Blantyre_Braveheart

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/connor-mcbride-rise-former-celtic-24205259 Up for EPL U23 2 POTY.

I'm surprised Celtic hung on as long as they did for his answer. It's left them in a massive bind and has turned a lot of their fanbase on them. Their preseason starts in a few weeks and champions League qualifying starts in a month and a half. That is an incredibly short time frame to get a manager, players for him and get the squad ready for qualifying. So John Kennedy then?

Who comes up with this sh!te. We aren't spending £15 million on anyone, let alone Oli McBurnie. Kent's £6/7 million, will be Rangers top end fee.

The lack of depth in CM. McGregor has been poor for a while, Gilmour is untried and Fleck has never really shown much in a Scotland jersey. Clarke could fancy McGinn in CM as we have Armstrong, Christie, etc who can play CAM. He's played there quite a few times in the last year for us.

GK aside we have a main squad that could be together for 2/3+ campaigns. I believe Declan Gallagher is the only outfield player who is 30+. I'm hopefully of a playoff spot for the world cup. It will be difficult but we do have a good solid squad. It's probably the best we've had in 10/15 years. Only 10 of the outfield squad would be over 30 at EURO 2024 and half are defenders. Robertson, Hanley, O'Donnell, Cooper, Gallagher, McGregor, Armstrong, Fleck, Forrest and Fraser. Most of them would be 30/31 and could easily see another tournament. Also if we are being honest the only guaranteed starter in that list is Robertson. Fraser, Forrest, McGregor, etc are all good players and when they start do well. With the defence I'm hoping Patterson, Ashby, McKenna, Hickey, Porteous and so on can continue to improve and eventually push these players for squad positions

Hickey, Kennedy, Ashby, J.Hamilton and E.Anderson (if he's switched back) are also missing due to injury or not selected. I think the first squad in September will be quite different from this training camp. I'd personally have the EURO u21 qualifying campaign done in a season like it is with the main campaign (and add a u21 nations league for the other year. 2 years is a massive development period at 18-21 and squads are often vastly different by the actual tournament.

Aye after the squad selection, I've had a bit of a change of belief in Clarke. I thought he was stubborn and would stick to his squad players. I was wrong and like you I think he will go for McTominay in CM. I think the big call will be McGinn at CM/CAM and whether McGregor starts.

How many of those have turned into international quality players? About 6. First team football early at a certain level or big club experience doesn't always Equate good potential. As I said in an early message this is a new cycle. It's hard to judge them at the start of a new qualifying campaign, especially when it's a experimental training camp 3 months before the new campaign begins. It's a lot of 18-20 year olds and some 21 year olds.

Happy Man Utd lost as the sycophantic punditry team turned me into a Villarreal fan for the night. Just so dismissive it was unreal. Gutted for McTominay on a personal level though but he can take confidence in being the best player on the park by a wide distance. A midfield of McTominay Gilmour McGinn Would be very high level. McTominay at CB and McGinn dropped down to CM would significantly weaken us. McTominay isn't a CB and is wasted there. McGinn is a goalscorer at CAM and is nonexistent at CM.

Aye ideally you'd replace Taylor but when you need another 6-8 first team players, it's going to be hard financially to get the required quality in each position. I think Taylor is decent but I don't feel he is quick enough or good enough when trying to beat a man to be Celtic's first choice long term. He has a good cross on him. You aren't replacing guys with the quality of Ajer, Édouard, Christie and Elyounoussi for a couple of million. They need immediate quality to replace those players (not just projects) and that won't be cheap. I think a ST, LM and CB will be Celtic's major financial outlays this summer (£5-7 million each). The other 4-5 players will be around £2-3 million each (maybe a free transfer or 2 to fill out the squad). It's going to be incredibly difficult to get it all right in one window. I think a lot of people don't realise how big a rebuild this is. Not just team wise but pretty much all across the club. I've Heard a lot of talk about having to modernise in most departments. Howe and his team will bring that in coaching. It's then about getting the data teams, scouting and DOF right. That's a hell of a lot to do in a short period of time. I will say this though Veneglos and O'Neill did it in the past. So there is prescient for Celtic getting it all right in one window and season. So it can be done and Howe is a good manager.

Good to hear about Williamson. He's one who has gone under the radar at Rangers compared to the other young players. I had heard he'd done well but hearing it from a guy who's watched him is very reassuring. Gemmell had a very good experienced squad and played longball/hoofball with them. Gilmour, Ferguson, Campbell, Kelly and Turnbull in midfield but we don't play half them and boot the ball over their head. Patterson never having played as a RB and McCrorie as a RB over him. Championship LBs over Hickey, Doig, Reid and then playing those LBs at LM. He along with Stark need to be gone from our youth set-up.

Julien seems to be returning quicker than expected so he'd be first choice CB. Celtic still have good squad players after everyone leaves Their 3 keepers CB - Welsh, Bitton (he seems to be off), Hendry (if he returns) LB - Bolignoli, Montgomery CM - Robertson, Soro, Rogic, Ntcham (seems to be off aswell), Shaw (incoming signing) WM - Johnston, Dembele ST - Griffiths (if he stays), Ajeti Looking at it they don't really need many squad player signings, it's main starters they are needing. 7-8 starters are needed.

It's due to the contract situation with Édouard and Ajer. Both are Celtic's best players and are available at a knockdown price. The other I've seen is Turnbull linked to Aston Villa. Tbh I've been surprised how little Christie is being linked. Perhaps it is due to being at the EURO's and seeing how he does. On Rangers there has been numerous Rumours about Kent, Kamara, Hagi, Helander, Aribo, etc.

Turnbull is ineligible he turns 22 in July. It's the start of the new cycle at u21 level. So a lot of 18/19 year olds.

Most plastic pitches at any decent professional level are detested and hated by players and managers alike. They are nightmare to play on and it can massively alter your game. At semi-pro and lower league it is a bit different. It can be a bit of a game changer for clubs of that level and help them be sustainable. I'm not a fan of them in our top tier but tbh Accies wasn't too bad and Killies was more about the size of it. Livi on the other hand have a horrific plastic pitch, that desperately needs redone. I don't think I'd ever heard of an all weather pitch having a game cancelled before. Was it 2 they cancelled and 1 pitch inspection?

It's a bit worrying that we don't have a single natural RB in the squad. Mayo and Welsh can cover there but both are natural CBs.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-transfer-news/ethan-laidlaw-earns-liverpool-trial-24177014 Another promising young player.

Holsgrove is too old bud. You need to have turned 21 in the calendar year that qualifying starts. He turns 22 in September. Ashby has had a few injury problems and I've not seen anything about England with him. He also retweeted Maxwell and McIntyre recently who he is in the Scotland set ups with. England also have about a hundred RBs at the minute at every level.

Wasn't that a day before the squad was announced? I take it he is staying with England then or is injured.

Anyone else feel we could be missing Killie from the SPL for quite a few years. The majority of that squad probably leaves in the summer for free (or retires) and they don't seem to have many promising young players or sellable assets. Without some investment it looks a long road back for Killie.

I doubt it will have much effect on the coaching level. Most of the coaches who come over are top level and I doubt much will change in that regard. It will probably be harder for young foreign coaches without much experience or badges but I doubt that effects the overall level of coaching much.

Dundee United's current youth set up seems to be working very well. They altered it a few years ago and seem to have lots of promising youngsters 16-19 in and around the squad at the minute. The worrying thing is due to Brexit I can see lots of our young players leaving far too early and heading to English youth teams at 16-18, taking the places of the foreign young players that can no longer come over at youth level.

Always has been and I agree Davidson should be manager of the year. This achievement is unbelievable by anyone outside Rangers and Celtic, but doing at a club with St. Johnstone's budget is truly brilliant. Surely they could get a system where the vote is done quickly in the last week of the season. It shouldn't take weeks to get votes together. Send a representative to each club and get the votes of each player in one afternoon. It's not exactly a major operation. THe football writer one is even stranger. There is less of them and they could easily vote by sending them a one-time link for their vote. I don't know if it is just England or not, but the votes are usually in February or March. At that point Gerrard is the winner. St. Johnstone are bottom 6 and the Scottish cup has just started, but how can you vote for a player/manager of the season when the season still has 2/3 months left.

Football has completely evolved in the last 20-25 years. It is very hard to compare footballers from different generations. Football is much more tactically, technically and physically nuanced than it was 25 years ago.

Not really sure where 5 minutes injury time has come from