Scott7

The offside rule has to be changed. Something to the effect of “deriving advantage” needs to be added in. VAR can judge if a player is offside by half the breadth of a whisker and the ref can decide if that player has thereby derived advantage. That’s a discussion for a different topic, though.

No doubt. Rangers is a strong product. Scottish Football isn’t.

Sort of but if it were a conglomerate there would be a lot of winding up, merging and demerging to allow the main actors to flourish. But you can’t do that with football so,no, in Scotland it’s not a strong product as confirmed by the market.

I give the linesman the benefit of the doubt over the offside goal. It’s not so easy to see in real time at ground level. Furuhashi is a different matter. His method of operation is to push or even just brush against, an opponent and when the other player turns to look at him, he collapses clutching his face. Imagine the uproar if a Rangers player did that.

The weekend’s scores. ’ammers 1-3 Chelsea Mags 1-0 Clarets So’ton 1-2 BHA Wolves 1-3 Liverpool Watford 2-2 City Leeds 2-1 Brentford United 3-0 Palace Hotspur 3-0 Norwich Villa 2-2 Leicester Everton 2-1 Arsenal

Carrick is part of the history of failed management. If I were the new guy, I’d ban AF.

Time to close that place.

1 nil is a home victory, is it not? Either way, for Rousseau, that is recklessly optimistic.

What’s wrong with the Toffee Men? The School of Soccer Science is long gone. Since then, only a glittering half decade in the eighties. They could do what City have done if they got an avalanche of cash and a top manager. Ancelotti might have done it. It seems Benitez can’t.

Just wait, my boy. Just wait.

I joined the match on 73 minutes to see Barisic take a lifetime to place and and complete a free kick. After that I barely saw McGregor, Rangers played quite nicely and it was indeed a penalty. Tripping an opponent is a foul. The book says nothing about a severed leg as evidence. Roofe sent the ‘keeper the wrong way and dispatched the ball with power and accuracy. But, please, no jiggling run-ups with a hesitation embellishment. Too big a risk of mesmerising yourself instead of the ‘keeper.

Go fifty-fifty with him.

Forgot to post my predictions for last night’s games, Leeds to beat Palace, 1-0 and Mags to draw 1-1 with Norwich. Shame I’m only right when I don’t go public. The rest of the midweeks: The night. So’ton 2-1 Leicester Watford 0-3 Chelsea WHU 2-1 BHA (Initially, I thought a draw) Wolves 2-0 Burnley (Table top clash back in the decades) Villa 1-3 City (Bubble burst) Everton 1-3 Liverpool The morn’s night. ’Spurs 2-0 Brentford United 0-2 Gunners

Going to buy them? @compo’s School of Soccer Science. If you don’t, who will?

Now that you mention it, of course. Why didn’t ‘Spurs think of that? The bold McLeod I saw as a player at Hibs transferred from Blackburn Rovers at the end of his career. By that time he was slower than his predecessor, widden legs Ormond. Nonetheless, in my memory an ineradicable video plays of McLeod skinning Bobby Shearer on the half line at Easter Road, a remake of an identical incident a few years previously at Pittodrie. In that game, the part of the skinner was played by Jackie Hather. He was rocket fast so Bobby had an excuse on that occasion. Both times the damage was repaired by Eric Caldow coming from the other wing at warp speed. Am I the only man alive to have seen Bobby Shearer beaten twice? I saw Mcleod close up managing top division Ayr United, in a Scottish cup-tie at Borough Briggs. He arrived smiling, joking, and glad-handing. He left after ninety minutes girning, moaning and raging on the back of a 2-0 defeat. He could talk the talk, McLeod but the walk at the final hurdle was too much for him. Assembled a good Scotland side but couldn’t quite get it to work. Not alone in that, though. Never mind trivia. Concentrate on the Rangers. Jardine, Jackson, Greig, Stein, Smith, Johnston and McDonald are all at least as good as the present incumbents in their positions, yet the team performed badly in the league. It’s not as if they had to carry four duffers. The play up against the Rangers factor has always existed. Were the other teams of a better standard in terms of football ability than they are now? Of course they were, so maybe matches in Europe were just a wee bit easier.

I don’t know anything about Mayo except that he’s playing very well in a lower division. Would he be a good fit with Helander if he makes a full revovery?

Brighton diddy? They’re Galactico, man. Or so I’ve heard somewhere.

Brilliant. Thanks. Rangers had nine pretty good players, a mercurial bloke and a decent tradesmen. How come they struggled in the league? Dundee’s Philip was a player. Beckenbauer-on-Tay.

Herrorrascorrs. Arsenal 2-0 Newcastle Palace 2-1 Villa Liverpool 6-0 So’ton (or 1-2) Canaries 1-2 Wolves BHA 2-2 Leeds Brentford 0-1 Everton Burnley 1-2 ‘Spurs Leicester 3-0 Watford City 3-1 Hammers Chelsea 3-0 United

The poor conversion rate has to be sorted. The first goal was brilliant in creation and execution. The second, my granny could have scored and she wasn’t great with headers. Credit to Alfredo, though. His anticipation is uncanny. He knew what the defender was going to do. There should have been more. I’m away to girn somewhere else now.

Oh, yes.

Rangers had momentum as a result of scoring just before half time. That should have sown the seeds of doubt in the minds of the opposition.

From another place. (Let’s be fair. It’s FF) Arthur Numan admits he was astonished by Connor Goldson's post-match comments after Rangers crashed out of the Premier Sports Cup on Sunday. He said: “To lose a semi-final in that way was unacceptable. I can't believe the manner of the defeat. I was then even more surprised by Connor Goldson's comments in his interview on television at full-time. “For a Rangers player to say the game was over at half-time when the team are 3-1 down was an astonishing admission. “To also say that the team has lost a bit if hunger was equally alarming. How can you have lost a bit of hunger when you have won one trophy in three seasons? “Yes, I get that the trophy was one of the most important in the club's history and Steven Gerrard and the players will always be remembered for it. “But you need to go and win again. And again. And again. And again. Rangers is about winning silverware on a regular basis. If you don't have the hunger and desire to do that then you should be asked to leave or be sold on.”

I don’t favour Chelsea but they’re a rattling good side.

Steerpike in yesterday Spectator Online is staunch in his ridicule of this representative of the people (but what people?) ”It’s been some months since Mr S last reported on the antics of James Dornan, the SNP MSP and amateur Hate-Finder General. The gaffe-prone Glaswegian managed, in the space of just one week, to get himself embroiled in multiple minor scandals after accusing an Edinburgh bus company had stopped services on St Patrick's Day because of 'anti-Irish racism’ (an untrue claim for which he had no evidence) and then for refusing to apologise for claiming Rangers’ players had sung a sectarian tune (another untrue claim based on poorly-doctored footage). Three weeks later he also told the Catholic leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg: ‘If your God exists you will undoubtedly rot in hell.’ Nice! Undaunted by past controversies, the amateur sleuth is back on the detective trail again. The Sherlock Holmes of Holyrood has deduced that the perpetrators of an attack on his office – in which a sign was taken down and allegedly urinated upon – were none other than... Gers fans. Steerpike is no fan of such stunts but is there any evidence that 'Rangers supporters' taking 'out their anger and hatred' were responsible for this act? More than 24 hours after naming and blaming the Ibrox club, Dornan is yet to corroborate his claims. He has posted screenshots from a Rangers website in which anonymous users express their hopes that supporters were responsible – but crucially, nothing to show that they were in fact responsible. In light of Dornan's habit of throwing around allegations without evidence, it seems only fair to ask: does he have any proof to back up his accusations? As mentioned previously, it’s not the first time Dornan – the poor man’s Mike Russell – has had run-ins with Rangers. In March 2019, the Celtic-mad MSP was forced to apologise to Rangers fan group Club 1872 after complaining they ‘abuse him regularly’ on their website and that moderators fail to monitor their user content. Amusingly, this is the same MSP who subsequently penned an article for the Times titled: 'Keep politics out of football and we'll all be winners.' A member of Scotland's governing party using his position to repeatedly demonise one of his city’s biggest clubs? Even Poirot wouldn't have trouble solving this one.” That bit should have been his city’s biggest club of course but top marks otherwise.