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The Football Show · 8 October 2026
"He set them up to fail." Gordon Parks on Sebastien Pocognoli after Scotland's 2-1 defeat to Slovenia: an out-of-work manager, selection issues he takes issue with, and a post-match comment about not pressing high enough that "scares me".
Hugh MacDonald says the default answer from managers is always "we'll do what we're doing better", the Mark Warburton way: plan A isn't working, so do plan A better.
Transcript:
Absolutely, because there were alarm bells going all night. All night.
The reason I mentioned the salary, right, is because we've recruited an out-of-work manager. It's a fact. Scottish football's in danger of becoming the dumping ground for Jamestown-esque recruits, right? A blind man can see. If a team's springing runners into empty spaces and you can't identify that quickly and correct it, then that's a problem, because he's managing the team. They didn't know what they were doing. He set them up to fail, and there were so many selection issues that I would take issue with. I've got a massive problem with that. He then comes out with a lot of his gobbledygook, and the comment about not pressing high enough scares me. I'd like him to come out and explain what he means by that.
But see, a lot of times in managers, you see it all over, you see it at every level. If you say to a manager or a coach, in the nicest way possible, as you did at the press conference last night, Peter, you were respectful...
Yeah.
...if you say, this is not working, what are you going to do about it?
Yes.
See, the default answer, and I'm simplifying it, is: we'll do what we're doing better. Not that we'll change it. And this goes back, and you used to hear it most famously with Mark Warburton: plan A is not working, what's your plan B? You do plan A better. So you're sticking to something, and this inability to adapt to game situations, to manage a game...
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