Darren's Favourite Son

We're in full-on World Cup mode now - Laura's even arranged her whole honeymoon to take place in the US in the lead up to the tournament starting!

And while national team warmed up for America in the best fashion possible with a big win over fellow tournament-goers Curacao, has it come at a huge price?

Regardless of what happens this summer, Steve Clarke will be going nowhere as Scotland's most successful manager signs on for another 4 years. But could the timing have been better?

Join Andrew Slaven, Laura Brannan and Findlay Marks as they wade through all the latest news - well as  EVERY Scotland World Cup song that's been released so you don't have to - to keep you right up to date with everything going on in Scottish football.

RUNNING ORDER:
00:00: INTRO

02:14: FUNNIES: Scott McTominay on a bank note, Tony Watt wanting to complete his sticker album, and Thiago Silva becoming best pals with Stephen O'Donnell

07:57: NEWS: Four more years for Steve Clarke, a HUGE transfer to kick off the domestic off season, and why you should never get tattoos of footballers...

19:01: SCOTLAND 4-1 CURACAO: Many positives and one huge blow to discuss from the first of Scotland's two World Cup warm up matches...

31:19: WORLD CUP TUNES: The best...and worst...of the World Cup songs that have been released so far...

49:30: SPFL ROUND-UP: St Mirren are safe, Partick are still a Championship side, and it's all been finalised who'll be representing the country in Europe next season.

Transcript

0:02

Hello and welcome to the Scottish Fitbow Show. Here's what's coming out for more years. Steve Clark is a very good manager and he's staying with Scotland activity. Getting off at Gilmore Street. Scotland warm-up with a big win over touristown. But is losing Gilmore worth it? And turning it up to 11, we rank the best and very worst of the never-ending World Cup songs being released. Because we want a sponsor. Someone who bloody sponsors so that we can feed our mouths and water our faces. Joining me is the lonely Finlay Marks because Laura Brannon is off Galavant in America for her World Cup honeymoon because she got married and she's in love and it's disgusting. And so it's being fan. Just two guys, you know, chewing the fat for the next half an hour, 40 minutes, hopefully less. And uh yeah, Finn, how's it going, man? Back in the car, back in the motor. Yep. In Australia. Yep, yep. It's full-on winter here today, literally. So it's Monday, the first of June, as we record. For me, uh, you're obviously the day before. But that that is officially the first day of winter in Australia. So I it's uh it's brass monkey. I'm wrapped up in uh my wife's like Udi or whatever it's called, it's like wool lined something. It is the warmest thing I've got, and uh frees my tits off in the car to chat about Scotch Football. Could be another great sponsor of this podcast. We'll we'll take anything at this rate. We'll try we'll we'll try and bat her through. I think we've got it on good authority that Laura might be joining us live once we get to the Scotland chat a little bit later, but um we'll see how she goes. Because, like you see, she is in the middle of a pre-World Cup wedding honeymoon in America, and she'll be going back over to New Jersey for when the football starts in in a week or so. So absolute filth. I'm just I'm just jealous to be honest. I'd love to be out there. But speaking of cold hard cash, Finn, if we get into money. I've said it time and time again for a jobby team, we broke some good records. Amazingly, Scott McTominay, a hero in all of our eyes, but now printed officially on a Bank of Scotland £20 note. So it's a Bank of Scotland like limited edition £20 note that's got the McTominay bicycle kick against Denmark printed on it and they got pictures of McTominay holding it. If you thought spending Scottish money in England was hard before, try doing it with one that's printed with Scott McTominay on it. Oh my god, if you've ever oh the amount of trouble, the amount of times I've said to like aunties or like family when they like send a birthday card or whatever to London, it's like don't put any money in it or just send it. The issue is like in England they have one bank, they have the Bank of England, that is it. In Scotland, we have three major banks, so you've got Royal Bank, the Bank of Scotland, and then the Clydesdale Bank, and at least the other two have got like Bank of Scotland on it, but my grandparents no longer with us now, but they used to do the same thing that you're saying used to send birthday cards and stuff like that with a 20-pound note in it or whatever. Clydesdale bank notes. I'm being like, no chance I'm getting to spend that down here. I I was at my I was at my aunties like 60th. I was up in Scotland last weekend and I was watching all the Wayne's, and I was just like, I was glad I didn't take the Wayne's up with me because all the old grannies and stuff like that were just putting like you know, they just like sneak a wee 10 pound note in your hand and stuff like that. I was just like, oh, don't I don't want that, it's gonna cost me too much hassle to get back down the road. It's either that or like if you're going back down the road, you just need to spend the lot on pints of tenants at the airport before you go. That's that's that's the only way that's the only thing for it. Although I wonder if the old hag, which is uh Scottish bakery in Angel in London, may take Scottish pound notes, or there's the Scottish stores in King's Cross and maybe the volley actually, uh in Old Street. These are good Scottish places to go if you're ever in London. Um, but anyway, somebody who's splashing the cash fin is Tony Watt. Yeah, um, because he's there was a brilliant we post he put out about trying to complete his World Cup sticker album and then realising basically how much money he's gonna have to shill out to try and complete it. What I love though is you've got someone who's like, you know, I'd like had a very good career as a professional football player in in Scotland. Basically being like, I'll I'll post what doublers and shinies and stuff I've got below, and you can let me know and we can swap. Are you eight years old in the playground again? But I there's something that just warmed my heart about that because you know our feelings on World Cup sticker albums, Andrew. It's like the the best part of the nostalgia that's there. Well, you you you brought it up the other day. I think a pack costs two quid or something. Ah, I it it's insane. I remember back in the day, Panini also used to do the the SFL sticker books, so like back in the 90s, they would do the premier the SFL Premier Division. It was always better than the English one because England was Maryland, the Premier League was Maryland, and you only got five stickers in a pack, and in Scotland you got six, and it was 60p, so it was literally 10 pence a sticker, and that was back in the 90s. So, unless kids are getting a lot more pocket money than we did. Just don't I've got three kids already. I don't want to be thinking about giving them pocket money. Uh, we had a Champions League legend or football legend in Scotland recently, Tiago Silva. As we all know though, the coaching badges are quite easy to get in Scotland. We've had Jose Mourinho, we've had many others, but that was the first one that came to my head. And now we've got Tiago Silva. It's just mad thinking we've got this legend of the game, and then there's pictures coming out, and he's just chatting to Stephen O'Donnell, and Stephen O'Donnell's just looking at him like, eh. It's like that photo of the guy in the club talking into some lassie's ear, and she's just like, What? What are you on a I did love it? That was the that was my favourite photo from it, but um, yeah, Tago Silva's doing his SFA coaching badges. I don't know, did he still do it down in Largs? That's certainly where the headquarters used to be because they called it there was a while it was called the Largs Mafia. I went to high school in Largs, so I I know a lot of the the watering holes that they used to frequent down that way. But that was it, they would do the coaching badges during the day, and then he would do like pub crawls down in Largs in the evening. And Jose Mourinho spoke about that because he is teetotal, so he doesn't drink, so he would go and have an orange juice, and he was like, I couldn't understand them before they started drinking, and after it just got worse and worse. So I would just smile and nod along. But he said that he loved his time studying there. And when you look at the list of people that have done their badges there, Mourinho obviously is that is the famous one, but Capello, Trappitoni, I think even Saki, a legendary AC Milan manager, did his badges there in the 80s. Like it's an unbelievable list. If you get to Google Largs Mafia SFA badges, that's uh the biggest boast of it there as well. So yeah. Sorry to burst your Largs bubble, but it's it's not there anymore. It's now it's now in Edinburgh. I thought it would have moved by now, but that that's what it was back in the day, as recently as Mourinho, so that's the 90s and 2000s. At least it's at least it's not just gone to Glasgow, it's gone to Edinburgh, it's in the Heritage Watt Camp or near the Herit Watcamp. All good and hopefully, so in terms of news for Scotland, I think the only place to start is Steve Clark uh Finn because he's signed a brand new contract. And that that's good because he's a very good manager, he's our most successful manager, and he's our longest-ever manager. So why not have him a little bit longer? Don't you think? Yeah, I yeah. Before anything, like we can we'll get into like uh what we think either way of him being given a new contract. I just did you not find the timing of this absolutely wild. Yes. The the the timing is wild because it doesn't feel like it's uh it's it's so bizarre to announce it now because uh in my opinion, it feels like it only really serves the SFA and Steve Clark. Because if you go into this tournament and it's an it's a when I say disaster, I mean if you lose to Haiti, it's a disaster. That is a must-win match. And it's a winnable match. It should be a very easily winnable match. So if you then come out of the World Cup, everyone's always going to be scratching their heads going, what of why? Why because Clark could have sailed off into the sunset regardless of what happens this summer and and would always be remembered for the great things that he's done. This just serves them and it's not it's not it just adds a level of attention to Scottish football fans for me anyway. Um and I just wonder that Steve Clark's never built up the Scotland team, if you know what I mean. But a lot of the players were sort of coming into the squad already, anyway, and we're always fairly limited. We've always had a good midfield, we've always struggled in defence and up front, but he's all he famously brought in Lyndon Dykes from playing from Australia, he played for Scotland. He's massaged round the edges and created a squad. But did he build it? A lot of those players were already kind of there. After the summer, it's going to be a total rebuild, mate. And I don't know what you guys you think. Um I mean I I I don't know if that's that's entirely fair to say because he's been in the job long enough now that he's seen through even if I don't want to say inherited players, but players that were obviously involved in the national team that have formed the core of his squad during his whole time. So he's been in the job for seven years now. The likes of Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney, John McGinn, Craig Gordon, and and obviously ones that that are still doing the rounds like Grant Hanley or John Souter coming in and out, whatever. It's not like he was given a ready-made squad. Like the squad hadn't been performing and qualifying for tournaments, and still he's taken those same players and added around it and brought others into the fold and developed them to a certain extent to help us qualify for three out of the last four major tournaments, and that's that's an amazing job, really. Yeah, I mean, part of that obviously is he's been helped by the fact that there is this, I wouldn't use the phrase golden generation, but there have been this incredible core. That core we spoke of basically are Champions League winning players or European trophy winning players, Premier League captains, like they're they're literally playing at the highest possible club football level and have been doing so for a number of years and have been developed at their clubs. The likes of John McGinn and Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney are better players now than they were when Clark took over. I think that's inarguable, and and Scotland benefits from that, which is wonderful. But at the same time, you know, there have been other players that have left the national team over that period, um, and others that he's brought in. And it's it's maybe more than that in that he has obviously curated this almost club mentality. I think we've spoken about it ad nauseum. It's one of our biggest frustrations that we we always talk about Clark's boys, like he's got the ones that he um he trusts, and that you kind of have to do something shite to get yourself removed from that inner circle, and then the chance will come for other people. I think looking at players like Ganon Doak, Finlay Curtis, Tyler Fletcher, not just being involved but actually becoming looking like they're going to be important members and being blooded in, I think, in the right way, giving us something different, gives me hope because I think one of the things that I hope Clark doesn't do and learns from his predecessors is when you look at um and uh to the last, probably the last successful Scotland manager, Craig Brown, who qualified for two tournaments, he left a very old and aging squad. And Bertie Voltes came into that. And I I don't think Bertie Voltes was quite right at that time, but he and he was handing out caps like Sweeties to anybody that had a vaguely Scottish sending name. But I I kind of don't know what else he was supposed to do because like that whole generation that had been together from youth through to full level were all kind of leaving at the same time, round about what 2000, 2002, and um and there was a massive rebuild that it took us 20 years almost to recover from properly. So I I I get it, I just find the timing weird. I I get it. I I I hope we don't have a shiter of a World Cup for so many reasons, but this being one because he goes into the next qualifying set of qualifiers in September with the mood not great and people calling for his head and all of that. So I don't know. I was just a bit perturbed by the timing. I think when you look at the hard facts, you can't really argue with it, can you? No successful manager, he's he's not the best, but he's by no means the worst. There'll be things that annoy us about what he does, his substitutions, his picks, his clerks, boys. But at the end of the day, he does get results. We're qualifying for tournaments, and that's what matters. And and and and he is the best because we are qualifying for more tournaments than we have with any other manager. Interestingly, you bought up Bertie Volks, and he gave Craig Gordon his debut. So how long ago that was, and Bertie Volks got it right now. Obviously, we'll we'll we'll talk about more the Scotland game and uh when we talk, look at the Curaçao match and stuff like that. But there was one unbelievable stat just while we're on Craig Gordon and him making his debut, which just made me feel like so old. So I'll I'll read this out. This is a a tweet from um Andrew Winton, and he said Craig Gordon made his Scotland debut on the 30th of May 2004 in a 4-1 win versus a side from the Caribbean, I think it was Trinidad and Tobago. Darren Fletcher opened the scoring in that match 22 years to the day later, so 30th of May 2026, Craig Gordon played in another 4-1 win against the Caribbean side with Darren Fletcher's son playing. Oh man, we're too old. Yeah, this is disgusting. But back in the World Cup, baby. Oh yeah. Uh let's stick with Hearts then, Finn, because Lauren Shanklin signed for Rangers. Yeah, I mean, as first transfers of the transfer window go, that was a pretty big one, and I think it blindsided a lot of people. It all seemed to happen very quickly, and not many people. And because it was a free transfer. So this is the thing that I think, especially for Hearts fans, they found it hard to wrap their head around, which is when Lauren Shanklin penned a new deal with Hartz last year, because obviously his contract was up last season and he signed a new deal, Hartz announced it as a three-year deal. So everybody was like, right, okay, he probably set out his career at Harts now. And then this transfers happened. So I think initially Hearts fans were like, Well, it'll never happen, they'll have to pay a lot of money. And then everybody's the rumours were oh, it's a free transfer. How's that happened? It's since come to light what Shankland actually did was he signed a one-year extension, so a one-year deal with the option of two more. And I think this was something that Shankland insisted on because he wanted to see if he could get this final last chance to move to Rangers. I I think, as it's widely known, Boyhood Club. I think this is probably the last time of his career. He's just about to turn 31 after the World Cup. He probably could have done it as well. And for a free transfer, it's a total no-brainer for Rangers to get in a player who's a proven leader, a proven goalscorer, and a supporter of the club, so knows what it's work. They've spoken to trying to get new leaders and everything in this summer. Also, at the same time, they're weakening rivals. You're taking the club captain of the team that probably should have won the league title this year. So it's uh it's a massive blow for hearts, massive blow, but a huge signing for Rangers. And I think a lot of Rangers fans seem to be very buoyed by the the signing and the precedent it now sets for hopefully what is a very big w summer in terms of them reshaping their squad. It's not just a huge blow for hearts, it's a huge blow for a guy called um Jack Robertson, who at the end of just before the end of the season got a tattoo of Lauren Shankland um with the with the the hearts like a like playing cards, yeah, nine of hearts with Lauren Shankland. It's a really good tattoo, like if you look at it, it's well made. Uh, but yeah, Lauren Shankland right on his on his leg. And um, funnily enough though, someone has tweeted underneath, fixed it for you, pal, and he's obviously AI'd it into Rangers. But um that's Robin Salt into the ring. This is why you just never do this sort of thing, you just don't do it. Uh the first time I ever remember seeing this as a kid was I'm pretty sure there was a Newcastle fan that got like and then it was in the newspapers, got a massive tattoo of Andy Cole, who at the time was for Star Strikers, is like kind of mid-90s, and then Andy Cole did the unthinkable and moved halfway through the season to Man United, like title rivals for seven million. And this guy literally I think it was the day before it was announced that he'd moved to Man United, he got a massive tattoo of Andy Cole on him. It's just just I oh and then there's the classic, obviously, the infamous Terry Munro tattoo that a Celtic fan got. They were trying, they were on holiday, they tried to get a 10 in a row tattoo, I think, on their leg or their stomach or their back. And obviously, they were probably a bit well-oiled at that point. They were in a foreign country, so the guy thinks that he's asking him to tattoo the name Terry Munro into it, which is that they've got to be the worst two. But I I felt so bad for the boy. That's that's awful. Brutal, brutal, brutal, brutal. But let's let's move on. Let's give a mate a wee thing. Right, let's talk about Scotland. Um Happy Day. We got the send-off that we wanted, but we had a we would have a scary scare. Um, but to tell us how scared things were, we are actually joined now by our super, super, super duper Scotland fan, because that's the only thing she cares about in this world is Laura Brannon from TNT Sports. Hello Laura, how are you doing? Where the hell are you? Hey guys, I'm in um Portland right now. I am in the Providence Park at Timbers Stadium, watching their reserve team play on a Sunday afternoon. Oh my god. So not only are you at doing Champions League matches, Europa League matches, and whatnot, and sometimes tuning in to what St. Mirren are doing or Parking Test or whatever, now you're watching Portland Timbers B team. You weirdo. I mean, it's it's not your usual honeymoon activity, is it? Are you scouting Steve Clark? Are there any Scotland players out there that we could pinch? No, no, unfortunately not. I I feel this we've actually reached peak, Brandon. For someone to be on their honeymoon, building their honeymoon around the World Cup trip, no less, who've gone out early to get all the lovey dovey stuff, the shagging and that all out the way before the football came stuff. And then they've gone. Actually, what are we gonna do this afternoon? Should we go and see, like, I don't know, where Grunge was born or something like that? We're in Seattle. Nah, oh look, there's a Portland Timbers B game on a reserve game, like no even the first team. And and both of them are like, That's absolutely 100%. That's what we're doing with our Sunday afternoon. So fair play. Fair play. Can I see the game? Are you allowed to film the game? It's gonna come after me. Here we go. Made a joke, media joke. Number two of anyone up, by the way. There's actually people there, it's not just you too. It's not bad for a B team. Not bad, it's not bad at all. Sweet. Right, so let's where we've got you, Laura, because we know it's your honeymoon. Um, and what a trip it looks like you are on, by the way. I am so jealous. But let's talk about Scotland Curatou. It was a wee bit scary to start with, but we will start with uh Finn. Dick Advocat was back in Scotland. You must have been delightful. I was, I was. It was nice to see him uh back at Hamden. And he spoke quite full of praise. I think it was Neil McCann that was with him on the sidelines before the match, and they were having a wee bit of chat. But um, I I was worried that they wouldn't he wouldn't get to see the World Cup because obviously he led Curaçao through qualification. To the World Cup, and then I think he had some sort of like um family issue, someone in his family's not well or something. So he quite rightly kind of like left the job to go back to the Netherlands, be around family. I think he's been helping Robin Van Percy in some sort of um role at Feyonerd, and then obviously things must have cleared up and happened. He's back at Curissaus, so he's getting to take them to the World Cup, which is great. Um, and obviously nice to bring him to Hamden to get pumped by us in the end. Yeah, exactly. In the end. In the end, Lori, you were up at you were you did you did a me. You got up at the crack of dawn to watch this because it was like 5 a.m. your time or something. So can you just give us like your gleamings of what happened with that? Also, getting up early and Scotland limited. How do you do this on a regular basis? The alarm went off at half four, it was pitch black outside, and it's still that commitment to no um getting up, I'm getting out of bed, I'm watching this. Oh, bloody hell, tough. Especially when you go one nil down. Honestly, you're questioning all your life decisions at that stage. Um, but yeah, like see what actually happens on the pitch, it's like the football settings. It's not important, but we we don't need to sit here and analyze the football side of things. On one hand, yes, it was uh very useful because you saw the likes of um Craig Gordon getting a game finally this season. Um I think we can say that about all the goalkeepers that we have, Laura. Oh, they got a game. Yay, yeah, finally, he got a bit. Um so yeah, that there's obviously benefits there. Um we'll go on to talk about Tyler uh Fletcher, obviously. Um, Finley Curtis as well, we'll go on to talk about. There's uh there's lots of um positives to this, and we don't need to analyze the actual football side of things. Um, but the biggest one, the uh biggest factor in it is obviously the Billy Billy Gilmore musics came out, um which is very frustrating and heartbreaking any coal measures because these players clearly it's there for math sharpness, it's there for fitness, it's there for a lot of good positive reasons, but they they must be scared to do anything. They must be scared to need any players to touch the ball. I mean, I know what happened from a initial incident, and then he kicked the ball and then just went down and nobody cleared his earnest at the time. It's absolutely heartbreaking what's happened to him. It is it's it's horrible because he was one of those players that normally I would think would have started a heighty match, probably. Um, and if not, it's like it's just that that depth of of quality that we need desperately. But um, who who's the replacement, Laura? Well Tanny Fletcher got confirmed to meet the step up, basically. So our favourite our favourite Fletcher. The good one, the good one. Darren's favourite son. Scotland's favourite son. Scotland's favourite twin. Um it was going to be between Andy Irving, Lenny Miller, um, and Connor Bannon uh for the call-up um or for Tyler Fletcher as well. There's been a lot of backlash, I think, today on the fact that it was Tyler that got called up over particularly Lenny Miller. I think he was the one that most expected um I kind of see it both ways. Is Lennon Miller the closest? Is he getting hard done by here that he's been playing regularly in Serie A? I I I I do wonder though, speaking to both of you on this, is this the moment where Steve Clark is alluding to the fact that he's just signed his new contract for four more years and he's looking to build for his next regime and the new players coming through. I don't know if it'll be that'll be the the driving factor in this, but it this links nicely into what was one of the huge positives of the day, which was we'll we'll talk about Finlay Curtis. Because I think as much as I feel I really feel for Lennon Miller, because I agree with you, Laura, I think he's done well after his move. He's he's been playing pretty much regularly for the last couple of years at a at a good level, even though not to do motherwool down, but like he was in a standout in that motherwood team. But I think it's maybe looking at someone like Tyler Fletcher, it's like, does it give you something different? Is weirdly the fact he's a bit younger, fresher, hungrier, kind of unknown. Does that give you a slight dynamic that other teams can't scout as well, know how you're playing? Because the thing with Finlay Curtis, yeah, he's young, yeah, he's quite raw, but I feel almost the same way that Ganon Doak was when he came into the side, he gives you a little bit of something that no other player really can. I think in Finlay Curtis's case, the finishing ability is excellent for someone that young. We saw his goal, he didn't even look his head up and he put it in the one spot between the defender's legs and between the far post and the goalkeeper that could have gone in. I think if we're chasing a game and there's five minutes left to go and you need a goal from somewhere and your strikers are exhausted, Curtis is a great option like that. And I wonder for the same reason, is Tyler Fletcher a slightly better replacement for Gilmore in that extent? Because I think Gilmore's such an enormous blow. Having someone slightly younger, almost untested at that area, a slightly different type of player again. It might just give us a more balanced squad, even though Gilmer's a huge loss. Well, there's also an idea in the but sorry Laura, just when you take into account the other midfielders that are currently there, then you kind of look that there's maybe a cover already. You have Lewis Ferguson, you've got John McGinn that can play a little bit deeper, and most importantly, my my favourite player of all time, Kenny McClain. Not um, but you know what I mean? Like maybe he's just looking to just look for something different, and you touched on the point of like goal, like having that natural goal scoring ability, and we have a real problem with scoring goals for me. I think we get into areas and we don't really finish them off, and this is where I'm going to the fact that I think Shankland has to start against Haiti. And weirdly, his second goal was a really nice link-up play with um with Dykes. Do you know what I mean? Like, could we have a pairing like Dykes and Shankland? It could be tasty. Yeah, just just going back briefly to what you're saying about Fletcher. It is kind of ironic that this is what fans have been shouting for for so long of hanging out youth, try out untested. Um, and this is what we're wanting since it happens. We go, that's not fair, that's not fair on the other ones. I I can see both sides of the argument here. Like on the plus side, it looked really damn good. So I I don't think we're weakened good enough, but I just I don't see all the features in the game. That's the only thing. If we're going back to focus on it, it's because it's such a left field decision. It's not an obvious decision, it's not one that you'd be like, oh yeah, that makes sense. That's why. I mean, it's it's it's blatantly obvious for anyone, not even a Scotland fan, to be like, oh, weird. He's not been as okay. Oh, why is why isn't Lennon Miller playing? I know Lennon Miller hasn't played loads of football in the second half of the season, but he's proven his quality, and we know how good he is. What else has happened? I wonder if it's that mistake that he made in the press conference when he said he wants to be the best player on the team. No, that's nonsense, nonsense, nonsense, absolute nonsense. I think that was taken so out of proportion. I agree, you're right, but he said it. Um, who else is impressed in this game for you guys? Well, I I you touched on him there, but Lauren Shankland I I thought did a really great job. And I think what's great about watching Shankland, how he's developed over the last couple of seasons, and why I think he is coming into like this form in the stage at such a perfect time ahead of the World Cup, is that we all know he's got the ability to finish, like, and I thought both of his goals were fantastic finishes. I I thought all of our goals were to be honest, um including Christie's penalty because he needs to keep the co-head and he puts it right down the middle. But the finishes from Shankland are great. The other thing with Shankland is he can come deep. We've seen him play almost like a 10 roll for hearts at times this season because he's not the quickest, but he is good at linking up. So I think it you're absolutely right, Andrew. It gives us that dynamic, whether it's Dykes who he can play off to finish up link up play or the other way around and be the link player for someone with a bit more pace like Adams or whatever to run on to. I think it gives us good options. So I it heartens me quite a lot seeing that. But I thought overall, obviously, like saying the Gilmore news, it was a pretty good workout ahead of this. And the the final warm-up game is against Bolivia, Laura, in New Jersey. A time frame that's a little bit kinder to you. Where are you this time for this match? It's gonna be a lunchtime kickoff for me. Not quite so bad. What time what time is it for you, Finn? 6 a.m. on Friday morning. Yeah. Bogging, bogging. But I think that's about the earliest I have to go. The kickoff times for the group games are okay for us here. So 2 a.m. for those in the UK that want to do it. So that's your hardcore Scotland fans getting up to watch that friendly. Um, one thing before did you guys see the squad announcement? Were you and McGregor fans of that? I liked it. It was pretty good, yeah, pretty inoffensive. But what it wasn't too cringe. Big Ewan does his job. I love that he looks like he's just come off the after party from France 98 that he famously attended with everyone. No, it was good. It was good. Nice link in the next section because what I would like to know is um the music that was used in this video was actually really good. And I don't I've not found it yet. I don't know what it is, but if that is a standalone song, that's a decent hit for the World Cup. It would definitely be better than some of the offerings we've been given songs. Let's get into it. Oh my god. Look, I'm not gonna say all of them are bad. Given given the fact that last time we were in the World Cup, we had Don't Come Home Too Soon by Delegate, yeah, which is which is a good song, but it's a terrible World Cup song. Yes, yes, okay, yeah. It's not it's not what you lads. We were so happy you're there, but we just just do just don't embarrass us. That was the feeling that we got from it. It was horrific. But um, I don't know, Finn, who which is your favourite so far? Because we've got a list on the script here, and I I would I would immediately jump to our old friend JJ Boole, who we used to do the Totally Scottish football podcast with his unofficial Scotland World Cup song, is a banger. Hampton Park kinda sucks. But I will go there anyway. I think that we might lose. But I will go there anyway. Because I wanna see Kenny McClain from 50 yards. I think the might score. Oh no, he's gonna score. Scott McTominay. I know he's gonna score. He's got McTom and N. He's got McTom and Kallon. I don't care what anyone says, it's just so fun and it's patchy and makes me like it makes me like the thing of Kenny McClain from 50 yards. I'm like, no, yes, no, right. Two things, two things, right? And this goes for everyone. We need to stop trying to rhyme Kenny McLean and halfway line. Those two lines do not rhyme with each other. That's the one that sticks meeting. And this and the second thing, we need to stop rhyming John McGuinn with going for a win. It is in every single World Cup song. So what about you've Lori, you forgot the main one rhyming Scott McTominay with Partey? No Scott Linda Partey. Oh my god, there's some absolute howlers. And I would actually say the worst of the lot is Buck's Braveheart. Give it two minutes three. It's like every Scottish football song where you just you steal an already well-known melody and you just record it poorly and rip it poorly. I don't care if they they don't like me for saying it, but it's just utter guff, lads. Sorry, boys. Bor boring. That's how I I found it. That was a boring one. In the script, I was trying to come up with a short way of remembering what there were because there were so many. And what I wrote down for this one was it sounds like a Timu proclaimers. Um I couldn't figure out is it a piss take? Is it real? Are we meant to sing along to you? Look, I mean, the the fact of the matter is, as a as a former musician myself. Where's your effort, Andrew? Yeah, I'm not gonna put my effort. I was a bass player, that's all I did. Slap it to bass. Like it's it's hard, it's hard to go upstage, it's hard to it's hard to write a song, but it's um it's just it's just rubbish. But there are some good ones, like great band anyway, Scary Vore's version. I've never stopped dreaming. Like this, their their tracks, if you haven't heard of Scarivore before, great Scotland Scottish band. Their version's pretty decent. Distant memories of France 98. Now we're headed for Boston It's Art and Army, and you'll hear us say Oh the flower of scars. We never stop dreaming as a flower. It kind of you can imagine that being like you're in a a bar or a supporters area somewhere in the States or back home, and that comes on. You could imagine like getting into the vibe of that one. I think it's got like that innate, like good, the good musicality of proper Scottish folk music going through. It's authentic. Yeah, it's authentic. So it just feels like they've wrote it from scratch and it's well recorded, well produced, and yeah, it's enjoyable. Laura's not a fan. Laura doesn't like anything then, do you mean? It's just it's just a bit boring. I'm keen to get Laura's thoughts on Go Scotland Go by the Brave, because you you're a fan of boy bands at the best of times. Oh oh, I'm Usta User for John again. I'm a believer gonna win. This is Angry Man shouting at Clouds, so goodness knows what Laura thinks. But I was like, these wee guys going up McCannage Street with their floppy hairs and their kilts, pretending they're boy bands. It is appalling. Right. Fair play, right? Firstly, fit fair play to Finn. He's put together this Spotify playlist of all the Scotland songs, had a great listen through it this morning. And uh, see when this one came on, I was like, hey, this is a tune. This is actually quite catchy. And then I realized who it was that was singing it. I I genuinely think if people had heard the song before seeing the band and seeing the video, I think people would have got on board with it. But it's the fact that they are like 12 years old with a head full of pubes and they look ridiculous and they act so it winds you up so much. The video is the worst, worst thing on the planet. But the song's actually quite catchy. Do you know what annoys me about those lads? I bet you they're top boys, I bet you they're really good lads. But see when they're just like see if I was in the street, because I've watched some of their little little short videos on Instagram, and it's the it's the hand movements which are so American, it's like you're no real boy. I'm like, nobody ever reacts like that, it's just weird, but it obviously's very, very different nowadays to when we were at skills, yeah, yeah. I mean, look, I used to be in bands and you would sing in an American accent because you listen to a green day, and that was just kind of what you like to play. But this is it's oh, it is just like an old man. We are old men, even you, Laura. Can we can we look at some of the other because it very much it seems to be anyone with a uh receding hairline and uh and a guitar is releasing a World Cup song at the moment. But there's there were a couple of other ones because Nathan Evans and St. Phoenix's repurposing of home for the World Cup. I'm waking up every night thinking of all of the places I wanna go. The flags will be flying held up and the sky will be coming on down the road. But don't forget where we're coming from my friends. Gunhul. Gunhul the heavy metal option. I I didn't mind that too much, to be honest. I I used to work with one of the guys in this band. Um lovely lad. Yeah, yeah, um Colin. Um I actually would listen to some of their stuff in its own right. It's just not a World Cup thing for me. It's just not the right vibe. But as I it's not good, it's not gonna be chantable. Uh no one's gonna be sing along to it, but it's a good laugh and fair play to it. Well, a little bit of information for you. The gun hool is Gaelic for without love. So emo metal core. Yes, it'll probably slag me. Your mate, Laura, will probably hate me for calling it emo metal core, but without love, if we could just get your thoughts as well, Andrew, on you and Jay's rap option, Gate Laldi. A country of hangers and sheep with tablets wrought in our teeth, but never forgotten our belief since defeating the old enemy with Kenny Delitch. Even after 66, no venom and leash. Now, after years of misery with deep respect, a litracy, and my child release fast and our startle, so you can tackle them, smash the battle them the faster. Scott and the heat, that's got in the breeze. Got the heat and that's got the breeze. Single Scotland the party, that's going to get louding. Scott and the heat, that's got the breed. Single Scotland the party, so it's going to get louding. Let's go and get loudic, let's go and get loudic, loud it, louding, louding. This is you know what this is. This is the anti the brave, this guy. This is the complete opposite side of the brave, where it's like it's like someone our age Finn who shouldn't be near doing music anymore and just gain it loudy. Yeah. I suggest like, dude, your time has has never came, uh and you should leave it alone. But again, I I always go back to Fairfax. Like, they're going for it. Well, he doesn't have any views. He doesn't have any followers, barely, but it's not the worst thing I've heard. I get it. It absolutely is the worst thing you've ever heard. I mean, it's it's worse than JG's. The thing about JJ's that I actually don't mind is JJ's 100% not doing it seriously, right? It's literally a piss take of a song, and he's just kind of like riffing like in the Marc Rebier way. So it's kind of fun. The thing is, right, you I think JJ's would be good if he didn't sing or sorry, talk over it. If it was just the music, the musical part of it's actually really catchy. It's just he ruins it. And I think JG would probably laugh a lot at me saying that and expect me to say that as well. Yeah, he probably would. Well, my argument is if you were in a club and this came on, I think you'd end up tapping your feet. The thing is, they played it um in the bar we were at before the Ivory Coast game a few months back, and the the acoustics was was crap, so you couldn't really hear it very well, but you could hear the music and not JD's voice. And it was it was catchy as well. So yeah. Just going back to your point, Andrew, like fair play to anybody who's doing this because it's like it's a big thing to put yourself out there, especially if you're not an established name. And the thing is, we've actually had a very established name release a World Cups or just about to release a World Cup song too. Um, Bell and Sebastian. I don't know if you guys have heard the clip, like the trailer bit of it. You give us a big one. And this is inarguably one of Scotland's best and biggest bands of the last like 20 odd years. Speaking as a fan of the band myself, like I have enjoyed so many of their albums before, I didn't think that one was very good either. So if they're struggling to make a good World Cup song, it just shows you how hard it is. But the one that gives me hope, and I don't know if you guys have heard this again, it's it's almost like teased in a behind-the-scenes trailer. So we've not actually heard the full song yet. But Ewan McVicar has got like a kind of dance track tune that it sounds like he's coming out. I wonder if this is the official song as well. Tune started because we went to stop eating. Okay, we're coming in. You're the best punch. How can we make you just made it so much better? It's not what we do. We're writing a song for the national World Cup tournament. We just usually write party tunes, you know what I mean? That gives me hope because I was tapping my foot to that one, and I think that could be a banger. I think that could be our our win. It's with Clandonia as well, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's class. That is class. Because I I mean I would have had them at my wedding if I was rich. I'm really excited by that one, so yeah, I agree. I I really hope it lives up to expectations. I wonder why the red butt chili pipers haven't done anything. Well, there's a whole host, like Calvin Harris, Buffy Clyro, Franz Ferdinand, like I think any of them could have been good. I think the gold standard for me, again, I don't know if you guys have heard this. I'll put a wee clip in the show. There's actually been two of them released, but the first Bosnia song that was released. Oh my god. I'm from Bosnia, take me to America. I really want to see tattoo of liberty. I can no longer wait. Take me to United States, take me to Golden Gate. I will last him. Um like no no, it's 10 out of 10 for me. That is the World Cup tune of the summer. This is the best, best song of the summer. That's the song of the summer. The lyrics are brilliant. The tune is brilliant, it should have been the Eurovision Lano this year. Oh, 100%. You say the words right in my mouth. Proper ska, European ska class. I don't know if you guys will remember, probably about 20 odd years ago, there was uh a Ukrainian punk folk band called Gogol Bardello, and they were they were kind of a fixture of the British uh festival circuit for a while. I adored that band, like they were so stupid and lots of fun, and they had a song called American Wedding that was all about how crap Western weddings are, and it's like, where's the vodka, where's the marinaded herring, where's the supplies that are gonna last three days? Like it was just this perfect song, and the best way to describe them was like um Bo Rat in a punk band, like that that's what they sounded like, and they were so much fun. I saw them live at the ABC R.I.P. But it brought me right back to that. So, yeah, Bosnia for me is the World Cup song. But let's hope Ewan McVickers is our one. Yeah, I agree. My last gig was at the ABC. Oh R.I.P. One of my faves. That is oh what a venue. We can't even be having that, mate. You better get your finger out right and make sure that you get the f results. Right, let's quickly round up what we haven't spoken about yet. Football roundup, domestic matters. St. Mirren are safe, they beat Partik Thistle in the playoffs. Weirdly, had St. Mirren been relegated, they would have been the first Scottish club ever to win a major domestic trophy and be relegated in the same season, um, which is brutal. Uh would have been the fourth club in the UK to do so after Norwich, Birmingham, and Wigan. I suppose that was FA Cup or something like that. I think I don't know Norwich's, but I remember Birmingham was a League Cup and uh Wigan was an FA Cup, they were the most recent. Yeah, Alex McLee. Uh um Alex McLee's the Birmingham one, yeah, against Arsenal. Yeah. And Wigan was against Man City, I think it was. Sean Maloney, yes. I was at that game, weirdly, um working for the SPN back in the day. But in terms of Finn the premiership table where everyone finished, is there anything that's changed in the European qualification side of the city? The only thing that changed was obviously Celtic won the Scottish Cup, which was the last domestic uh the penultimate Scottish uh game of the season uh after the playoff, um which did actually change things because as the the season had finished, the the only one that had changed was Rangers were due to be in the the Europa Conference League. But Celtic winning the cup meant Dunfermline didn't get a European spot and it bumped Rangers up because the cup winner generally gets a Europa League spot. So the way that it's ended up is Celtic obviously as champions will go in at the final qualifying round for Champions League, which is like qualifier four or the playoff round. They'll also be seeded, which is helpful given the teams. So for all intents and purposes, Celtic should get into the Champions League. Then Hearts will have a much more difficult task. They'll be joining at the second qualifying round, so they'll have to play three rounds of qualifiers and will be unseeded. Um you look at some of the teams that are in there, like uh I think Salzburg and potentially Ajax as well. Like it's it's a huge level of teams, so um they'll they'll be up against it to go in. Rangers, instead of going in at Conference League qualifying two, have bumped up to Europa League qualifying round three, so they will have two rounds to get through to get to the group stage of the Europa League, will also be seeded because of their UEFA ranking. Again, should get through. I would expect them to. Then you go into the Europa Conference League, both Motherwell and Hibs will uh be going into that, and they'll be going in both at qualifying round two, so same as Hearts uh respectively. So they'll have three rounds of qualifiers to play. Hibs are likely to be seeded, it's not confirmed yet because you have to wait for a minute that the other clubs are cuts and stuff finishing. Mother will be unseeded. So Hibs possibly, hopefully, with a slightly easier path maybe through there. But there's still there's a lot of work to go for any of our clubs to qualify. So yeah, it's always it would be nice to have four teams, wouldn't it? If you think Rangers could sneak through and and if hearts drop into the Europa League sort of thing, um that would be pretty awesome. Even to have two teams in the Europa and then have Hibs or Mother Wall in the ch in the conference league, that would do wonders. They'll call their big friends the coefficient. Um alright, cheers, Finn. Great to hear from Laura. I hate her holiday so much, just makes me pause. Um but yeah, we might be back next week. We weren't back last week because just chaos, life, chaos. Um, so yeah, the podcast is finished now for this episode. Go and do something else that will be better. Bye!