DIDN'T you just know, with all the hoo-hah about Terry Butcher's idyllic lifestyle in Inverness, he would be Hibs' preferred candidate for the poisoned chalice which is the Easter Road manager's job.
From a professional level, I don't blame Big Tel for being tempted, Hibs are a much-bigger team that ICT, but, the bigger the team, the greater the pressure.
The Hibs squad will be, if Tel takes the job, playing for their positions between now and January, otherwise, he will be bringing in a bunch of unknowns from the lower English Leagues come then.
I watched the Edinburgh Derby last week and came to the conclusion, Hibs are a bad lot. After Jamie Macdonald's second great save, you seemed to sense, Hibs could play shootie-in all night and they wouldn't score; thereafter, their already poor technical skills deserted them totally - these guys will have to put in a serious amount of work on individual and team skills if they are to survive what will surely be a huge cull at the end of the season - I've seen more-talented juniors.
Aye, whau's yer Famous Five noo?
SPEAKING of juniors - I hear there was nearly a riot in Auchinleck on Saturday, as Stranraer scored that late, late leveller at Stair Park. There was, apparently, a gang of Talbot Bees line-up at the pay-out window at the local bookies, and they weren't best-pleased when the equaliser went in.
Still, they'll be back this week, hoping for the right result, albeit the odds on a Talbot win will have shortened considerably. Given home advantage at Beechwood, I fancy this time round, they will sink Stranraer, and go on to face Clyde in the next round.
NO COMPLAINTS either about the composition of the Scotland squad to face USA and Norway. WGS is clearly building a team ethos around the national side and, with nobody truly pushing their case to break into the squad, he was never going to tinker too-much with his squad.
As I have said before, however, games like this give him a chance to find a right back, assuming Alan Hutton doesn't suddenly convince Paul Lambert that he cannot do without him. Otherwise, not too-much debate will there be around the team.
Who starts between the sticks though? Gilks or Marshall - decisions, decisions.
ONE OF the joys of life these days is laughing at this week's Independence Scare Story in the Daily Mail or Mail on Sunday - the two best recruiting sergeants the Yes campaign have.
They are, I think, getting desperate, however. Sunday's MoS effortsuggested that Alex Salmond is supporting England in the World Cup in Brazil next summer, on the basis that an England win would kick-off such a wave of gloating and celebrating darn sarf that we Scots would vote Yes in overwhelming numbers, just to get away from them.
Aye Right. I feel Wee Eck, like most of the Tartan Army, wants to see England crash and burn at the quarter-final stage, just far enough to get them excited and dreaming of bringing the trophy "Back Home", but not so-far that they really begin to have delusions of adequacy.
No, a last eight failure is just about right for England - and Scotland.
My decision is final... Marshall. There can be only one.
ReplyDeleteAs for Capn Bandage? Aye, it seems that the English disease of greed has finally travelled north. Big Butch has a job for life up there in the backwoods, I'll give him two seasons at Easter Road before he has all the forgotten career stalwarts of Northampton Town boarding trains for the Hibs terminus. What then? More hackneyed stories about how good it is in England compared to the weather up north? Do us all a favour Tel, plant a few more turnips up there in Nessieland, keep the English monsters on there side of the fence down south in the bogs. Cobblers, the whole fecking lot of em.