Scott7

Aye. Better than Smith, more solid than Rough without Rough’s ability to make the occasional impossible save. Can’t remember what he was like at saving penalties but he was good at taking them. Absolutely.

Kent has more than one position. Maybe he just wasn’t playing well enough.

Here are the Scotsman readers’ twenty best uncapped Scottish footballers. Andy Ritchie, Morton. Chic Charnley, Thistle. John McMaster, Aberdeen. Neale Cooper, Aberdeen. Gordon Wallace, Dundee. Craig Brewster, Dundee Utd. Bobby Russell, Rangers. John Brown, Rangers. Alex Rae, Sunderland. John McGovern, Forest. Alan Gordon, Heart, Hibs. Kevin McAllister, Falkirk/Hibs. Alex Edwards, Dunfermline/Hibs Bobby Cox, Dundee. Stephen Dobbie, QoS. Hamish McAlpine, Dundee Utd. Ralph Milne, Dundee Utd. Jim Duffy, Dundee. Billy Stark, Aberdeen. Tommy Bryceland, St Mirren. Cox, Edwards, Russell and Brown were unlucky not to be capped. Some fine players among the rest, Bryceland in particular, but mostly old-style B International material.

That team almost has a settled look about it.

Yes. So, why ditch Kent? Why did they want another foreign player instead of him? Was it because he wasn’t performing well?

Why did they want to replace him?

No.

King’s great weakness was his propensity to litigate lost causes.

And still get stung by the little beggars.

The cleverest strategist, the most astute tactician still has a pool of moderate level players from which to pick a team so a new manager is unlikely to do any better. Clark is a very suitable manager for Scotland. A greetin’ faced moaner with the capability to be smug if the occasion arises.

I don’t think McLean and Russell were unsung. McLean was compared unfavourably with his illustrious outside right predecessors in his early days until we ignorant spectators worked out what he was doing.

Captain McColl. Master wing half.

Very good player for the Hibs but even better at Liverpool.

John Little succeeded Tiger Shaw and successfully partnered George Young, Eric Caldow and Bobby Shearer. In this photo he torpedoes Paddy Buckley of Aberdeen. Tackles like that were fine in those days but pull somebody’s shirt and you got jeered off the park. Quite right too.

Willie Rae, ten years in the blue mostly an understudy to Ian McColl and Sammy Cox - thankless task - and even outside left in a winning cup final. Here he is making sure no one gets near George Niven. I think it’s Willie Bauld of the Hearts.

I thought Davie McPherson was pretty good both spells and not bad at the Hearts either.

Almost an old style wing half - Greig, McKay - with an extra touch of skill. Every Cruyff should have a Neeskens.

Omnishambles. Club ignoring fans again. Should be free taxis to any part of the city.

You do the work, old bean. I’ll embellish it. And still get it wrong. Sadly, the Wolves shot their bolt about three seasons ago. I thought they’d go down last season. This season nothing can be more certain.

Liverpool will score three. Arsenal may be restricted to three. Brenttford will beat Wolves 2-0 maybe 3-1. You could be right about Leicester. City will concede at least one against Fulham but it won’t matter because they will score more. Ipswich might just get two against the Hammers so it will be a draw. Everton v Magpies is the most difficult to predict. 1-1? Villa 1-3 United, I’m afraid. Chelsea 4-0 Forest. BHA 2-1 ‘Spurs. EDIT. Half time at Palace 0-1 but I made my prediction before looking. No need to change. Three it will be. EDIT 2. Three it was not. That’s the Scouse for you. Let you down when you trust them.

There’s a post match photo of Arsenal ground staff looking bewildered by the huge quantity of empties they had collected. I wasn’t there but I’d been at the losing Ibrox match where my memory of the away support is a one old man entirely on his own dancing down PRW carrying a decorated candle lantern. He saw John Crossan play as a man inspired for his team. I don’t think Crossan did anything much after that.

When McSweggan scored the sort of goal that Archimedes might have scored if he had been a footballer.

Hacked perhaps by a pessimistic poster.

No but you’ve given four even better reasons for a reduced attendance. None of these would have stopped me from going to cheer for the team but times are different now, I suppose. In fact, the times haven’t changed that much. My first Euro Cup game at Ibrox I saw a team with Caldow and McColl in it beaten 1-4 by AC. The Italians were better players, as simple as that.