Diamond Scot

I think thats really smart. Navy or White Shorts with yellow trim and Navy socks with yellow trim.

McTominney seemed a tad lathargic on Sunday which maybe expected as he was just back from illness. Man Utd are a total mess atm though so must be very hard for him. In the 1st half the defence held a high line which allowed Utd to keep the game compressed and Utd could then spring the counter. In the 2nd half Utds back line dropped right off and the gaps between defence and midfield and then midfield and attack were huge. It was an impossible task to cover that distance and totally played into the hands of City. Utd dont have defenders who can play out from the back and they dont like pushing up because Maguire leads the line and he is so slow. They could do alot worse than drop Maguire and go to a back 3 of McTom, Varne and Linderof.

Thats the law. The problem with determining the mans belief, so much of what possibily led to him having that belief isnt allowed into evidence these days.

This isnt correct. If a women consents to sex then its not rape. If the man reasonably believes that the women consented to sex, even if she didnt then again its not rape. The circumstances in this case dont look good for Goodwillie on paper but very few nights out would look good on paper when looked at in the cold light of day. Rape and sexual assault are ripe in society. Things like grabbing women in nightclubs etc as they walk past are commonplace and correctly have been called out as something that needs addressed. One thing thats also common place is incorrect accusations, lying or mistelling the truth for a variety of reasons. This is the reality but you wont ever hear it because of the uproar it would cause and the damage it would do to getting convictions which are already very hard. Another thing that has gone way too far is the courts application of what evidence can and cant go before the court. Its almost impossible to mount a reasonable defence nowadays because in some cases the jury cant even hear about the accused and complainer kissing etc earlier in the night because somehow thats not relevent.

Im not surprised that Patterson hasnt just walked straight into the Everton team but really surprised and concerned that he is behind Kenny who is a very limited footballer.

Its 100% correct that the Russian sports teams get punished. You cant break down a war into whose fault it is or not. The Russian soldiers wont want to be in Ukraine either but end of the day they are. Its about sending a clear message to Russia / China that if you behave in certain ways then you loose all international privileges. Getting kicked out of everything, freezing banking assets, not selling stuff to Russia etc makes it more likely that the general Russian public will get disgruntled with Putin. I get what people are saying about Iraq / Isreal etc but like it or not, the world is run a certain way. A classic take our ball back, your no playing scenario.

Gilmour is just a good example of how good players play better with other good players. Take Gilmour and McLean for example. McLean does the simple things well and as such rarely puts in an obviously poor display for Scotland however he isnt comfortable receiving the ball unless in lots of space, doesnt have the vision or range of passing Gilmour does and as a result it changes the way the team has to play. All of a sudden guys like Robertson are having to play speculative balls up the line or 50 yards into the striker and people think that its Robertson who is having the bad game but really its McClean who is the route cause.

Gilmour needs to play in a team where players have the confidence to give him the ball early and then other players have good movement so Gilmour has something to pass to. I watched the full game last night and alot of Norwichs games this season. Norwich players consistently delay passing the ball, especially when the prospective pass has a player near them. This results in them constantly going to the back 4 or keeper who go long up the line. This and this one are why games are bypassing Gilmour. There was a spell towards end of 1st half and mid 2nd half where Norwich were actually brave and in both spells Gilmour was very involved. He rarely misplaces a pass. Problem being with Norwich delaying that means most of his passes just go to back 4 instead of forward. Theres a reason why Norwich look so poor. They have too many chamionship level players who dont have the confidence to play in tight spaces.

Agreed, very strange team selection. Might still perform well but clearly a weakend non 1st choice team which is strange as this is a competition that Celtic should have ambitions of going deep into.

Fancy Celtic to get a result tonight. Think Rangers might still go out. Away goals being scrapped has really helped Celtic and not Rangers on this occasion. If Dortmund had to win by 3 in 90 mins then I could see them over committing and getting hit on the counter. As it is a 2 goal win would hardly be a surprising result to take it to extra time.

I wouldnt even say that they dont take it seriously in the group stages. The difference in the group stages is that the big teams know that they dont need to play their strongest teams for every match to qualify. This means you are more likely to see the odd big upset but more often than not, even after the upset the big team ends up in the top 2. It was a great result for Rangers and a poot one for Celtic. Saying that if I was a betting man I would still fancy Celtic to qualify over Rangers.

For me Gilmour and McGinn are must picks. Gilmour is a step above anything we have in terms of keeping the ball ticking over, making himself available etc. He really does set the temp for us which at such a young age is amazing.

Really disappointed in Celtic. Felt this competition was very winnable.

No Gilmour?

Never understood why boards insist in appointing a manager that is so obviously going to enrage a large percentage of the support. Moat managers go through a sticking spell and you need the support to at least be neutral to start with. Appointments like Benetez at Everton spring to mind.

And now starts a 6 game touchline ban. Utter madness.

I agree that these kind of displays are more for TV than for the atmosphere inside the stadium. Id much rather attempts were made to get people inside the stadium early and then ramp up the noise.

Why not. Clubs in other countries have done it. AZ Almaar and FC Twente in Holland did it and id imagine they had a fraction of the budget that Ajax, PSV and Feynoord did. Wermer Bremman, stuggart and wolfburg all won in Germany fairly recently and again much smaller budgets than Dortmund and Munich. Most leagues have examples. Even England had Leicester. I appreciate that these teams all have bigger budgets than Aberdeen but its about the difference between the established clubs in that league thats key. Percentage wise is Aberdeens budget any lower compared to Rangers than Wermer Bremmans comparred to Munich or Leicester comparred to Man City, Chelsea or Man Utd. If the Old firm rarely drop points in the league due to budget then it follows that Aberdeen should rarely be dropping points to the likes of Dundee, Ross County etc

I know. Not touting him or anything. Just thought he might be the type of character that Aberdeen need right now. He is at the very end of his career, wouldnt be seeing the job as a stepping stone, would be there 18 months max whilst the club gets it act together and things like the stadium can move forward and most importantly would reliesh the challenge of fighting the Old Firm and west coast media. A younger version would be better but nobody springs to mind.

A name that sprung to mind just because be was on the radio this morning was Neil Warnock. Not the best boss in the world but had a knack of getting the job done and also comes across as the type of character that wouldnt have an inferiority complex against the Old Firm.

Who do the Aberdeen fans fancy? Jack Ross seems to be the fav with the bookies. Did it just not work for him at Hibs or did his time at St Mirren make him out to be better than he actually is. Id like to see Aberdeen bring in somebody with no respect for the Old Firm or the expected order of Scottish football. Would that person have to come from outside Scotland? Aberdeen have a decent group of players and really just need a manager who can make them more consistent. Especially against teams with much smaller budgets than them.

The encouraging things for me are PS school players are either getting 1st team football at a very young age or the standard of teams they are signed to seems to be improving. Its been a long time since we had young players dotted around europe and in most academies in England. The other positive for me is just a perception thing and that is that the PS school players appear to have much better tactical awareness (maybe why they get into the 1st team sooner) and also appear to be able to use both feet much more than previous generations non PS players.

Even if there was a regulator its highly unlikely that they would ban people based on a civil judgement.

Completely agree but it goes hand in hand with not dealing with the behaviour of the clubs fans. If you cant get that under control then it gives the police an easy out to say the game shouldnt take place. Its not even as simple as playing it with no fans as most of the violence happens outside the ground. I cant remember the exact figure but domestic abuse rises something like 300% on Old Firm day.

Im almost certain the fixtures arent completely random. A computer gets programmed with certain criteria, such as teams from the same city shouldnt be at home on the same weekend and then some others which are likely to include specified dates for derbys, ie new year. After that the rest are random. The polics and footballing authorities agreed that an old firm game shouldnt be a title decider after the trouble a number of years ago. I dont think thats the correct approach but hey ho.