Levein hopes for a fresh start

Scotland kick off under another new manager tonight, as Craig Levein appears in the dug out for the first time for the friendly against the Czech Republic.

As the Czech Republic are also in Scotland's qualifying group for Euro 2012, both sides will put a little more importance on this knock about than usual.

The build up has, of course, been all about Levein's willingness to invite the Rangers bad boys back into the fold. He's extended invites to all of them, but only Kris Boyd will be involved this evening - Barry Ferguson apparently has a bye until next season, Lee McCulloch is injured, and Alan McGregor is helping the police with their inquiries / injured too.

And Boyd will be starting on the bench, both because Kenny Miller is the designated man for the "run about on your own up front and see if anything happens" role, and probably because there's a little public penance he has to pay before being inevitably summoned to take to the field.

We're pretty pragmatic about all this - it's true that Scotland have a limited pool of talent to choose from, so can't afford to exclude people for past misdemeanours.

But we'd distinguish between these four. Ferguson has been in fine form for Birmingham this season, and if he was as willing to play the holding midfield role for Scotland - rather than start strutting around the park like a cockerel - then he could definitely play a role. Boyd, meanwhile, is Scotland's best finisher, and has shown a little more to his game this season.

But McCulloch and MacGregor are both liabilities, and there are better players in their positions. Levein should move on.

Transfer windae update

It seems Kris Boyd's move to Birmingham is off, after failure to agree personal terms. This means one of two things - either Boyd is a greedy bastard who simply asked for too much money; or Boyd doesn't want to leave Rangers, and so set his wage demands unreasonably high so that Birmingham were compelled to reject them.

Alan Hutton was similarly reluctant to move to Spurs last January, until Rangers sweetened the deal to encourage him on his way. With a total of £4m on the table from the Midlands, though, and Killie due a reputed 15% of any transfer due to a selling-on clause, Rangers have much less cash to play with this time around.

Chairman Murray was on the offensive yesterday, saying it was "ridiculous" to suggest Rangers were a selling club. Well, obviously they are (Hutton and Carlos Cuellar being 2 sales in the past 12 months from the first team) and we're about to find out just how much they need some money this month. Chris Burke has gone on a free to Cardiff, but Alan Gow's £250,000 move to Wolves has broken down after he failed a medical. All this after Murray claimed that no one else would be sold apart from Boyd.

Rangers: skint, and looking increasingly desperate.

2009 explodes into life

Aside from the falling-out between Gordon Strachan and Aiden McGeady, 2008 ended a little flat for Scottish football. With no clubs left in Europe, domestic competition is all the clubs have, but the SPL title race is more of a procession this season, and the qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup isn't going all that well.

But the opening of the transfer window has thrown some much needed chaos into the mix. Suddenly, it seems there's no hiding place for clubs with debts to pay.

Extraordinarily for a club chasing in the championship race, Rangers have accepted a bid from Birmingham for top scorer Kris Boyd, and seem determined to get him off their books. Extraordinary, that is, unless you remember the transfer of Alan Hutton this time last year, when Rangers practically bribed their full-back to reluctantly accept a transfer to Spurs.

Boyd doesn't seem to want to go either, and the BBC is reporting that talks on personal terms have broken down. It does look as if this transfer has gone too far to fall down now, however.

It's clear that Rangers are skint and need the money... but still not at all clear as to why Walter Smith bought all those forwards in the summer - Kyle Lafferty, Kenny Miller and Andy Velicka - only to now sell Boyd. The lack of Champions League income is really hurting Rangers this season, and another trophy-light season is going to empty the coffers even more. If Ferguson is sold as well, expect the supporters to well and truly lose it.

It's possible that McGeady and Strachan may still kiss and make up, but there's a good chance the winger might still leave by the end of the month. With Rangers imploding and no European football til next season, Strachan will probably calculate that he can sell his most valued asset - and probably Boruc as well, if he wants - and still wrap up 4 in a row.

Meanwhile, tonight Motherwell beat Hearts 1-0, thanks to a goal from Chris Porter - the striker Hearts' boss Csaba Laszlo identified as a signing target. Sod's law, eh? Might teach him not to engage in grubby attempts to unsettle players before playing against them... it's not an attractive trait.

More trouble for Burley

As if Saturday's 0-0 draw against Norway hadn't done enough to make it a miserable weekend for George Burley, Kris Boyd's graceless announcement that he won't put himself forward for another squad while the current manager is in charge has added to his woes.

Boyd has never been a critical member of the Scotland team. Previous managers have shared Burley's concerns about his work rate and general contribution to the team. But sport is often about moments, and you know - just know - that he would have buried the chance that Chris Iwelumo scaffed horribly wide with the goal begging. Instead, Boyd was left on the bench while the Wolves striker came on to make a debut that nightmares are made of.

Burley's a strong character and will shrug this latest bit of bad news off. But he's now under even more pressure than before.