calscot

Totally agree. He thought he was special, turned down a good package, and look at him now. Stevie Smith is our best left back since Numan.

We're about 10 games in and already we've got a long injury list from the first team. Letizi Klos Smith Murray Burke Sionko Clement That's quite a bit when you consider we've a first team squad of about 25. Why do we always seem to have this problem no matter the players, manager, coach or facilities? I hope Smith will recover quickly as Papac seems the only cover there with Murray injured, but we need Sasa as centre half. I think Adam played left back once and I suppose Hutton or Bardsley might be able to swap sides but it doesn't look good. The fact we have a fairly young team should mean they all get off the treatment table reasonably quickly. Let's hope their replacements grab there chance like MacGregor.

I pass on by too. Txt spk is understandable for SMS when you only get a few hundred characters and also have to painfully use 10 buttons for all characters. But it's totally inappropriate when you can put in as long a post as you like (I should know!) and have a proper keyboard at your disposal. To me it's a bit like walking sideways to fit through the tight spaces in a crowd - it helps on that occasion, but walking sideways when you've got plenty of room is cumbersome and just makes you look like a sandwich short of a picnic... Reading txt spk is like trying to listen to someone who's mumbling badly and using a lot of slang, but they're not doing because they have to, they're doing it because they think it's cool for some reason. The equivalent in the 70's would be someone talking to you all the time like they're on a CB radio...

Bit strange as to why he didn't sign for Hibs or Dundee Utd who were both reputedly interested. I'm sure he turned them down for money reasons but I can't imagine Raith paying much.

I wouldn't say that's the aim, more the result of the implementation.

Yep both sides end up pretty much the same despite their opposing ideals. The only difference that remains is that Facism tends to have one dictator whereas the Communists are ruled by a bunch of them.

Left wing tend to want higher taxes to pay for more public services and public ownership. They tend to want more government control over industry and our day to day lives. It stems from a philosophy of cooperation, the community pulling together and sense of equality where like Robin Hood, money is taken from the rich to pay for the poor. The more left wing tend towards nationalising industries and building council estates. Left wing politics has brought us the national health system, social services, unemployment benefit, free schools and the national postal service. As they try to embrace everyone they are responsible for equal opportunities as well as political correctness. Also British rail and other public transport. Labour are the traditional moderate left British party. In the extreme left they become communists where ideally everyone is supposedly equal, there is no rich or poor, everyone has a job, a home, food to eat and there is emphasis on art and sport to develop minds and body. The government controls everything for the good of the people. This is Karl Marx's Utopia. The reality is that there is no incentive to work hard, massive corruption, no innovation, a top down hierarchy where blanket decisions are made in ignorance, the suppression of the individual as well as religion, freedom of speech and thought, which also results in most people living in drab run down blocks of flats with little luxury goods driving terrible cars that have been designed decades ago etc, while the top government people live a life of luxury and privilege. It also results in no-one taking responsibility for consequences of things like pollution etc as they are too busy trying to meat targets handed down from above. The Soviet Union was an example of this. The right wing want the opposite. Low taxes, less public services, less interference in industry and day to day lives. Their philosophy is that individuals should strive to succeed and competition allows choice and better results. You should choose where to spend your money and nothing is free, the poor are just failures or an inconvenience. Basically every man for himself. More right wing tends towards complete privatisation, building of private schools and hospitals, reduction of spending on free schools and the NHS, removal of public transport and the building of more roads. They would also want the removal of unemployment benefit after a short period and no minimum wage. Right wing governments have created large international corporations, private health, insurance companies, quality luxury cars, consumer goods, competitive markets. The traditional moderate right party in Britain is the Conservatives. The extreme right are fascists who want to get rid of the hangers on in society such as the old, the unemployed, the disabled etc. They are called "useless eaters". They tend to discriminate against people who are different and are down on diversity of religion and race. They want to stop immigration and eject foreign nationals. They want no public services and everyone to pay for everything themselves. They tend to go to war quickly and with great force "to defend their way of life". The result usually means a dictatorship where dissidents are imprisoned and killed, ethnic minorities and religions are discriminated against, individualism is ironically repressed as if you don't agree with the party line then you are an enemy of the state. Poor people are left to starve while the rich live life in luxury. Again ironically there has to be far more public spending on law and order due to crime from the lower and under classes trying to eke a living until the whole country becomes a police state. Hitler's Germany is an example. An example of far right but not fascism is the US. They worship capitalism and have less controls on industry and people's lives. Their country is a mess as the pursuit of a quick buck means that no-one takes responsibility for environmental or social impact. There is little help for the poor and freedom of choice allows the expansion of a gun culture turning into gang warfare. There are many people below the breadline while the rich live in gated citadels and pay for armed guards. Obviously around the centre is the best balance. The centre parties tend to be called "Liberals" or "Democrats" and believe in competition while the government controls things like monopolies, standards, environmental impacts, healthiness of food etc. They are responsible for the government watchdog agencies such as OFTEL, OFWAT and the Monopolies Commission. They like to raise taxes to pay for better schooling and NHS but without overspending. They believe in catering for the needs of the individual balanced with the needs of the community. They are the least likely to go to war. Britain stays pretty central by virtue of the political pendulum rocking back and forth between two moderate parties who are on opposite sides of the spectrum. This is now more so, with Labour having moved to the right a tad and the Tories now moving more to the left since Maggie Thatcher's days.

I've just read that climatic conditions are also taken into account. The schedule I gave is the first approximation and the constraints shuffle things from there.

I worked it out from the info from a website which explains the format. I could be wrong or there could be complications for teams from the same country or city which change things. Here's the dates: Group stage, Matchday 1 19.10.2006 Group stage, Matchday 2 02.11.2006 Group stage, Matchday 3 23.11.2006 Group stage, Matchday 4 29/30.11.2006 Group stage, Matchday 5 13/14.12.2006

Group B and D look quite hard too.

yep group H looks like the group of death candidate.

I think it's a pretty reasonable draw for us to progress, if a little uninspiring. I would bet on PLG against Auxerre especially now Guy Rioux (sp?) is retired. Maccabi is a must win and it's probably best that it's at home to avoid any argument about safe venues. I would hope we could beat Partizan at home leaving an interesting trip to Italy for a pretty much unknown (at least to me) middling Italian team. I would be very disappointed not to progress from this group.

I think the playing order is: 1st Matchday Livorno v Rangers 2nd Matchday Rangers v Maccabi Haifa 3rd Matchday Auxerre v Rangers 4th Matchday No game 5th Matchday Rangers v Partizan Belgrade

Maccabi are 5th with a game in hand which could take them to second.

Maccabi Hiafa Auxerre are 8th in France. Partizan are 6th in Serbia. Livorno are 8th in the Italian league although form wise that's difficult to tell due to the points deductions.

Away I think.

Livorno next.

I think it's away to Auxerre and home to Partisan.

Just had a look and that's true. Coincidentally, if things stay the same as right now, we'll start next season with the exact same coef as Celtic and be joint 45th... Weird.

The Bucharest teams are flying high in Europe and Palermo is doing very well in Italy. They are teams to avoid. Although I wouldn't mind a chance to give an English team a good thrashing, I think Spurs could be a difficult if glamourous tie. So I wouldn't really want them for a 5th pot team. Blackburn would do instead. I hope we get a couple of easier teams as we really need to progress and we're not the finished article yet. The Scottish coefficient is also dropping rapidly so both the old firm need a run of results to bolster it. If we don't watch out we could drop to 16th in a couple of years time and lose our second CL place. We've also dropped to 55th place in the team rankings which will mean harder draws in future if we don't get a good run this year. Celtic have dropped to 25th which isn't bad considering last season's debacle.

Rod and Papac

I would say this also depends on how the current squad members play and how happy Smith is with them.

But he did score 2 free kicks against us the last time we played them. However that was over four years ago.

I thought SPL red cards counted towards the league cup and vice versa... Or maybe that was before the SFL and SPL split... Or do they do it in England and I'm getting mixed up?

Is no-one picking Bardsley? I thought he served his one match suspension against Dunfermline as it's the League cup and not the Scottish Cup.