Kris-A-Goalda

He obviously did, or she'd not be pregnant.

With the exceptions of Turnbull and Watt (so far anyway), who was the last player to leave us for a rival SPFL team that has made a lasting impact for their club or bettered themselves? You look at St Mirren with Tait and Dunne, plus Main and Erwin via other clubs, and you'd be hard pushed to say any of them are making the Buddies better. Main's time at Aberdeen was far less impactful than his time with us. Going by Wikipedia, he scored more for The Well than Dons and St Mirren combined so far. Would you need to go as far back as McDonald going to Celtic?

Ben Hall debuting for Linfield on the iPlayer just now against Larne in the Irish Cup. Christy Manzinga booked after 4 minutes and lucky not to be off for kick at a Larne defender. Jake Hastie on the bench for the Blues as well.

Bigirimana is part of a Glentoran team that are finding their groove again in the Irish League, but hasn't featured for them since the turn of the year. They are saturated with options in the middle of the park, so his time there may be limited after January. On the blue side of Belfast, Christy Manzinga has 17 or 18 goals for the season so far, second top scorer behind Glentoran's mercurial striker and convicted sex-offender Jay Donnelly. Rohan Ferguson is having an up and down season in goals for Larne. He's been at fault - or certainly could have done better - for a few goals that have contributed to them sliding out of title contention. For anyone interested in seeing how good/bad the Irish League is, there's at least one live game a week on the BBC iPlayer, either on a Friday night or a Saturday 530 kick off. Tends to mainly be games involving the Belfast sides, plus Larne and Coleraine, and it's very rare for there to be a game without goals, drama, controversy or abysmal refereeing.

Is the Mallard the one where the boy got glassed while the Dembele Old Firm game was on, before we drew 1-1 there?

Come On, Eileen works perfectly for Kevin van Veen.

Direct quote from the interview below - whether you believe it to be racist or not is your opinion and that's grand, but from Ross' own explanation and from a neutral standpoint, it's racially insensitive at it's weakest and a bloody stupid thing to say in general , given his position. "The exact words I said were: 'He looks like he's moving like a 40-year-old. What age is he actually? Does he have a doctored African passport?'

You clearly didn't read it properly then.

Great performance and result today. At 3pm, the team maybe didn't look as expected but by full time, they'd done as good a job as seen all season. Nullified Lafferty to half-chances and but for a better touch and ball in the final third, we could have had four or five. Foley played his part really well, didn't put a foot wrong and looked like he'd been a part of the midfield all season. Cole's finish for the first and set-up for the second were sublime. As galling as it is to have had such a poor season, it now looks likely that we could finish the season with more points than the teams in 6th and 5th. - level with St Johnstone and Livingston with an "easier" run in. Job done, on to the next one.

I don't think it's outwith the realms of possibility that it could have. The squad is poor, but barring the Dundee United victory, the other QFs showed how good/jobby the other teams left are. Looking at it conversely, how could you imagine that a squad that had far higher-quality players like Hammell, Lasley, Pearson, Ainsworth, McManus, McDonald and Johnson could almost get us relegated? It took a one-off tie as such for that squad to keep us in the division. Who's to say that the current bunch of dross couldn't have shithoused it's way to the cup?

Fudser, as he's affectionately known over here, is pulling the strings against Gael Bigirimana at The Oval tonight... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/56794280

Lavery is a good, tenacious player. Dynamite in and around the box and with a fair bit of pace to boot. Similar to an Arnott, McDonald, Ojamaa. He's been hlped massively this year by Joel Cooper, back on loan at Linfield from Oxford, who I've watched for a good few years now over here. Both maybe need to bulk up a bit for the Scottish game, but I'd be happy with either. Another to keep an eye on in the NIFL Premiership is Fuad Sule of Larne - an absolute unit of a midfield spoiler. Strong and with a low centre of gravity, he rarely loses possession and if he does, he snaps right back to get it. Would be a great replacement for Campbell's doggedness, but maybe more defensively minded.

They could very well follow the norm and hire an ex-Well manager in McLeish though. An Aberdeen legend that "knows the size of the club" and would likely take the job in a heartbeat.

30 goals in 81 appearances (if you believe Wikipedia), plus another couple of years experience under his belt, means he'd definitely be worth a start for us at the mo. But again, it all comes down to supply. Outside of Tony Watt, we have zero to little creativity, making our front three very easy to play against. The only team that have made us look like a proper, dangerous attacking side this season were County at Fir Park. Since then, teams have nullified Watt for the most part and with no wingers or proper outballs, whoever has played through the middle has struggled. Cole's confidence and hold-up play has improved since Alexander has come in and he's scored from areas you'd expect a striker to score from. Long has looked a bit livelier as well, but for the most part - set pieces aside - they are having to carve out opportunities for themselves instead of getting on the end of passes, crosses or neat interplay. If we could make better/more chances, Bowman or a Bowman-type would get among the goals for us.

Interesting that Sportscene didn't show the Dev Cole kick-out in the highlights or bring it up in the analysis. I'd expect SuperScoreboard to be ablaze with that this week.

It's the Bel-Clasico tonight on BBC iPlayer if you fancy watching a game where Christy Manzinga and Gael Bigirimana are starting on opposing benches.

Did we have that 4 million in the bank when those signings were made? Nope. Could we now use 4 million to go and sign a few players better than we currently have? Yes. Is it guaranteed they'd make the team shoot up the league and play better in Europe? Nope. It's not a cop out to ask that question of someone who is outright saying the players we have aren't good enough. The players have signed already have been signed based on how they have previously performed - just like any signing any team makes. They've not all performed as we had hoped, but it doesn't make them unworthy of being signed.

Interesting to note that Oran Kearney has said that the money Coleraine have made from their run will likely be used to fund an all-weather park. I wrote on here when the draw was made that their pitch could be a factor. Having seen several games at The Coleraine Showgrounds, as well as Carrick's Taylors Avenue and the Ballymena Showgrounds - which doubles up as a stock car track of all things - Irish League pitches are horrendous in the main. Windsor Park is the obvious exception, the Oval is not too bad, while Crusaders and Larne have very good artificial surfaces. Cliftonville's plastic park is 10 times worse than Livi's. So while it's not an excuse that should be used, the park was always going to be a bit of a leveller last night. You can argue that both teams need to deal with it, but when one team plays on it every week, they get to know the run of it.

What players should be at our club in your opinion? Who would be an affordable, reasonable signing that we could have made that would make a monumental difference to how we are playing at the moment? I don't know how long you've been a follower of the club, but for the 25 or so years I've been a supporter, we've been consistently inconsistent - a couple of years of relative success, followed by dire, dire seasons, with the occasional middle of the road season chucked in. In that time we've had players who have been stellar during their stay, players who have been duds from the word go, players who have made slow starts and gone on to better themselves, and others who have faded as quickly as they shone after first signing. The players that got us a third place finish last term have had a dip in form, no doubt about that. The players that have been brought in this summer haven;t hit the ground running. Both of these factors have contributed to the sluggish start. White was brought in on his pedigree of scoring in the lower leagues - the step up to the SPFL was always something he was going to have to get to grips with and he's had very little quality service from midfield or the wings to help him. Lamie was signed after being part of a Livi squad that defied expectation for the last couple of seasons. He hasn't looked the sharpest, but just like Gallagher the year before him, he looked a decent player at Scottish premiership level last season, so was a worthy signing. Debut aside, Lang is full of running and effort and has taken the goals he has scored well. Is he as good as the hype around him suggests? Not yet and possibly won't get there, but if he was, he wouldn't be playing for us. We knew what we were getting by re-signing Long, a player who showed what he can do in fits and starts for a club like us. It's took him a week or so to get his fitness up, but he's back to being full of running and a nuisance, as he showed from the bench last night. O'Hara and Watt were re-signed on the promise of what they showed previously for us, and to an extent, you could add Hastie to that list as well. No one is disagreeing that the start to the season has been limp at best, but given the budget we have and how well the team performed to get third place- even if it was a bit of a slog after January - saying that the signings made should never be at the club, in my opinion, is a dreadful take.

Another potentially difficult tie against NI opposition then. Oran Kearney has worked wonders in both his spells as Coleraine manager, defensively solid and not bad going forward either. Where Glentoran maybe had a bit more creativity about them when attacking against us, Coleraine are a more agricultural side in terms of play and their ground. The Showgrounds is often a heavy, heavy park to play on, which has been a big help to their success in recent seasons. Their two most dangerous players would likely be James McLaughlin from midfield and Eoin Bradley up front. McLaughlin is very decent from distance, while Bradley is a seasoned Irish League goalscorer and battering ram with a bit of a dirty streak in him. There's a good few of their most recent games still on iPlayer I think, including their impressive penalty win over Maribor and a shambolic penalty shootout loss to Ballymena in the Irish Cup semi. They picked up about 8 bookings in the last round, so that could be a factor in how hard tackling they are against us if they believe they can get by us. Similar to the Glens game, I can see it being a fairly uncomfortable night for us on current form.

With all respect, I've not mentioned bragging rights or bigotry being a factor. My point about wanting the ten is more about achieving something that's never been done before in Scottish football. All the ones I mentioned were elite level players at the time and while money would have been a factor in them being at Rangers, they were or went on to become star international players. They'd have been just as motivated to get the 10 at that point in their careers as they would the nine.

So you're saying that Laudrup, Gascoigne, Gattuso, Albertz weren't arsed when they missed out on 10 at Rangers? Forster being happier to not be a first choice goalie in a season where he has all the potential to achieve history in the Scottish game is both a question of his ambition and his experience at Parkhead. If other seasoned Celtic players are also half-arsing it with the 10 in sight, that's also a convincing sign that they've either lost belief they can do it or lost belief in their manager. Over and above being fearful of losing Turnbull to another team in our league, I'm fearful of him going there when the current situation at that club could be detrimental to his development and subsequently any sell-on factored into the deal.

I'm not sure that it will change anything re the transfer to Celtic, but last night's result for them has amped up the pressure on an already intense season. Lennon throwing players under the bus, his own management being questioned, the Bolingoli stuff being decided this week - DT signing and going into what may already be, or could easily become, a toxic dressing room environment might not work in his favour. If the manager has "lost the dressing room", it suggests an us v them atmosphere, which means new blood like DT might struggle to bed in easily. If results and performance at Celtic Park don't take an upturn, the quest for 10 could easily come off the rails. If Lennon gets the boot, does DT get the opportunity that he's potentially being given if a new boss comes in? Would DT want to be given the stigma so early in his career of being part of the squad that bottled 10IAR? If the players there already aren't arsed about getting it done, it makes DT's job even harder. With Forster not wanting to be a part of the 10IAR team, it tells you that something isn't right, almost like McInnes not taking the Rangers job that time. As per my opening line, I don't think it will change the transfer going through, but you have to think that given what's happens there in the last few weeks, a move to Celtic Park for David Turnbull might not be as plain-sailing as it's been sold to him.

All the Irish League teams involved in the Europa League this week have had their games, home or away, streamed on BBC Sport and the iPlayer, so if the Glens get through, I don't see why they wouldn't get that access when they managed to get Legia Warsaw v Linfield.

Glentoran v HB Torshavn is on the iPlayer on Thursday if any of you fancy a wee scouting mission. Good chance to see if Bigirimana and compare up to the challenge. Christy Manzinga's Linfield army are also streaming their match against Legia Warsaw on the Been tomorrow night.