AFTER losing to Brazil and Morocco and a whole host of other results not doing them any favours, Scotland are out of the World Cup , and the Tartan Army have returned home ruing what might have been.
As if their exit from the tournament wasn’t painful enough, The Athletic decided to rub salt into wounds over the weekend in an article branding Scotland “the biggest underachievers in world football” .
The piece by Michael Cox suggested “a decades-long obsession with England” was behind Scotland’s downfall and argued their early departure “isn’t surprising to those who watched their qualification campaign”.
It added that Scotland have “come to be regarded as serial failures, inevitable disappointments, to the point where this has become the nation’s footballing identity” while Cox suggested “Scotland should be to football what New Zealand are to rugby union” given their history in the sport.
The piece was called out by sports journalists far and wide, with TNT sports presenter Danny Jamieson branding it an “astonishing amount of nonsense” on social media.
Spanish football correspondent Ruairidh Barlow also criticised the article after it claimed “many excellent England-based Scottish footballers” had “played so few games for the national side”.
Barlow posted on Twitter/X: “Scotland have many flaws, but to suggest their biggest is that an anti-English selection bias clouds selection choices is not rational.
“13 of the 26-man squad play in England, and 19 have been capped while playing in England, one without even playing senior football.”
John McGinn plays for Aston Villa, Scotland captain Andy Robertson is now at Tottenham Hotspur after joining from Liverpool and goalkeeper Angus Gunn plays for Nottingham Forest to name a few.
Scottish Sun sports reporter Robert Thomson also described the piece as being full of “very odd stuff”.
“If you want to compare Scotland v England start with immigration. England has benefitted massively from the movement of people, Scotland hasn’t. Other nations like Germany, Sweden, France have tapped into talent that way too,” he posted on Twitter/X.
It was one of a couple of examples of English journalists getting on their high horse and taking great delight in sticking the boot into Scotland within moments of their exit, despite a lot of pundits expressing enthusiasm over them being involved to this point and many tipping them to get out of the group.
Another example was an eye-opening exchange between ex-Manchester United players Gary Neville and Roy Keane on ITV after Steve Clarke announced his resignation.
"Who have Scotland got to counterattack with?!" 🤔 "You should follow Scottish football a bit more closely" 👀 @GNev2 , @IanWright0 and Roy Keane give their thoughts on Scotland after Steve Clarke resigns as manager 🏴 pic.twitter.com/AUTdjhfYbF
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 27, 2026
Keane said he was sorry to hear the news but felt it may have gone differently had Clarke "had a bit more of a go".
Neville then went on to argue Clarke didn't have the quality in his squad to set up to attack against top quality opposition.
“I don’t see this ‘be a bit more brave’. What have they got to be more brave with?” said Neville.
He went on to question who Scotland had to counter-attack with, suggesting Scott McTominay and McGinn were the only two quality attackers.
Keane then said if that's what he thinks, then he should watch Scottish football more closely, but then didn’t appear to expand on who he felt the options were when questioned by Neville.
One user on Twitter/X posted: “I don’t know about everyone else but I’m sick of another country ruling our media & telling us what’s wrong with our national sport.”
Apart from the pundits failing to mention Ben Gannon-Doak and Lewis Ferguson as the two players who probably contributed the most for Scotland on the field during the World Cup, watching this shouting match between two non-Scots play out while Scotland fans are hurting was uncomfortable to watch.
Neville did himself no favours with Scottish fans by writing off a team who have showed more than enough ability to go far in a major tournament with victories over Denmark, Spain and Norway in recent times.
Now that Scotland are regularly involved in major tournaments, it is disappointing we have not seen more knowledgeable and informed debate around them this World Cup and it is something the UK media should reflect on as we look ahead to Euro 2028.
