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Date: 18th July 2026
Fashion Choices
By Donald C Stewart
A view from the sofa, as I, along with many Scotland fans, are unable to get a second mortgage to attend the World Cup in the USA and so am on the sofa. With a virtual Billy Gilmour (he is no really there by the way, just exists in ma puggled heid) by my side, also from Ayrshire I shall be looking out for the bizarre and daft that makes this summer, hopefully, a World Cup to remember….
Billy’s recovery is going well and when I catch up with him, he is sporting a wonderful new shirt that has the Norwegian flag suspended upon it. Unfortunately, it was looking a little creased as he had been mopping some tears off it.
As a fashion item it looks iconic, it felt iconic, but it fell short of being iconic as Engerlund won.
And so, Billy and I settled down to reflect upon what has been as called by the Chinese, an interesting time. For Billy, the missing of the World Cup, for the Scottish fans, missing Billy Gilmour.
World Cup 2026 has been defined by so much already, but Billy was already on various sites seeing if there is an Argentinian top going that he can nab before the Semi Finals. I already have mine – Argentinian grannies are good for things like that…
For Billy he had a wardrobe filled with tops that included a swanky DR Congo, Panamanian one, a brilliant Croation top, that classic Ghanian cracker and never out of fashion, the Mexican.
He had toyed with the idea of investing in a couple more – France and Spain – but, he said, he wanted to wait and see which one he needed for the 3rd and 4th place playoff…
We both wished we had picked up a Belgian one given that they dispatched the United States after FIFA couldn’t find the ability to stick by their rules.
We then switched to speculation over who was going to take over from Steve Clarke. Billy reflected a great deal about the role that Clarke had played in his career. It was thought many of the squad in the USA had pondered. Billy went from being a bit of a nomad to be a mainstay of the Scottish team and in Napoli. He knew Clarke had been a part of his success.
No matter who’s going to get the job Billy was quite sure that he would have a part to play however this was no arrogance or counting his chickens. Billy was in favour of some form of continuity candidate.
Whether or not the Scottish Football Association would agree with him is something that we ran the rule over as speculation had mounted.
Already having dispensed with the idea that Ange Postacoglu would become the manager as he was now headed to Saudi Arabia to manage Ronaldo, Billy chuckled suggesting maybe McTominay was too big a star for Ange so settling for yon Ronaldo was a decent second option.
Next up we talked about Roberto Martinez, and the Ronaldo connection was raised once more. Having not steered Belgium into any tournament winning shape, despite an incredible team, on either the European or world stage, Martinez had clearly taken Portugal as far as he could limping along with a Ronaldo. What Martinez could offer is possibly in the mind of Sean Maloney the current assistant at Celtic who was Martinez’s assistant in Belgium, and he spoke very highly of him. Billy was not so sure that Martinez was the right choice and though he didn’t discount him completely, suggested perhaps there were better options out there.
The most obvious one is currently sitting securely at Falkirk, John McGlynn. Billy and I talked at length about how McGlynn managing Falkirk was like anybody managing Scotland. For example, Clarke built his reputation upon the incredible success he had had at Kilmarnock. McGlynn has shown through his many jobs, be it at Raith Rovers or Hearts before Falkirk, that he can take an unfashionable side and carve out chances for them – exactly what Scotland need we agreed.
Nd so, we finished our Zoom and then some days later reconvened in the wee sma’ hours as Billy’ Argentine jersey looked a little creased as he had been mopping some tears (of joy) off it.
As if…
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Tags: BILLY GILMOUR, FIFA, Hampden Park, oor Donald, Scottish fans, Tartan Army, World Cup