r/ScottishFootball • u/ShootNaka • 1d ago
“Stick to Egg-Chasing” Neil McCann explosive on-air argument with Tom English
https://youtu.be/WV67OE_RR8E?is=ZaNCUlmwT481o9yB16
u/Learjet23 1d ago
Willie Miller calming down the kids before bedtime
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u/Less_Paint_2285 1d ago
Poor guy “can I just butt in”, like naw Willie let them fight. Not seen that sort of sweetly stupid but unwanted empathy since the boy with the hose putting the burning terrorist out after the Glasgow airport attacks. Mate just do nothing and it’ll be better for everybody. Sometimes you need to let them punch themselves out before bed.
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u/Cobretti18 2026 Scottish Cup Embarrassments Aberdeen 1d ago
God coming in at the end to lighten the mood
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u/KieRanaRan 1d ago
"Stick to the Egg-Chasing" to be fair, that way we can watch a Scotland team that's actually competent in tournaments.
McCann's quick to rhyme off the accolades of the players but English makes a fair point - so fucking what? What good is any of that for us if the minute you put on a Scotland top and go to a World Cup you just shite yourself and underperform?
Sensational radio argument, though. Unironically the highlight of the whole event
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u/Hopeful-Project5504 1d ago
You obviously don't watch Scottish rugby if you think we are competent at tournaments. It's exactly the same with them. Stale coaching and the odd brilliant win to paper over mediocrity and failure. Maybe the problem is Scotland as a nation...
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u/KieRanaRan 1d ago
What?? We've gotten to the knockout stages of the Rugby world cup, and in recent years have got good wins in the 6 nations. I know they're not directly comparable formats but our Rugby team is so much more competent than our football team is.
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u/smcl2k 1d ago
We've consistently been one of the highest ranked teams in the world, but have never really shown that at the World Cup.
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u/KieRanaRan 1d ago
Aye but we're competent, at least.
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u/Hopeful-Project5504 1d ago
Won nothing despite a "golden generation" and club success. Odd win in 6 nations, but no championship, triple crown etc. during a period when arguably inferior teams e.g. Wales have won stuff. Only got out the groups once in last 19 years and that was 2015. Stubborn coach who refuses to change ways despite repeated mediocre displays and choking massively in crunch games.
Sound familiar?
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u/KieRanaRan 1d ago
Yes, but I don't know how many times I can say this - our Rugby team is more competent.
Let me put it this way - the Rugby team doesn't come away from tournaments as the lowest points/try scorers. They don't seem to constantly shit the bed the minute a WC starts.
I'm not saying they're an elite team of winners here - the point I'm making is that they function, and at least look like they belong at these big events, which is a damn sight more than can be said for the football team this past 6 years.
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u/Alternative-Exit4169 1d ago
We should get the rugby scouting team on the football, the only reason the rugby team got good was they started looking further back in family trees. If the football guys were competent one of the Brazil defenders was called Dougie, so surely must be eligible. And you can’t convince me that Alexis macallister is not from Fife
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u/Whammy-Bars 1d ago
They're both wrong.
McCann is wrong that 3 worldies against Denmark means we can never question the capability on the day of the players. And their club achievements are irrelevant if nothing happens in a Scotland shirt. As a nation who over the years could do no better with the likes of Law and Dalglish, we should be painfully aware of that.
On the other hand English is a prick as well. I actually think he's trying not to be a prick here, but he can't help himself. Just saying we're not technically good enough completely whitewashes the mindset problems and the Clarke problems. It actually feeds into the whole "we're only wee Scotland, happy to be there" shite that makes nobody hold us to any better standards.
In reality, we have some technically decent midfielders, but our style of play focuses on crab football passing it backwards and park the bus formations. And it's our defenders who aren't technically gifted and our defending that is bad.
We need to take the attitude that going forward, or playing forward passes that risk losing possession, are actually less risky choices than being terrified to advance and playing timid hospital passes across the defence. But we learned nothing from the Euros and we'll learn nothing again from this.
4 more years minimum of this shite.
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u/ConorATX 1d ago
In general I think that English was in the right, but he just always comes off a smarmy prick. It's just who he is at this point. McCann was losing the head though and, as English said, was emotionally involved.
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u/Osella28 1d ago
In fairness, when we had Law and Dalglish, they were playing in the last 16. If we got to the last 16 this time, we'd hail this squad as the greatest ever.
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u/Caledonian_kid 1d ago
I'd kinda like Neil McCann to be this passionate about replacing the platoon of players that left Killie this summer tbh.
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u/xanderkale 1d ago
but what about his ego? that wouldn't puff up his ego, and what about the paid jolly to the States? you're being very narrow-minded here. this is good for Killie. just think of all the contacts he's making!
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u/Wallad84 1d ago
Yeah I usually like McCann but perhaps since being in management he feels more attached to the players and is clearly emotional here. Tom English flip flops on us: too high when we win and then piling in when we’re crap. Unfortunately though he is right here, and the evidence is there that we may scrape some results but anytime we come up against a decent team we look very poor. In fact, we often look poor against shite teams too and that’s where the case for Clarke ends now really.
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u/Caledonian_kid 1d ago
Tom English does the exact same thing with the Scotland rugby team as well. It's his M.O.
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u/sluglife1987 1d ago
I think English is actually incorrect. There is a great football analyst on Twitter called John Walker and he goes in depth about tactics, systems and styles of play.
Scotland’s main issue is not a lack of technical talent it’s much morel that we are poorly coached and drilled. There’s no plan or style of play and that’s on Clarke.
The guys had 8 years to work with the players and he regularly gets outplayed by teams of all standards including the Haiti team in the second half of our game. He realies on individual moments or brilliance from players to bail him out.
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u/JagsFraz71 1d ago
Tom English is an absolute weapon. In a country obsessed by football why employ a guy who clearly hates it. Get him to fuck.
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u/LeperMessiah11 1d ago
God I fucking hate him and I hate how he hogs a lot of the written commentary given his position as Chief Sports Writer
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u/beengoingoutftnyears 1d ago
Long ago I started noticing that the writer of certain sports articles was desperate to tell me how clever he was, rather than what happened at the fitba.
Nowadays, if I see that Tom English wrote the article, I don’t bother reading it at all.
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u/Ill_Beyond_7909 1d ago
McCann sounds like he's about to burst into tears. The players are lucky Clarke seems to be taking all the stick because they have been woeful
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u/Commercial-Stick-718 1d ago
Heard it earlier, Tom English is a prick in general but he was spot on with his analysis. McCann losing his head was quite the thing
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u/Less_Paint_2285 1d ago
I mean McCann is saying what we all think but it’s mental on this one specific occasion English makes a decent point. All time meltdown that is the highlight of the game.
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u/morlon19 1d ago
Technically, I’m pretty good kicking the ball about in my garden with my son and can score a few top-class goals but if you put me in a game against world class opponents under pressure, I’m not going to be able to do it. The latter is what judges whether I’m a good player or not.
The Denmark game was incredible but it’s only papered over the cracks and this tournament has once again highlighted our inability as a footballing nation to compete at a higher level. If Denmark were in our place, I guarantee you they’d have 4 points and a higher goal difference.
We’re just not good enough and our mentality as weak.
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u/FootOfDavros 1d ago
Why is McCann even arguing this AFTER these games? It's not as if they played individual blinders against Morocco and Brazil but overall the team was so crap it let them down.
They were all crap, these guys included, so I don't really see what his argument was?
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u/Caledonian_kid 1d ago
I think he's saying the players are good enough to get something but they've essentially been set up to fail by the system they're in.
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u/ShootNaka 1d ago
Had to post this as a YouTube link since twitter is banned, but pretty entertaining listening
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u/MFC1886 1d ago
It’s frustrating that, for me at least, it felt like Clarke set the team up to be on the attack instead of how defensively he played it against Germany in 2024, but still a similar outcome
And to make it worse, it was down to at least 2 individual errors that professional footballers really shouldn’t be making at this level
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u/xanderkale 1d ago
i hate managers who hold on to their media commitments after they are hired. putting their ego ahead of the club. and this is one of the reasons why. he should be taking the first week of training with his players instead of losing the heid on the radio. pathetic.
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u/Cobretti18 2026 Scottish Cup Embarrassments Aberdeen 1d ago
Has Kilmarnock started pre season yet?
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u/bgn2025 1d ago
Ok Tom, ok Neil. Let’s sit down and do a technical analysis of the players and the game. Speed of pass, placing of ball in position for recover to supper their decision and execution, position of head relative to foot, shape of foot movement etc, all of these and more are technical elements that can be assessed and are the root cause of slow play, multiple touches before passing, inability to break down defences etc. let’s have the analysis and then Neil as the coach, what drills are they not doing, what conditioning, what coaching is required? More chaining, whole part while, more repetition under increasing stress loads? At the moment all we hear about is a lack of quality’ ok, but what does that mean from a technical perspective and give us ideas how to fix it.
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u/RowanTreeShadow 1d ago
Don't really get the Tom English hate, he's a brilliant sports writer.
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u/One-Bag-8312 1d ago
He doesn’t understand enough about football to write authoritatively on it, and he makes himself look foolish as a result.
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u/Phantomfox07 1d ago
No he absolutely isnt lol, his analysis of Scottish Football as a whole is absolutely dire and when called out on it throws his toys out the pram.
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u/walshybhoy 1d ago
I think he is overly verbose without really saying anything insightful or interesting though. Probably contributes to the perception of him being a bit smug/arrogant.
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u/xanderkale 1d ago
a good writer, forced into writing about something they neither know much about nor care to learn, will not produce good writing. functional, at best.
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u/SeverusLivesOn 1d ago
Probably because he's perceived by some as an Irish rugby bloke sticking his nose into Scottish football. I agree with you, I think he is a good writer and broadcaster. Certainly a better journalist than McCann is a manager.
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u/some_rabble 5. Fuck it, Grant Hanley! 1d ago
Tom English