Rousseau

I hope Murty won't be here next season.

He's not done much wrong, and I thank him for his work, but we need a proper manager in for next season.

1 minute ago, PierreFanFan said:

Id personally take Bates over Alves, Yeah I can agree with Cardoso.

Not for me; Alves is the better player.

3 minutes ago, PierreFanFan said:

Not had a look through the Thread but hearing Alves/Martin is the Center back pairing today??

 

I do not believe it but coming from a usually good source. That would just slow the defence right down. Id rather Cardoso or Bates

I'm not sure how: Bates is not faster than either, and Cardoso is inferior. Alves-Martin is probably our strongest line-up.

Although, Bates has done nothing wrong.

I watched Dumbarton's game against The New Saints in the Irn-Bru Cup Semi-final -- on welsh TV...  -- because I was intrigued to see Wilson and Burt. It turns out Wilson has barely played, and wasn't involved at all. 

Burt came on and looked lively; nimble, aggressive dribbler, and always looked to get in-behind. He really made things happen when he came on. They were 0-1 down when he came on and went on to win 2-1, reaching their first 'final' for over 100 years! A couple of superb goals too! A Cyrpiot player blasted a central free-kick from 25 yards, the ball moving every which way, into the net; the 'keeper was routed to the spot.

I was surprised there are actually a few former Rangers players playing for Dumbarton: Calum Gallagher, Kyle Hutton, Tom Walsh, there's a Gallagher in goals that I think played for us, and the two boys on loan. Strange.

The Italians have a knack -- a science as it turns out -- for prolonging the careers of players, from the above injury prevention to their specific roles on the pitch. It's always impressed me that a player that seems done elsewhere can go to an Italian side and play another 5 years, playing well and contributing to the team. Juventus' Barzagli looked finished at Wolfsburg, then goes on to play 8 season and counting in Italy, winning virtually everything. Totti went on longer than seems possible, and Buffon's hit 40 too! It's remarkable. 

Chris Coleman is really struggling at Sunderland. Some put his name forward for the Rangers job!

Sunderland is a bit of a basket-case, but I did expect him to do better. 

Solid squad player, but I doubt he'd be first choice if we had decent CBs -- even of the ones we currently have he's not first-choice; Alves, and even McCrorie would be ahead of him. 

I still want to keep him. 

If I'm not mistaken, McCrorie had a loan at Dumberton, so Burt is going to a good place. 

I'd take Davis. He may not be what he was, and he has fallen out of first-team choice in the EPL -- although he still plays a lot -- but he's still a quality midfielder that can play anywhere in the middle (DM, No.8, No.10, he's played them all recently). And, his experience is top-class. 

I can understand why Murty wouldn't want him, though: getting on a bit (33), no sell-on value, and you'd need to build a team around him -- or he plays a bit-part role, coming in for certain games, but I'm not sure the cost would be worth that, nor do I think Davis would want that either.

Always impressive displays by the Copenhagen fans.

I always think we should be emulating these teams, like Copenhagen; they always go on a decent run in Europe, while playing some nice stuff. Losing 1-4, though, will see them go out.

2 hours ago, colinstein said:

didn't they skelp Dundee Utd. 5 or 6 nil ?

As good as that was -- it was 6-1  -- I suspect it was a one-off, as they are currently 8th in the Championship and have struggled all year.

3 minutes ago, pete said:

Due to financial troubles I think they have cut right back. They have dropped their academy to go for picking up players discarded from other teams. That puts huge pressure on the scouting system so they will have to be top notch there or they will go down hill quickly.

They're certainly struggling, but I think we can expect them to be up for it -- as all are playing us!

I have bad memories of Falkirk... We may have moved on but it'll still be a tricky tie.

7 hours ago, 917 said:

He has all the attributes to become a world-class player. He would fit right in to a team like Barcelona or Man City, where he wouldn’t have to do any defending. However, he is never a defender. It’s like when Spurs used to play Gareth Bale at left-back. What were they thinking??

Bale started his career as a Left-back at Southampton and then Tottenham. They then saw his attacking ability and merely moved him forward to Left-wing. 

Actually, it looks like his xG is only slightly down on his actual goals. I thought it'd be a bigger difference. Although, that radar is from "February forward", and he has been on a rich vein of scoring form recently.

But, his Shots-on-Target % is around 30%, which seems poor. Maybe he's scoring poor quality chances?

He gets into good positions, and his movement is good, but his execution lets him down. I wonder what percentage of his shots actually hit the target? I don't expect him to have a strikers hit-rate, but he should be higher than he is, I think.

It's a wee bit childish, but nothing to bother about -- other than being glad our feed seems to be run be an adult.

If they're having a dig at us, they must be a tad worried. Obsessed, indeed.

Or he'll just turn up...

Craig typing his questions like...

9 hours ago, craig said:

Have you read that thread on Twitter ?

 

QPR tweeted that their loanee had 4 assists... Some of the Bears responses are hilarious. 

 

One guy says "On Monday morning he changed his name to Dalcio, he made a few other changes too, you can have him back in June". 

Another says "Just so you know, hes put on 2 stone, got a tan, grew his hair and started calling himself Carlos Pena and speaks exclusively Spanish so don't be alarmed when that's the way we send him back to you"

 

It's a superb thread! I was buckled.

I think whenever a Chinese club came in for Morelos in January, all the replies were pictures of Dalcio with 'this is Morelos'. You can always depend on the Twitter Loyal for a wee laugh.

And here's my reaction in text form, in case Pete doesn't like the gif:

Yay.