Scotland Squad For The International Break -- Why Bother?

Scotland play Cyprus in a friendly on Friday, and -- surprise! -- many of their best have pulled out of the squad, forcing Craig Levein to call up players from the SPL, the Championship, and League 1. Congrats, Scotland, you're officially Slovakia now.

In Aston Villa news, Alan Hutton has pulled out of the squad with a knee injury, although somehow I managed to miss this news in the papers. It's entirely possible that Levein watched the performance on Saturday and asked Hutton if he could make up some sort of excuse for missing the trip to Cyprus.

And, of course, Scotland have punished Barry Bannan for his drink driving arrest, leaving Scotland Villan-free. That leaves us supporters with just two teams to care about: Ireland, who have a playoff match against Estonia, so it's actually important, and England, where we finally get to see Gabby after a two-year hiatus.*

*If you're wondering about James Collins, he also withdrew from the Wales squad.

With not much else going on, we'll try to get some information out about games going on Friday and Saturday -- if y'all are interested?