alexscottislegend

Yes, but to drop your vice-captain is one big decision - if injured then he has a sort of excuse.

If I remember correctly, Jack played most of his games for Aberdeen at right back and was even put there in a Scotland friendly v Canada. If Tav is unavailable for any reason Jack may be a better replacement than Polster. In midfield the only thing lacking is maybe a few more goals.

I cannot believe we paid £5m for Helander with no intention of playing him as a first pick. Add in the fact that SG emphasised the fact he is a left-footer and you would have to think that Katic and Helander will be our first choice pairing before too long. Maybe SG is just waiting for an opportunity - like injury to Goldson - to try it out.

Kicking the ball away.

People aren't only vegan because of lifestyle choices: for instance, sufferers of Menieres disease need to keep to a plant-based diet. And many people are lactose intolerant.

Right then: Jones Barker Middleton albeit on loan McPake albeit on loan Grezda still here Murphy still here I think And not mentioning Hastie or Stewart who could if necessary play there. So why do we need Kent? Even if he is desperate to play for us. Could he have performed any better than Jones did v Hibs and Myjtdelland away?

People who position themselves in the middle of the road are likely to get knocked over!

Sorry Craig to belabour the point but he only qualifies if he has a Scottish parent or grandparent: the residency 'rule' only comes into play if he was at school in Scotland. Remember we had a similar scenario with Lorenzo Amoruso?

So true.

See above!

Sadly, no. The 4 home nations agreement only accepts the residency rule only if the player has been educated in Scotland for 5 years. In the case of Tav, he was born in England but came here as an adult. A shame as he would solve our right back problem at a stroke. Lazy journalism from our old friend the Daily Record.

I ought to wish the RoI well as I do NI but really their attitude to us has been 'predatory' - not my word but that of Brian Kerr former manager. Instead of pursuing their own youth policy they scroll the ancestries of all young players in Britain. The 4 home nations have a gentleman's agreement not to poach, but RoI is a foreign country so it doesn't apply. Considering a big chunk of our greatest rivals' support pay homage to this foreign nation, it beggars belief to me that any of our support would want to see our players helping to develop that nation. As for McPake, he may not really be ready for our U21s (Middleton is in the queue before him) so RoI doing this is just a cheap attempt to tie him down at our expense for the future.

It would be hard to imagine a Rangers team where a significant number of players also represented the RoI. Especially when we still have a large contingent of Ulster supporters.

Yeh, that was out of order though I think his thanks was aimed more at the Keltic support. All the same, it would be silly to advise a 17 year old kid to play for Rangers and RoI - he'll be booed by some of our support and when Scotland play RoI too.

Also I wonder if Jermaine Defoe has had something to do with it as well - he's a role model for any young pro.