Why Are We So Shit At Football?

[Bluto10]

good to hear.

 

i play with all sorts, brits, locals, chinks the lot. the technique on the foreighn types i vastly superior to brits id say

[Rubinho Escocia]

I think part of the problem is we promote and reward the wrong behaviour, and our national team seems to systematically undermine our national league.

 

Taking our u19 squad that got to the European u19 final a few years back as an example. The majority of that team came from Celtic and Rangers but none of those youngsters have gone on to win a Scotland cap. However, a number of the players which came from the other teams in Scotland did go on to win caps - Lee Wallace, Steven Fletcher, Graeme Dorrans, Robert Snodgrass, Garry Kenneth.... Therefore, I'd only cap players playing first team football at youth level as the rest are likely to disappear anyway. This may encourage players like Fyvie to stay at Aberdeen or the Celtic/Rangers youngsters to move away from their comfort zone and go on loan to the lower leagues - if not at least it would develop young players who want to play!

 

The second thing is we tend to stunt our young players development by not capping them until they are 24 or just giving up on them an capping a physical journeyman from the lower leagues in England thus making our youth teams success irrelevant. Whilst not world beaters the likes of McFadden, Gordon, etc always looked like they could cope at international level, and for me that's because Vogts gave them a chance of international football at an early age despite them not playing for the Old Firm or in England. This had the effect of improving the players, the Scottish football league as it had more internationals, and ultimately Hearts and Motherwell as the players commanded transfer fees and moved to top league team as opposed to a lower league team.

 

Whilst it would not solve all our problems I think promoting playing first team football to our youngsters, and fast tracking those who do well regardless of who they play for would at least maximise what we've got.

[tup]

The first move we should make to progress Scottish football is to move SFA headquarters out of Glasgow, and indeed out of the central belt, into a more central position in Scotland, such as Perth, a base from which they could operate without undue influence and for the good of ALL the clubs and associations in Scotland.

[Bluto10]

Token measure tup

 

You still haven't answered my question as to why Scotland stopped having good players after the 80s.

[Ke1t]

Kids these days are turning into tight jean wearing, hair slicked to one side, x-factor wannabe poofs. You go into town and it's like a scene from one of those "Essex" programs with everyone dressing like Justin Beaver or Milly Cyprus.

 

I was going to post something similar.

 

Kids today are shandy-drinking fuds, most of whom would benefit from a battering that hospitalises them.

 

My wife would have my loon dressing like a quine, watching Sex in the City, and having metrosexual hand-job parties with all his queer mates if she were left to raise him herself. This is the problem with society... they want one gender, female.

 

Little faggots wouldn't heid a fitba in case they got split ends, whatever the fuck split ends are.

 

We need to take back our gender and have every loon under 16 get into a minimum of one fight a week, and shove a thumb up a classmate's twat with the same frequency.

 

And, as said before, rip up every 'No Ball Games' sign and burn them, along with the feminists, lesbians, and auld cunts.

[Bluto10]

N ball games is a travesty.

 

Can you ever imagine telling your own kid, who you love, no you're not playing ball games in the garden. That sort of treatment would be classed as abuse.

 

Mind you maybe they do it so the kids dinna dive on needles and used rubbers

[Ke1t]

N ball games is a travesty.

 

Can you ever imagine telling your own kid, who you love, no you're not playing ball games in the garden. That sort of treatment would be classed as abuse.

 

Mind you maybe they do it so the kids dinna dive on needles and used rubbers

 

Doesn't help that much of the grassy areas I played on as a kid have been ripped up... used to play down the beach all the time. Now there are fucking hotels and McDonalds standing there.

[Bluto10]

True.

 

But its more than that kelt

 

If a kid wanted to play he could. Bairns aren't useless nor stupid either. they'll find a place to play even if its an hours walk away.

 

Nobody can answer why this has gone on for so long.

Sco being a football backwater happened decades ago

[Ke1t]

True.

 

But its more than that kelt

 

If a kid wanted to play he could. Bairns aren't useless nor stupid either. they'll find a place to play even if its an hours walk away.

 

Nobody can answer why this has gone on for so long.

Sco being a football backwater happened decades ago

Ah, I was just having a rant, not trying to solve any problems.

 

One mistake people make, however, is trying to find the ONE reason why something is the way it is... when the reality is things are usually the result of a combination of factors. I suppose it's easier to focus on one thing, but it rarely helps to focus on one problem while ignoring all the others.

 

I'd say some of the reasons are

 

Kids are Fuds

 

Less Areas to Play Fitba

 

More Distractions

 

Outdated training methods

 

Corruption within the game aimed at weakening all clubs except two

 

Unappealing packaging of football in Scotland

 

No governmental aid

 

Retards running the game in Scotland both at club and national level.

 

Rampant parochialism (Fit kin the BRAZILIANS teach us aboot fitba)

[The Hulk]

All this grass-roots stuff is living in its own paradoxical bubble. We need to face facts that football is more and more becoming a middle-class pursuit in this country. As more and more parks become lost to real estate, chain-link fences going round 11-a-side grass pitches, and companies like Goals, PowerLeague and Strikers making money out of middle-class men (and women) having their kick abouit without getting dirty, football at its most basic level is becoming an expensive hobby. I see the training that some of the kids in the boys clubs do and it is no different to what I went through 20 years ago so all this "grass-roots" guff is just that - rubbish. The culture of society has changed but football has not changed with it. The SFA can spend all the money they like on community coaches, and they do generally do a cracking job, but the end isn't justifying the means. Kids in this country need to stay away from fags, booze, girls and fish suppers if they want to grow up into a good footballer. I've seen it happen to many friends of mine, some of them more gifted than those who actually made it, but didn't have the discipline to follow it through.

[Bluto10]

Tup who likes his 'me' threads never really says anything pertinent but you, for me, have summed it up worth this

 

'Unappealing packaging of football in Scotland''

 

Folk have grown sick of only two team winning.

 

Sure in the 40s and 60s it didn't bother people but not your modern day fan. Sco Football doesn't generate in adults and consequently doesn't filter down.

 

Ironically The old firm are only harming themselves with their stranglehold on our game.

 

In a correct domestic environment they could be like ajax or pirto, real euro players.

[Redstar]

All this grass-roots stuff is living in its own paradoxical bubble. We need to face facts that football is more and more becoming a middle-class pursuit in this country. As more and more parks become lost to real estate.

I'll stop you there chief...who do you think is responsible for the parks being lost to real estate...when the Chairman of the club is one of the most greedy, ruthless building contractors in Scotland you can kind of see how this one will end.

[caledonia]

Certainly you can over-complicate Tommy.

 

But the main issue is that kids are not playing as much football. If you see the kids, they want to play, it's just circumstance prevents it.

 

So the issue is with our society as a whole, they removed neighbourhood green areas, they put up signs saying 'No Ball Games' and then left the kids high and dry, without providing an alternative.

 

Agree with this when we were young we would play football in the parks, in the school grounds, in the streets anywhere we could and when ever we could but kids nowadays have all these other pastimes to choose from and as a result do not play football so much.

 

You cant even take a ball out hardly anywhere now as there is no ball games everywhere and the police are on the kids like a ton of bricks

people are not so tolerant of kids playing beside their houses any more either.

[buchanskii]

I was looking a the Dutch line-up that romped Romania [A team who would thump us]:

 

 

K. Vermeer D. Janmaat D. Blind 61' S. de Vrij B. Martins Indi 47' A. Robben R. van der Vaart 12' J. de Guzmán K. Strootman R. van Persie 56' 65' J. Lens 90'

 

Hardly househould names!

 

A lot of them playing well for their clubs in the Eredivisie - I'd rather we done the same but give guys like Griffiths, Russel, Mackay Steven, Shinne etc. a game. You know, Scottish guys who are in form for their clubs and who'd give a damn about their country. I find the desperate searching of championships/premiership players who have a Scottish a bit shit to be honest.

[True_Don]

One reason is half decent scottish talent f**king off down south at the first chance and believing they have made it. No real ambition e.g Grimmer, Fyvie.

[Stoneybloke]

One reason is half decent scottish talent f**king off down south at the first chance and believing they have made it. No real ambition e.g Grimmer, Fyvie.

That's got nothing to do with it. Denis Law went south and never even played in Scotland, and we know what a complete failure he was.

[E-P-K]

There is little will to sort it out amongst parents etc.

 

Kids have become way too precious and are not allowed out to fend for themselves now.

 

So everything happens in the home, which is where subscriber TV comes in.

 

While this may have no correlation to why Scotland is currently is shit at fitba, you are correct, bairns in general today, are rarely out width there parents sight, when I was 7, I was rumbling spooties, collecting for bonfires, knee deep in bramles collecting golf balls and playing fitba in the street. Today< if I dinna hear a noise out the back garden from my loon, im investigating.

[baconman]

Jeezo where do you start! Multiple reasons but I think it all has to start somewhere and my view is that the coaching here is crap. Has been for years. Bad coaching leads onto bad attitudes and mentality. Better facilities would help but I think it all stems from how we are taught the game and in Scotlands case this has not changed in years. We still have this hoof, chase the baa, get stuck in hard technique and attitude. Go to any local game this weekend and this is how they will be playing the game.

[RUL]

I think the question is does anyone even care that we are fuvking shite?

[sheepiekev]

People blame shite facilities. While this doesn't help, that hasn't stopped Eastern European countries and African countries overtaking us and producing better "technical" players.

 

Poor quality of coaching and not enough practice are the main problems IMO.

 

If kids of 7 onwards are taught to play the game the right way, and this is kept going as they get older, then there is no reason why we can't produce better footballers.

Getting away from the big lads dominating teams at boys clubs has to stop.

Win at all costs for young has to stop.

Focus on passing, controlling the ball, playing from the back etc....Do it from a young age, the habits will stick

 

The coaches at the top of the game have to coach the coaches further down the pyramid so they can teach the kids.

Facilities would help, but that needs finances and trying to get finances out of the Scottish Government in a recession is not going to happen.

 

There is no physical reason why Scottish boys can't be as skilled as the Germans etc. None.

Standard of coaching has to improve, and lots more practice is needed.

[stirlingsheep]

Not read through all the topic, but for me, a massive, massive thing (around west central Scotland anyway), I think was the mass of "no ball games" signs that seemed to go up on about any piece of grass that used to double as a football pitch, that, and the ownership of cars, which meant kids couldn't kick a ball in the street. Co-incidentally these cunts that got the signs put up were the same ones who later on used to phone the police on us when we started drinking on said grassy patches cause we couldn't play football.

 

Came to my parents the other night, and me and my dad commented that a young lad kicking a ball in the street was the first kid to do so since me and my mates were 11 or 12 (we're early 30s now)

 

Any other facilities cost money that teenagers can't afford, so video games and telly are the preferred option nowadays and the interest of kids gets lost when you're constantly moved from where you can play.

[daytripping]

All this grass-roots stuff is living in its own paradoxical bubble. We need to face facts that football is more and more becoming a middle-class pursuit in this country. As more and more parks become lost to real estate, chain-link fences going round 11-a-side grass pitches, and companies like Goals, PowerLeague and Strikers making money out of middle-class men (and women) having their kick abouit without getting dirty, football at its most basic level is becoming an expensive hobby. I see the training that some of the kids in the boys clubs do and it is no different to what I went through 20 years ago so all this "grass-roots" guff is just that - rubbish. The culture of society has changed but football has not changed with it. The SFA can spend all the money they like on community coaches, and they do generally do a cracking job, but the end isn't justifying the means. Kids in this country need to stay away from fags, booze, girls and fish suppers if they want to grow up into a good footballer. I've seen it happen to many friends of mine, some of them more gifted than those who actually made it, but didn't have the discipline to follow it through.

 

The new Bucksburn Academy was built near a great football pitch and play park that I basically grew up on with my mates, when they built the school they ran a big fence right round the building and also the football pitch, fair enough the school uses it but they had 4 other pitches built, all fenced off! Now the local kids can't get on the pitch in the evening or at weekends, god knows what they were thinking fencing it off, presume it's to stop dog walkers but that was never a big deal.

 

In my day the kids would have got bolt cutters out and made a gate before the builders had even finished putting it up but it seems the new fence is enough to put off today's generation.

 

A crying shame a gang of kids can't now go to the local park for a kick about.

[ChutneyLove]

I blame Ian Durrant, the diving bastard.

[daytripping]

I blame Ian Durrant, the diving bastard.

 

I was going to say that earlier, that dive made kids all over Scotland think it was acceptable to take a tumble under a fair challenge, they've turned soft since.

 

The diving cunt.

[Ke1t]

 

I blame Ian Durrant, the diving bastard.

 

I was going to say that earlier, that dive made kids all over Scotland think it was acceptable to take a tumble under a fair challenge, they've turned soft since.

 

The diving cunt.

More than fair challenge.

 

Durrant stuck his boot into the Maelstrom and was too much of a fud to handle a meaty, but perfectly fair, challenge.

 

What did the damage was giving the muppet a fucking coalie-bug aff the pitch.

 

You show me where it says to give an injured fud a fucking coalie-bug.

[vanderark14]

Where are these factual pieces of information coming from?

 

Matter of interest?

 

'I did a coaching course in Largs once, and was told that we're nae teaching them kick and run' or do you have proper valid reasons for telling us this information?

 

my info is based on youth sides in around fraserburgh and a couple from Aberdeen.

[Henry]

Roberto asking for sources

[Stoney]

Aye but every guy who manages a pub team will tell you they know more about football than the next man.

 

Theres no right or wrong method to kids coaching, half the battle is getting them organised and excited to play the game!

[tup]

Just look at the SFA Player Pathway guidelines if you must know Roberto, nobody is blowing trumpets, it's there in black and white if you wish to study it and then get back to us cheers.

[tup]

Well, please yourself, you did ask.