nelsonRFC82

The season was not extended, the last game was the Scottish cup final and played on it's original scheduled date. The league did finish 4 days later than planned but the only alternative to that would have been for us to play Sat, Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun...given celtic complained about the delayed finish I guess that was their preferred solution! If they did extend the season by delaying the Scottish Cup Final it would have freed up another weekend for league business, as it was we played our final 3 league games in 6 days, dropping 5 points and losing league by 3!

Definitely seems worth a trip to the collection point on the day, surely there preference would be to sell any spares to Bears than force us to go on the look out for tickets in the home end. That's my plan anyway!

I get by with the lingo but don't exactly look local, will read up the Spanish for albino!

The cancellation of the Gretna game was a strange move...however given the SPFL currently allow you to cancel games to play "high-profile pre-season" friendlies (a pre-season game after the season has started!)...or at least did for celtic recently. Bizarre is what they do best!

Seems the game has been classed "high risk" and Villarreal are trying to clamp down on bears sitting with home fans; https://www.villarrealcf.es/en/news/item/21815-important-information-for-villarreal-Rangers I bought a ticket on Viagogo but now see they have removed all tickets so I am expecting that transaction to be cancelled. I would still hope there will be availability on the day but a heads-up to anyone travelling without tickets or with Home tickets.

GK: Goram, Klos, McGregor FB: Stevens, Hutton, Robertson, Numan CB: Butcher, Gough, Amoruso, Cuellar CM: Durrant, Gascoigne, B. Ferguson, van Bronckhorst WM: Cooper, Walters, Laudrup, Albertz F: McCoist, Hateley, de Boer, Jelavic

That goal against Aberdeen (about 1 min in) is a belter, some pass from Ian Ferguson and coolly finished off by Derek!

Yes & no, of course he would have likely won a few more slams, however the fact he has been competitive and won during an era with such greats probably means more to him than if he had dominated during an "easy" era.

I don't know Villarreal itself, but in pretty much every Spanish town you are going to find a fair few eating and drinking establishments; tapas bars etc. should be careful how I word this but eating out is ingrained in their culture! I am planning to arrive early in the day to get bearings etc, and head to the main square (stick on to be called Plaza Real or Plaza Mayor) and take it form there.

There aren't a great deal of hotels there in general, it's a pretty small town. You should still have options in neighbouring towns (Burriana, Castellon de la Plana for example); they are about 4/5 miles away and still seeing hotels at around €50/60 per night.

What's the script with finding tickets for the match? It is my first European away game, although technically a "home" game for me. Is there generally tickets available on the day in & around the town? Would there be an issue wearing colours if sat with home fans?

Horrible fucking disease, heartbreaking leaving behind such a young family!

Aye, think Wright actually seemed a bit sheepish after as if he maybe regretted it slightly? I get the feeling with Anderson that he has achieved everything he wants to achieve so maybe lacks a little in motivation at times. When he's on, he's an absolute beast but there are times where he's at nowhere near his top level and he quite literally seems to just laugh it off.

Well if Everton did tap him up, then Watford could argue this directly led to a downturn in performance, eventually forcing them to sack him (and likely paying compo!) and could argue Everton's liability in that?

To be fair, our history of signing players and paying them off or selling at a loss pre-date the banter years considerably!

He was undoubtedly one of Denmark's best players through 92 Euros to World Cup in 1998; think he was named in the Fifa dream team for France '98? Edit: Just read that in 1993/94, when Laudrup played with Milan, they won the title scoring only 36 goals all season; so not sure that was a team that was built to utilise attacking talents. Also regarding euro performances with us, looking at things retrospectively I don't think we were set up particularly well for european success in those days (although expected it at the time). Bar 1992/93 (what a season that was!), we didn't really make any impact. Have a feeling at that time, Walter was more of an aggressive motivator type coach but perhaps our teams lacked the know-how & organisation to compete in Europe. Second time around, Walter seemed to be a much more tactically aware coach...whilst not a european game the league cup final against St Mirren where we won with 9 men was just utterly ridiculous, he seemed to be pushing & pulling players here there and everywhere!

Like the fact we are going about our business quickly and with not too much fuss. Also, based upon signings so far, seem to looking to shore up the spine of the team at long last!

1 - Goram 2 - Ricksen 3 - Robertson 4 - Gough 5 - Numan 6 - Ferguson 7 - probably Kanchelskis...or maybe The Dalcio? 8 - Gascoigne 9 - McCoist 10 - Novo 11 - Laudrup/Albertz

Going way back, in fact still ChampMan rather than FM days...1998/99 I think. For those of that vintage will remember Mark Kerr, Willie Howie, Alan Archibald as essential signings. At the end of the first season Ryan Giggs would always be out of contract and "rumoured" to leave Man Utd but notoriously difficult to actually persuade him to do so...however did manage to sign up for Rangers once. He went on to pretty much score and/or assist in every game and have an average rating in the 8/9 region. Sensational!

I went to the Supercopa game this year, it was easy enough to get tickets to as was not included on the Barca season book so literally thousands available direct through Barca website at face value. Face value varies from about £100 - £250 depending on where you sit. Similarly, even at the league game a few weeks ago, there were tickets available from Barca directly at face value...but much more limited and only go on sale relatively close to the game (about a week or so before the game). Once the fixtures are announced you can usually register for ticket updates for any game https://www.fcbarcelona.com/tickets/football/football-tickets To secure in advance, likes of Viagogo will always be selling tickets...will likely pay at least double of face value so min. £200 at a guess.

The synchronised fall to the floor from them both FFS!

It quite clearly is already; the qualifiers are seeded, the play-offs are seeded, the group draw is seeded. Is this really much different?

Given our luck, this time they would all tupe!

Have said before but when King talks football matters it sounds like he is trying to explain it to businessmen and when he talks business matters it sounds like he is trying to explain it to football fans...the end result being neither its intended target and we are just left with often ridiculous sound bytes!

Very wishful thinking, it's the 3rd time, under 3 different managers, that we have lost by 4 goals in under 2 years! Scunnered!!!