Ones to watch next season

[Stevencc]

SCOT FIGHT!

 

[SALTIRE]

I'll be the better man

 

[TheMinsterman]

SCOT FIGHT!

JOCK JOSTLE!

 

[Perseus]

Bruno, the right back form Brighton will raise some eyebrows. He has star quality. Such composure on the ball is rare from a full back. Worth the admission fee alone.

 

[St. Juste]

I'll be the better man

By making an accusation and not backing it up?

Clarence Darrow has nothing on you.

 

[SALTIRE]

By making an accusation and not backing it up?

Clarence Darrow has nothing on you.

Not even going to bother googling who that is but we all know that some of the stuff you write here has flawed logic just like the other day when you mentioned Germany had better players than England as there is 30 mill more people.

 

[St. Juste]

Not even going to bother googling who that is but we all know that some of the stuff you write here has flawed logic just like the other day when you mentioned Germany had better players than England as there is 30 mill more people.

That isn't what I said, I stated that the depth of talent was likely greater because they have significantly more choice.

Which is, well, obvious as well as logical. Same reason why San Marino aren't able to put out as good a team as Brazil.

 

[Bilo]

That isn't what I said, I stated that the depth of talent was likely greater because they have significantly more choice.

Which is, well, obvious as well as logical. Same reason why San Marino aren't able to put out as good a team as Brazil.

Yet Portugal are champions of Europe. Go figure.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

It's easy to list some of the young players with the most talent, the real problem is guessing which ones will actually get any chances.

 

[snortingfrogs]

Solanke of course.

 

[MagpieBee]

Yet Portugal are champions of Europe. Go figure.

Just because they're champions of Europe doesn't mean they have the best team.

Eder scoring the winning goal is a good example there...

 

[JimJams]

Craig fucking Shakespeare.
He's only gonna win the domestic treble y'know.


And what a great middle name.

 

[Bilo]

Just because they're champions of Europe doesn't mean they have the best team.

Eder scoring the winning goal is a good example there...

No, but it does go to show that the correlation population size=talent pool is incredibly weak, if tangible at all.

Nobody is disagreeing that England are underachievers but to say Germany definitely has a bigger talent pool than England because they have 30 million more people is not even almost accurate, because it doesn't work like that. For further reference points than just Portugal and Holland, look at what Iceland have done in the past 20 years. They've basically tripled their talent pool both in quantity and quality and it's not because they started popping out more children.

 

[St. Juste]

No, but it does go to show that the correlation population size=talent pool is incredibly weak, if tangible at all.

Nobody is disagreeing that England are underachievers but to say Germany definitely has a bigger talent pool than England because they have 30 million more people is not even almost accurate, because it doesn't work like that. For further reference points than just Portugal and Holland, look at what Iceland have done in the past 20 years. They've basically tripled their talent pool both in quantity and quality and it's not because they started popping out more children.

Right, so your position is that population to success is not tangible at all? So why are San Marino and Andorra the worst teams in football and Brazil and Germany the best? Coincidence? The worlds largest footballing nations overhwelming do the best, whilst the smallest do the worst.

There are outliers, of course, this is sport. But no matter how much Scotland does it's unlikely we will ever have a team as good as Brazil, no amount of coaching or focus will change the fact that they have more than 40 times our population. They could field several teams better than our first XI - of course they could, it's simple maths. They are the largest nation in the world to have football as the dominant sport, and are the most successful. In Europe the most successful nations are Germany and Italy, again the two largest where football is the dominant football. Accordingly to you, it really could be Finland and Liechtenstein.

The thing with Portugal and Netherlands is that neither nation is particularly small - Portugal is more than twice the size of Scotland and the Netherlands more than three times the size. Indeed, in terms of footballing dominant nations there aren't that many bigger than the Dutch in Europe - so it's no surprise they are relatively successful.

As for Iceland, a rubbish footballing nation that has done okay at one tournament? Yes, that proves a lot.....

Still if population doesn't matter, they will be winning the World Cup in a few years. Let's see if that happens. You have to go back to 1950 for the last time a nation of less than 40 million people won the World Cup.

But no correlation, must be a complete coincidence.

 

[MagpieBee]

No, but it does go to show that the correlation population size=talent pool is incredibly weak, if tangible at all.

Nobody is disagreeing that England are underachievers but to say Germany definitely has a bigger talent pool than England because they have 30 million more people is not even almost accurate, because it doesn't work like that. For further reference points than just Portugal and Holland, look at what Iceland have done in the past 20 years. They've basically tripled their talent pool both in quantity and quality and it's not because they started popping out more children.

Not really. What it shows is that the correlation between talent pool : success in tournaments isn't that's great and definitely has some outliers.

Generally, population size + history of playing football = better talent pool

 

[Bilo]

Right, so your position is that population to success is not tangible at all? So why are San Marino and Andorra the worst teams in football and Brazil and Germany the best? Coincidence? The worlds largest footballing nations overhwelming do the best, whilst the smallest do the worst.

Brazil and Germany aren't the two biggest footballing nations, that would be Indonesia followed by Brazil. Then you get Mexico and Nigeria both in before Germany in population. All of these countries have football as their biggest sport. If the correlation was as strong as you're implying, then you'd expect Mexico, Nigera and Indonesia to have at least one world cup between them? Considering that's three of the four biggest football countries in the world.

I'll give you the micro-states, of course extreme examples such as them can't do much.

Regarding Iceland, I wasn't referring to their most recent football tournament but the fact that they have literally more than doubled their professional player pool over the past twenty years and they did so through a complete revamp of their youth system. If it was all population = talent pool, then it shouldn't be possible and Indonesia should dominate world football along with Mexico, Nigeria and Brazil.

 

[St. Juste]

Brazil and Germany aren't the two biggest footballing nations, that would be Indonesia followed by Brazil. Then you get Mexico and Nigeria both in before Germany in population. All of these countries have football as their biggest sport. If the correlation was as strong as you're implying, then you'd expect Mexico, Nigera and Indonesia to have at least one world cup between them? Considering that's three of the four biggest football countries in the world.

I'll give you the micro-states, of course extreme examples such as them can't do much.

Regarding Iceland, I wasn't referring to their most recent football tournament but the fact that they have literally more than doubled their professional player pool over the past twenty years and they did so through a complete revamp of their youth system. If it was all population = talent pool, then it shouldn't be possible and Indonesia should dominate world football along with Mexico, Nigeria and Brazil.

It's hard to take anything you say seriously when you think football is the dominant sport in Indonesia - badminton is the most popular sport in Indonesia.

Both Mexico and Nigeria will become footballing powerhouses in the decades to come, the latter could certainly do with no longer losing diaspora players. Of course, given population doesn't matter, Latvia must have as good a chance as Mexico going forward - according to you.

Indonesia is actually pretty good at badminton. Even if football does eventually overtake it it has to compete with various other sports - the same reason China struggles. In Brazil, in Germany, in Mexico there is nothing that even holds a candle to football.

Iceland could double its talent pool every year for the next ten years and not come close to Brazil.

Population, interest in football and success is clearly correlated. Germany has a bigger talent pool than England, it's one of the reasons they perform so much better in the international stage.England has more people than Norway, and performs better on the international stage. The fact you deny this simple correlation is quite extraordinary.

Georgia World Cup winners 2026? Or will it be another nation of more than 40 million people?

 

[Bilo]

It's hard to take anything you say seriously when you think football is the dominant sport in Indonesia - badminton is the most popular sport in Indonesia.

Both Mexico and Nigeria will become footballing powerhouses in the decades to come, the latter could certainly do with no longer losing diaspora players. Of course, given population doesn't matter, Latvia must have as good a chance as Mexico going forward - according to you.

Indonesia is actually pretty good at badminton. Even if football does eventually overtake it it has to compete with various other sports - the same reason China struggles. In Brazil, in Germany, in Mexico there is nothing that even holds a candle to football.

Iceland could double its talent pool every year for the next ten years and not come close to Brazil.

Population, interest in football and success is clearly correlated. Germany has a bigger talent pool than England, it's one of the reasons they perform so much better in the international stage.England has more people than Norway, and performs better on the international stage. The fact you deny this simple correlation is quite extraordinary.

Georgia World Cup winners 2026? Or will it be another nation of more than 40 million people?

Indonesia's national sport is football. I'll openly admit my knowledge of badminton is minimal but it's not their national sport.

But I'll concede that the phrase "correlation is weak if tangible at all" was a bit over the top, but you still seem to argue that because Germany have 30 million more people they definitely have the bigger talent pool. Even taking away Indonesia, I'd say Mexico and Nigeria disprove the hypothesis either way. And with Portugal being European champions, the Dutch (also a good part as a result of a complete revamp of the youth system way back when) having made it to three world cup finals, Mexico not making it past the last 16 since god knows when in the world cup and Nigeria being very far behind, goes to show there's so much more to it than just population. Then you have Spain going all those decades without winning anything, etc etc. I can go on for just as long as you can.

So while I admit the correlation is there, it's certainly not remotely strong enough to say that Germany have a bigger talent pool because there's 30 million more of them. There are way, way too many exceptions for it to be a given. It's more likely that their youth development simply pisses all over English youth development and they don't need to hump like rabbits to change that, just like Iceland didn't need to.

 

[Stevencc]

Countries that have a smaller population than Scotland yet are positioned higher in the FIFA world rankings...

Wales.
Uruguay.
Croatia.
Costa Rica.
Iceland.
Republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland.
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Montenegro.
Slovenia.
Panama.

Pull your fingers out, boys.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Both Mexico and Nigeria will become footballing powerhouses in the decades to come, [...]

 

[St. Juste]

Countries that have a smaller population than Scotland yet are positioned higher in the FIFA world rankings...

Wales.
Uruguay.
Croatia.
Costa Rica.
Iceland.
Republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland.
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Montenegro.
Slovenia.
Panama.

Pull your fingers out, boys.

And quite a few of higher population are below Scotland.

We have no divine right to be the best, and have been quite average recently. We have a significantly better squad than many of those teams, St. Mirren failure Josh Magennis starts for Northern Ireland!

Furthermore, our footballing history comfortably trumps all of those nations besides Uruguay and maybe Croatia because their history is so short.

 

[Bilo]

Countries that have a smaller population than Scotland yet are positioned higher in the FIFA world rankings...

Wales.
Uruguay.
Croatia.
Costa Rica.
Iceland.
Republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland.
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Montenegro.
Slovenia.
Panama.

Pull your fingers out, boys.

But these are exceptions!!!! Get in line Steven and start producing kids for WC 2042

 

[Stevencc]

"Lie back and think of England".

 

[St. Juste]

But these are exceptions!!!! Get in line Steven and start producing kids for WC 2042

Some people go down swinging.

Not you.

 

[Stevencc]

Swinging, good idea.

We'll boost this population yet.

 

[Son of Cod]

Who have Brighton got at RB other than Bruno? Can't see his 36 year legs being used all the time, so potentially Tyler Forbes to break through?