Gribz

Talksport agrees mate - Old firm derby is No.1 in the UK. For me it is arguably the biggest in the world. I think the Boca v River Plate game is as up there along with the derbies in Rio and Sao Paulo. There are big derbies in Milan, Rome and Spain which are big but the OF game tops it for me if you are talking Europe.

Yeah poor odds, but Bolton make it a bit better with there Evs price. I might drop Man U and chelsea and throw in the draws from Birmingham v Villa and Portsmouth v Man City. Also fancy Hearts v Aberdeen to be a draw.

Back to the coupon tonight though Man U to beat Blackburn Chelsea to beat Everton Bolton to beat Boro Spurs to beat Wigan

No they were just asking for British derbies

Im listening to talksport and they are asking for a league table of derbies. I.e. which is the biggest and most important. Teams can only have 1 derby - Liverpool v Man Utd wouldnt count. IMO its: 1) Rangers v Celtic 2) Arsenal v Tottenham 3) Manchester Utd v Manchester City 4) Liverpool v Everton 5) West Ham v Chelsea 6) Aston Villa v Birmingham 7) Newcastle v Sunderland 8) Sheff Wed v Sheff Utd 9) Southampton v Portsmouth 10) Hearts v Hibs 11) Norwich v Ipswich 12) Blackburn v Bolton 13) Bristol City v Bristol Rovers 14) Dundee v Dundee Utd 15) Leeds v Bradford 16) Stoke v Port Vale 17) Nottingham Forest v Notts County Anyone want to add any derbies?

Just been reading that the SFA are looking to redevelop Hampden to have a 70,000 capacity. Its 8 years to late as they should have done this in the first place to save on future costs. But im just wondering what they are going to do as they need to keep the space between the pitch and stands for the athletics at the common wealth games. The only thing they can do is add a tier to the North? Stand across from the cameras / dugouts, to make it the same as the opposite stand, that would bring it up to around 67,000. They should make the stands behind the goals steeper and higher and make a design similar to St James park then keep the tier going all the way round.

Seems most the players came through yesterday. All the OF players came through unscathed anyway We have McFadden and Fletcher to worry about today although hopefully neither plays. O Connor is a doubt for Birmingham and Maloney may not start for Villa due to Carew being fit again. After watching West Ham demolish Derby yesterday I forgot how many Scots Derby actually have - McEveley, Teale, Pearson and Miller. Plus Boab who isnt in th scotland squad. Miller played ok but is in a poor side. He had a good chance to equalize in the 2nd half then missed and West Ham took over. But the rest were poor and I hope Teale isnt even in the squad.

Im raging at the moment. I had down: Sunderland v Newcaslte draw (1-1) West ham to beat derby (5-0) Dundee Utd to beat Killie (2-0) But when placing my bet I cancelled Dundee Utd and went for either Plymouth (3-0) or St Johnstone to beat Dunfermline (0-0). I plucked for Dunfermline. I wish I could give myself a slap for doubting Utd. Im half blaming Pete for his prediction on the other page as thats whats sprang to mind :uzi:

Bayern are struggling a bit at the moment. They drew 0-0 last week then drew with Bolton 2-2 and now they lose. So hopefully this is down to bayern's poor form more than stuttgart being good

I should have added John Barnes to my first list

Can we get a list going of managers who shouldnt be. I.e. are pretty much crap where ever they go or who people dont rate Glenn Roeder Gary Megson (although I think he will keep bolton up - JUST - coz Wigan, Derby and someone else are shite) Chris Hutchings Sammy Lee Bryan Robson Gareth Southgate

Agree that if Parkhead gets an investment it will be a disgrace. It should be Hampden who gets any money and get the capacity up to 70,000 so the next time games like Italy come round we can get more fans in. What Scotland needs is a stadium that hold between 22,000 and 30,000 for cup semi finals that the OF arent in. Firhill should get an investment to hold such numbers and be used in the games.

But if we are bringing in yet another player who simply has "potential" it is a danger again that he wont flourish. IMO Thomson hasnt met his 2 million price tag yet. Players dont want to come to Scotland. We couldnt take Scott Brown due to wages so who are we going to get who is better than Hemdani without playing 30k a week? We are lucky we have Hemdani - a former Marseille captain who has great experience. The team needs experience more than "potential" buys at the moment. We have bought plently of youngsters like Thomson, Whittaker, Naismith, Gow who arent even getting a game bar Thomson. So for me, id rather keep this experienced player who has proven he can cut it and should be in the team. Its a shame we have to resort to making an investment. Surely we should be building a team round our better players. As i said he could easy still play for us for another 3 season. EDIT: And i think Hemdani is/was happy at Rangers. He is probably as baffled as I am coz he isnt playing after being POTY last season. So now he will be thinking he may want to move on because he isnt getting a game. But if he plays again, id think he would easy stay.

It was a game of 2 halfs from us IMO. First half was negative, cautious, defensive, - whatever. Second half (or once we went 4-4-2) - we tried to get the ball on the deck and play a bit of football but the tie was already over. There are a few ways of looking at it: Was this game was a write off when the fixtures were made? Are we happy it wasnt a cricket score? Should we have attacked with nothing to lose? Would a hammering have ruined confidence for the Stuttgart and Lyon games? Was the intention just to keep the score down? It was almost mission impossible to win in the Nou Camp. They are a terrific side with 3 strikers who are arguably the best in the world. Id have just like to have had a bit more of a go at them but its done now. Lets bring on the Stuttgart.

He was a banker to go early doors along with Sammy Lee. Everyone here posted that at the start of the season. I cant stand that Whelan bloke, the sooner they go back to Division 3 the better. I think Jewell will take the job again.

I think this is a good way of looking at it. Plus our qualifying campaign has been excellent and brought a smile back to watching Scotland again. I cant wait for this game and Im confident of getting a result. We already have the advantage of a 12th man at Hampden, lets just hope the ref doesnt even up the sides. Its a shame that Italy have to miss out . Id rather it was the French who didnt qualify seen as we beat them twice. They have been lucky in there last 2 wins - scoring both there goals late on. However Ukraine could still beat them yet. There is no doubt if we play like we did against France and Holland (previously at Hampden) then we can win. Italy are superb defensively when they need to be but not in the same league as Brazil or even Arsenal when it comes to attacking. I think the team should be: _________________Gordon_________________ Hutton_____Weir__________McManus____Naismith Brown_____Fletcher_______Ferguson____McCulloch ___________Miller__________McFadden_________

Only 3 premiership games in both Scotland and England so tough coupon. Could be a few winners in the FA Cup. I'll probably back West Ham along with 2 other teams. I fancy Sunderland v Newcastle to be a draw.

I cant work out this "take the money and replace him" comment. Who will we get for 3 million that is BETTER than Hemdani and on the same or less wages??

Agree with above and the words in the title are way out of proportion. At worst we were a bit naive or negative (but maybe rightly so due to the opposition) or maybe showed a bit too much respect. Anyone who thinks we were humiliated and embarrassed isnt thinking rightly. I do think we could have switched a 4-4-2 earlier in the 2nd half but I dont think it would have changed the outcome of the game. Humiliation is what Sparta Prague and Besiktas got at Emirates and Anfield respectivley and what Roma suffered at Old Trafford last season.

...Surely has to played from now on. I thought we gave a much better account from ourselves when we switched to this last night. It may have been due to Thomson not playing instead of Adam but who knows. The line up we finished with should be our starting line up bar Cousin coming off for Naismith. Id really like to see Cousin and Darcheville together, even though i want to see Naismith get more minutes. Novo deserves to start on the right and we will have McCulloch on the left. Ferguson will play every game and Hemdani has to be a starter next to him. Why oh why he doesnt play in the SPL is beyond me. If he can play like that against Barca, Lyon and Stuttgart (who are better than the SPL teams) then why doesnt Smith play him every game. I dont buy the rough and tumble SPL game reason - he was POTY last season and can easy stroll the league games. All in all, I think we need to switch to 4-4-2. Our strongest line up IMO is: _________________McGregor________________ Hutton_____Weir___________Cuellar______Papac Novo_______Ferguson_____Hemdani_____McCulloch ___________Darcheville____Cousin______________

I see both Pete and Frankie's point in the opening posts. I thought the first half was poor and we showed a but much respect. But the 2nd half we came out of our shells a bit and when we went to 4-4-2 we saw a bit more of the ball. The 2-0 scoreline was fair and better teams could lose there a bit more. Hemdani was my MOTM. Every ball was a neat, tidy and controlled pass. Hutton tried to enlight a spark but had zero support going forward. Weir stood out at the back for me but should never take his shirt off after a game again - those sags made me ill McGregor had a few neat saves but one flap near the end. Darcheville was impressive when he came on.

I cant see where negativity sets in here. Even if we lost in Stuttgart and Lyon beat Barca, we can still go through to the last 16 by beating Lyon at Ibrox. What we did in our first 3 games was above expectation, now we have had 1 solely defeat in the group of death - and a defeat that was always on the cards. Lyon were always going to be tough opposition, but they had a poor start and we got ahead of them. I cant see Barca losing in Lyon and I think we are capable of winning in Germany so to start thinking about the UEFA cup is negative. We should be making noises that we are going for the last 16.

I got a phone call at 5am this morning and all I could hear was Rule Britannia. One of my mates has made the journey and was steaming somewhere.

Similar to the other thread, but I have to say, no i cant see a win over there at all, but im being realistic. There isnt any team in europe who go to nou camp expecting a win. Even the Real M, Milans and Arsenals would go there as slight underdogs. I think Barca are really up for this with a point to prove (Ronaldinho, Henry and Messi especially) and will want to score a few. But if we can frustrate them for the first 20 mins and get a few solid but fair tackles in then it could annoy them and the crowd will get on their backs a bit and it may come our way.

Id be really disappointed if we let Hemdani go, 3 million or not. He should be in the team every week and be part of the plans for the next 3 seasons. He is only newly turned 30, so people say a player at 29 is at his peak. He cant physically age simply coz he turns a number/year older. If someone comes in for Ferguson with a similar bid, do people think we should let him go? He will be 30 soon aswell.