Congratulations to Slovenia, a pair of bad managers, strange cures and daylight robbery all feature in this week's good, the bad and the ugly. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Good

It's been a good week for Uruguay, Algeria, Portugal, Greece, France, New Zealand and Slovenia as they all booked their places in next year's World Cup finals with play-off victories over the past few days.

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For some reason, it seems like ages since last had a round of club football, but we're sure happy that it's back on the agenda this weekend, because, well, this has been another particularly stressful week in the constantly varying Scottish football landscape. Most friendlies are futile. These days they serve only as an excuse to increase [. Click to continue reading...

Scotland suffered an embarrassing 3-0 defeat to Wales at the weekend to signal the end of George Burley's Scotland career after only 22 months in charge. This was not the first time that Burley's position as Scotland manager had come under scrutiny, however where he had been given more time previously, time had well and truly run out for him this time around.

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Some of Scotland's players are "too thick" to understand George Burley's coaching methods, according to the sacked manager's nephew, Craig. Click to continue reading...

Now that the bunting has been torn down from between the tenements and the houses and the last of the party revellers bundled into a taxi for the long ride home, the mandarins at the SFA find themselves in a situation that gets less unique with every tournament that passes Scottish football by.

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Now that the bunting has been torn down from between the tenements and the houses and the last of the party revellers bundled into a taxi for the long ride home, the mandarins at the SFA find themselves in a situation that gets less unique with every tournament that passes Scottish football by. But they should [. Click to continue reading...

After an embarrassing string of results, George Burley's reign as Scotland manager has come to an end, costing the SFA an estimated £300,000 after he recently signed a contract extension.

The vast problems with Scottish football are not down to George Burley. Granted he hasn't had the most fruitful of terms in charge, but give him some credit, he was better than Berti Vogts.

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It was a contrite and regretful Gordon Smith that broke the news of George Burley's departure. Or was it? Interpreting for the cynical:The decision was taken after a meeting with the board of directors and, subsequently, the national coach. The board was in unanimous agreement. The rest of them agreed with my decision. Click to continue reading...

It did not take Chick Young long. In his obituary of George Burley's reign as national team boss the great oracle of our game points out that a new manager means a new chance for Kris Boyd, Allan McGregor and Barry Ferguson.Fair enough. A new broom and new beginnings. No manager taking the job should have his hands tied. Click to continue reading...

And so George Burley's reign ended as we knew - and in his heart of hearts he must have known - it would. The sheer inevitability of his sacking was blatantly obvious at around 3.30 Saturday afternoon.In truth it has been inevitable throughout a 14 game reign that never looked like building momentum. Click to continue reading...

George Burley was finally removed from his post as manager of the Scotland national side this evening, bringing to an end the managerial run of a man who in the end "managed" to make even Berti Vogts look good, and whose dismal record in charge of the national squad is second only to the late [...] Click to continue reading...

Who saw this coming?

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The Scottish Football Association tonight confirmed George Burley's sacking as Scotland manager.

The SFA acted quickly after Scotland fans turned on Burley during Saturday's 3-0 friendly defeat by Wales.

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Scotland's 0-3 defeat to Wales at the weekend has all but sealed Burley's fate, however, and reports from Bonnie Scotland state George will soon be on the dole. But who would replace Burley? And are Scotland's failures really a management issue? Graeme Souness may have just crossed himself off a few Christmas card lists as he told the press he wouldn't want the Scotland job primarily because the country has produced no talent to work with. Click to continue reading...

Ramsey was incandescent in Wales 3-0 victory over a disjointed Scotland side. The third goal reminded me of the way Fabregas took off against Spurs for his goal. And now George Burley faces the axe.

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Bad day for England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland who all lost today.The Republic who lost 1-0 at home to France in their World Cup play-off 1st leg at Croke Park to leave them with an uphill task to qualify for South Africa next summer, away leg on Wednesday.England played the mighty Brazil without alot of injured players in Quatar and lost to a Nilmar goal on 47 mins. Click to continue reading...

Once more, with a little less feeling.That probably sums up another abject Scottish performance as well as anything could.This was bad, bad, bad. Scotland were humiliated again by Wales. The question remains: how many of these performances can we endure before a change is made.Before the game George Burley justified his selection of a full back, Danny Fox, because "he'd worked ever so hard" Click to continue reading...

I remember when I was young.I remember it always being sunny with quick witted street urchins running happily on the car free streets performing footballing miracles with tennis balls.Actually, I don't.I do, however, remember our old sage Craig Brown. How he would puff his chest out with pride when talking about the sudden availability of "young Alistair" or "young Paul. Click to continue reading...

A deal that could well get the green light from Rafa.

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Liverpool are closely monitoring Hamburg winger Eljero Elia, according to reports in German newspaper Bild.

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Scotland manager George Burley has said that more funding for facilities has to be made available if the country is to improve and truly compete at international level. "We haven't got the facilities, we haven't got the backing from the government," said Burley. "We played four or five hours a day. Click to continue reading...

That's international week over with and fans of Scotland are scratching their heads as to what the point of our Japanese adventure was. All we really know is that George Burley is not scared to play replacement replacements if required. Probably didn't have to go all that way to find that out.In SPL world we are being buffeted by winds of change from across the border and over the north Atlantic. Click to continue reading...

15.10// We've been away, but now we're back. Not much has happened since our last update. Or has it? Click to continue reading...

The shorthand that today's soundbite culture demands insists that it is called the "Andrew Driver Law" but this week's new ruling on international eligibility is about much more than the Hearts winger.Any holder of a British passport who has spent five years at Scottish schools is now free to play for Scotland. Click to continue reading...

This is a non-prediction prediction article.Tricky to have a stab at guessing the score when you've got hardly any chance of guessing of the team. All I can say with some confidence is, whoever they are, however they play, savour the sight of this Scotland team. You will never see the starting line up in the same squad again let alone in the same eleven. Click to continue reading...

Being a Dundee United fan, it would presumably be welcome news that club legend Paul Hegarty has joined George Burley's coaching staff for the national side. The fact that he only collected a handful of caps in his playing career is surely nothing to be worried about – there are after all a number of high-profile backroom string-pullers with comparable experience – but it isn't just the emotional, tactical and judgment-related rollercoaster ride of Burley's reign that flavours this appointment with a lack of ambition.

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On the subject of obsessive fans I was speaking to somebody last night who was determined that he was going to make the trip to Japan to watch Scotland next weekend. I told him I thought he was mad. Most of the players, I said, don't want to go.No surprise then that Monday morning kicked off with Danny Fox, Robert Snodgrass, Kevin Thomson and Garry O'Connor withdrawing and a major question mark Click to continue reading...

So George Burley lives to fight another qualifying campaign.Or so it seems. George Peat has suggested he could still be "released" if things don't go well in October's friendly with Japan.So having survived a weak qualifying campaign, having come through a review of that campaign, the manager's fate may now be decided by a meaningless game some 6000 miles away. Click to continue reading...

George Burley kept his job last week after failing to get Scotland to the World Cup but his back room team was not so lucky, former Scotland captain Gary McAllister has been approached and offered a coaching role with the national team. Capped 57 times for his country, the 44-year-old would ... Click to continue reading...

With the commencement of the UEFA Champions League group stages this midweek, an important piece of news was relegated to the back of most reporting outlets. Perhaps another reason behind the lack of coverage for the story in question was the refusal, on part of most football lovers, to recollect any part of the uninspiring internationals break.

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George Burley will remain as Scotland manager despite having failed to lead his squad to the play-offs for next year's World Cup, the Scottish Football Association (SFA) confirmed on Tuesday. A 1-0 home defeat by the Netherlands last week ended Scotland's chances of reaching the World Cup finals and was widely . Click to continue reading...

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Leaders of the SFA met this morning to determine the fate of Manager George Burley after Scotland failed to qualify for the World Cup finals. Reports claim Burley will stay on after SFA Chief executive Gordon Smith claimed "this is not the time for change, it is a time to invest faith in the manager and the players. Click to continue reading...

I wrote last week that it would take more than sacking George Burley to spark a sustained upturn in Scotland's fortunes.That opinion is, of course, quite common and it has been given fulsome discussion elsewhere. I'll not bore you with a list of links but reading this excellent piece by Kevin McKenna from Sunday's Observer might give some idea of how far down our problems go:I thought I was Click to continue reading...

Come in Mr Burley. Your time is up. Or is it?At various points before the Macedonia game it appeared that the SFA were ready to sack the national coach. So bloodthirsy did they appear that I thought he might actually be beheaded in the dugout after our inevitable failure against Holland.But then the team came to life in the second half against Macedonia and carried that form into the game against Click to continue reading...

George, I'm afraid we're going to let you go. Second place was the minimum requirement from this group and you've failed. So we think it's time to find someone else.I can confirm, however, that both myself and Gordon will also go and we'll be recommending a root and branch review of the way Scottish football is run. Click to continue reading...

George Burley's future as Scotland manager may be hanging in the balance but Ally McCoist believes the national team's problems date back much further than the current regime.

The former Scotland striker always had faith in his nation's ability to compete against the best in the world and that belief was reinforced when he took his seat alongside the Tartan Army at Hampden and watched Burley's men match the might of Holland.

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