International Football - Page 31

I would be quite content with Sanchez. As I have said before, Ireland are as good as teams like Ukraine, but we have to be realistic. Sanchez did well for Northern Ireland and got them scoring goals.

Taker, can you see where he was coming from with Northern Ireland? He was very selfish, but he had changed the fortunes of the North completely around, he wanted to get out when his stock was high. He obviously feared failure, and wanted to go out on top.

Oh Taker you forgot about Jonny Evans, he would start for us beside Dunne.

England manager Fabio Capello is under investigation for tax fraud.

Oh dear.

6 September 2008 - Slovakia v Northern Ireland
10 September 2008 - Northern Ireland v Czech Republic
11 October 2008 - Slovenia v Northern Ireland
15 October 2008 - Northern Ireland v San Marino
11 February 2009 - San Marino v Northern Ireland
28 March 2009 - Northern Ireland v Poland
1 April 2009 - Northern Ireland v Slovenia
5 September 2009 - Poland v Northern Ireland
9 September 2009 - Northern Ireland v Slovakia
14 October 2009 - Czech Republic v Northern Ireland

Reasonably happy with that set of fixtures. Away to Czech Republic for the last game is pretty bad though - toughest opponent for the last match, a bit like us having Spain away this qualifying campaign. I fancy we could get home wins over Czech and Poland, maybe a draw with the Poles away and a loss to the Czechs. As for the other matches, who knows. Slovenia and Slovakia could prove tough away games. Six points against San Marino is obviously a must.

SFA given permission to speak to Burley & McGhee

I don't think I'd be too bothered if Burley left us. Yes he's a good manager but we don't seem to be going anywhere at the moment. I guess that's not helped by the board though.

TBH I don't think any of the 4 on the shortlist stand out as great candidates. I'd say Souness is probably the best of a bad bunch though.

TENNENT'S INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGE MATCH CONFIRMED

SCOTLAND v. CROATIA
HAMPDEN PARK, GLASGOW
WEDNESDAY 26TH MARCH, 2008

Scottish FA Chief Executive Gordon Smith today confirmed that the Scottish National Team will play a friendly match against Croatia at Hampden Park on Wednesday 26th March, 2008, kick-off 8pm.

The Croatians are currently ranked tenth in the FIFA World rankings and have an impressive array of talent at their disposal - including Arsenal's Eduardo and the highly rated and much sought after Luka Modric.

Commenting on the match, Gordon Smith said: "This promises to be a great match between two teams at the top end of the world rankings. We saw in their matches in the Euro Qualifiers against England that Croatia has an exciting squad who play great football. They have an impressive pedigree on the world stage - finishing third in the 1998 World Cup.

"If we ourselves want to keep on improving, then these are exactly the types of teams that we should be playing. Our football is on the up - and we are only a few places below Croatia in the rankings. What we have to do, though, is get back to the situation where we regularly qualify for major championships. This is what Croatia do - and this is what we must seek to emulate.

"I firmly believe that playing against better teams shows us the standard that we have to reach. That is why I was so keen to negotiate a friendly against Croatia. We have a great squad of players who are improving all the time and we will soon have a new manager in place who we all hope will lead us to the World Cup and beyond.

"This will be the new manager's first game in charge. I know that our supporters will turn out in big numbers to support him and the team as we enter a bright new era for Scottish football."

Burley set for Scotland job

Seems like he's the one they want and they're going to offer him the job. Can't see him turning it down either.