buster.

The midfield 3 is the area we tend to struggle. Goalkeeper, defence and attack...I don't see much difference other than subs bench. Middle is where they have a distinct edge. Brown and Ntcham are good at retaining possession and setting things up..Rogic is a danger going forward. We have to hope our midfield lads play above themselves and Murty gives them a chance with the set-up.

That's a middle of the midfield three that won't be short of will and effort but also one that may be prone to mistakes when pressed. Dorrans playing slightly further forward is very capable if he can have one of his better games and the two wide players can also make a difference. Solid, compact, 90 minutes of hard work and the right mentality = We have a fighting chance (and the 7/2 odds for a win look generous / I had a tenner on Motherwell at 5/2 yesterday)

Att.: 18,470 Very poor number, I'd have expected 23-25,000. Will mean a combined 68,000 ish and Motherwell will get the financial benefit of an approx. 34,000 crowd. There is always a lot of anger wrt to ticket allocation etc, for this type of game but for me the above is the injustice. The ticket allocation issue is simple: a 50/50 split at a neutral venue but if tickets aren't sold within cut-off period, they go to the other team if they are sold out.

He's done a remarkable job. That table shows 20 league games and Clarke has been with Kilmarnock for 24 league games. The 4 other league games were: DDLW Rangers (A) 1-1 Celtic (A) 1-1 Hibs (H) 0-3 Hearts (A) 1-3 It's ironic that his first game was at Ibrox (1-1) and it was also Pedro's last game. It's too obvious that he's our best realistic name as manager. Today they won their 6th league game IAR. To put that into context, celtic have only managed a run of 3 wins IAR this season. We have done 4IAR, twice.

I'd wait until we get the 55th before thinking about removing the stars. Possibly enlarge the middle start the season post title win and after that see what opinions pointed toward.

IMO Sunday is more about an effective collective (team) set-up in a specific way, than the merits of individuals. Mentality, commitment and desire also play a huge part in these games and have to be considered. On a messageboard, rather than at the training sessions makes it only 'gut guesswork' and we'll soon enough see what actually transpires.

Tav and Morelos

I'll forgive him if he can pick the right team and set them up in a way that can put us into the SC final.

If we want a different outcome I think we need to chaange the way we go about things. I think we have to make it difficult for them to play, protect our central defence via a sitter (McCrorie) and make the midfield as solid as possible. I made a point of watching part of the Hamilton v Celtic game last weekend and they were dismal in the last third, haven't been scoring that many goals of late and wouldn't find a well organised defence easy to create against. Don't worry too much if we aren't making too many chances aslong as they don't score and become more adventurous in the last half hour. And although we want to win, remember, we don't need to win this game to go through (penalties are possible). I'd like to go through and I don't care if it takes 'boring football' to do it. --------------------- No passengers allowed so Windass, if fit, can take a seat on the bench. As can Goss. I'd consider Holt, Haliday and Miller. Players who have already put celtic out of the Cup, know what the fixture is about and work hard at the parts of the game that will be necessary. I'd drop Docherty for this one (celtic will target it him with an immediate press because his distribution has been poor at times).

The subject of the text I have enboldened is of far greater importance than Bates. We have to hope there is some joined up thinking going-on.

We could get someone better on less money or someone worse on more money, the issue being is that we don't know and our recent record on signing centre-halves and contracts given is poor to awful. With Bates, we knew what we had and part of the unknown gamble is taken away, you could treat that as a commodity that was worth a price. As for better transfer dealings in January...Yes, they were but they didn't have much to improve on and the real litmus test is the summer and we don't know how much say Mark Allen will have or if a new manager/head coach will insist on more control.

Scotland used to be a fertile breeding ground for the successful old fashioned style of manager mainly because of the force of personality/character allied to the straightforward, humble but hard working class background (often old industrial areas like mines). For those that were really successful, you could add a very football savvy brain and a charasmatic leadership. Fast forward and the new style of successful manager coming through is something else altogether and generally have a make-up that is foreign to the Scottish football culture and none in Scotland that I know have the independent force of character to impose themselves. ie. I think the relative quality of Scottish manager compared to many other nations will continue to go downhill. The ones that end up being really successful will need to work outside Scotland to fully develop. Meanwhile, Scotland will live in it's own footballing bubble.

The thought ran through my mind but I'm not sure he could hack it if things got a little difficult. At St.Mirren when it wasn't going well he ended up in the stands arguing/conversing with supporters who were giving him stick, ie. multiply the scrutiny/demands and divide the level of patience and you have to ask if he could keep a level head and do his job. I get the appointment of a younger promising manager (back in the day St.Mirren had one called Alex Ferguson) but I'm not seeing one that fits the bill in Scotland. Styles have changed and a Fergie like manager is old hat, perhaps Alex Neill is the closest younger Scottish manager at present.

Classic CL Final..........Liverpool 2 Real Madrid 4

CL Draw Bayern v Real Madrid Liverpool v Roma

Jupp Heynckes is free ! (Bayern just announced Niko Kovac as boss for next season) He can bring some of his current Bayern Munich players with him as well.

Europa League semi-final draw Arsenal v Atletico Madrid Marseille v Red Bull Salzburg ------- Cracking draw Champions League aspirations for Arsenal just got a whole load more difficult.

I doubt 'solutions' wrt BBC Scotland will come without involving BBC UK and hard collated evidence. I said back when Club1872 started up that in time a 'CQN*' type offshoot might eventually emerge, do some of the particular spadework and deal with the PR aspect. * CQN is a celtic supporters group that have unofficial communications with the club and are relatively quite effective at setting/controlling naratives on certain issues.

The reality is that until we are further down the line and we see how the squad/mgmt. is shaping up for next season, how our budget has been spread and in this case, who are options are at centre-half.....we won't get a full picture to make a judgement from. The other unknown is how Bates will get on with Hamburg and how he will develop. The one thing I do take from this is we haven't managed the contract in a way to get value from a promising youngster. We did extend various contracts and appeared to be getting on top of this,...lets hope we haven't let the one who ends up going for real money slip through the net.

I wouldn't trust any journalist or ex-journalist/PR man who hasn't learnt his new trade yet or believe that real solutions would emerge from them. They are in it for the money and will bend and alter positions accordingly. It comes down to the support getting their act together and channelling efforts properly as per the other thread on the Gersnet article (fan power).

It boils the blood to think of the sum of money we have wasted over the past couple of years but we have to look forwards and try to put a squad together that represents better value. The unknown/hidden factors as far as we are concerned are: - who is going to be manager - does the club know yet - is this already having an impact on squad planning

Daily Record 'inside track' on this suggests the club.......... "refused to bow to wage demands of around 7500 a week". "Rangers are in line to net only a five-figure compensation payment under FIFA guidelines but they point-blank refused to salary demands from Bates and his advisors they believed excessive. His package would have outstripped considerably the salary levels of other young Rangers and Ibrox chairman Dave King and his board decided to draw the line on a player who has made just 19 appearances for the club." -------------- No mention of what the club were prepared to offer but Forlansister mentioned 2K. The question being, what happened to any negotiation between 2K to 7,5K (no mention of bonus structure) and length of contract ? He was definately worth more than 2K and IMO his age/displays to date merited an offer of more than 2 years. 5K and 4 years would have sounded about right to me and the question now is how much will it cost to replace him ?

I've just realised why this is 'Comeback Week'.....all of Europe has been inspired by the Marvin Andrews youtube interview edit....another comeback ! Lazio won the first leg 4-2 against Salzburg but are now 6-5 down on aggregate...10 minutes left !

The week continues in the same vein 35 or so minutes left CSKA 2-0 up against Arsenal (agg 3-4) Sporting 1-0 up on Atletico Madrid (agg 1-2)