Barney Rubble

If the game is in Shkodra (still a possibility) then I suggest you do Bar-Budva instead.

Hardly surprising as there are only 4 flights a week from Gatwick to Tirana. There will have been a massive surge in demand this evening for the flight on Thursday 15th. With around 120 seats available, it stands to reason that a fair few will have booked tonight. The sudden reduction in the available capacity explains the inverse effect on the price.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirana_International_Airport_Nënë_Tereza

Played a WC qualifier there in 1981 - won 1-0 (Kenny Dalglish).

Albania at home Monday 10th September Israel away Thursday 11th October Albania away Saturday 17th November Israel at home Tuesday 20th November

Was down there in November - still at the early stages of construction at that point, so ultimately it will depend on the date of the fixture.

More likely to be Elbasan, I'm afraid, which is about an hour south of Tirana.

British Airways Gatwick to Tirana four times a week. It's that easy.

Worst possible draw from a football perspective and Israel the most brutal draw from the travel perspective.

One of our travelling group works in the industry and from previous experience agrees it would be a nightmare trip for the same reason. Best avoided from both the security and the football front.

Genuine question - how many squads has Brown withdrawn from over the years, not counting his self-imposed exile in 2016?

Depends whether club or country is playing on the day.

Hey, what did Walter Smith do to be excluded from that list??

Nothing wrong with any of those, other than we've met Norway and Lithuania regularly this century. I'll take anything as long as we avoid Israel - due to nightmare airport security procedures.

Lacking in objectivity?

Unlikely given that Watford have already appointed Javier Gracia.

UEFA have a lengthy list when it suits the Spanish you mean. How on earth they ever thought Croatia v Serbia, and particularly Albania v Serbia were going to pass without tensions or incident was frankly irresponsible. But these nations aren't big muff in UEFA so go figure............we'll probably see Serbia v Kosovo in the forthcoming draw??

I thought Dalcio had gone?

I found the rule, it's restricted to one loan from the same division and a maximum of two loans from the SPFL overall.

In Scotland it's only one player from within the same division. Not sure about from the league overall.

Dead at 46.

Appointed Stoke City manager.

Jeezuz - wind yer neck in will you. You don't have to justify yourself to anyone as to why you watched 20 minutes of the game, and I don't have to justify to anyone why I watched the whole thing. I did and you didn't. I gave my opinion and so did you.

Sorry you missed the other 70 minutes then. Was an excellent spectacle from start to finish in my view. De Bruyne is a player and a half.

I cannot contradict a word of your general analysis, but that was a good game today VDA, you've even said so yourself.