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Not been on much over the past week or so (sorry, been busy) missed last weekends win too!

Fraser Forster makes his debut for England tonight - we must assume that Roy Hodgson finally visited an optician...

Good luck to FF

A carrier pigeon has just informed me that Scotland are currently playing the US of A (at football, I think) with no scoring, as yet.

Broony and Muldini started for Scotland, with (I am reliably informed) 11 Americans starting for the USA. Sneaky.

My enthusiasm (ok, my mouse button) doesn't stretch to actually streaming either game, but take it from me I am thoroughly enthralled and excited at not watching both games.

I may provide further insightful updates providing I don't fall aslee....................................................................zzzzzzzzzz



:emoticon:14
 
Full time scores:

Five men (one of whom was lost) and a stray dog watched on as Scotland and the USA produced a veritable feast of non scoring fitba.

Meanwhile, world cup winners in waiting, England (Ha!) were humped 0-2 at Wembley by those mighty footballing giants, Chile.

Big FF was apparently blameless at both goals, with early reports suggesting he had four jokers playing in front of him.

International fitba, eh? :emoticon:81
 
Sorry for not joining in the chat last night Tic, the girlfriend was round so I didn't even get to watch much more than the first half of the football anyway, even before she arrived I wasn't paying much attention though.

I haven't seen the Chile goals yet but certainly the commentators were not blaming Forster after the first goal and what I have read this morning is blaming a very poor/average England team last night. The two CBs apparently had an awful evening (Phil Jones and Gary Cahill) and the only player who did do himself justice was Adam Lallana. Apparently Chile could have had more goals.....they are a team in great form and with some good players but one of those playing was Jean Beausejour who can barely even get in to the Wigan Athletic side, yet he started against Chile and ran riot against the England defence! Apparently Leighton Baines has also never heard of this Barcelona player called Alexis Sanchez who is blisteringly quick and yet Baines didn't think to defend much against him.......

Scotland showed signs of improvement it seems. Playing against a fairly good USA team who are obviously going to the World Cup Finals but then even Scotland could qualify against the teams the USA have to play. Scotland gave a debut to CB Gordon Greer, who I thought was a younger player playing down south but actually.....he's 32! Not even sure why we've bothered with bringing him in to the squad, very little experience of playing at a top level and it's not as though he's one for the future. Would rather have seen some of the U21s get called up for the friendlies.

Rep of Ireland won 3-0 against Latvia (most would expect that sort of scoreline) in Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane's first game in charge. The performance and result in general are not important for them at the moment as the new management team are looking to get to know the players and figure out what they are going to do with the team.

In other news:

Neil Lennon is going to be on Goals On Sunday on Sky Sports (funnily enough on Sunday). If you watch the show or can get a stream, you can also tweet questions to the show and they will ask some of the best ones on the show when Neil is on. I've already tweeted a couple of questions, one of which is about the next subject.....

Tony Watt............oh dear! It seems as though Tony was sent home from training the other day after he refused to take part in some part of training. He was sent to train on his own and then subsequently sent home. This is not his first bust up with the manager as he also seemingly refused to play LW for a game. When he joined he scored on his debut but the manager said he could work harder in training and improve his fitness...he then scored in his second goal and celebrated by taking his shirt off to show how fit his body is......this clearly didn't go down too well.
It seems Tony has completely lost the fucking plot! We discussed this when the loan move was happening and it was reported that his attitude is a problem and that ever since he scored against Barca, he thinks he's the real deal and already made it! He hasn't made anything of himself yet and unless he sorts himself out, his career is going to nosedive! Think we need to get him to go and see the same sports psychologist as Stokes saw while he was at Hibs....might help! We need to do something, it's clear the boy has talent and can be a striker for us but only if he cools his ego!
 
I had great fun talking international balls with myself, wee_od :emoticon:17

I had the relevant by-the-min BBC sport pages open for both games but, other than checking the Scotland line up for Celts, I was only keeping an eye on the scores at the top of each page.

The Greer involvement is one I just can't get my head around. Even WGS' trait of almost exclusively using experienced/dependable ( and in some cases, simply plodders) ahead of younger players, fails to explain that one!

forgot all about the Republic game and only found out about the MON/Keane partnership last night :emoticon:12

Again, I knew nowt about the latest development in the ongoing Tony Watt saga until your post above, mate. (Been busy and haven't been on twitter very often either recently)

I've already said that Watt has no future at Celtic under Lenny - that was the info I got some time ago and, at the rate he's going downhill Watt may well have no future in top flight football at all.

He's simply not professional enough to be a top flight professional footballer and, what's worse, is that he consistently refuses to take the many lifelines he's been given or heed any of the advice that people have gone out of their way to impart to him.

It's not like he can even be compared to be in the same effin universe as George Connelly ( who really was THAT good and who really DID have the world at his feet ), Watt has had the ball at his feet one time against Barca. That's it.

GC had a genuine grievance with the club over the paltry wage he ( and some of the finest players in the clubs history ) were being paid at the time, which only exacerbated his well documented domestic problems.

Watt is going to be a one-hit wonder who then became a waster, and there's only one person to blame for that. Himself.
 
Charles Mulgrew has been sent home from the Scotland squad. I think Lennon probably asked WGS to only use him in one game and make sure he got a decent rest. Surprised Scott Brown is still there as well. Forrest is already out of the squads so only have one player in the Scotland squad now.....at least we don't have to worry about injuries quite so much.
Couldn't quite believe when I read that Kris Boyd has been called into the Scotland squad.......wtf???

I'd love to see Tony Watt turn this around but I fear he isn't going to........he will disappear into the depths of lower league football after bouncing around various other clubs, nobody willing to put up with his crap!

George Connelly is not a player I am aware of from our history but then given that I'm only 25, maybe that's why! Lol.

Interesting to hear that Lennon believes this new Icelandic striker can come in and be a first team player (he's only 20). I read he feels he could be knocking on the door by Christmas but surely he won't be eligible until January when the window opens? 6ft 3 penalty box striker apparently, bit of a Hooper style apparently but it seems he may be similar to Finnbogasson except we will make sure he doesn't turn in to a lazy striker......

We still need some sort of skillful, creative midfielder........wonder where we will look for that. Any thoughts Tic?
 
The U.S. versus the Scotland, subsidiary of UK Plc, match was dreadful. For a minute, I thought Trappatoni was coaching both teams. A total of 11 shots. Maybe two on goal.

I'm excited for the Republic team. Yes it was Latvia, but O'Neill will get the to score goals and Keane-O will bring some discipline. Stokes was on as a late sub. McGeady scored. Robbie scored. They could do something under O'Neill.

The Watt story gets more bizarre all the time. You'd think that going from a Barca beater to purgatory would wake someone up. I do not remember Stokes ever being this bad where he was sent away. Actually Derek Riordan was never this bad. He was just a ned off the pitch and one-dimensional player on it. He's also the only player in SPL history to have worse teeth than Boyd. Watt will not come back, not for long anyway. I think Lenny loaned him out to see if he could score some goals and show promise and do so in the shop window, hell and gone from Celtic park. Now we may have to dispose of his silly ass.
 
FIFA needs to clear out these pointless friendlies. The US has nothing to play for until next summer and it's even longer for Scotland. Club teams only play 4-5 preseason games and then have 40 games to play during the year. Why do national teams need so many meaningless practice games? I understand it right before qualifying or a tournament, but otherwise stop with the with all of the annoying weekend breaks.

Too bad about Watt, but it happens with kids all the time. We already have bought more young strikers with "promise", so if he can't figure out on his own then he can play elsewhere.
 
Good points, Welch!
Agree about the pointless friendlies, CM.

On GC, wee_od, the player he was always compared to at the time by all the domestic and foreign football writers was Franz Beckenbauer - but George was also blessed with far more skill.

Big Jock always maintained that GC was the greatest player he ever managed.

Billy McNeill perhaps says it best; "I have played with some great players in my career. Jinky, Charlie Tully and Kenny Dalglish, but for pure ability I would have to say George Connelly was the best I've played with. He was that good."

Oddly, and sadly, there's not a lot of footage of him!

His book: Celtic's lost legend - The George Connelly Story, is a wonderful read.

Lots more info about GC on the Celtic Wiki http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/Connelly,+George
 
This really belongs in the Laugh at Rangers thread, but i refuse to take Jimmy's post off the front page. This tempest in a shot glass over Lawwell's comment shows just how desperate they are to get their support in a lather over something since the show on the pitch is none too thrilling. How pathetic. Comparing the Newco to Rory Bremner is hardly pistols at dawn.
 
Wee round up again of the internationals

Some national teams played other national teams and there were results.........

Scott Brown scored the only goal of the game as Scotland beat Norway away in Molde.
England were beaten 1-0 by a changed Germany side but Forster was not involved.
Nigeria and Efe Ambrose successfully qualified for the World Cup.
Georgios Samaras and Greece qualified for the World Cup after an aggregate 4-2 win over Romania.
Mikael Lustig will not be going to the World Cup after Sweden were beaten 4-2 on aggregate by Portugal.
Rep. of Ireland drew 0-0 away to Poland.
 
Brown needs to take some saltpeter or whatever will settle him down. Reports say he was lucky not to be sent off again, and during an international friendly of all places.

 
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