drew

I think you're giving THIS UK government far to much credit.

The only real difference it will make is for example Lithuania went to 3 points at the moment. Some of those who got a ticket might not have because they didn't do Canada at Easter Road. If the sale process is a nightmare as it is now for the SSC it'll be worse with this. In theory you could have 30 sale periods due to a maximum of 30 points. I don't think this will actually happen and is just ideas floating around to see what would get most members to renew.

I know quite a few up my way. I also think there is a general leveling out happening with the SNP while other parties are on the boost the SNP had due to Brexit, anti Indy and pro Corbyn which also can't last. We'll have no idea where SNP, Sturgeon, Independence, Corbyn and other parties stand till things calm down. Till then just do the day job, try and limit Brexit and see what happens.

I still say the anti Brexit stance only cost them Moray & Banff n Buchan. The rest was a mixture of apathy (with voting in general not just SNP) and an anti SNP / Indyref vote. Glasgow and West coast seeing the odd seat go to Labour because of the Corbyn and keep the Conservatives out of government. At this moment in time it's a Corbyn v May show and everyone fighting for scraps till Brexit kicks in. Once that is over we'll get a better idea where the SNP and other parties are at.

But in NFL if you use a challenge and it fails then you lose a timeout which is massive in that game. For football we could tie it to substitutes. Up to them then to decide if they want to make an actual substitute or lose it by making a challenge to kill the game.

I don't see Moray & banff n buchan returning soon. SNP Brexit stance was never going to be popular there but it was the correct stance and only 2 constituencies. I don't think Sturgeon is seriously damaged long term. She played the 2nd indyref card too quickly and should have handled business rates better but the big issue with Labour gaining ground has nothing to do with SNP policy. It is purely a love for Corbyn by some and a hope that voting for him gets rid of the Conservatives for others. The SNP are stuck in a stuff spot where all they can do is come up with sensible policies and governing and wait for Brexit to be overwith. As long as they don't do anything stupid that support should trickle back in a year or 2.

I don't believe that Labour are in front but the gap between will be very narrow. What would be more interesting is Scottish voting intention poll for Westminister and Holyrood. I'd imagine SNP lead would be a lot more comfortable at Holyrood (although dipping) as part of the Labour vote in Scotland is the old keep Conservatives out. For Ruth she has nearly hit her peak. At best she can add 2 or 3 more Westminister seats. She will only keep a hold of a few marginals because Labour and SNP split the opposition vote on who is best to keep her out. I sadly think the North East is stuck with Conservatives although Aberdeen and Gordon could swing back. BUT I really don't think now or the last general election are times to judge what is going to happen to politics in the future. Once Brexit is over parties will properly be judged for there actions during it. Also looking forward to the UK parties being judged when they get back to doing there day job. Till then it is damage limitation for the SNP as I don't think there is anything they can do at the moment.

As I think someone said earlier everyone is getting different information on the points system and membership benefits depending on responses to see what is more likely to persuade people to renew. Personally I don't have to big an issue with that. If they really want to get as many fans going they need to come up with a better pricing structure for tickets and membership. With the nations cup and less Saturday games they also need to come up with more affordable transport + transport taking people back across Scotland after the game. I get this isn't something they control but hopefully they can sort something out with scotrail to put on later trains as I can't see our group going to next years games unless they are on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday (might make the exception if only 1 of the games is midweek). If it is a qualifier we'll probably still make the effort for midweek games.

Are we talking about Russell Anderson? If so he was called up to a lot more squads than people remember but was sent home injured only to play for Aberdeen a week later. The problem for Anderson was Aberdeen kept asking him and a few others during the Calderwood time to play when injured when they really should have been rested. Still got 11 caps I think.

The problem wasn't so much the hotel as I remember and more to do with the area (although the hotel staff seemed to take the attitude of you should have known better). If I remember correctly you're about a 10 - 15 minute walk away from the Panorama and the train station going down hill towards the old town. Never came across or heard anyone having any issues till they reached the Panorama and the train station so it might be fine.

Probably. Was also quite a lot of ladies of the night hanging around that area and a few drug dealers as well apparently. Remember last time the taxi driver taking us from the airport to the hotel telling us to be careful walking back at night. If the 4 of you stick together you should be OK..

Handy location but I'd advise you not to walk back to your hotel alone later on at night. Was a few guys who got jumped and mugged just outside the hotel last time we were over and the hotel staff couldn't care about it. Also seemed a popular hotel with Russians who were not very friendly.

I think it is just below the world cup but I can see that changing in the future. With the money that could potentially come into the game I can see the World Cup being much bigger. In the Olympics football will always be behind track and field events and is competing with many other sports for coverage which will play a part in the World Cup becoming the main tournament as the attention is just on them. Why is the Olympics wanting football, rugby 7s, golf and tennis in it. These sports already have tournaments which are viewed as bigger or equal to the Olympics (for that sport not the Olympics as a whole). Plus they are stealing some coverage or even stealing Olympic spots from other sports which would view it as the pinnacle. I think wrestling and karate are possibly being dropped in the future.

If it gets played on the Thursday night I might just take the Thursday and Friday off work, go to both games and have a long weekend in Glasgow.

This or play McLean deeper by dropping Jack or moving Shinnie to left back. Could also just accept that it wasn't possible to fit Maddison into the starting 11 so keep him on the bench. I'd probably go for dropping McLean as he was quite slow at getting his season started and was deserving of being dropped for a bit. If McGinn was needing rested because he played in the Euros then Wes Burns was the obvious replacement to keep some width and protection for the full back.

i thought Church was a good signing. If we're struggling to get a striker at the very end of the transfer window I wouldn't be against taking him back in on a short term deal. Maddison was good but I think including him in the team usually caused an issue with balance. He seemed to replace McGinn on the wing a lot (league cup final) but did little defensive work and was always caught in the middle of the park. I felt that played a big part to our inconsistent first half of the season. Christie in the second half of the season was a massive upgrade. Guys like Ward and Hector were obviously well researched and known to the management team as they were signed very early in the transfer windows. Most of the others were signed in the last week of the transfer window trying to fill in holes in the squad. Just feel the squad fillers is all we are going to get now.

We've had some honkers. Daniels from WBA was probably one of the better ones which just shows how poor some of them have been. The list below is players we've had in on 6 month loans or lasted 6 months and only 3 of them made a regular start. Madison and Quinn were useful in some games. The rest were just squad fillers. Michael Hector Alan Tate Jeffrey Monakana Donervon Daniels Danny Ward Josh Parker Ryan McLaughlin Simon Church Adam Colin Wes Burns James Madison Gregg Wylde Nicky Weaver Andy Driver Paul Quinn Josh Parker was a strange one as he played a big part coming on against Celtic when we were down to ten men and drawing to help us win the game. He then turned to rubbish.

I'm not sure. I think the maximum we've ever had at one time was 3 but they were from outwith Scotland. I'm saying loans it could also be handing out 6 month or 1 year contracts to free agents but I can't think of many cases McInnes has done that.

2 or 3 more will come into Aberdeen but a question mark on quality. We'll obviously be getting a striker, a winger / attacking midfielder and someone who can fill in at the back and midfield. As usual if we don't get our preferred targets we'll just fill those positions with wildcard loan signings which can be hit and miss. For every decent loan we've had an Alan Tate.

Only listen to music in the car. At the moment it is mostly Guns n' Roses. Took my partner with me to Paris to see them last month. She was a bit unsure about them but after that gig she is now hooked and sticks on one of there albums whenever we are in the car. If she isn't there then it is usually the radio. Either Planet Rock or in the evening I'll switch to Radio Scotland for Get It On for something a bit different.

I agree with most of this but the League Cup in Scotland is still taken seriously by the clubs (maybe not the fans). I don't have to big an issue with the top leagues getting extra teams in the Champions League and Europa League but it becomes a joke when the the worst team from England gets to enter at the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League. The reward for being a more successful league should be extra places but the punishment for being the weaker teams in that league should be to enter at the early rounds.

Sorry. For some reason I made a mess of the quoting and lost half of what I tried to post. I was actually trying to respond to the point of international tournaments in June and July. I was quoting you to say 100% agree that it would have negative impact on the national team for June qualifiers. I think it would be a disaster. I think with very just a few posts on this subject just shows it's actually hard to find a solution for everyone. We want players to be playing a couple of competitive matches before going into European games you ideally want to start playing again in the middle of June and the start of February. We don't want players to be going a period of time not playing before internationals. We don't want players to miss part of the league season due to international tournaments. Add to that fans can't agree about summer football or what dates to shut down for. It will be an impossible task for the authorities to come up with a solution without someone hammering them.

Which is why as I said earlier you play a league cup group stage involving everyone during June and the early weeks of July. That way league games are not affected by international players not being available and any team that sees a number of there players away can give fringe / youth players a chance. Some people will argue it might devalue the league cup but it already was when European spot was removed from it. Using it as a form of summer cup / mid season tournament might increase interest if it is the only domestic football going for a month and a half

I think I said somewhere else on the tamb that we would need to start at the beginning of February. If one of the key arguments for playing summer football is so our players are match fit for the Qualifying rounds in July then the same argument is valid for starting in February or end of January as the knockout rounds start on the 13th. OK it's only on odd occasions Celtic get that far at the moment but lets give them a chance. Surely it's harder going in against a top team in Europe with no matches than it is against teams from Luxembourg, Lithuania, Bosnia or Northern Ireland. Personally I'd be giving teams December and January off. June and start of July should be the group stage of a league cup involving everyone. I don't think you can really play any competitive league matches on those dates due to a few players playing international matches (qualifiers, friendlies, world cups or euros). Whether the league season runs February to November or continues August - May I'm not really bothered.

But as Willie Miller was saying last night on the radio you use to get 5 or 6 weeks worth of pre-season training and friendlies. When you think of it that way you were still only getting 3 - 4 weeks off. The difference in the old days was you gradually built up to fitness for the start of the league season. Now if you're in Europe you get 2 maybe 3 weeks training and friendlies then thrown in the deep end.