rugal

Great analysis. I mean look at that fat bastard Scott Brown. He wouldnt get into a championship team. How many other mid level nations have a 41 year old in defence? The argument about speed is also correct too many of the players are slow and unathletic. Look at Bougherras goal against seville and see what a quick turn of pace when its used, can do. Thats why an otherwise non entity like maloney does well for scotland. he has pace if nothing else

well ive just seen that link you were kind enough to put up and it confirms my thinking up until the uefa cup final 2008 he operated on a shoe string and did well bringing in guys. In the transfer window immediately afterwards he fucked up as below and than the new team went out of europe at the first hurdle and 12 million in guaranteed revenue wiped off. Summer Transfer Window 2008 Steven Davis - From Fulham, £3 million Madjid Bougherra - From Charlton, £2.5 million Pedro Mendes - from Portsmouth, £3 million Kyle Lafferty - From Burnley, £3.5 million Kenny Miller - From Derby County, £1.9 million Andrius Velicka - From Viking, £1 million Maurice Edu - From F.C Toronto, £2.5 million Aaron Niguez - From Valencia (loan) Miller is useless, of that list id say only Davis, Bougherra and Mendes were acceptable. The rest a waste of money

The following have been a terrible waste: McCulloch - 2.5m Lafferty - 3.5m Naismith - 2m Thomson - 2m Edu - 2.5m Velicka - 1m Miller - 2m Whittaker - 2m TOTAL- 17.5 million. And we overpaid by 1 million on Mendes. No one else would have paid 3.5 million it was a panic buy and harry redknapp is far shrewder than Smith. We could have spent that 17.5 million on 2 or 3 experienced names with a bit of quality,especially a star striker and playmaker, luxury players with a bit of class who could have helped the youngsters along in tandem with Davis, Bougherra and Mendes. A Elano as a playmaker , and a striker like Ruud Van Nistelrooy experienced at the top and still highly capable. Or failing that bring in Alfonso Alves for £5 million he's okay at this level and just needs confidence.And why the fuck arent we getting in south americans like wigan who would prefer to play here than wigan.

Who said that??? Have a look at the 'moaning bastards' thread. It's comedy gold. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha is he actually for real?????? or is he actuially Walter Smith is disguise??? I trace all these woes to walters mistakes after the uefa cup final. The loss to kaunas putting us out of champions league, and the lousy spending. £8.2 million in that period could have got some very decent players if the scouting was decent. Even a tuncay who went to Stoke would have been around £3.5 mil,a Stephen Appiah could have been got in on a free, Aruna Dindane wouldnt have cost more than £1.5 mill and he is comparable to jean claude darcheville who did a great job. Italian and German teams have been able to buy wisely on far reduced transfer budgets.

Sorry I'm an old duffer new to this site but an old fan (literally) I do think Smith did a great job in the 2007-2008 season and for Scotland just before than,but since than his record has hardly been exemplary. he sold Cuellar, Cousin and Darcheville and bought in crappier players and Pedro Mendes. He has tried to bring Scottish players through, but the likes of Whitaker are not good enough and what was the point of signing Charlie Miller when you already had Boyd. We should have beaten the Romanians in their own ground and Ibrox and that would have been 6 points. Smiths tactics were at fault in both. I look these days at players like Tuncay,Pavlochenko,Toni , Dzeko being touted in the press and know that 7-8 years ago rangers would have been in for them. We always had a few big names and were able to buy any decent player a team outside the old firm had.......now we cant and i really think for the first time in yonks , a non old firm team in HIbs will win the SPL