More international football tonight, and more nervous moments for those of us who just want our bhoys to come home unhurt. Wives and sweethearts will wait anxiously by the phone, re-reading old letters, hoping for that final call that says their betrothed are on their way home, free of injury, ready to resume life back in the world away from these attempts at conquest in foreign lands.<\/p>\n
Supporters, of course, just want to get back on with real football, which has at least some sort of point to it.<\/p>\n
Craig Levein leads his Scotland side onto the fields of Belguim, and he claims that he is just focussed on preparing the team and getting a result. As he said this he slid a copy of yesterdays paper, open at the jobs page, underneath a cushion.<\/p>\n
The U-21s were in Marbella, playing a challenge match against Canada, and Tony Watt got on the scoresheet again, entering the fray as a substitute. Dylan McGeouch also performed quite well, and they are on their way home now. Its even worse when lads of such a young age are sent abroad to do battle in foreign climes at the behest of their lords and masters. Apparently, when they are picked to go, they cannot refuse, unless they are already injured.<\/p>\n
Celtic boss Neil Lennon hasn’t commented on the injuries to two of his key players, but thats always difficult when he has his head in both hands and is screaming “Nnnooooo”<\/p>\n
The diary may give the impression that its not a big fan of international football, but in fact, there would be nothing better than even a moderately successful Scotland side. The worrying thing now is that a whole generation of supporters have grown up without seeing their country play in a finals tournament of any importance, and the seeding system means its unlikely to happen any time soon. The SFA, who failed to act when it was clear to everyone that Levein wasn’t the man for the job-the Czech game when he decided not to bother with any front men, was a big clue. Funny, the SFA have not taken the lead in any issues where a deep breath and a strong leadership was needed. See also Rangers FC, and their demise.<\/p>\n
Chris Coleman says he may “risk” right back Adam Matthews in theWales game tonight. Its always easier to risk something that isn’t actually yours.<\/p>\n
Another Newcastle United website has their team about to “rescue” Gary Hooper from the SPL. Rescue him from Champions League football, winning trophies and above all a happy working environment to play the likes of Stoke, Wigan and Norwich, presumably. \u00a0If he’s really lucky, he might get a club house in the petro-chemical wasteland of nearby Middlesborough.<\/p>\n
Talksport radio, the only station where the ads make more sense than the presenters, did a head to head of Liverpool transfer targets. Darren Bent v. Gary Hooper, as the southern media machine moved into overdrive to take hooper to the EPL so he can help his country score goals. The prospect of their main striker being based at Celtic in the backwater SPL is starting to scare them, as its obvious that the wiser, much travelled Roy Hodgson has ditched the little Englander mentality that has served them so well in the past.<\/p>\n
Theres a story brewing that the Celtic Ladies first team has been removed from the Semi-fianals of their Cup competition.The reason? The club were unable to field enough players as they had several on international duty. Despite looking on the web, we have no idea if the chairman of the SWFA is a Mrs Farry. Surely if this has happened, it can be rectified?<\/p>\n
Over in the land of eternal darkness, Mark Dingwall of the Rangers supporters Trust has added his not inconsiderable weight to the plea by Charles Green for supporters to re-invest their money. He wants them pretty much to contribute whatever they can, and the RST will buy blocks of shares. Of course, they will then need a voice on the board, and Dingwall will get what he has always wanted. Will the bears see through it? Will it all descend into bitter infighting and recriminations? Whatever happens, they all deserve a huge round of applause for providing us with much mirth and merriment during the cold damp summer of 2012, and hopefully it will continue as winter approaches.<\/p>\n
Now to the teaser. The other day the question concerned the most capped current Celt, which according to the official site, was Emilio Izzaguerre. Now regular to the diary Steveo has challenged this, it seems correctly, as Soccerway.com lists Georgios Samaras as playing sixty times for his country. Other sites have different totals. Can someone give the Greek Galloper a ring and ask him what the correct figure is?<\/p>\n
Yesterday, we asked who are this seasons top scorers in the SPL, and it is indeed Inverness Caley Thistle, Well done to all who guessed it without looking, and jolly bad form to those who cheated.<\/p>\n
Speaking of cheats and their ilk, today think again about the Hall of Fame. Sandy Jardine once said he would hand back his membership. He hasn’t yet, as far as we know. How many times did he play for Scotland to earn this accolade? Actually , its in two parts today. How many times would he have played if the country had had a decent left back as well as a world class right back at the time?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More international football tonight, and more nervous moments for those of us who just want our bhoys to come home unhurt. Wives and sweethearts will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-gw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1024"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1029,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024\/revisions\/1029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}