The Rumour Mill: Thursday's football news and gossip

Published on Thursday 4 March 2010 08:49

Boo boys outnumbered at Hampden; SPL expansion talks; day five in the Old Firm fall-out; plus the rest of the day's news, gossip and idle rumours.

• Boyd applauds the Tartan Army

A Czech-ered victory?

So a winning start for new Scotland manager Craig Levein, even if it looked like a Rosicky-inspired Czech Republic were odds-on for the win for the first hour of the game.

Even Kris Boyd was able to enjoy himself, coming off the bench to a noisy but welcoming reception from the Tartan Army, despite what the papers were predicting yesterday. Granted, it was timed well, coming just minutes after Scott Brown put Scotland 1-0 up, but after the match Boyd promised to repay the fans' good will:

"The fans were great with me tonight," said Boyd. "I hope in the campaign to come I can repay them with goals and help the team qualify for the European Championship finals. I really want to repay them for that welcome tonight.

Elsewhere in Europe, Spain showed just how big a threat they'll pose in the Euro 2012 qualifiers by beating France 2-0 with goals from David Villa and Sergio Ramos. We can just write off those six points then?

Crouch turns in Fab performance

In the interests of good relations, we can't neglect to mention England's own victory last night, coming from behind to beat Egypt 3-1 at Wembley. The boo boys were out for John Terry early on, but it was Peter Crouch who grabbed the headlines with two goals, surely impressing manager Fabio Capello ahead of the World Cup.

Blackburn spy on Boyd

In other Kris Boyd-related news, the Daily Express report that Blackburn are the latest Premiership club to be linked with the Rangers striker. Rover assistant manager Neil McDonald was at Hampden last night to watch Boyd in action, and the club are believed to be considering a summer transfer.

Kyle warned against Russian move

Kilmarnock striker Kevin Kyle is at the Turkish training camp of Russian club Spartak Nalchik for a trial today - but the British Foreign Office have warned him against any move to the North Caucasus:

"As well as an ongoing risk of insurgent attacks across the region, terrorist attacks have occurred throughout the North Caucasus."

Sure that's worth leaving the relatively peaceful Ayrshire for, Kevin?

16-team SPL?

SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster made some comments yesterday that are sure to inspire optimism for the likes of Partick Thistle and Inverness Caley Thistle:

"There has been talk of the SPL expanding to 16 teams and we have been talking to supporters and there does seem to be some desire to freshen things up. That could mean more teams in the SPL, but we have be open to all ideas.

"We know the play-offs in the Football League have been a tremendous success and innovations like that can create so much in terms of excitement, interest and revenue so we have to be open to all ideas."

Old Firm war of words - day five

The controversy surrounding Sunday's Old Firm derby just won't go away. Both managers spoke out yesterday, with Rangers boss Walter Smith maintaining that decisions go against his team too, while his Celtic counterpart Tony Mowbray moaned that Celtic had not had their "fair share" of decisions this season.

And now Robbie Keane has waded in to the row, hinting that a certain Rangers defender who shall remain unnamed (Bougherra) should have seen red, not Scott Brown.

Boruc 'should quit Celtic'

Former Celtic striker Maciej Zurawski has told the Daily Record that he believes goalkeeper Artur Boruc should quit Parkhead for the Premiership now that he's rediscovered his form: "He's ready for that move. He is with one of the top teams in Scotland at the moment but Celtic aren't paying the same money for players they used to."

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