Fratelli

Leaked Public Health England document shows that they expect 80% of the population to get the virus within the next year, which would mean around 7/8 million would need hospital treatment. Well aware this is how herd immunity works but it sounds utterly mental to see it written out like that. If the best tactic is to just accept that over a million will die (if the figures are to be believed) then f**k me.

Pubs in Ireland been asked to close from midnight tonight until the end of the month. Surely won't be far behind here. I'm still seeing folk on facebook treating this like we're all snowed off work and should go down to the pub for a fortnight, probably the folk who won't take it seriously until someone they know has it.

People stocking up in the event that they'll be locked in the house with shops shut for weeks/months. But aye, still stupid people mostly.

Sister in law was taken to the hospital with suspected symptoms just there. She was told she'd be getting tested and getting some sort of scan on her lungs, so waited for a wee while only for them to basically change their minds and send her home to isolation as she wasn't in the vulnerable category etc. Feel sorry for the doctors and nurses on the front line as evidently no one's experienced this before and even those at the top aren't sure what to do yet. Although the only thing you can be sure of is that the confirmed number is absolutely miles off the number of folk who actually have it.

Starting to realise i don't really do a great deal apart from watch football, going daft without it already. Buzzing for Halifax vs Ebbsfleet on BT Sport shortly, will probably be the most watched non league game of all time.

Think it's more to do with players having/getting it. Players in England already have it and it's quite possible that players up here will have it/get it too, which make playing games/training a bit unfeasible. If large chunks of squads are out with it then you can't really carry competitions on as normal.

That's it confirmed that Scottish football is suspended until further notice

London tube driver has tested positive which has folk losing their shit. Although he probably wont have infected passengers i reckon we could be closer to total lockdown than we'd previously thought.

Arteta getting it probably changes everything in terms of football anyway. The premier league surely can't carry on as normal this weekend after that, and you'd assume if English football was panned there'd be a fair chance we'd follow suit up here. You'd imagine there's a fair chance a few Arsenal players have it too.

A pal of mine who's working on some sort of government-involved project management contract was briefed today that they expect it to take 16 weeks for things to go back to normal. Not sure what that's based on and it seems a bit excessive but i'd assume it's just worst case scenario stuff. Either way, if things are worrying just now f**k knows how bad it'll be in 3 months.

There are similarities with the Odegaard scenario, however there's a fair bit of difference between Odegaard, who made his debut at 15 and was world famous at 16, than Gilmour who's 19 in a couple of months. Don't think many 15 year olds would handle the pressures of International football combined with a move to Real Madrid very well. Would be more similar if we/England were chucking Karamoko Dembele into a big game.

Which would be a beneficial experience for lads who are still in club youth teams and are using it as a stepping stone to/taste of senior football. Gilmour trains every day with the first team of one of the biggest clubs in the world and in the last week has played twice in front of a full Stamford Bridge in high pressure situations. I can't see what a couple of games against other international youth teams at half empty Tynecastle will do for his development. I think he'd benefit from being a part of the senior camp, getting familiar with the coaches/players and the general environment of being in a senior international camp - an environment he'll soon be expected to perform in. There's a fair chance he'll soon be one of the first names on the team sheet with massive expectations on him, think it would be beneficial for him to be familiar with the set up before that point. Either way i do still think there's a fair chance he'll be in the senior squad anyway, especially if he plays well in the games before hand. I'll wait and see before diving in properly.

Aye i have to agree that u21 fitba isn't meaningful at all. Have heard a few ex players go on about it recently, that the drop of intensity and actual pressure mean you don't really learn anything past a certain point and they are essentially just bounce games/piss abouts once you get to the point of playing senior club football. Gilmour has played 11 times for the 21s now, can't see what he'll gain from playing a couple more. Worth noting that in his position, McGinn only played 6 times for the 21s, Christie 9, McTominay 0, McGregor 5 and Fleck 5 as well.

Tbf, i don't think many folk are saying he should be starting straight away, it's just to not have someone in his form and at his level in the squad altogether is what is causing the frustration. He might still be called up to the senior squad anyway so it could be for nothing.

He's the u21 squad then.

Sincerely hope they're just managing expectations/dampening the hysteria a bit here. Understand not wanting to get carried away expecting him to be our main man straight away, but If a Scottish player is getting games for a top 4 Premier League side (including his sub appearances and EFL cup games earlier on) then they should probably be in the Scotland squad. If he's able to demand the ball off some of his World Cup winning, Champions League winning team mates then i'm not sure getting included in an international squad will be too much to cope with. As i said i do hope they're just trying to stop everyone getting too carried away at this point, but it does feel we're maybe a bit too cautious about stuff like this. Despite what folk say we do give younger players caps here and there but i get the feeling there's still a bit of a 'aye well lets not get too carried away, he could still turn out shite' type of negative attitude when it comes to young players and Scotland, when it's clear we have a very good player on our hands here. Maybe it's as a result of the Harper/Gauld situations.

The distrust of experts thing pushed by yer Farage types is really coming into play here. If you look at any highly qualified medical professional's tweets about the coronavirus there are about ten comments from folk with union flag emoji's in their name telling them to shut up and stop scaremongering. Genuinely mental that these folk with two about two standard grades think they know better than folk who've dedicated their whole lives to learning and working in medicine.

its also the worst tournament for it , as it's the first one to be held in 12 cities as opposed to being contained in the one country. Will mean fans are travelling from country to country

All sport in Italy suspended until April 3rd according to the Associated Press. f**k knows what'll happen to Serie A.

Of course aye, but he seems to be hinting that the u21's still want him for their games coming up and he'd be a guaranteed starter there, and that Clarke is being advised somewhat, so i'd imagine the discussions are between Clarke and Gemmill. The u21 squad is announced tomorrow so we'll find out then, i'd much rather have him in the senior squad mind.

David Ornstein in the Athletic is saying that the SFA want him to have more minutes before calling him up, and that he'll be in the u21 squad.

Ah i hadn't seen that, but that's promising. A premier league chairman was saying last week they'd been briefed that 2 rounds of games behind closed doors was likely by mid-March time, but i suppose that'll just be preparing for the absolute worst.

Looking increasingly likely that all games in the UK will be behind closed doors by the time the game comes around. The thought of a full Euros behind closed doors sounds absolutely shite. Was watching the Juve Inter game last night and it was like watching a bounce game, felt like it completely sucked all the importance out of it when there was no one there.

McGregor shows flashes in Europe of being a genuinely top player technically but he's not been great for Scotland, although the play style doesn't really suit him. Still early days with Gilmour but if he plays well in the rest of the games in the run up to Israel it'll get to the point where you can't justify not playing him if we have a player playing like that at PL level. Not sure how McGinn will be coming back form his injury , but if he gets a run of games i'd be happy with a midfield of McTominay, McGinn and Gilmour. I'd like to see Christie slotted in somewhere as he's looked lively and is different to other players we have, but not sure where he'd get in.

I usually have 5live on or something if i'm in the car coming back from games but have heard Open All Mics a few times recently - what is the actual format meant to be? why are they all able to just interrupt each other and speak at the same time at the same volume? Just about every report has been interrupted by someone in another game screaming about a chance and then it switches to them, you never actually know whats happening anywhere. It makes zero sense, why don't they just do what pretty much every other show does and have a presenter who goes to reporters who take turns with updates on the game?. Someone was giving an update on the Dunfermline game there and before he even got to say what had happened he was cut off by Alan Preston screaming about some non event in the Hearts game. It's bizarre