Reports out of Croatia are stating that 36 year-old former captain of the Vatreni, Darijo Srna, could come out of international retirement to join Croatia in their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign. With right-backs Šime Vrsaljko and Josip Pivarić out for an undisclosed amount of time, Croatia will be thin in defense as they prepare for Azerbaijan and Hungary in March.
But is Darijo Srna the solution?
Sure, he’s the most capped player (134) in Croatian history, but unless Dalic plans on using Srna at Euro 2020 in…erm…Europe; he shouldn’t bring him to the qualifiers. Croatia has such a light qualifying group that Dalić should be able to use Tin Jedvaj and other young prospects to get the job done on the defensive end.
I wouldn’t mind bringing Srna in as a bench player/mentor where he trains with the team and joins them on the bench, but his days in checkers are numbered. If anyone should come out of retirement, Mandžukić is the name we need to be looking at.
Stop eating Papa Johns. It sucks.
damn
Cro Cop had a stroke after the Nelson fight, looks like he’s retiring for real this time.
Srna assist vs Inter
@Anon
Crop Cop is the master at retiring
league (domestic) **
Random question. Anyone follow European basketball? I’m pretty sure they have league and a european “champions league” like competition. How about a domestic cup?
I remember the NBA commissioner talked about a possible Cup in the NBA that would include the G League and top NCAA teams. That was like 2 years ago and will never happen but felt like blabbing about it because im bored and eating papa johns right now
With Srna I think that one last farewell game would be fine bit besides that Dalić should really be looking to give some young prospects a chance like Bartulec, Barišić, Sosa, or even Toljan. It can really make someone’s career if they perform internationally.
I don’t see professionals retiring as a bad thing, it must be very demanding for players to be leaving their homes and families to possibly play a few usually irrelevant international games (let’s be honest none of these games are relevant until the actual Euro unless we’re at risk of failing to qualify). Mandžukić just must have felt that his body couldn’t handle playing that often and he’s just given himself more time to be performing his best at club level and it shows. Same with Srna, and yes maybe seeing that there are other options in his position was a contributing factor, at least he wasn’t retiring at 29 and making a statement about it.
Players that have retired should just stay retired.
I’ve said this before, David Beckham never retired from English NT, even though he’d lost his spot to younger players he was always making himself available to England, Croatians aren’t like that.
Mandzukic I could see coming back though if there’s no competition for his spot as a starter, Kramaric is the one we need to get injured (ACL would do the job), then Mandzukic will come back.
With Kramaric coming on I saw a future where our striker may of been getting picked on form, Mandzukic wasn’t having that so he retired.
Think back if you can to Euro 16 qualifying and the tournament itself when Mandzukic absolutely sucked but was never in danger of losing his starting spot lol, that’s the sort of environment Mandzukic likes playing in for Croatia, and if Kramaric gets injured the type of environment that presents itself again.
Srna? If there was no Vrsaljko Srna never woulda retired.
Was wondering if you were gonna post this rumour : )
Also this article reminded me Euro2020 is being played in like a dozen or so different cities isnt it? Thanks for reminding me of that, had totally forgotten.