Skyline Drifter

I looked at it close up in the JD Sports in Newcastle Airport on the way to Netherlands. It isn't any better in person, really don't like it. I'm beyond the age for buying football kits for myself anyway so makes no odds to their customer base but it's horrible and the fact every one is patterned differently close up is bonkers. My son doesn't like it much either and he's 100% the market they are aiming at.

Have to hold my hands up to getting that entirely wrong tonight. The entire episode I was sure he was picking Phil. He made it clear he didnt particularly like or want another gym. He (rightly) doubted that, as good as Rachel may be, its not really scalable if she's not hands on. When Phil confirmed he's already turning over £2.7m for me it was as easy a decision as there's ever been. But there was a 'volte face' in the closing moments. For all Phil clearly, by an absolute mile, had the better business with more potential, Sugar just didnt believe in him personally. He hung himself with the 'business isnt necessarily about profit' line. Sugar was clearly horrified at that. That and nailing his colours to the 'Pies by Post' concept that is clearly limited. It was obvious when he called them back in Phil had realised his own stupidity and tried to row back from it, talking about opening more shops. But he was too late. Fundamentally Sugar clearly looked at Rachel and saw a determined business partner with a focus and clearly given her lack of staff turnover capable of inspiring loyalty. And he went with his gut on the person rather than the much better business. Ultimately he's probably got that right. Nine lives Phil finally shot himself in the foot once too often.

According to an article I read from monday he's started running. He's not in full training yet and they are hoping he might get on the pitch for the 18s before end of season.

I suspect that will be partly because in the early days they got a flood of applications from people with genuine business ideas who needed help and it's now graduated into a game show with clueless twats whose first aim is to be accepted and then they worry about it. I have a friend who interviewed for the show and got accepted through to the 2nd round of interviews, though he never went. Decided he preferred his current job for now. He 100% had no business plan though and not one person at the production company gave a toss or asked him about it. If you seek out candidates and then ask them to come up with a business you'll get what we have been getting. Candidates who genuinely have a business plan are far more likely to go on Dragon's Den. Less of a waste of their time and more of a genuine investment. The Apprentice is a game show for publicity seekers. It was far better when it was a job interview but got binned after it became clear it didn't actually work in practice. I assume there was a lot of friction with people who had genuinely worked their way up in business seeing some gameshow winner parachute in at their level and being expected to work with them. Tim Campell who won the first series seemed to do well, probably at least partly due to the novelty. He's obviously still close to Sugar and is back on the show now but even he only worked directly for him for 2 years before leaving. I think all the others left within 2 years too and after the Stella English debacle in season 6 he said he wasn't employing anyone directly again. Series 7 saw the new format start and was won by a genuine innovator in Tom Pellereau, albeit they very quickly binned his new idea and went back to his previously successful nail file product. Ricky Martin (Series 8 ) and Mark Wright (Series 10) were both very successful and have been held up by the show as a standard of what can be achieved. In between was Leah Totten and her Beauty Clinic which I believe did well also. Since then it's all been a bit less memorable. I recall Joseph Valente (Series 11) with his gas business where SUgar left the business after 2 years and it subsequently went bust. Not clear whether Sugar got his money back on leaving or not. If I'm being honest I had to look up the other winners since then. Apparently they were: Series 12 - Alana Spencer - Ridiculously Rich Bakery Series 13 - Shared - James White - Right Time Recruitment and Sarah Lynn - Sweets in the City Series 14 - Sian Gabbidon - Swimwear Series 15 - Carina Lepore - Bakery Series 16 - Harpreet Kaur - Oh So Yum Desserts Series 17 - Marnie Swindells - Boxing Gyms I recall Alana and Marnie from just last year. I'm not sure I even watched some of the ones in between. Companies House suggests that By Alana Limited which appears to be what the company Spencer and Sugar started was actually called is doing well and making decent money. Albeit Sugar resigned in 2019 and the company bought back his shares. Certainly doesn't appear to have failed. Right Time Recruitment is still trading too albeit it's not exactly flush with cash and its current accounts are somewhat overdue. Sugar exited in 2020 when the company bought back his shares again. Sweets in the City appears to still be trading relatively successfully with Sugar having made his exit in 2022 with his shares repurchased. Not sure it's making much actual profit but there's over £100k of capital still in it. Sian Marie Fashion Limited certainly didn't work. Sugar exited in 2022 and it was in liquidation and insolvent by early 2023. Dough Artison Bakehouse Limited (Carina Lepore) is still trading, with a remarkably similar website to Ridiculously Rich Bakery incidentally! Sugar departed last year and appears to have gotten his money back looking at the way the asset base collapsed in the year after. Company looks fairly worthless based on its 2023 accounts but that might just be that it cleaned itself out buying him out and it will recover. Hard to say at this point. Oh So Yum Limited appears to be trading successfully. Sugar exited in 2023, after the last set of accounts was filed. Looks like he probably got his money back and left it solvent and trading but with little capital at that point. Bronx Boxing Limited (Marnie) is still trading and he's still a 50% owner it would appear. Very early though. Company only started trading in June 2023. Accounts were published for the period to end of June 2023 showing his investment coming in but nothing since obviously so no clarity on how it's doing So basically, I'm not sure it's fair to say the last 8 have failed. Impra Gas (Joseph Valente) and Sian Marie (Sian Gabbidon) definitely failed. Far too early to debate Bronx Boxing. The other five are still trading albeit Sugar's exited from all of them. Alana Spencer's Ridiculously Rich Bakery seems to be doing fine. The others are all still validly in operation but nobody's got rich from them.

Wouldn't have described him as a sitting midfielder. I think he's a wee bit more attacking than that, though probably not as much as Ferguson. I mean he's obviously a downgrade on players already in the squad. If he wasn't then he'd be in the squad and they wouldn't. But if we're looking for a direct midfield replacement for Ferguson he's worth at least throwing a name into a conversation. He's a more direct replacement in terms of playing centrally than Fraser is.

Four players? Do you mean specifically four 'midfielders'? McTominay, McGinn, Christie and Armstrong? I mean obviously there's Adams, Dykes and Shankland too. Again, I don't disagree. I don't think we particularly need six centre backs or a 3rd left back. If Hanley makes it then Hanley, Hendrie, Tierney backed up by Porteous, McKenna and one of Cooper / Souttar is enough with Tierney able to move left if Robertson has an issue and indeed Hickey able to switch sides assuming he makes it also. I wouldn't be taking both Souttar and Cooper, nor Taylor. I'd prefer a Fraser/Gauld/Cairney. I just wouldn't be astonished if Clarke remains loyal as far as possible to his established squad (which is the squad picked for the March get together add McGregor, Hickey, Jack and potentially Jacob Brown, and obviously including Hanley and McKenna who pulled out of it). If squad size remains 23 I'm not particularly expecting to see a left field pick outwith that. If squad goes to 26, and especially if Hanley and maybe Hickey or Patterson don't make it then there are more opportunities there for change.

https://www.thisisanfield.com/2024/04/ben-doak-provides-latest-positive-injury-update-after-4-month-absence/ Running last week for the first time but he's nowhere near playing first team football. They're suggesting he might get an outing with the 18's in May. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that there's no chance an 18 year old with limited senior football experience is getting called up for the Euros when he hasn't played at all in six months. Hickey's in the same boat of course but he's levels above Doak in terms of seniority and importance to the squad so will be given every chance inevitably.

Yeah, I get all that and don't particularly disagree with any of it. Fraser's done well for us in the past, has done ok for Southampton and is getting as much game time as a few of our squad and he undeniably offers something. His candidacy for Germany probably depends on how much his relationship with Clarke actually has been repaired but as @2426255 has pointed out previously he's been in squads since that initial spat. I just think the whole "can't be anyone but Fraser" clamour is being a fed a lot by a narrative that sees him get better the less we see of him. Fact remains in an admittedly good Southampton side he's starting about half the games and less often than Stuart Armstrong and Che Adams in the same side. He's not a defender and whilst his ability to cover right wing back in an emergency is another string to his bow, it's not really a reason to take him. If Hickey and Patterson don't make it they'll be replaced by Ralston and probably McCrorie but maybe Johnston (both of whom can also cover midfield incidentally). As a direct replacement for Ferguson he's a good candidate (as are Cairney and Gauld but the former hasn't been seen for far longer than Fraser and the latter appears completely off the Clarke radar). However, if we presume for the moment that squads stick at 23 and that everybody else other than Ferguson makes it, then I can see Clarke just using that extra space to take one of Taylor, Souttar (assuming Cooper makes it directly, other way round if not) or Jack. Or even a returning Jacob Brown. He has guys like Kenny McLean that he trusts to play midfield if he needs bodies, and potentially Jack. I don't think it's a given that Ferguson gets replaced by another attacking midfielder in a 23 man squad. Of course if squads go to 26, or the likes of Hanley doesn't make it, then the goalposts move.

He's certainly hitting form at the right time for now. Combined with Dykes not being in great form and lingering doubts about Shankland's pace at international level as much as he did ok in Amsterdam, it points to Adams being in pole position. He didn't start either of the recent friendlies though. Maybe that means nothing and Clarke just wanted more of a look at the other two, or maybe it does. I still think we might play Dykes against Germany when we presumably expect to be under the cosh a bit and might benefit from his greater physicality but a lot of water still to flow under bridges between now and June.

I'm not saying we shouldn't potentially call up Ryan Fraser, Craig's comments make a lot of sense, but there's a lot of this smacks of the more he doesn't play the better he apparently gets. I've just sat watching him not get off the bench for Southamption tonight. He's in and out of their side and it's two years since he contributed anything internationally. He should be part of a conversation if the squads move to 26 but I don't think he is if they stay at 23.

Thanks. Downloaded it there to have a look at comparable numbers. I can't recall who I was debating it with back then and can't be bothered searching for it but I recall about the time of the Euros ticket sale saying that I expected a far higher number of fans to have 12 points within the next 12 months than had at the time. There's not much movement at the highest level. Whilst there's some moving about within it, the cumulative total at 24 points or more is now 963 people compared to 962 in November! 2683 have 17 points or more now, compared to 2512 in November. 4946 have 14 points or more now, compared to 4599 in November. The first big jump is at 12 points where there are now 10489 members total, compared to 7869 before. 18228 on 11 or more compared to 14971 before (the published table has this number wrong but that's the correct add up number) However, 20750 on 10 or more compared to 20548 before. Thereafter the numbers haven't really moved much at all. So basically, by far the biggest movement in the table is in that 10 - 12 band. An extra 2,500 have made it to 12 points and an extra 3,300 to 11 points but only 200 more made it to 10 points. Higher and lower levels of points have had some relatively minor movement but there's definitely a group of people became "every gamers" about the time we were heading to the WC playoff with Ukraine and they've marched their way up to 11/12 points now.

05/06/12 - Dougie Samuel (Spartans) 04/12/16 - Stewart Petrie (Montrose) 02/06/17 - Peter Murphy (Annan Athletic) 26/11/20 - David Martindale (Livingston) (Caretaker initially, officially confirmed 21/12/20) 29/05/21 - Stevie Farrell (Dumbarton) 20/12/21 - Darren Young (Stirling Albion) 21/12/21 - Dougie Imrie (Morton) 04/01/22 - Derek McInnes (Kilmarnock) 22/02/22 - Stephen Robinson (St Mirren) 04/05/22 - John McGlynn (Falkirk) 24/05/22 - Ian Murray (Raith Rovers) 24/05/22 - James McPake (Dunfermline Athletic) 26/05/22 - Rhys McCabe (Airdrieonians) 23/06/22 - John Rankin (Hamilton Academical) (caretaker initially, confirmed 28/06/22) 10/11/22 - Ray McKinnon (Forfar Athletic) 03/01/23 - Gary Naysmith (Stenhousemuir) 05/01/23 - Paul Hartley (Cove Rangers) 08/01/23 - Marvin Bartley (Queen of the South) 11/02/23 - Stuart Kettlewell (Motherwell) (Caretaker initially, confirmed 22/02/23) 12/02/23 - Kris Doolan (Partick Thistle) (caretaker initially, confirmed 03/03/23) 01/03/23 - Jim Goodwin (Dundee United) 21/03/23 - Ryan Strachan & Jordon Brown (Peterhead) (Caretakers initially, confirmed 25/04/23) *09/04/23 - Steven Naismith (Heart of Midlothian) - See note 17/04/23 - Scott Agnew (Stranraer) 07/05/23 - Michael Tidser (Kelty Hearts) 29/05/23 - Tony Docherty (Dundee) 19/06/23 - Brendan Rodgers (Celtic) 11/09/23 - Nick Montgomery (Hibernian) 26/09/23 - Duncan Ferguson (Inverness Caledonian Thistle) 09/10/23 - Michael McIndoe (Edinburgh City) 15/10/23 - Philippe Clement (Rangers) 05/11/23 - Craig Levein (St Johnstone) 15/11/23 - Ian McCall (Clyde) 15/11/23 - Andy Graham (Alloa Athletic) 04/12/23 - Jim McIntyre (Arbroath) 05/12/23 - Allan Hale (Elgin City) 09/01/24 - Callum Davidson (Queen's Park) 23/01/24 - Scott Brown (Ayr United) 06/02/24 - Dick Campbell (East Fife) 25/03/24 - Calum Elliott (Bonnyrigg Rose) 01/06/24 - Jimmy Thelin (Aberdeen) * Future appointment announced 16/04/24. Peter Leven remains in charge until then Vacant - Ross County - Derek Adams resigned 07/02/24, Don Cowie in Interim Charge *Note Steven Naismith was appointed caretaker manager of Hearts on 9th April 2023. After a successfully spell he was given the job permanently on 7th June 2023. However, as he does not have a Pro Licence and Hearts qualified for Europe they were required to 'officially' name assistant Frankie McAvoy as manager on the same date. Naismith instead took on the title 'Technical Director'. Following Hearts elimination from European competition, Naismith was officially re-confirmed as Manager on 6th September 2023 with McAvoy reverting to assistant. As nobody surely seriously believes McAvoy was ever actually in charge, I've listed Naismith as continuous from 9th April and ignored McAvoy's official 3 month spell as manager. If the technical most recent reappointment date of 6th September is instead used for Naismith then he drops four places further down the list, in between Brendan Rodgers and Nick Montgomery. Updated for future appointment of Thelin at Aberdeen. I've put him on the full list on a future date (by no means certain to be the correct date). If a different date becomes clear nearer the time will amend. In the meantime, if other clubs change managers between now and then they'll go in to the list ahead of him. He's not managing them yet, announced or not.

Aberdeen again making life awkward (they did this when Craig Brown retired) by announcing today the future appointment, on a day not exactly specified, of Jimmy Thelin as their manager. It's been left as the vague "this summer" and "from June". Until Aberdeen confirm anything different I'll assume this means 1st June.

I'm probably missing something obvious but why has this weekend ruled that out? Or do you just mean in practical terms rather than officially? Dunfermline are 9 points behind Partick Thistle and Airdrie with three games to go and a 13 goal difference to Thistle, 11 to Airdrie. Three Thistle or Airdrie losses, three Dunfermline wins and it comes down to goal difference. 11 or 13 would be difficult to pull back across six result but not impossible. Appreciate it's not happening but it still theoretically could presumably?

Fair enough. He probably is ahead of Johnston then. He wasn't responsible for the goals but I seem to recall it was a performance he got a lot of criticism for and there was a lot of surprise with Clarke kept faith with him for England.

Appreciate he's been playing right back for Bristol City recently but never been called up by Scotland in that role has he? I think his previous Scotland calls were as a midfielder. Also not a bad shout but only recently come into the u21 squad. I think both of these will be behind Ralston (obviously) and Max Johnston. Fair chance they are ahead of O'Donnell and Calvin Ramsay though.

Just phased out but he'd surely be behind Max Johnston at this stage anyway if we needed to call up another right back as well as Ralston. Johnston was in the squad for the French friendly last year. Edit - Calvin Ramsay has been in a squad more recently than O'Donnell too. Is he injured again or just miles out of favour at Bolton? He's barely kicked a ball this season anyway.

I can't see how that makes it easier though? Surely it makes it far more difficult, though admittedly I don't know how their IT systems work. Everybody's account has had the points for the last two games added (well except for @Quentin Taranbino anyway). Surely when they send out codes or whatever it is they do for the ko tickets if it proves relevant then the system will simply send to whatever level of points they are allocating? If I'm on 11 now (and was on 8 in November) it's surely much more difficult to tell the computer to base the mailshot on a previous balance of points than the current one? I'd have thought they just tell the system "mail everyone on 20 points or more" (or whatever points level may be relevant). Your comment might be a valid reason for points not having been updated yet across the board but they have been. A more interesting question might be whether points for Gibraltar and Finland are added before we reach that stage. It's taken them 3 weeks to add the Dutch and Irish ones and that's without a huge tournament being the focus of all attention for SFA staff. I'd guess they may struggle to do so. It may well be that the current points including the Dutch and Irish ones is what the whole Euros will be based on if a further ticket sale is needed.

That's not good. Tbh I wasn't really paying much attention to the tv when he picked it up. Game was going through the motions by then. However, he limped off unassisted and walked back to the dug out so it didn't appear to have completely gone. Unless it's very serious most hamstring issues are 4 - 6 weeks which, even if it ends his season, might just about get him back for the Euros. That said, Hickey's been out for 6 months with his! Seems more likely than ever though that with both our right backs having hamstring issues, even if they make it Clarke's going to have to take Ralston for cover so there's your 23rd man (unless squads are increased to 26). Although Ferguson's absence creates another squad vacancy anyway.

Phillips wasn't great. He was probably roughly of a level of the likes of Nisbet, Brown or even Ross Stewart though. It's not like players of that standard aren't getting occasional caps. It's probably more that we play a system that doesn't really call for wingers. Can Armstrong play wing back? I've not seen enough of him to know. If he can't then his chances of getting a look in for Scotland are limited. I'm not sure Philips, who played more as a forward for Scotland, is a great comparison though. Bannon is a better one though he was / is more central than Armstrong.

Er what? Goodness me, you're getting your knickers in a twist here. I'm not remotely insecure. I'm perfectly well aware what's meant by the number ten position (as I pointedly said. Twice). I took issue with the suggestikn that playmakers have always worn 10 since time immortal. It's nonsense. They haven't.

I appreciate that. Very few teams play with two forwards now. But this nonsense @RandomGuy. is peddling about 10 'always being a playmaker' smacks of a 20 something with a Wyscout subscription and a fixation on foreign football. We all know what's meant when referring to 'the 10 role' but lets not pretend its always been the case since football was invented that 10 was a deeper lying playmaker. It hasn't. Certainly not in the UK. Gary Lineker wore 10 his whole career. Anyone want to pretend he wasnt a centre forward? In the 70's / 80's, 9 and 10 were forwards, 7 was generally the creative attacker.

Maybe in Brazil and elsewhere abroad. When I grew up 9 and 10 were your strikers though. 7 was always the creative player (see Dalglish, Kenneth or before him Keegan, Kevin) in the UK. Not that it matters. Everyone knows what's meant by playing the 'number 10 role' now.

He's been on before. He wasnt good then but dont recall him being this bad.

First one's a penalty all day. I assume this is some sort of trolling? More importantly though, who on earth gave Dele Alli a gig as a studio expert? He looks barely awake, his answers are monosyllabic and he's genuinely clueless. "I dont know who the [Chelsea] designated penalty taker is....". Why don't you know? I know. Every football supporter in tbe country knows? You're on there for your expertise. He also didnt know if Arsenal were home or away yesterday. He seems completely unaware of what's going on in the league which is pretty fundamental to his role.