Comments on: Scotland likely to lose Celts for May friendly

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:36:30 +0000

Amen, Chris. I’m not sure I agree that club football exists ONLY to build toward national duties, but things are certainly far too skewed toward clubs, especially in Scotland. I wish Celtic fans would remember that their hero, Jock Stein, was equally a Celtic and Scotland man. Same goes for Rangers – their best throughout history have been Scotland players, and valued both duties. Last year was great for the national side, but you’re right – it had more to do with winning than really gaining any real ground in the public’s mind. To fans like you and me, Scotland will always be more important than any club, and its sad how few of us there are.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:55:14 +0000

Its about time Scotland (players, club managers and fans alike) take International friendlies more seriously. The result may not matter but friendlies are some of the only chances the manager will get to work with his team. I personally find club football, especially in this country to be a plague that must be brought down a notch. The monotonous rivalry between Celtic and Rangers has went on long enough and I have no idea why the fans of these teams aren’t even getting bored. Most other countries realize that club football is nothing but the stepping stone towards building a descent national side, but Scotland is too busy fighting with itself that we only truly get along with each other when Scotland are winning games. It is a fact that most or all attention will get focused on club football because sadly, like everything else these days, theres very good money to be made from it.

I think its about time this country slaps itself awake and realizes whats important.

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:09:42 +0000

Absolutely right, Jan. The Czechs seem to get less of a workout, but remember that Croatia could claim the same, with Rangers essentially pulling out of their friendly. The difference is that Celtic primarily provides the defensive end of the Scotland side, and Rangers the offense. The central defense without Caldwell and McManus would likely be Berra and … maybe Weir? One was too young for the Croatia match, the other too old, so I’m not terribly confident about that as a starting situation. Still, Burley did well with what he had against Croatia, and I expect the same against the Czechs.

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:02:13 +0000

I wonder whether the Czech Republic will be happy with this arrangement either. I remember that Jogi Löw once decided to play a B squad in a friendly against Denmark which caused a very negative backlash. On the one hand the fans, who came to see their World Cup heroes, were unhappy and Denmark were unhappy because they wanted to play Germany to play a tough opponent and not a better U21 side. Since the match is played in Prague, there’s probably no backlash to fear from Scottish fans, but I wonder whether the Czechs are happy with playing a weakened Scottish side. In the end, they need to prepare for the Euros and when they would have wanted a weak opponent, they would have invited a different team.

I also wonder, whether it’s not all about Nakamura anyway? I guess the Japanese want to see their best player in action and Celtic want to sell a lot of Nakamura shirts and not Gary Caldwell’s…