Clyde1998

Adidas has an exclusive kit deal with the MLS for all their teams - so perhaps there's more financial room for unique designs. I can't imagine Adidas makes a huge amount of money from Scotland kits; they'll make more from MLS kits and there's a much larger potential market to tap. I imagine the SFA get given a template book (or modern equivalent), choose one and pick the colours.

I'm surprised they've not annouced where the Scotland game is being held, given they've announced the venue for the Georgia and Cyprus matches. Perhaps they know it will be held in Seville, but haven't confirmed which stadium it is. I was half expecting Madrid, possibly the Atletico stadium, given they've not played a full capacity game in the city since 2019. Maybe they don't think they could sell ~70k tickets in Madrid for a game against Scotland, but could sell ~60k in Seville?

You would've thought it would make sense for Rangers to bring on some younger players when they're cruising to 3-0 wins. Unless he can get some regular minutes before the end of the season - which seems unlikely - then he'll need to go somewhere where he will play regularly next season.

Joe Allen's retired for them now: link.

There's also the financial boost clubs will receive from selling good young players; clubs can produce better young players who'll improve the league while they're here, hold out for more money either generating even more money or keeping those players in Scotland for longer before higher fees are met, and allowing clubs to attract better players in the transfer market.

You're correct: A big drop off this season, while the number of players from elsewhere in the British Isles more than tripled between 2004 and 2013 - plateauing at about a third of minutes. It appears Scottish players are being replaced by those from the rUK or Ireland rather than those from elsewhere in the world; those from outside the British Isles have declined massively between 2001 and 2005 and has been fairly stable since. For clarity: the graph is based on the nationalities of players from FBref. As an example, Scott Arfield would be classified as Canadian (and therefore Rest of the World in my graph above) for all seasons despite being officially Scottish with FIFA until 2016(?) when he made his Canada debut. Similarly a player born in England, who played for a Caribbean national team (for example) would be categorised as Rest of the World rather than Other UK or Ireland. I'd be interested in finding the data prior to the 2000-01 season, as there was probably a big drop in Scottish players playing in our top flight in the 90s.

Although, tbf, we all probably thought before Tierney showed up we'd had the last prodigy breaking through in Scotland. With players like Hickey or Ramsay, if they were perceived positively by a club from the top five leagues there'd be no chance of a club outside the Old Firm being able to keep hold of them for any prolonged period, not just due to the player wanting to play at a higher level, but financially: £1.5m (+ any add ons) for Hickey is completely different for Hearts as it would be for Rangers or Celtic; Rangers could get £11m for Patterson and Celtic could keep hold of Tierney for a significant period. The reality of modern football means if we want the best possible national team, we want as many players as possible playing in the top leagues (especially from an early age). I'd argue players like Barry Ferguson, Shaun Maloney, Scott Brown or Callum McGregor could've developed into better players had they not stayed in Scotland for as long as they did (or for their entire career). The same is true for any country that isn't one of the big four or five - the Dutch, Belgians, Portugese, Brazilians and Argentines all have the same issue (as do the French to a certain degree).

I'd consider using McGinn as a striker if we didn't have Adams or Dykes. His hold up play, strength and finishing is impressive; I think he'd be better than Shankland or Nisbet, tbh, and possibly McBurnie. The biggest negative would be losing him as an attacking midfielder. Something like (for the midfield/strikers): McTominay - McGregor/Gilmour Armstrong - Turnbull/Fraser/McGregor - Christie McGinn

Alex Lowry starting for Rangers tonight.

I think a major factor with the increase in demand for urgent care is a lot of non-urgent care got cancelled during peak Covid, which allowed for a lot of conditions to develop into urgent ones.

China hasn't vaccinated their population very well, especially among older people - which is a factor as to why they've had to take extreme measures to keep Covid under control for as long as they have. However the flip side of that is there's been no heard immunity build up, due to the zero-Covid policy. The figures above are from the Chinese government, so could be unreliable. The Chinese vaccines are less effective than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines used in the west as well. I think China has significantly fewer ICU beds (per capita) than most of their neighbours too - despite all the construction of Covid-specific facilities over the past few years. At worst, I can see another round of boosters needing to be given out here if a new variant gets here - especially among the most vulnerable.

Unfortunately, I think this is Gordon's career over. He did brilliantly to come back from that three year injury he had before, especially as that looked like his career (at international level at least) was over then; the fact he'll be 40 in a few days means he probably won't be able to recover before the natural end. The only positive is Zander Clarke will now be Hearts' first choice keeper, which will make him one of our three keepers for the next international period. The big issue is all three (likely) keepers will have no caps going into the Cyprus game. Of our options, I'd have Kelly as the starter - especially as he's comfortable with the ball at his feet, which will allow us to play out from the back more: something our defenders may be more used to at club level.

Talking of which...

I think that's finalists rather than winners, but I could be wrong. Although there are a lot of duplicates - such as Modric (5 finals) and Mandžukić (2) - and no Croatian player played in the 2019 final - Lovren was on the bench for Liverpool. That said, only Brazil, France and Spain have had a player play at least a single minute in the past ten Champions League finals; Germany only lacked a player in 2019.

Basically every tournament since I've been alive has seen England blame their exit on something other than their own performances or ability: media pressure; 'awful weather so kids don't want to play football'; weather being too hot/humid; 'kids want to play video games'; obesity; refereeing decisions; burnout; injuries; 'lottery' of penalties; player x did something which got player y sent off. All these excuses fail to recognise basically every team at the World Cup has some combination of these factors. Typically, the side which wins the tournament is one of the best sides in it. The English media cannot accept the reason England haven't won anything in the past 50 years: simply not being good enough.

Someone pointed out to me that their next qualifying group is probably their hardest for a long while - possibly since Euro 2008 when they were knocked out by Croatia and Russia. They've got Italy, Ukraine and North Macedonia (plus Malta) - Ukraine went unbeaten in their World Cup qualifying group, getting two draws against the French and North Macedonia beat Germany and Italy away in the last qualifiers. They should still qualify, but that group could lead to a lower seeding for Euro 2024 (as the final tournament seeding is directly based off of your qualifying performance now) and a tougher group as a result.

According to FBref, 56% of minutes played in the Croatian top flight have been by Croatian players. Players from elsewhere in former Yugoslavia make up just over 15% of minutes - there may be some dual nationality situations going on, especially with Bosnian players (7.6% of minutes). Dinamo Zagreb have all of their top six most used players from Croatia. For the Scottish Premiership, it's 39% of minutes by Scottish players with 34% being from players from elsewhere in the UK & Ireland. There's a combined total of five Scottish players in the most used eleven players in both Old Firm teams (six if Scott Arfield is counted as Scottish); there are three Croats and three Americans.

Part of their high rank is down to their qualifying record and favourable paths in recent tournaments (see the earlier discussion for their record against good teams in tournaments). 2018: 2nd in a group containing Belgium, Tunisia and Panama; R16: penalty win over Colombia; QF: 2-0 win over Sweden; SF: lost 2-1 to Croatia in extra time. 2021: 1st in a group containing Croatia, Czech Republic and us; R16: 2-0 home win over a poor Germany side; QF: 4-0 win over a poor Ukraine; SF: 2-1 extra time win at home to Denmark; Final: lose on penalties at home to Italy. 2022: 1st in a group containing the USA, Iran and Wales; R16: 3-0 over Senegal; QF: lost 2-1 to France. It's not been the most difficult path up to their recent exits. With our current squad, assuming everyone is fully fit and available, you'd be disappointed if we didn't at least compete against most of the sides England have beaten in their last three tournaments.

17; If he'd scored that penalty exactly a third of his England goals would've been penalties (18 of 54). I only count two goals he's scored in competitive matches against comparable or stronger opposition to England which weren't penalties.

Someone's told me the police have loved the World Cup being in winter as people either stay in the pub after matches or go straight home due to how cold it's been.

France through

Chris Waddle would've been embarrassed by that penalty.

Another stupid penalty for the French to give away

Giroud taking advantage of England being poor at defending

I'd heard of him before the World Cup; plays for Dinamo Zagreb. He's good enough to play for an upper level club in England, Spain, Germany or Italy; I actually don't know why he's still in the Croatian league, aside from his personal choice.