DoofersDad

Is that why he moved to the USA?

A very crude comparison would suggest that as England has 10 times the population of Scotland it should have 10 football clubs for every 1 in Scotland. Top tier in Scotland has 12 clubs so it seems reasonable that the 2nd tier could be seen as broadly comparable with the level below the 92 clubs in the football league. I think what we see of Conference (now the "National" league) football and the players who emerge from there bear this out as a reasonable comparison.

Another angle here is the role Brian Rice has taken on when "on holiday". Players warm up before a game to tone up the muscles to avoid injury. If they don't warm up properly then they could sustain an injury either during the warm up or early in the game and that could lead to some awkward liability issues, particularly if a player was injured doing an exercise specifically directed by Rice. Now I appreciate Rice knows what's he's doing and that he would be doing what he's doing nominally under Yogi's supervision, but the fact remains that a club at our level should not have people who are not employees of the club taking training / warm up sessions with the players. I wonder therefore whether Rice has some contract with the club or failing that, what form of approval for his involvement the club has given. Noting also the public criticism Yogi made of the Board in relation to getting trialists up here, one gets the impression that there are some significant tensions behind the scenes. It is all a bit unsettling at the start of what should be a historic season for the club.

One of Butcher's grouses with Hibs is that he was not given the opportunity bring his type of player in. No doubt he will be trying to bring players in quickly to Newport and he will be ruthless in getting rid of those whose faces don't fit. But we also have a link with Newport through Garry Warren and I am sure he would be aware of decent players who become available. His success here would encourage others to come here if the manager was interested in them. On the Foran front there may well be truth in that. I don't know what goes on behind the scenes but if Richie has harboured hopes of an assistant manager role here at some point, they might have been scuppered with Yogi bringing his old mate Brian Rice in. As a player I'm not sure that a fit again Foran will ever be more than a bench warmer here so if he gets an offer from elsewhere he might jump at it. The club would be happy to give him a free transfer and free up his wages

Well, the Women's World Cup is over and we haven't had a thread for it on our football forum. That's a shame, so let me belatedly put it to rights. It is a shame that there is not a higher profile for the women's game because it can be pretty entertaining. There seems to me no reason why women should not be equally able to develop good ball skills or be able to spot a good ball and I am sure as the profile of the game increases and more young girls are inspired to take up the game, even more players with even better skills will emerge. The world cup has produced some really good moments and good goals as illustrated in the link below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33398720 Where the game does have a significant difference to the men's game is the relative size of the keepers to the goals. A theme that comes through in the compilation is that when a shot is well placed, the keepers lack both the height and the leaping power to reach the ball. This should, in theory, increase the chances of a shot at goal being successful and therefore should encourage attempts at goal. The smaller stature of the women keepers must be equivalent to increasing the size of the goal in the men's game by about 15cm all round. Another difference has been significantly less foul play and gamesmanship (cheating) than we see in the men's game. And without getting into the England v Scotland thing, England's success in coming 3rd must be good for raising the profile of the women's game throughout the UK. The Women's World Cup has been a breath of fresh air and I look forward to seeing the game continuing to develop.

Would they be allowed to register women as players if they made the highest bid?

I believe he was playing in midfield tonight. Mind you, I have always been of the view that he's better in midfield than at full back.

Where Tansey has not been so great last season is free kicks. I agree with the point about Tansey coping well with the pressure of a penalty but Roberts looks as though he could be an option for free kicks.

Blackened timber. Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Work done in the last year. You didn't source the timber from the Glasgow School of Art by any chance?

I would have liked him to stay although I don't think he would ever have been more that a decent squad player as long as we retain top six status. I understand the desire to develop a career elsewhere but my fear for Nick at Dundee is that he will also be just a squad player there as well. He's a tidy player but rarely offers much drive going forward. He plays the safe ball rather than the risky ball that penetrates. He also seems to lose his composure in front of goal and should have scored more than he has. ICT have had a knack for getting the best out of players but somehow Nick's potential has never been properly realised here. Maybe things will click for him in Dundee - but maybe not. I am sure we will all watch his career with interest.

It's the Americans' use of the word "bathroom" that gets me. They seem to feel it is OK to bomb any oil rich or strategically important poor country whose Government they don't like, but to use the word "toilet" is seen as a bit indelicate. Or is it that at home they don't have toilets and actually use the bath? At least that way (unlike with some of their bombing) they shouldn't miss.

Accounts are employed for the reason that they are a statutory requirement for a limited company. Failure to produce accounts on time can lead to sanctions up to and including the strike off of a company from the register of limited companies. In addition, failure to produce timely accounts could lead to sanctions from the footballing authorities, and would lead to the witholding of a uefa licence. Clubs employ accountants to minimise the amount of tax they have to pay, and private limited companies tend to produce accounts containing the least information legally required. To give more than that would be commercially naive. I was originally going to say there were three reasons for employing accountants with the third being to comply with legal and statutory requirements. But then it occurred to me that many companies (not ICT, of course) employ accountants to conceal the fact that there are some legal and statutory requirements that they are not complying with. Such companies usually engage the services of expensive lawyers as well. I'd better stop now or I might need one myself.

Tripadvisor only has one entry under "things to do in Giurgiu" and that is to go to the "Bridge of Friendship" which takes you across the Danube and out of the country. It sounds like a smaller version of Hull.

I would have thought the best plan of action was to wait and see what the specialist travel agents which the club is consulting come up with.

Accounts will be published, but remember that organisations employ accounts for 2 main reasons. To ensure the company pays as little tax as possible To ensure that as little meaningful information as possible is provided to people who are not directly involved in the running of the company.

and come out the victors. boom boom! Of corsa

The fact that we don't need to wait for the outcome of a previous match and that we are at home first means there is maximum time to make arrange for getting to Romania. Astra may have given Celtic a hard time last year - but they lost. We gave Celtic a hard time and won so there is no reason to think we can't win this. What you need to beat an Astra is a Cavalier approach.

The top 4 teams in England have got to be in the Champions league. No question about that Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United , Manchester City, Could give any team in the world a good game. Of course there should be a question. If they don't progress as well as teams from nations who have less places, why on earth should they continue to have four places? Teams should be there on merit. The real scandal to me is the way that failure in the Champions League system get a 2nd bite of the cherry in the Europa League.

It was announced today that the Parliament buildings are in need of very major refurbishment. If they abolished the House of Lords then they could sort that end of the building and then the House of Commons could move in there whilst the other end was sorted. I agree that the House of Lords as currently constituted is totally unfit for purpose. But we do actually need some kind of second chamber to scrutinise things. The danger of an entirely elected 2nd house is that if both houses are of the same persuasion there is not enough scrutiny whilst if they are different, things get blocked. Most MPs know precious little about most of the things they are debating so maybe what is needed is greater input from people with a detailed professional knowledge of the issues under discussion. But no system is perfect - if it was, we'd all be doing it.

They are playing silly b*ggers around full fiscal autonomy as well. Now that Cameron has said it would be a bad idea they have decided that they want it again. Interviewed on Radio Scotland, Swinney was asked that if it was refused by the Tory Government, would this be seen as the kind of major change in circumstances which would lead to the SNP seeking a 2nd independence referendum. He answered by saying this was all about "respect". He said that the Government had to respect the mandate given to the SNP by 50% of the electorate for full fiscal autonomy. Without actually answering the question, the implication was crystal clear. But of, course, the SNP have no such mandate. As others have said before on here, at a parliamentary election people vote for a party whose overall manifesto most appeals for whatever reason. It is fanciful to say that all who voted SNP in the recent election are in favour of full fiscal autonomy. In other words, a 2nd referendum is threatened on the basis of the Government refusing to give to Scotland something the majority of Scots don't want in any case! And Swinney talks about respect! He might also like to have some respect for the clear majority of Scots electors who voted for Scotland to remain in the Union. And he might show some respect for the democratic process and agree that after 40 years and huge change within the EU, it is reasonable to ask the British people if they still want to stay in the EU. Swinney has also had to reveal that the Scottish Government has underspent its budget by £200 million last year. Whilst it is good they have not overspent, it does rather put into context their regular bleating about how the Tories' austerity agenda is starving the Scottish Government of money.

I agree with PerfICT. If he is with us next season then it will be Yogi's job to get the best out of him. Kink's performances will be just one of the things which will give a measure of just how good Yogi is as a manager. Boyce had a bit of an attitude at County but McIntyre seems to have been a big influence on him and that has made a huge difference to his performances. We need Yogi to do the same with Kink.

Actually they did vote against a referendum. I appreciate that they would like 16 and 17 year olds to vote as well and I agree that they should, but the Bill has a long way to go. The vote earlier this week was simply about whether in principle there should be a referendum. The Bill now passes to the Committee stage where there will be plenty of opportunity for our elected representatives to argue for the amendments they feel are appropriate. Had other opposition parties and a handful of pro-European Tories voted with the SNP then the Bill would have been dead in the water and there would have been no referendum. No doubt there is lots in the Bill as it stands that other MPs don't like, but fortunately MPs of other parties take democracy seriously and the Bill can now be refined with a final decision being taken in due course. If the final Bill does not include all of the SNP's wish list I don't think that even the SNP will be as pathetic as to vote against it again then. Make no mistake, their tabling of a completely unnecessary amendment and then voting against the Bill this week was not a principled vote against about the shortcomings of the Bill as it stands, it was simply about being disruptive.

Oh b****r!

He looks very uncomfortable wearing that kit.

I see Ciftci has decided not to renew his contract at Dundee Utd. Maybe we could sign him? At least Gary Warren would be able keep him in front of him if he was on our side.