Donathan

Around the same time, Fulham’s front two were the confusing Louis Saha and Facundo Sava.

Even if I live to 200, I’ll never be convinced “Have a nice day” and “Why does it always rain on me?” aren’t by the same band

Not people as such, but I’m absolutely convinced that the music of Glasgow rockers Travis and the Welsh four piece Stereophonics are completely indistinguishable from one another.

Esther Rantzen diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. Never a good sign.

Che Adams needs wrapped up in cotton wool until March otherwise we might need to ask Craig Levein to take charge

Zahawi sacked

If Carlsberg did Saturdays

On the forthcoming launch of a new IT system, the project manager said earlier this week: ”We’ve boarded the aircraft, closed the doors and ready to pushback. Just waiting on the final go ahead from air traffic control”

I don’t think it’s great for our chances of making the Euros, tbh. At the moment our best bet is to get into pot 2 and finish 2nd in our group. That’s what we are hoping will happen for euro 2024 but drawing the best team in pot 3 makes life difficult, but we’ve still got the playoffs as a fallback option. Under the new system we are likely relying on a playoff nearly every time unless we are lucky enough to draw an Austria or a Hungary as our pot 1 side and manage to go ahead and top the group. Ultimately the aim is the same thing, finish in the top (24 - X) teams in qualifying, with X being the number of hosts qualifying automatically. But my view is that the new system adds to the “randomness” of the qualifying which in turn makes it more likely that genuine top 24 sides (which we are, IMO) will miss out. Assuming only one automatic qualifier it will likely be: - 1 host - 12 qualifying group winners - 6 best runners up - 20 teams in 5 playoff paths (Including 6 remaining runners up + UNL league group winners + next best UNL teams if there are spots to fill) For each extra automatic host, reduce the number of runner up who qualify by 2 and add an additional playoff path. So if you had 4 hosts, only them plus the 12 winners qualify automatically but you’d have 8 playoff paths with 32 teams.

It’ll probably be: WC: - 12 winners qualify automatically - 12 runners up + 4 best remaining UNL teams form 4 playoff paths Euros: - 12 winners qualify automatically - X automatic host slots - (9-X) best runners up qualify automatically. - 3 UNL playoff paths formed using the current system

Example based on the recent UNL: League A QFs: Croatia v Portugal Spain v Denmark Italy v Belgium Netherlands v Hungary Relegated to league B: Austria, Czech Republic, England, Wales Promoted to league A: Scotland, Israel, Bosnia, Serbia League A/B playoffs: France v Ukraine Switzerland v Iceland Germany v Finland Poland v Norway Relegated to league C Armenia, Russia, Romania, Sweden Promoted to league B Georgia, Greece, Turkey, Kazakhstan League B/C promotion playoffs: Slovenia v Bulgaria Ireland v Kosovo Albania v Azerbaijan Montenegro v Luxembourg

I think: Teams in pots 2-4 who are involved in the March promotion/relegation playoffs (i.e., league B 2nd place in pot 2, league B 3rd place in pot 3, and league C 2nd place in pot 4) would need to be drawn into 4 team groups, teams in pot 1 who are involved in the March relegation playoffs (i.e., league A 3rd place), would need to be drawn into 5 team groups. The top 8 teams would be playing QFs in March with the possibility of a SF/F in June. The latter would necessitate going into a 4 team group, so there would need to be an “either/or” pair with the winning team from one of the QFs going into the 4 team group and the loser going into the 5.

Djokovic in Melbourne is almost as dominant as Rafa in Paris

That year when our league was shut down for months for the second year running and Partick went on a run to win the league (and we somehow went from a healthy lead at the top to absolutely bombing down to 5th), did they bring in some reinforcements in January?

I couldn't care less if he's playing in the Outer Mongolian farmers league. His form for Scotland deserves a spot in the squad until proven otherwise.