ymip

I believe we’re playing either A.S. Montecatini Valdinievole or MontecatiniMurialdo tonight. They both appear to play in the Tuscan regional leagues. I’d hazard a guess at Highland League standard but better looking. The fact that A.S. Montecatini Valdinievole play in sky blue and white is about as much info as I've been able to unearth. Watch out for their Ultras Charles :015:

I'm no fan of Fatboy Slim but as the Dude so eloquently puts it in The Big Lebobowski, 'I hate the f*cking Eagles, man'. :015: RiG coating off dance music is hilarious given most of the utter gash he lists on the laughable 'what are you listening to' thread. :001:

Caley Thistle could face Serie A side Fiorentina during their pre-season training camp in Italy next month. The Highlanders will definitely play a local regional league side from Montecatini, where they will be based for a week from July 3. Talks have taken place regarding an additional friendly against the Viola, who will play in the qualifying rounds of next season's Champions League after finishing fourth in Serie A last season. Inverness director of football Graeme Bennett is optimistic he can strike a deal. He said: "We are working with Fifa-licensed agents to get a couple of friendlies sorted out. One of the teams that has been mentioned as possible opponents is Fiorentina because our base is only 20 miles from Florence. "The only thing is that it might be a bit early for them." Come on Grasser get it sorted :001:

That’s pretty weird. UEFA have changed their story since this morning as the above text was copied directly off exactly the same page of the site. It looks like the Greek FA have also pulled Larissa out of the competition which might give us an opportunity. As much as I’d like to play in the competition you really start to wonder if they’re ever going to nail down the entrants.

The wikipedia site had Auxerre down as Palermo’s replacements yesterday, if not before. The French media have also been suggesting that Auxerre were first reserve. I’ve no idea where this idea that we were first reserve came from – SFA ?, Clueless media ? or just a combination of chinese whispers and wishful thinking . Who knows…. I hope I’m wrong but I can’t see there being much chance of a decent friendly in Italy in early July. It’s way too early for Italian clubs to be back in training as their season finished weeks after us and the new season doesn’t kick-off until much later. In fact the Serie B promotion/relegation play-offs are not even finished yet.

Posted on uefa.com this morning: “France gets two Intertoto chances Friday, 9 June 2006 The fixture list for the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup has been confirmed after the 49 participating clubs were put forward by their respective associations. Two from France France will be the only nation with two teams taking part in the revamped competition after Italy declined to enter a side. A second Ligue 1 club to join Olympique de Marseille will be finalised on 15 June, two days before the first round of the summer competition gets under way. There is also no entrant from Portugal, Liechtenstein and San Marino. The eleven winners of this year's competition will all go forward to the UEFA Cup second qualifying round, to be played on 12/26 August. “ Looks like the Tuscany training camp is a goer. Can someone from the club please confirm if we'll be playing any meaningful matches while we’re over there?

I don’t quite understand why anyone would want to start rotating goalies. If you have a good one you stick with him. If Brown was to depart then we’d either have to promote Fraser/Smith from the bench/reserves or go into the marketplace and find an alternative. Chopping and changing a winning system just to keep the back-up keeper happy is nuts. Look at the problems Man United had post Schmeichel until they installed Van der Saar and stopped tinkering with the irst choice keeper. I wouldn’t read too much into Charlie giving Fraser a run out in a meaningless end of season game. Unless he scarpers this summer he’ll be the man betewen the sticks for the foreseeable.

..blah, blah....Goughie...waffle, waffle.......Hendry...yadda, yadda....Rankin.....continue ad nauseaum........zzzzzzzz...... I think we have some credibility issues here, Scoop. :001:

Of course it’s minging it’s a jags top :004: I think we need to re-dress this shocking pro-jaggy imbalance and get them to re-produce a couple of Caley ones. I feel an e-mail to TOFFS coming on. It’s a bit harsh saying they’re ‘fakes’. Those TOFFS shirt look a lot better than most of the monstrosities available today and the quality is generally a lot better too.

I had a top notch day out yesterday. We started off down at the Trocadero where the UEFA champions festival had attracted quite a lot of fans, especially of the Barca persuasion. Had popped down on Saturday before the crowds and the ymip under fives almost managed to knock the champions league trophy off it's plinth. Cue distressed security guard and a shart exit for the ICT crew. Hung around down there for a bit before heading in to town for a few beers. There was plenty of supporters knocking about but a far cry from my experiences on Scotland away trips (minimal pi.shing in fountains and zero puking in flowerbeds). Quite a few gooners boozing around chatelet les halles but quite sedate stuff. The Ar.se seem to have quite a high nerd factor with plenty of clueless nic hornby wannabees. Very unlike the likes of chelsea who visited Paris last season with a very different type of crowd. Strangely enough there was a fair few kilted up "jock gooners". I got the impression the cockernees were none too impressed with the skirted interolpers. Headed out to the stadium for about sevenish, uplifted our replacement tickets (originals nicked in the post!) and scoofed a few proper beers as we had the foresight to sort out a wee carry-oot thus avoiding the alcohol free rubbish they punt outside the ground. Got around to the Arsenal side of the ground to find one poor gooner had tried to scale the perimeter fence but had obviously fallen off a ticket office roof and impaled himself on the fencing! It looked quite nasty and there were a lot of police and paramedics trying to dislodge him. He was up there for ages and I haven't hear how he got on. Spotted ex Senegal boss Bruno Metsu with a stunning young African dollybird and also bumped into Tony Mowbray who was obviously thrown by my "Alright Mogga" shout. I thought the game itself was decent enough if not a classic. I think the reason that everyone’s commenting on the ref is that the British media have all been mumping about him as the gooners lost. If they’d won nothing would be said. The gooners in the ground were as dull as the ones we encountered in town. Their response to Campbell's goal was pitiful. I turned around to one clueless beaut behind me and said "I guess that's Almunia coming on" when Lehmann was sent-off and he looked at me blankly and passed me to his equally clueless mate. The Barça fans were a different kettle of fish and were bouncing the whole time. I was pleasantly surprised as we visited the nou camp on my stagger for the barca - espanyol derby and the atmosphere was pretty dire. I have to say I was well chuffed when Barca got the winner and there was clearly no way back for the Wengerboys. All in all a very pleasant day/night out.

If we were to lose Black, Proctor, Dods and Dargo then it would obviously be a bit of a body blow to the club but at the end of the day there are plenty more fish in the sea. It’s undoubtedly a buyers market this summer and I have every confidence that suitable replacements would be brought in by Charlie and Parky. I just hope at least a couple of the aforementioned players have the good sense to avoid the Tanandice black hole. Chances are Brewster will be gone by Christmas…..

Don’t worry folks. I’m sure our Chief Executive type person has it all under control. The man is a master of open communication and has never knowingly missed a commercial opportunity. Can someone remind me what his name is again…… ? ? ? :019:

I think Portugal knocked back the intertoto spot before the draw so it makes no odds. Odense appear to be intertoto bound so our options seem to be shrinking.

I'm surprised the Danes don't have a fall back nominee in the event that Odense qualify for the UEFA cup direct. If this Danish story is correct then we would play the winners of Vetra (Lithuania) vs. Shelbourne (RoI). The winners of that match would play the winners of Hibs vs. Dinaburg (Latvia) or Havnar Boltfelag (Faroes) for a place in the UEFA cup proper. C'mon the Odense and roll on our euro jolly !

Scotty, that adidas shirt is for MLS side Chivas USA (sister club of the mexican side of the same name). The US national side wears nike. Pedant, moi? :004:

I hope the jambos put ten past them. :021:

My Hellgin City supporting mate, who’s usually pretty well informed in matters of a black and white nature, has been advised we’ll be visiting Borough Briggs on Wednesday July 12th to resume hostilities with our formal rivals. This date’s obviously provisional, assuming Big Brian has the lads back from pre-season training at the Scripture Union boot camp.

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned on here before but as of next season SPL sides will be free to sell advertising space on their shorts. I was wondering if anyone had heard anything on the grapevine regarding who might be in line for this prestigious honour. The reason I ask is that the Company I work for is shamefully sponsoring the dismal dons shorts and I was wondering if there were any other companies willing to throw away their employees' potential bonus money in this manner.

If this is correct it would be good if the club could give us a heads up for dates, assuming Charlie is planning a couple of friendly matches. Plenty of cheap flights available from Paris to Turin, Milan and Bergamo so I’m definitely interested if this gets the green light.

Don’t forget the JJB Palace of Sport at the Longman and the several hundred posts confirming Rankin was signing back in January. Keep ’em coming Ill-informed Howden Ender

I can't really see us taking all four but it would be quite amusing. County must be strong candidates for a relegation struggle next season. Seven released and/or transfer listed plus rankin, cowie and mckinlay likely on the move.

I've read a couple of posts regarding us offering Kevin Mckinlay from County a two year cotract. He's apparently on loan from Chelsea and as such no fee would be involved. Also seems to be further rumours re. Don Cowie joining the exodus over the bridge. Can anyone confirm current state of play?

Just back from the match, PSG- Marseille at the Stade de France. PSG won 2-1 against their uber rivals. The highlights are on UK Eurosport at the moment and if you miss them it's worth watching Eurogoals on Monday night for two absolute screamers from PSG's Bonaventure Kalou and Vikash Dhorasoo. On a personal note I've just about recovered from the near death experience of taking my 50cc scooter on the A1 motorway to avoid going through several thousand p.issed off Marseille ultras who had decided to start launching projectiles at us:shock: :shock: Roll on May 17th and the Champs League final at the SDF. Two tickets secured through UEFA ballot. Loving it..... Allez Paris.

Grant Brebner = United's very own Canada Bob :D

Way too many skinny, white, whining, indie bands being bigged up on here. It’s like acid house never happened…… Starter for ten : Massive Attack featuring the god-like Terry Callier - Live With Me Sublime.