starchief

Celtic have a lot of new players, most of whom I've never seen and could be Fortune/Kamara-like duds (maybe not, who knows?), so I'm giving this to Walter Smith in his final season, as, without injuries, they have a proven defence and midfield already 1. Rangers 2. Celtic I've always liked Jim Jefferies as a manager. Some decent additions, with more potentially, so 3. Hearts For their attack Hughes makes it over a less sustainable challenge from Houston. I wouldn't be surprised to see Motherwell 4th mind you. 4. Hibs 5. Dundee United 6. Motherwell I think these three will be close but we really could do it 7. ICT It'll be a bigger struggle with any surprise factor lost but with squad intact, McInnes at 8. St Johnstone Hendrie and Hartley may well save McGhee from the sack. Still deeply lacking in defence and attack though. 9. Aberdeen Killie still have a few very good players but not enough to do much except avoid relegation 10. Kilmarnock Some very important players gone and not yet replaced. Reid will find it tough without a few good signings. 11. Hamilton Too many untried Cowden players, so 12. St Mirren

Welcome back to the SFL Bairns! I'm sure getting back will be a breeze!

You must be younger than I thought. Hungerford? Guns? Mid-1980s? Infamous.

Depends if that Hooper guy is any good. Otherwise, I'd feel pretty confident facing an attack of Fortune, Murphy and Bullard (if he signs). None of them prolific. Spectacular, yes, but defendable.

I'm ok with our centre-backs, as long as we resist the temptation to put Tokely back to the right. Maybe a young guy looking to learn from the experienced trio to challenge in a year or two's time. If we play the 4-2-3-1, then the attacking midfield depends a lot on Gil being up to it, as I doubt either Odi or Sanchez will be able to produce week in, week out. That said, I still fancy us being able to take enough against St Cowdenbeath, Killie, St J and the Accies enough to avoid relegation (that's my target). Plus Aberdeen if they can't get any more quality players in (we wait and see). I think top six is just out of our reach (Rangers and Celtic obviously will be there, I like the Hibs attack, Hearts have got some decent signings, Dundee United will still be there, as will 'Well) but very little between the bottom sides. Once settled, I think our squad is of an age to develop, with only a few additions over the next couple of years. I think that's what clubs our size should do. Then maybe, a bit of luck, a find or two, maybe we can get a decent cup run, a big transfer fee or a top six. I'm pretty confident about the future as long as we don't panic, as I think we might struggle in the first few games as we adjust to the SPL.

I would have thought Odi would get the nod too in midfield. He's proved his sharpness, Butcher likes him and I doubt either Gil or Sanchez are automatic picks yet. Gil probably best to come off the bench unless he starts showing some real fitness to last 90 minutes. If he's got his fitness sorted then Gary Mackay Steven will hopefully be in there. That might hold C. Ross back but what can you do? It might mean a centre-forward though isn't as required. If Rooney or Sutherland don't hit in the goals, then it might mean Foran or Odi getting the chance up front with our abundance of attacking mids/wingers. Big step up for Bertie Eigg, left back for the Clansman in the Banff & MacDuff Turriff Packet Sunday League, surely? But, yeah a left-back could be a weakness. Golly's main negative is not supporting the left wing, so at least the biggest problem isn't losing goals down the left but not creating the chances going forward. I can see us struggle early on in trying to adapt to the SPL again, where that lone striker will probably be marked out of the game by many of the teams. I expect us to shift our formation to something like 4-4-2. Maybe: Esson McCann - Tokely - Munro - Golly Hayes - Duncan - Proctor - Foran Gil - Rooney Possibly swapping Gil and Foran, or maybe bringing in Mack Steven if he signs.

Sure is. I like the look of Hibs but they have a chronic failure at the back. No leader. No hatchet man. No big ugly defender that would rather break a leg or two than let a dandy dance by with some silky skills ...which is pretty amazing when you consider John Hughes is the manager! What next? Tony Mowbray wanting to play like Barcelona?

Is that the formere Falkirk player. Did he not go to Burnley or is it a different Kevin McDonald? No its Kevin McDonald the 21 year old that Burnley spent ?500k on when buying him from Dundee . The lure of first team football against the likes of Peterhead , Stenhousemuir , Brechin etc proved to be too tempting and who can blame the lad when you consider he would only be playing against the likes of Leeds , Portsmouth , Cardiff City , Middlesbrough etc . DC is of course having you on. KM is a free from Airdrie.

Don't know where you get that line up from. That's dropping McGregor, Bougherra, Miller and Davis from the line-up entirely, not to mention Smith looking to buy wide players as a priority. So you'll actually have a backline of Whittaker, Weir/Bougherra/Webster, Papac, with Broadfoot filling in as and when. I have little preference as to which of the OF wins (I'd far rather Hibs, Dundee United etc etc) but that seems a pretty formidable defence to me.

For your daughter, in which I'm assuming safety is the key, I'd plump for Firefox with AVG virus protection. An AVG Safe Search add-on will then show up on Google search indicating the safety on pages (Firefox also does something similar, yet different, on it's own with the Web of Trust). You may also want to install Firefox's AdBlockPlus and FlashBlock add-ons to stop any inappropriate ads.

Even if it doesn't, what should the score have been? Probably a draw against Highland League opposition at best. They completely changed their side in the 2nd half but the one that started was pretty darn close to their strongest side and they were still one down. BTW, remember there are a few non-ICT supporters, so maybe one of them voted for the boy Butcher?

Ah, the lure of the bright lights...

Stupid question - of course she's got kids. Loads of 'em, I'll bet! Appearing on Jeremy Kyle on a tv near you for multiple DNA tests.

They should do it by wage packet size. You can see the unity it would bring. Duncan (as he punts the ball over Foran's head for a goal-kick): "You should have got to that Richie............................................................ .........................with the wages you're on" Great for the supporters too as they demand one of the high earners gives back his pay as he sits on the bench.

I can understand why. Firstly, he wants to better his position by playing for an SPL club. He probably has enough faith in his ability to believe he will be first choice by the end of the season no matter who starts. Nobody came in for him except us. Why should it be any different next year? Even if he only gets a few games with ICT, he'll still be seen more. He's still pretty young for a keeper. Esson was initially offered a one-year contract. Maybe Butcher has told Tuffey he's the future, so will be looking to bring him in sooner rather than later with a longer term view. Remember he's only coming from Partick and unproven in the SPL. Only now will some of the bigger clubs be seriously looking at him. It's good for both sides. I think Cammy Bell was the best GK in the SPL last season but he arrived from SFL1 (loan) as a back-up. Now, he's close to a Scotland call-up. Probably same thing on Tuffey's mind (and I know he's not Scots for the pedantics)

Ghost hunting a mythical figure - oh the irony!

Most SPL clubs have two first-team keepers (bar Hibs of course - they've gone from zero to three!). Killie, Motherwell (even if one is Fraser), Hearts, Aberdeen are trying, Accies... Our normal stance of one decent, plus a Highland Leaguer is more unusual.

Maybe something more like Man U and Argentina have sometimes played, i.e. a 4-3-3 but not in the traditional sense but one where it's 3 more defensive midfielders and 3 more attack-minded mids but no out-and-out striker/wingers. It allows more creation and is difficult to man mark. However, those three attackers need to be some players to be both creative and predators.

fixed it for you

Very technical and cagey. Mind you, I love that, so I'm not complaining. I'm more into tactical battles than shoot-on-sight, so it was pretty good for me. The referee was appalling in the first half, giving yellow cards from everything from rolling down someone's socks to a karate kick. No consistency. Thankfully, he improved in the second half, otherwise it would have been 5-a-side. The Dutch weren't that dirty. A couple of bad challenges (the karate kick was very poor but more a rush of blood than an injury attempt) but stopping the Spain mid was the game plan. Spain had the best players, so Holland had to counter that and did so fairly effectively up until the end of the second half, when the Spanish began to dominate. ICT won't play an out-and-out attacking game against the Scottish champions, so it's reasonable to expect that Holland will do the same with the Euro Champions. It may not have generated the amount of excitement of some World Cups but there were some real mind battles in this tourney. Can't wait 'til the next one!

A bomb-scare at left-back but potentially a fantastic left-wing-back. (Tokely on the right, DZ on the left, Proctor sweeping - that could have been a good basis for a five-at-the-back)

Why do the good always die young?

It's just not right there's a limit on medals. If a player plays in a cup final but gets injured after 5 mins (even if the team's a goal down at that time), they wouldn't be denied a medal. They played a part! The medal scenario is stuck in the time of no subs and small squads.

Yep, pretty decent at the moment but not "always had a pretty decent side". And I agree, they've cleaned up substantially.

I was wondering this myself....they have won it something like 3 times previously. Pretty amazing feat! They won it twice but that was when the tourney was just invitation and treated less than seriously. Only in 1966/1970 did it become something of importance. Apart from this year, they've only made it past the first round twice since 1970 and failed to qualify in 5 out of 10 world cups since that date. Better than Wales sure but not 'decent'. Renowned for cheating too. Spitting, injury-attempting tackles, injury-feigning (before the rest of the world caught up), timewasting. It's a pity that's now the norm.