Another international break and it all went a bit medieval. After being slain in a distant land we embarked on a spot of regicide. So it's bye, bye George and hello .... ? God save the king, whoever he might be.We don't know. Walter Smith and Mark McGhee have already said they don't want the job. Jim Jefferies won't talk about it, Craig Levein is hotly tipped but United are extending a half Click to continue reading...

Rushed this week as I prepare to host a dinner party. Middle class excess and all that. Still I hold on to the fact that I'll always be more Morrison's Value than Bullingdon Bertie. Such small moral victories keep us on the side of the righteous.On football matters I have been a bit detached this week. Click to continue reading...

Monday morning and you find yourself reflecting on a Lehman Brothers style financial armageddon at Ibrox and the Tynecastle faithful turning on their own captain.But by the end of the week Rangers are looking odds on for the first silverware of the season and Csabo Lazlo is touting himself as the successor to Sir Alex Ferguson. Click to continue reading...

The clocks have gone back. How did you spend the extra hour? This year I decided not to waste it squeezing in yet more alcopops or sleeping off the day's excess.Instead I've chosen to resurrect an old favourite. The Sunday Post of my childhood used to run a "What They Said" feature on the back page. This involved collating quotes from each of the Premier League managers about their team's Click to continue reading...

Because a football league is such a protracted affair it poses problems in a society that continues to demand instant gratification.Football is not a game that lends itself to a Twenty:20 style abbreviation and leagues remain the most lucrative format for clubs and the media.This means that over the course of a forty week season the media feels the need to engineer a number of different Click to continue reading...

Another week bookended by European woes. Rangers abject on Tuesday, Celtic toothless on Thursday. Both rock bottom of groups that did not appear, at first glance, as the toughest in the competitions. The sound you can hear is our co-efficient crashing through the floor.The natives are getting restless and pressure is growing on both Old Firm managers. Click to continue reading...

I've been suffering from a spot of writer's block over the weekend. The only way to get past it is to tackle it head on. So, with that in mind, I'm dragging myself away from The West Wing (Series 3) to take a meandering Monday look at some internet stuff that has caught my eye over the last couple of days. 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...

The less than welcome international break gives us an early chance to take stock. We're seven games in now and what have learned?CelticAtop the pile and Tony Mowbray seems confident that they'll be up there at the end of the season. That's the positive. The negatives are he doesn't yet have the players to play the kind of game he wants, he has not got any faith in the defenders Gordon Strachan Click to continue reading...

Back again. Another week of European misery. Rangers humbled – penalty or no penalty they got a "doing" – and Celtic drawing at home in a game that they would have expected to do better in. Still, at least they've both got a quiet weekend to look forward to.Onwards:Hamilton v St Johnstone It would be churlish not to start with the weekend fixture that most catches the eye. Click to continue reading...

After last night's abridged SPL predictions, here we are with the full card for today.Allow me to dream for a moment: Today I would really like one of these games to be a cracker. We've been in an early season malaise. Not much happening, not much excitement.Anyways. To business.Falkirk v KilmarnockEddie May be disappointed. Click to continue reading...

This week started badly, dipped towards the middle and then careered down hill as Friday evening approached.The result is a lot of moaning, a dash of effing and blinding and no time to do six predictions before 12.30 tomorrow.So here's a quick one to get the ball rolling.St Mirren v CelticHaving seen a much changed side roll over Falkirk in midweek Tony Mowbray will be hoping for more of the same Click to continue reading...

One has seen it all and bought, if not the T-shirt, then at least the freshly tailored shirt. The other is just starting out in one of football's most peculiar jobs. But they have more in common than you might think.It's one of the many odd quirks of being an Old Firm manager that one of the few people ever likely to understand the huge pressure you are under is the person you're expected to beat Click to continue reading...

After the disaster that was last week's SPL predictions I'm hoping for a turnaround this week. Four draws last week including both sides of the Old Firm. Who'd have thought it?So this week. Mixed fortunes in Europe for Glasgow's ugly sisters on the back of dropped SPL points last weekend. More of the same this week? Click to continue reading...

Ah, SPL. How we've missed you. After the disappointment of a Scottish team letting us down so badly against foreign opposition let us turn our attention once more to watching Aberdeen, Falkirk, Motherwell and Hearts.Will this weekend see the first break in the Old Firm armoury? Tony, Wattie. Wattie, Tony. Click to continue reading...

Reason for the post title?Well, none really. Although diminutive sitcom giant Gary Coleman does share my birthday in real life.And also so I can explain that last week's holiday was spent, instead of blogging, watching Eggheads. In one episode that very catchphrase formed the basis of a question. Which I, of course, got right. Click to continue reading...

Well then. Things just keep getting and better. This week's starter for ten: which team has contrived to be more miserable against foreign opponents? Falkirk? Aberdeen? Motherwell? Scotland? Or Hearts, who took our apparent incompetence to yet another gloom laden trough last night?Truly this is the summer of Scottish football's Inglorious Basterds. Click to continue reading...

How would ESPN fill the hole left behind by doomed broadcaster Setanta?By producing what is essentially a carbon copy of Setanta if their first live game of the season is any guide.They have turned away from being at the games. Instead we've got Ray Stubbs in a studio. A safe pair hands is Raymond. Under used by the BBC and given his big chance by ESPN. Click to continue reading...

How would ESPN fill the hole left behind by doomed broadcaster Setanta?By producing what is essentially a carbon copy of Setanta if their first live game of the season is any guide.They have turned away from being at the games. Instead we've got Ray Stubbs in a studio. A safe pair hands is Raymond. Under used by the BBC and given his big chance by ESPN. Click to continue reading...

What a weekend. A sporting achievement that mesmerised all who saw it. The combination of power and speed, the complete triumph of athleticism over what was considered possible. Fantastic.Sadly Usain Bolt doesn't play in the SPL. While Bolt was stopping the world for a little under 10 seconds the SPL was slowly chugging back to life looking for all the world like an obese, chain smoker trying to Click to continue reading...

What a weekend. A sporting achievement that mesmerised all who saw it. The combination of power and speed, the complete triumph of athleticism over what was considered possible. Fantastic.Sadly Usain Bolt doesn't play in the SPL. While Bolt was stopping the world for a little under 10 seconds the SPL was slowly chugging back to life looking for all the world like an obese, chain smoker trying to Click to continue reading...

The SPL returns today. I know this momentous moment in the nation's cultural and sporting life is being celebrated. Up and down the country flags are being raised as an entire population quivers with anticipation of finding out, in about 10 months, which one of two evil empires will win the league.Anyway. Click to continue reading...

The SPL returns today. I know this momentous moment in the nation's cultural and sporting life is being celebrated. Up and down the country flags are being raised as an entire population quivers with anticipation of finding out, in about 10 months, which one of two evil empires will win the league.Anyway. Click to continue reading...

In countries across the world the pre season build up always has the feel of a phony war.Sadly this year in Scotland has seen the phony war produce a number of high profile casualties.Falkirk, Motherwell and Aberdeen out of Europe. Scotland all but out of the 2010 World Cup. That's the football side. Click to continue reading...

In countries across the world the pre season build up always has the feel of a phony war.Sadly this year in Scotland has seen the phony war produce a number of high profile casualties.Falkirk, Motherwell and Aberdeen out of Europe. Scotland all but out of the 2010 World Cup. That's the football side. Click to continue reading...

OK, I'll admit I got just about every call wrong last year – although I did redeem myself slightly by identifying Tony Mowbray the moment wee Gordon stepped away from Celtic.But like Yves Makalambay I'm prepared to pull my gloves back on, hurl myself back into the fray and flirt with yet another calamity. Click to continue reading...

OK, I'll admit I got just about every call wrong last year – although I did redeem myself slightly by identifying Tony Mowbray the moment wee Gordon stepped away from Celtic.But like Yves Makalambay I'm prepared to pull my gloves back on, hurl myself back into the fray and flirt with yet another calamity. Click to continue reading...