stewarty

I kind of agree with that but think it would cause more harm than good to change the captaincy. I think Barry is a natural captain because the shouting/ moaning/ geeing up that he does is suited to being the captain and it's also part of his normal game. To take away the captaincy could perhaps take something away from his game or make him feel he cant do the things that come naturally.

Just noticed that was post number '666' from me so am posting again so that the devil doesn't set about me for stealing his number...

Couldn't agree more. Also thought that Paul Robinson did a swan lake for the England v Paraguay game as if someone had set about his leg with a machete. He took about 5 minutes to recover. Meanwhile his team-mates re-grouped, caught their breath and drank some water. Then miraculously he gets up and, kicking from hand, launches the ball 85 yards from the re-start. Gamesmanship if ever I saw it and yet England will bang on about being hard done by....

It doesn't say much for his ambition if he's happy to leave a potential league winning side in Brondby for a middle of the road french side. Granted the general standard of play will be higher there but he's guaranteed Champions League/UEFA Cup football every season at Ibrox. If he was in any way serious about coming to Rangers he would have knocked back any offer from Tolouse (or similar) until eventually Brondby accepted Rangers offer.

Italy 2 - France 1 I reckon Italy will just be a wee bit too strong. I think the scandal thats hit Italian football and the incident with Tessotto (I think thats his name) has galvanised their determination to win. I can see Italy getting a goal up early, then adding a 2nd as France push the game with a late Zidane consolation. Stewarty - Crystal Ball Loyal.

Agreed, given what Danny's just said, 3.5million is a lot of money to spend. We haven't done that for about 5 years now!

For those who watched the game on RTV last night... Anyone get really cheesed off with Derek Ferguson's summarising? He had one point to make on each player - usually about how they played at the end of last seasn, and he then went on to repeat the same point about 50 times throughout the game and then finally once more when he was wrapping up the coverage. I would have kicked the telly. ARRRGGGH.. I'm getting angry just thinking about it...

What? No Namouchi?

The players tired in the 2nd half and didn't seem to have the energy to force the game. This invited Linfield to have quite a lot of possession in the 2nd half although they never really threatened. It was interesting to hear that the players had a hard training session in the morning before the game. Talk about a hard task master or what!?

We have a chance, albeit not a big one, against the Ukraine, but Italy and France!?? Given the players that will be retiring from the French team you could argue that we could catch them a bit cold but cant see us getting any change from the Italians. I think the best we can hope for is 3rd. Would there be the possibility of qualifying from 3rd? Was there not a place in Euro 2002 for the best 3rd place teams?

i think this is a good move. it would undermine our stance with uefa if we had, lets say 'ambiguous' name printing on the back of shirts from our official vendor.

it just shows that any pre-conceptions about who was getting papped might not be true. well done to big gavin! just shows that if you work hard and have the right attitude then le guen will give you a chance. ditto with boydy getting an extra year on his contract - he's made all the right noises about coming back to murray park to impress the new boss...

nice one. a couple of days late tho

Aye, the ref's been excellent- not allowing play acting whatsoever - your seeing guys just get up whereas in previous games they've re-enacted swan lake.

I reckon thats Le Guens best (re)signing so far. Boydy's got that knack of scoring that would cost millions to replace.

HIs bird looks pretty tasty - a word of caution though - remember Jardel!

There was talk of Juve hiring Deschamps as their manager if they get relegated.

If I remember rightly, the EPL games dont start till the season after next...

Agree with Cammy, it was reported that Lyon wanted over £2m for Clement but now the papers say the deal is for around £1.1m - it's all posturing but it seems like it'll come to a conclusion within around a week, even if it means PLG gets someone else.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/blackburn_rovers/5141102.stm

Shockeroony. He's got a 2 year contract with the option of a 3rd - are they mad???!

I take it all back.... Schoolboy error

He was only an automatic choice because he was captain. His form certainly doesn't merit a starting position so I would expect Becks to start from the bench and probably retire from international football before the next European Championships.

No matter everyone's feelings on how he's played so far, the only opinion that will count is a certain Monsieur Le Guen's. He played against Hamilton for 45 mins even though guys such as Bernard & Malcolm didn't. The general consensus is that these 2 are examples of players who Le Guen has told to find new clubs so from that dodgy assumption we can assume also that Namouchi isn't for leaving...... (yet)

There were noises at the time of the Mcleish saga that there was to be an overhaul of Murray Park although we have been drip-fed news on what was actually happening. Jim Sinclair has been unveiled and Bomber's been bombed and the thing that I'm glad of is that there's been no fanfare about the situation. The last thing we need is for there to be massive amounts of expectation heaped on young shoulders. Couple that with the kick up the arse that PLG has clearly instigated makes me much more optimistic about the prospect of our young players going forward. Just lets not get carried away too soon...