Mark Atkinson and Andrew Smith discuss the weekend's football, Philippe Clement's impact at Rangers and the upcoming Scotland double header.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to this episode of the Scotsman's Football Show. My name is Mark Atkinson and
00:08 I'm joined by one of our chief football writers, Andrew Smith, this lunchtime. Andrew, how
00:13 are you doing?
00:14 Great, yourself?
00:15 I'm good, thank you. I'm good. We've got a break in domestic football. It's been relentless
00:20 for the past few weeks, but we're now in the world of international football and for once
00:25 it doesn't really matter for Scotland. We'll come to that later, but let's talk about the
00:30 weekend's matches in particular, the games that you and I were both at on Sunday. I'm
00:35 going to start with your one, Celtic 6 Aberdeen 0. Pretty emphatic for the champions.
00:43 Yeah, but we're just... me and you were discussing off air. I don't know if I've ever seen a
00:49 game where a team has scored three goals in added time. Now I know these days added time
00:54 is now quite a large slice of how long a game lasts. So it was 10 minutes, but we've seen
01:01 longer than 10 minutes and in those 10 minutes it was the 92nd minute, 96th minute and 99th
01:09 minute. I mean, Aberdeen just completely capitulated, much to Robson's ire, because he perhaps thought
01:18 they were going to go away. I mean, they could have been 6-0 down in the first 30 minutes,
01:23 let's be honest about it. Roos made a few good saves, some of Celtic's finishing wasn't
01:28 exactly pristine, but they'd seem to weather that in the next. It was a really strange
01:33 game. You could split it into three half hours. First half hour, Celtic pummeled Aberdeen.
01:39 Next half hour, there was a little bit of give and take and then the last half hour,
01:43 Celtic kind of went for it all over again and Aberdeen just... I mean, they were set
01:48 up there 5-4-1. You thought this could cause Celtic a few problems. They could be stubborn.
01:54 We'd seen them and Pauk performed so well. It seems to me that when Connor Barne, I know
02:00 they had to make four changes perhaps in terms of the exertions against Pauk or whatever,
02:07 but they do seem to lose a lot with Barne all of a sudden. I think he's a guy that's
02:11 making them tick and Jamie McGrath was also injured. So the loss of those two seemed to
02:17 be just... Celtic had free reign. Celtic had free reign.
02:21 Yeah, they did. Looking at the highlights, Andrew, it really was a one-sided match and
02:26 you're right to point out Barron in particular, who's come in after a difficult time at Aberdeen
02:32 and has really improved. But for Celtic, it was important, wasn't it, to sign off in style
02:39 given what had happened in Madrid earlier on in the week and given what's happening
02:43 across the city as well. Just a wee reminder that they can dish out a really strong result
02:49 of performance.
02:50 Yeah, it's probably what's been missing from Roger's return. There hasn't been one
02:58 of these absolute horsings. I think it's Celtic's biggest win since they beat D. United, which
03:08 was... I suppose that would have been about a year ago, would it?
03:11 More than a year ago. The 9-0 game. I think that was August. I think that was earlier
03:16 in the season.
03:17 It was as early as that. I just remember it being really cold. So I suppose maybe that
03:20 says something about quayside weather. I was at that one. So that's been quite a long time
03:29 for one of these, as I say, absolute slappings. So they did need that and they also thought
03:36 how are they going to... It was Maida, a man who seems to carry so much of their energy
03:42 with them and certainly their energy levels, never mind Aberdeen, their energy levels seemed
03:47 to go the way of Aberdeen's yesterday in Madrid as soon as he received his red card midway
03:54 through the first half. So you thought how are they going to cope with that?
03:57 Yang has been a bit hit and miss. Palma's certainly been producing, but those two were
04:03 electric. Those two were electric and O'Reilly was back to... He was just pulling all the
04:07 strings. So it was a reminder almost to themselves as much as everyone else. It was also a reminder
04:14 to us, we know there was no Green Brigade there. There was no Boys, Ultras group. We
04:19 always say about how these teams carry the atmosphere and carry the teams forward. No,
04:24 the teams carry themselves forward. I'm not saying that there wasn't a kind of soulless
04:28 atmosphere. It was a soulless atmosphere, but Celtic provided their energy from within.
04:36 They don't need any external factors to really get them going.
04:39 Absolutely. And that will have pleased Brendan Rodgers, no doubt. As he looks to fend off
04:44 a challenge now from Rangers, Philippe Clément's full month anniversary comes on Wednesday.
04:51 In that period, Rangers have won six matches, Drone won. They've all but qualified for the
04:58 Europa League knockout stages. They're in the final of the Viaplague Cup and they've
05:04 improved in almost every measure that you can look at. You've seen Rangers under Clément
05:11 a few times, you've dealt with him at press conferences. What's been your... What's your
05:16 verdict? What's your one month verdict on the Philippe Clément Rangers era?
05:22 I think, and not just wise after the event, you know, because you've seen my copy, but
05:28 I thought this was... I was convinced from minute one that this was a good appointment
05:33 and nothing that I have subsequently seen is convinced... is suggested otherwise to
05:38 me. I think he's an authoritative figure. He just carries that... he's got the gravitas,
05:44 as I said. He's urbane. I think he... I think he's a man who... you can tell he's a man
05:52 that's won three titles. You can tell he's a man who trusts his methods and you can tell
05:59 he's a man who will move heaven and earth to instil his methods, instil what he wants.
06:08 He will carry that kind of authority within the dressing room and he will be able to derive
06:16 from his players exactly what he wants. So I think it's been... he's the... it's the most
06:23 kind of powerful challenge that Rodgers... this is his sixth manager he will be playing...
06:29 he will face in a derby come December 30th and I think this is definitely far and away
06:37 the best of them. Now, I know Giovanni van Bronckhorst had his moments and he'd also
06:42 won a title in Holland, which is more respected than Belgium, but this guy has done it over...
06:51 he's done it over most of his... we forget he's actually only been a senior coach since
06:57 2017, but most of those six years what he's attempted to fuse within his team has worked
07:05 and I think you can tell that. I think you can tell it's a guy who knows that his methods
07:09 work. You're right Andrew, he's got that assured, almost classy nature about him and watching
07:17 his team yesterday... I was at Livingston yesterday and they did not have to be anywhere
07:21 near their best to beat a very poor Livingston team, we'll come to that in a second, but
07:25 that Rangers team has reacted to his arrival. They have become a more structured unit, a
07:32 more cohesive unit, a more organised unit. They know what they're doing and morale is
07:37 as a result much higher. That's what an established, respected, good coach does, isn't it? They
07:45 bring those elements very quickly to a team that's struggling.
07:49 Yeah, was it either Lammers or was it John Lunsom who said it was night and day? It was
07:55 quite a damning kind of phraseology to use in terms of the Michael Bale regime and I
08:02 do feel a wee bit sorry for him because there are certain players that... Danilo's made
08:06 a difference. He hardly had Danilo. We've got Cantwell back, he hardly had Cantwell
08:12 the last month. He had a lot of issues that are not quite there for Clermont and he's
08:18 benefited from them. But even when he does have issues, I think this is the difference.
08:22 Raskin, we've all acknowledged that Raskin, he was probably Bale's best signing actually,
08:28 but he was also, we thought he was a real core performer within the Rangers set-up.
08:35 Now he's been missing and no one's talking about him. That's always the sign of what
08:39 the manager, how he's managing to move his pieces around the chessboard. Nobody's talking
08:44 about... it's almost like he's Queenie's without and then nobody thinks that Rangers have been
08:52 seriously weakened by that.
08:55 One thing I'm going to play devil's advocate a little bit with you, Andrew, here is that
08:58 when Michael Bale came in, Rangers had a very, very good start under his watch, didn't they?
09:04 He got a tune out of the players that he inherited. He brought in Nicola Raskin and Todd Cantwell,
09:10 the two players you've alluded to. But generally speaking, for the first six months of his
09:14 reign, he was able to elevate Giovanni van Bronckhorst's Rangers. And we're seeing the
09:20 same thing here with Philippe Clermont. At what point does the new manager bounce stop
09:27 and we actually go, right, Clermont is under increased scrutiny? Is it by the time the
09:33 cup final comes? Is it by the time the first derby against Celtic comes?
09:38 You're right about Bale. I think Bale won 16 and drew one of his first 17 games. Now,
09:51 probably Clermont won't do that. It'd be a hell of a... I think that was the second best
09:58 league run the Rangers had over a spell of that magnitude for 14 years.
10:05 If Clermont does replicate Bale's start as manager, he will have won the Viya Play Cup,
10:10 so he'll have silverware, and he will have defeated Celtic.
10:14 Well, that was the draw. That was his draw. Bale, if you remember, that's when I said
10:18 16 and he'd won 16 and drawn one.
10:22 But Clermont's already got a draw under his belt.
10:24 Oh, sorry.
10:26 With that record, he has to now win pretty much every match between now and the winter
10:32 break, and that would include winning at Celtic Park. So, look, he's doing a fantastic job,
10:39 of course he is, and I'm not taking that away from him. But it's interesting when you look
10:44 at how Bale started his life as a Rangers manager.
10:46 That's true.
10:47 Slightly a sceptic set of fixtures. I think what we're seeing, though, is how a manager
10:50 can come in and really make such a difference to the players. The way they talk, Andrew,
10:57 the way they're talking to the players, you can tell that they're really impressed by
11:03 the man in front of them.
11:05 You know, another thing, I meant to look it up because I was shocked when I saw the teams
11:10 coming through from Livingstone, and I was shocked when I looked at how long everyone
11:14 had played. Ryan Jack playing three games in a week. We'd always been told that our
11:19 three games in eight days or whatever it was, I suppose nine days. A Saturday to Sunday,
11:26 that's one of my bugbears about the way people judge timescales in football, but a Saturday
11:31 to Sunday is effectively nine days, but we call it within the week, within the footballing
11:36 week.
11:37 Ryan Jack has almost played every minute of Rangers' last three games, including a difficult
11:43 European game. I thought Ryan Jack didn't have the physicality, you know, in terms of
11:50 his fitness levels, he didn't have that within him to play three games. So, Clermont's seen
11:55 this differently. To me, I think Lindstrom is another one who looks as if he's gained
12:02 a half yard. He just looks sharper. You just see players that just look sharper. Now, maybe
12:08 that would have happened anyway because these guys are getting a run of games, so they're
12:12 certainly going to be better fettled when the two of them have been in and out of the
12:16 team for various reasons. But, you know, you may be seeing the early effects of his training
12:22 regime, which he said he would change. He said he would demand more from players who
12:26 were maybe getting allowed to miss the odd session and just manage their bodies to play
12:32 games. And I think he's someone who thinks, no, no, the way you manage your body to play
12:38 games is you push your body and your training schedules.
12:43 The all valid points, Andrew. I'm also going to throw the word cryo-chamber at you. He
12:47 actually mentioned the cryo-chamber in the post-match at Livingstone in a piece that
12:52 we'll have up later on today about what his plans are for the international break. And
12:57 he was very damning, wasn't he, of the use of the facilities at Ock and Howie under the
13:02 previous regime. And it was a cryo-chamber that was wheeled out. And you wonder if that
13:07 this sort of almost this continental style of recovery for these players is having a
13:13 better impact on them. Because you're right, John Lundstrom was my man of the match yesterday.
13:18 He played really, really well. And he looks reinvigorated. They all do. They all do.
13:22 He does. He does. And yeah, I think because he said to us one of the first press conferences,
13:28 he said, you'll be surprised how much interest, how much I know in terms of the sports science.
13:34 He says how much I make it my business to know. So he's obviously getting the bleep
13:42 tests. He's getting the charts. He's a guy who pours over this. He's clearly another
13:47 one of these managers and they all have to be these days. But it's like morning, noon,
13:52 night. Clear and obsessive for detail.
13:55 Yeah, the guy just lives football. You imagine that he doesn't sleep very much. And when
14:01 he does, he probably dreams about football. He's that type of individual. And as you say,
14:07 that's what it takes to be successful. There's so much to talk about on the two Glasgow clubs,
14:12 but I do think we should mention the battle for third place. And in particular, the three
14:16 clubs that normally are at the forefront of that battle. Sid Marin lost to Dundee heavily
14:22 in the weekend. It's the Dundee now, the kind of flavour of the month, if you wish. We won't
14:27 touch on them too much because I want to speak about Hearts. That was a big win for Stephen
14:33 Naismith at the weekend. And they are pairing along quite nicely. There's a lot of noise
14:39 about Hearts and how they've done under Naismith. But you look at the league table, they're
14:44 right on the premises. They're doing better than both Hibs and Aberdeen. That was a really
14:47 important win to beat Motherwell.
14:49 It was. Now we know Motherwell are in freefall, so I wouldn't like to have been in Naismith's
14:56 shoes if he hadn't beaten Motherwell. It was a strange one. It was a really good win, but
15:01 it was a really necessary win. Heaven help you if you don't win. It's great when you
15:07 do win, but heaven help you if you don't win. There was no middle ground in that trip to
15:11 play for Hearts. The encouraging signs for me is Shanklin's found his scoring touch again.
15:20 I think he took his total to double figures. That first... I think in previous shows here,
15:27 actually I've got to make an apology, a public apology here. I think one time I came on here
15:34 I was sneering about Shanklin, maybe about a year ago, like "Oh, he only scores penalties
15:38 and he's not all that, quite as cracked up to be." No, he's a genuine, he's a genuine
15:45 like a pedigree striker. I just loved that touch for his first goal at the weekend. There's
15:52 very few players who would have the instinctive kind of ability and the capability to produce
16:01 that. It was a terrific wee flick. Class, genuine class. And it looks to me that he's
16:08 a man who, when he sees Boyce in his peripheral vision, he just feels a lot better about himself.
16:14 Two very intelligent forwards, Andrew. Liam Boyce has not been utilised enough,
16:19 I think, by Hearts this season. And they were paired together and, as you allude to, did
16:24 very well. Shanklin to call into the Scotland squad this lunchtime because Shea Adams is
16:29 injured. That's probably... That's deserved.
16:32 And you think Kevin Nisbet at Millwall, people would argue that Kevin's playing at a higher
16:37 level. But the fact that Shanklin has got in ahead of him speaks volumes for what he's
16:42 done since he was snubbed. All a bit rosier in the Hearts garden, all a bit rosier in
16:49 the Hibs garden. They won 1-0 against Kilmarnock, a game that Al Petillo covered for us and
16:56 said one of the worst he's covered in a long time because it was such a dull game. And
17:00 it was a game that Hibs needed to win. The less of it, the better.
17:05 But we'll go back to Aberdeen. Bayer Robson was raging, fuming. You can use any adjective
17:12 to describe him in the wake of that defeat by Celtic. Yes, Pouk would have taken a lot
17:19 out of them on Thursday. But what do you make of this Aberdeen team? They finished third
17:23 last year. They've slipped down to ninth or tenth in the division now, albeit it's very
17:29 tight. Aberdeen seem to lurch from being in a good place to being in a bad place very,
17:35 very quickly. What would you want to see from Aberdeen after the break, given they have
17:40 a cup final and two more European games? It's just what you say. You want to see some
17:45 kind of stability in terms of the performances. They've been devoid of that and they just
17:53 seem to struggle to put together a run where they look⊠At times you see them and you
17:59 think, "They look a half-decent team. I was there at Ibrox that day, and a well-drilled
18:05 team, a well-organised team, and they're working to a game plan and they're carrying
18:09 it out." Because they really sucked Rangers in and then they just picked them off. And
18:14 then you see them at Celtic Park. Now, I know Chris Boyd seems to have the answer for that.
18:19 It's because they don't try a leg. As if half these Aberdeen players have really got
18:23 any sense of what Celtic or Rangers is. Now, the thing about playing Rangers for Aberdeen
18:29 is because they know their supporters. It means so much to their supporters. They probably
18:35 will dust themselves down because Rangers is the game that they've got, Rangers at
18:40 home, their first game back. But there'll be a lot of different factors that come into
18:44 play there. They'll know they've played for two weeks. That's one of the big factors.
18:48 They have really struggled. As we saw with Hearts last year, they've struggled to combine
18:53 group stage football with domestic football. With that in mind, Andrew, do you think we
19:01 won't see the real - and I use the word 'real', it's a horrible phrase because the real Aberdeen
19:05 is the team we saw on Sunday - but do you think we won't see an upturn in fortune,
19:11 a consistent Aberdeen, until after Christmas when their European campaign ends?
19:16 Well, it depends. What does he do with these last two games? His team's out. I mean, I
19:21 know the bean counters at Potawatari, I know what they want me to do. They want to go all
19:26 guns blazing for the financial rewards that's available with two semi-winnable games. If
19:35 you saw the real Aberdeen or whatever, if you saw the Aberdeen with the angel on their
19:40 shoulder rather than the Aberdeen with the devil on their shoulder, they could win their
19:43 games against Helsinki and at home to Frankfurt. But with that Frankfurt game coming before
19:50 the cup final, if I was him I wouldn't take any risks. So, as you're talking, maybe we
19:57 should start to see a more measured Aberdeen, a more in-the-groove Aberdeen subsequent to
20:06 this winter shutdown. Because by and large the worst is over in the sense of how much
20:15 they have to take out themselves for the European games.
20:17 Agreed. Let's talk about the bottom of the table. The big change this weekend is that
20:23 St Johnstone no longer occupy bottom spot. The Craig Levine factor has worked a really
20:31 important 1-0 win over Ross County, at Leicester Graham Carey scoring after his own personal
20:37 travails with his wife's illness. And Livingstone have gone to the bottom of the table as a
20:43 result. Firstly, St Johnstone, Craig Levine, a man you've dealt with for a number of years,
20:48 Andrew. Does it surprise you that the wily old fox has got the Saints off the bottom
20:54 of the league?
20:56 It doesn't. The wind was blowing favourably for him even before he took charge in the
21:05 sense that they'd won their first game, hadn't they, before he was even appointed.
21:12 And perhaps he should have won his first game. They should actually have taken nine points
21:19 from their last three games, really, when you're 2-0 up. You would expect to see that
21:23 out, but they didn't do that in midweek. And they could have actually lost to a mother
21:28 that had not been able to really get a gallop up against anyone else. But I wasn't surprised.
21:35 And I think there's a genuine chance he could keep them up. I think there's a genuine
21:40 chance. Maybe this is where he's got Andy Kirk in there with him now. I think he can
21:47 be the manager that takes - that's what he said he wants to be. He's the manager that
21:53 provides the overview rather than he's power hungry or power crazy or the control freak
22:01 that he's gone. He's a really fascinating character and I think people have got to know
22:06 him through - I think he's been great in his media work. He's got quite an impish sense
22:13 of humour. He can be quite sardonic. And I think he's a guy who knows himself and he
22:21 knows that this is a different stage in his life and he has to be a different type of
22:26 manager. And I think that could actually work out to a real benefit for the Perth club,
22:32 you know. Especially with what we're seeing at Livingston and Fir Park. We're seeing
22:39 both of them. I mean, I was just looking that up there. That's Livingston and this
22:44 run of theirs when they've been a top-flight club, this is the first time. First time
22:48 under Martindale but even before that, the two seasons before that when they were in
22:52 the top-flight, they've never lost five straight games before. League games.
22:56 Yeah, it's all looking good for Livingston. St John's simply hearts next at Tyne Castle,
23:02 just to throw that in there. Craig Levine goes back to Tyne Castle when the fixtures
23:07 resume on the 25th of November. That's a tasty one. But yeah, Livingston. I was - first
23:13 time I'd seen Livingston in a while on Saturday - sorry, on Sunday. I was quite concerned
23:17 by their performance. They really didn't have the hallmarks of the Livingston team that
23:24 we've seen for a number of years. And what was really galling, they miss Ayob Ali at
23:29 the back because he's their leader and he's their physicality. Although Mikey Devlin did
23:33 play quite well. But up front, Joel Newplay, a player that I think we've all admired over
23:37 the past 18 months. Really sort of awkward customer when he gets going. He didn't get
23:43 going and he hasn't been getting going. He hasn't been getting going. I don't think
23:46 he's got a league goal this season, has he? You think you're right. It's been Bruce Anderson
23:51 who works his socks off. But Newplay has that X factor. And speaking to the local guys who
23:57 cover Livingston on a regular basis, there was an element of, yeah, this could be quite
24:01 a difficult season for Livingston. David Martindale was obviously linked with the St
24:07 John's job before Levine got it. He was approached, which the West Lothian club turned it down.
24:15 After the break, it's a really important spell, not just for Livingston as a club,
24:20 because they don't really want to get relegated, but also Martindale as a manager.
24:23 Does it feel like David Martindale's stock is potentially falling a little bit as Livingston's
24:30 continue to struggle? It has to. It inevitably has to. It has to be factored in as well that
24:36 we know that the budget was cut there, although that happened there and it happened with St
24:42 John's as well. Some of the bottom six teams have stopped trying to do other than avoid
24:49 relegation rather than push for the top six. It's almost like they made a pact and all decided,
24:58 well, if we all chip a wee bit off our budgets, then we're still remaining competitive with each
25:03 other. It seemed to be it all happened at one time. And Roy MacGregor said that Ross County
25:08 were doing that. So you look at Ross County down there as well. I think Motherwell snipped at their
25:16 budget as well. So all these teams, it's showing up. It's showing up that the cuts are having the
25:26 impact that you would fear they would have. And it's like for Martindale, that's a real issue
25:31 because people would, I mean, if you think about it, people would even say he was an outside bet
25:36 for the Rangers job when it come up one of the last three or four times in the two years it's
25:41 come up. Now it's extraordinary. You couldn't see anyone of a higher standing necessarily
25:49 going after Martindale. Not presently. But the one thing I would say about Martindale is that
25:55 whenever the chips start to go down, he has been able to get a tune out of Livingston. So
26:00 every season that he's been in charge, Livingston have had a kind of run of fixtures where
26:06 not as bad as this one, but run of results that haven't been good. He's been able to flick a
26:11 switch and get a reaction. This is probably the biggest moment for him to get a reaction, isn't it?
26:17 And as you say, somehow, can I reanimate Nibley? Nibley looks like a player who thought he was
26:29 going last summer and he's lost a lot of heart. He's a great guy. When we've spoken to him
26:37 post-match or pre-match or whatever, really fond of the big guy. He says all the right things still
26:42 about how much he's trying, but for a guy who could trouble any defence in Scotland, any defence
26:49 to include Celtic Rangers, it just seems a shadow of that player. Indeed. Big things need to happen
26:58 at Livingston quickly because you'd expect Ross County under Malcolm McKay to improve,
27:03 St Johnson are improving and Motherwell, well, we touched on them, but they're the ones that are
27:08 in a worse form than Livingston. We've seen under Stuart Kettlewell that they can play well. So it's
27:15 going to be a fascinating period when the league resumes in all parts of the table, bottom, middle
27:20 and top. Just finally, before we sign off, Andrew, it's an international week. It's a strange one
27:26 because Scotland, these two games against Georgia on Thursday in Tbilisi and Norway at hand on
27:32 Sunday, they're not quite dead rubbers, but let's be honest, Scotland are there. The tickets booked
27:38 for Germany and okay, you want to finish top of the group, but Spain are likely to win their last
27:45 two matches as well. Scotland missing a lot of players. No Kieran Tierney, no Andy Robertson,
27:51 no Aaron Hickey, no Shea Adams. What do you expect from Scotland this week? What should we expect?
27:58 We should still, you could still be entitled to expect, if Scotland have improved, I mean,
28:06 well, there was a few of us really getting bowled over about how good Scotland were six months ago
28:14 and wittering on to us about how, oh, we practically, two teams that we could play
28:20 in would be competitive. Well, now's the opportunity to prove that. This has actually
28:25 probably come at a good time for Steve Clarke because he will see what he does have in depth.
28:34 Because I know he was talking about, we have to play these games, we play England and France,
28:38 we have to take these games on against tier one teams to show us what we need to do to be at that
28:45 level. What the game showed us was Scotland don't have it, what's required to be at that level,
28:51 because they just don't have those players, they don't have those kind of players. It's like Celtic
28:55 last week, you know, if these guys, if these guys can switch on and play to their best, then you're
29:03 always going to be really toiling. But now I level down. Now, if Scotland have got the strength and
29:10 depth that we think they have, then Georgia away and Norway at home should remain winnable games,
29:16 even when you're missing some of your pivotal players. If you think you've got players that
29:23 beyond the kind of three or four kind of aces that you would say that you've got in the pack,
29:30 you know, we need to see if there's a few Jacks, Kings kind of thing, you know,
29:34 we need to see if there's a few in that bracket. Indeed, difficult place to go. Tbilisi has not
29:42 been a happy hunting ground for Scotland historically, and Norway will want to sign
29:47 off on a high. But I agree with you, Andrew, if we want to be a nation... We've got pretensions,
29:51 we've got pretensions. If we really think now we are second tier, then a second tier team
29:57 should be able to go to... I'm not saying... be competitive. We shouldn't just think, well,
30:02 we might lose these two games. We should be better than that.
30:05 Yeah, and it's good to speak about the national team like that, because for years we haven't.
30:10 For years, if this had happened, say, five years ago, I think we would be sitting here going,
30:14 oh, good, doom and gloom. It's going to be a question of getting a draw in Georgia and
30:18 keeping Haaland quiet. But it's the opposite now, which I think just shows just how elevated the
30:24 standards are of the national team. And yeah, fingers crossed those players can come in and
30:30 replace the ones that I mentioned. It's never a dull moment across football in Scotland,
30:36 so please stay on scottsman.com or pick up a paper to catch up on all the latest news.
30:42 We've run out of time here. Andrew, it's been a pleasure as always.
30:44 Thanks very much, Andrew.
30:45 Thank you for joining us. And we'll no doubt catch up when the premiership
30:50 resumes in a couple of weeks' time. From myself and Andrew, thank you for watching and goodbye.
30:54 Thanks.
30:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]