Yngwie

It belongs here, not least because the Rankin bit is a genuine story. What I was getting at was just that it's maybe a bit premature to criticise a decision to let go of Black and Hart when it's just speculation from a journalist filling column inches, as far as I can see.

The references to Hart and Black "possibly moving on" look like a journalist's speculation rather than anything of substance.

After the World Cup draw yesterday, Chico Young again asked Eck if he'd be in charge for the campaign. The response did not contain anything remotely resembling the word yes, it was all non-committal diplomatic phrasing like "the first match is a long way off"and "a lot can happen in football". Who can blame him for keeping his options open and at least he's being honest about it. Anyway, the reason for this post is that Billy Davies is now unemployed. IF the Scotland vacancy arises this week, would he be a contender?

Confirmed by Radio Scotland. Phew!

Oh sh1t! :008:

The only 5 team group : Holland Scotland Norway Macedonia Iceland Could be better, could be worse. Good chance of being runners up and getting a play-off.

What time is the draw today? Is it being televised?

I have never booed or abused the team or any player at a game, ever. I do however think it's perfectly fair to discuss performances and abilites (or lack thereof) in the pub afterwards, in the car back down the A9, or on here. Websites like this exist to share opinions!

I think Rory is utterly sh1t and shouldn't be anywhere near our first team, but nobody should boo any player who is simply doing his best. He was drafted in to help because Bayne is suspended and Brewster and MacDonald are not fully fit.

Didn't sound pretty but it's a much needed 3 points.

Good to be in front, against a team who (touch wood) don't score many goals. As for Blackie, if he did indeed walk out v Motherwell then he quite simply has to be dropped, regardless of his abilities on the pitch. If indiscipline and disrespect like that goes unpunished, chaos ensues.

I think we can kiss goodbye to McLeish. "I don't have any plans to vacate my position" is not any sort of denial of interest in other jobs, and is a million miles away from something like "I'm fully committed to Scotland and will be leading our World Cup campaign." Who can blame him for wanting a move to the Premiership, be it Birmingham or the next one that comes along.

:024:

Is this the first time Montenegro have been a separate team? I'd imagine they'd be better than the other pot 6 teams.

Who else could we sell for anything like (say) ?30k, without seriously weakening the first team?

I doubt there's a single person on here or at the club who WANTS to lose Rankin. However, what we have is a highly paid, unhappy fringe player, who is a very saleable asset and would command a decent transfer fee. We desperately a need a central defender and will have to pay a transfer fee and high wage to get the quality needed. If the choice is between having Rankin or a new Dods/Mann, then there's absolutely no contest. The real question is, should Rankin be featuring more in the first team? We have seen a few times under Brewster left that we are capable of both winning and playing excellent football, without Rankin. Why we haven't been able to sustain that is another matter, and almost certainly relates to tactics rather than any individual player. It's a case of play him or sell him, just don't keep wasting him in the reserves.

With the draw for the WC qualifying groups taking place on Sunday, my scientific analysis of previous draws leads me to believe they will turn out something like this : Group A Italy Germany SCOTLAND Brazil Argentina Barcelona Georgia Group B ENGLAND Andorra Luxembourg Liechtenstein Vatican City Guernsey South Georgia Both Scotland and England will finish 3rd in their groups.

What a fantastic game of football, end to end stuff. Have Croatia never heard of the concept of defending a lead? It was as if they had Steve Paterson as manager. And the Croatia fans were magnificent. Oh, and the word on the street is that it was actually Steve McLaren that sent out those Inland Revenue CDs.

England are fired up and at home against a mediocre side who qualify regardless of the result. 0-1 :022: But 3-0 would not surprise me at all.

For those who have Setanta, the whole match is being shown tomorrow at 5.45 and again at 8pm, on Rangers TV.

Georgia was bad, but I think the defeat in Ukraine has turned out to be a worse result than we thought at the time. They have turned out to be no better than the likes of Lithuania.

It's a bit premature to start talking about who should replace McLeish. However, it is highly likely that he will have moved back to club management by the time the World Cup campaign starts.

If any team has surpassed expectations more than Scotland in the last couple of years, it must be NI. They start out in the 6th pot of balls with a squad that on paper deserves to be no higher than that, not so long after they endured 14 hours of play without scoring a goal. And yet they beat Spain, Sweden and Denmark in this campaign and have an outside chance of qualifying going into the final set of matches. At worst they will finish 3rd in their group. When the WC draw is made on Sunday it looks like they will have progressed up to pot 3. They are probably the pot 3 team everyone wants in their group, and will struggle to match the dizzy heights they have reached, but what an achievement. Oh, and that win over England :022:

I just can't stomach the traditional grease and mutton pies these days. Got to be steak, and the ones we sell are pretty good.

The far side linesman helped us out with a couple of marginal offside decisions, but the last minute Hutton foul was just baffling. Was it an honest mistake? From 15 to 89 minutes we did very well against the World Champions and overall I thought we deserved a draw. It's a real shame we haven't forced France to go out and earn their place in the finals.