Officer Barbrady

Beef and Tomato, or Bombay Bad Boy? How can eating a Pot Noodle affect one's ability to pass or control a football, in any case? The copious amounts of bevvy, and the shitty sports drinks which inspire gastric reflux, do far more damage, as those effects are much harder to shake off than 400 or 500 calories ought to be for a professional athletes training properly.

Sure he was in the Celtic team for a good three/four years before even going to Aberdeen.

Off the top of my head, Jim Bett?

Re Foreameus.....(made a c**t of the reply, on a train at present!!!).... Fucking hell. 'Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children'!!. Wind it in, Helen Lovejoy. I'll gladly explain, if you promise not to wet your scants at my description of 'not bending over' enflaming your rage at failure to comprehend the alternative. RB have been dogged by all sorts of dainty protests since their inception, but it's completely different to the situation with Hoffenheim, in that while they have both diluted the 'gene pool' of the Bundesliga, RB represent that genuine and very present enemy of any sport with a soul.....namely, the franchise. We should be glad our game is so shit that reputable firms want f**k all to do with us, but if they did, i'd be horrified if the clubs thought it a good idea to sell their soul to/for those b*****ds. It's hardly the same as naming rights.....what a bloody stupid thing to say. Real Madrid still get a blank cheque handed to them from KJC's hedge fund every year, and until he and they are investigated, any advantage a club can gain who are in their ballpark, is fair game. Fans of Dortmund or Bayern may br considered to have a bit of a cheek wading into the argument, but lets face it....a protest by Koln or Freiburg fans is just going to look like sour grapes, given their relative lack of spending power. Its a good thing fans of those clubs have an opinion on the matter, as i strongly doubt whether Timothy or Kinning Park 2012 supporters would give two shits, as long as their investors could still piss with an enormously super-sized cock than the rest of OUR game. The Germans are, as usual, at the forefront of every relevant aspect of the game, but this one has f**k all to do with population, or even investment....they're not afraid to speak up, and even miss their teams' match, to prove points.....yet we, in the UK, spend a fucking fortune for a stupid little plastic seat, get told what you can/can't say, treated like shit by our own clubs, herded around inside and outside grounds like cattle, and told to f**k off til next time when the 'event' is over. THAT is bending over and taking it. Burke looks right at home in that standard of league, for what its' worth.

Using other people's banter for a nice change. Not. Ever an original thought?

Some people. Exactly the point. Others felt strongly enough about it, to make their point, and successfully too by all accounts. Since when has replying to faux outrage posts been automatically considered any sort of medical or mental issue? The poster obviously doesn't care about the reasons why some nutjob/principled citizen (as you choose) chose to carry a bloody, snotty, maggot infested gulliver around all day, and probably just wants to enjoy his fitba in peace, free from such actions. Thank f**k there's plenty others who dont just bend over and take any old shite given to them, even if the method's questionable. I could take offence at your attempts at diagnosis, but the general acceptance that the utterance of the alternative viewpoint as symptoms of an illness are far more of a deal to get bothered by. After all, you think it's acceptable to laugh and point at anyone with any sort of expectation, or attempt to grapple with the abstract when it comes to analysing your teams, so f**k knows what you're actually like in the real world dealing with real problems.

What is the problem with that? There's already been a discussion on this thread, basically outlining why its such a deal for many German fans. Are we that conditioned into shutting the f**k up, and letting everyone away with murder these days, that a dainty wee protest creates consternation? Correctness, denied censorship, f**k that. Hats off to the Dresdeners.

I don't believe he is/was that scunnered, if the truth be told. The myth surrounding his mediocre talent pool assured him of a solid reputation among the disciples whether we went to the finals or not. However, he doesn't half sound surprised at how his own team played in Malta; that's quite worrying, that he didn't already know, and set them out with such instructions. He did his job at half-time, keeping the heads screwed on and not panicking, however instead of turning this straight forward routine match into anything else (talk of Bannan 'under pressure', an example) i wouldn't have had a problem with them being sent out for the second half with a rocket up their arse for falling to fucking pieces around and after their goal, to show it won't be good enough in future. He's chosen his style of management, which doesn't cater for that; our campaign will either live or die by that. If he somehow man-manages this bunch to Russia, then there won't be anyone happier than me, i can assure you. But it needs feet on the ground, hard realism, and sometimes harsh words to get it done. Not fawning over a training session.

Pish. Rap the pity party, it's boring. You know exactly what i'm talking about, i'll credit you with the brains to work it out, but for those who cannot, i'll divulge. Struggling to break down SM, Faroes etc wasn't the crime of the century; Broon simply had the team playing a specific way, in order to get the best out of our limited players as often as possible. Be it Sweden, Austria, Finland, Czech Republic or Croatia, we were never an expansive team. Press in own half, deep line, hit on break. Point was, it worked, until he fannied about with it in Monaco and played a 2-5-3 and got our pants pulled down. I'd be much more comfortable if we mastered a style of play against significant opponents, instead of guaging a virtual walkover as a new dawn in Scottish dominance. It was one result which proved nothing, except that the players look eager to put the 2016 dissapointment behind them, while the fucking manager still prattles on about it. I know fine well our players aren't good enough to expect to rock up even in Vilnius expecting victory, let alone Bratislava or Wembley, but letting them loose against Malta and judging on that is laughable. I'd be happier going into these games not certain we'll concede, for a start.

Unlike some, at least i have a 'normal'. Winning games like that are the means, not the end....and in themselves, prove very little. I've seen Scotland labour to 2-0 wins over San Marino while Belgium rattle ten past them....but i'd take that Scotland side to easily brush off the current one despite one resounding triumph. Four points from next month, and i may share in the optimism a bit more, but i just can't shake the feeling that the wobble in Malta rather crudely proves Strachan's belief (or public lack of it) in the team to get a result playing a similar manner. If so, we'll be back to square one in Bratislava, against a perfectly beatable opponent. Again.

For fucks' sake. This was Malta. He's over-egging the pudding a little. It was a solid, professional job, with hints of a potential change in philosophy, especially middle to front. This is based on early season form, and fresh emergence of talent....absolutey nothing whatsoever to do with how our team performed against a bunch of fucking waiters.

More than a few decapitations here, on the basis of one clubs' opinion on a Scottish player. I'd hate to see the dribbling mess some will turn into if he can actually play football. People need to steady the f**k on. Matej Vydra went for 12m, and pretty much any Brazilian who puts his boots on the correct feet goes for upwards of that. The game is, thankfully, edging ever closer to implosion, that is the only thing thats certain about the stupidity of what's currently transpiring in the transfer market. I can only hope for Burke's own sake that he doesn't fall victim to the circus like many do, and i alluded to that in asking about Strachan's important role in his development.

He was definitely the last one good enough to not look out of place against the top, top sides of the day. McAllister, McStay and frequently Collins failed to replicate their club form in the big matches, and even JC's last match at Wembley, he was completely overshadowed by Ferguson. Still short, though.

Could've been a number of reasons, but two that stick out are who would they have replaced him with, and would he have left? Absolutely not. You see the affinity he has with Liverpool is arguably bigger than he has with Glasgow. They simply had no need to sell anyway given that it was far from the environment of today.

Did both nights at Bellahouston, FOB simply blew the rest out the water. Last seen them in 2007 in the Garage, and what an improvement. Don't get Biffy myself, but decent show. Knew what i'd get from RA and NG last night, whilst still outstanding and rolling back the years, but no seen an improvement like FOB in yonks.

Naw. 0-0 in 2005, and a 1-0 win in 1997.

We havent won in Estonia since 1993 (played them twice after, and i'm including Monaco in that) only won in Lithuania once in four visits, lost twice in Georgia, and drawn twice in.four visits to the Faroes. Only places we have unblemished records to my mind are Iceland, Bosnia, Croatia, Latvia, Austria, Slovenia and if we're pushing it Belarus and Moldova. Haven't played the Finns or Cypriots competitively for two decades now. Everyone else of note has pumped us.

Yet, we only got back in it when McNamara came on for Jackson, moving Burley inside to go on and score. Weir also replaced Calderwood. Despite that list of 1872 players i mentioned (albeit only three readily available at the time), those were perfectly good options. The three or four other Hearts players should have been taken, not just Weir. May be wrong about the exact numbers, but i'm.sure Olsen had Norway teetering on the brink of the top four around the time of the qualifiers......they beat Brazil the year before in a friendly, and their uncompromising style was nullified by both us and Morocco. Brazil had no fucking clue how to deal with it. Which brings me back to our selection.....wee tricky wide players like Neil and JM instead of a centre-half and a ball winning midfielder playing wide may have forced even a better result against the faltering Brazilians, and certainly changed Norway's approach. TA Flo got next to f**k all out of Hendry, and Weir stepped out of defence to create Burley's goal. They were there for the taking. Morocco, we can have no complaints about. The better side skelped us on the night.

Who?? Slider?? Come on to f**k. In the right team, very good. In the wrong one, a fucking liability. His European efforts prove this. I often criticised Broon's reluctance to bow at the feet of Nine in a Row personalities like McCall, Ferguson, Durrant, Robertson, Gough, Goram, McLaren and McCoist at the time, but his results ultimately proved him right, most of the time. Where i had an issue was his ignorance of the Hearts' quartet of Ritchie, Cameron, Hamilton and McCann ahead of wc98, given that shite like Gemmill, Elliott, Booth and Whyte etc got callups doing f**k all for nothing teams at the time. Norway, in Bordeaux, were asking to be ripped apart. Dailly led them a merry dance for twenty minutes from left-wing-back... ,....fuckin' Dailly!!! What would we have acheived with McNamara amd McCann on each flank instead?? Burley through the middle, like he had played all year at Celtic so well?? We'll never know, but the 9nRO bunch had little part in any of it.

Well aye, because Barry Ferguson, then before him John Collins, and arguably McAllister and Lambert, whilst our four last 'best' players, were still well short of that title. But how exactly can being capable of producing better than them, be judged? Many Scots have been given better chances in the EPL than for quite some time, even though its awash with cash....dispelling two myths simultaneously, one being Scottish players are unrated, and the second that money is the root of the problem. A players fee doesn't make him automatically good, but it does give an endorsement that they are no less ridiculously priced than their peers. Arguably, a compliment, given that they're constantly told they're pish by Strachan. All this aside, we have no one with the dedication of Ibrahimovic, or Eriksen, or even Robbie fucking Keane, to make it to the top.....its not what you see on the telly that makes these players great, playing for similar teams to us, it's what you don't see...the training, the hard graft to stay where they are, the clean living, constant need for improvement.....and unfortunately, most of our players don't have that much talent to worry about pissing it up a wall. The ones who have been precocious enough to do inventive things (McFadden, McCann, Duncan Ferguson?) either struggled to keep fit with the big boys, or lost their heads. We're due one soon, given the amount of relatively large number of middling-to-average jobbers we produce.

No one went to Hampden in 1971, proclaiming Dalglish to be anything other than the best player in his position.....what followed at Anfield, dictated his being World class over more than a decade. And certainly more than he showed with Scotland.....but i agree, it would be much more justifiable to proclaim him, or anyone, if the conveyor belt was churning out players of a standard which deserved such labels....and the lad may be subject to unfair treatment because of other people's inadequacies.

Good job the lad seems self-motivated. With that attitude, he'll have to be! Any player who just accepts his mediocrity, and doesnt strive to be better with each passing year, desrves to be retired.

I like the twist of this. Presumably, you're basing the positions on how things look after 22 weeks, in order to give everyone as fair a chance of finishing in any given position? Of course, there aren't many examples of anyone splitting the cheeks that late into the season recently, when in the same division of course. Hearts twice, in 97/98 and 2005/6 come to mind, and of course they ended in tears.....and by finishing 2nd at 22 weeks, their chances of staying there may be compromised by them facing Celtic (who won both titles) twice, whist NeoGers do not. The simple answer, would be to not be as negative as that outlook suggests, though and try to beat them...after all, they get a second chance offered to no one else. On the whole though, i like the concept of trying to sell not only 1st v 2nd but also 11th v 12th as genuinely do-or-die six-pointers.

Add Rush to the list also.....comparing like-for like, while the South had Roy Keane, we enjoyed lots of very good midfielders who had succesful careers of their own. You've perhaps answered your own question with regards to Welsh and Oirish players having a leg-up from down south, because of no teams of note in the North or South, or England's ability to cherry-pick from Wales also. Like it or not, the OF is as good a reason for the players we have had, as much as the ones we have not. It has bred Scotland players of some outstanding quality, and to be honest, every club is guilty of ignoring developing, promising young players in favour of instant results (which NEVER arrive....Uefa co-efficient, anyone?) and sacrificing the mercurial, flamboyant and eccentric in favour of dull, boring statues.