numpty

Probably not, but we were flying then, with a team who knew each other inside out. This will be the first time the 11 we put out will have played together in a competitive match. I'd wager the Russians are bigger and more physical than Celtic, too, and we always seem to do comparatively poorly against big physical teams. That said, I agree with you up to a point. I don't expect them to be world beaters, and our team never having played together works in our favour too -- means all the videos of us from last season will be useless to the Ruskies

Hee haw chance. It's hard enough for us to get there, can't imagine they'd waste money sending people and equipment there for the few thousand folk that would be interested in watching.

Aye. By about 20 years

Sounds like I'm in the minority here, but I prefer the "no news until anything's definite" approach we've generally been taking. So really I'd rather McCall had never said anything about when he expected him to re-sign, though obviously it's hard to do that when he's wanted him involved in pre-season on the basis that he would. You obviously can't release specific financial details of ongoing negotiations, and anything more general (of the "we're waiting on X to happen/get back to us" variety) is going to spark just as many daft rumours of greed/stalling/laziness/incompetence as not releasing anything at all.

Newcastle team: Elliot, Williamson, Sissoko, Anita, Gouffran, Yanga-Mbiwa, Obertan, Sam Ameobi, Vuckic, Tavernier, Dummett. Subs: Amalfitano, Marveaux, Taylor, Ferguson, Abeid, Richardson, Streete.

Motherwell team vs Newcastle: Hollis, Hammell, Ramsden, Hutchinson, Lawson, Vigurs, Lasley, Cummins, McHugh, Carswell, Trialist. Subs: Nielsen, Trialist (McFadden), Francis-Angol, Erwin, Kerr, Moore, Murray.

Motherwell team vs Newcastle: Hollis, Hammell, Ramsden, Hutchinson, Lawson, Vigurs, Lasley, Cummins, McHugh, Carswell, Trialist.

'Flow just said on Twitter there'd be no more announcements today, so probably not, unless it's announced by his running out with the team tomorrow night

McManus confirmed.

Looks like you need to tell somebody at MFC TV, too (EDIT: Deleted this image in 2022 to reclaim some upload space...)

Loaning out promising youngsters hardly means they're not in the plans any more. You might have noticed we do quite a bit of it ourselves.

Attendance was 1,983, according to the 'fishel twitters.

Clash of heads, so might be missing next game as well if he's concussed.

"8mins: Good forward play by 'Well there. Ball from Vigurs to Craig Reid out on the flank. Back post ball just drifted out of play though." So I guess that's a yes

No need to worry then. If he hates us that much, no chance he'll be joining us.

Celtic fans, of course, are complaining that their Irish contingent won't be able to get back home on a Saturday night. Cry me a river.

Same here. Fitba' fans can be a hypocritical bunch, it's fine for our players to wind up anyone else, but as soon as anyone does it to us they become persona non grata? It's all part of the fun, ffs

Just got my Goals of the Season DVD in the post today, and to be fair it seems nicely done. Haven't had any time to do anything other than skim through it so far, but if I was to be really fussy I'd probably rather they'd spent the time putting a caption on each goal (or at least on each game) than on putting together the montage sequences at the beginning and end. I know how much time and effort it takes to put these sorts of things together at all though, though, so can't really complain

No arguments from me, I wish him all the best, and it can only help to raise the profile of our own league a little bit if he does well. I'd be surprised if the smaller Dutch teams were really offering a huge amount more than the sort of Championship clubs that were supposedly interested in him, though.

Aha. That could well be what I was thinking of then.

I'm sure Luc Nijholt ended up there at one point IIRC, if that's any help… EDIT: Nah, it wisnae him, but I'm sure one of our players did. They're a pretty mediocre team though, albeit by Dutch standards… usually finish bottom half of the league, have never won a major trophy, and haven't played in Europe since 2008. I'm sure it's probably a nice place to live and work, but it's certainly a bit of an unusual choice for the big man.

Confirmed on the Staggies' website. Good luck to him.

Could be I suppose, in which case I'm still not convinced he'd be asked (or would bother) if re-signing was already out of the question. If he was actively looking for another club he'd be better off staying at home, and if he just wanted a wee summer holiday he'd be better off taking the wife and kids somewhere

Depends who's paying his way, I suppose. But even if he's doing it himself just to keep himself fit and generally lend his experience, you'd have to think he wouldn't be bothering if re-signing was totally out of the question.

Sounds about right, although there aren't really any hard and fast rules anyway AFAIK, just tradition.