Are you still here, Craig?
We wrote the original version of this feature a month and four days ago, pleading for Craig Levein to be sacked as Scotland manager before it was too late. Now it’s too late. It’s later than it’s ever been. Sometimes it sucks to be right.
RECORD IN COMPETITIVE MATCHES
Berti Vogts P13 W5 D4 L4
George Burley P8 W3 D1 L4
Craig Levein P12 W3 D4 L5
PERCENTAGE OF GAMES WON
Berti Vogts 38.5
George Burley 37.5
Craig Levein 25
PERCENTAGE OF POINTS WON
Berti Vogts 48.8
George Burley 42
Craig Levein 36.1
Berti Vogts was building a young team from scratch after the veteran side of Craig Brown was pensioned off, and still got us to the Euro 2004 playoffs. He was sacked after 13 competitive games. George Burley was being constantly undermined from within by his own players, from above by the SFA and from outside by the media. He was sacked after just eight competitive games.
Craig Levein has had more players from the top divisions in England and Scotland at his disposal than any Scotland manager of the last decade. He has now led the team through 12 competitive games, and won significantly fewer of them (against worse opposition) than either Vogts or Burley. He has comprehensively lost the faith of the Scotland support. His time is up. He must go, and he MUST go now, or Scotland’s next qualifying campaign will be played out in front of empty terraces.
.
APPENDIX:
WINS
Berti Vogts
Netherlands
Iceland (x2)
Lithuania
Faroe Islands
George Burley
Iceland (x2)
Lithuania
Craig Levein
Liechtenstein (x2)
Lithuania
DRAWS
Berti Vogts
Germany
Slovenia
Moldova
Faroe Islands
George Burley
Norway
Craig Levein
Czech Republic
Lithuania
Serbia
Macedonia
DEFEATS
Berti Vogts
Germany
Netherlands
Norway
Lithuania
George Burley
Netherlands (x2)
Norway
Macedonia
Craig Levein
Spain (x2)
Czech Republic
Wales
Belgium
.
FOOTNOTE
For comparison, Alex McLeish and Walter Smith’s records were:
SMITH
P16 W7 D5 L4
Points: 54.2%
McLEISH
P8 W5 D0 L3
Points: 62.5%
Pep Guardiola could be manager and they still wouldn’t qualify.
He’s being interviewed on BBC Scotland right now. He is obviously a complete moron and I hardly know which side of a football you kick.
Sack him already.
Its only a game for goodness sake.
You’d almost think that it matters.
As i already said on a comment on a previous article. Craig Leve-in was always in the pockets of the London-Establishment…
Bored now. But when someone that dim is in charge of anything larger than a coffee morning, it’s time to do something about it.
Morag:
It’s the side nearest to you that you kick. 🙂
“He is obviously a complete moron and I hardly know which side of a football you kick.”
The outside.
😉
Surprisingly Berti Vogts’ record is better by a fair amount than Levein’s, despite the abuse that Vogts got from people like Jim Traynor. The Scottish press have been too supportive of Levein. I don’t think he has ever recovered from the Czech away debacle. He’s has got to go. Would be happy with Walter Smith, Alex McLeish, not sure about Strachan, but would be a big improvement on Levein.
Based on your calculations of percentages of points won, is there any chance we could get McLeish back?
Couldn’t you all just start following tennis instead? It’s a helluva lot more fun, and we get to win sometimes.
Samuel Johnson would do a better job than Levein.
Keep him. As the national team sinks beyond redemption, the tartan army will turn elsewhere – to politics or leafleting perhaps – for something to keep the flame going. Disenfranchised football fans are all the rage these days.
Fitba: 22 cheats kickin a bag o air round some grass.
Gie me professional cycling onyday.
People forget George Burley’s last competitive game in charge. Netherlands at Hampden. Kenny Misser with a signature missed sitter when it was 0-0. Davie Weir with a monumental fuck up to gift them a goal. A draw would have put us second in the group, and a win (which we could have gotten except for those two pieces of luck – we played IMMENSE that night) would have taken us into the play-offs.
Craig Levein, on the other hand, took us within 10 seconds of a draw to LIECHTENSTEIN.
Both his campaigns were in trouble after one game. Both campaigns were effectively dead after three. His crimes have been numerous:
1. 4-6-0 vs the weakest Czech team since Czechoslovakia split – effectively saying to his players “you lot are so pish, you need to play all out defence against a mediocre team.” I would have happily seen him sacked on the spot for that.
2. Playing Kenny Miller WAY past his best. I’ve never been a fan of the Misser of Sitters, but at least he used to be able to perform his Headless Chicken routine adequately. The boy has no pace now and should have probably retired after destroying our chances in 2010, and certainly after 2012.
3. Falling out with our best striker over a fucking friendly game, thus leading to having to prolong the Kenny Misser agony even longer. Absolute child.
4. A chronic inability to make changes on the pitch when required, as shown in recent matches when he made no changes until about 80 minutes, giving players just 10 minutes to change a game
5. Hyping up players only to say “oh they’re not ready yet” – hardly the way to boost confidence
6. Excluding players from squads then suddenly deciding they’re first choice – shows inconsistency
7. Complete double standards in regards to team selection – “oh I can’t pick him, he’s not playing regular football. Oh but I’ll pick this guy who doesn’t even get on his club’s subs bench.”
8. Arrogance – all he had to do was say “yeah okay, I over-estimated the Czechs.” He would have shed a lot of critics with a simple admission that even the mighty Levein can be wrong.
Incidentally, I’d keep him in the SFA to carry on the background changes, because I think he’s doing good things there – he’s just a shit manager. Belgium looked at the German, French and Dutch youth systems 10 years ago and copied the best bits. Now look at their team. Levein is trying to make today’s players play the way tomorrow’s will. It doesn’t work. We need someone who understands our players’ “strengths” and accommodate them.
Lithuania must fucking hate us, by the way…
Walter Smith – no chance, he’ll piss off as soon as Sevco come calling once Ally McCoist fails to get them promoted this season. And Alex McLeish left us in the lurch too, so he can piss off as well.
“effectively saying to his players “you lot are so pish, you need to play all out defence against a mediocre team.””
This is EXACTLY it. This is Levein’s crime, in pretty much EVERY game, and why keeping him won’t do any good even if we give him 20 years. He sends out teams scared of losing.
“Playing Kenny Miller WAY past his best.”
God yes. I’d rather have seen Chris Iwelumo given another shot. You can’t throw a guy aside for one miss.
“Falling out with our best striker over a fucking friendly game”
The one area where I’ll back Levein up to a degree. Fletcher threw a tantrum and it wasn’t the manager’s job to go crawling to him. That he (eventually) did anyway is to Levein’s credit.
Pretty much everything else bang on the money. For me, the most damning thing other than Prague was when we had to beat Spain in the last game to have a chance of making Euro 2012. We were 2-0 down at half time, and it didn’t make a shred of difference if we lost 300-0. We HAD to go and give it a shot and hope for a miracle, and he sent us back out for the second half with still just ONE striker, still defending. (When he FINALLY put another one on, we scored almost immediately and could have had a second minutes later.) I’d have sacked him after Prague, but I’d have sacked him and strung him up after that. That should have been his last chance.
What we need is the Alex Salmond of Football Managers. What we get is the Willie Bain of Football Managers.
Is it not best to look abroad for Levein’s replacement?
Before Levein, Scotland teams would fail to qualify because of bad luck, awful referees, poor quality of players, or just coming up against better teams. Even Burley’s 4-0 loss to Norway was probably more to do with Calamity Caldwell getting himself sent off for getting two yellows in just 33 minutes than anything Burley did. but just like every manager before him, he got Scotland to within touching distance of qualification.*
Levein, on the other hand, has absolutely been the architect of Scotland’s downfall. Second place last time was utterly within the capabilities of a team that could theoretically pick 11 EPL players in the starting line up, and although this group is a bit of an anyone-can-beat-anyone group, we should NOT be languishing at the bottom of the group before we’ve even played Croatia.
*Obviously this doesn’t apply so much to the 2008 Euro qualifiers, but at least Berti got us to the play-offs in 2006.
Oh, and I think Chris Iwelumo’s main crime was not being Kris Boyd. I have no idea why the media were so obsessed with getting a fat over-achieving poacher playing international football, but there we are. I reckon Misser has missed sitters equally as bad as Iwelumo.
Just want to say if it wasn’t for McGregor in goal it would have been 6-0 and counting! McGregor may have saved Levein’s bacon just by throwing himself at the ball in a world class fashion. However Levein doesn’t deserve it, for me it’s his mystifying tactics that I’ve had enough with. And tonight it was “go on lads, we desperately need a win so defend on the 18 yard box while lumping a ball somewhere over ‘there’ in the hope that our one striker can get on the end of it and magically get past five top class players and sneak a result.”
I’d rather get back to ‘unspectacular but solid’ approach, then take it from there. So I’d nominate Strachan with Joe Jordan as assistant out of current desperation.
We could still be playing now and not have scored.
Being honest, how many Scots would have made it into the Belgian team?
Actually how many would have made it to their substitutes bench?
McGregor and…errr.. that is about it……
Scotland should discover the merits of playing better together with our countrymen in the rest of the UK. Perhaps if Scotland chooses to remain in the Union a GB national football team would be a good way of marking this significant vote in favour of our common British identity. We might then have a better chance of qualifying for such tournaments.
Come now Effie, you are just baiting…
Why not go the whole hog and have a EU team?
We could be part of many more victories…
But there wouldnt be a single Scotsman in the team for us to get behind in a EU team…
And there probably wouldnt be a single Scotsman in the GB team either.
It would be the England team, with a slightly more stylish strip.
Sport is a product of the anti-intellectual strain in the character of our near neighbour. It was and still is a major element in the school system both private and state. Sport also plays a significant role in totalitarianism. If Scots lack brilliance could be we, as someone said of the French, just don’t do sport. History shows that we, like the Jews, do the intellectual better. Encourage that in the independent state to come and we will be making a better contribution to the world than worrying over abilities to teach guys to run after balls.
The Belgian players were stronger athletes than the Scots and the Scots inclination to want too many touches on the ball before moving it on meant they often caught in possession.
Speed of thought, one-touch playing and constant mobility can overcome the athletic strength factor. Look how Barcelona play.
“Let the ball do the work” was the mantra drummed into me. Unlike rugby where you have a team/field position to maintain (stay behind the ball) in football you can choose how and when to receive the ball, provided that your teammates are of a similar mindset. Look at the mindless pass to instantly receive the ball back without any movement by the player.
And talking of mindless, football commentators like Traynor are a positive hindrance.
I watched Cowdenbeath play Partick Thistle. On just about the one time Partick opted to move the ball, with speed along the ground rather than punt it up the park, they scored the only goal of the game.
Never mind Alex McLeish. Fuck, HENRY McLeish could have made a better job of running that team.
Anyway, I’m with Andrew on this one – cycling’s much better!
Well getting rid of Levein won’t sort the problem.
Look how desperate we are when we’re calling for managers who still lost more games than they won to come back !
If we get rid of Levein, then get rid of the SFA board (and the SPL and SFL). We need grass roots change and that means clearing out these duffers.
We then invest in teaching coaches. They have to pass the european qualifications, or even better we get in European coaches with real ball skill. You can’t teach a kid ball skill from a coach with two left feet. These coaches then teach the 8-14 year old age bracket.
This is what needs to happen, we all know it.
Steven Fletcer was Scotlands best player when he wasn’t playing. Last night he wasn’t good enough. Scotland have no pace anywhere on the pitch. Maloney isn’t as quick as Forrest, Fletcher isn’t as quick as Rhodes. The modern game needs pace and that’s something Scotland don’t have at the moment.
As for sacking levien, same problem as Celtic and Rangers, you can make more momey managing a mediocre Championship side.
Who are we going to get? Strachan, Smith, McLeish? Not likely. Moyes? Coyle? Nope.
Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it, and I hear Steve Kean is looking for work….
However, I would like to see Paul Lambert give it a shot.
Effie, I think you’re maybe onto something here.
However, if we’re going to pair up with another country to form a joint team, clearly it would be better to pick one that can win championships on a regular basis.
Off the top of my head France would be up the top of the list. This would come with the added benefits of close historical co-operation going right back to the thirteenth century. Then there’s the cultural aspect too; French more left politically and of course the Celtic connection through Brittany. Could be called ‘Team Auld Alliance’. I’d imagine we’d probably fill the defence positions, so maybe ‘Garde Écossaise’ as a wee nickname for the back four? Mrs SS is from Normandie and thinks the idea sounds cool.
Germany would probably be second in line for me, then Spain or Italy. All very good teams.
“If we get rid of Levein, then get rid of the SFA board (and the SPL and SFL)”
Don’t think you’ll find a lot of people resisting that idea…
Thanks Rev Stu – I like to keep the policies popular.
I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a Scotland team that has looked so consistently out of its depth at international level than this one. Sure, we’ve been shite at football for a long time time now, a situation that has only been exacerbated with the formation of the SPL, but at least in previous campaigns we’ve had some good team performances to mitigate the shite.
I agree with much of what Doug Daniel said earlier but I disagree with him when he says that, “Levein is trying to make today’s players play the way tomorrow’s will”. I think the opposite is the case. I don’t think that the problem is that we have a manager who’s getting above himself, the problem is that we have a manager (and too many players) who are out of their depth at international level. We’re playing yesterday’s football today. The rest of the football world has passed us by and we still haven’t worked out why this has happened. That’s what you’re seeing every time we play nowadays.
Perhaps it’s time to stop viewing football in the context of a surrogate religion then and just get on with enjoying it as a game, both from a playing and spectating viewpoint. If we go out their with the intention of just having fun it just might make all the difference!
@maxstafford,
In principle, I agree. But in practice, while that’s a great philosophy for a Sunday league team (and I’ve played for a few of them myself) for a professional national team it would be disastrous.
Having said that, you might be on to something. What’s clear is that our players are full of fear when they play. Look at their faces during the national anthems! These are not players who’re confident that they’re going to win, they’re players who look terrified that they’re going to lose, and that’s the way that they play.
James Morrison is a good barometer for the team. He’s a good player for West Brom, he’s positive, makes space, passes the ball well, gets himself into good positions with the Baggies’ other midfield players, Mulumbu, Brunt and Gera, and he links up well with Odemwingie and Fortune up front. But when he plays for us he looks like he doesn’t know what he should be doing. He rarely has anybody to play off and he doesn’t get enough support from the rest of our midfield or the lone striker. I’m convinced that Levein has got in to Morrison’s head, and other players’ heads, in a negative way and that this tells us a lot about the way that we’re playing.
Another manager could and would use players like Morrison and Darren Fletcher (who, understandably, is nowhere near 100 per cent fit yet) much more effectively, with a different set-up and a different approach to games. That’s why Levein has to go. In truth, he shouldn’t have been given the job in the first place. He had neither the nous nor the experience to justify his appointment. Unfortunately, there are too many cowards and too many ultra-conservatives in the SFA and, to them, Levein would have looked a safe appointment while spinning him as a young, ambitious manager. Bollocks, pure unadulterated bollocks.
Apologies for being O/T, But i’ve just been watching the rank unionist ian Paisley Jr of Northern Ireland being allowed to have a sublime critical pop at the upcoming Scottish referendum in the full blaze of the british media on PMQ. I understand this topic is about GL and his poor performance as a manager of a fairly mediocare pool of players, but I reckon that WOS has a more important issues and influence rather than dwell on the performance of a generally recognised limited national football team and their manager.
@balgayboy
The involvement of clan Paisley in the unionist cause is an unsavoury development. We can expect the Orange order network to be enlisted in the glorious cause of saving the UK from the neo-fenian Scots. Interesting times ahead to be sure. As they say, No Surrender!
“Politics is football by other means,” to mis-quote von Clauswitz. I don’t know why I said that, it just came to me.
@balgayboy
What did he say? Does Paisley not understand that any overt Orange influence on the referendum would not go down well in the central belt, particularly among Labour supporting catholics? If he has any political acumen, he would stay well clear of the issue…
I think you guys have all seriously misjudged the brave Mr Levein and the sacrifice he and the team have just made.
Not wanting to be responsible for the mood of national despair that would follow our early exit from Brazil 2014 – and which could have a seriously negative effect on the “Yes” vote – they have decided to get this over and done with right now, by not even qualifying.
I say “bravo” for this brave sacrifice made for the sole benefit of the “Yes” campaign and suggest gongs and maybe an ambassadorship on independence (Uzbekistan should suit).
@Muttley79
They can’t help it. They fear over their own self preservation. This has come off the back of Sinn Fein wanting to hold talks with the Irish government over a referendum on a united Ireland.
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Sinn-Fein-leader-Gerry-Adams-calls-for-a-United-Ireland-referendum-and-poll-on-border-174550651.html
@Dcanmore
Best if the Yes campaign avoids the Northern Irish issue completely me thinks…..Trouble lays down that road. Last thing we need is Sinn Fein, DUP, and other elements getting ‘involved’ in our referendum. Let others mention, and bore themselves and others with it, with the likes of Paisley being a prime candidate for this role.
YesYesYes – my “Levein is trying to make today’s players play the way tomorrow’s will” comment is based on some of the points Pat Nevin was making after the match, when they were showing you examples of the Scotland team trying to pass the ball out of defence. They just couldn’t do it. As someone else says, they were taking too many touches, and as a result they’d lose control, and Belgium would nip in. A couple of examples are when James McArthur was almost caught in possession buggering about just outside defence, and the time someone passed back to Danny Fox, who chickened out and gave it away.
I think perhaps he is trying to get them to pass it around a bit, but they’re incapable of doing it, so they then resort to Route 1 – which ironically resulted in scoring a rare goal against Wales.
There IS a plan in place. Folk calling for the SFA to start trying to do things better perhaps don’t realise they’re already doing this – that’s the whole point of the Dutch dude Mark Wotte, who is the performance director. The stuff the SFA is doing will take 10 years to come to fruition, so we’re just going to have to make do with the players we have just now. However, I suspect (and I’m sure I read/heard this somewhere) that Levein is trying to ape the German strategy of having a set system for all levels of the national team, so that young players are brought through the ranks knowing the system. So what he’s trying to do with Scotland is just that – but there’s no point when you’ve not got the players yet.
However, I could be speaking utter rubbish, as this is mostly supposition on my part…
Yep Doug, I know the SFA are trying to improve things – maybe I was a little harsh in my calls for them to be hung,drawn and quartered.
It’s when you see foreign kids at the age of 12 with all the skill and ball control in the world and compare them to our kids, who have most likely only ever been trained by someone’s dad and the school janitor who runs the primary school team – there’s just no chance for our kids.
As far as I’m concerned this just highlights what ‘grassroots’ change is required. Teaching kids of 15/16 skills on the ball,passing etc is just too late. We simply don’t have the money, nor in fact, the training talent to make sweeping changes.
I’m depressed now..jumpers for goalposts anyone ? First to five goals wins ? No ? Game of ‘kerby’ then ?
@Muttley79
Absolutely! Wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole, however I’ll bet the London Unionists will try to shoe horn them into the ‘debate’ somehow.
@Doug
My thoughts were the same as Nevin’s, trying to get journeymen professionals with 30, 40, 50 caps to play a series of systems which are alien to them reminded me of Vogts with the remains of Brown’s squad. Levein is obviously overrating the football intelligence of his senior players who only meet as a squad a handful of time a year. However I can see it working with the U17s, U19s and U21s. There is method in the madness but the senior team can’t take it.
“Effie Deans” didn’t I just read a comment of yours over on neepheed ‘Ian Smarts’ blog where you tried to say it wasn’t his fault over the complete arse he has made of himself over his statements on the referendum? I think it was.
If you can support that neep, we certainly don’t need your help with Scottish fitba, we’re bad enough as it is.
@Doug Daniel,
Points taken, I hope you’re right but, at present, I don’t think that our biggest problem is defenders trying to pass the ball – I wish it was! The impression I get from watching our defenders is that they’re anxious to pass the responsibility of being in possession of the ball to someone else. They lack confidence in possession but, equally important, they lack targets to pass to when they’re in possession, or rather, targets that are in space. The inevitable result is that our defenders are forced to make a bad decision by either passing to someone who isn’t in a good position to receive the ball or hoof it hopefully up the field, and we lose possession.
This, I think, is the root of our problem. We don’t seem to be able to create space for each other and work the ball forward as a team. This is why we can’t retain possession, notwithstanding the monotonous square ball which we resort to not only in defence but in midfield and in the final third as well. With the exception of the first 45 minutes against Wales – when Wales were so open and played so deep that they made us look much better than we are – the striking contrast between us and the opposition has been the ease with which the opposition create space and retain possession of the ball. But they retain possession because they create space for each other. It doesn’t help that our teams are being set up not to lose. We may not have any world class players in our team but we do have enough decent players to do better than this.
The other point I would make is that there are a number of advantages to appointing a new manager now. This campaign is over, we all know that. But we could use that to our advantage. Appoint a new manager now to build a squad and a team for the next Euros in 2016. In appointing him now, particularly as the next game is a friendly, he would enjoy the advantages of managing Scotland in competitive matches, but he’d be free from all the pressures of qualification, while the players would still be under pressure to perform to keep their place in the team. A new manager with a new set-up and improved performances – we could hardly do any worse – would at least lift our spirits in anticipation of the Euros. We need some respite from the depths of this collective despondency and it’s not going to happen as long as Levein is in charge.
Exactly! I read someone on Twitter saying “oh well there’s no point sacking him now because the campaign is over, so might as well give him time to try out some new things.”
AARGGGHHH!!!!
That’s like saying “oh well, that’s my house sold. Now, I COULD go and move into my new home now, but I think I’ll spend £20,000 getting a new kitchen fitted in here instead – which the new owners might decide to rip straight out when they move in next year.”
We got rid of Vogts when 2006 qualification was all but doomed, and those few extra competitive-but-meaningless games allowed Smith to get his team sorted out and flying straight out of the blocks in the 2008 qualifiers.
Oh, and tartanfever – don’t worry, the SFA should still be hung, drawn and quartered. They may have finally gotten things sorted out, but people have been telling them for YEARS that we needed wholesale change in the game!
The game of football, which incidentally, I don’t give a flying fuck about is rigged. I DO want an Independent Scotland. In order to control the outcome of a competition you have to control both sides. See Machiavelli. Football controls the hearts and minds of the vast majority of males in Scotland in particular.
See how the ‘English’ club game has soared from it being on it’s arse in the eighties with all it’s ‘foreign investment’ from left-field. Someone on the usual drivel Scotsman commented that since Scotland got Devolution the Scotland football team has never qualified for a tournament. I found it very interesting how Scotland’s best players are often taken out the game via transfers down south and ‘benched’.
Craig Levein and the SFA are under the total control of the London Establishment and the Rangers debacle has a strange smell to it… Remember how quickly Walter Smaith turned the team around… Or was it, he was ‘allowed’?
@Doug Daniel,
I like the analogies you make on Wings. And this one, once again, is spot on. Nice one.