wokinginashearerwonderland

I'm not sure at all on that Rico. I think you have got to trust your manager and let him bring in who he wants. I can see the thinking behind the whole recruitment team thing in that when a manager goes you don't have to rip up the whole script and start again, so in theory it's great. I think it brings with it a number of issues though. Firstly, do you end up getting a manager coaching a player(s) who he may not necessarily rate? For instance, did that happen with Hernandez, who knows we probably never will? So you have a guy who cost a lot of money not getting a game because the manager did not want him in the first place. Secondly, when things go pear shaped, how does someone like Cormack, a non football man if you like, determine whether it is the manager or the recruitment that is the problem? On the face of it, David Bates looked a good signing. He had done ok in Germany, played a couple of times for Scotland but now looks poor. Therefore is he an example of bad recruitment or bad coaching? McInnes knew plenty about the likes of Tansey before he bought him and no recruitment expert would have known any more. Tansey was known to us, not brought in after having watched a couple of clips of him playing in Egypt, he was playing in the SPL. He was just a poor signing, full stop and you are going to get them whatever route you go down.

Not if you enjoy seeing your team ninth in the league I suppose

Fair comment. In Clarke’s defence, these last few games we look like we have turned a corner and made a bit of progress. Unfortunately I don’t think we are in the class of a Sweden, Norway or Czech Republic therefore we will probably end up being beaten in the playoffs. I would still question some of Clarke’s tactics at times. The other night we could all see Fraser was making nothing of it and it was crying out for Patterson yet he waited until about 10 minutes from the end before making the change. Also bringing on McGregor for Hendry, just to drop McTominay into defence looked a pointless sub when we were desperate for a goal and taking off Billy Gilmour when we needed to keep the ball at the end was a strange decision. From the outside, he certainly seems to have fostered a good bond between the players though and no one can deny they are willing to fight for him. Dykes is also an upgrade on a number of those who were given a chance before him (McBurnie, Brophy, Shankland, Burke, Fletcher). He may not be world class but he is a threat and must be a nightmare to play against. Arguably the best goal scoring threat since Kenny Miller.

Delighted to be proved wrong. In fairness to the boy, he was great towards the end and really stood up to be counted. Thoroughly deserved his goal. Hard to recall ever having seen Scotland play better than they did in the second half. Looked like Hampden was absolutely bouncing. Hoping we will look back at this as one of those coming of age moments for our national team because they really did show how good they can be if they show a bit of belief, actually pass the ball and play with a decent tempo. Also great to see Dykes get his goal after missing the penalty. Tierney and Robertson also seem to have blended into a brilliant partnership down the left and look to be loving playing alongside each other.

Hate knee jerk reactions but starting to wonder how long Glass gets at this before someone steps in to tell him he is way out of his depth. A few on here months back said this would be a transitional season and all that but we are far worse than at any time during the last regime. It is the second time in recent years that we have taken this nonsensical view that we should change the manager after a season where we qualified for Europe and for the second time it has backfired spectacularly. If we get beaten by Dundee then it is time to cut our losses and put Glass out of his misery before we end up in a relegation dog fight.

McTominay has to be the most overrated player in our squad. If he was a Burnley player he would not be anywhere near the Scotland team but we seem desperate to shoe horn him in. One, he’s definitely not a centre half so why are we picking him ahead of recognised defenders and I would have McGregor, Gilmore, Armstrong, Jack, McGinn or even Turnbull or McLean before him in midfield. We seem to get this notion that if a player plays for an English Prem team that he must be included in the Scotland team without actually assessing if he brings anything to the party. Plus he’s English.

Saw this week that Barcelona lost £405M last year. Hunnish?

The jury still out for me on Gerrard's managerial ability. He won the league, yes, but with a monumental amount of invest by SPL standards. Lampard though, why on earth would you give him an open cheque book? Find it hard to believe he would even be in their thoughts as being a potential manager. Surprised Shearer has not been mentioned because they are going to be doing as much as they possibly can to look good in the eyes of the geordie public for the next few months. He would surely be the ultimate appointment to get the fans flocking in.

Ah, you really should try it Rico, so much more enjoyable than the Scottish stuff. It is actually entertainment compared to just turning up to watch our crap simply because that is what we have always done so we'll keep going regardless of whether it is worth seeing or not. Watching that Liverpool V Man City game last weekend was honestly like watching a different sport compared to the shite that is served up in our league. I dislike a lot of the circus that surrounds the EPL but the quality of fitba is unquestionably on another level. I'd compare it to watching a couple of 28 handicapers knocking it around your local golf course then going to watch The Masters. Pains me to say it mind.

You don't watch ANY English fitba, Rico?

Got to imagine a few in the boardrooms around England will be squirming this morning at the thought of Mike Ashley selling out to the Saudis. The top 4 or 5 in England have got a cosy little thing going where they share the trophies and Champions League money between them so would be great to see their reactions if this takeover goes through. With financial fair play well and truly in the bin I am looking forward to seeing the geordies shake things up.

Funny manager Ranieri. According to Wikipedia, he has managed 1,325 games and has not really been out of a job for a significant spell since starting out in 1986. His CV of clubs managed is a who's who of European football including Napoli, Fiorentina, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Chelsea, Roma, Inter, Parma, Monaco, etc. But apart from his amazing feat at Leicester, his trophies won are a few lower league titles and a couple of domestic cups. Every time he gets a new gig you do wonder, would you really want this guy in charge of your club? Cannot see him being in charge of Watford at the end of the season.

Most important month of the season this. The game on Sunday is crucial to set the tone for the other 4 games in October. If we get humped 4 or 5 by Celtic and morale is though the floor, we could easily go through the whole month without a win and potentially be in a relegation battle. Hopefully if we can get some kind of positive result/performance then it can light the flame again. Have not a clue how Glass approaches this one though. The keeper's confidence is shot to bits, one clean sheet in 20(?) games and half of our new signings did not even make the first 11 last weekend. Has he made up his mind that these players are not good enough already? Have to shore things up at the back, become hard to score against and horrible to play against and go from there.

Nathan Patterson, just checked on his stats for curiosity. Season 19/20 - games played 2, total minutes 103 Season 20/21 - games played 14, total minutes 862 Season 21/22 - games played 3, total minutes 242 My maths calculates that at a total of 1,207 career minutes in the The Rangers team, equivalent to about 13.4 full games.

Aye, good prediction though min. Almost like the perfect storm for the americans. A load of good players all in form, no european crowd, a number of our players out of form plus a couple of questionable decisions by Padraig. Have to say, you do wonder where our next generation of players are coming from. We seem to have lost a lot of good players from the top of the game over the last few years. Thinking of Kaymer, Molinari, Colsaerts, Pieters, Noren, McDowell, Manassero. It looked as if these boys would be mainstays of our team for years but it hasn't materialised.

He has been below par for a season or so now. I know a few people spoke about the captaincy last season affecting him but that has gone to Brown now and Joe is still not the commanding keeper that he seemed to be before. I wonder if an element of complacency has set in with him; he was SO good before I was stunned the no one in England came in for him because it looked like he could have played at the very top level and I wonder whether he too felt the same and the lack of a move on has stunted him a bit. Seems like he has become capable of a dodgy goal here and there. He reminds me of Craig Gordon in that he would save everything before his move to England but when he came back from Sunderland and had recovered from injury, he didn't seem to save anything you wouldn't expect him to save, if that makes sense. The two Motherwell goals the other week are a prime example. Although not massive rickets as such, they were crosses into the edge of the six yard box where a confident goalie would have just come out and punched them clear. Same with Stevie May's goal the other day, again not a howler but it was a shot Joe would have saved a couple of years back. It was by no means a worldy, in the words of Merson.

Notice you are still banking on Lewis throwing one in for them BigAl

A bold statement wee toon red, never in my years watching the Ryder Cup have the yanks ever won by miles. In fact, seldom have they ever won! A lot being said about the players positions in the world rankings and that the US have 8 of the top 10 in the world but let's be honest the world rankings are a pile of shite in most sports and golf none more so. They reflect the last few months and are heavily weighted towards a few big tournaments. If it comes down to a couple of matches on Sunday I'd still back Westwood to do the business against Morikawa, Poulter to beat Koepka or Garcia against DeChambeau. I also don't buy the US argument that they have rookies with no Ryder Cup battle scars so won't be weighed down by history. They seem to trot this one out every few years as if they want to make themselves believe it but their main five or six players have all played before and experienced being humped! The states are historically crap at creating good partnerships, Harrington eluded to it the other night when he was asked about pairing players from the same country. He said that does not automatically make a good pairing and you have to consider a lot more than just whether they like each other. The US broke up their best partnership of Speith and Reed last time around to go with Speith and Thomas just because they are best mates which was just foolish management. The only negative from a European perspective is that the crowd will be all one sided which does give the US a massive helping hand.

I take no pride in predicting that Tom

Stevie May bound to score the winner here

Get some width in the team in the attacking third. Get rid of all of these central players we seem to be including all over the place. I want to see a front six of McLennan, Ferguson, Brown, Hayes, Samuels and Ramirez. Get some width up top and get two up front and go for goals. Let’s score some goals and get the place jumpin again. Nobody turns up hoping to see a tight one nil. I’ll take a 4-2 win with a couple each for the front two.

Reading comments from Glass this week I think we can expect a very different looking line up to last week with a good few changes. Bring in Master Bates to cum and stiffen things up and fill those gaping holes

A maverick?