Uilleam

They used to talk about the "Makalele Role"..... so maybe we should just talk about the "Tavenier Role", which is more difficult to pin down. It's defensive wide midfield striker plus, as far as I can tell.

Never fails, that novena!!!!

McGregor just got MotM??

Rather slow and directionless, so far, and less penetration than a diabetic with no cock.

Having Walker commenting on a Rangers' match is a studied insult to the Club, the players, the coaches and the support. Or, maybe you are right, and pearls fall from his lips, alas before swine.

I see/hear that we are subjected to Walker. Again. Why? Sound muted.

0 - 3 Fgs: Alfredo Morelos

Apparently O'Merta FC has refused access to The Courier AND the Press Assocn. Wtf is it up to? More pertinently, what is the response from other outlets, reporters, and the NUJ?

What about the 4th official who, alone, spotted the penalty offence?

According to The Times, once a newspaper of record, but, as they used to say, "You let wan in......." Perhaps it is just that rasellik has had the Transfer Window smashed open (presumably by the green brigade). Non-stop Roofe leads the way for Celtic ‘He’s like the Duracell bunny,’ says Gerrard Michael Grant Friday December 04 2020, 12.00am, The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/non-stop-roofe-leads-the-way-for-celtic-b0hfv2vnk Kemar Roofe is drawing superlatives from manager Steven Gerrard Rangers’ glowing statistics are well-documented but Steven Gerrard likes an entirely different set of numbers which go unreported. His team is unbeaten in 24 games, through to the last 32 of the Europa League, is top of the Premiership by 11 points, and still has four fronts to fight on at home and abroad. But Gerrard — yesterday named SPFL Premiership manager of the month for November, with James Tavernier taking the player’s award — is equally impressed by other figures. “I have to pay credit to the fitness department and the sports science lads,” he said. “The numbers that we are hitting right now are really impressive. Kemar Roofe certainly helps on that. He doesn’t stop, he is like a Duracell bunny. He is hitting numbers that you don’t really expect from a forward player. He is running more than the midfielders and running the most in the team at the moment. “He is really setting the example in terms of what we need to put into a game to get the results we are getting. Everyone is hitting impressive numbers, but Roofe has raised the bar with the last couple of performances he has put in.” Roofe did not score in the 3-2 win over Standard Liege at Ibrox last Thursday night, which eased Rangers into the last 32 of the Europa League with a game to spare, but his intelligence, movement and technique were again impressive in a powerful second half. Rangers’ opponents will be drawn on December 14 and will be influenced by whether they proceed as group winners or runners-up. On TalkSPORT yesterday Roofe suggested the other 31 will respect them. “We have to take it game by game but what we’ve shown so far is that we are good team, especially in the Europa League,” he said. “I think teams and players will start taking notice of that.” Rangers face Ross County in Dingwall tomorrow determined to extend an unbeaten run which includes 15 league games, one in the Betfred Cup, three Europa League qualifiers and five group games since the start of the season. “I still think there is more to come,” said Gerrard. “They’re in a good place. The challenge for me is to try and keep them all healthy and keep the squad good, try to offload people at the right time and remain as fresh as we can because the schedule is about to get even more challenging over the next six to eight weeks. “The pitches are going to change, the weather is changing, as you saw last night, [and] the challenge for us is to stay where we are for as long as we can and can we show as a group that we are capable of going the distance.” Continuing in Europe will be financially rewarding but Gerrard said of the January window: “I predict that there will be a few more going the opposite way than coming in the door. I don’t think we need a number of incomings, if you like, but we might need maybe one or two to try and freshen it up.” County would have “more belief, more confidence” about them after their stunning Betfred Cup victory away to Celtic last weekend but Gerrard already had been impressed by them when they lost 2-0 at Ibrox in October. Ryan Jack, Filip Helander and Nikola Katic are all still out for Rangers. If County concede a penalty they may as well head towards the centre circle and prepare for their restart. Tavernier has scored nine out of nine this season, among his 15 goals overall. When he was taken off penalty duty last season, after uncharacteristic misses, he committed to improving. “I just kept on working on it after training,” he said. “Free kicks and penalties. That’s something I’ve always done after training. “Even when I wasn’t on them I kept on working hard to improve myself. I always go into a season wanting double figures on both goals and assists. The boys are really performing well up top. The movement they are creating and the problems they are creating for defenders is giving us the opportunity to have penalties.”

They were leading for 26 minutes. Surely that is enough to award them the match in these Covid-straitened times.

I think that we are sellik in disguise. We are being schooled here.

And it doesn't involve a Toblerone....or an Alpenhorn ...and it works in chess. The "proposed new format may be complicated for fans to grasp" which rules out rasellik, obvs, so what's not to like? CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Ten group games against different teams in proposed Champions League shake-up Martyn Ziegler, Chief Sports Reporter Wednesday December 02 2020, 12.00am, The Times Uefa is to hold talks this week on a proposed new Champions League format that would involve clubs playing ten different opponents in the group stage in a dramatic shake-up of the competition. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/ten-group-games-against-different-teams-in-proposed-champions-league-shake-up-cn6mm6ntf The “Swiss system” is understood to be Uefa’s favourite among several proposed reforms of the competition and an answer to the threat of a breakaway super league because it would lead to more group matches between teams from the big European leagues. The model, to be used from 2024, would mean four more Champions League matches a season for each team than under the existing system where there are six group games, putting more pressure on the fixture calendar. It would almost certainly mean that English clubs in Europe would have to drop out of the League Cup and may result in an end to FA Cup replays. Although the proposed new format may be complicated for fans to grasp initially it has the benefit of allowing more matches between the bigger teams and fewer meaningless group matches. The Swiss system is often used in chess, while in football the Concacaf federation already uses it for some of its competitions in North and Central America and the Caribbean, and officials there say it helps to maintain interest until the end of the group stage. The system would put 32 or 36 clubs in a single division. They would not all play each other, but a random draw would select ten matches — five at home and five away — for each club against opponents of varying strength based on seeding. The existing system has 32 clubs split into eight groups of four who play each other home and away. The points from those ten matches for each club would be registered in a single league table, from which the top 16 would progress to the knockout rounds. The top club would play the team who finished 16th and the second-placed team would play the one that finished 15th, and so on. Significantly, the European Club Association (ECA) and the European Leagues organisation both think that there is potential merit in the Swiss system. It is understood there is confidence that the format would be even more attractive to broadcasters due to a more exciting group phase. Uefa is expected to present details of the proposed new model to European officials over the next two weeks. One source with knowledge of the proposal told The Times: “The top clubs want more matches against other clubs from the top leagues and this provides it. “Although it might be more difficult for fans to understand at first, another advantage is that the group stage should be much more exciting than it is now. “Every match should be significant because every place in the top 16 will be valuable in terms of the opponent in the next round and in terms of prize money. There is also an incentive of being “17th to 24th positions as they would go into in the Europa League knockout rounds.” David Gill, England’s Uefa vice-president and treasurer of the European governing body, has declined to discuss the reform options but said that there were some “exciting” proposals and raised the question of whether Premier League clubs in Europe could still play in the League Cup if there are four more European matches. He told The Times last week: “The FA has already reduced the number of FA Cup replays, [but] what happens with the League Cup? That question has been around for many years, and can compensation be looked at to help the EFL clubs?” Gill also stressed that Uefa was determined to ensure that qualification for the Champions League remained overwhelmingly via domestic competitions. Lars-Christer Olsson, the chairman of the European League group covering 29 nations, said the “Swiss system” would be more acceptable than that put forward by the ECA in 2019 that called for four groups of eight clubs, meaning 14 group games. He said: “The new proposals are much more realistic but what is important is protecting the access list to all the European competitions.” How the ‘Swiss system’ could work in the Champions League ● There would be 32 or 36 teams in one division that is split into four pots of seeds ● A draw takes place to allocate opponents for each club to play ten matches. A top-seeded team would face two other top seeds, three each from pots two and three, and two more teams from the fourth seeds. Half the matches would be at home, half away. ● Results feed into a league table of all 32 teams with the top 16 going through to the knock-out rounds. The top of the league would play the team finishing 16th, second place v 15th and so on. The eight teams finishing in 17th to 24 places would go into the Europa League knockout competition. ● The final semi-finalists (or quarter-finalists) would qualify automatically for the following year’s Champions League. The Times used a random draw generator to draw up potential opponents for two English clubs based on the seeding pots for this season’s Champions League (no English opponents permitted). It produced this outcome: Liverpool (pot 1) would have matches against Real Madrid (pot 1), Paris Saint-Germain (pot 1), Borussia Dortmund (pot 2), Shakhtar Donetsk (pot 2), Ajax (pot 2), RB Leipzig (pot 3), Lazio (pot 3), Krasnodar (pot 3), Club Bruges (pot 4) and Rennes (pot 4). A random draw for Manchester City (pot 2) would result in matches against Bayern Munich (pot 1), Porto (pot 1), Real Madrid (pot 1), Barcelona (pot 2), Borussia Dortmund (pot 2), Dynamo Kiev (pot 3), Inter Milan (pot 3), Lokmotiv Moscow (pot 4), Borussia Mönchengladbach (pot 4) and Ferencvaros (pot 4).

I am told that he would "die with his boots on".

Somewhat like Mussolini, who, for all his faults, was an unswerving sellik man, fru' and fru'. Is there a service station near the Piggery?

Just sayin'...... Paul Lambert battles for Ipswich future at a ghost club in rapid decline Ipswich have lost five of their past eight League One games and alarm bells are ringing loudly in a season crucial to their future Nick Ames Nick Ames @NickAmes82 Tue 1 Dec 2020 11.25 GMTLast modified on Tue 1 Dec 2020 13.58 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/dec/01/paul-lambert-battles-for-ipswich-future-at-a-ghost-club-in-rapid-decline Last month the Ipswich goalkeeping coach, Jimmy Walker, tweeted his views on this season’s third tier. “Massive few weeks ahead,” he wrote. “League One is bonkers … and dare I say it … very average. If we don’t finish top four minimum we might as well wrap up.” Using Walker’s logic, Ipswich may be returning Portman Road’s keys to the local council in May. They sit sixth, although several sides below them have games in hand, and have lost five of their past eight matches. The decline of the last decade, which culminated in relegation from the Championship in 2019, is close to spiralling into something far more serious. Ipswich feel like a ghost of a club: an institution that fell asleep on the job and has been outstripped by a long line of smarter, brighter rivals. Should Ipswich fail to win promotion their world will be shrunk by the new League One salary cap, which may level the playing field but presses the pause button on those with higher designs. They should be equipped to avoid that but the current run is no outlier. Their past 39 league games, taking in a catastrophic nosedive from top spot into mid-table last season, have brought 50 points and gathering unrest about the regime of a manager who had swept in promising so much. Listening to Paul Lambert in February 2019, three months after his appointment, it was hard not to feel the tide would turn. Ipswich were going down but the blow was softened by Lambert’s realisation that a litany of disappointments had fractured the bond between town and club. He forged a relationship with Blue Action, a prominent supporters’ group, and succeeded in harnessing an atmosphere that should have helped propel Ipswich back up the leagues. That appears to have soured beyond repair. Last Wednesday night a group of Blue Action members arrived at the training ground with a banner reading “Cheers for the beers but it’s time at the bar”, referring to Lambert’s occasional laying-on of drinks for supporters. It was a turning point in the fanbase’s attitude towards Lambert and the situation deteriorated on Saturday. Paul Lambert and his assistant, Stuart Taylor, have struggled to find a way of taking Ipswich forward. Photograph: Richard Calver/Shutterstock While Lambert was offering his thoughts on a 2-0 defeat by Charlton, commenting that “the fans are the most important people at any club”, news broke on social media that he had banned the popular local journalist Phil Ham from press conferences. Ham has edited TWTD, a vibrant and influential independent supporters’ website, since 1995 and has been a club sponsor for a number of years. TWTD’s news operation runs alongside a message board and, before last month’s match at Lincoln, one of its posters revealed Lambert’s starting lineup. An irate Lambert ordered Ham’s exile upon being informed and has doubled down despite attempts to resolve the situation. It is a terrible look and at odds with Lambert’s earlier conciliatory approach; the widespread reaction suggests it has carried him beyond the point of no return. Noises from around Ipswich’s camp have indicated a paranoid environment, with communication a particular issue. Lambert was particularly unhappy when local media discovered in August that five younger players, including the highly rated Armando Dobra, had been omitted from the squad photograph. He is entitled to feel frustrated about leaks but the fog of suspicion feels suffocating. Such tittle-tattle usually becomes irrelevant if a team are winning. Ipswich plummeted in 2019-20 because they were unable to maximise a far more talented squad than most in League One. Their owner, Marcus Evans, bet heavily on Lambert with a five-year contract in January, effectively meaning the manager was off the hook when Covid-19 intervened. Evans requested during the summer that Lambert minimise squad rotation while instilling a more attractive playing style; he then informed the players of those edicts in what, given his traditionally hands-off approach, was an extraordinary intervention. The season began well with Ipswich’s two outstanding talents, Andre Dozzell and Teddy Bishop, coming to the fore. But problems that have dogged them throughout Lambert’s reign soon resurfaced, most crucially an absence of wit and aggression in the final third. Lambert can plead some mitigation. An inability to keep players fit predates him and casts a huge shadow. Kane Vincent-Young arrived from Colchester but has been out for 13 months; the centre-forward James Norwood was a high-profile signing from Tranmere but has rarely been fully fit since last September. Eleven first-team players are on the sidelines and the situation is too established to be dismissed as coincidence. It is not the ideal time, then, to lose your fitness coach. The club confirmed on Monday that Jim Henry had left and would continue on a “consultancy” basis. Henry had been seeking a return to Scotland but it is understood coaching-related disagreements among Lambert’s staff have brought that forward. There are no plans to replace Henry, so Ipswich will muddle on. That is exactly what they have done for most of Evans’s 13-year tenure. Even the official supporters’ club was moved to warn “the seeming stagnation of our club must not be allowed to continue” in an otherwise cautious statement on Monday. Perhaps they had confused “stagnation” with “accelerated decay”. At least it was something: the club’s supporters’ trust has been dormant for nearly four years, reflecting the organisation it should be scrutinising. In the end, though, Evans is the only person who can begin arresting Ipswich’s decline. They are in deep trouble and are running out of chances to wake up and put things right. Anyone choosing to take the club off his hands could still peruse an inviting prospectus: a rich history, a genuinely excellent academy and, more importantly than ever, one of the most progressive women’s setups in the country. For now Evans hopes Lambert will turn things around and the Guardian understands there is no prospect of a new manager being sought unless Ipswich fall well away from the top six. They visit Oxford on Tuesday in an effort to stave off that eventuality; by Walker’s measure a performance anywhere above average should, at least, begin to brighten the feeling of crushing sadness. Topics

....who sang with The Thunderbirds.... ....and Thunderbirds are "Go"... ....which is the message when you are Out of the Europa League Out of the League Cup, and trailing The Famous in the league

Actually, from what I have seen on-line, I think that Poileas Alba showed remarkable restraint last night. And it was kind enough to provide an escort out of town for the Ross County party.

Admissible in Court? I honestly don't know.

They would have had to have gathered evidence in the first place, to lose it, subsequently.

The media, the club, and, indeed, the authorities, have indulged -and lauded, garlanded, supported, and encouraged- these people for years: their transgressions ignored, their whims accommodated. They have spoiled their child, and, thus, fostered a staggering sense of entitlement and a belief that it can do as it wishes. Last night's disgraceful -criminal- behaviour was a manifestation of a temper tantrum, unsurprising, and brought on by results which did not suit. Is an appropriate remedy to hand? Depressingly, I foresee only more pandering and pampering. I notice that the club intends to investigate fully. The cynical among us may recall that they have heard that one before.

St Jude's.

A very professional performance from Rangers. I thought that Fa'kirk deserved some credit, played well, and kept going for the full 90.

That's true; why alienate the credulous?

Disgraceful behaviour at Piggery Place. Surely there will be questions and a debate at Hoyrood Wind Farm tomorrow, Poileas action , special courts (at, say the meat market), to deal with the fhilth, and exemplary sentences dispensed. Can we still send the c unts to the Antipodes?