Loominous

According to the Scottish Daily Express, Lampard has followed Postecoglou's earlier decision by keeping Nathan Patterson for Everton's trip to Sydney to face Celtic. I haven't verified it with other sources but I believe it could be true given that Everton are also going to Sydney. It's not just Scotland to be fair: Atalanta have chosen not to let Turkey have Demiral either.

BG paired up with Alexis McAllister as the left sided central midfield when he came on while Caicedo ended up moving across to left back to fill the gap left by Estupinan. Veltman came on after Brighton took the lead to cover left back freeing Brighton to play a three of Caicedo, McAllister and BG in the central midfield area as the game was closed out. BG's performance was alright, nothing spectacular - neat and tidy, but fits in quite well to De Zerbi's system led philosophy. He looks to me like he would be ready to either start or play a larger period of minutes in Brightons League cup game against Arsenal. Sadly the World Cup break might come at a bad time for him as he is gaining momentum but on the plus side I think he could be considered to start for Scotland against Turkey.

Could we expect Caicedo won't be allowed to leave until BG or another player has proved they're up to the required level?

I'm happy to bow to your knowledge as I'm not clued up on Brighton's transfer strategy. It's more the move from Gilmour's point of view it would maybe have made more sense to me if it was an unplanned unfolding of events that has led to this situation. I wonder why BG would choose to continue his development waiting in the wings at Brighton instead of doing similar at Chelsea. I would have thought he would have also been given minutes at Chelsea eventually. It seems a little like swapping one for another, perhaps there is just a better opportunity for more minutes at Brighton rather than Chelsea. It feels a bit like he's still at square one. It's early still though so no point overthinking it.

I think Caicedo has been the main fly in the ointment. Yves Bissouma moved to Spurs in the summer which created a vacancy in Brighton's midfield however because BG moved on deadline day it has given Caicedo a chance to nip in from nowhere and force his way into the team which to be fair to him he has done brilliantly and unexpectedly. This has created a surplus of midfielders probably not by design and so I think it's just about BG waiting for circumstances to present him an opportunity or worse case longer term for either Mac Allister or Caicedo to be sold in a future transfer window.

I agree with your general point that it's not a disaster for Billy Gilmour the way his career is unfolding presently and I think most fair minded people share that view. I think the way you argue that point is unnecessary and if anything works against the overall point to be honest.

Just for clarity he came on in the 93rd minute and 89th minute in both of his sub appearances. Saying he made two sub appearances while true kind of hides the detail. Football careers don't have to follow a linear path. Some players excel later in their careers, some blossom early and decline, some follow a linear progression and others follow different paths. What conclusions can be drawn from being ahead statistically of select players at the same age with regards to his career? The motivation for the extension could have been to protect an asset (At least in part). I don't think that's an unfair conclusion to draw given we have the benefit of knowing how it all played out after the extension although I think they would have also been happy for him to stay another two years so probably a bit of both in my view. I don't personally hate BG and fair play to him for pushing to play and I agree that Chelsea would have been happy to keep him on the books but probably prefer to send him on loan again and that his Brighton career needs time. It's not surprising that BG hasn't walked into the Brighton team so I'll only start forming conclusions after the World cup but probably in the second half of this season.

I think it's normal for De Zerbi not to change a winning team when he came in so BG will have to wait for now. When he gets opportunities to get on the pitch it's up to him to take them.

I don't really follow the under age teams in any depth. I've been to one u-21's match in my life so I'm not in a position to make a strong judgement. It can always be better and maybe the current setup could be improved without too much effort or cost. I understand there is a lot of disquiet around the way it is currently managed and around Gemmill. I just wanted originally to point out that there is a well walked pathway from the u-21's to the seniors if you look at our most recent squads. I don't know what their (u-21 squad) overall objectives are though.

I think this was addressed by a poster above (copied below) that shows the pathway is quite well established between the under age groups and the senior national team. What more are you looking for?

I've liked the way the National team manager's contract has been handled generally. I suspect that's largely because Steve Clarke has been fairly successful so there hasn't been any difficult decision to make. I remember there were a lot of questions/complaints when his contract was extended in September '21 after the defeat in Denmark off the back of Euro 2020 even although that was an automatic consequence of reaching the Euros. It's in the grey area where the contract will be interesting: So If Steve Clarke is dealt a difficult Euro 2024 draw, finish 3rd and then we ultimately don't make it through the Euro '24 play-offs or alternatively if we have a shocking start to Euro 2024 qualifying will he be allowed to stay the length of his contract - how will things play out then? Context hasn't really needed to be considered. In black and white he's failed once and succeeded once on his primary objective and only effectively has one life left (reaching Euro 2024). He hasn't really been tipped for other managerial jobs lately but you'd think a few people have been interested along the way as he has done pretty well across various different measures. That said, I don't think there is a massive risk associated with him leaving to take a job elsewhere so from that point of view I can see why people might want to adopt a wait and see approach. If the SFA choose to extend his contract before the outcome of Euro 2024 qualifying is known I wouldn't be up in arms about it but the SFA will be opening themselves up to criticism should things not go to plan so I think they'll wait and see what happens.

Republic of Ireland are playing two friendlies (Malta, Norway) so I'd have thought we will do the same.

I think you've taken enough shit for this now. It was just the fickle nature saying you're happy with Steve Clarke when we beat Denmark (playing 5-atb) and then changing your mind after we lost to Ukraine in the next competitive game which is a bit much and I hope in the future that you will maybe not be so knee jerk to results going forward but not expecting it. .I don't think the whole I was wrong but so were all of you is brilliant either but happy to leave it there and move on now.

I think with Bing it was also the fact that after the Denmark game he wanted Clarke to stay and then after the Ukraine game he wanted him to go and now he wants him to stay. If that isn't fickle then I don't know what is. It really is the worst of football fans - absolutely zero patience and just too fickle for my taste and to come on now claiming he was right just takes the biscuit.

It made me laugh to see them get another couple sent off. They just totally lose the plot and self destruct when things start going against them.

Callum McGregor has cracked it in my opinion. Sort of doing what most footballers do towards the end of their careers. Easy domestic league but play important games for their national team and in Europe.

I'd side more towards outcome bias. The defending was good because we kept a clean sheet. The offside trap worked because Dovbyk didn't score. The tactics worked because we got the result we needed. It wasn't tactics that got us the nil-nil in my opinion - more determination, fight and desire combined with a sprinkling of good fortune.

Yes we can. He has no sense of balance to his perspective. When you consider how the media like to dramatize things it's maybe not too surprising. I skip mostly past what he says as he isn't very insightful unless he is talking about journalism.

For me it isn't about that. Once you put things out there on a public forum then people have the right to recall it and comment on it regardless of when it was and you can't have a reasonable expectation that won't happen. I'd suggest perhaps the reason you don't want it recalled is because it reflects poorly on you. Furthermore, it's important to highlight your posting history is so that if in the future you have another change of heart it can be placed in a context of you being fickle which is important information. You are happy to dish out the criticism to Steve Clarke so you can have a wee taste of it for yourself.

It's pretty obvious Steve Clarke has been building something here mate since he got the job - you obviously haven't been to recognize that which is fine. I don't think you have an agenda against him but I do think you've been quite fickle over this issue. We didn't play our football well tonight - we were quite fortunate and produced a performance showing other kinds of qualities. If we had lost that game would you have been saying that we had missed an opportunity again?

I think this thread is more of a testament to being too quick to make judgements and so I suppose in that sense it maybe is worth keeping around as a monument to that more than anything else. It's funny to re-read some of the viewpoints normally after set-backs so it has value in that too.

It was a tough old watch, suffered the whole way through but I couldn't not watch it. Really enjoyed seeing some of the SPL players holding their own and having Kingsley and Porteous as part of the same back4 was nice too. It'll be great to hear all the positive stories that will come out of this and everyone is excited again after hitting the skids in June.

To be fair there isn't a case for him being right. I'd say embarrassingly wrong but each to their own. Well done to the team - fantastic effort, really has built something excellent for all of us to get behind. Fully behind Steve Clarke and you just have to say well done to him, he knows what he's doing.

Great result. Performance was good and bad, but given all the circumstances it's been a fantastic effort from everyone involved and particularly a mention for our manager Steve Clarke and Captain John McGinn who in fairness have been stellar in these two games.

I think it's telling that you haven't given an example of a game under Steve Clarke's reign that we lost but you thought we performed well.