wanderer

Slovenia booked for me and Mrs, out to Venice on Thursday night direct from Edinburgh, day there and then a transfer to Ljubljana. Down to Zagreb on Sunday and back home on Monday. Skipping Macedonia, and will only consider Switzerland after the World Cup.

Would take Agbonlahor with a pinch of salt, as while he qualified for us through his mother, for years he went on and on about how his mother walked out on him and his father when he was a child and wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. That was pretty much his reasoning for refusing a Scotland call up when he was asked about it over the rest of his playing career.

Media reports in Africa where talking about the game over the weekend. Imagine Ivory Coast being the "home" team, they were waiting for the dust to settle after ACON before announcing their next plans, so hopefully this week we hear.

Needs to be A LOT more consistent..... popping up once every 4-5 months with a wonder goal is not going to make Clarke think he is worthy of a recall (I think Clarke saw through Burke ages ago and that is why he has resisted temptation to recall him, as he knows what he is getting). Burke has found himself a niche he is content with that he can get a move to a decent sized club who pays well, do grand total of hee-haw, and when the weeks are counting down towards the end of his deal, suddenly rediscovers the form that got him his move in the first place. Saying that, reports from Germany have hinted that his style of play has changed at Union Berlin, and he is being more used on the wing, even though Burke has always considered himself more of a Number 9 striker.

Aberdeen have just confirmed Liam Morrison on loan for rest of the season

He seemed to take Jack Hendry's spot around the Ukraine game in Krakow, and that was him effectively first pick right through until the Germany game. I suspect Clarke might have viewed him as probably one of the worst culprits for switching off after Cyprus away and we ended up trudging over the finish line to get to the Euro's and the Germany sending off was the last straw.

Injuries started catching up with Goram from 1993 onward, and basically when it came to Scotland he started picking and choosing his games.... and Leighton's form during the Euro 96 qualifiers goes greatly unnoticed (people forget he played in the majority of them, with a game v Russia in Moscow probably a better display than his performance v Sweden in 97). I think Leighton was unlucky at Euro 96 (a few off games for Scotland in friendlies played a part in Browns thinking), but Goram was the right call for that tournament, yet by WC 98 I think the decision was easier for Brown.

With the September/Oct international window combined into one, probably will mean having to choose which away games if we get a home-away-home-away type scenario.

I think March is going to be Clarke either saying its great to have him or putting the whole thing to bed, I do not expect any in the middle ground beyond that. With the exception of Hirst, which did rumble on few a few months and was pretty much only confirmed when Clarke was spotted in the stands at a Forest v Ipswich game in the FA cup, Gunn everyone had pretty much given up on and it was a real shock when he was name in the squad for the first time, and even Che was out the blue. So I doubt we will hear anything any time soon and its only when the squad for March is dropped will we find out.

Their manager let it slip in a interview over the Christmas holidays when talking about their game v England at Wembley, I am sure he said 26th or 27th of March.

If he is not in the March squad, then I think its never happening and everyone moves on.... I doubt Clarke would want to bring a new face in to the squad in June and his debut is effectively the Haiti match, as Clarke will want him tried out as much as he can at the first chance.

Scotland youth cap Emilio Lawrence has gone on loan from Man City to Luton Town for the rest of the season

There is a portal on the FIFA website that shows a list of all the players who have switched nationalities (just now its just a sea of names switching from the French Football to African FA's for the ACON).... it will probably be worth keeping an eye on towards the end of Feb to see if a "Harvey Lewis Barnes" has switched to Scotland. I suspect the player liaison officer who works in teh background at the SFA will be the one doing all the talking just now, so when Clarke says he has not spoken with with Barnes, he is telling the truth, but that does not mean someone else in the background is not talking with Barnes (Barnes himself was even saying a few months ago that the last time he spoke with the SFA was back in February).... fact nobody is outright coming out and rubbishing the story pretty much hints that wheels are in motion.

I suspect the plan is more to compliment Doak down the opposite flank so we can move Christie full time into his central roles, and once up and flying, guys like McT, Dykes and Adams are probably going to find that they are getting on the end of a lot more crosses into the box, ot having both Doak and Branes having darting runs into the box off the flanks.

Nothing from SFA, but Japan have pretty much confirmed they are playing us at Hampden on the Friday night, and latest talk (and probably the most concrete out of all the rumors) is Côte d'Ivoire at Everton on the Monday or Tuesday night (that seems to be the one the press are running with now after all other rumours fizzled away)