Scottish Mag

1452: BBC Radio 5 live senior football reporter Ian Dennis has heard that Liverpool HAVE made a second offer for Newcastle striker Andy Carroll. £35m per chance?

Press Conference cancelled! Uh oh!!

18 months ago Carroll was an unproven youth striker and Charlie Adam an SPL reject. Now Liverpool are being linked to paying anything up to £47 million for the pair of them. The transfer window has gone mad!

Whilst offers of 30 million+ are crazy and could provide a decent transfer kitty it would be a massive risk and unless spent wisely (with which you have no guarantess - Owen, Luque, Emre anyone?) could be a complete waste. Spurs have been attempting to sign that "big name striker" for a while now and even with supposed big money bids have come no closer to it and the mackems havent had much joy getting any kind of a replacement in for Bent. Whilst I looked back on the days we knocked back for the likes of Dyer and think we were crazy at the time given the way the market is these days I think it would be a hell of risk trying to replace Carroll and would also given the transfer prices these days take crazy money to get anyone of any quality in.

She's not going to the meetings anymore (a week later ) because she's spent her money on an iPhone, had a bacon sandwich for breakfast this morning and is now scoffing a Micro Pizza (blergh) and McCoy's steak crisps for lunch. Even then though she could probably get away with that food if she was very active. I know lasses don't have football to play, but if she puts herself about in bed that's a good work out, or squash twice a week, gym 4 or 5 times, anyone can eat junk food and manage their weight as long as they exercise, I should know I've been doing it for years. Tell her to sort her life out.

Happy Burns Day!

SOL CAMPBELL last night told Celtic boss Neil Lennon he's ready to solve their defensive crisis. Lennon fears stopper Daniel Majstorovic faces a lay-off after he suffered a hamstring strain in the tense 1-0 win over Aberdeen. SunSport understands the gaffer is considering a loan bid for ex-Arsenal and England ace Campbell, who chose Newcastle ahead of Celts last summer. The 36-year-old, below, isn't in new Toon boss Alan Pardew's plans and would consider a move north. Campbell admitted: "I'd look at the situation, I'd look at everything. But Celtic have to come to me and Newcastle have to come to me and say x, y, z. Newcastle would have to decide what they want to do. "I couldn't come to an agreement with Celtic last summer, that's the way it goes at times. I was still impressed by the club. "Sometimes six months down the road people can wake up and realise things better, look at the bigger picture. "We'll see what happens. Watch this space, eh?" http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/ho...l#ixzz1BxTEiidC

I am happy with the majority of my job, would like to continue on with what I am doing but just on a larger level (bigger budget) and a wee wage increase wouldnt go wrong either. Other than that I guess it would be working in Don Drapers office watching Christina Hendricks all day...

Just a shame hes not prepared to gamble on out team by signing a player or two.

Well we had planned to come and visit but Susan had work that she had to come back to, so it was straight back up the road! No cookie visits this time!

Stayed there this weekend with the wife. Being a member of the Fitness Centre at one of its sister hotels, The Cameron House, I was expecting it to be of the same standard but was left underwhelmed. Location and the building etc were amazing but the service and rooms were really poor, I would only rate the rooms of around a 3 star and thats being generous. Walls were paper thin too.

Tell me about it, and it felt like my weekend started on Thursday night. My weekend did start on Thursday night as I had Friday off yet it still felt like it was only yesterday since last in the office. Ah well, only two weeks of work then I have another week off and a wee holiday booked.

It finished about 2001? Many years you been travelling down like? 10 or 11 years. Finished up in 2005 I believe.

Was great for something to read on the long trip home after a match. Was gutted when it finished up...

Bought it for the wife for her birthday (aye right) but not really had much of chance to play it yet.

In a bit of a "meh" mood, cant really be arsed with work today (which is unusual for me these days) hence the lurking/loafing on the forum. Its been a while since I posted much...

Ben Arfa signed on a 4 and a half year deal. A quality player in, whilst Bent and all his goals are out the door down the road. Its been a pretty positive window so far

Decided to take a break from my no signings Newcastle game so thought I would take up another of my teams that I take on every FM Game (and what a game its been so far). Rot-Weiß Oberhausen Rot-Weiß Oberhausen is a German association football club in Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club was formed as Oberhausener SV in December 1904 out of the merger of Emschertaler SV (1902) and the football enthusiasts of Oberhausener TV 1873. The new side entered into a union with Viktoria Styrum BV to create SpVgg 1904 Oberhausen-Styrum, but within six months a number of the club's members left to form 1.FC Mülheim-Styrum. The remaining club members carried on and in 1934 took on their current name. The team was unremarked through its early history, simply playing local ball. After the re-organization of German football in the early 30's under the Third Reich Rot Weiss played in the Gauliga Niederrhein but could never match the strength of division rival Fortuna Düsseldorf. The club worked its way into the upper league Oberliga West after the war and with the formation of the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional circuit, found themselves in the second division Regionalliga West. A first place finish there in 1969 led to promotion to the Bundesliga for the workmanlike side. The club's turn in the top flight was tainted when they were implicated in the Bundesliga bribery scandal of 1971. While it was clear they were involved, the club and its players escaped sanction. After three years in the upper league without doing any better than a 14th place finish, the club returned to its existence as a tier II and III side. Financial problems in 1988 were the prelude to a slide into the Verbandsliga Niederrhein (IV) two years later. After nearly a decade spent bouncing up and down between the third and fourth divisions Die Kleeblätter returned to the 2.Bundesliga in 1998, winning the Regionalliga West/Südwest. They remained a lower table side for the most part, but did manage to put forward their best ever performances with sixth and fifth place finishes in 2000 and 2004. Oberhausen was relegated again to the Regionalliga Nord (III) for 2005. Relegation to the Oberliga (IV) followed a year later. They returned to 2. Bundesliga after two successively promotions; which were 1st of Nordrhein Group at Oberliga in 2006–2007 and 2nd of North Group at Regionalliga in 2007–2008 season. So I took it on to take this semi-professional club and to see how far this Scot could take them... I started the season with next to nothing to spend but a fairly large squad, thus in the first transfer window letting two go and bringing in two players on a free, former Norwegian International 36 year old Frode Johnsen and and 35 year old Serbian Sasa Zoric. I got off to a flying start with some amazing results and Frode Johnsen was scoring an average of a goal a game which took me bouncing anywhere from around 4th to 8th in the league for the first half of the season. January came as did a whole host of injuries, this forced me to bring in another free transfer a 37 year old Cameroon midfielder. Whilst he only played 4 games in total I picked him up for free on a £200 pound a week contract so was worthwhile having the cover. January also seen a change in my strikeforce with young 21 year old Patrick Schonfeld being brought in to frontline to play alongside Frode Johnsen. January and February seen me keep a consistent tope 4 spot though when Ivory Coast keeper Loboue picked up a 7 month injury, panic set in as I had sold our reserve keeper to Wolfsburg way back in August. I managed to pick up 36 year old United States keeper Kevin Hartman on a free and as the other teams started to lose some form my team began to go from strength to strength and with the consistency of my strikeforce win the second division and promotion to the Bundesliga on my first attempt.

Finished 7th in my second season of my no signings game. I have no problems scoring with Carroll, Ranger and Vuckic getting their fair share and Guthrie being the king of assists for my set up. Towards the second half of my last season I started to try and give Spear, Moyo, Lua Lua and Alex Nicholson more of a run out. Was also approached for the Liverpool game but knocked them back to continue with this challenge.

I have started ny annual no signings game in which I will see how far I can take the club without spending a penny on any players. First season was a struggle as I wanted to get as many of the promising youngsters some action in the first team whilst also remaining in the premier league. After a long hard season I managed to finish 15th. 2nd season it appears the team has started to work well together and whilst its still early days I am 9 games in to the season with a record of 8 wins and 1 loss. One of these was a 4-3 win at Old Trafford and this game which seen AC score his 50th (and another two) goal for the club

I already have my Newcastle game and the St Mirren game but thats one I haven't tried yet..