AlfieMoon

Just goes to show how ridiculous football fans are at times. Some Liverpool fans were wanting Tsimikas as first choice LB as Robertson apparently wasn’t hitting the heights of the previous seasons. Total knee jerk reaction and it’s like wanting to use a shiny new toy when they get a new signing that has a decent game. All too fickle given what Robertson has proven in recent years. Although maybe it’s just Twitter that amplifies this sort of nonsense.

I don’t get the continued obsession from some folk to try and fit McTominay in. Gilmour and McGregor are clearly working in midfield. McTominay has never looked comfortable at RCB and the improvement of Hendry and re-emergence of Souttar are far more natural options for that role. McTominay is a good option for the bench for me.

Edit. Ignore.

While the lack of home draw for the potential final is a slight disappointment, I think we’ve got to be pretty happy overall. An away game in Cardiff or Vienna wouldn’t be easy but it’s not supposed to be at this stage. I’d also fancy our chances better at any of those 2 venues when compared to Kiev if they had Austria/Ukraine had come out the other way around.

Craig Gordon (64 caps) and Andy Robertson (55) already in there. McGinn and McGregor likely to make it in the next 18 months maybe. Great to see a decent number of caps/experience building. A number of others in the squad could make it - Hanley, Tierney, McTominay. That’s before you even look at Gilmour and Patterson.

Sent you a PM.

A few fixtures down. I think it’s fairly certain that we’ll need to beat Moldova (obviously) and at least 1 point, possibly 3, against Denmark. Let’s take care of business tomorrow and set ourselves up for a big chance to upset the odds at Hampden.

You’re comparing something that’s fairly new with other jags and blood transfusions that have long established. There is no long term data into potential health implications so we are essentially just trusting in the science based on short term study. I say that as someone who is double vax’d but I think it’s important to recognise people’s concerns and choice. On the flip side, it’s the governments job to push vaccination as much as possible but there is a need for balance and fairness. Also agree that conspiracy theories are impacting as well as people’s natural reluctance.

Hickey seems as if he’s got his head screwed on in terms of his own personal development. That’s maybe translated into a bit of selfishness/self-protection, combined with club pressure given additional travel & Covid, etc. I’m not quite sure that equates to Billy big baws attitude but I guess we’ll see how it develops over time.

Have a feeling that Brown will start in Moldova but haven’t really been reading any of the commentary over the course of the week. Hopefully he makes his mark if he gets his chance. If Nisbet gets his chance then he really could do with a goal. As others said - not having a great season so far.

God, we don’t half love an overreaction as fans do we? 😂 Nobody knows the facts but the person closest to being able to judge the situation is Steve Clarke. He will know whether Fraser is taking the pash, or not. I trust his judgement. Anything else about past call offs from Fraser, plastic pitches, and training with Newcastle is just noise. Players have genuinely been good at turning up for Clarke which is a great sign. It was only the other month that Fraser was getting heavy pressure from Steve Bruce not to go away with Scotland but he still did.

Yeah, it is tipped towards them paying less - especially west of Scotland with lower life expectancy! 🙈 I think I’m fortunate that I’ve a good balance of DC & DB that should give me options in years to come.

My current thinking is that I’d be pretty hesitant to move the DB pot in future. I have my risk averse portion of my brain assigned to my DB. I’m happy to see how much DC I can build in order to bridge down to early retirement at 57-60 but there’s a long way to go and lots of variables. If I can get a big enough DC pot then I can leave my DB until 68 + SP. At current accrual rate I would get to £24k pa DB + £9k SP in today’s money. A lot can change though with jobs/family so I’ll have a better idea where I stand in 10 years (48) and start thinking about financial advice at that stage to give due consideration to things like shifting the DB pot.

Thanks Euan - makes sense! 👍 I’ve recently started trending my 3 legacy plans against each other to see how they’re comparing. Already seeing which is weakest and building some data before I take any action. Not quite as pedantic yet, but trying to get to your level. 😂 A couple of my providers still allow transfer in but with quite limited fund options which is something you touched on. Will look at iii as suggested but don’t think my current fees merit that platform yet. I am very much in for equities as you suggest. It would be nice to have the £1m ceiling to worry about 😂 .. not quite sure I’ll make it there even with the 20x DB calculation to be factored in. I’d need some pretty impressive DC growth coupled with a decent promotion / salary jump to boost DB pot.

I’ve sent you a PM mate. I’ll take them if you still have them.

I posted a while back asking about annual management charges but have been pretty happy to keep my existing arrangements ticking over since then. Not sure if there’s any big benefit by consolidating/moving to be had at this time other than making it easier to track. I now have: 3 private defined contribution pensions (currently £37k + £7k + £5k) 1 current public sector defined benefit pension accruing £1k pa, sitting at approx. £4K so far (4 years in) and to be adjusted for inflation each year. 1 AVC pot (defined contribution) of approx. £4K pa building alongside my public sector pension. Age 38 and hoping the public sector pension continues for the foreseeable. Certainly no plans to move. My 3x private, plus 1x AVC are my plans to bridge the gap from 68 down to retirement age as early as possible. Leaving the public sector pot at its full value until 68. Do any of our resident TAMB pension experts think that’s on right track or am I missing anything?

I’m sure I heard in lead up to game about the Faroes investment in the game and pitches in every community. They have approx. 10% of their population as registered football players. That’s huge engagement.

Sounds like an X factor contestant.

The biggest thing about moving to pot 2 for me is not so much an easier draw. If we move up, someone else that we may previously have worried about moves down. Only have to look at Austria / Scotland / Israel to see that there’s not always much between teams. The biggest thing that pot 2 would signify is that we’re winning more games and heading in the right direction. That would bode well.

I’d like to think that Clarke will call up another striker in case we need to throw someone on against Moldova. Can imagine him calling up someone like Paterson rather than someone new like Ross Stewart or Tony Watt.

Ugly performance but I’d rather be winning that 1-0 than drawing 2-2. I think we need to be mindful of progress we’re making towards qualification aim compared to years gone by. McTominay showed again why he’s not a starter in my opinion. McGregor and Gilmour are stick on CM pairing and McTominay shouldn’t be anywhere near RCB as displayed on much of Saturday. Credit to big Dykes. 6 goals in 20, in some big games, is a decent record he’s building. He’s not a world beater but I thought he was great against Israel especially and has looked his best yet in this double header. Looks like his all-round play is improving. Hopefully it continues as we’d do well to remember the journey and improvement he’s been on.

I’d obviously be happy for us to not have to worry about the Denmark game but as long as we take care of business vs Moldova, I’m happy to see us against Denmark. There’ll be something on the line but almost a free hit as well so would be interested to see us have a go at the game. Let’s take care of Moldova first.

Hanley for McTominay and Christie in for Adams. The only 2 changes for me. As other said, McGregor may be one of the question marks after having not played many games, so McTominay may keep a place. If he is looking at a few changes as hinted, I wouldn’t rule him out considering one of: starting O’Donnell instead of Patterson, or bringing McGinn deep and playing Christie off a front 2 of Dykes and Nisbet. Gilmour was also cramping up at the end on Sat. Let’s hope he’s fresh enough to start.

Agree - lots of positives indeed. If we can just uncover a couple of top class strikers in the next few years we would be very well set up. If you look at the goalscoring records of the Israel strikers and the clubs they play for you can see the difference it makes having that bit of quality up front.

He likes an aggressive centre half in the middle. Gallagher all day long for me. It’ll be between him and McKenna I reckon.