Micky

Can't cook to save my life - but the guy has entertained me for hours with his programs and unique presentation. Sad day - he's probably now frequenting that great big kitchen in the sky and sampling a fine wine... peach Keith.

In terms of results and league status Yeovil Town are on par with us - if you check, you'll actually find that they are better off than us. If you want to measure parity by ground capacity, how many fans turn up and how much money the owner has - then we are streets ahead. But guess what - non of those things gets you any points. Yep, we spent 1 million pounds on Ricky Lambert - Yeovil will probably never be able to afford such luxury - but currently their league status is better than ours, so they probably don't care. At the end of the season, we can have a nice shiny stadium, billionairre owner, superstars galore - but if we don't have the points on the board it will mean nothing. We are on par with lots of little teams - it may hurt, but get used to it.

I think you'll find it's been covered on the 'Burley will be sacked today' thread John..!

Actually not a bad game plan. That said though, it will be interesting to see what: A. The fans do and B. The players do if we go behind. And if we go behind by more than 1 goal - that will be very interesting.

If he does get sacked anytime soon, George might see fit to apply for the DofF role here at SMS.

The thread is only 4 posts long and you can probably see the reasons as to a lot of our problems. We think we are good. When will people start to realise that we are no better than a lot of teams in this league - if we were then we wouldn't be here. We are on par with most of the teams in this league - that includes Yeovil Town, get used to it. Believing that they are turning up to make up the numbers is about as foolish as any professional sportsperson can get. Once we regularly start to win football matches, and achieve promotion twice thus regaining a place in the top league - then I might believe that we are good. Until, I will aford our competitors the respect they deserve.

Ahhh but perhaps you have missed the real problem. The only reason that we don't put decent balls into the box is because we never get it wide, we play with no width, we are always too narrow - hence we are never in a position to put balls into the box. No width, not wide enough, same every game - ask Derry, he'll tell ya...! As for corners - well, we are just crap at corners. Last player I remember scoring from a corner, probably Ken Monkou..!

Errr what...?

Failed to cover a crowd riot and the game being abandoned though - sloppy...! But I take your point..!

Nothing quite like covering all the bases eh...!!!

... and Mr Best scores for Coventry too...!!!

Best mate works in Nuneaton and is a Coventry season ticket holder who gave me the low down. Funny you should ask actually as I was chatting to him today (my mate, not Mifsud..!) and he still says to stear well clear.

Ohhhhh, you've gone and ruined everybodies fun now. There he was, lying on the floor and we were all happy as pigs putting the boot in - and then you had to come along and put some perspective on things. Perhaps he wasn't a drunkard, perhaps he didn't do a bad job, perhaps the Scotland job was harder than we percieve, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.... Nice post, even though it will probably have you cast off to the '19c corner' for the rest of the evening.

Not really - the only desperate change of tack that I can see are those that are so bereft of meaningful, cogent argument with reference to the orgininal debate, that have now resorted to the somewhat predictable 'character assasination' - all fully substantiated of course by crass inuendo and rumour. Nice thread - glad to see that we have all managed to put the dark days behind us.

Apparently not - initial agreements (I'm led to believe) were that he would be paid 50% of the outstanding contract value should Scotland not qualify and he leaves the job. He was on 300K a year, has another year on his contract, and therefore stands to pocket 150k once somebody pulls the trigger. Nice work if you can get it.

Exactly, although there could be some amount of critisism levelled at GB for that as well. Would appear to have been a disciplinary / respect issue there- and perhaps George did not have the dressing room togeather at the time. Was very impressed with Walter Smiths take on it though - very professional and very brave - took no shyte and laid down the law. But as you said - it did absolutely nothing to help Scotlands cause.

Good post. It's very easy for us English to sit and gloat at other home nations - and this was a very cheap dig at George Burley. The bottom line is managers of these teams have very little to work with in reality. GB was on hiding to nothing, the task was always going to be very difficult. Personally I would love to have all of the home nations qualifying - it makes for a much more interesting competition. We are seen as the big fish but the reality is we have much more and better resources. When NI beat England in the last WC qualifiers was absolutely great for the country - I'm not saying that I want it to happen all the time - but once in a while, lets face it, the 'little guy' must get some success.

Totally agree with this. When GB took the Scotland job I said that he would fail, but only because Scotland do not produce enough quality for any manager to have a chance of success. It is indeed interesting that certain individuals have jumped ship - and I totally agree that this is because they were quick to realise that they managed to get the squad to over achieve and that it was all down hill from thereon in. As for Furgie - well, it speaks for itself that he has not interest whatsoever in managing his National side. Given the players that Scotland have, the wiley old fox can see straight away that he is on a 'hiding to nothing', and if he can't do it - then let's face it, who can?

Not for me thanks - tends to turn up when the cameras do, but otherwise work shy and probably not suited to a long hard slog in League 1. We need team players right now - not over inflated egos - and for those reasons, I'm out..!

Nice of you to give it your undevided attention before extolling us all with your critical view Jonny. Naturally your comments are valid as you could obviously do much better - go on, show us.

Errrr age is obviously kickin' in - you appear to have completely forgotten many of the debates on here, what, only 6 - 12 months ago. We have our fair share of 'fairweather' fans. Man Utd - last year, full house, where are they now? So all fans, probably loyal yes - but fanatical - definately not..! All IMHO of course. Oh - btw - just downloaded the The Soldiers track and it's not too shabby, worth a listen, go on, give them your support too, they really do deserve it.

Errrr what....???? Edit: Ohhh right - you are referring to this: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/2628415/These-three-battle-hardened-hunks-are-serving-soldiers-who-have-just-signed-a-record-deal.html Gary Chilton - Pastimes: Fanatical Southamton FC fan - top man..!! Hope the lads do ok with it - good luck to them.

To be fair - the guy has conducted himself impecably throughout this whole ****in' mess. Saw him intereviewed on TV after a recent game and he refused to blame anything other than the teams performance on the day for losing. This maybe true - but I think he's a decent guy who deserves a better job. Perhaps if true and he does get the boot better things will come his way - let's face it - not harder to get better than pompee is it?

Was exactly what I was going to say. If the like of 9/11 can be planned and executed in America - it can happen anywhere in the world. That is why our guys are currently in Afghanistan. It is interesting to note as well that there are lots of countries Armed Forces currently serving over there (Germany, Denmark and the like) that (for political reasons) wouldn't normally serve in these hot spots. They are there now though - because they too understand the very real threat of another 9/11.

I do - but I don't think they will. Even if they do though - they could get seriously embarrassed at the finals, so perhaps non qualification is a better option for them really.