JamesM82

Andrew McKinlay is "Vincent Guerin" and I claim my £10 prize.

Dyche might finally be forced to start Patterson.

If you keep telling yourself that often enough, you might start to believe it.

It depends on how much the management and control of the two clubs are integrated. UEFA set some rules in place after Red Bull started buying multiple clubs. They changed their structures after those rules were brought in, so UEFA allowed RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg to play in the same group (which I think Celtic were also in).

It depends on the details, doesn't it? I could see your point if Hibs just become a de facto Bournemouth reserve team, whose primary purpose is developing younger players for them. But I don't think that's what they have in mind.

I'm sure that Girona fans are "horrified" at being somewhere beneath Man City in their chain. They're top of La Liga and just scudded Barca 4-2. I'm also sure that Union SG fans are "horrified" at being somewhere beneath Brighton in Tony Bloom's priorities. They're top of the Belgian league and are playing Liverpool tomorrow night. Of course, there are also examples of "feeder" clubs doing badly (e.g. Troyes got relegated last year), but it's hardly a death sentence. I've never been a big fan of multi-club ownership, but the reality is that it's here to stay and FIFA / UEFA aren't going to get rid of it. Why should we be the luddites?

Looking at Companies House, I'm not sure the filings yesterday (12 December) are directly related to Foley. All the documents are revisions to "Confirmation Statements" from 2016 to 2022. I think I read recently that Hibs had noticed some discrepancies in their share register and would have to correct them. Presumably this is them updating the public record having made those corrections. I asked someone who should know about these things and he says these corrections are a necessary "tidying up" ahead of the Foley investment, so there is perhaps an indirect connection. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC005323/filing-history

I think they would say though that NI have been higher than that recently (e.g. qualified for 2016, lost in playoffs for 2018 and 2020). It's only since Covid that they've fallen off (badly). Those earlier results mean that their FIFA ranking is still decent(ish) - they're ranked above Israel and Georgia. Also, a game against them will be "competitive" in the sense of club teammates / rivals wanting to prove a point against each other.

You say that, but I think the only time recently (say, since 1980) that we've scudded them was 3-0 in one of those weird "Nations Cup" games in Dublin.

"Deserted" = Went to bigger and better things.

Norwegian media is saying it's a record fee for Stromsgodset, but are claiming that it's less than £1m (13 million Norwegian krone). IIRC there were similar "arguments" with Millwall in the summer about how much they paid for Nisbet. I guess that means there are add-ons (appearances, etc.) within the fee(s) Hibs are claiming. Whether that's fair or not depends on how realistic they are.

Hibs Observer (Partick McPartlin) is reporting this, but from the angle that Hibs are open to selling Melkersen rather than saying it's agreed. Suspect that the £1 million thing is Hibs opening position in a negotiation and they'll haggle down to (say) £700k. IIRC they paid a decent whack for him (£400k?).

Saw this on the bird app. It doesn't really cohere because the traditional Dutch shape is 4-3-3, so you would drop one of the mids (Wijnaldum) and play their most capped RB (moving Daley Blind to CB). I think for Scotland this would be something like (5-3-2): GK Leighton (91) DF Dailly (67), Weir (69), McLeish (77), Boyd (72), Robertson (67) MF Fletcher (80), McStay (76), McGinn (62) FW Dalglish (102), Miller (69) That's without forcing in a second GK (Gordon, 74) or yet another CB (Willie Miller, 65). I know Christian Dailly never really played as a RB - he sometimes played as a LWB for Scotland (!) - but I think it's the best fit without going too nuts. Does show though how some of the current players are starting to get up there in cap totals.

Pedro will be relieved that the SSC have put up an even more incompetent performance today than his team did last night.

TBH the players have been far too exercised about trivial stuff that shouldn't concern them, e.g. how tickets at Hampden are sold. The whole thing needs a total reset. Starting with a new coach - get in someone who has done a good job with a similar NT (that worked before when they got Signeul) - and take the games out of Hampden until they can consistently attract >15,000 crowds.

Someone should buy Barry a thesaurus for his Christmas.

Switzerland's recent results are a lot worse than nothing special. Their association had to give the manager a vote of confidence after qualification was secured! I suspect they're a team that has been good for a long time, but appears to be on the way down now because a lot of their better players are the wrong side of 30. https://www.football.ch/sfv/nationalteams/a-team/news/mit-murat-yakin-als-nationaltrainer-an-die-em-2024.aspx Hungary are kind of the opposite. They were pish for even longer than we were, but have improved recently and have some good younger players (most obviously Szoboszlai).

Other way round. Tierney started and the other LB (Munoz) came on for the last 15.

It's only useful over a long time horizon, at least 10 games. Stuff that happens in an individual game has too big an influence to make it particularly useful in that game by itself. e.g. Norway had much better xG than Scotland in the Euro qualifying group, but nobody (in their right mind) would claim that Norway "deserved" to qualify.

I must have missed this transfer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67097180

Classic case of good champ player, bad EPL player, which isn't usually good enough for Scotland. Not in midfield anyway. Graham Dorrans played (and started) more games in the EPL, there was no suggestion he wasn't "committed", and he only got 12 caps scattered across 7 years.

Doig was an unused sub yesterday, mainly because Verona changed to a 4-3-3. IMO it would have been better for him to moved in the summer.

Patterson not getting a game ahead of an under-performing 38-year old Ashley Young is a concern. And even if Dyche was considering dropping Young, it appears that Seamus Coleman is fit again.

Arthur Graham scored in a 3-1 defeat against then-World Champions Argentina in June 1979. A game better remembered for a very young Maradona tearing us to shreds.

Craig Brown took along a handful of youth players to the 1998 World Cup for that purpose. Laddies who were nowhere near getting picked for the actual squad, but were happy to tag along and make up numbers in training games, etc. https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/2300497/kieran-mcanespies-france-98-story-mr-browns-hamper-boy-who-was-responsible-for-an-iconic-scotland-goal-celebration/