Great read again Wilf, Thank you. Make Mondays in the off season more bearable .

I am in total agreement regarding the international setup, franchising was brought in to improve our players and to bring on the youngsters. At some teams this does work but here we seem afraid to play our young halfbacks when we have injuries to our starting pair.
The biggest example of that for us is when we played Quins and we had Nicklas on the bench and were cruising at 30-0 an ideal time to bring him on in his desired position. Yet we decided to stick him on the wing (or centre) all he gets from that is a bit of SL experience and nothing more.

Some will say he is too young/not experienced enough or he hasn't been playing that well in the reserves. But I remember you saying Moa wasn't exactly setting the world alight in the reserves and frankly looked average, yet when he got his chance in the 1st team he was a revelation.

Until this "fear" of playing the youngsters is overcome our stars of the future will continue to flounder in the reserves and by the time they make the 1st grade they are past the prime age for learning new things and tend to get stuck in a rut.

Cheers Wilf, I remember both the Cas and Bradford game; fantastic memories as usual.

Good read again Wilf, I don't know how you keep it up.

PS - Tynecastle is the home of Hearts rather than Aberdeen.

Another interesting read Wilf. Your diary is much appreciated, especially in one of the quietest close seasons I can remember as an FC fan!