craig

Just as well it was pennies and not pounds !!

"It's about making sure there is a lasting legacy. A legacy for the people of the east end of the city who will benefit from first class housing, retail and leisure developments in a city that's been crying out for that kind of change." Maybe it is just me but was it not GLASGOW that won the games (not the East End of Glasgow) ? If so, why is all the social improvement being emphasised on the East End ? This is NOT a Rangers v Celtic rant but there are certainly other areas of Glasgow that need improvement so why is it that the East End seem to be the only area targeted for such improvement ? I appreciate that you can't make all improvements at the same time but to put any and all additional income and funding into the regeneration of the East End means that it is to the detriment to the other areas of Glasgow - just doesn't seem right to me. Maybe I am just having a bad day !

I know what you mean Gribz but there is also a shout that McFadden is similar to Novo for us in that he could be more of a threat coming off the bench. I am assuming that is what Eck is looking at and, as Ian says, keeping it tight for the first half. Be positive folks !

But is it ? Whittaker is younger and no more experienced than Gow and the same could probably be said for Charlie Adam.

Can we all come over with a carry oot Pete ? Not sure of the odds Jon, have been too busy at work to even check. Might bet on the Italians though, you know, reverse curse and all that !

Depends on whether or not the SPL have the same rules. I don't think 3rd party ownership should cause too many problems IF you can get agreement on the fee with all parties. If you only get one side (that of the club) then you part-own the player along with the other remaining party - but the thingt o do is agree a fee with ALL parties. Makes it simple (or should)

You should have done the US in May - I am off to Vegas for a week in May !

Funny you mention spares Gav.... there aren't any but as the partner told me that they have season tickets and pass them out at face value - AND told me the next time I am travelling through London I can borrow them...... next time I am coming to the UK I will see if I can get them (they have 4, so to get 2 should be easy enough) and then will give you a shout. Funny as you were, sadly, the first person I thought of when I thought I might be able to snare a couple of tickets. Keep it in mind, and I will try to time my next trip back to the UK to coincide with a Gunners game so you can go to the game.

Nah, if he does wake up he will just want to watch it with me - he loves footy.

oops, yep the Scotland game is a 1pm for me - works well as my 3 yr old will be down for his nap, so I HAVE to stay at home to look after him.....

Yeah, I had the same first thought of "Middlesborough.... Arsenal will pump them" The good thing is that the audit partner told me even if I can't get to the meeting that the next time I am travelling through London to give him a shout and he will "loan" me their season tickets for face value.... I see me using that token in the future too !

No worries Gribz, if you need any help give me a shout - when you go home if you have got the stuff I will give you my phone numbers in case you need to call. You don't NEED another box but if your folks use both boxes and you hook your slingbox to one of them then you would have to watch whatever they watch - we found it easier to get an extra box so that we can control it ourselves and no-one else ever uses it at all. Your choice obviously but the Sky+ box only costs an extra 12 quid a month. Is 9.25pm here - we are 4 hours behind the UK.

FIFA created the "no more than 2 clubs in a year" rule and I think the FA said no 3rd party ownership after all the West Ham hassles.

Sweet as you like.... I have to go to London in March for an audit committee meeting, our auditors (KPMG) are making a presentation and they have informed me that they have 4 tickets for the Arsenal vs Middlesborough game at the Emirates on March 15. Wasn't expecting to get to go to the meeting but to get to the Arsenal game too is a very very pleasant and unexpected bonus. Also saves me paying my way back home for the out-laws 50th birthday. A good day today me thinks, unless the bassas renege !!

Gribz, The slingbox is easy to install. 1. Take your laptop home with you 2. Do you have family who have Sky ? If so all you need to do is have them phone Sky and get them to put an additional sky box in a different room (I would suggest you get Sky+ as it allows you to use the box as a TV recorder). 3. I made sure that the in-laws got Sky broadband too, they moved from BT (there are some minor issues I think when using the slingbox with BT, so I paid for them to switch from BT to Sky broadband, only cost an extra 15 quid or something). Sky also came in and hooked the broadband to the sky box too. Up to you though. 4. Go to http://www.dabs.com and search for "sling box" or "sling media" - or just google it. 5. Buy a sling box (roughly 130GBP) 6. When you get home simply follow the instructions that come with the slingbox. It took me less than 30 mins and I am by no means a techie ! 7. The one thing I would suggest though is that once you get it working (the in-laws were watching an Arsenal game on their Sky TV and I was watching the Gers game from my laptop so I knew it worked in their house) is to have your laptop hook up to a different wireless connection to the one you have just set it up with and test it to see if it is working. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO. Re #7 above. Basically the sling will work and you can watch Sky from your laptop when you access the internet through the same wireless network that you created the slingbox through. When you take your laptop back to Singapore you will be accessing through a different wireless network. This is where I had a problem. Because I knew it worked on the "home" connection I assumed it would work on ALL connections, but it didn't work when I went to my mother's place. If you don't test it on a network outside the "home" network then you could get back to Singapore and be screwed, hence why you connect to someone else's wi-fi. When you connect to someone else's wi-fi and it works you should be all set, if it doesn't work you can get remote help from sling support staff (who are very helpful). If you need anything else Gribz let me know. I can't highlight the importance of step 7 - I had to travel back to Edinburgh from Ayrshire to get it fixed (as the support staff needed me to be on the "home" network so they could gain access and find the problem - though there is a workaround, but wont tell you it until and unless you need it). Ayrshire to Edinburgh was ok, but Aberdeen to Singapore........ bit of a hike just to see TV. When viewed in 1/4 screen the quality is pretty good, when in full screen it is a bit patchy but still you can see the game - it works better for programs which are slower moving than footy. Have to say we watch more Sky TV now than we watch regular TV.

It probably will be used to clear down some of the debt.

Exactly Gav... hold on a minute.... Ach, I don't need to worry, i have my slingbox so will sit and watch it live on my laptop with a few tinnies in hand

Sadly I am inclined to agree with Frankie - I see SDM using it to balance the books rather than re-investing it.

What negativity Gribz ? I merely stated that we are now guaranteed at least a UEFA spot.

but you never said it was anything but about Barcelona Pete - I wont argue with you on your other examples but they are different to a world class team which we played tonight. I completely agree about Hibs, Hearts, Motherwell etc - and it has been a problem at our club for a few years - we get ourselves motivated for the "big" games and then let ourselves down badly for the smaller teams. But tonight I think it was more about what Barcelona did right than what we did wrong !

How do you know we didnt try though ? How do you know we simply weren't outclassed ? Remember, our team has been put together on a shoestring compared to Barcelona - yes, it is 11 vs 11 but when one 11 is far better then sometimes you cant get out of your half no matter how hard you try. I think that because WS has come in, steadied the ship, got some decent results in Europe that all of a sudden realism has gone flying out the window and been replaced with unrealistic expectation.

I think we can win in Stuttgart and then we need Barca to get the result they need in Lyon !

Fair point Wija and that actually makes it a very interesting couple of games in the next round of games. If Barca play for, and get a point, then we are level on points with Lyon which leaves us simply needing to avoid defeat against them at Ibrox, which I think might not be a great end result for us - I could see us playing defensively to avoid defeat and losing to a Juninho free-kick. I think, given that we know that the last game with Lyon gives us another chance of qualification, we should be looking to take 3 points off Stuttgart as it makes the road much easier (unless of course Lyon actually beat Barca). The next round of games will be interesting - and would have been more so had Hitzlsperger not missed that penalty tonight !

You can't SOLELY put that down to Rangers though Pete - Barcelona defended high up the pitch and gave our players no space. Perhaps we should just punt it from back to front so that we can say we made the opposition's half more often ?

You also come from a time when the formation was 2-3-5 :fish: Don't get me wrong Pete, I am disappointed that we were negative too and was shouting at the TV whilst watching it - being down 2-0 and playing a 30 yard ball back to your keeper is tough to watch - but you have to give a lot of the credit for that to Barcelona as they never afforded us any space - and we also had no imagination in our team, which is a problem we all have noticed this season.