Scott Arfield

[Alex]

What we know: Arfield initially didn’t want to play against minnows. He played in nations league qualifying in 2018/2019 then didn’t want to for wcq. This was the first hard evidence of him not wanting to play. I believe most of the other stuff is just speculation. 

[jordan]

8 minutes ago, Alex said:

What we know: Arfield initially didn’t want to play against minnows. He played in nations league qualifying in 2018/2019 then didn’t want to for wcq. This was the first hard evidence of him not wanting to play. I believe most of the other stuff is just speculation. 

Is that even true or is that also speculation? There is so much BS planted in this thread that I need Robert Stack to go through it to find the actual facts and present them.

[Califax]

I think it's too late for this cycle. It makes sense for him to sit it out and focus on 2026. 

[Cheeta]

8 hours ago, RS said:

Do you guys think he’s going to be holding a press conference at the OneSoccer studios? 

I’m not sure where this idea that he’ll be fielding questions from the media came from.

OneSoccer isn’t going to ask hard questions of the guy they’re (presumably) paying.

If Arfield wants to use his newfound soapbox to further explain the situation, it’ll be on his terms.

I'd be stunned if his absence doesn't come up, because it has to in some manner, and even more stunned if it isn't all very friendly.  Expecting the choreography has already been laid out.

Good catch by the way.  Well done OS.  Only concern is Scotty's accent.  If he gets to talking too fast you better have an ear for it because look out.

[SpecialK]

3 minutes ago, Califax said:

I think it's too late for this cycle. It makes sense for him to sit it out and focus on 2026. 

He’s too old for 2026. 

[Califax]

Just now, SpecialK said:

He’s too old for 2026. 

nah, I see him at 2030 too. Need 8 more years of this thread.

[Fullback]

18 minutes ago, jordan said:

Is that even true or is that also speculation? There is so much BS planted in this thread that I need Robert Stack to go through it to find the actual facts and present them.

 

And then this quote from May 2021.

“He’s open-minded around his international career,” Herdman said. “He really needed that time this year to focus on winning the league with Rangers and his family…

“I think Scott will join the program again at the right time. So it’s an ongoing conversation, or at some point he makes the decision to retire, but he’s not at that stage yet. I think he’s hoping that we can get through this next round, and he’s got the monkey off his back with his Rangers title and now he can probably spread his attention.”

Edited September 22, 2022 by Fullback

[Unnamed Trialist]

31 minutes ago, jordan said:

Is that even true or is that also speculation? There is so much BS planted in this thread that I need Robert Stack to go through it to find the actual facts and present them.

He made a statement about minnows, yes.

Many like me thought, "half of SPL are minnows".

[prairiecanuck]

7 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

He made a statement about minnows, yes.

Many like me thought, "half of SPL are minnows".

He wasn't wrong about his statement about the minnows.  We crushed those nations.  We all know Gerrard was pressuring him and holding his contract over him and didn't want him to play in international football and to focus on the club.  

It seems bizarre to me that he would fly to Toronto to commentate.  I'm not sure if this was inaccurate or if he is indeed coming to Toronto.  He has stated in the past that he would be interested in the MLS.  Part of me wonders if this is an opportunity to come over with his family to introduce them to the city to see if they like it.  I wonder if maybe there is interest from TFC.  

Edited September 22, 2022 by prairiecanuck

[jordan]

20 minutes ago, prairiecanuck said:

He wasn't wrong about his statement about the minnows.  We crushed those nations.  We all know Gerrard was pressuring him and holding his contract over him and didn't want him to play in international football and to focus on the club.  

It seems bizarre to me that he would fly to Toronto to commentate.  I'm not sure if this was inaccurate or if he is indeed coming to Toronto.  He has stated in the past that he would be interested in the MLS.  Part of me wonders if this is an opportunity to come over with his family to introduce them to the city to see if they like it.  I wonder if maybe there is interest from TFC.  

Gerrard didn’t handle contracts at Rangers though. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

41 minutes ago, jordan said:

Gerrard didn’t handle contracts at Rangers though. 

A player who gets an international call up can go, the club can do or say what it wants. So it's never on the club or manager.

Players who want to pick and choose, no thanks.

[jordan]

2 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

A player who gets an international call up can go, the club can do or say what it wants. So it's never on the club or manager.

Players who want to pick and choose, no thanks.

All I’m saying is most of the thread is speculation. What we do know is the part about playing minnows, and that he’s retired from international football. 

[InglewoodJack]

Maybe he wants to play at the World Cup but Herdman is like "prove you love canada. do this dumb useless thing for us, then we'll see" kinda like if a guy dumps his girlfriend, then asks for her back, but she's like aht aht aht first you need to accompany me to this rom com I wanna see, then hang out with my friends you don't like, that'll prove to me you're committed to making this work"

[SoCalTransport]

7 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

A player who gets an international call up can go, the club can do or say what it wants. So it's never on the club or manager.

Players who want to pick and choose, no thanks.

I know this is speculation, but something had to happen with Herdman.

Even in interviews he said, I’m available, it’s up to John Herdman if I get called.

Herdman called his bluff and called him, and then he retired.

I think you would need a third party to make it work. They’re probably going to run out of time though.

[MauditYvon]

8 hours ago, Fullback said:

 

And then this quote from May 2021.

“He’s open-minded around his international career,” Herdman said. “He really needed that time this year to focus on winning the league with Rangers and his family…

“I think Scott will join the program again at the right time. So it’s an ongoing conversation, or at some point he makes the decision to retire, but he’s not at that stage yet. I think he’s hoping that we can get through this next round, and he’s got the monkey off his back with his Rangers title and now he can probably spread his attention.”

It reminds me a bit of Delort with Algeria. But Algeria doesn’t need Delort, and Delort never captained Algeria. I still believe he could be in the roster. He’s not stealing anyones place, since 1) list got expanded from 23 to 26 2) might have some players out in midfield 3) he figured in the 60 men pre squad for GC 2021.

But, hey, some idiots here think Fraser has some level because he made 2-3 good transversals against Montserrat.

Edited September 22, 2022 by MauditYvon

[MauditYvon]

Staff and players definitely need to work this out. Unless something scandalous happened at the time, I don’t see Arfield refusing to play a World Cup. 

[Pottsy3]

10 minutes ago, MauditYvon said:

But, hey, some idiots here think Fraser has some level because he made 2-3 good transversals against Montserrat.

I mean.... Fraser was pretty key in our Nations League victory over the USA in 2019. He's no world beater, but I don't think it's fair to suggest he has only had good moments against minnows.

[narduch]

4 minutes ago, Pottsy3 said:

I mean.... Fraser was pretty key in our Nations League victory over the USA in 2019. He's no world beater, but I don't think it's fair to suggest he has only had good moments against minnows.

He also had that sweet assist in a tough road game v Honduras.

[SpecialK]

I just don’t understand why herdman said ok I won’t call you up vs minnows I understand your situation with your family and your contract. Arfield is one of the best midfielders we have and herdman screwed around with brotherhood garbage and now boom here we are, World Cup is less than 2 months away and your best hope is for Oso and Hutch to get healthy and 20 year old first season MLS young star in the making. 

[MauditYvon]

3 minutes ago, narduch said:

He also had that sweet assist in a tough road game v Honduras.

And he’s now (well, now is a big word, made few good entrances à la Cameron Porter) making the bench of a pretty average D2 Belgian team. Never got established in MLS. He’s out of the picture, if you think we are delusional about Arfield (HE’S DONE IDIOTS HE MADE A POST ON TWITTER!!!!1111), I don’t know what you are, talking about a guy like Fraser as a possible equivalent. 

[MauditYvon]

I hope and I guess we gonna have few answers as soon as tomorrow.

[MauditYvon]

Really hope Scott says cash he’s available for WC if needed.

[narduch]

5 minutes ago, MauditYvon said:

And he’s now (well, now is a big word, made few good entrances à la Cameron Porter) making the bench of a pretty average D2 Belgian team. Never got established in MLS. He’s out of the picture, if you think we are delusional about Arfield (HE’S DONE IDIOTS HE MADE A POST ON TWITTER!!!!1111), I don’t know what you are, talking about a guy like Fraser as a possible equivalent. 

Lol. You are putting words in my mouth. Please.

Besides I think Fraser probably stays in MLS if not for their archaic and discriminatory rules.

Anyways its pretty well established he made a mistake transferring to such a low level and that's why he no longer gets called. That doesn't mean we should denigrate his past actual achievements with the CanMNT.

Edited September 22, 2022 by narduch

[InglewoodJack]

15 minutes ago, SpecialK said:

I just don’t understand why herdman said ok I won’t call you up vs minnows I understand your situation with your family and your contract. Arfield is one of the best midfielders we have and herdman screwed around with brotherhood garbage and now boom here we are, World Cup is less than 2 months away and your best hope is for Oso and Hutch to get healthy and 20 year old first season MLS young star in the making. 

Because you're going to have bigger issues than Scott Arfield when Bayern's medical staff asks Herdman why they should let their 80 million euro player go play cow patches in central america if some random scottish league guy gets to skip out. There may come a day when Jonathan David is encouraged by his agent not to play those games because he wants a big transfer and european clubs don't give a fuck if you score a goal against Suriname or Haiti. Or after the world cup, if Eustaquio plays well, teams in England will start calling, as they do for many Porto players, and hey, why are you gonna fuck up your transfer to the EPL by spraining your ankle on an unplayable pitch vs. an irrelevant minnow?

These are all ifs but if you're going to start giving exceptions and perks to Arfield, you're gonna have to give them to players a lot better than him, and all of a sudden when we play these minnows, we might have the roster of a minnow ourselves.

This isn't a brotherhood thing, it's about running a successful organization and losing Arfield is a lot better than having to give a hall pass to every one of our players in elite leagues whose teams (or maybe they themselves) don't really care much about irrelevant opponents.

9 minutes ago, MauditYvon said:

And he’s now (well, now is a big word, made few good entrances à la Cameron Porter) making the bench of a pretty average D2 Belgian team. Never got established in MLS. He’s out of the picture, if you think we are delusional about Arfield (HE’S DONE IDIOTS HE MADE A POST ON TWITTER!!!!1111), I don’t know what you are, talking about a guy like Fraser as a possible equivalent. 

I don't rate Fraser at all (small correction- he's on a terrible D2 team, not mid), but I wonder what the actual difference in a 3-game set up between Fraser and Arfield really is. Obviously there's a big drop off in individual talent, but the fact that Fraser has played with these players more recently, he hasn't been bad for us, how much worse is our team with that one single substitution? 5%? I dunno.

Edited September 22, 2022 by InglewoodJack

[MauditYvon]

8 minutes ago, narduch said:

Lol. You are putting words in my mouth. Please.

Besides I think Fraser probably stays in MLS if not for their archaic and discriminatory rules.

Anyways its pretty well established he made a mistake transferring to such a low level and that's why he no longer gets called.

The second part does not concern you. I don’t know what you think about a possible Arfield comeback. By the way, it’s not a bad move, no clubs want Fraser. He had some flashes like almost every players do, especially when they don’t play enough to get tired.
 

Question to those asking he’s done, do you only think like that because of the statement he made more than 1 year ago? What are your feelings when Schumacher, Favre, Zlatan, Thuram, Makélélé, etc, came back from retirement? Do you have any infos to say it’s 200% out of mind?

Edited September 22, 2022 by MauditYvon