hislopsoffsideagain

What we know: - Raith Rovers' Iain Davidson got sent off against us on 16 March for a foul on Todorov. - There was a bit of a melee afterward in which Davidson grabbed Sean Welsh by the throat. The referee showed a second red card for that. - On 24 March Davidson was served a notice of complaint by the SFA for Excessive Misconduct. The hearing is on 15 April. It was reported in the press that this was related to "discriminatory comments made towards an Inverness player". - Today Nikolay Todorov was served a notice of complaint by the SFA for Excessive Misconduct. The hearing is on 29 April. - Aamar Anwar is the solicitor acting for Todorov. Anwar is representing Glen Kamara in the case of Kamara being allegedly racially abused by a Sparta Prague player. According to the ICT statement: - "it is alleged that Nikolay was subjected to racial abuse which left him shaken and upset. The alleged abuse was witnessed by others" - "Nikolay chose to follow SFA procedures and immediately reported the matter to the match referee and accordingly a tribunal hearing into these allegations is to take place on the 15th April 2021." - "The present allegations are viewed as cynical, in that it has taken nearly one month for them to appear after an original complaint was made by Nikolay" What we don't know: - What has Todorov allegedly done that constitutes Excessive Misconduct? According to the SFA, Excessive Misconduct "Means the commission of an offence listed in the Schedule of Offences in Annex C where there is an aggravation of that offence. Such aggravation may include, but is not limited to, (i) prolongation of the incident involving the commission of the offence and/or (ii) where a combination of different offences listed in the Schedule of Offences in Annex C have been committed and/or (iii) the continued use of offensive, abusing and/or insulting language and/or behaviour and/or (iv) calling a match official a cheat and/or implying that a match official is a cheat and/or calling a match official’s integrity into question and/or implying that a match official’s integrity should be brought into question and/or (v) failing to comply with a match official’s request and/or (vi) adopting aggressive behaviour towards a match official and/or (vii) the existence of any racist, sexist, sectarian and/or otherwise discriminatory element to the offence and/or (viii) the degree of any physical violence (ix) committing Unacceptable Conduct" - Why has it taken nearly a month for them to cite Todorov? Let's see how this pans out...

We already tried this in January, but it seems reasonable to update it after the recent international break. Not that there are many changes - the number of 'certainties' has gone up from twelve to sixteen, mind - but the emergence of Che Adams was the big talking point. It will be interesting to see what strategy Clarke uses when putting together his twenty-three man squad. Many international coaches have in the past just picked two players for every position, but a more progressive plan would be to call up versatile players in order to free up squad positions for players - particularly attackers - that could offer different sorts of threats. Most likely the manager will stick with the core that has got him this far. The only outfield squad members not to even get off the bench in those three matches were Declan Gallagher, Andrew Considine and Greg Taylor. So here's how I see the current state of play... GOALKEEPERS CERTAINTIES: David Marshall, Craig Gordon PROBABLES: Jon McLaughlin MAYBES: LONG SHOTS: Liam Kelly, Scott Bain Given there's little reason for Clarke to ditch McLaughlin as the third choice keeper - there isn't an exciting youth project to take along for the ride instead - I could have put him as a certainty as well, but where would be the fun in that? Marshall could be blamed for goals in both the Austria and Israel games and he seems to have lost his place in the Derby County team in the last few weeks, and so his position in the starting lineup is very much under threat from Gordon. It is depressing to think that Scotland's best goalkeeper is actually 39 year old Allan McGregor, who retired from international football two years ago. FULL- BACKS CERTAINTIES: Andrew Robertson, Kieran Tierney, Stephen O'Donnell PROBABLES: Liam Palmer MAYBES: Greg Taylor LONG SHOTS: Paul McGinn Aaron Hickey would have been an intriguing wild card option had he not wrecked his shoulder recently. Tierney is listed here but if Robertson is fit he will start as a left-sided centre-back; that could lead Clarke to pick Taylor as 'backup left-back' but personally I think that would be overkill. Right-wing back continues to be an area of weakness. Ryan Fraser started there against the Faroes but using him in that role against quality opposition would be more cavalier than we would expect from Clarke. Would James Forrest, who has played that role more often at club level, be an alternative? More likely the boss sticks with his beloved O'Donnell who rarely impresses but also rarely lets Scotland down. Palmer is likely to come along as the backup, though could be a casualty in order to fit in a more versatile player like Callum Paterson. CENTRE-BACKS CERTAINTIES: Grant Hanley, Scott McTominay PROBABLES: Scott McKenna, Liam Cooper, Jack Hendry MAYBES: Declan Gallagher LONG SHOTS: Andrew Considine, Paul Hanlon, Ryan Porteous This is the position I've reshuffled most since the last time I did this exercise. Gallagher has dropped all the way from 'certainty' to 'maybe'. He hasn't started a club game since the end of January and that's come at the worst possible time for his international aspirations. Clarke seems to like a powerful guy who's good in the air in the centre of his back three and Grant Hanley looks very much like the first choice in that role right now, with McKenna probably the second. Is it really necessary to take Gallagher as well? Tierney and Liam Cooper would sort out the left-sided role, which would leave team mascot-extraordinaire Considine on the sideline. Given he started two of the recent qualifiers, one would have to assume Hendry is very much in the equation, though he'd be a sub if McTominay plays in defence rather than midfield. MIDFIELDERS CERTAINTIES: John McGinn, Callum McGregor, Ryan Jack, Kenny McLean PROBABLES: John Fleck MAYBES: David Turnbull LONG SHOTS: Billy Gilmour Jack dropped out of the recent games because of injury, and Scotland seemed to particularly miss him against Israel. I would still expect him to start alongside McGregor and McGinn in midfield for the opening Euros game. McLean played well against the Faroes. Fleck's club form has improved considerably over the last few months and he is the closest we have to a direct replacement for McGregor. Turnbull is unlucky that this area is a relative strength for Scotland but a strong finish to the campaign could yet swing things in his favour. ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS/WINGERS CERTAINTIES: Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie, Ryan Fraser PROBABLES: James Forrest MAYBES: LONG SHOTS: Ryan Gauld If Forrest can get in half a dozen matches for Celtic between now and the end of the season then he's too good to leave out. The other three are sure picks, though it's still not clear how to get the best out of Armstrong in the current system. For all the plaudits Gauld is getting for his performances in Portugal, he's still not getting picked for his country. FORWARDS CERTAINTIES: Che Adams, Lyndon Dykes PROBABLES: Oli McBurnie MAYBES: Kevin Nisbet, Leigh Griffiths LONG SHOTS: Oli Burke, Callum Paterson, Lawrence Shankland Adams quickly showed that he is by some distance our most talented forward. Dykes is still the target man of choice, but he was better at doing the defensive work than providing a goal threat in the recent qualifiers. Clarke continues to show faith in McBurnie, but the Sheffield United man is utterly bereft of confidence. If I were the manager I would be thinking about which forwards I would want to have on my bench if I needed a goal late in the game; for that reason alone I think Griffiths should be picked but Nisbet seems to be ahead of him in the queue. Burke, Paterson and Shankland have work to do after missing out on the last squad. Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly. View the full article

It's always fun being a critic, and even more so when it comes to Scottish football. In previous years the criticism of these articles has generally been along the lines of "you didn't rank our s*** player high enough". Except for the season I included St. Johnstone's David McMillan...but who was proven right then, I ask you? So this is the ninth year we've ranked the duds signed by Scottish Premiership clubs. Rory Boulding, Stephane Bahoken, Jim Fenlon, Rodney Sneijder, Joey Barton, Eduardo Herrera, Umar Sadiq, Madis Vihmann...who will be this year's 'winner'? Well, you won't find out today because the top ten will be published at a later date. But here's the countdown from 25 to 11 to whet your appetite... 25. EDDIE NOLAN (MOTHERWELL) Does this player actually exist? The 32 year old defender joined Motherwell on loan on the last day of the winter window, but has never actually played a game or even sat on the bench. Maybe he's injured. Or maybe he took one look at Lanarkshire and scarpered back south; Motherwell's squad is currently so huge that it's possible no-one's noticed he's gone. 24. MOHAMED MAOUCHE (ROSS COUNTY) Does this player actually exist, part two? John Hughes bigged him up when he signed in January as someone who would add flair to the midfield. But Maouche, who had been out of football for six months prior to joining County, was delayed in joining the squad by quarantine rules, then he was given leave for 'personal reasons', but by early February he was apparently ready to roll. We're still waiting. He hasn't even been a sub. 23. DJIBRIL DIANI (LIVINGSTON) Does this player actually exist, part three? Actually, here the answer is yes; Diani agreed a loan move from Grasshopper Zurich at the start of February but it took nearly two months to sort out a work permit for the French midfielder. So we may actually see him in action after the split. 22. SCOTT FOX (MOTHERWELL) Four different goalkeepers have started matches for Motherwell this season. That number does not include veteran Fox, who wrecked his knee in preseason training and who has been missing for the entire campaign. He probably should be ranked higher on this list just for having his signing announced with a photo of him in some sort of denim bodywarmer/hoodie combo. 21. ISAAC OLAOFE (ST. JOHNSTONE) Callum Davidson brought two players in on loan from former club Millwall. Danny McNamara was a huge success. Isaac Olaofe was not. The forward went back to London in early October having made two substitute appearances; Saints had managed only four goals in their opening ten matches by that point, but Olaofe still couldn't get a look in. 20. ISAK THORVALDSSON (ST. MIRREN) If you think Olaofe's stay in Perth was brief, it was nothing on Thorvaldsson's spell at St. Mirren which lasted just thirty-eight days and two cameos off the bench. Manager Jim Goodwin suggested afterward that homesickness was a big factor, and that Paisley was "a hell of a long way away" from his parent club Norwich. Maybe it just felt like that... 19. TUNDE OWOLABI (HAMILTON ACCIES) Owolabi can probably be classed as a low-risk signing, but he did score 35 goals for FC United of Manchester last season. That's 35 more than he scored for Accies, for whom he started only twice - one of which was a League Cup humiliation at Annan - before being released at the start of February. He is now at Irish club Finn Harps. 18. JAKE EASTWOOD (KILMARNOCK) Goalkeeper Eastwood signed on loan from Sheffield United, and started on opening day against Hibs. Five minutes into his league debut he had a rush of blood to the head and raced out of his box, gifting Martin Boyle a goal in the process. At half-time he was subbed with a thigh injury. He never played again, returning south in January. That forty-five minute long Killie career will go down in infamy. 17. MARC MCNULTY (DUNDEE UNITED) United fans are actually largely sympathetic towards McNulty, given Micky Mellon's tactical system means his forwards seem to spend bugger all time in the box. But just two years on from winning two international caps, McNulty has managed all of two goals this season - and one of those was a consolation goal at Ibrox. That's a dreadful return. 16. RYAN EDMONDSON (ABERDEEN) Edmondson did score twice in one game against Hamilton, but those were his only goals for Aberdeen. Having been signed on loan after Sam Cosgrove got injured, Edmondson himself got crocked quickly and on returning to fitness discovered Derek McInnes had recruited Marley Watkins. Ultimately he became an impact sub making minimal impact. After going back to Leeds he went on loan to Northampton Town where he's played regularly but only scored once. 15. JUSTIN JOHNSON (HAMILTON ACCIES) Dutch winger Johnson made a handful of appearances for Dundee United five or so years ago, and returned to Scotland after a couple of seasons in the Cypriot Second Division. Now, I know the Scottish Premiership isn't an elite league, but I'd like to think it's a few steps - perhaps an entire flight of stairs - above the Cypriot Second Division. Johnson made seven appearances for Accies, and they never scored a goal whilst he was on the pitch. He left at the end of January and signed for Morton; given he's managed only a couple of sub appearances there (they haven't scored during those either) perhaps the Championship is a bit better than that Cypriot league too? 14. LARS LOKOTSCH (LIVINGSTON) Livingston's approach to strikers this season is similar to mine when playing Football Manager - always looking for a better one and willing to discard even the most recent signings for a guy whose rating is a fraction of a star greater. Lokotsch was plucked from the German fourth tier on a two year deal with an option of a third. He did start a couple of league games but was quickly sidelined as the club brought in upgrades. Lokotsch was loaned to Raith Rovers within a few months, where he mostly sat on the bench, before returning to Germany in January. 13. NATHAN SHERON (ST. MIRREN) The most damning thing one can say about Sheron was that by the autumn he struggled to make the Buddies' bench even when they were naming kids on it. His last appearance for the club was in mid-October; before then he had been a regular in the starting XI but as soon as he was dropped results started to improve. St. Mirren's win percentage in seven league games with him - zero. Their win percentage in league games without him - 38%. If Jim Goodwin had dropped Sheron sooner, they'd have probably made the top six with a bit to spare. Sheron returned to parent club Fleetwood in January, but he's been so inconsquential there that no-one's even updated his Wikipedia bio to say he's gone back. 12. DIEGO LAXALT (CELTIC) At least Laxalt is on loan, which means he will return to Milan this summer and Celtic fans will not have to endure him further. Laxalt was signed to play wing-back, only for Neil Lennon to ditch 3-5-2 within days and leave the Uruguayan playing as a more orthodox left-back, where his defensive frailties were frequently exposed. And I can't look at him, with his ultra-thick spectacles and braided hair, without thinking of his resemblance to Lisa Loeb of early nineties hit 'Stay (I Missed You) fame. 11. ALBIAN AJETI (CELTIC) Celtic weren't short of strikers when they paid a whopping £5m for Ajeti, and after a reasonable start he unsurprisingly became a multi-million pound backup for Odsonne Edouard. If he was brought in to be the Frenchman's successor, the plan has certainly hit the skids. He's scored once since the end of September and John Kennedy even left him out of the matchday squad for the most recent game against Rangers. Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly. View the full article

Contract expiry dates (I believe): End of 2020/21 season: Cammy Mackay, Ryan Fyffe, Kevin McHattie, Brad McKay, Harry Nicolson, David Carson, Aaron Doran, Lewis Hyde, Anthony McDonald, James Vincent, James Keatings (already signed a PCA with Raith), Miles Storey, Shane Sutherland, Nikolay Todorov End of 2021/22 season: Mark Ridgers, Daniel Devine, Wallace Duffy, Cameron Harper, Roddy MacGregor, Sean Welsh, Daniel Mackay End of 2022/23 season: Robbie Deas, Scott Allardice Here's the article confirming Welsh is with us for next season

Legend has it that Harold MacMillan, Prime Minister in the late nineteen-fifties, was once asked what is most likely to blow a government off course and replied "events, dear boy, events!" As in politics, so in life. And so in football, at least in Inverness. Make no mistake: Caley Thistle, their players and those who run the club have significant responsibility for their current plight too, but it has taken a perfect storm of factors, many of which are out of anyone's control, to leave them where they are - in extreme danger of plummeting into League One. At first, it looked like lockdown might be a boon for the Highlanders. ICT were second in the Championship when play stopped in March 2020, albeit miles adrift of Dundee United. Whilst holding onto that second spot was hardly a given in a very close division there were grounds to expect a top four finish and another shot at the promotion playoffs. But when the season was called early talk turned to 'reconstruction' and the possibility of expanding the Premiership to fourteen clubs and keeping Hearts in the top tier. Inverness would have been the beneficiaries of the need for an even number of participants. So how do you get from there to freefall in such a short space of time? Last summer was always going to require a rebuild - Shaun Rooney, Carl Tremarco, Charlie Trafford, Tom Walsh and Jordan White left, following Coll Donaldson and Jamie McCart last January - and recruitment was going to be tough anyway given the club's tight finances. Add in the money lost because of Covid, and travel restrictions - try selling the prospect of not seeing friends and family for months to potential new signings - and in hindsight John Robertson did remarkably well to tempt Robbie Deas, Scott Allardice and Wallace Duffy north. It also explains why the team are rather more reliant on Shane Sutherland (who returned to full-time football after years at Elgin and Peterhead) and Daniel Devine (whose partner is from Aviemore) than a club with promotion aspirations should be. The coup de grace was the arrival on loan of winger Kai Kennedy from Rangers. Kennedy had good and bad days - as all young wide players do - but he particularly shone in a 3-0 win in Dumfries live on TV on a Friday night. By January, he was gone; the reason - homesickness - a stark example of the difficulties that people face in these trying times. In a division where the majority of clubs have four or more loan players boosting squad depth, Caley Thistle are unique in currently having none. But in that victory away to Queen of the South and another at home to Raith Rovers the week before, ICT were impressive and dominant, looking every inch like a side who would be in the promotion playoff mix. Since then they have won just one of twelve matches. Kennedy's departure was supposed to be compensated for by the arrival of former Hearts youth Anthony McDonald but he picked up an injury before even playing a game and had surgery last week. A thin squad - even more so because Kevin McHattie, Lewis Toshney and Aaron Doran were frequently in the treatment room - has been stretched further after a run of postponements has left them with a hectic two-games-a-week schedule for February and March. Those matches were supposed to produce momentum for a surge up the table but the opposite has been true, with tired players low on confidence struggling against fresher, buoyed opposition. Nine midweek matches have been played this season in all competitions, the opposition (Cowdenbeath, Raith, Dunfermline, Morton twice, Arbroath, Alloa, Queen of the South and Dundee) hardly overwhelming. Inverness have not won any of them. They are in action on the next two Tuesdays. Then there's the problems in the dugout, with the double blow of first losing assistant manager Scott Kellacher to serious illness and then the need for manager Robertson to take compassionate leave following a bereavement with no return date timetabled. Only a fortnight in, all but the first twenty minutes of interim replacement Neil McCann's tenure has been horrendous, with a promising draw with Hearts followed up by limp defeat at Dundee, a rather undeserved draw at bottom-of-the-table Alloa and then another loss at home to Morton (who had been winless in ten!). McCann has come into a rough situation, but as many feared he has insisted on using the blueprint that didn't work especially well for him when he was in charge at Dens Park. Playing out from the back is a risky strategy with elite players. With Championship players on Championship pitches it becomes especially dicey. To insist on it in driving wind and rain, as was the case in the Morton match, is insane. There are already worrying parallels to be drawn with John Hughes' infamous spell in charge of Raith a few years back where his insistence on a similar style with a struggling side led to disaster. There is an awful lot for the supporters to be frustrated with - and that's before we even get to the lousy online streams they've had to pay for this season, including the national embarrassment of the Pixellot camera system which couldn't tell the difference between a football and a linesman's head. It is hard to make watching Caley Thistle more painful just now is having to view it through Pixellot just about manages to do so. The last two seasons have seen two full-time clubs - Falkirk and Partick Thistle - suffer an almighty collapse and drop into League One. Don't bet against Caley Thistle following them there. Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly. View the full article

Called it. This feels very much like what happened to Partick Thistle last season, and Falkirk the season before.

We have only a couple of months of the season left, and by my count there are - at the time of writing - 141 Premiership players whose contracts are up in the summer. With Covid having impacted finances there are going to be some big budgetary decisions at some clubs to come. And there are many well-known names - often club stalwarts - who may be at risk of the axe. Here's my take on who will stay and who will go...(as ever, I look forward to being proven completely and utterly wrong) ABERDEEN Out of contract (9): Bruce Anderson, Michael Devlin, Tommie Hoban, Greig Leigh, Shay Logan, Niall McGinn, Ethan Ross, Ash Taylor, Miko Virtanen Loans ending (4): Callum Hendry, Fraser Hornby, Florian Kamberi, Gary Woods There are some significant decisions ahead for Derek McInnes. Are long-time club servants McGinn and Logan (both mostly substitutes this season) finished at this level? Are injury-prone defenders Devlin, Hoban and Leigh worth persisting with? Both Hoban and Taylor have played plenty this season. Ross and Virtanen have recently been recalled from loan spells to sit on the bench, while Anderson seems unlikely to get a new deal given that he has been loaned out to Hamilton. It's certainly possible that some or all of the Dons' loan signings could extend their stay; Woods would be a good veteran backup for Joe Lewis, while Hendry, Hornby and Kamberi all have the chance to impress. CELTIC Out of contract (3): Scott Brown, Karamoko Dembele, Armstrong Okoflex Loans ending (4): Shane Duffy, Mohamed Elyounoussi, Jonjoe Kenny, Diego Laxalt Brown will be 36 in the summer and it's hard to see a scenario in which he's a regular contributor next season. If his leadership will be badly missed, it's because Celtic have totally failed to prepare for a future without him. But the player himself has claimed he has been told "it is completely and utterly up to myself whether I want to stay"...isn't that a decision that needs to be made by an incoming DoF and Head Coach? Dembele and Okoflex were once considered wonderkids and their failure to fulfil their potential so far does not reflect well on anyone. The supporters would probably like to forget as soon as possible that Duffy and Laxalt ever played for them. Surely Elyounoussi will not remain for a third year on loan at a club where he is in and out of the team. And surely Kenny, only a year removed from impressing in the Bundesliga, will set his sights higher than staying at Celtic for the long term. I imagine most Celtic fans will look at the list of names above and think to themselves "I wish this list was longer"... DUNDEE UNITED Out of contract (2): Peter Pawlett, Dillon Powers Loans ending (2): Luke Bolton, Marc McNulty United have remarkably few players not under contract beyond the summer, so there's not much to say here. Neither Pawlett nor Powers has impressed enough to earn a new deal. McNulty has been a disappointment during his loan spell, while Bolton has been in and out of the side. HAMILTON ACCIES Out of contract (9): Brian Easton, Kyle Gourlay, Aaron Martin, Reegan Mimnaugh, Kyle Munro, Hakeem Odoffin, Marios Ogkmpoe, George Stanger, Nathan Thomas Loans ending (2): Bruce Anderson, Lee Hodson Obviously Hamilton's actions will heavily depend on whether they stay up, but regardless they will struggle to hold onto Odoffin, who has been so impressive in recent months in midfield. Ogkmpoe continues to be a first choice up front and one assumes there will be a new deal for him if he wants it. Easton has largely stayed fit this season and would certainly be a sentimental choice for a new contract. Martin has been a first choice since signing. Munro and Mimnaugh are on the fringes of the starting lineup and are more likely to be extended than fellow youngster Stanger. Gourlay would probably be a cheap backup keeper. Thomas has rarely played due to injuries. Regarding the loan players, Hodson may fancy finally putting down some roots after a string of loan moves. Anderson has found a better fit here than at Aberdeen and I bet Brian Rice would love to keep him. HIBERNIAN Out of contract (5): Kevin Dabrowski, Jackson Irvine, Matt Macey, Ofir Marciano, Stephen McGinn Loans ending: Three of these players are the club's three goalkeepers. Marciano has been offered a new deal but is wanted by clubs in his native Israel. Macey has played understudy to since arriving in January, while Dabrowski impressed on loan at Dumbarton earlier in the season but its unclear if Hibs consider him to be a potential number one going forward. As for the outfielders, Irvine may fancy he could get better wages if he returned south, while McGinn was signed only as a depth piece and its hard to see him making many first team appearances going forward. KILMARNOCK Out of contract (25): Tomas Brindley, Kirk Broadfoot, Chris Burke, Innes Cameron, Kyle Connell, Diaguely Dabo, Euan Deveney, Gary Dicker, Clevid Dikamona, Nicke Kabamba, Greg Kiltie, Kyle Lafferty, Ross Millen, Youssouf Mulumbu, George Oakley, Mitch Pinnock, Josh Rennie, Danny Rogers, Craig Ross, Keir Russell, Ally Taylor, Aaron Tshibola, Steven Warnock, Calum Waters, Danny Whitehall Loans ending (4): Colin Doyle, Zech Medley, Brandon Pierrick, Zeno Rossi This Killie list is bloated by the number of youngsters who made first team appearances in the League Cup due to a Covid outbreak - it also means that it's possible I'm wrong about their contract status. Looking at the more established players, it will be interesting to see how Tommy Wright feels about veterans like Broadfoot, Burke, Dicker and Mulumbu. Lafferty may see this short-term contract as putting himself in the shop window, but his arrival has limited minutes for Kabamba, Oakley and Whitehall. It would be a surprise if first choice keeper Rogers left. Tshibola has been reliable enough too, while the jury is out on Dabo, Alex Dyer's last signing. Dikamona has been a disappointment and may not be as cheap to resign as fellow defenders Millen and Waters, though whether the latter two are up to standard is another matter. Kiltie has shown flashes but might benefit from a change of scenery. Pinnock hasn't really shown any flashes at all. One suspects that if Brindley, Cameron, Connell and Taylor haven't broken into the lineup by now they probably never will. It's unlikely any of the loan players remain after May. Doyle was a convenient backup keeper while Medley, Rossi and Pierrick are clearly here with a view to development. LIVINGSTON Out of contract (14): Efe Ambrose, Raffaele De Vita, Nicky Devlin, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Jon Guthrie, Steve Lawson, Alan Lithgow, Gary Maley, Josh Mullen, Carlo Pignatiello, Scott Robinson, Ross Stewart, Aaron Taylor-Sinclair, Scott Tiffoney Loans ending (3): Djibril Diani, Robby McCrorie, Julien Serrano It's safe to assume Livi will want to hold onto Devlin, Guthrie, Mullen and Robinson, all of whom have been significant contributors this season. Ambrose's age may work against him a bit, while Lawson has looked good when playing but hasn't played that much. Lithgow's future may be up in the air due to long-term injury, while De Vita and Stewart have been out on loan this season and shouldn't be expected back. Emmanuel-Thomas, Taylor-Sinclair and Tiffoney have failed to establish themselves and are likely to go too. If Maley gets a new deal, this year it probably won't be put to an internet vote... Serrano has made himself the first choice left-back and you could see a permanent deal being worked out there. McCrorie hasn't had a great season though while Diani hasn't played yet and so is a complete unknown. MOTHERWELL Out of contract (18): Allan Campbell, Aaron Chapman, Robbie Crawford, Devante Cole, Dean Cornelius, David Devine, Charles Dunne, Sam Foley, Scott Fox, Declan Gallagher, Christopher Long, Ross Maciver, Bevis Mugabi, Stephen O'Donnell, Liam Polworth, Harry Robinson, Sherwin Seedorf, Jamie Semple Loans ending (6): Jake Hastie, Liam Kelly, Tyler Magloire, Eddie Nolan, Jordan Roberts, Harry Smith This is a long list, so - assuming Well don't go down - there's certainly going to be an opportunity for Graham Alexander to revamp this squad if he so wishes. It would seem unlikely that Campbell, Gallagher or O'Donnell will remain; Gallagher has supposedly triggered an extension in his contract but the club have been coy about that and he has a lot of suitors. Meanwhile don't expect to see Chapman, Foley, Robinson or Seedorf retained, and long-term absentees Fox and Dunne will find it hard to justify new deals. Alexander will probably want to keep first team regulars Cole, Crawford and Mugabi, but Polworth is out of favour just now and Long only came back to the club last summer after not finding a better offer elsewhere. Goalkeeper Kelly and centre-back Magloire have impressed on loan so far, while Roberts has already shown more than he did for Hearts. They're more likely to stay for the long-term than Hastie (who has been a non-factor), Smith (who has been mostly injured) and Nolan (who may not even exist). RANGERS Out of contract (9): Leon Balogun, Jamie Barjonas, Steven Davis, Jermain Defoe, Daniel Finlayson, Andy Firth, Allan McGregor, Dapo Mebude, Greg Stewart Loans ending (1): Bongani Zungu It's already safe to say that there will be no new deal for 38 year old Defoe, now fourth choice striker despite being on £30,000/week, but 36 year old Davis is still highly thought of and Steven Gerrard wants him to stay. Stewart will be away, and Barjonas, Finlayson and Mebude will need to try their luck elsewhere after failing to make the step up from the academy. Firth is probably an inexpensive third choice keeper. The main questions are whether 39 year old McGregor hangs up his gloves, whether Balogun has done enough as a useful backup to justify a new deal and whether the recent Covid embarrassment scuppers Zungu's chances of signing permanently. ROSS COUNTY Out of contract (20): Tony Andreu, Josh Black, Ross Draper, Michael Gardyne, Jermaine Hylton, Ross Laidlaw, Mohamed Maouche, Billy Mckay, Callum Morris, Ross Munro, Jason Naismith, Connor Randall, Blair Spittal, Jordan Tillson, Carl Tremarco, Iain Vigurs, Keith Watson, Jordan White, Ben Williamson, Matthew Wright Loans ending (4): Joe Hilton, Leo Hjelde, Stephen Kelly, Charlie Lakin The future of a lot of these players will be dependent on what division County play in next year, not least because John Hughes is unlikely to stay on if they go down. The club tend to look after players who have had long tenures, so Gardyne and Vigurs may be kept on with a view to joining the coaching staff further down the line. Also likely to stay regardless are first choice keeper Laidlaw and striker White, who previously spent two years in the Highlands with Inverness. Likely to leave are Draper - whose injury history will make it hard to justify retaining him.- Tremarco, who is well past his best, and Maouche who hasn't even played for the club due to a mixture of injury and personal issues. As for the rest, only Naismith is likely to have Premiership suitors. None of the loanees are likely to stay, with the parent clubs of all four likely to see this as a step in their development. ST. JOHNSTONE Out of contract (15): Callum Booth, Craig Bryson, Craig Conway, Liam Craig, Murray Davidson, Charlie Gilmour, Olly Hamilton, Chris Kane, Stevie May, Guy Melamed, Jordan Northcott, Michael O'Halloran, Elliot Parish, John Robertson, Scott Tanser Loans ending (2): James Brown, Glenn Middleton Callum Davidson has to decide whether his four veteran midfielders - Bryson (34), Conway (36 in May), Craig (34) and Murray Davidson (33) - are worth extensions. Up front, there are also decisions to be made on Kane and Melamed, who have played well for the last few months, and May and O'Halloran, who have not. You'd imagine one or both left-backs, Booth and Tanser, will be kept on, while Parish is a satisfactory backup keeper. Winter signing Gilmour hasn't had a chance to impress yet while academy products Hamilton, Northcott and Robertson are not really in first team contention. Neither of the loan players have forced their way into the first XI so far and there's no sign that either of them have been brought in with a view to remaining long term. ST. MIRREN Out of contract (12): Cameron Breadner, Dylan Connelly, Jake Doyle-Hayes, Ilkay Durmus, Ryan Flynn, Marcus Fraser, Lewis Jamieson, Nicholas McAllister, Junior Morias, Jonathan Obika, Collin Quaner, Peter Urminsky Loans ending (2): Daniel Finlayson, Brandon Mason The Buddies will make Eamonn Brophy's loan move permanent in the summer. Jim Goodwin's priority will be retaining Fraser, who has had the best season of his career, and Doyle-Hayes. Connelly and Durmus have also seen plenty of action this season and Obika remains a fan favourite. In contrast, Morias, who is out on loan, will surely be away and Urminsky has failed to rise beyond third choice keeper. Quaner has barely played since arriving in February and so is hard to assess. Finlayson hasn't played at all since joining on loan from Rangers last autumn and Mason has only featured intermittently so don't expect them to stay on. Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly. View the full article

I am feeling pretty worried. We have: - a thin squad that we can't reinforce -a defence that lacks confidence and rarely keeps a clean sheet - no reliable goalscorer - a pretty exhausting run of matches - managerial upheaval - no fans to rally the players This seems like the perfect recipe for a complete collapse, to be honest. If relegation can happen to Falkirk or Partick Thistle, it can happen to us. The game on Saturday is huge; lose that and we are in massive trouble.

Right, the Neil Lennon era is finally over. The lame duck of the last several months has quacked its last. It would seem a bit cruel for someone to recount how it came to this, to rub salt into the wound... So now the question is: where do Celtic go from here? They are a distant second to Rangers, eighteen points adrift. They have no manager, no Director of Football and the new Chief Executive does not start until the summer. They have several key players likely to leave at the end of the season, and so much deadwood in the squad that you could build an ark out of it (the mediocre left-backs went in two-by-two, hurrah, hurrah...). Whilst they will be in the Champions League qualifiers, the path to the group stage potentially includes matches against French, Portuguese or Russian opponents. And don't forget Covid and its effect on finances; the club lost £6m between June and December alone. But as Einstein once said, "in the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity". Can Celtic turn this into a moment where they reinvent themselves and drag themselves back towards not only the domestic title but also European success? Basically, is this going to be a John Barnes/Kenny Dalglish disaster, or a Martin O'Neill miracle? Here's what needs to be done. It's a hell of a job. In short (much to the chagrin of the supporters), they need to copy what their greatest rivals have done in the last year or two... THE NEW MANAGER I prepare to be proved wrong - I never expected Brendan Rodgers to come to Scotland - but it could be very difficult for the club to attract a name with high pedigree. One issue is that Brexit means that managers from outside the UK will need work permits, which could prove quite tricky and prevent the club snaring the 21st century equivalent of Wim Jansen. Of foreign coaches mentioned in dispatches, Rafa Benitez is surely unrealistic, whilst Roberto Martinez's exploits with Belgium would surely leave him fancying he could do better. Eddie Howe makes more sense but there may be jobs closer to home (Crystal Palace? Newcastle?) that could come up in the near future. In contrast, Steve Clarke may see this as a step up but he surely wouldn't leave Scotland until they were knocked out of the Euros and would therefore only have a few weeks in the job before the new season. In short, this search could be long and laborious. One hopes that the club, already having realized Lennon was a busted flush, have already started it. RECRUITMENT It's plain for all to see that standards have dropped dramatically since Lennon replaced Brendan Rodgers. There have been unkind (and probably accurate) suggestions that signing policy was being run as much by Peter Lawwell as by the coaching staff. Regardless, Celtic do not have a philosophy in place for how the first team is going to play and how to build the squad around that. Lennon did insist last summer on moving to a 3-5-2 and recruiting with a view to that, but those tactics made little sense given the players he had available - shoehorning James Forrest into a wing-back role and leaving little room for Mo Elyounoussi, Tom Rogic and Ryan Christie - and the quality of opposition; three centre-backs and a defensive midfielder against Hamilton Accies? Meanwhile the youth academy continues to offer only crumbs. Mikey Johnston is perenially injured, while the jury is out on whether Stephen Welsh can be the next Stephen McManus or the next Stephen Crainey. Kids who were hyped up a few years ago such as Karamoko Dembele, Armstrong Oko-flex and Cameron Harper are set to leave having failed to make the grade, with poor development and a lack of a realistic pathway to the first team among the reasons for this. Celtic seem to have been in the market for a Director Of Football for sometime now, and finding one who will mesh well with the new manager/head coach is critical. Perhaps the best strategy would be to appoint the DoF first? Bouncing around from one strategy to another is not an efficient or cost-effective strategy in modern football and doing so (Lennon to Deila to Rodgers to Lennon) is one of the reasons they have ended up in this mess. Celtic can aspire to get back in the Champions League in the next year or two, but the process of turning them into a club that can get there on a regular basis again will take much, much longer. THE SQUAD It's probably best to look at this by position group, but damn it's going to be a big job for the new boss to sort this out. GOALKEEPER This mainly depends on whether Vasilis Barkas is salvageable. It's safe to say that for £4.5m Celtic expected a rather safer pair of hands. Scott Bain is an acceptable backup but nothing more, whilst Conor Hazard went from cup final starter to persona non grata in the space of a few weeks; it's not even clear whether he has signed a new contract or not. Barkas wouldn't be the first goalie who has a difficult first season and makes a huge leap in his second, but if not then Celtic will be back in the goalie market again. DEFENCE Kristoffer Ajer will probably leave as he only has one year left on his contract; his stagnation under Lennon may well cost the club several million pounds. Shane Duffy and Diego Laxalt have been loan duds; Jonjoe Kenny is a far better player but convincing the right-back to make his move from Everton permanent may not be easy. Anthony Ralston is under contract for another year but clearly has no future here. And neither do Boli Bolingoli, Jack Hendry or Lee O'Connor, who are all out on loan currently. So that leaves Christopher Jullien, Greg Taylor and Stephen Welsh. And Jullien may not even be fit for the start of next season. Eek. I suppose you could also count Nir Bitton as a defender, though as far as I can see Lennon was the only person who did. MIDFIELD Scott Brown will be thirty-six in June and it's clearly time to put him out to pasture/melt him down for glue (delete as applicable depending on how you feel about him). Tom Rogic is likely to take up an offer from an Asian club, and it's hard to see Mo Elyounoussi returning for a third season on loan or Olivier Ntcham coming back from his temporary move to Marseille. The good news is that Ismaila Soro, Callum McGregor and David Turnbull can probably provide a pretty balanced central midfield, but there's a real need for depth here. Scott Robertson is that rarest of things - an Academy product who the club have high hopes for. A new manager might light a fire under youngster Ewan Henderson too? ATTACK I think its safe to assume Odsonne Edouard will be offski with only a year to go on his current deal, and the smart money is on Ryan Christie looking for a new challenge as well. Celtic will not be short of numbers up front, but they might be short on quality. There's Albian Ajeti, who has scored a few goals but who really should have made more of an impact given his £5m transfer fee; Patryk Klimala, a £3.5m dud; the erratic Leigh Griffiths; and the forgotten Vakoun Bayo. Out wide there's another failure in Marian Shved (whose arrival actually predates Lennon), plus Mikey 'Mr Glass' Johnston and James Forrest, who is close to a return from a long injury layoff. There will presumably be cash to spend, especially if there are outgoings; Edouard in particular should fetch a huge fee. But whoever takes this job has a heck of a job on their hands. And unlike Brendan Rodgers a few years ago, he has a proper opponent on the other side of Glasgow who could make life very, very difficult for them. Celtic simply cannot afford to get this wrong. Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly. View the full article

Obviously I'm biased because I commentated for their audio stream last season but it is just bizarre. They even ran a successful test broadcast of the Dundee game to prove they could do it - with on screen graphics and in-game replays to boot! And yet the club still chooses to pay for Pixellot instead of using skilled, experienced volunteers...even though they're filming the game anyway. Then they use the CaleyJagsTV highlights too, which just emphasizes the difference in quality. It is a really, really strange decision by the club.

Back in the olden days, when everything was in black and white - or maybe it just felt like that in Aberdeen at the start of the 2000s - I was a regular visitor at Pittodrie. One season under Ebbe Skovdahl the Dons finished fourth in the league; later on under Jimmy Calderwood they came fourth three times and third once. Other league finishes in the early years of the twenty-first century include eighth, eleventh, ninth, ninth, ninth, eighth. And of course there was Skovdahl's first campaign, where they were spared relegation only because Falkirk's ground was at risk of falling down at any moment. Leon Mike, Laurent D'Jaffo, Leigh Hinds, David Zdrilic, Lubomir Blaha, Dyron Daal, David Bus, Jerel Ifill...doubtless Aberdeen fans will remember plenty more duffers from that era, but these were names that jogged this particular memory, and not in a nice way. It does no harm to remember that things could, and have been, a heck of a lot worse. However, that does not necessarily mean that Derek McInnes should get a free pass. Times have changed during the seven years that Deek has managed the Dons. Expectations are higher, and should be. Part of that is down to his own success - four consecutive second places (which would have been five but for a missed foul on the keeper in the final match of the 2013-14 season) - but also investment in the club is rather higher than it was in the dog days of Skovdahl, Steve Paterson and even Craig Brown. The club have the third highest wage bill in Scotland, and by that measure alone coming fourth in each of the last two seasons behind Steve Clarke's Kilmarnock and Stephen Robinson's Motherwell respectively is an underachievement. And there has been just one trophy, a League Cup. There is a school of thought that after a few years under the same manager football clubs often become stale, and that is the perfect adjective for how things feel in the North-East. Arguably the peak was the 2016-17 season where they reached both cup finals and went toe-to-toe with Celtic's invincibles in the Scottish Cup Final. Four years later, six of the fourteen who played that day are still at the club, but only keeper Joe Lewis (who has not had a great season by his standards) is really anywhere near that level any more. Shay Logan is rarely trusted now, Andrew Considine's Scotland cap feelgood story shouldn't distract from the fact that he is past his best, and Jonny Hayes, Ash Taylor and Niall McGinn - each of whom left and then came back - appear to be very much on the decline. Rebuilding the team has not gone to plan. In three and a half years, one could argue the only unequivocally successful signings have been Gary Mackay-Steven (now long gone), Lewis Ferguson, Ross McCrorie and Sam Cosgrove (sold for good money last week). The list of duds is rather longer: Michael Devlin and Ronald Hernandez in defence, Greg Tansey, Chris Forrester, Stephen Gleeson, Craig Bryson, Funso Ojo and Dylan McGeouch in midfield as McInnes used up significant resources trying to replicate the Jack-Shinnie-McLean trio in the centre of the park; Curtis Main and James Wilson up front. Worse, the club's youth system has not exactly come up trumps, with the exception of Scott McKenna. Scott Wright only shone in fits and bursts, while we're still waiting for Connor McLennan to put it all together and beginning to wonder if Bruce Anderson ever will. It's not just personnel that are the problem. Aberdeen's philosophy has not evolved at all since McInnes first arrived. This is especially noticeable when they are out of possession, with a focus on man-to-man marking all over the pitch and immediate pressing of the ball when it is lost. This previously worked well when the overall quality of the team was higher and when they played so much of the game in the opposition half, but now most opponents have them worked out. Teams who are good enough in possession to beat that initial press find space between the lines, and players who are clever enough to switch position (especially coming off the wing) can easily cause havoc with the shape of the team. In attack there continues to be a focus on getting it wide and sticking it in the box, which is simply not the most effective way of scoring goals in the modern game. Neither the wide players nor the forwards have been consistently dangerous for months now; Cosgrove had scored only twice from open play in twenty-seven matches before his departure, while Main is a player who can only be effective in nineteen-eighties hoofball. To make matters worse the one impressive forward, Marley Watkins, got injured during his loan spell and returned south. Their leading assist providers, Hayes and Ryan Hedges, are averaging one assist every eight league games. Hedges is now out for the season. The deadline day wheeler-dealing in strikers felt very un-McInnes, a throw of the dice from a manager who generally seems risk-averse. Given everything else, such unorthodoxy is probably not a bad thing. The odds of one or more of Fraser Hornby, Callum Hendry and Florian Kamberi proving their worth are probably decent, but it feels like an act of desperation than a cunning plan. If it turns out as a double six, revitalizes the place and drags the Dons back into third place with some momentum, then maybe, just maybe, there is still a future at Aberdeen for the current boss. But it does feel like too little to late, like change is inevitable. Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly. View the full article

I'm worried. We were the only club in the Championship not to sign anyone in January. It's not like we have a bloated squad - we have just 15 players aged over 21 on our books. Having lost Kai Kennedy, we were a player down from the start of the month. And ever since the summer Robbo has talked of signing a striker. And yet, nothing. I don't agree that there are loads of free agents out there - certainly there aren't many whose previous club was Scottish. We are still able to loan players from the Premiership, but aside from Kennedy we do not have a good record of signing loan players under Robbo - and we have barely signed any in that time period. I appreciate that for most players finding them somewhere to live is an issue but Ayr and Morton managed to bring in loanees from English clubs so why can't we find any? At the moment our best hope of reinforcement seems to be that Yogi might lend us a couple of guys that he doesn't want at County? But they don't really have much in the way of wingers and strikers to spare now. My biggest concern is that we can't afford to strengthen the squad; if that's the case and everyone else is managing to do so then we have a big problem. Lose to Arbroath tonight and we're probably in a position where we're more likely to be in a relegation playoff than a promotion one.

This is spot on. With Kennedy having left we are already down a wide player compared to where we were at the start of the window. Robbo has also previously said he wanted another striker, and I can understand why. If anything, the defence is the biggest problem. We continue to concede too many soft goals, especially from set pieces. The trouble is that a chunk of budget will be taken up by McHattie and Toshney who have spent the whole season injured. I appreciate finances will be tight just now, but the trouble is that in football you have to run just to stand still. In this window already Alloa (Innes Cameron), Arbroath (Jack Hamilton), Dundee (Jason Cummings), Hearts (Armand Gnanduillet) and QOS (Dapo Mebude) have brought in forwards who I fancy are better than any we have. If we end up not bringing in any reinforcements then I cannot see us getting anywhere near the playoffs.

It is ten months since Covid forced Scottish football into lockdown. After all this time we still have no fans at matches, all divisions from League One downwards have been stopped until at least the end of January and the Scottish Cup has been halted. How depressing. And that is of course because of the even more miserable fact that Covid is still out there. Vaccination will hopefully provide a light at the end of the tunnel. But for Scottish football clubs that light cannot be reached quickly enough, and there is always the underlying fear that it will turn out that the end of said tunnel is on fire. It is reassuring that so far none of the 42 SPFL clubs have hit the wall, and that none appear to be in imminent danger of doing so. Government grants of £500,000 to each Championship club, £150,000 to each League One club and £100,000 to each League Two club, coupled with the philanthropy of James Anderson, have been a real boon. Meanwhile Premiership clubs can access a reasonably generous loan scheme from the government. This week Kilmarnock were the first team to confirm they'll be taking up this opportunity, admitting they expect a seven figure loss for this season. That's a huge sum of money for a club of their size and there's no reason to believe other similar-sized top flight clubs - with the exception of Motherwell, who sold David Turnbull to Celtic for megabucks - aren't in the same boat, even despite taking advantage of the furlough scheme during the spring and summer. But that government support should mean they can weather the storm till the end of the season...as long as the season ends. The big fear now for Premiership - and other SPFL - clubs has to be that Covid forces things to a halt again. That would mean missing out on several million pounds of TV money from Sky Sports and would therefore reduce the size of the prize money pot drastically. And while the top flight has managed (with a few notable exceptions) to keep going since August, the bottom line is that Covid restrictions were a lot more relaxed then than they are now. The halting of the lower divisions seems based on the not unreasonable logic that sending mostly part-time players, who may be exposed to Covid as part of their day jobs, all around the country is not especially wise; in order to continue, Championship clubs have had to start their own testing regimens. At a cost of £18,000 per month, I wonder whether a few of those teams might be quite happy to stop too; instead of paying players to play in front of no fans, they'd be able to go back to furloughing and save money. One potential consequence of that though would be one which is also staring League One and League Two in the face: not being able to complete this season either. Whilst calling the leagues by points-per-game was pretty acceptable after playing so much of the 2019/20 season, the clubs outside the Premiership are not even halfway into a truncated twenty-seven match 2020/21 campaign. Clyde of League One and Cowdenbeath and Albion Rovers of League Two have only played eight games. Can promotion and relegation be decided if clubs can only play each other twice - or worse, if they can't even manage that? I imagine that scenario gives Ann Budge at Tynecastle sleepless nights. League One and Two clubs have apparently sent a plan to the SPFL for restarting in the next few weeks. My cynicism is somewhat heightened by the fact that virtually no details of the plan are in the public eye aside from a commitment to testing. Given the cost of the protocols that the bigger clubs follow would surely be prohibitive (and I'm sure the Scottish Government would not look kindly on large chunks of public money being frittered away on tests) I suspect the plan advocates use of the cheaper lateral flow tests...which by any medical standard are a pretty lousy test. I would be surprised if such a scheme garnered support. For too often it is forgotten that the welfare of football, and of the clubs, is of minor importance compared to that of society in general. For all Neil Doncaster's claims that Scottish football is too important to the economy, it was last estimated to be worth £214m a year (0.12% of GDP) and support 5700 FTE jobs; for comparison, Debenhams employed 11,000 people in Scotland alone before it's recent crisis. It could be argued - and I bet it will be by folk who aren't interested in the sport - that the government have been very generous in their support, especially given much of the value of the game and many of the jobs it supports will be focussed very much on two big Glasgow teams...and I don't mean Partick Thistle and Queen's Park. So it is quite possible that until restrictions are eased considerably, which may be several months away, that the lower leagues will remain in stasis. Heck, if there is another outbreak at a Premiership or Championship club in the near future, despite all their protocols, one might imagine the pressure to halt those divisions becoming too great. Ditto if there is another scandal anywhere near the level of Dubaigate. And it did not go unnoticed that in amongst a rant that will rank up there with the Jim MacLean punch and Billy Brown's Bin Places, Dun Hings as one of the most infamous Scottish football interviews of all time, Neil Lennon decided to take aim at St Johnstone and Hamilton Accies, whom he suggested had not provided Covid-friendly facilities for Celtic when they had visited. Both clubs have strongly denied this - St Johnstone's assertion that they gave Celtic four dressing rooms suggests that Lennon's comments were mostly a combination of whataboutery and vindictiveness - but then Derek McInnes poured a bit more fuel onto this dumpster fire by saying "there are a couple of grounds where the concerns are clear right from the outset and you are a bit nervous about that next Covid test." This is not helpful to anyone. From a public health viewpoint, if clubs had concerns they should have been raised immediately and not alluded to weeks later when any damage will have been done. For the powers that be, this innuendo just gives politicians more ammunition if they do decide to force a stoppage. For all Lennon's ravings about a 'political' agenda, I'd say it could be argued that the government have been pretty good to Scottish football during all of this. Now the question is whether our game can be careful enough, clever enough and, I daresay, lucky enough to get out the other end of this frightful era. Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly. View the full article

It would be absolutely typical if having qualified for Euro 2020, with two games in Glasgow, Scotland weren't allowed to play in front of fans...or worse, that the tournament gets wiped out due to the ongoing pandemic. Still, here's hoping. There's still five months to go, but that hasn't stopped me taking a look at the candidates to make the final twenty-three man squad. I've broken it down by position and taken a look at who is already (injury permitting) certain to be in that twenty-three and the other players trying to fight for their place in history. I actually did something similar last May, mostly as a laugh as I never seriously believed we would pull it off. Players who have disappeared off my radar since then include Charlie Mulgrew (nearly 35 and playing for Fleetwood Town in League One), Stuart Findlay (good but not that good for Kilmarnock since Steve Clarke left), Steven Naismith (34 and on the decline) and Johnny Russell (unable currently to be called up for travel reasons). So here's where I think things stand right now... GOALKEEPERS CERTAINTIES: David Marshall PROBABLES: Craig Gordon, Jon McLaughlin MAYBES: LONG SHOTS: Robby McCrorie, Liam Kelly, Scott Bain, Craig MacGillivray Marshall is not only Scotland's number one, he'll also never have to buy a drink in this country again after his heroics in Serbia. Whilst the third choice keeper pretty much never plays, it seems unlikely that Clarke will give that slot to a future prospect...even more so given Robby McCrorie can't even get a game at Livingston just now. So Gordon and McLaughlin are very likely to be the other two keepers, with the likes of Bain, Kelly and MacGillivray likely to be the next-man-up if one of the veteran trio gets injured. FULL-BACKS CERTAINTIES: Andrew Robertson, Kieran Tierney PROBABLES: Stephen O'Donnell, Liam Palmer MAYBES: Greg Taylor LONG SHOTS: Paul McGinn, Ryan Fredericks, Aaron Hickey I've listed Tierney here as a full-back even though he is most likely to be used on the left side of a back three. Obviously he would provide backup for Robertson and possibly even on the right side as an emergency. Greg Taylor is a Clarke favourite but he's not getting much gametime at Celtic just now. Hickey, who is playing plenty in Serie A, would probably be just as good an option at left-back if Clarke felt he needed another one in the squad. Right-back remains an issue; neither O'Donnell nor Palmer have let Scotland down when called upon but neither can hold a candle to whoever is lining up at left-back. However unless Ryan Fredericks of West Ham changes his mind - apparently he's turned down Clarke before - the duo are our least bad options in the position. McGinn would seem to be the emergency option. CENTRE-BACKS CERTAINTIES: Declan Gallagher, Scott McTominay PROBABLES: Scott McKenna, Liam Cooper MAYBES: Andrew Considine, Grant Hanley LONG SHOTS: Paul Hanlon, Ryan Porteous, Steven Caulker I've put McTominay in this category rather than in midfield as he's likely to stay in the back three for a while yet. Gallagher has excelled in recent international appearances and it's hard to see him getting displaced from the starting XI. If anyone can do so it is probably McKenna, who lost his place in the starting lineup when injured but has done pretty well since moving to England in the Autumn. Cooper and Considine both offer left-footed options; the latter has done better in an international shirt but the former has greater pedigree at club level. Hanley has come back into the reckoning with some fine performances for Norwich this season. Whilst Porteous is clearly one for the future, it's hard to see the 21 year old or his veteran Hibs teammate Hanlon leapfrogging enough names to make the final squad. Thrown in here as a wild card option is Caulker, who has turned his career around in Turkey and has made no secret of his wish to represent Scotland. MIDFIELDERS CERTAINTIES: John McGinn, Callum MacGregor, Ryan Jack PROBABLES: Kenny McLean MAYBES: John Fleck LONG SHOTS: Billy Gilmour, David Turnbull, Ross McCrorie The Jack-McGinn-McGregor trio offers excellent balance in midfield and with McTominay needed in defence it's hard to see anyone breaking them up. McLean has done well in the anchor role in the past though and came off the bench against Israel and Serbia. Fleck seems like a like-for-like backup for MacGregor but he has had a tough season so far at club level and that could leave him on the edge, especially if Turnbull continues his fine recent form. It feels like Gilmour is on the verge of becoming a regular at Chelsea; if he does so in the next few months he'll be impossible to ignore. McCrorie was called up for the last international but he is probably the longest of long shots. ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS/WINGERS CERTAINTIES: Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie, Ryan Fraser PROBABLES: James Forrest MAYBES: LONG SHOTS: Mikey Johnston If Forrest gets back to full fitness he'll surely be in the squad, but he hasn't played since September. A relative dearth of wingers means that Johnston, who is possibly even more injury-prone than Forrest, could be a surprise beneficiary if his Celtic teammate is injured. Meanwhile there's no way Armstrong, Christie and Fraser won't be named...unless Fraser gets hurt again. The latter two would compete for the second striker role. Armstrong is unfortunate that Clarke's formation doesn't really suit him, but his versatility is enormously helpful and he's just playing too well to leave out. FORWARDS CERTAINTIES: Lyndon Dykes PROBABLES: Oli McBurnie, Leigh Griffiths MAYBES: Oli Burke, Lawrence Shankland, Callum Paterson LONG SHOTS: Che Adams, Kevin Nisbet, Steven Fletcher Dykes just fits the system so well that it's hard to believe anyone can displace him from the lineup. The best bet would be Griffiths, if the Celtic striker can return to the form of three years ago. McBurnie continues to be a divisive figure to say the least but he has all the tools; it's just that he hasn't done it for Scotland (yet, I hope). Given the other options he's still a good bet to be a backup. Paterson is intriguing because of his ability to play at right-back and in midfield which in an international tournament may prove useful. Shankland has the advantage of having his foot through the door but Nisbet's better goalscoring record this season can't be ignored. Burke offers something of an X-factor but his lack of end product remains infuriating. Fletcher has never quite closed the door on his international career and while the veteran has been wary of adding to the wear-and-tear on his body, the chance to play in the Euros might be too juicy to ignore. Adams has so far declined Scotland's overtures, but he might be tempted to change his mind for the same reason. Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly. View the full article

A wee bit of positive news, I hope - Andy and his team (who do the highlights filming from the A9 side of the ground) invited me along on Saturday to act as the 'commentator' for a test run of their new software which allows them to live stream the game with those cameras with some graphics (not Sky Sports-esque, but still pretty decent looking) and also run instant replays of incidents as part of the live coverage. They even set up a monitor so I could actually see the stream and the replays during commentary. Everything seemed to work great and as far as I can tell there's no reason why their cameras can't be used as the source of the live stream for matches moving forward rather than the Pixellot camera.

Well, that was a joy to watch. There was a little too much last-ditch defending for my liking at 1-0, but we were the better team in the first half and absolutely turned the screw in the second. According to the BBC, QOS didn't even have a shot on target. I particularly love the way the forwards are swapping positions and causing havoc with their movement. It was the same against Raith and is a sign of a very well-coached team, I think. It was also clear that we had a plan for how we we could hurt QOS, so more kudos to Robbo. Its unreal to think Kennedy and MacGregor are still only 18. Hopefully the amount of action Kennedy is getting will convince Rangers to let us keep him past January because he is some winger. Putting a 36 year old emergency full-back up against him just seemed cruel. I thought last season was too early for MacGregor but he clearly belongs now. That finish was stunning, especially given the ball sat up in front of him. Great stuff lads. Bring on Dundee!

How did you manage to get to watch a game live on the west cameras, and how do the rest of us get to do so as well?

The cameras on the A9 side can definitely be used for streaming games - I know because I commentated on one that was being streamed live as a test run last season. Have the club got some sort of agreement in place with the providers of the Pixellot system that requires them to use the camera for every live broadcast? It's a shame because Andy and his team do an amazing job with the highlights and I expect would be able to put together a fantastic package for live coverage as well if given the opportunity.

Our attacking play looks really terrific. Keatings, Storey and Sutherland look like they can swap positions at will, while Kennedy is clearly a player. Its certainly more pleasing on the eye than playing with a more static target man. Also looks like the midfield didn't miss a beat, even with Welsh not fit to start. McGregor clearly did a good job in a deeper role, while we need to sign up Allardice on a long-term deal pronto. There's still weaknesses that will be exploited by better teams, but there's some very promising signs here.

The trick for working out who the opposing players are is to watch footage of/read up on previous games (so you know what likely position each player will be in), to check photos online beforehand and to watch the warmup and identify players with distinctive haircuts/boots.

To be honest, I was ready to just pack it in. When Luka Jovic's header flew into the net, it felt like one heartbreak, one Glorious Failure too many. I just could not do it anymore. As Jovic celebrated, my mind was already racing ahead. The heads would be gone. We'd get creamed in extra time. If somehow we didn't, we'd screw up the penalties. I just couldn't be having with the agony of supporting Scotland any more. My wife is Northern Irish - perhaps I could just bring up my boys to support them instead, and they might get the joy of qualifying for something occasionally? Heck, I've got a mate from Gibraltar - they might lose all the time but I bet they don't care about it. You'd like to think that had we lost I would have got over the misery and been ready to do it all again for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Thankfully, we'll never know... For the first 89 minutes in Belgrade Scotland produced their best team performance in over a decade. It was clear from the early stages that Steve Clarke had got his tactics spot on and from front to back the starting eleven were tremendous. At one end of the pitch Lyndon Dykes, the Australian who was playing for Queen Of The South eighteen months ago and who looks more like one of the 'pre-cogs' from Minority Report than a centre forward, gave a marvellous throwback performance of shoulder barges, deft flick-ons and runs into the channels that will still have the Serb defenders looking over their shoulders this morning. At the other end a back three consisting of Kieran Tierney (a natural left-back), Declan Gallagher (of Motherwell) and Scott McTominay (a natural midfielder) looked every bit the equal of the great Boyd-Calderwood-Hendry trinity of the mid-nineties. Any pre-match doubts I had about Gallagher's merits have well and truly evaporated; it was nice of him to let Aleksandar Mitrovic out of his pocket for long enough to take a penalty in the shootout. Between defence and attack there was Callum McGregor, so often underwhelming at international level but here playing more like the Celtic version from the last few years than the one of the last few months, demanding the ball at every opportunity and directing play,. Ahead of him was the whirling dervish that is John McGinn, covering every blade of grass, bouncing off opponents with that magnificent arse of his. And the rest were great too. At half-time some moron suggested Scotland would benefit more from having a natural striker on the pitch than Ryan Christie. The fact we played so well - so much better than the Serbs - made it worse. It's glorious failure if you're the plucky underdogs that have been unluckily thwarted, not when you're the better team by miles. Even in despair I couldn't bring myself to turn off the TV. Loyalty? Masochism? A tiny grain of hope? Make up your own mind as to the reason. The extra time purgatory was only exacerbated by Clarke's substitutions which were made with the intention of protecting our lead and beefing us up on defending set pieces (that went well...) but left the team dreadfully unbalanced and unthreatening. Oli McBurnie, who had replaced the spent Dykes, was utterly awful, the ball bouncing off him repeatedly as if his whole body was just one big shin. Another sub, Callum Paterson, started up front and ended up going out to the right flank, which suddenly looked more vulnerable than when only Stephen O'Donnell had been protecting it. Yet with Scotland against the ropes with wobbly knees and eyes out of focus, Serbia failed to land the knockout blow. Only once was David Marshall seriously threatened, the veteran keeper pulling off a wonderful fingertip save from Nemanja Gudelj. At the interval in extra-time not only captain Andy Robertson but also McGregor, Marshall and Ryan Jack could be seen trying to lift their comrades. Scotland had bent, but they were not broken. But penalties would surely be our undoing, right? In Christie, McGinn and Dykes we had substituted three potential takers. For every Scotland player who stepped forward and grabbed the ball, I convinced myself it was their destiny to miss. Leigh Griffiths was brought on as a sub just to take a penalty, which seemed to make him a hostage to fortune. McGregor's performance, his best ever in a Scotland shirt, seemed too good to be true. McTominay was the man who should have been marking Jovic for the goal and who seemed to be setting himself up to be the goat of the game. McBurnie, so often a disappointment, had the pressure of knowing that if he missed he would be derided forever. And was it not too much to ask for Kenny McLean, hero against Israel, to reprise his role of iceman once more? Yet they all held firm. Griffiths' penalty was the diciest of the lot but still went in off the goalkeeper's hand. McGregor dispatched his expertly. McTominay smashed it into the bottom corner like a man who had completely forgotten his role in the equalizer. McBurnie sent the goalkeeper the wrong way. McLean surely deserves a promotion from Mayor of Norwich to Duke of Edinburgh. And then there was Marshall. Whenever he is mentioned I still mentally picture the 19 year old teenager who in 2004 single-handedly repelled Barcelona at the Camp Nou for Celtic. His subsequent career, though very decent, has never hit such heights again. Until now, sixteen years on. I never thought for a second that Aleksandar Mitrovic, an accomplished penalty taker, would miss. And yet he was the one who cracked. It wasn't a dreadful penalty but Marshall moved as if he had springs on his feet to make a terrific save to his left. Of course, then there was that awful split-second where Marshall had to look to the referee, to confirm VAR wouldn't spoil this golden moment. But as the goalie said afterward, what's another four or five seconds when you've had to wait 22 years? While all that was happening, I had somehow gone from pacing the living room anxiously to being on my knees, fists clenched, arms in the air, biting my lip partly to stop me from screaming out and waking my wife and small children and partly to stop me from crying. I was 14 the last time we qualified for something. It has been a hell of a long time. I am going to savour this all the way until June. Erect a statue of Steve Clarke, build another one of David Marshall, give Andy Robertson a knighthood. As far as I'm concerned, it's the least they deserve. Something changed last night. You could already feel it in the build up that this country, from the younger generation who have never seen us at a tournament and think of the national team as one big joke, to the older, increasingly weary, cynical and apathetic Tartan Army veterans, were just about ready to let the national team back into their hearts. Man, we had to suffer for it. But this extraordinary, terrible, beautiful suffering has always been what supporting Scotland is about. Right now those 22 years all seem worth it. At last, Scotland are glorious without the failure. We are back. Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly. View the full article

To be honest, I was ready to just pack it in. When Luka Jovic's header flew into the net, it felt like one heartbreak, one Glorious Failure too many. I just could not do it anymore. As Jovic celebrated, my mind was already racing ahead. The heads would be gone. We'd get creamed in extra time. If somehow we didn't, we'd screw up the penalties. I just couldn't be having with the agony of supporting Scotland any more. My wife is Northern Irish - perhaps I could just bring up my boys to support them instead, and they might get the joy of qualifying for something occasionally? Heck, I've got a mate from Gibraltar - they might lose all the time but I bet they don't care about it. You'd like to think that had we lost I would have got over the misery and been ready to do it all again for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Thankfully, we'll never know... For the first 89 minutes in Belgrade Scotland produced their best team performance in over a decade. It was clear from the early stages that Steve Clarke had got his tactics spot on and from front to back the starting eleven were tremendous. At one end of the pitch Lyndon Dykes, the Australian who was playing for Queen Of The South eighteen months ago and who looks more like one of the 'pre-cogs' from Minority Report than a centre forward, gave a marvellous throwback performance of shoulder barges, deft flick-ons and runs into the channels that will still have the Serb defenders looking over their shoulders this morning. At the other end a back three consisting of Kieran Tierney (a natural left-back), Declan Gallagher (of Motherwell) and Scott McTominay (a natural midfielder) looked every bit the equal of the great Boyd-Calderwood-Hendry trinity of the mid-nineties. Any pre-match doubts I had about Gallagher's merits have well and truly evaporated; it was nice of him to let Aleksandar Mitrovic out of his pocket for long enough to take a penalty in the shootout. Between defence and attack there was Callum McGregor, so often underwhelming at international level but here playing more like the Celtic version from the last few years than the one of the last few months, demanding the ball at every opportunity and directing play,. Ahead of him was the whirling dervish that is John McGinn, covering every blade of grass, bouncing off opponents with that magnificent arse of his. And the rest were great too. At half-time some moron suggested Scotland would benefit more from having a natural striker on the pitch than Ryan Christie. What an idiot that Narey's Toepoker is https://t.co/bkTdLFXCoS — Narey's Toepoker (@Nareystoepoker) November 12, 2020 The fact we played so well - so much better than the Serbs - made it worse. It's glorious failure if you're the plucky underdogs that have been unluckily thwarted, not when you're the better team by miles. Even in despair I couldn't bring myself to turn off the TV. Loyalty? Masochism? A tiny grain of hope? Make up your own mind as to the reason. The extra time purgatory was only exacerbated by Clarke's substitutions which were made with the intention of protecting our lead and beefing us up on defending set pieces (that went well...) but left the team dreadfully unbalanced and unthreatening. Oli McBurnie, who had replaced the spent Dykes, was utterly awful, the ball bouncing off him repeatedly as if his whole body was just one big shin. Another sub, Callum Paterson, started up front and ended up going out to the right flank, which suddenly looked more vulnerable than when only Stephen O'Donnell had been protecting it. Yet with Scotland against the ropes with wobbly knees and eyes out of focus, Serbia failed to land the knockout blow. Only once was David Marshall seriously threatened, the veteran keeper pulling off a wonderful fingertip save from Nemanja Gudelj. At the interval in extra-time not only captain Andy Robertson but also McGregor, Marshall and Ryan Jack could be seen trying to lift their comrades. Scotland had bent, but they were not broken. But penalties would surely be our undoing, right? In Christie, McGinn and Dykes we had substituted three potential takers. For every Scotland player who stepped forward and grabbed the ball, I convinced myself it was their destiny to miss. Leigh Griffiths was brought on as a sub just to take a penalty, which seemed to make him a hostage to fortune. McGregor's performance, his best ever in a Scotland shirt, seemed too good to be true. McTominay was the man who should have been marking Jovic for the goal and who seemed to be setting himself up to be the goat of the game. McBurnie, so often a disappointment, had the pressure of knowing that if he missed he would be derided forever. And was it not too much to ask for Kenny McLean, hero against Israel, to reprise his role of iceman once more? Yet they all held firm. Griffiths' penalty was the diciest of the lot but still went in off the goalkeeper's hand. McGregor dispatched his expertly. McTominay smashed it into the bottom corner like a man who had completely forgotten his role in the equalizer. McBurnie sent the goalkeeper the wrong way. McLean surely deserves a promotion from Mayor of Norwich to Duke of Edinburgh. And then there was Marshall. Whenever he is mentioned I still mentally picture the 19 year old teenager who in 2004 single-handedly repelled Barcelona at the Camp Nou for Celtic. His subsequent career, though very decent, has never hit such heights again. Until now, sixteen years on. I never thought for a second that Aleksandar Mitrovic, an accomplished penalty taker, would miss. And yet he was the one who cracked. It wasn't a dreadful penalty but Marshall moved as if he had springs on his feet to make a terrific save to his left. Of course, then there was that awful split-second where Marshall had to look to the referee, to confirm VAR wouldn't spoil this golden moment. But as the goalie said afterward, what's another four or five seconds when you've had to wait 22 years? While all that was happening, I had somehow gone from pacing the living room anxiously to being on my knees, fists clenched, arms in the air, biting my lip partly to stop me from screaming out and waking my wife and small children and partly to stop me from crying. I was 14 the last time we qualified for something. It has been a hell of a long time. I am going to savour this all the way until June. Erect a statue of Steve Clarke, build another one of David Marshall, give Andy Robertson a knighthood. As far as I'm concerned, it's the least they deserve. Something changed last night. You could already feel it in the build up that this country, from the younger generation who have never seen us at a tournament and think of the national team as one big joke, to the older, increasingly weary, cynical and apathetic Tartan Army veterans, were just about ready to let the national team back into their hearts. Man, we had to suffer for it. But this extraordinary, terrible, beautiful suffering has always been what supporting Scotland is about. Right now those 22 years all seem worth it. At last, Scotland are glorious without the failure. We are back. Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly. View the full article