Gribz

I think our starting XI is capable to win the league but as Flying Hippopotamus says the likes of Miller or Davis get injured for a while then its all about who comes in and currently I dont think our squad is strong enough in depth or talent. Im not confident on Naismith coming in and bagging 7 or 8 goals in a run of games. There is no way our key players will play the full season without an injury or suspension. We also have a sheer lack of width and there is no natural winger at the club at all which is concerning.

And Hutton at RB at the same time!

Yip Im with Pete and Ian here. Keeping Bougherra gives us more chance of winning the SPL title and getting us into the CL giving us 10 million again - thats worth more than his wages or a 4 million fee. The club shouldnt accept a penny less than 9 million for me.

Yip take that 3 countires as a pinch of Salt from McCoist. Even Motherwell could sign New Zealand players. Im hoping we are looking more at Bougherra's team mates, the Slovakian's and Slovenian's. Algeria impressed me against England and Slovenia have impressed me in both their games.

Nice 130 quid win from the Ghana Australia game. Stuck 20 quid on it to be 1-1. Good 2nd goal from the Danes. Sets up their last match against Japan nicely. The Dutch are through without getting out of 2nd gear.

Im not sure what commentators ive got here, they must work for bizarre places but they are English. In the last game they guy said...(talking about Japan player) he has scored 4 in the last 7..how England could be done with some of his goals - EH?? Is he going to sign for England like??!!!

Football across the world should start to take this stance. Get the clubs back in control of the players rather than the agents and players being in control of wages and contracts. Managers can still get sacked, I dont see why players cant. I wonder how long it will be before managers contracts become like players.

TBH I think this is good SPL clubs raising the price tags. For too long players have been bought for less than the European market value because they play in a certain league. I think clubs should stand there ground on this as its making the SPL go backwards. Players have a contract...if the buying club doesnt pay the asking fee then let the player rot in the U12s for 3 years then see what he does after that. McAvennie's love child isnt worth 12 million, but he is certain a player in the 4-6 million bracket considering others down south.

4 million??? Eff off!!:box: 4 million plus a few promising youngsters maybe! Or 8 million plus Kieron Gibbs and a striker on loan for a season.

Are you sure Barry??

I was thinking to myself last night he couldnt be more in the shop window playing against england and he had a good game. Like Gav I didnt think he was excellent but fair enough if he is getting raved about. I wonder if he felt himself that this was a chance to get himself a big move!! But if he is to leave (which many have said he is) then to add on a few million for us is fine.

And BTW this WC is clearly wide open that a dark horse like Switzerland or Uruguay could win. Only Argentina of the big teams have performed so far - they were a joy to watch! Its still early for Spain, Brazil and Holland as they have only played once, but Germany came back down to earth last night and France havent turned up. The tournament is picking up a bit!

At least for a draw! Slovenia are the best team in that group. How good is it to see English media and pundits get it rammed up them. Ive read blogs all week about how Algeria dont pose a threat. This is the typical english arrogance that think football is played on paper. Thats the difference between Brazil and Italy winning 9 WC's between them to Englands one. Those 2 nations have respect for opponents and go out to win single matches. They have claimed they would walk through this group which is disrespectful. Pete, maybe you can tell us if the Dutch media have said the same about Holland but I doubt they have. I felt if Algeria had a little more composure they would have won that game. They had no fear about playing short passes in dangerous positions. Agbonlahor, Walcott, Ashley Young and Darren Bent must be wondering why on earth they didnt make the squad. Once again England play players out of reputation. Id love to see Slovenia get a point against England or better still win the match plus Algeria beating USA and seeing the supposed underdogs go through.

I dont think playing away after champions leagues is as bad as playing on a Sunday BEFORE the CL match. If the CL game is on a Tuesday away then there is plenty time to recover and looking at Hearts, Celtic and Dundee Utd away - they could be on Sundays anyway which would give us plenty recovery time.

Argentina v South Korea - best game of the tournment so far by a mile. Argentina were brilliant to watch. And SK played their part with a decent brief spell at the start of the 2nd half. I think with the 2nd games coming the tournament is starting to get better as teams need wins. France are a mess, they were awful. Makes you wonder how bad the French stubborness and mentality can be at times. They werent a team at all and Henry didnt get on! They deserve to go out. Tonight should be good. Germany v Serbia - See if the Germans can play well again. Slovenia v USA - If Slovenia win this they could top the group putting pressure on England. England v Algeria - Must win for England. Does anyone want to see England progress a bit then get knocked out by the likes of Germany? Or would it be good to see them go out in the group stages???

Spain have it all to do now after that defeat, they were pinging the ball around brilliantly early on but couldnt score. But I said to my GF Switz could get something from this if Spain dont score early. Looking forward to the Argies in an hours time. Both teams won their opening game so we might get a good game for once. Big game for Les Blues also, if they dont beat mexico id say they could be going out.

Honduras v Chile is tough to call. I can see Spain v Switz being the best game so far. Switz arent a bad side and have nothing to lose by having a go at Spain.

See your point and I certainly wouldnt want to attempt to pass the buck. Im maybe playing devils advocate (pardon the pun) but when you see how close the team was to being successfull in 1999-2000 you cant blame the board for maybe thinking we are "not far away". Spending 12 million on Flo was obviously what Advocaat rated him at - thats bad management for me - probably from board and manager. Then if you get a situation where the board step in and say "we feel this player inst worth that" you get friction between Board and manager and we have seen plenty coaches walking due to not getting their own way with transfer funds. All said and done the buck lies with SDM for the state he steered the ship into but maybe he was just one bad apple.

Some of this goes back to what Pete mentioned - losing the Sky money was possibly unexpected and then there was the Setanta thing which meant less money from Sky again. - This doesnt explain the levels of debt we have but still has to play a small part - albeit small. The selling off the assets was a joke. Turning the ticket office into a portacabin was embarrassing. As for manager misjudgements, this is another debate. There are 2 types of managers. You get the Arsene wengers who are intelligent and take an interest in the clubs financial status and run the club within means with a view to having a future, then you get managers who purely take care of footballing matters and spent the budgets they are handed. Advocaat seemed to take an interest in the long term setting up of the youth policy but was obviously told he had an open cheque book. WS first reign was split, he built a strong cheap mainly Scottish team and almost took us to the brink of the CL in 1993, then the cheque book opened for him and whilst dominating domestically we were rank in Europe.

The WC is there for the taking this year. Only Germany and Argentina have looked like they are up for it. When I saw brazil's starting XI I wasnt convinved they would give NK a hiding. Spain should be rubbing their hands right now. They are the in form team and have the most impressive squad. The 2nd games in the group stages HAVE to be better. Teams know they need 3 points or it could be all over. The dark horse so far has been Paraguay, they were probably better than Italy. Still very early days though.

Will be good to see a stadium around 20,000. Semi finals that dont involve the OF should now be played here, the atmosphere would be good. Are hibs the best ran team in Scotland? They seem to have a good youth policy and have their house in order. Hearts have been talking about their new stand for years and Aberdeen's ground is a sham.

I thought Holland v Denmark could have been a good game but it never really got going. I think most teams are a bit cagey in their first game except Germany. Will be interesting to see Brazil and Spain - a lot of expectation on them.

1992 European Champions????

Someone just asked me which brothers were better...I havent been speechless for a long time with a football question! I'm edging towards the Laudrups!

Interesting! Id not let Naismith near my team. Cant see what the guy offers at all. Im also not fan of Whittaker. He is a run of the mill full back and I find him dangerous at times. I still think the 3-5-2 would work well but Id not go with it in Europe. Those 3 centre halfs are all more than decent on their day, then with Thomson playing the Stuart McCall role Edu could nip up and down. McCulloch's natural position was an attacking midfielder on the left side so why not play him there???? Im still a firm believer in playing to our strengths rather than marking the opposition out.