Norris Cole

I felt this was too good for the Video Room. Celtic players thanked for their season's efforts by the Bears. I haven't seen it before, but it's absolutely fantastic. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm6lhCOQ9n4&feature=player_embedded]YouTube- 1428_full_time_salute_celtic_who_are_yer.mov[/ame]

After five days I would have expected to write something along the lines of "it's been interesting so far", but in truth, it really hasn't. The first round of games in a tournament are usually cagey but the games so far in South Africa have been more so than any other modern tournament I care to remember, and the Germany game apart, there's been a real dearth of goals. I expect things to change in later games when teams realise they have to go for it or go home. For the sake of the tournament let's hope so. It'll be interesting to see what Spanish side turn up tomorrow, and of course there's Brazil yet to play as well, although I'm not sure how well they can be judged on tonight's game against North Korea. Until now there's only been two sides who've shown they may have the quality to last the distance - Argentina and Germany. Argentina should have won by far more than one goal against a decent enough Nigeria outfit, and looked so comfortable throughout. They also have a side who appear ready to run through a brick wall for their manager - sort of the opposite of Domenech's France. Germany were awesome against Australia, and were cruising long before the atrocious red card decision for Cahill. Where England and their so-called 'Golden Generation' players looked typically wooden, naive and bereft of ideas against the USA, Germany and their relatively unknown young team blew away their opponents with a superb, inventive display of quick passing and clinical attacking play. And then there's Miroslav Klose - another tournament, another Klose goal. England are going to want to win their group and avoid the Germans after that display. For all the usual hype - and I don't dislike England - they really only have two truly world class players, Rooney and Ashley Cole. I still think England are better than France and Italy however, both of whom look like they're in the second tier of world football at the moment, though I've a sneaky feeling the Italians will come back and prove me wrong on that. The African teams have been quite poor so far, although Ghana and Ivory Coast's results keep them in it. I can't see PLG's Cameroon coming back after yesterday's dreadful result against Japan. Would love to see the South Africans set the tournament alight by causing an upset tomorrow. Paraguay and South Korea are among the early front-runners for dark horse of the tournament, though the Koreans did come up against a pretty woeful Greece. Ha Ha Samaras.

Who did we all get? Ivory Coast for me. Could have been worse, but could have been a hell of a lot better.

World Cup thread, good call. Spain or Brazil for me. Spain have the best players and the best squad, it's for them to lose. I can't remember the last time one team stood out so clearly as the best in the run-up to an international tournament. They've been lucky with injuries so far as well. Brazil don't have the profile of 10-15 years ago, but they have undoubtedly one of the strongest teams in the world today and what sets them apart from Argentina in my opinion is they have a decent manager in Dunga, who has them playing un-Brazilian, but winning football. They strolled the qualifiers, and the gulf in class when they played England in a friendly last year was striking. As for England, yet again the myth is being peddled that they have one of the best squads. Put simply, they don't. Their first-choice players were shown up in this season's Champions League, and with back-up of the calibre of Warnock, Upson, Carrick, Joe Cole and Heskey, their odds of 6/1 are surely based on nothing other than the patriotic betting of millions of English people. I'm not anti-English though and wouldn't begrudge them the trophy. Argentina are a better outfit than England in my view, and I'd be pretty confident of them winning the World Cup were it not for Maradona who, character though he is, I just don't rate as a manager and certainly not at international level. He just seems far too rash and compulsive when the later rounds require clear thinking and nerves of steel. Despite their injury problems, Germany will be there or thereabouts as ever, in fact I can see them knocking England out if those two meet in the second round. Losing Ballack's experience could fatally undermine their chances though. Looking forward to seeing this Ozil guy in action. Italy will be around in the later stages as well, I don't read too much into the 'Dad's Army' headlines, they have an experienced squad full of quality and it'll take a very good side to put them out. Holland are in with a shout this time, particularly with Van Persie looking like hitting form again after a long rest through injury. France are in the second tier of world football these days. I expect little from them. I'm not terribly convinced by Portugal either. One of the great things about the World Cup is trying to guess who'll be the inevitable surprise package. There's loads of teams who with a bit of luck could go on a mad run: Chile, Mexico, Denmark, USA, Uruguay, maybe South Korea again, they have some handy players. As usual though, I'll be rooting for all the shite. This time round that means New Zealand, Honduras and North Korea among others. I love the low-key games as much as the big ones. Switzerland v Honduras anyone? Paraguay v New Zealand? I also hope South Africa reach the second round for the sake of the tournament, and it would be good to see the Ivory Coast get out of their group and do something. Ghana will struggle without Essien I feel. One month, 64 games. Cheers

Best kit in a very long time IMO. An actual Rangers strip.

Best of luck to a true Bear. Thanks for the memories.

This is surreal. I just can't get up for this game. Never like getting beat by the bheasts but being Champions takes a real edge off it. Listening to it on the radio and even the bheasts seem quiet. "Here for the party, we're only here for the party...."

Always sad to hear this of one of our own. RIP.

A bigger den of t@igery you will not find in the whole of North America.

I'm not sure I understand - are we not playing a friendly against them next month?

Totally. Putting them well and truly in their place.

We've a history of taking things like this on the chin, if you'll allow me a Mowbrayism, but I'm glad the club has spoken out on this. For the Establishment Team we've sure had some strange treatment by the SPL in recent years.

It's becoming an expectation as much as hope that the bheasts will get turned over in games. I really fancy Motherwell tonight, the bheasts just seem in utter disarray at the moment. It's like the players have stopped caring. Braafheid leaving the stadium in a huff before the Ross County match is symptomatic of the shambles that club is right now. And somehow, it just feels like the natural order of things has been restored. Altogether now: F*ck You Celtic, We're Gonnae Win The League... :spl:

If I remember correctly there were a number of us on here when the semi draw was first made who said they fancied County. I guess that in itself is a pretty brutal indictment on just how far the bheasts have fallen. Get it right up every last one of them. Hats off to Ross County as well, a well-run ambitious wee club going places (the right way, not the Gretna way).

Watching the last OF game, I found myself saying to myself on two or three occasions about various players, "Oh aye, they signed him didn't they".

Great comeback from Arsenal. 2-2 FT

Lafferty has done absolutely nothing to deserve a starting place ahead of Boyd, and I'd even suggest his continued poor form is a factor in Boyd continuing to start every week. It's difficult for a manager to place trust in a guy who continues to disappoint time and time again. Novo, by contrast, has for me had a pretty lively season. The thing about Boyd is, he's had a number of these troughs in form through the years, triggering the usual panic amongst the support. You can only really go on past evidence, and every time he has seen it through and the goals have returned. He very well may be off to Birmingham in the summer, but Boyd has never struck me as the kind of guy to let much phase him, so I think it's just a lean patch. And with him it's never lean for long. Or maybe it's time for him to retire from the Scotland side again

Fine by us!

On the evidence of this season's form, it would be hard to grudge the bionic man another season. While his experience is gold, I'd have slight concerns over his lack of pace in the Champions League though.

With Dundee seemingly stick-ons for the First Division title for most of this season, I noticed when poring over the league tables this morning that ICT have come from nowhere (I think they were 5th or something at Christmas) to lead the table by a point with 7 games to go. I have to say I'd be delighted to see ICT go back up, I know they've caused us problems in the past and a lot of Bears don't like the journey, but for geographical reasons if nothing else, I think it's important for the SPL to have Highland representation. And don't forget it's a thoroughly red, white and blue part of the country (and I ain't talking ICT fans). I felt for them a bit last season as they got sucked into trouble just in the last week or so. The First Division's been a bit of a procession until the last fortnight or so, so it's good to see three teams (and two from the Highlands) up there at the business end of the season fighting for an SPL spot. It's perfectly conceivable for Ross County to win that division (they're stronger than some SPL sides IMHO), but I wonder what the implications of having a non-SPL standard ground would have for them were they to win the title.

St Johnstone 0 - 2 Champions (Boyd, Miller)

More power to your elbow TB, best of luck to you and your RSC with a very worthwhile case.

That's the line I found funniest as well. "This is a clear message from the SFA to tell Celtic that you can complain all you want, but there will be no change, and we will decide what happens within Scottish Football." The more you read that the more bizarre it seems. The only conclusion you can possibly take from that is that they genuinely believe Celtic should be in charge of Scottish football. I mean, who do the SFA think they are, "deciding what happens in Scottish football" and all... I've said this time and again since the bheasts started with their "conspiracy" shite this season (or in other words, the points gap became unassailable) - they simply don't have a leg to stand on after the 'peculiar' refereeing and assorted murky deeds of 2007/08. It's only unfair when they are the victims, and don't they just love being victims. Here we go....for two in a row....

I'm sure they'd have been full of sympathy had it been us

I wouldn't be so sure about that, I really wouldn't.