Doesn't the end result only matter or does that only come into play when Hibs lose a 2 legged tie?

Just for the record you include Rangers in this joke of Scottish footballs in Europe?

Hibs are better than most of the teams in the Premiership and have a bigger budget, so 'second tier' means nothing really. Scotland have had 2 different teams in a European final in 13 years, not bad when you consider they are by far the smallest country to have a team in a final.

If you want to talk about underachievers:

http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...won+the+League

Even Blackburn and Leicester have done something Liverpool will never do.

If you get beaten by a part time Gibraltar side and record the worst result in Scottish history you aren't going to get praise for scraping past them at home. When Strachan got pumped 5-0 by Artmedia nobody was dancing about Glasgow's east end because they beat them 4-0 at home. As for Hibs, they Hibsed it as usual, out of Europe before the league has even kicked off, in fact out in 15 seconds in the first leg. A usual and predictable glorious failure made all the funnier by popcorn teeth going mad and getting sent to the stands.

As for Rangers, we'll look after ourselves, the coefficient means nothing because no other Scottish team has any ability to help it.

The Gibraltar result means hew haw. We still qualified so it doesn't matter.

Come on here when Rangers get beat in Europe next season.

Look after yourselves? Last time in Europe you lost to Malmo.

Rangers had the 2nd highest budget in Scottish football and failed to get promoted the season before last? Your thoughts on this?

Size of country is nothing but a cop out. Portugal is a small nation yet always perform in international football. Holland is small.

Scotland maybe small but it is still a nation where football is by clear the major sport and the failures in Europe and international are not acceptable.

Please don't bring up underachievers. You name me any other side in European Football which boats about winning over 50 domestic titles and has not reached at least 1 European Cup Final. Rangers held that proud record.

Walter Smith is treated as a legend and again his record in Europe? Frightening. That's underachievement at its best.

How can you go on about the coefficient and then say losing games is no big deal? How far are you going to go when you can't beat the Red Imps away?

Portugal is double the size of Scotland, has an excellent climate and more Brazilians than you can shake a stick at due to the easy access to work permits and historical links to Brazil. If Hearts had an entire team made up of well paid Brazilians due to the superior Portugese TV deal then they could probably have beaten that Maltese side.

Holland has a population of 17 million, Scotland has 5.3 million. Show me another country who has clubs who have reached a European final with such a small population and done so twice.

As for underachievers, you're a Liverpool fan, underachieving is part of the DNA. No league win in 26 years and not likely to be anytime soon.

He also took Rangers to the UEFA Cup final, their first European final for 36 years. It's painful how little you know.

Yet another European cup win in that time. A trophy the old Rangers never won no matter how much financial cheating trying to achieve this and a trophy the new club never will win.

Your trying to find excuses but i fail to see how a smaller population means a lack of players technically good enough to play at a level required. Scotland doesn't have enough top quality coaches, thats the main issue.

Iceland is a tiny nation yet have 600 top coaches which equates to one for every 825 Icelanders. Not forgetting the investments made in facilities meaning players can be coached regardless of the climate.

As long as Scotland continues to blame failure on a small population and climate there will be no improvement.


In what way does that make up for failure after failure in the Champions League? All those titles he won and year after year he couldn't get Rangers out of the group in the CL. His record in Europe's premier competition was abysmal.

Iceland have a good manager, we have Gordon Strachan who picks all his dud Celtic and ex-Celtic mates. Scotland rejected an approach for Lars Lagerback in 2009 and went for Craig Levein. No Icelandic player is staying in Iceland to play their football, they go to big clubs to get good coaching, not to diddy teams in the SPFL who can't afford to pay top dollar like English academies.

Portugese teams can sell players for 20, 30, 40, 50 million. Scottish teams can't. Trying to compare Scotland to Portugal is like saying why can't James Forrest be like Cristiano Ronaldo? All the coaching in the world won't make him Ronaldo. The bigger pool of players you have access to the more of a chance you will find a gem. As for Walter Smith, his record speaks for itself as does his standing in the game.

If you think Iceland's success is simply down to the manager you are very much mistaken. Iceland put plans in place 15 years ago to see an improvement in players. It just doesn't happen by magic.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/...ng-revolution/


Iceland has an artificial pitch next to every school in the country.

There is one Uefa-qualified coach for every 500 people; in England, it is one in 5000. I dread to think what the comparison with Scotland would be.


You telling me that doesn't make any difference at all?

As for population, Scotland has more than enough people playing the game to be able to produce enough players. Scotland doesn't need 11 world class players but it needs players who can technically compete with the opposition.

When was the last time a genuine World class player came from Scotland? Just one.

Dalglish.

Exactly and that was decades ago which simply isn't good enough for a country which is so heavily into football.

Nothing will change though. The game is run by Regan & Doncaster, allied to a bunch of blazers in the SFA and a sevco loving media who all want to harp back to the 'good old days' of semi regular champions league football and 4 old firm games a season.

To them that is the pinnacle of Scottish football.

Don't get carried away because a small team in a crap euros tournament got through. France thrashed them 5 going on 10, something England would have done if they had a decent manager. Any good Icelandic player leaves that frozen rock and moves abroad, and they still don't have any 'world class' players, just players that sit deep and break on the counter.

Scotland beat Iceland home and away last time they played. All 3 teams that qualified from Scotland's group also got out of their group at the euros so Scotland were in a tough group. Get in a decent manager and Scotland will qualify, don't and they won't.

You are missing the point. Forget about the Icelandic national team and just look at what a small nation is trying to do to improve. Rather than sit back and do nothing hoping players appear they actually try and produce talent.

What does Scottish football do?

As for players leaving. Why is that a bad thing? Players leave to further there careers just as players leave Scotland when a better opportunity arises elsewhere.

BT rightly going to be slaughtered for their coverage tonight. Totally unwatchable. Lots of people going to be wanting money back

What was wrong with it that would mean people were entitled to a refund?

Heard the picture quality was terrible. Can't see any refunds being dished out though.

Oh and hello again

Good to see you.

Was the weather bad in Stenny or just technical problems?

Kolo Toure in Glasgow to speak to Celtic.

I hope we don't sign him, can already imagine the standing section splitting in two to do the Kolo, Yaya song.

Every home game will be like a PDC darts event.

Nothing to do with the weather. Technical issues which meant that 90% of the game was unwatchable. Was a blue screen half the game and the rest of the game had breakup throughout. It was that bad that at the end of the game they just came off air rather than having any discussion/analysis.

Bloody hell, that's hopeless.

Good buy. Kolo can still play at the highest level. Was superb for Liverpool when played last season.

If he signs I wonder if he'll make his debut against Astana?

I would think so. Kolo is a professional so would of kept himself fit.