Gordopolis

Perfect! So long as he sees game time there then that's him almost certainly on the plane to Euro 2024. It'd be brilliant if he ended up starting in the champions league later stages.

Yeah, injury, but he walked off so hopefully not too severe.

Au contraire, Rodders

Probably partly to get a game in the warm weather conditions, partly to (surely) get a convincing win and chalk a few goals and have our strikers feeling sharp and confident. Clarke did have us play Luxembourg before Euro 2020. I know they're a level or two above Gibraltar (93rd vs 201st in the rankings), but still far from a 'testing' opponent (though we made heavy weather of it and - ironically - IIRC it actually highlighted, maybe even compounded, a lack of sharpness from our forwards).

Ah-haw-haw. If he scored a dozen goals between now and May, then sure. But he won't, it's as simple as that. There is a useful player in there and he has that bit of niggle in him that can be useful to unsettle opponents, but his career and form have been patchy as feck for years now.

Rumoured that Craig Gordon will start for Hearts Vs Spartans in the Scottish Cup this lunchtime. Quite an important moment for him and for the GK situation with the national team. he has a steady 90 mins and begins to rebuild his strength & match sharpness

Hit the pies and fill it out - get your money's worth!

FTFY HTH

A "Sliding Doors" moment

BBC: Tom Cairney, the 32-year-old midfielder who has signed a new contract with Premier League club Fulham, has not given up hope a recall to the Scotland squad ahead of the Euro 2024 finals. (TalkSport) It always felt as if there was a lack of interest from TC's side as well (as him being semi-fringe status), so it's interesting to hear that he's making noises about wanting a call-up. Could just be because there'a the carrot of a finals appearance, of course.

That's Salah off to the African Cup of Nations for perhaps 7 of Liverpool's next games. Shite luck that Oakley Doakley is injured as this could have been his opportunity to get a run and make a claim for a call-up.

Definitely worth trying rather than shying away from in the broader sense. Even if the footballing side of things doesn't work out, living in a different culture, picking up a new language etc are things that enrich your life. There are the players who become homesick too tho and come home pretty quickly. Even then, it's an important life lesson learned.

I didn't take it as canon. If I had I wouldn't have identified it as hyperbole. Anyway, it's Xmas, so let's not start a tedious vocab war. You take my general point that moving abroad can be good for a player, but is no guarantee?

A bit hyperbolic surely? I think going abroad is certainly more adventurous and will expose you to different styles of football, but it's hardly a rule that it makes you a better player. Not every move works out like Paul Lambert's or Lewis Ferguson's.

Doak is out till probably April too. Tbf tho, it's hardly like Stewart was unquestionably our lewandowski in waiting. He looks a decent prospect but that's all. Conway and Nisbet are performing reasonably well at the same level as Stewart's at, and perhaps the former could provide the bit of freshening up our fwd line might benefit from.

Main thing Conway has on his side is age, in that he's relatively fresh out of the box at 21. That doesn't really mean anything of great substance though other than we can hope he's got a ceiling higher than the other current contenders have. Hope, of course, is not a strategy, but when has that ever stopped us? Anyway, here's hoping for a goal glut from Conway or any of the other guys

Yeah nothing to enquire about unfortunately - I'm like Oliver Burke without the pace

I am recovering from it after suffering the same from running. Hurts like f**k and recovery is taking decking ages... but then I'm ancient compared to Doak. I think in a younger person, it heals much faster and can return to original levels without any loss of pace or agility (but that's only based on my layman knowledge of the condition)

Lateral meniscus tear, so probs looking at 12 weeks out plus recovery. Don't think we'll see much of him before April unfortunately.

Pretty clear that @Shannon meant we might look to use him during the next 2-3 years - like a final fling during the next campaign before he hits his mid 30s - not that we should wait that long before using him. Either way I don't think we should be bothering with him unless he continues his recent good form to the extent where he is outshining the currently and consistently excellent McGinn, Gilmour, McTominay etc (a very big ask).

McGinn scores Vs Arsenal

Goal for Conway at Bristol this afternoon

The importance of building up a core of highly-capped players was brought up on here many times during the fallow years, but more often than not poo-pooed (not by you) with replies like "oh, because having more caps makes you a better international player, does it?". It evidently does benefit you as a player to be exposed to international level football, but more importantly it benefits the cohesion of the squad as a whole. Granted, this generation of players lend themselves much more readily to consistent selection (has there ever been a more settled Scotland squad?) than the grim decades, but back then, we were recklessly scattergun with our selection imo (and I don't just mean the vogts period by that). In summary, times are good just now, and I hope that when an inevitable dip happens further down the line, we keep in mind the benefits of consistency of selection (as a rule of thumb rather than a hard policy).

Like England's Gerrard/Lampard conundrum - too many arses for one side.