tarapoa

My outrage is that normal plastic bags are handy - stuffing bags for life in the third drawer down will seem wrong.

This Tesco not selling any more 5p bags is irritating me more than the original rule meaning they cost 5p. I never remember the bag for life things and find these 5p bags handy for a couple of regular mundane activities and feel I'll need to switch to Morrison's instead now, until they jump on that bandwagon.

On McKenna - I go on the feedback from my Ayr mate, who said he was a disappointment there last season in a team that finished bottom of the second tier - said there was nothing to suggest he was a standout coming from the top flight. Think he preferred Michael Rose, who we'd released the previous summer.

Left-back will depend on whether Harvie genuinely has a chance of making the breakthrough, following McInnes stating he was 'delighted' with how he performed at Dumbarton last season. I notice Harvie has been in just about every squad so far this season, albeit never made it off the bench yet. I think McKenna and Storie will be moved on, maybe permanently, and would expect to see defensive cover signed - maybe a loanee from down south or a free agent. Meekings did have a spell where he was a tough nut to crack in a decent Inverness side, but hasn't he been badly injured since? Looking at some of the early highlights, maybe Taylor hasn't been properly replaced yet, as for all his faults, he tended to win his fair share of basic headers from set pieces and we already look susceptible to losing a few softer goals this time round unless we get more physical presence in there.

Ignore if you don't use Excel regularly. But if you do, why would you not 'freeze panes', as it takes around a nanosecond to do so? I get irritated sitting in a 'status meeting' or the likes and the presenter has not done this - thus leaving us guessing what all the blurb we're reading on the screen refers to.

Since we're bumping prior predictions - nice to know we'll get at least one match in August (hopefully not involving being "battered in Cyprus" though).

iTunes - would you like to download version 12.6.3c as there's so much more functionality than 12.6.3b and you're only going to give up the next half hour of your life installing it.....

Did a Euro road trip from Frankfurt to Montenegro in 2012 and Cavtat was our chilloot destination for a week. Nice little port with plenty restaurants by the marina and a boat ride to Dubrovnik across the bay. Only drawback was some lottery winner getting married had brought his whole clan of estuarine trash into the otherwise grand Hotel Croatia including ghetto blaster. They were particularly irritating the night Murray won the US Open with the worst thing being the bar shut at the end of the fourth set, so we missed the GIRUY after hearing the 'ginger jock had bottled it' Bay of Kotor in Montenegro is special as is the nearby islet of Sveti Stefan - albeit the big resort in MN, Budva, is a bit of a trash-hole of Serbian and Ukrainian opulence. Mostar well worth a visit too - but the fact I have already been there is why I'm not doing Siroki Brijeg this week. Drove through it on the way from Mostar to the town I enjoyed most in Croatia, which was Trogir - 25 miles or so north of Split. Was only there one night and it was a thunderstorm, but still thought it was a special place. Fascinating read was Death of Yugoslavia - just such a fked up part of the world.......and still an underlying powder keg.

The thing is they were saying this 10 years ago, 20 years ago - and comparing it with continental clubs where players come back and work on their technique in the afternoon etc Is it some kind of uncontrollable phenomenon that players have to get the afternoon off every day?

No, just the 200th fake twitter thing involving AFC this summer. Lasley on Sportsound yesterday was possibly a wee bit more of a giveaway that this remains a potential move that will still happen.

Related to the cash machine thing - supermarket self-service checkouts seem to have one question too many when you want to buy a carrier bag.

The Andy Murray fans' page can be hard work.

Was that Sunderland's first team you pumped? If so, not that friendlies mean much, but considering some of their fans' comments about wanting a manager from a 'pub league', maybe a wee troll on their forum is required.

You boys thought about this player that was really good for Inverness...............Miles Storey?

Signing Arnason would be a bit of a pleasant surprise. Knowing the mentality of McInnes and Docherty, some dude who played for a previous regime giving it all the "come and get me" was only going to get short shrift. If this is actually happening, bring it on I say - after all Kari was good enough to appear in a back four during the CL group stages and the QFs of Euro 2016 not so long ago - so he can likely still cut the mustard in what is a much better AFC side than the pile of mince he left behind. Moult - the value is in the eye of the beholder, and that is Dave Cormack with a $750M business sale swilling around his current account, then we've maybe upped our game in paying the odd transfer fee. I would like him in as I still have serious reservations about Rooney's contribution in certain types of matches, albeit a fit Stevie May would have been exactly what we needed.

The match that always springs to mind is the Tannadice new year fixture in McInnes' first full season. Sackie Sacknamara's United had been destroying teams 4 or 5 in the run up to this game. In the second minute Flood just wiped out Mackay-Steven in full flow with a cynical challenge, that probably only avoided red due to it being so early. GMS completely disappeared for the rest of the match, which ended in an away win. Never really been impressed, and he looked a total fish out of water at Parkheid whenever he got a game. Keep wondering if we're ever going to be linked with any decent defenders amongst all the gossip........other than Kari "come and get me", which instantly means that won't happen.

It's all a bit Ben Hardwick

"Thanks for the add" No need.....

From AFC's perspective we played three times in QR1 over the last three seasons.. 14/15 - Daugava Riga were the worst side I've ever seen - but I reckon the 180 minutes of competitive fitba helped us beat Groningen, and then we were competitive enough against Sociedad. Two seasons back, it was Shkendija of Macedonia at that stage. Not sure if we underestimated them (and I notice they've been ripping up these early rounds since), but we were very lucky to go through that one due to an away goal.......as they bossed they last half hour in the second leg at Pittodrie and should have taken at least one of their chances. Again, though we were much better in the next two rounds, beating Rijeka in their fortress (where Sevilla, Lyon and Feyenoord couldn't) and having a close tie with the rich Kazakhs, Kairat. Last year, we were dreadful ourselves in Luxembourg against Fola Esch, but did enough at Pittodrie in the first leg to squeeze through. It was the worst I'd seen us under McInnes over in the very stadium where Sevco lost, but then in the next round, we beat the seeded Ventspils comfortably - and really should have beaten Maribor, but for missed chances in both matches, including Rooney's first ever penalty miss and a scandalous referee. Conclusion - from the evidence I have seen in the past three seasons - it's the fact our very first competitive match is a European tie seems to be extremely dangerous for Scots clubs, and for that reason the Siroki Brijeg tie coming up worries me more than it would if it was in September like the good old days. Maybe it's the fact we need to play at pace and tempo to have any chance against technically better opponents - if the players are breathing out of their erses in the heat of the summer, they will be incohesive and error-prone - with the outcome that the whole thing is over before it starts. I'm a traditionalist and against a complete summer season - but some kind of hybrid compromise may be possible, with two shorter breaks, and matches timed so that the first European ties are on the back of at least four domestic matches.

Hmmmm

Barry Fergushun, in his column, has written that the 'expectations' of Sevco will be night and day from what Ryan Jack experienced at AFC. Fair comment or otherwise?

Record's link to the story no longer works.

Agree that the paper in question is not shy about making stuff up and should have at least verified such a match took place - but then you have to wonder what kind of hallucinogenic drugs Joe Miller is on to feed them that in the first place.

AFC Heritage site keeps a good record of these things - mentions Shelbourne and Dundalk matches, but nothing in N.Ireland around that period. http://afcheritage.org/matches/cups/index.cfm?season=1999-00&competition=Friendly&squad=Senior

I did read that Joe Miller article - and thinking I was anorakish enough to even remember vague enough details of the whereabouts of most of our pre-season friendly tours from about the past 25 years - I just couldn't recall Linfield. I think we did play a few matches in Ireland (NI and ROI) in that era - losing to Dundalk who had John Hewitt as their manager at the time was certainly one. I suspect there was something in what Miller was saying, but (i) it was not Linfield we played (ii) he completely exaggerated his tale. It's a grim indictment of the tabloid press these days that they don't allow facts to get in the way of a story - and it's a shame that Scottish clubs are not as good as Linfield clearly are in knocking them quickly into their place.