RicoS321

Aye, that was an unbelievable performance. Robertson, McGregor, McTominay, Tierney just absolutely outstanding.

https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/directo/la-1/ Maybe try that with a VPN.

I ended up just signing up to viaplay for the two games, will cancel tomorrow, cause I couldn't find a decent one. You might get a link to a Spanish one maybe.

Bloody English

I guess we'll need a new driver with Sharp gone.

Honestly, I find the entire concept of nations fairly abstract, so for me it's really just a rule that's been drawn at an arbitrary point of granny, about as meaningful as a border drawn between the countries. I think we live in a fairly homogeneous globe these days, and what it means to be from anywhere is largely a construct. I enjoy watching Scotland and international fitba, and I always hope England lose, but that feeling is almost entirely specific to sport. It's not real in any meaningful sense. If we were bringing in rules about nationality, then I'd prefer to see one that said you had to have played in Scotland for at least 2 years. For some reason, Dykes feels Scottish to me, because he played up here for a while.

I'd hope he would leave if he doesn't get it. There'd be little benefit to him, personally, staying if he has ambition to be a manager. Unless for family reasons or whatever. If he's not manager, I couldn't care less if we keep him or not. The lad Jess is on gardening leave of approximately £1M per year. We need to be looking lower than that. It's probably about double what we should be paying if we're going to be a sustainable team working within its wages to turnover ratio. I don't believe the incremental gain you get from paying a manager significantly more are worth the offset hit you'd need to take on the playing budget (£500K would be two good players). I think it's fairly clear that playing personnel is the biggest driver of success on the pitch. Looking for a manager is no different to a player and we'll be looking in the same sort of places as we do for players, trying to identify managers who have done well at smaller clubs and are looking for a stepping stone. I'm assuming that's why we're struggling to find one. Robson until the end of the season is a nonsense, unless we're hoping he fails. Any manager looking at a team with twelve players leaving is going to be either desperate or stupid. If Robson does reasonably well getting us fourth or fifth and maybe European football then that in itself is probably already a barrier difficult to overcome next season with the turnover required.

Or any of the ones in the senior squad? That'd be fair enough, but we couldn't really complain that Zander Clarke was in goals and Lawrence Shankland up front and Jack permanently in instead of McTominay. I think we'd be looking at a Scotland team significantly lower ranked than the one we've got now. Definitely no Euros qualification last time round and we'd likely be two tiers below in the Nations' League too.

Is that the place where they're eradicating the rats? Maybe get them to head to Govan if successful.

It's literally in the club's strategy, and it's fairly clear that Cormack was keen on it, and from their opening interviews on joining both Glass and Goodwin had bought in. It's a fairly nebulous concept, but the whole "passing out from the back" seemed to be a synonym for entertaining and that went on throughout both Glass and Goodwin's tenures despite very clear evidence that teams were just stepping up and pressing us higher. All of Glass' reign was defined by possession football with little or no penetration and no attempt to switch it up. That changed slightly with Goodwin, who wasn't afraid to punt it forward when necessary, but otherwise it was the same 83 passes, waiting for the opponent to gain their shape before giving it away again. I don't believe that the two of them were just that bad at management that they couldn't see what was happening, and that the players they deployed were incapable of doing what was asked. I could be wrong, but the evidence suggests that they were trying to play to a pre-defined model. Certainly for Goodwin, not a model he'd tried anywhere previously. What Robson has added isn't rocket science, he's simply playing the way McInnes, Nielsen, Lennon, Clarke etc all have done succesfully in the SPFL. To any objective viewer, Glass and Goodwin (and McInnes in his final year or so, when he had Hedges, Watkins and Wright in an attacking lineup he'd never have previously considered) were avoiding the obvious setup that would have returned more points for something else. I don't think that there's any other explanation for taking guys like Gallagher, Bates, Stewart and so on, so far out of their comfort zone for such a sustained period. It was like a form of torture.

So you think we should cap them immediately? In reality I haven't the foggiest, as I haven't heard any of them speak about it, although for some reason I had it in my head that Fiorini was quite into playing for Scotland due to his granny or something. Think Mebude came through the Hun youth too, and maybe sees his upbringing as Scottish (he looked pish the last time I saw him anyway)? Slicker is a goalie, so should be eligible to play when Gordon retires in 15 years' time. No idea how Mullen qualifies, or the first thing about him. I'm fairly comfortable with Adams, Dykes, Gunn, McTominay and Brown in the senior team, and by the time any of these lads make it at least one of those will have been ditched. The rule is set in stone and I think it's unlikely we're going to start hunting grannies in any great number under Clarke. Four or five of the squad not being born here is fine. If they tried changing the rules to allow us to take other British players, it would become more of an issue, but you know where you stand with the granny rule. I'd prefer all Scotland players to have played in Scotland if we were going fully militant.

Should it be hyphenated? I wasn't sure, and the hyphen was too far away. You're barking up the wrong tree for dog puns I'm afraid, I'm far too serious for that.

Too many of the players in the team, or too many of them with the funny sounding names that you googled? I think most of have been around since at least the under nineteens if not long before. Which players, specifically, do you take issue with?

I believe there's going to be a minute's silence in the twenty second minute for Hayden Coulson's missing dog.

Shankland was horse against us and not good enough. Nisbet looks to have bulked up during his period out through injury, so I'd have taken a punt on him as the better option with one eye on the future. Shankland definitely won't be good enough for international fitba, but nisbet might be in a couple of years. We're seriously weak in that department though. Still waiting for Burke and mcburnie to come good....

Decent result, but not the best of games. Very one dimensional at times and struggled to break them down. We dominated as expected, but if they hadn't taken off Gogic and tried to pull a goal back we'd have been looking at an unimpressive 1-0. I struggle to see how that team scores against Spain, but it'll be an entirely different performance I expect. Jack was okay in midfield, but I expect McTominay to replace him against Spain. The defence were fine. McGinn can't be dropped deep in midfield as a three, he needs to stay further up where he can effect games more and not get caught in possession. Dykes did okay when he came on. Lovely header to McTominay, and a great finish. Not a bad start. Think we're missing one or two players to really make a great side. Someone better than Christie at doing Christie stuff and a fast winger.

I don't. I'll probably do the seven day free trial for these two games.

Aye, the Netherlands should tank them What's the deal with today's game, as I can't make Hampden, is it available anywhere to watch? I'm assuming you have to sign up to an 8 year subscription to some weird TV channel that shows nothing but shite? Or stream it and hope for the best.

Yes, it doesn't happen under every manager, but for those who experience an uptick in results, it usually fades away after 15 matches, apparently. I can't find the study. I think it was particular to English football too, but probably applicable everywhere. I suspect it is largely based on the level of incompetence that comes before and whether there's been a run down of the playing staff too (which McGhee, Glass and Goodwin all experienced). You wouldn't expect the manager after Robson to have a bounce either, as Robson won't be leaving under a cloud. I agree, Robson is not abiding by the strategy and that is working. It was blatantly obvious it would. What the club is aiming for cannot be achieved overnight and cannot be achieved with the existing playing staff. That has always been the absurdity of it. The notion that Ramadani, McRorie or Shinnie are going to be playing free flowing football because a new manager tells them to is a little bit silly. Hopefully our recruitment team have proven without doubt that they are incapable of getting eleven players capable of playing free flowing football and we can move on and base our strategy on good, but pragmatic, fitba that plays to our strengths in order to get results with the odd dazzling display in between.

It's fairly normal for a manager who isn't the previous manager to get a bounce, and I believe it's been recorded as waning at 15 games (correlative, not causative). Whilst any other manager would have benefited similarly, it's probably not sound to draw too much judgement from Robson's performances to date. I get the impression that Robson will be getting kept up to date with what's happening, but also not in a position to divulge anything in order to keep the morale up, so it's just one of those awkward situations for now. The players will likely have been told that they're taking their time to make sure that they make the best decision and that it could take a few more weeks, and then they'll just keep updating that position to drag it out for another while. I'd be happy with Robson. I don't think he ticks any of the boxes when it comes to strategy, unless we're getting a new director of football above him.

Scum game moved to the Sunday 23rd at 16:30. Asking for trouble.

Thanks. I'm always up to date with the news.

Judas ditched fae the peterhuns.

Sold out, should have charged £120.

That's what I heard too. Let's just say he was on a three day bender and he turned up at pittodrie at 14:47 with Tuesday's training kit still on.