Salvo Montalbano

A few quid, fair enough - doubling the price? The old SFL review books were great. My local library had a huge selection of old reviews in there and I used to occasionally get one out to have a wee shifty at old squad lists and ponder stupid little details like why someone started off the season wearing the number 6 shirt then switched to a number 4 in November.

(Caledonian Stadium)1997-98 to 1998-99 ... £9 seating, £7 standing1999-00 to 2003-04 ... £11 seating, £9 standing(Pittodrie)2004-05 ... £20-25 seating (family section: £12) Did it seriously jump more than double in one season?

Kinda looks like the Armstrong backdated steroid cream wheeze from back in the day.

As one of the old fashioned types who likes to avoid the English results, I don't tend to listen to Sportsound on a Saturday now as they keep giving you the English scores during the game. I know many people want to know the scores and I'm a bit of an oddbod that way but it's still an example of BBC Scotland giving more of a damn about the game down south than up here. Especially when you have RG saying things like "we're just trying to get that score confirmed" yet being able to tell you the scorer and how many goals he's scored as soon as it goes in.

Under pressure Milan at home to Lazio tonight, still 0-0 but Lazio look to have made a bright start. Do Milan always wear Champions League strips btw, even though they're not in the Champions League? Just saw a close up on Suso and his shirt had the 7-time winners patch on his arm. I'd have thought they'd need to have Serie A patches for sponsorship reasons etc? Or have they got that on the other arm? Seems a bit bizarre and a bit of a minter for Milan, to use P&B parlance.

Somerset is one of my favourite grounds to visit (unless I'm going with my old man as the stand isn't very comfortable and the toilets are minging) and even better Ayr have announced that the prices for the Pars game next month are going to be a fiver a pop.

Been to Italy lots, especially in the North - Verona is lovely, and there's obviously the Lakes in that area too. Just south of Lake Garda is Valeggio sul Minco which is a beautiful little village on the river and home to a pasta festival and there is a botanical gardens at Parca Sigurta and a waterpark nearby too. There is also Mantua which is nice and has three lakes and an old city centre. - in you're heading further west then Bergamo is worth looking around. There's an old town at top of a funicular railway and lots of nice old buildings. Loads of great restaurants there too but they serve polenta as the starch which I don't particularly enjoy. - in Tuscany, if you want an alternative to Florence and Pisa the there's Lucca or (if you have a car) Montecatini Terme. I'm sure you'll enjoy wherever you end up though.

Yeah, just wander and get lost. You'll find your way back to somewhere familiar eventually. Try to find a wee bar in a back street where you can grab some free nibbles (think tapas) and have a beer while mixing with locals. Go find the tragghetto across the Grand Canal and you can get the gondola experience without the cost (as long as you're OK standing up on a boat for a few minutes!).

Reid would have been a starter for sure and I'm sure we'd have offered him terms had that court case not been hanging over him. As it happens, it was thrown out and he'd already signed with an Icelandic team by then. If we could have persuaded Marc McAusland to stay that would have been superb. As for the more general point, I wonder if we're going to have to go to a 4-2-3-1 for a while to try and get a bit more solidity at the back while allowing the likes of Higginbotham, Cardle, even Moffat some freedom in the 3 behind the striker. We really need to close the huge gaps between the lines and that might be the way forward. Not convicted we'd be creating much going forward if we continued to hoof it long but maybe changing shape would help being about a change there too.

To be fair, it was in the paper that Dolce and Gabanna apparently sent a threatening letter to D&G but the courts rightly realised that nobody would confuse a global fashion house with a bunch of mechanics and the complaint was thrown out. They're certainly not plumbers though. As for Off the Ball in general, I don't know if it's too many Old Firm guests, too long a show, or Cosgrove being missing a bit more often than before but it's went from a must-listen on a Saturday to one that I often end up sticking a CD or something instead of listening to on the way to the game.

I'm almost sure I heard a wee " 'uckin' something" when she was telling her story about going to Asda too but it was kind of under her breath so nothing was said about it.

Wonder if Samp, Inter and Eder are all regretting his move last year. He's barely scored at Inter (who look as bad as they did before Mancini mk I) and Samp have missed his energy. Having said that they were unlucky last night, especially hitting the post so soon before Milan scored. Donnarumma looks like one of those keepers who is not only good but also carries a bit of luck with him - shots hitting woodwork and bouncing the 'right' way, strikers slipping when in on goal, that sort of thing. A great combination if you have it!

What did you make of it? I'm glad it's available to people without Sky and who aren't interested enough to get the Game Pass, and fair play to Chapman as he seems to be fairly knowledgeable. Not sure they had to have half time analysis (especially when they looked at players who then did more or had nightmares in the second half) and they only showed very brief highlights from one or two other tight games.

This is a few years back before clubs took things like that seriously but IIRC we were told initially that we'd be in the away stand then it was in the paper that Motherwell had changed that since travelling numbers were low so we'd be in the Main but when we arrived none of the stewards knew anything and it was only when we couldn't find an away fans gate that we knew that the original information was actually correct. It's not uncommon btw - I've been sent to two different gates at different ends of the ground at Morton, Cowdenbeath, Peterhead, Forfar and a few others over the past 5 or so years. Maybe it's more common in the lower leagues with a relatively large away support or I've just been unlucky, I don't know.

Aye. I get that people might need anti-inflammatory or painkilling medication but the use of steroids when there are other alternatives, asthma inhalers for all these athletes with recently diagnosed "athletic induced asthma" (isn't that just called being out of breath after exercise) and the heart medication for super fit athletes is a joke.

Echo the above. Fir Park is a bit of a poor away day IMO - a few times it's been unclear which stand we've to go to and if you turn up at the Main Stand it's a hell of a trek round to the away stand as you have to walk the long way round. When you get there its another of those stands where you enter at ground level then have to climb a huge flight of stairs to then walk back down to your seat (another fair trek if you sit at the front). I'm not sure if my views are clouded by getting beat all too often there though.

Empoli beat Crotone 2-1 in the Monday night bottom of the table clash. At least Crotone scored their first Serie A goal. Two soft goals conceded by Crotone from set pieces and it already looks like it'll be a struggle this season.

Cheers.

Who is Contador going to next year? I have Bora-Argon in my head but I'm not sure if I made that up. Not convinced he'll find himself in a strong enough team to win the Tour - Sky, Movistar and Orica look like they have great depth and can push along the peloton if they need to get onto a legendary Bertie Breakaway.

Always seems bizarre that they use that format when some groups are harder than others. There must be some sort of format that allows 2nd place teams to get through (even to a play off round) if they're not sure that there enough clubs or matchdays to go to 16.

Yeah, a good effort but the team failed when they missed the break and it shows Sky aren't infallible. Sets up a great few years ahead though, and Orica look like they're going to be players on the big stage and with AG2R having a couple of decent young French prospects and Bertie thinking he has one more Tour victory in him it's going to be fascinating in all three Grand Tours next year. Good to see the crowds on the Tour of Britain too. A very successful event.

Except he's not peaking. He nailed the TT and there was no other time trailer in the race barring the guy who came second, who also came 4th to Froome in the Olympics. If he was peaking he'd have been able to take something out of Quintana to recover some of the time lost when Sky dropped the ball and let Bertie and the rest break away.

At least Bonner has a chance of knowing the names of some of the players who aren't playing for Celtic this week. More often than not it's "the winger", "the big lad", "the young full back" etc.

He'll have to. He'll have to rely on the team getting him there though, while Movistar can just keep pace, then once he's there he needs to try and outfox Quintana on the climb - Nairo looks like he could just hang on his wheel so he'll have to explode or try and work him too hard that he drops him with a km or two to go.

That's what I was meaning up thread in a way. Even the stage yesterday, they went to Tatton Park then did a huge random loop just to get a long climb in then headed back to Tatton, where if there was a bunch sprint there was no room going up the drive. Surely heading up Glencoe or up to the Cairngorm Ski Station or something would be an amazing sight? I'd be amazed if Quintana didn't win the Vuelta now, unless something mad happens. Froome will probably take 90 seconds to 2 minutes off him in the TT but where is he going to get the rest of the time?