Letters: Muirhead’s dedication puts footballers to shame

I WAS absolutely astounded to read the comments of Scotland manager Gordon Strachan after the latest loss in Serbia in The Scotsman (‘Strachan is ready to take hits, as he did at Celtic’, 28 March).

Quote: “You need to remember that by the end of the season these players are really, really tired. After ten months, it’s hard to take any new information in. They’re actually mentally dead at this point.”

Mr Strachan is having a laugh, I hope. These are the players who train each morning, have the rest of the day off, play a couple of 90-minute matches a week (any more and the club managers trot out the same rubbish about being tired).

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Let’s face it, they are nowhere near what they should be – fit, skilful, professional athletes able to play more than a couple of matches a week.

If the players are, as Mr Strachan says, unable to take new information in and are mentally dead at that point, then they should not be in the Scottish team.

Compare the Scotland football team to Scotland’s amateur curlers. Eve Muirhead and her team took on the world in Latvia last week, played 13 two-hour plus games of curling in eight days, displayed consistent skill, fitness and mental concentration and came back with the world title.

I guarantee that any SPL football player wouldn’t have lasted any more than a couple of days as a sweeper in Muirhead’s team and even less if they had to show the level of mental concentration over long periods that is required to win at this level.

The Scottish football players are not losing matches because the players are mentally dead or unable to take information in – they are losing because they simply do not have the talent to play football successfully at world or even European level and drastic action at school and youth level is needed by the SFA to change matters.

Until we do something, football on the world stage is not going to be an option for Scotland for the foreseeable future.

BOB CRAWFORD

Taymouth Road

Polmont

FALKIRK

A permanent GB football team looks the way forward

IT SEEMS Mickey Thomas may have been right after all in describing the current shambles of a Scotland team as the worst of all time. The presence of cannon fodder like San Marino on the international stage has long been criticised, but Scotland’s own claim to a viable international side is increasingly questionable.

With our absence from major tournaments now guaranteed to extend to at least 18 years, we are effectively in the same boat as Wales and Northern Ireland. Even England look unlikely ever to make a serious impression at the tournaments proper given how the number of foreign players in the Premier League has diluted the national team’s prowess.

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As a Scot who spent a fantastic week at London 2012, including attending (and enjoying!) Team GB’s men’s and women’s football matches, I’d suggest it’s time to seriously consider adopting Team GB on a permanent basis. The spirit of unity which gripped the country throughout the Olympics was something I think took many by surprise and if we could translate that fervour to a GB football team it may well lead to better fortunes on the field. It’s a controversial suggestion, I know, but if we’re being honest, the only reason most people turn out for a Scotland game these days is for a beer!

STUART CUNNINGHAM

Perth Road

DUNDEE

Exploits of heroic curlers deserved more coverage

LAST Sunday, Scotland’s womens curling team won the World Championship which was held in Latvia. Many congratulations to them.

I tuned into Reporting Scotland on Monday evening to hear the reaction to this wonderful victory. When it came to the sport section of the programme, it seemed that Aberdeen Football Club had appointed a new manager and that was the first item to be shown.

While I appreciate that football (Scotland team ranked 66th in the Fifa world rankings) has more followers than curling, surely winning a World Championship for Scotland ranks higher than a new manager for one team. Perhaps our local councils should be building curling rinks instead of ever more all-weather floodlit football pitches.

IAIN DAVENPORT

Mauricewood Park

PENICUIK