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I was just being silly, but I've edited it for Ryan Fraser. Irving has done his compatriot a favour. Helpful result for Max Johnston and Sturm Graz that Klagenfurt managed to beat Salzburg. They have a head to head this weekend, but it's in Salzburg. 4 games to go, 3 points ahead.

Not maybe as conclusive as I remember, but here's the quote I referred to earlier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIFafl72pcs I wonder if a player who would have been picked in the 23-man squad might lose out when it goes to a 26-man squad for the Summer. Euro-2020 could be an example of where that happened if Nathan Patterson and James Forrest ticked more boxes than Liam Palmer (+1). If for example Anthony Ralston (+1) were to miss out in favour of Ryan Fraser and Max Johnston - that sort of idea in terms of the combination of players rather than just direct 1 for 1 swaps.

aye, KT's off to Arsenal and Ryan Fraser's off to Newcastle in the summer too so looking forward to that too!

He's on loan from West Ham

Not getting a load of game time. I think he's around 10% of the minutes available to Real Sociedad.

Never seen that before, but knew a guy who originally came from a traveller community who would try to catch them in the New Forest area in the south of England.

No carry on, please. I'm enjoying the discussion.

I did think that until fairly recently. Clarke has subsequently said [recently] that the additional three spaces were used for those three. I dont have the quote to hand - but ill find it, post it and you can make up your own mind. I understand the point re: Patterson. It's possible Fraser and Forrest were O'Donnell's cover. I believe Forrest played RWB when he came on (for O'Donnell) against Czech Rep.

You can tell John boy here doesn't have a working knowledge of Scottish Football. Shame as it would have been interesting to see the fan & media circus and collapse. Think of all the terrible journalism we've missed.

A couple of articles for the collection this morning. Thought this article was a whole heap of crap. 'Right-back crisis possible' - how Scotland squad is shaping up'. A journey across to the main page reveals Phil McNulty's latest effort: Tremendous Havertz no longer Arteta's vanity project. More bad than good on the BBC sport page. Where's the analysis, the research and hard work to build a logical conclusion? It's just words on a page around a general theme. What's the point in an opinion piece if it's not backed up with reasoning? and what's the point of the article if the reasoning doesn't have some originality? As soon as I hear phrases such as "vanity project" or "crisis" I know the article won't be for me.

Clarke definitely has the capacity to make surprising selections. If you look back you'll see that showing the pathway hasn't tailed off on a year by year scale even if we haven't seen it so much in the past two camps. Clarke has talked in detail about avoiding a 'hard reset' and 'having ones for the future' (e.g. McCrorie) or 'ones for the future and for now' (e.g. Hickey, Gilmour). You can go back further than 2021 and see Porteous and Robbie McCrorie being included and maybe there are others. Maybe these Euro's aren't good in terms of timing, but I don't see any basis to rule it out personally just now. It's been discussed in a little more detail here. https://forum.pieandbovril.com/topic/288796-the-next-five-years/

I understand that, my point was more if Steve Clarke decides he would rather just do what he did at Euro-2020 and take 3 younger players along then Johnston would be one that is young, has been involved before and can cover an area where there is potential for a shortage. So it would just come down to that unanswerable question of how Clarke chooses to use the three additional spaces.

Don't worry about it, it's a lot of names. I only saw it as I was checking the names off my spreadsheet to see who maybe hadn't been thought of. The others were Dom Hyam and Robbie McCrorie who haven't any chance of being selected. So the rest is spot on. If the squad goes up to 26 it becomes more unpredictable. Who would have predicted Gilmour, Patterson and Turnbull in Euro-2020? The unanswerable question is what 3 extra spaces will be used for? Younger players to show the pathway (Johnston, Conway). Cover fitness doubts (Fraser, McCrorie, Johnston etc). Players who've earned Clarke's loyalty or are good around the squad. (Jack, Brown, Taylor). Mixture of the above or players that tick more than one of the above boxes.

As @AndyDD suggested, does right back? Hickey may have to cover left back, Hickey might not be 100%. Two reasons why it wouldn't be a great surprise to me if we took a utility player who can cover that area as well as elsewhere (McCrorie) or a younger player (Johnston) to show the pathway from the 21's. Taking either player would serve multiple purposes. Both have been involved recently.

I think you've missed out Billy Gilmour who maybe fits best under 'Currently Injured but Certain Picks if fit'.

Russell and Morgan were in Steve Clarke's first squad. Russell was playing in the MLS, Lewis Morgan was at Sunderland (maybe on loan from Celtic). AFAIK Johnny Russell is the only player to have been called up by Clarke whilst playing in the MLS.

Are you not double counting the concussion subs?

From an overall fairness point of view it's of more benefit to the bigger nations, but I agree from a selfish Scotland perspective it's not necessarily a disadvantage for this tournament - I think it's something that can help us. If any of our players are fitness doubts ahead of the tournament then it gives us room to take a gamble. There's a number of our players that could be classed in that bracket (Hickey, Armstrong, Hanley, Gilmour as well as Jack, Brown or Nisbet). That for me is probably the best thing about an increase in squad number, just from a Scotland perspective rather than looking at it from an overall fairness standpoint. Overall, I'm not too bothered what is decided personally.

I see Barca are contemplating going down the legal route as they didn't get a decision. Can't wait for Scottish clubs to start doing that. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c2vwq901e93o

The celebration after Bellinghams goal was great. You have to admire Madrid for being able to go to Barca and beat them at their place after that midweek game against Man City. Great team.

I didn't think Shankland had a great game from the bits that I saw.

Can't see that happening.

I can see logic in that idea. Wouldn't object to Gibraltar being a bounce game personally and would explain why we took that as a game in the first place. Maybe if we weren't opening the tournament we'd have 3 friendlies like I think other teams have arranged (Portugal, Ukraine).

Fair enough, thanks for that - just have to wait and see then. The different end dates is always an issue.

it was in a different thread. accies1874