DMAA

Very much agree. It is not a coincidence that Christie is always in top 2-3 of the assists table. Scorers a lot too. Losing Forrest is a big blow too. His stats for the past few seasons have been very good and Frimpong is all they have on that side now.

Professional footballers don't. He does have to abide by UK rules in France though, which means a 10 day self-isolation instead of a 7 day (French rules).

I thought maybe it was worth just having an open thread for any chat on the game until we are ready to create a match thread. It's just breaking that Christie has to self isolate for 14 days after being in close contact with Scott Armstrong. He will miss the game. Edouard has tested positive. He needs to self isolate for 10 days in France, before returning to Glasgow the day before the game. It seems he will be available for selection. James Forrest is injured for about 6 weeks so he is out too.

It sounds like he is fine, which is good news. I actually think Balogun is a big downgrade on Helander.

FWIW, I hope I am proved wrong on this.

I didn’t say I didn’t want him, I said I didn’t believe the link because it didn’t make sense to me that we would sign Zungu when, realistically, Wilshere didn’t just suddenly become available as @JohnMc says. If there is truth in the links we would have been aware before Monday that he was negotiating a release.

The signing of Zungu made it 2 players to each of the 3 midfield positions. Why would we do that if we were just about to sign Wilshere on what would be a big contract? We probably enquired but maybe Zungu was left late because he was the backup. Signing both just doesn't make sense so I don't believe it.

Another reliable source on this story. I still find it hard to believe but can’t deny these are good sources.

Even if it was realistic to sign Wilshere, it isn’t happening after we have just signed another centre mid.

Well, the window didn't pan out the way I expected and we didn't sign the second attacking midfielder I hoped we would, but you have to be very pleased, all things considered. Not one of us expected to end the window having spent more than £10m and having only brought in about £1m. But in doing that we have finally moved on number of bit part players who weren't good enough, and we have brought in a mix of quality players who will challenge for a starting place as well as some necessary cover players. Roofe, Hagi, Itten and Zungu will all strengthen the match day squad. Bassey, Balogun and McLaughlin improve the quality of our backups. I said right at the beginning of the window I felt this was the time to cash in on Morelos, I do think we would be stronger if we had done that early in the window and spent the money. We don't know what went on, but from a distance it looks like we priced him out of a move. But now that he is here to stay he better get his act together fast and realise that he is playing himself out of the move he wants.

I’m choosing not to believe this one until it’s confirmed. Ok I haven’t watched full games, but from watching every video out there of him he just looks ok, nothing special. And his injury and appearance record isn’t good. I’m hoping there’s a surprise yet to come today.

He does to me too, although I was never Morelos’s biggest fan. It’s major blow to have him injured already.

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Not a rumour in sight of an outgoing today though, it would seem very unlikely at this stage. I'm really surprised Morelos is still here. I feared we would overvalue him and I wonder if that is what has happened. I think we'd have a stronger team if we'd sold him and re-invested the proceeds into a couple of quality players.

Yeh, here is the source. I hope not to be honest.

I don't follow English football anymore but I watched a 7 minute Youtube compilation of his play after which, naturally, I am a bit of an expert in all things Juninho Bacuna. He would definitely add to the squad in terms of flair and creativity. Though there would certainly be question marks over how he would manage physically and whether he could be consistent. I highly doubt there is anything in this link anyway.

A lot of money at stake in this group. £500k for a win, another £500k for finishing second of £1m if we can win it. This draw has made it much more achievable to make decent money out of this competition.

Reports that Besic may be coming on loan. His contract expires in June.

I get the impression that delusion is the difference between the two sets of fans

Out of curiosity, I checked the Aberdeen and Hibs forums to see what they were saying about last night and the draw today. Surprisingly, they are saying very different things. This may not be representative of the wider supports, but whilst Aberdeen fans were wishing nothing but a crushing defeat on us and spewing at our success and constantly referencing our finances, Hibs fans were looking at the bigger picture and were glad to see the coefficient improving and looking forward to the opportunities it could bring them.

Haha, Pot 1 has given them no advantage at all. Loving it.

After 5 minutes of research, we've got a group group. Benfica will be very hard, harder than Porto last season I think. The lost the league to Porto but they sold a centre back for 65 odd million and brought in 7-8 players with that money. Lech Poznan finished 3 points behind Legia, bizarrely with the exact same goals scored and goals conceded. They have been good in Europe this season though. To my surprise, Standard Liege actually finished 5th in the Belgian League last season, nowhere near 1st but only 6 points from 2nd. Poznan put out Charleroi who finished 5 points ahead of Standard Liege. So Benfica will be very hard but I make us clear favourites for the other two.

Celtic Sparta Prague Milan Lille That's a tough group considering they were in Pot 1

Benfica Standard Liege Rangers Lech Poznan