Yngwie

Pretty impressive. I like the Subutteo re-enactments!

I read in a Perth paper the other day that Tade is back in the country and meeting Lomas this week.

Bugger. But I'm glad he's gone further south than Motherwell.

Got no sympathy for him, but I don't see why, once he has served his time, he can't go back to the job he used to do. If any of us were the perpetrator, would we be expected to change career? The problem he'll have in that line of work is that once he gets a club, he will be reminded of what he did every Saturday by the opposing fans right behind his goal.

There's an easy solution to Rangers financial woes. All the recipients of EBT payments should just pay back the loans they got! Firstly, Rangers will get a huge inflow of cash, and secondly, the Big Tax Case will be dropped or found in Rangers favour. It shouldn't be a problem for the recipients to repay the EBT, seeing as the sums paid were just loans, right?

Only 1 player (the captain) played more for us than Tade this season. 40 appearances (33 starts) confirms that the manager showed an awful lot of faith in Tade, even during spells of obvious poor form. He might not get played in his preferred position, but at least he gets played, a lot, and his manager here has more patience and more confidence in him than I suspect he'd get from other SPL managers.

Why on earth would the Rangers EBT make a payment to Souness 10 years after he left Ibrox, but just 5 weeks after he bought Tugay from them in his capacity as Blackburn manager?

Got to praise the BBC for yet more excellent investigative journalism on this case, doing the work that other media organisations didn't have the balls to do.

FAI have now confirmed Aaron's withdrawal and called up a replacement.

Some very good points and arguments there. But I would have to disagree with this one. Sky/ESPN will reduce the amount they are prepared to pay for a Rangerless SPL. Significantly, I believe. Rightly or wrongly, having both of the OF clearly means an awful lot to them. That's why the expiring contracts had a clause specifying 4 OF derbies a season. That's why they haven't signed any TV deal for the new season, and won't sign anything until they know whether Rangers will be in it at all, and whether they will be in a position to compete. You are right that the SPL is a small part of Sky's operation, and your average English punter doesn't give two hoots about the SPL (but probably watches the odd OF derby). However, there must be tens of thousands (at least) of Rangers minded people throughout the UK who subscribe first and foremost in order to watch their own team, perhaps paying around £300 a year to do so. Even if only a proportion cancel, that's still £millions a year lost to the TV companies, which then reduces the amount they are willing to pay the SPL. Lower viewing figures also have a direct impact on Sky/ESPN's advertising revenues. None of us know the value of a TV deal without Rangers, but I suspect the club chairmen have an inkling and are very concerned about the consequences.

Ah, I haven't seen anything official about him pulling out but you may well be right.

Our very own Aaron Brian Doran Cogan has been called up to the Republic of Ireland U21 squad for the forthcoming friendly against Denmark and the qualifier against Italy. He was on the fringes of the U21 squad before his bad injury so it's pleasing that his ICT performances towards the end of the season have got him back in contention. Hopefully he'll get to make an appearance.

I'm reminded of Karl Power, the imposter who put a kit on and wangled his way into Man Utd's team photo. That was also in Munich. Anyway, he is now the subject of lifetime ban by the club, but I don't think Chelsea will be so harsh on their very own glory grabbing imposter.

Aye, he's hoping that people will forget that he's the **** who got himself sent off in the semi-final and missed out on the greatest moment in his and his club's history.

So what happens if ICT ever reach both finals? Which one do we send our reserve team to?

Did I hear rightly that from 2013 onwards the cup final will be held on a Sunday, due to some UEFA requirement? That sucks if true.

Still used for athletics? Presumably it was built for the Olympics rather than just for Bayern.

Although Chelsea odds of about 7/2 is pretty generous if you ask me.

Asparagus is actually available here

Yep!

Is this on top of their boycott of European football?

The build up and anticipation of this one is better than I can recall for any non-ICT match in many years. I enjoyed John Robertson on a Radio Scotland panel the other night when a Hearts fan asked "Is there enough time for you to get fit by Saturday?" and Robbo replies "I've seen this Hibs team, I wouldn't need to get fit!"

I really hope we get the chance to celebrate his 100th yellow card for us. 99 yellows at the same club must be a record - although Foran is catching up fast!

Anyone got up to date appearance stats for him?

That's a surprise, I expected him to jump at the chance to stay at this level. Maybe he's thinking his hometown team Nantes haven't done so well recently and he can replace Sylvain Wiltord if the right people get to see his goal at Motherwell. Should one of us stick a compilation of his worst misses up on You Tube? What's the maximum file size?