World Cup 2026: Are Scotland ‘not good enough’ to make an impact?

What is the level of Scotland? Now this creates another controversy. As heard on Sportsound between Kilmarnock manager Neil McCann and BBC Scotland’s chief sports writer Tom English.

The latter suggested that Scotland’s players were “not good enough” to compete at the top table of international football – with nine tournament appearances across the last two Euros and without scoring a non-scattering goal at this World Cup.

But former Scotland winger McCann countered that you “can’t pull the shutters like that”.

“You’ve got a guy who’s voted the best midfielder in Italy, in Lewis Ferguson. You’ve got a guy who’s discussing the Ballon d’Or in Scott McTominay. You’ve got the captain of Aston Villa (John McGinn), who’s just won the Europa League,” McCann said.

Which is true, there is a lot of frustration among fans…

Barry: An abysmal failure on the international stage for the second tournament in a row, Steve Clarke has taken these players as far as he can and if he does the right thing and tears up that new contract, it will be good for all involved. Scotland needs new ideas.

Dougie: It’s not the manager’s fault. No manager makes the mistakes Scotland make on the pitch, but is he the man to take it forward? There is such a thing as misalignment and it is clear that these players cannot do tournament football successfully. If it is a club, there will be almost a complete clearout.

William: Once again Scotland have been poor in major tournaments. They have conceded poor, poor goals in all three matches and don’t look like scoring. The team does not take responsibility and constantly takes the easy option. Our players are not good enough. We don’t deserve to go through.

Hug: We tried our best. First World Cup in my lifetime (I’m old enough to vote three times). Really proud of our boys, whether we go home tonight or not. We drew against Brazil and Morocco (again); They are the better team, not much to do about it. We had a good innings and put up a good fight.