TRVMP

I had it backwards, thought they'd gone through on away goals. I'm trying to figure which UEFA countries have not had a group stage representative in Europe in the Champions League era, either in the CL or the UEFA Cup/EL. I think I'm right in saying it's the following: Gibraltar Andorra San Marino Liechtenstein Iceland Kosovo Northern Ireland Armenia Estonia Malta Montenegro August company for TFS, there. Microstates, places where they don't play football, and warzones. (Then again I suppose NI fits at least one of those categories half the time.)

That is an absolute minter. Even Northern Ireland got a team in, and one of Luxembourg and Armenia will as well.

On my phone and can't be bothered looking it up, but I think PAOK have now fallen at the final hurdle more times than any other club. Maybe Brondby have them beat. But they're still nowhere near Poland levels of fail, particularly given that Olympiacos punched at a decent level for years.

Van Schaik completing his online check-in as we speak. Result.

Unless we could ship one out...

In all seriousness, with that squad, their failure to be 12/12 so far is pretty damning. Hopefully the beginning of the end for McKinnon's full-time career.

It absolutely is, without question. Nobody else comes close, not even Romania. And the players are on very decent money (considering the low COL in Poland.) Also, reminder that until recently Polish football was out-attended by bloody speedway. The Allsvenskan is also a bit rubbish but you'd expect that based on population.

I know nothing about him as a person, so I have nothing against him at all, but it absolutely mystifies me that he's able to get work as a part-time footballer. Genuinely an awful player, one who just doesn't look like a footballer at all. I think it was East Fife we were playing against, but there was one occasion when all he had to do in order to block a shot - which went in, naturally - was stand still, but instead he ducked. Nonetheless I'd place him higher than Derek Collins in the pantheon of Morton legends, on account of his appearance at Parkhead.

He's doing that on purpose in some cases - in this case since the current Ruch Chorzow logo doesn't have green. On that subject, they're just about to start their first season in the III Liga, after their third successive relegation. Must be pretty dire for them, having to play against the *reserves* of local rivals Gornik Zabrze and, further away, Slask Wroclaw. One level above in II Liga (the third tier), Widzew Lodz are still laboriously making their way back up the pyramid, while the team that I "follow" (kinda), GKS Katowice, are settling in after their relegation from I Liga. LKS Lodz, meanwhile, are finally back in the top flight, but hilariously their "rebuilt" stadium still only has one stand, with corners filled in. It looks like a kid was putting together a Subbuteo stadium then got called down for his tea. So expect capacity crowds of 5,700 for the time being.

Playlist with others: https://www.sporcle.com/playlists/pecheneg/football-crests-by-colour Some of them are fiendishly difficult - there are ones where you have to type, rather than pick, so you need to know them rather than just use the process of elimination. I got just 41% on a couple of them.

Fun logo quiz featuring Morton: https://www.sporcle.com/games/pecheneg/clickable-crests-by-city-blue-red-yellow-i

The Jolly Sailor. Allegedly.

^^^ world-class point-getter Mate, everyone agrees Ramsbottom is crap, and no doubt having him behind you certainly doesn't help, but it can't explain away things like Ayr's fourth goal. There is absolutely no way that Van Schaik played that the way he did because he was worried about the 'keeper. He played it that way because he's also a bad footballer who's out of his depth. In an ideal world we'd replace both of them immediately, but there is no way that replacing just the 'keeper is going to result in Van Schaik suddenly becoming good. My opinion is tempered slightly by the fact that, at first, I thought Ricki Lamie was a terrible player, and of course he went on to be a very solid performer for us and is now a fairly regular player in the top flight. In mitigation for my being wrong, he was being played out of position for several months. You can't say the same for Van Schaik, who's been a center-back all his professional days (and because he's tall I presume he started out that way in youth football as well.) You could have Steven Hawking in nets, but you don't let the ball bounce over you the way he did, absolute basic stuff, and it's a brass neck to blame the goalie for that.

I only regret that I have but one red dot to give.

It is a source of concern, for sure. We've definitely done some good business, most notably Nesbitt and Cadden, but the defensive frailties are plain to see even from highlights.

Excluding Blues, but including Strapp, Lyon, and Sutton, I count 17 full-time "adult" players in the squad. (I assume Strapp and Lyon are on "proper" contracts now.) If that's as far as the budget goes, I can't say I'm altogether shocked, but with older players and at least two injury-prone ones - as well as Sutton hinting that he's not going to play the whole season - you are really asking for trouble if that's the limit of your budget, because once absences and suspensions set in, you're unable to compete (c.f. our back line on Saturday.) MCT's money really could make the difference this season, assuming it's spent wisely. Without that, Golden Casket would be consigning us to a real struggle (for which we're not allowed to criticize them, because their dad died and nobody could have seen that coming.)

Speaking as a blowhard with no relevant expertise myself, I agree that Wright is wrong, but at the same time he's absolutely shanked Duffy's managerial record in one devastating sentence. Which is pretty hilarious.

Still, that's an absolute bodying.

I realize that relatively few of the pledgers will be overseas, and of these even fewer will be in the US, but there's still no option for those of us without a UK bank account. As requested by one of the MCT people, I sent over a list of options for this on Monday night (Tuesday overnight UK time) but I haven't heard back yet.

I disagree. The comprehensive study into exactly how terrible he is was absolutely required. It has now been scientifically proven that he's the second-worst person in the history of our 145-year-old institution.

Dean Matthew Keenan is... well, the definitive take on him is archived here.

They also have Willie Dyer, Peter MacDonald, and Eddie Malone (played on trial for us once.) Think there's a reason most of these guys have dropped down to that level. Probably decent money, little by way of training commitments, and a chance to do other things with their days. Good luck to Peaso and Dyer, the former being a good club servant and the latter pretty inoffensive.

Dallas scored in a Rangers Development Squad 2-0 win over Cambridge a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps that and some YouTube was the extent of their scouting. Two year deal for him at The Abbey.

One issue that I haven't seen addressed is - what happens if the debt grows in that timeframe?

That's up there with Rangers losing to the Luxembourgish team.