Rude Gullit

4-6-0 and you'll be thankful for it m'lad!

Nothing on Google. To be honest it seems like he's falling out of the reckoning there. These last 2 years have been a pretty catastrophic decline for him. Disappointing in the extreme as from what I've seen he's clearly good enough to at least sit on the bench for an English second tier team

You just know we're going to end up a year or two from now with 8 really solid, young CBs and no strikers at all

a) he only earned 64 caps b) that's actually a decent amount. How many Scotland players have topped that in the last 20 years? Miller, Weir, Fletcher, Dailly all with 65-80. Apart from Weir who had a spell out after a disagreement with Vogts, none of those guys had reputations as being regular dubious call-offs Not saying Giggs didn't call off a bit too much, but the way some people talk about it you'd think he had 4 caps or something.

18. Yeah definitely better than mucking about in the reserves I reckon. Hopefully he'll blow a hole in League 1 but even if he doesn't he's still young and it's a lot less frustrating than waiting for first team football.

Just read that Aitchison went to Dumbarton on loan till January as well. He started today and got 90 mins but no goals unfortunately.

It's true (well, I only graced the earth with my presence after he left Motherwell) ...and it felt brilliant being able to say that - given that just about every other current footballing fact seems to bang in about players born after 2000 etc and makes me feel ancient 😁😁

Yeah I feel we're too skewed in our perception of how good he is. Beginning to feel like a Peter Marinello career (way before my time but read his bio recently)

My thoughts too, so hopefully now Dembele's gone Griff will feature in most if not all games. Also, hoping - probably over-optimistically - that this might give Aitchison a chance of getting onto Celtic's bench. However, realistically I reckon Celtic will sign some mediocre euro striker on a free (still allowed after the transfer window shuts I believe), or Rodgers will fanny around playing Forrest or Sinclair as an emergency striker, and aitchison will be stuck in the development squad for another year.

And the way Celtic are failing to function right now he'd surely begetting game time if he was fit

It's not ideal, but then again I always felt that relying on Celtic's dominant form was a very fragile basis for the national team. I'd much rather we unearthed a modus operandi that allowed us to play well or at least solidly irrespective of the form of any one particular club.

When does the English loan window end? If it's still open I could see him going to the old firm or even Aberdeen, Hearts or Hibs

Crazy he's not even getting on as a sub tho

Johnston and Middleton looked good in their Euro ties last night. Didn't realise Middleton was still only 18

Forrest was decent for Celtic last night. He shot wildly wide near the end but early on he looked really dangerous. Seems to have perfected his crossing now too - hung a few nicely in the air which the other players unfortunately failed to capitalise on. Also had a really neat take down and drilled shot.

Scotland do this with CBs: 1) big them up as the new best option for the next 10 years - yay! 2) give them a run of 10-20 caps 3) hang them out to dry for making mistakes (they're no perfect, shock, horror!) 4) dump them aged 25/26 and bring in the next prospect or the previously dumped hero who has been out on the international fringes for a few years 5) rinse and repeat It happened to Berra (dumped for Hanley, 4 or so years in the international wilderness, then brought back in), Hanley (dumped a few years ago and now being hailed as the best option) and now it's happening already to Hendry. All defenders make mistakes at every level. The key is to identify class underneath those mistakes and try to coach and see the player through them. Hendry definitely has the class - strong, tall, speedy and clinical in the tackle (when he's on the correct side of the defence, at least). Stick with him and McKenna or watch the same old cycle of chop-and-change/little overall progression continue.

The McGregor thing in 2009: nobody seriously bought the press line that he and Ferguson were clicking the Vs at Scotland fans, surely? They were clearly directing it at the press for (rightly) slamming them for their drinking session at Cameron House Hotel. They were naïve dicks for resorting to such childish measures as flicking Vs, and the press were uber-cynical by twisting it to shame them even further. Nobody came out of it well, but the sum total of McGregor's crimes were getting pished (or, more accurately getting caught getting pished - Scott Brown and a good few others were at it with them but didn't get caught) and being a bit simple re how to react to the press coverage. Hardly like he wiped his arse on the saltire while eating jellied eels and singing three lions. Jimmy Johnstone did the Vs at the press thing after a Scotland England game. We all managed to move on from that.

Hard to see that happening. Equally not sure a move abroad would suit him. I think the Championship or low EPL would have been the right move for him, so staying put and fighting for his place seems like the best second option.

I'd agree with that - physical, tall, has got a lot more savvy as he got older. Still got another few years in him IMO

Don't know why people think McLeish was going to start Berra - he wasn't part of Eck's two squads so far, and even though McLeish gave it the whole 'not ruling anyone out', it seemed clear to me that Mulgrew and the younger defenders were his preferences anyway

No problem with any of those personnel, but as a group there is no notable physicality and they are all quite small. Would prefer a mcginn* or mctominay in over cairney just for a bit more dig *I realise he's not a giant but he gets stuck in like a dervish

I'm not convinced Hanley is as bad as people make out and I think he's in the Berra camp - i.e. he'll be back in come September. But yeah this DBL header was never going to revolve around him anyway.

Northern Ireland certainly began to build belief with their trip to the Americas 4 or so years ago, but they suffered lots of drop outs too. MON said he always remembered the players who dropped out and those who had made the effort to come along, and that he favoured that latter group going forward. Hanley wasn't even in the original squad!

Hmmm, 4 players listed as strikers... None of whom are actually strikers?

Pics or gtf