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Scotland's Greatest Ever Team?


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Just caught the last half hour of this programme. The armchair managers of Scotland have voted, and the result is:

Goram

Jardine McLeish Miller McGrain

Johnstone Souness Bremner Cooper

Law Dalglish

Manager: Stein

Quite hard to argue with that, although I'm not sure that Cooper ever quite showed his Rangers form for Scotland. As a Jaggie who had Aberden as his 'big team' I always had a soft spot for Jim Leighton, but the footage they showed of Goram was pretty convincing - some absolutely astonishing saves.

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I did mine on my blog a while ago. I've ruled out ones that I've barely seen, such as Law, Jimmy Johnstone, Baxter etc. Only just about remember Bremner, so he has to be out too. Mine was:

Goram

McGrain - Miller - Narey - Donachie

Strachan - Souness - McAllister - Cooper

Dalglish - Derek Johnstone

Bit controversial in places I know. Jardine played right-back for his club, so I've given it to Donachie.

Willie Miller carried McLeish and a Hansen/Miller combination wouldn't have worked. Gough might have got in there but Narey was the defensive rock that a European level Dundee United was founded upon. Just let that sink in to see how great Narey actually was. And Sir Alex dropped McLeish for Narey in the World Cup, despite the club link.

Gary McAllister is a far better player than he was ever given credit for. At Leeds, he was absolutely world class. Certainly better than the likes of Fletcher, Brown, Ferguson or McStay (even though I like the latter a lot) from recent times or Rioch, Masson, McInally from past days.

Derek Johnstone didn't get very many caps but he was the best Scottish striker when I was growing up, bar Dalglish. Bad management by McLeod that stopped him being recognised as a dark blue great, the way he was as a light blue legend.

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Just a few comments rather than a team.

Derek Johnstone - it was indeed a travesty that he didn't go to Argentina, a great striker who himself preferred to play centre half. Incidentally McGrain got injured or he would have shone in Argentina too.

Davie Cooper was absolutely amazing at club and European level. Didn't get many caps though, and I can't remember much apart from him scoring in the qualifiers against Australia and the vital penalty against Wales in 85. Possibly Davie Wilson did more in a Scotland shirt. We had many more left wingers who never really established themselves, such as Bobby Lennox, John Hughes and Willie Johnston.

I once saw Narey and Hegarty partnered together in Cardiff - we slumped to a 3-0 defeat.

I thought Ron McKinnon and Billy McNeill were able CBs but as a pairing you can hardly argue with Miller/McLeish.

I must admit the only thing I can remember about Willie Donnachie is passing back to Jim Blyth in goals one midweek against Wales, leading 1-0 and totally dominant. Unfortunately Blyth had gone for a wander and the ball went into the empty net.

People could argue that Willie Henderson was faster and more direct than wee Jinky and possibly more effective. The paranoid half of Glasgow thought Jinky was a victim of favouritism as Henderson got picked more often.

Law and Dalglish are a shoe-in. Sheer class, and I'm privileged to have seen both of them play.

Some great memories by just looking at that team above and difficult to argue with much of it, even without stalwarts such as Joe Jordan, Archie Gemmill, John Greig, Jim Baxter, Bobby Murdoch, and Tommy 'kick a German up the erse' Gemmell.

Edited by The Mantis
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Just caught the last half hour of this programme. The armchair managers of Scotland have voted, and the result is:

Goram

Jardine McLeish Miller McGrain

Johnstone Souness Bremner Cooper

Law Dalglish

Manager: Stein

Quite hard to argue with that, although I'm not sure that Cooper ever quite showed his Rangers form for Scotland. As a Jaggie who had Aberden as his 'big team' I always had a soft spot for Jim Leighton, but the footage they showed of Goram was pretty convincing - some absolutely astonishing saves.

From a passionate Scotland fan's point of view it's very depressing that from all the players mentioned above only 2 of them are from my era and they're both goal keepers :lol:

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Goram

MacGrain Miller MacLeish Gemmell

Johnstone MacKay Bremner Henderson

Law Dalglish

The trouble with these polls is they are too recent. How about Lawrie Riley, Billy Liddell, George Young, Tommy Docherty, or the great Liverpool Goalie , Tommy Lawrence

-You know Goram was an Englishman, born in Oldham. that's why he was so good at cricket

.

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