Defender Steven Mouyokolo has returned to Sochaux, in France, to undergo treatment and probably an operation for a ruptured achilles. Its more bad luck for the cursed ex Wolves man, who \u00a0landed on his feet when he got offered a deal by Neil Lennon, only to find that the impact caused more damage, and he’ll be out for months.<\/p>\n
Although its hard not to feel for the guy, Efe Ambrose and Virgil van Dijk look like they will be the first choice back two this season, and they could set a new club record this weekend of three consecutive appearances together if they start against Hearts.<\/p>\n
Another defender who had a bad week was Emuilio Izzaguerre. His country Honduras conceded a late goal against Panama which means they haven’t qualified for Brazil just yet, but are still in pole position.<\/p>\n
Georgios Samaras helped his team to a 1-0 win over Latvia in Greece, they stay joint top of their group. Adam Matthews and Joe Ledley played for Wales, which means they can hang about with the likes of Scott Brown, Charlie Mulgrew and James Forrest next summer because they will get plenty of time off .<\/p>\n
Teemu Pukki starred for Finalnd, as we saw in yesterdays diary, and Efe Ambrose featured in Nigerias 4-1 win over Burkina Faso, who they do seem to play rather a lot.<\/p>\n
Thomas Rogic got a chance to face Barcelona new boy Neymar when he got eleven minutes of the Australia -Brazil game in Brasilia. The game ended in a narrow 6-0 win for the hosts, and Rogic was left looking forward to an important season in which he wants to be a regular in the hoops.<\/p>\n
This from Ronnie Cully in the Evening times;<\/p>\n
“Every player always wants to start, and I’m no different in that respect.<\/p>\n
“But, being realistic as well, it’s been hard of late for both club and country, so I know I need to push in both teams and, hopefully, really head in the right direction towards starting.”<\/p>\n
With the golden ticket to the World Cup finals dangling tantalisingly in front of his nose, Rogic concedes this will be a defining season in his, so-far, short career.<\/p>\n
The man who only moved up to senior football a couple of years ago after catching the eye as a futsal star said: “Of course I want to make sure I’m back in Brazil in nine months’ time.<\/p>\n
“And I’m going to do everything I can in camp and at my club to continue getting called up.<\/p>\n
“I want to keep representing my country, and I certainly want to play a bigger role as well.”<\/p>\n
Rogic may be playing his club football on the other side of the world. But, in this age of super-fast communications, everything he does in Scotland is followed and scrutinised Down Under.<\/p>\n
Like every player, he understands the attention paid to the Champions League makes it a competition which can ensure you are making headlines around the globe.<\/p>\n
“These are the best teams in the world and the best players in the world.<\/p>\n
“The thought of testing yourself against them is very exciting and I am really looking forward to the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think we could have asked for a tougher group, and I am very proud to be a part of it and looking forward to it.”<\/p>\n
Rogic seems to have a little of the eye of the tiger about him, which may have been that extra quality that has seen him move from the world of futsal to one of Europes top clubs in just two years.<\/p>\n
( That last bit wasn’t from the Evening Times, obviously )<\/p>\n
Mikael Lustig went back to the Astana Arena with Sweden, where they beat Khazakstan 1-0 to remain favourites to make the play offs in Irelands group, and another bit of selective reporting about this one comes from the Evening Times, who have decided to get the old alarm bells out early ahead \u00a0the Milan game next week.<\/p>\n
From the Times;<\/p>\n
“Mikael Lustig looked certain to have to withdraw from the Swedish squad after being stretchered off at Tannadice.<\/p>\n
The defender recovered in time to face the Republic of Ireland in Dublin last Friday, but, worryingly, he did not get any game time when the Swedes won in Kazakhstan on Tuesday. ”<\/p>\n
Why its worrying they don’t explain. They could have asked Swedish boss Erik Hamren, who said;<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were no serious things, he (Lustig) was a little worn and had probably been able to play but did not feel a hundred and because I did not want to risk having to make an early change.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven that I know that also Anders (Svensson) may not have the energy, Although he played almost 90 minutes yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which gives a completely different impression of \u00a0events.<\/p>\n
An interesting report from the BBC shows that the cheapest day out in Scottish football is at Inverness, where a ticket, a pie \u00a0a cup of tea and a programme \u00a0on matchday will cost just \u00a320.60. With the cost of travel added that comes to just over six hundred thousand pounds. You could buy Henrik Larsson for that.<\/p>\n
Joking apart, that is fantastic value to watch \u00a0the team who top the league just now, because \u00a0if the catering prices are anything like Celtic Park, you could ditch the food and the programme and watch the game for a fiver.<\/p>\n
A day out at Celtic Park works out at \u00a330.40, though what they found at Celtic Park for Forty pence is beyond me. Still, if you factor in beer money and bus fare, thats about \u00a3250 for the day.<\/p>\n
What came as a pleasant surprise, and the press deserve a proper kicking for not promoting this nationally, is that clubs are making a massive effort to get kids in through the gates. The game will die on its feet if the next generation are not encouraged to go to the games.<\/p>\n
St. Mirren and Dundee Utd operate a free tickets scheme with local schools, which gave me two surprises actually, as I wasn’t aware there were schools in Paisley and Dundee, and several other clubs will give a free kids season book with every adult one purchased, and thats is the way forward.<\/p>\n
Special praise to Partick though, who have free admission for under 16s, no doubt trying to scoop up the decent fans from the glasgow club who died last year. If not the actual fans, then their kids. Well, at least the kids that social services haven’t taken off them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If only the guys at the top of Scottish football, such as Doncaster, Regan and that one who killed off \u00a0Rangers and nearly killed Hearts with his financial acumen showed half as much vision and energy towards the teams that survive as they do to the one that died, then they might have a bloody good product that would be easy to sell.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Which reminds me, Mark Dingwall, who supports Rangers and occasionally appears on telly to help with the development of wide angled lenses , has had some figures back from an accountant friend of his, published them on a Rangers forum, and watched the howls of anguish as the scales fall from the eyes of his fellow fans \u00a0as they realised that they could be going back into administration.<\/p>\n
Wonder who put him up to that ?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I’d like to reassure them, because they do seem worried about another insolvency event, that there is absolutely, and I have this on very, very good authority, no chance of \u00a0another administration, or even liquidation.<\/p>\n
Thats because the current entity is a completely new club, and they have never been in any sort of financial bother at all.<\/p>\n
I hope that helps.<\/p>\n
Yesterday , Frank Sinatra, Paul ” macca ” McCartney and Vennie Kocsis, the Tacoma singer\/poet gave us Frank MacAvennie, and a plethora of funny comments.<\/p>\n
Today, we have another “character “, from yesteryear<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oh, by the way, the Oxford dictionary drew a few comments yesterday, and it just so happens I checked another definition;<\/p>\n
Trap : An unpleasant situation that is difficult to get out of.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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