La_Leyenda

Forfar are saying Stenhousemuir have forfeited the tie. Doesn't look good when two ties are off and you've got Dundee United banned due to forfeiting a tie last year. I'm attempting a double header. Going to Spartans-Aberdeen then racing across the city for Hearts-Raith Rovers.

To be honest, I've no idea why I even put that question in. I suppose I thought at the time it was a nice introduction to the survey. Easing them in to the serious stuff. I shouldn't be allowed to launch surveys unsupervised.

A new survey currently live ahead of the launch of a full-time women's football website. https://s.surveyplanet.com/f5fmro6XOT

Latest episode of the Anyone's Game podcast dissecting the defeat to England. anyonesgame.podbean.com

There is, but the fanzone is shut today. Open tomorrow. Dunno where it is.

There's a Scotland woman's podcast that will be going on through the World Cup. First episode (of the World Cup, there are eight previous episodes) on Sunday night after the Scotland game. https://anyonesgame.podbean.com/

Just saw this. Not entirely sure what pocket cast is to be honest - only just googled it there after reading your post. Based on my 60 seconds of reading about it, I think you just add the RSS feed yourself. I'm likely wrong. The podcast is on ITunes & Spotify if that is of any help. And episode three came out this week. https://anyonesgame.podbean.com/

New women's football podcast focusing on the SWPL and Scotland now up and running. https://anyonesgame.podbean.com/

Aye it's an Aberdeen fan thing at the moment. If you back Kingsford or have the audacity to think McInnes has a decent record you're labelled a happy clapper. Apparently only the miserable c***s actually know their fitba. There was people losing their shit because Cammy Smith got some light applause while being substituted last week. As for Kingsford, in an ideal world it gets the thumbs up, we build a training ground, then before the stadium itself is actually built there we end up changing plans and building in the city. That would also mean we could then expand the training ground in the future on the spare land we'd have - an indoor facility for example. However, if the stadium does get built there, as someone who grew up in Westhill I don't think it'll be the disaster some think. If I can have a season ticket for Pittodrie while living in Westhill I'm sure those in the city can make it to Westhill without too much trouble. Pittodrie is a shite stadium (forget the history, it's shit) and we all go, and we'll all go to Kingsford. We'll moan about lack of bars and parking miles away but we'll enjoy moaning about it because we're Aberdonian and that's what we do best. The thing is, Loirston (which I thought was a fine location and didn't really understand the opposition to it), Kings Links and a redeveloped Pittodrie are only possible with extra funds, and it'd need to be the council chipping in. They have over £820m coming in as part of the city region deal - they could give Aberdeen just £10m, end the driving range's lease at Kings Links, and say "right, there you go, get on with it" in exchange for helping support the city centre businesses that benefit from the stadium there. Unfortunately there's as much chance of that happening as me becoming the fifth member of Little Mix.

So.... If Man U finish 6th (missing out on Europe) but win the Europa League, the Scottish Cup winners go into QR1? But if Man U finish 5th and win the Europa League, the Scottish Cup winners go into QR2. Is that correct or does something else need to happen?

So next season all three of our Europa League entrants enter in qualifying round one? The Scottish Cup final is 27 May, Scotland v England is June 10, and the qualifiers begin June 29.

Well I for one am shocked that Hearts' biggest fanboy is of the impression Tynecastle is better than the new Aberdeen stadium. Definitely never saw that one coming. Very good summary and everything I've heard about the new stadium has been very positive. However, I don't understand the height being lowered to appease the objectors. That would mean we would be stuck with it, never being able to increase the capacity or height of the stadium, either for our own use or if Scotland were to host something. The height of the stands is the one real negative of it. The supporters bar is being built for the use of home supporters, not the 500 or so Hearts support that visit.

I think Rosenborg will win that one. Austria Vienna aren't that great, needed penalties to get through the last round. Rapid Vienna and Salzburg are the top teams in the Austrian league. For our chances of actually getting to 15th one day, we probably want Rosenborg to win that tie anyway.

If Celtic get to the Champions League group stage, then it's a 4 point bonus. There is no bonus for making the Europa League group stage.

Coefficient points collected by Scottish clubs over the last ten years (including this season):- Celtic: 82.5 (20 of these are bonus points) Rangers: 43 (14 bonus points) Aberdeen: 15.5 Hearts: 6 Motherwell: 6 St Johnstone: 5.5 Dundee Utd: 2 Hibernian: 1 Falkirk: 1 Inverness CT: 0.5 Dunfermline: 0.5

Coefficient points collected by Scottish clubs over the last five years (including this season):- Celtic: 49.5 (13 of these are bonus points) Aberdeen: 9.5 St Johnstone: 5.5 Hearts: 3 Hibernian: 1 Motherwell: 0.5 Dundee Utd: 0.5 Inveeness CT: 0.5

The last three years, the country occupying 15th place has had somewhere between 25 and 30 points - which is their scores from 5 years added together. Scotland in comparison at the end of last season had 17.300. So, we need to average at least 5 points every year, to get us to around the 25 mark and be in with a chance of being top 15. To get 5 points this year, we could do it this way:- Celtic win 5/6 games in qualifiers, earn 4 bonus points for making the group stage of the CL, and perhaps win 2 and draw 1 in the group. That's 14 coefficient points. Aberdeen and Hearts to both get to the play-off round, maybe winning at least 4 games each to get there, but maybe go out to a Hertha Berlin or a West Ham. That's 8 points. Hibs win at home but lose away to Brondby and go out. 1 point. So, fairly realistic, we're not asking anyone to do something impossible. That would give us 23 points, which is then divided by 4 (the number of teams we have in Europe) to give us our 2016/17 score of 5.75. If Scotland scored 5.75 for the next five years in a row, we would have a score of 28.75 and would more than likely be in at least 15th. When you think about it, it really isn't that big an ask. But last season our score was only 3. To actually get to 15th by the end of this season, we would probably need to do what we did in 2007/08 when we scored 10.250. Celtic got to last 16 of CL. Rangers got to UEFA Cup final. Aberdeen got to UEFA last 32. Dunfermline drew and lost in QR2.

The coefficients started in 1979, but Bert Kassies has worked out what the coefficients would have been before that by using the same system. Therefore Scotland's coefficient history should be:- 1960: 5th 1961: 6th 1962: 5th 1963: 3rd 1964: 3rd 1965: 6th 1966: 6th 1967: 5th 1968: 5th 1969: 3rd 1970: 3rd 1971: 4th 1972: 5th 1973: 6th 1974: 6th 1975: 9th 1976: 11th 1977: 16th 1978: 15th ------coefficients officially introduced------ 1979: 17th 1980: 13th 1981: 14th 1982: 14th 1983: 6th 1984: 4th 1985: 6th 1986: 7th 1987: 5th 1988: 7th 1989: 9th 1990: 10th 1991: 9th 1992: 12th 1993: 12th 1994: 13th 1995: 15th 1996: 17th 1997: 19th 1998: 26th 1999: 21st 2000: 15th 2001: 16th 2002: 12th 2003: 9th 2004: 11th 2005: 10th 2006: 11th 2007: 10th 2008: 10th 2009: 13th 2010: 16th 2011: 15th 2012: 18th 2013: 24th 2014: 23rd 2015: 23rd 2016: 25th 2017: Currently 23rd So unofficially we had a few third places pre-1979, but officially our highest was at the end of the 1983/84 season. Our lowest is 26th at the end of the 1997/98 season.

Like I've been saying, realistically it's better looking at the table the year after. Giving ourselves two years to get the necessary points, coupled with a lot of the nations in our way dropping points, you should see - even as early as this season - a rise up the table. At the moment it is:- 13 Holland 18.549 14 Greece 17.700 15 Croatia 16.500 16 Austria 16.350 17 Romania 14.250 18 Poland 13.750 19 Belarus 13.625 20 Denmark 13.200 21 Sweden 12.850 22 Norway 12.550 23 Kazakhstan 11.875 24 Azerbaijan 11.625 25 Bulgaria 11.500 26 Scotland 11.000 27 Liechtenstein 10.500 27 Israel 10.500 27 Serbia 10.500 The aim is 15th, that gives us two champions league spots and we'd still have 3 Europa League places. At the moment sitting 26th, with the three behind us right up our arse, it doesn't look good. However, there's two years to get points, and there isn't a huge gulf between us and 15th. Also, Bulgaria who are directly above us and Kazakhstan in 24th have both already lost two teams each.

Admira Wacker won the second leg 3-2, so made it through. Lokomotiva won 4-1, and 7-2 on aggregate. Norway and Poland, who are both ahead of us in the coefficients, both had a club each knocked out in QR1, a huge blow for them. Stabaek lost at home to a Welsh team Connah's Quay, and Cracovia got knocked out by Shkendija, who Aberdeen knocked out last season. -Like I said in a previous post, realistically we're not going to get to the top 15 in one season. Two good seasons is still very hard but maybe doable. So keep an eye on Greece, Holland, Romania, Croatia and Austria as that's who are in and around 15th spot if looking at the coefficient table two years ahead. The fixtures next week in QR2 are:- Champions League Red Bull Salzburg v Liepaja Vardar v Dynamo Zagreb Europa League Austria Vienna v Kukesi Admira Wacker v Kapaz RoPS v Lokomotiva CSMS Lasi v Hajduk Split Pas Giannina v Odd So three Austrian teams, three Croatians, one Romanian, one Greek, no Dutch.

The one good thing about having teams in QR1 is the chance to pick up some early coefficient points before some of our rivals. The bad thing is teams are at risk of being knocked out. We picked up 3 out of 4 points, so it's not too bad, we do still have a small head start on the nations we're chasing. And we've made it to QR2 with all our clubs still intact, so althiugh 4/4 and a resounding win for Aberdeen would have been perfect, we're okay. I suspect Birkikara and Ventspils will be a step up in quality, but hopefully Hearts and Aberdeen will improve as they begin to get into their stride. Hibs are up against it but it's not Real Madrid they're playing. I'd say the tie is only 60/40 in Brondby's favour. Celtic surely will win home and away comfortably? So, 2/2 for Celtic. At *least* 1.5 for both Hearts and Aberdeen (home win, away draw) and 1 point for Hibs (home win, away defeat), that's 6 out of 8 coefficient points and maybe even all 4 into the next round. I'd take that.

Only Austria and Croatia had teams playing in this round from that group above. Austria: Admira Wacker 1-1 Spartak Myjava Could be a tricky second leg for them in Slovakia. Good chance they might go out. Croatia: UE Santa Coloma 1-3 Lokomotiva They should probably be alright.

If we want 15th spot, we need two very good seasons (or one exceptional season that would involve at least two in the knockout stages). Realistically, three decent seasons and we may make it. Celtic making the CL group stage and the other three making it to at least QR3 could bring in 27/28 points, which would be considered a decent season, and is the sort of average you need to produce each year to get to 15th, which means five teams qualifying, two of which are in the CL qualifiers. Any of the EL three making the group stages would be a very good season. We're not talking impossible targets really. Just not getting knocked out by the Alashkert's or Stjarnan's of the world would give us a fighting chance. It also depends of course on how other countries are performing. The ones ranked (in next season's table) from 13th to 17th are the ones to keep an eye on. Sweden in 18th aren't far behind but are about to drop down the table the following season unless they have a decent season this year. So keep an eye on Greece, Holland, Romania, Croatia and Austria. Helpfully, Romanian side CSMS Lasi have been drawn against Croatians Hajduk Split in the EL QR2, so one of them is about to lose a team early. The Dutch have been struggling for a few years, but have the advantage of having PSV already in the CL group stage. The Romanians have been doing well and occupy 15th, but had a poor season last year, actually picking up less points than Scotland.

Aberdeen's home games are usually on RedTV. Has a one minute delay behind the radio and usually no replays but does the job.

In the 2017 coefficient ranking, Denmark are ranked one place above Scotland, so if Hibs could knock out Brondby that would be a big boost. Brondby not the side they were when Ebbe Skovdahl was manager. Last season they were lucky to get through their QR2 and QR3 ties, winning 1-0 on aggregate v Beroe Stara Zagora then needing away goals to beat Omonia, before PAOK beat them comfortably in the play-off round. Hibs can definitely beat them. Best chance for years for Scotland to have four teams in Europe in August.