TRVMP

Your two big teams playing each other and you didn't get a hospitality invite? I'm starting to suspect that you might not be this high-powered businessman/socialite type after all.

How was the quiche at the Emirates?

Agreed.

Big Luca Gasparotto scores for Falkirk as they sink 4-1 at home to country minnows Queen of the South FC.

He only just signed a new deal at the end of last season, why are they so keen to get rid?

The one that got away.

Two late goals for Braga, FH out but a good run.

My phone background is that photo of Pedro Caixinha standing in the hedge arguing with Rangers fans. I don't think I'll ever change it.

Meanwhile FH are drawing 1-1 at Braga, losing 3-2 on aggregate, at half time. If they can score twice, Robbie Crawford's team will also be through to the group stage. Unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

Fair play to them because it's quite the fairytale. It's not like they spent a ton of money to manage it. Certainly the team they beat tonight (PAOK) are a significantly bigger and richer club. In fact I just looked and of the team that started tonight, eight of them played for Ostersunds in the Superettan (second tier), including Fred. Of the ones that didn't, two of them were signed from other teams in Superettan. Only one player was anywhere near established in the top flight when he signed, Tom Petterson (the only ethnic Swede in the lineup), who was a squad player at IFK and previously played for Belgian no-marks OH Leuven. This is broadly what DDF had in mind when he was signing the likes of Dean Keenan and saying "the boys" deserved a chance to prove themselves at a higher level, but unfortunately instead of signing a bunch of hard-working professionals who were drilled to punch significantly above their weight, he instead lumbered the club with a job lot of gurning tossers who played naked table tennis when they weren't getting drunk and injuring themselves. Sad!

If DDF won't push the boat out and invest in a time machine then that's sadly all too indicative of our lack of ambition.

As McIntyre says his first touch for his goal was absolutely ****ing ridiculous and his reaction to the rebound was also great. If he's happy being a big () fish in a small pond, fair play to him, but with talent like that he could have gone places (places that aren't KFC)

The Mooch as assistant manager.

“I mean, I was told when I got the job that we wouldn’t sell any more than 500 replica strips in a year. Well, in the season just gone we sold 624 home strips to under six-year-old supporters alone." Who told him that, I wonder? Answers on a postcard.

Irons was far from perfect but a sniveling wee dick like McLaughlin should remember the massive fucking glass house of failure he's built in his "career" before he throws stones.

He doesn't lean back even one tenth if one degree. Just a titanium fucking God.

Had that on in the car yesterday, love it.

Not sure if this was posted yet but Kevin Kelbie is now at East Stirlingshire in the Lowland League, where they are down 1-0 at Dalbeattie. The Shire are notable for having long-serving striker Andy Rodgers up front, and Andy Rodgers is notable for looking like Keith Lemon.

Declan McDaid scores for "Ayr" away at Albion Rovers after two minutes.

I believe they managed the worst record of any British side in UEFA competition. The players who got us to Europe are much more significant. Then again there'd be massive overlap.

Andy McLaren may have played in Europe, but if you think of the Barrie McKay example, to play international football* and score in the English Championship is a much better achievement than playing in a couple of UEFA club qualifiers. *for a country that actually plays football, Fred need not apply here

I think there was method in my madness. Martin Naylor played against Liverpool, and that was who Jon Newby started his "career" with.

Fuck, I stand corrected. Particularly embarrassing since I actually watched Ed de Ball julienne a carrot while blindfolded with a Dao (a Chinese sword).

Clubs definitely now recruit from further afield, but a lot of that is to do with more people moving around in general (not just in football), better scouting (and video etc), more freedom of movement cross-border and the like. I did read in Tor! that in Germany until relatively late in the day it was considered a huge betrayal to leave your hometown team, and they were also very late to go professional, so maybe there is a correlation here. You're right about the modern player, it's player power now in most cases, which is a double-edged sword.* It means they're harder to exploit but it also makes it more difficult for employers. *all fucking swords are double-edged, I hate this expression and I don't know why I use it.

Even pre-Bosman this was the case, only the reverse (club to player) was even worse, and clubs would just hold onto players' registration out of spite for a variety of reasons. That's what the phrase "on the football scrapheap" originally meant. Bosman was ultimately an excellent thing for football but that doesn't change the fact that contracts that are active should be respected.