cared until we got a doing – then it became top priority. The same goes for this next week or so.
The Nations League is not where priorities lie. It could be a backdoor into the next Euros but the system is so messed up we don’t know what it would take to get there.
We could stumble to second to Ukraine in this section and find ourselves in a play-off.
We could stroll it and miss out. It’s musical chairs on the international stage. The qualifiers are real stuff.
Ukraine home and away with Ireland at Hampden in between shouldn’t be make or break Clarke but it could – even if most punters can’t understand why.