Bonhof leaves Scotland U-21 job

[Scottish_Morton]

'Rainer Bonhof has left his post as Scotland Under-21 coach after an "amicable agreement" with the SFA.'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/4470076.stm

I can't say i'm disapointed by this news. He hasn't had the best pool to pick from recently but the results have been abysmal over the last couple of years.

[WillieB]

I think it was always on the cards when Bertie went.

Bonhof never set the heather on fire results wise however let's not forget that he has brought several players through the U21s who are now playing, or on the verge of playing, for the full International team.

I watch the recent U21 match -v- Italy at Fir Park, you know the match we drew 2-2 but lost 1-3. I was very impressed by most aspects of the Scottish play, good football from front-to-back, a good balance about the team, we created several good chances only poor finishing let us down (and maybe that was his downfall) and a well organised team.

Unlike Bertie I think Bonhof did get a lot out of a mostly average group of players, lack of wins was his downfall, and I think he can go with his head held reasonably high.

It's all very well to say goodbye to him however who will take over?

[nach0king]

About time. I thought Bonhof started well but it's beyond clear that he was running out of ideas and his teams had no discipline.

Perhaps an opportunity to bring in some consultants and rebuild the U21s from the ground up?

Still, in fairness to the SFA, unless I came to them with a big sack of cash and that opinion, they'd be unable to accept it :)

Someone on the Morton board suggested McCoist for the job. If Coisty really is, as some people claim, responsible for Kenny Miller remembering how to perform at international level, I wouldn't mind seeing him take charge of the U-21s. We might get a national side that can score goals in a few years, and we might get rid of some of the "names" who have seemingly based their entire career around being in the papers for being U-21s (McCunnie for one.)

As it stands, I'm just happy if we see fewer 3-2 defeats with 4 red cards per team :P

[nach0king]

Just in case anyone's about to leap to his defence, here's the qualification table for the U-21's last tournament:

http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scotland_matches.cfm?curpageid=486

BOTTOM, with six points. SHITE, absolute shite.

Fair play, Bonhof, as David Taylor gushed, did bring through players to the A squad and the full squad, but a blind man could see that players like Gordon were going to make it.

[WillieB]

McCoist as U21 coach? You've got to be having a laugh.

What coaching experience does McCoist have at any level never mind international level, U21 or otherwise?

So McCoist helped Kenny Miller recapture his form - hmmmmmm. Miller scored how many goals with Ally's guidance?

Even if Ally did help Miller it doesn't give him the credentials to be the fully fledged coach of Scotland U21s.

A much better choice would be Tommy Burns who has loads of coaching expereince at club and international level and can take some of the credit for the crop of youngsters coming through at Celtic.

What we need to remember is that the U21s are a stepping stone to the full international team however not every U21 will make it to the full team simply because the age span of the full national team is about 10 years whereas the U21s is two or three years so at best we can only expect about 30% of them to progress.

Whoever takes over will be up against it because we have a handful of quality players, the rest of the team is filled with mediocrity.

Scotland will never make any progress until the SFA sort out youth development. Too many kids are badly coached at young ages and never stand a chance. Most of the players that do make it through do it by luck rather than by plan, and some do make it through a combination of good coaching and having the ability - but not enough.