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Random hypothetical:

Would you rather be a marginal/fringe player for a major footballing nation that has a chance to win trophies (Sissoko-esque).

OR - a regular starter for a minor footballing nation, mostly hoping just to make a major tournament (Davies).

Call it the Mikey Moore conundrum, though that's not quite fair because he could become a major player for a major nation.

or consider Bale as the regular starter for a minor nation.
 
Random hypothetical:

Would you rather be a marginal/fringe player for a major footballing nation that has a chance to win trophies (Sissoko-esque).

OR - a regular starter for a minor footballing nation, mostly hoping just to make a major tournament (Davies).

Call it the Mikey Moore conundrum, though that's not quite fair because he could become a major player for a major nation.
Sissoko got 71 caps for France over about 10 years, I don’t think that really counts as fringe?

But to answer the question give me fringe at a bigger nation assuming some of those caps come at an international tournament. If you get lucky, you could come away either the World Cup or Euros/Copa America. Or both. If it’s fringe where you only ever play in qualifiers and friendlies then regular starter for a smaller nation is better.

Depends how small though, if it’s like Papua New Guinea don’t even call me up.
 
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Sissoko got 71 caps for France over about 10 years, I don’t think that really counts as fringe?
Sissoko is a stretch, admittedly, but he has also only played ≈600 minutes across 1 WC and 2 Euros. He's played a lot for France, but not a lot when it really mattered. And, most painfully, not when they lifted the World Cup.

But to answer the question give me fringe at a bigger nation assuming some of those caps come at an international tournament. If you get lucky, you could come away either the World Cup or Euros/Copa America. Or both. If it’s fringe where you only ever play in qualifiers and friendlies then regular starter for a smaller nation is better.

Depends how small though, if it’s like Papua New Guinea don’t even call me up.
For the sake of the hypothetical, I'd say a minor footballing nation like Wales, Austria, Costa Rica, Colombia. I.e. if you play for these nations as a "big" player, you're almost certainly going to play in at least one WC. You're also almost guaranteed never to actually win a medal.

On the flipside, as a marginal player for a major footballing nation, there's no guarantee you'll make a squad for a major tournament. But if you do, there's a decent chance you will win a medal.

The conundrum is you have to make this choice as a teenager, without any real knowledge of how things will pan out, despite the fantasies of youth whispering in your ear that you're going to be an all time great.
 
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View: https://x.com/HLTCO/status/1977443214400291077

Its impossible to regard playing a minnow as fun.

Everybody, on paper, should beat the Faro Islands - their total populations easily fits into Spurs stadium.

But they beat the Czech Republic a decent mid level footballing country with a population of 100 times or so Faro Islands.

And Faro Islands could get to World Cup finals with one more lucky break !



And Cape Verde (population just over 500k) have reached World Cup despite being ranked as 70th.

Africa has 9 team places reserved for it (dare I suggest the quid pro quo for supporting Blatter Infantino as FIFA president) out of the enlarged 48 team World Cup..... and that sized WC with more games takes up a longer time period so expect players to return to their clubs still knackered from WC.
 
Ah well.

Wasn’t too be. A much better performance than against England.

Been a great atmosphere. Going for a post match beer for my saunter home.
 
We hired Danish Ange.

He is dead set on having us play his style of attacking football and it refuses to click after a hot start in the nations league.
Doesn't help that our strikers went on a strike during the summer and has been completely unfit during these qualifiers. The Dane is obviously the big problem though. Sweden has never sacked a manager before but I assume that will change now.
 
Doesn't help that our strikers went on a strike during the summer and has been completely unfit during these qualifiers. The Dane is obviously the big problem though. Sweden has never sacked a manager before but I assume that will change now.
In a sense Isak and Gyökeres going like this is kharma for their behaviour in the summer. Shame that it happened just when we needed them the most.
 
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