Gribz

Come to the party late on this one but it would have been Robertson for me for longevity over Numan. How Robertson barely got Scotland caps was just baffling. He was light years better than Tosh Mckinlay.

Alan Hutton for me. Stevens was at the end of his career when I properly started watching.

Gough and Cuellar. Colin Hendry would have replaced Cuellar had he signed 5 years earlier.

Yeah there is a bit of Jaap Stam about him..And "no you wouldnt fuck with me on a proper day"....and I love that.

City are laughing.

Erm they havent played yet....

Hilarious. Im sure only Caniggia would have managed to pull this one off. I mean dont even ask.......

Just saw this post for the first time - Well done the Korean Lasses. And they look fine in those home shirts which was one of my favourites. I think it was the first time we used a kit for one season - possibly due to switching to Nike in 97-98?? (Negri shirt)

The equalizer probably saved the bookies a few big payouts from punters who would have had an outside single on Luton to win. Surely that would have been minimum 8/1. Good win for Forest. A weekend where Liverpool, Arsenal, Villa and Brighton didnt win which tightens things up, so its over to Spurs tonight to stretch the gap.

Nah, I hear what you were saying. 👍 Think we had Aberdeen 3 finals in a row in the late 80s? For nostalgia purposes I'll throw in the 96 final 4-3 v Hearts when Gascoigne came out and bagged a classic double (he had a double at half time aswell) - and it was the Neil McCann trial game where he was awesome. Delighted to be in the final although the date Dec 17 could have been arranged a bit better, it was always great to get this final in October. What length of contract is Butland on BTW anyone? At a time around 6 or 7 years ago when England had 3 or 4 coming through he was easily the best out of Pickford and Pope plus with Forster and Foster around - but he got a bad injury. Its great to see him showing his talent again - he is a top keeper and I wouldnt be swapping him for Pickford, Henderson or Sam Johnstone. Im liking what Clement seems to be doing, there just seems a bigger professionalism around the place and we have to remember he has barely had time on the training ground to implement his style due to midweek games.

Yeah granted because what's happened in that time and it shows how fast time goes, but I was just thinking this was the cup we usually had in the back pocket and probably took for granted over a certain period.

It was surprising to read that we havent won this cup for 12 years when for me growing up it was the cup we seemed to stroll every year and in the 90s it probably had a bit more affiliation to it than the Scottish Cup.

Thats harsh. After going 2-1 up Antonio screwed up for 3-1 which would have wrapped it up. But thats 3 league defeats in a row and Moyes is going backwards again, he really can be up there with the most frustrating of managers.

Im quite happy with 5 out of 7 predictions including 2 correct scores. That Newcastle goal though - you could make an episode of CSI with that - 4 investigations: 1) Was the ball out - looked 100% out. Ever since that Japan goal in the World cup where they claimed the full circumference of the ball wasnt out these are getting very lenient. 2) Push on Gabriel - Looked a clear push and therefore foul. 3) Handball off Joelinton leading to a goal - Not sure if they officially looked at this but there was talk about it. I havent seen enough replays of this one enough times yet but I dont think it looked like it. 4) Gordon offside - clear offside as the ball comes off Joelinton who is ahead of Raya. Havertz (Horrendous sliding assault) and Bruno G (elbow to Jorginho) should both have seen straight reds.

At - October 1994 first OF game. Celtic 1-3 Rangers. Laudrup and Hateley ripped them apart at Hampden (while Parkhead was being rebuilt). Not At - Helicopter Sunday May 2005. Just finished a job on the Azerbaijan Georgia border and just got to Baku in time but couldnt choose what bar I could go to and ended up in a pub full of Celtic expat fans and workers. Incredible bounce on a sofa and table and somehow made it out. Partied for 2 days then flew to Heathrow spending the flight in the toilet all the way.

Some big games for certain teams this weekend. Man Utds players will tell everyone they arent with the manager if they dont respond at Fulham. The game at Goodison is quite tasty, Everton starting to get the odd result and they will stay up no problem this season as they are easily better then the bottom 4. Brighton being in the Europa is testing them a bit and are having the odd off day that they didnt have last season so its a tough one to call. And Sheff Utd have to win at some point. Im going for: Fulham 0-1 Man Utd Brentford 0-2 West Ham Burnley 0-0 Crystal Palace Everton 1-1 Brighton Man City 5-0 Bournemouth Sheff Utd 1-0 Wolves Newcastle 3-2 Arsenal Nottm Forest 0-2 Aston Villa Luton 0-4 Liverpool Tottenham 1-1 Chelsea

Attack v Defence is an interesting debate despite probably being both as important as each other plus of course excluding the midfield debate which is where a game is controlled. But I was having a debate a few weeks back when Tottenham and Arsenal were both level at the top on points and goal difference, yet Spurs were on top because of goals scored. This IMO should be scrapped, if teams are level on points and GD then neither games won or goals scored should then matter and if it was at the end of the season a play off should take place. Of course everyone wants to see exciting games with plenty goals but that shouldn't eradicate the art of defending and say that scoring is more important than not conceding - its an insult to all great goalkeepers and defenders. Plus you can score in a game and still lose the match but if you dont concede then you cant lose that game therefore you could argue defending is the more important. Again using the English top tier, in the 90-91 season Arsenal won the title with a GD of +56 yet Liverpool scored 3 more goals than them that year - therefore the lowly 18 goals conceded over the season was obviously a catalyst for winning the league. So I lean towards tight defence being the more important and there is nothing better than having a commanding centre half at the back - this despite loving watching free flow attack.

This 100%. They can buy their way in but they have a huge trump card first and will use Israel, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Kazakhstan clubs and countries being allowed to participate in European competitions and qualifications. I had a chuckle in the CL qualifiers a few months back, there was a qualifier between Dinamo Tblisi (Geo) v FC Astana (Kaz). The latter is nearer Mongolia than any European country if Istanbul is the Continent border.

If FIFA had any integrity they would have put aside 2034 and said to Australia - you're the only continent not to host one so its all yours and use other nations around you if you wish. An Aussie WC with NZ, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur chipping in would have been superb. (Flight time from Perth to SG is the same as Perth to Sydney). Granted SG and Malaysia are technically Asia with Australia being Oceania but Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are great cities who wont get to host such event. European clubs are quick enough to head out to these nations for pre-season for the cash, I can see far more pre-season trips to the middle east from now on.

Spurs will probably hit a bump soon, if they lose Van der Ven at the back or Maddison they wouldnt have any replacements which is the difference between them and the rest. But they will still have a good season and I think they will be close to 4th points wise. Im sticking with Villa for 4th they have better depth than most, they lost two key players early in the season and havent missed them. Plus Emery has to be one of the best "coaches" in the league. Liverpool have their mojo back but are still lacking something that is tricky to nail.

Thats a good point (pardon the pun) but the three that came up this season are the worst collection of teams for a long time so I think Everton would still be ok.

Man Utd are so far off being a top side its unreal. I can only pretty much remember them being the best barr 2 years of the Fergie early era. Seems Ten Hag may have lost the dressing room after making a bit of progress last season, he got pass marks for being top 4 and winning a cup plus the way he handles Ronaldo and the early was he tried to fix Sancho - but this season has been five strides backwards and on the pitch they are 5 starters away from challenging top 4. 7th is the best they can hope for and even that is going Brighton some injustice.

Agreed, perhaps when he jumped on the scene and scored for fun he might have been worth a look but not now. Nisbet on the other hand might have been good enough which pains me to say. As for the match Big Phil gets the benefit of doubt that he has inherited some poor players and had minimal time on the training ground and games following Euro away days can always be tricky. But this win should be a spur for everyone for it to finish like that.

I think things are going to get from bad to worse and complicated for Man U. Correct me if Im wrong but doesn't the Glazers currently have about 70% of the club at the moment? Therefore, Im not sure if Ratcliffe buys 25% of the Glazers stake or 25% of the club. Even so it looks like there wont be a majority shareholder - so who will have what say on certain final decisions. Its said Ratcliffe will get control of footballing decisions but Man Utd are in need of far more than that, from Management structure to the stadium. I dont see Man Utd winning another title for at least 10 more years.

I was thinking he could switch and go after Liverpool, I reckon Fenway Group would potentially sell despite having recent investors, plus the Sheikh would save a Billion or two.