From the TSFM Manifesto 🙂
A spectre is haunting Scottish Football — the spectre of Sporting Integrity. All the powers of the old firms have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Billy and Dan, Blazer and Cassock, Record and Sun, Balance Sheet and P&L.
Where is the football fan in opposition to these that has not been decried as a “sporting integrity bampot” by his opponents in power?Two things result from this fact:
I. Sporting Integrity is already widely acknowledged to be itself a power for good.
II. It is high time that Lovers of Sport should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of Sporting Integrity with a manifesto of fair play.
To this end, Lovers of Sport of various partisanship have assembled on TSFM and sketched their manifesto, to be published on tsfm.scot.
Those who love sport though are challenged not just by the taunts of the monosyllabic automatons in the MSM, but by the owners of our football clubs who have displayed an almost total disregard to our wish to have a fair competition played out in the spirit of friendly rivalry. In fact the clubs, who speak those fine words, are not nearly as outraged as we are by the damage done to the integrity of the sport in the past few years .
In fact the term Sporting Integrity has become, since the latter stages of the Rangers era, a term of abuse; a mocking soubriquet attached to those who want sport to be just that – sport.
Sporting integrity now lives in the same media pigeon-hole as words like Islam, left-wing, militant, Muslim – and a host of others; words which are threats to the established order now set up as in-jokes, in order to reduce the effectiveness of the idea.
In fact, a new terminology has evolved in the reporting of football by both club officials and The Succulent Lamb Chapel alike;
“.. Sporting Integrity but …”.
For example
“We all want sporting integrity, but finance is more important”
Says who exactly?
Stated in such a matter of fact way that the obvious question is headed off at the pass, it is sometimes difficult to re-frame the discussion – perhaps because crayon is so hard to erase?
This is the backdrop to The Scottish Football Monitor and the world in which we live. Often the levels of scrutiny employed by our contributors are far in excess of any scrutiny employed by the MSM. Indeed our ideas and theories are regularly plagiarised by those very same lazy journalists who lurk here, and cherry-pick material to suit their own agendas; regularly claiming exclusives for stories that TSFM and RTC before us had placed in the public domain weeks earlier.
This was going to lead into a discourse about the love of money versus the love of sport – of how the sacred cows of acquisitiveness, gate- retention and turnstile spinning is far more important to the heads of our football clubs (the Billys, Dans and Blazers of the intro) than maintaining the traditions of our sport.
However events of Friday 14th November have given me cause to leave that for another day. The biggest squirrel of all in this sorry saga has always been the sleight of hand employed instil a siege mentality in the Rangers fans. The press have time and again assisted people (with no love of football in general or Rangers in particular) to enrich themselves – legally or otherwise – and feed on the loyalty of Rangers fans.
A matter for Rangers fans may also be the identity of some of those who had their trust, but who also assisted the Whytes and Greens by their public statements of support.
Our contention has been that rules have been bent twisted or broken to accommodate those people, the real enemies of the Rangers fans – and fans everywhere.
Through our collective research and group-analysis of events, we have also wondered out loud about the legality of many aspects of the operating style of some of the main players in the affair. That suspicion has been shared most notably by Mark Daly and Alex Thompson, but crucially now appears to be shared by Law Enforcement.
I confess I am fed up with the self-styled “bampot” epithet. For the avoidance of doubt, the “bampots” in this affair are those who have greater resources than us, and access to the truth, but who have lacked either the will or the courage or the imagination to follow it through.
We are anything but bampots. Rather, we have demonstrated that the wisdom of the crowd is more effective by far than any remnants of wisdom in the press.
I have no doubt that the police investigation into this matter is proceeding in spite of great opposition in the MSM and the Scottish Football Authorities – all of whom conspired to expose Rangers to the custodianship of those for whom football is a foreign language.
I have no doubt that the constant exposition of wrong-doing on this blog, in particular the questions we have constantly raised, and anomalies we have pointed out, has assisted and enabled the law enforcement agencies in this process.
If we are to be consistent in this, our enabling of the authorities, we MUST show restraint at all times as this process is followed through. People who are charged with a crime deserve to be given a fair trial in the absence of rumour or innuendo. We must also, if we are to continue as the spectre which haunts the avaricious – and the real bampots – be seen to be better than they, and give them no cause to accuse us of irresponsibility.
This affair has now evolved way beyond one club gaining unfair advantage over others. For all the understandable Schadenfreude of many among us, the real enemy is not Rangers, it is about those who enabled and continue to enable the farce at Ibrox.
This is now about systematic cheating at the heart of the Scottish game (in the name of cash and in spite of lip service to sporting integrity), and how the greed of a bunch of ethically challenged officials allowed another group of ethically challenged businessmen free rein to enrich themselves at the expense of the fans.
Whether laws were broken or not, the players at Rangers have come and gone and are variables, but the malignant constant at the SFA and SPFL are still there. Last night, even after the news that four men had been arrested in connection with the takeover at Ibrox in 2011, they were gathered together at Celtic Park with their Irish counterparts, tucking into succulent lamb (perhaps) and fine wines, doing some back slapping, making jokes about the vulgarities of their fans, bragging about the ST money they have banked.
The revolution won’t be over until they are gone, and if they remain, it is Scottish Football that will be over.
To be fair Bill, I can remember an explosion of Aberdeen strips in Glasgow in the eighties 🙂
I think you are correct in that success is the main attraction in football.
I once write a column in the Celtic View asking for suggestions how the club should commerorate the 75th anniversary of John Thomson’s death. Thomson is a rich vein in the Celtic history, and I wrote the column under the misapprehension that history was of utmost importance to the fans.
In the post email era, I got precisely one hand-written reply. (The club mag had a circulation in those days of around 35,000).
It was a shock for me to find that of the 60,000 who turned up fortnightly to games at Celtic Park, only one of them thought a major chapter in Celtic’s history was important.
I do think that this glory hunting tendency is a relatively modern concept. Maybe TV and consequent globalisation was the catalyst?
Carfins Finest says:
December 20, 2014 at 8:49 pm
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Quote below after interview with Ally McCoist today by Gerry McCulloch. Seems Walter set a precedent for Ally to follow. Can anyone remember if this made the press?
Gerry McCulloch @gerrymcculloch1 · 38m38 minutes ago
I put it to him that expecting to stay for 12 months was “bizarre and incredulous”. He disagreed and said Walter Smith did same.
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Slightly different circumstances for WS. I seem to recall that ‘Coisty’ was being groomed as heir apparent as WS managed the club during his final year.
Danish Pastry says:
December 20, 2014 at 8:56 pm
Good point, DP.
Wouldn’t do for a reporter to have asked for clarification from McCoist; that might have made his ‘Walter did it’ response look rather stupid. Well, even more stupid, actually. Absolutely 🙄
Danish Pastry says
Was that rhetorical, or did you get an answer from them?
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Nah they knew i was taking the p***.
Certainly in my youth the ‘Old Firm’ seemed to attract most of our nutters at school.
It was if having a cause gave them even more reason to be a nutter!Some even had put on Glesga accents so they did 😉
When i go home these days it seems the glory hunters have moved on to Man Utd or other English Premier teams. 😳
Smiths announcment at the October AGM 1997 just after being put out of their second chance at a european competition that season stunned the Rangers support ,strange when the biggest bragging rights would have been secured [only for a number of years ]as Rangers where going for an historic ten in a row which Celtic secured in their last game that season ,my belief at the time that Murray needed a a lamb to slaughter and Walter was the name of that lamb.
Danish Pastry says:
December 20, 2014 at 8:56 pm
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Carfins Finest says:
December 20, 2014 at 8:49 pm
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Thank You DP.
You’ve brought a great memory back to me. Around 40 years ago, a lad used to wander around the streets of Larbert and Stenhousemuir wearing Manchester United gear, while carrying two guns in holsters. He didn’t affect a Mancunian accent though, more a Wild West drawl.
At that time the ‘cowboy’ look was big in Stirlingshire, with a huge group of BA (British Aluminium) cowboys often meeting up in Callendar Park for shoot outs.
So it wasn’t just the Glasgow teams attracted the nutters.
Were there active cowboys in any other part of Scotland? Wonder where Alan Sliman is today?
And Bill1903, who’s your big team?
borussiabeefburg says:
December 20, 2014 at 9:30 pm
Were there active cowboys in any other part of Scotland?
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Yip there certainly were. I used to go for a night out in Lanarkshire each Thursday and there was a character who sang ‘Rawhide’ in an Texan accent and was totally engrossed in the whole cowboy thing. Week in week out!!!
Bill1903 says:
December 20, 2014 at 9:07 pm
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Danish Pastry says
Was that rhetorical, or did you get an answer from them?
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Nah they knew i was taking the p***.
Certainly in my youth the ‘Old Firm’ seemed to attract most of our nutters at school.
It was if having a cause gave them even more reason to be a nutter!Some even had put on Glesga accents so they did 😉
When i go home these days it seems the glory hunters have moved on to Man Utd or other English Premier teams. 😳
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Nutters, you say 😆
I think the modern tendency that Big Pink mentioned is correct. Globalisation and its associated perils! My son used to tell me how he laughed quietly at classmates who, when talking about their favourite English team, would use the word ‘we’ as though they belonged to the local community in Manchester or wherever. Juvenille and harmless, of course, since they’re so far away that their real club is always going to be one of the top teams here. But still, they do buy the foreign tops and so on— good news for Mr Ashley if he hopes to get a return on his ‘investment’ via those 500m shirt sales 🙂
jean7brodie says:
December 20, 2014 at 9:46 pm
Still are, the most popular day time activity at the local community centre, is line dancing, run by the chap in the chaps, complete with twin six guns 🙂
TSFM
Agree with you on Jim Murphy, I agree with Jim on almost nothing, though we may agree on a bit more than I thought, if his recent hand-brake turns are for real, but, I wouldn’t doubt for a moment his passion for football. Though it has to be said, he is not the most popular Celtic supporting politician, among Celtic fans, for reasons that have nowt to do with football.
Ah reckon Lanarkshire is the Wild West anyways. Used to know a Sawbones from round those parts, and a tenderfoot.
Now, that SFA mob: varmints or yellow bellies?
“Now, that SFA mob: varmints or yellow bellies?” Both.
borussiabeefburg says:
December 20, 2014 at 9:55 pm
Ah reckon Lanarkshire is the Wild West anyways.
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How very dare you!!! 😉
I agree with scapaflow, both, with more adjectives!!
borussiabeefburg says:
December 20, 2014 at 9:55 pm
Now, that SFA mob: varmints or yellow bellies?
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Cattle rustlin thieves stealing other folks land, and breaking the law with the help of them mighty friendly judges. It would never have happened in Bonanza. Ben Cartwright for SFA president!
Danish Pastry says:
December 20, 2014 at 8:50 pm
Pal of mine in the early ’70s became an Aberdeen fan. He was born and bred Glasgow but was kind of disenchanted with the whole boozed-up rivalry of the Big Two and saw something attractive in Aberdeen. It was kind reverse glory-hunting in order to associate himself with a good footballing team that didn’t have the Glasgow bagage. A rarity, though, among those I knew.
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Not as rare as you might think Danish, my younger Brother had a hugh Collection of Lacoste, Burberry and Stone Island in the 80’s. We tried to make fun of him but when you have posters of McLeish, Miller, Strachan and McGhee on your wall, it was easy at that time for him to just laugh at us…..And ohhhh how he laughed!
Danish Pastry says:
December 20, 2014 at 10:06 pm
Bonanza was brilliant but my favourite was Cimarron City!!! Anyone remember that? Sunday afternoons after soup and stew. Them were the days 😉
jean7brodie says:
December 20, 2014 at 10:15 pm
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Bonanza was brilliant but my favourite was Cimarron City!!! Anyone remember that? Sunday afternoons after soup and stew. Them were the days 😉
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Not one I remember Jean. Rawhide is my earliest cowboy memory, then Gunsmoke, Maverick and Bonanza.
I saw James Arness years later as ‘Zeb Macahan’ which was a more authentic kind of Western.
Line dancing and dressing up in cowboy gear is a fetish I find oddly unappealing these days. In fact, don’t think I’ve had my own holster and cap gun since was about 8 🙂
I can see this is turning into a walk down the Memory Lane of westerns. Please don’t get me started!
Allyjambo says:
December 20, 2014 at 10:37 pm
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I can see this is turning into a walk down the Memory Lane of westerns. Please don’t get me started!
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It’s better than bickering …
Allyjambo says:
December 20, 2014 at 10:37 pm
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Aw gee whizz come on AJ join in pardner!!!
jean7brodie says:
December 20, 2014 at 10:41 pm
OK, I’ll mosey on down and give you… The Cisco Kid!
Allyjambo says:
December 20, 2014 at 10:37 pm
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I’ll raise you The Range Rider!!
OK OK!! I’ll stop here but DP was right, better than bickering, and good fun in the season of Goodwill!
I think Eric had you guys in mind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRGocHTz6Lk
jean7brodie says:
December 20, 2014 at 10:51 pm
I’d forgotten that one, I’ll slip in Boots and Saddles, and a cheeky wee Laramie! Never could work out how the water sprayed up like it did as the buggy went across the ford, every week, as Hoagy Carmichael sang the title song.
Allyjambo says:
December 20, 2014 at 11:01 pm
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Ah!! Robert Fuller in Laramie! Swoon 😳
I had forgotten Laramie. The Lone Ranger seems appropriate to mention, too, while we’re at it 😮
I thought Rin Tin Tin was a Western, but maybe not. A bit vague on that.
Burning map on Bonanza pure brill though.
PS Madbhoy, interesting with your little brother as a Don
jean7brodie says:
December 20, 2014 at 11:07 pm
See what happens when you start something like this 😉
Last offering, Have Gun, Will Travel, with Richard Boone as the man with the name that suggests the kind of hombre we need to ride in to clean out those bad guys in the Hampden Coral: Paladin!
PS, just shows you the difference gender makes when remembering the stars from TV westerns, for me it’s Hoagy Carmichael, for you it’s Robert Fuller! A bit like comparing Davey Dodds with Christiano Ronaldo in the ‘film star looks’ stakes (sorry Davey).
I was more a High Chapperal man myself like 😎
FFS
out all night and a refresh seen us hit page 58 and the thingy up the side that you drag down is 2/3 up the page so something has happened.
Nope, its all about the old TV
Has anynoe mentioned Casey Jones
Ach, yous youngsters! Let’s hear it for Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Gabby Hayes! 😛
James Arness – Gunsmoke on TCM every 10 minutes.
Who was the grumpy Capn in Wagon Train. I think a young Clint Eastwood in there at some point, went on for years.
“Regan”.
“Yes Mr Ogilvie?’.
“Those darn tinternet bampots are a rustling up some more trouble. Get thunderbolt and Broadfoot to head em off down at the pass’.
Fara
Beezer
Alias Smith and Jones
And if you don’t mind I’d rather Charlie Wooster didn’t prepare my pork n beans.
The western that is surely being played out in Scottish football at the moment must be Blazing MacSaddles.
I’ll get ma horse
I’m hitching ma horse to the post and heading down the corral to get some sleep.
Hang on aint that where the horse goes?
Always puzzled me that.
Night Pards
jean7brodie says:
December 20, 2014 at 10:51 pm
I’ll raise you The Range Rider!!
__________________________________________
and I’ll give you the Range Rider and Maverick – but Four Feather Falls is still the daddy 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqLyY4zQOjk
I tried asking this around a week ago, but it may have been lost in the ether. Did the SFA ever respond to the requests for proof of receipt of the Smith compensation monies?
It must be Wagon Train at the Hampden bunker,and they have been circled there for the past 3 years,possibly a lot longer and we never noticed,come to think of it where the commmanche,Sioux,Chief Sitting Bull etc really the bad guys as we where all led to believe,similarities anyone.
Not sure about all this Cowboy and Indian stuff…..Got my reservations…
Ahm here all week.
andygraham.66 says:
December 20, 2014 at 5:00 pm
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I spoke to a seasoned bear last night, who has been attending Ibrox regularly since the very early 80’s. In his opinion there was less than 10,000 in the ground yesterday.
jimlarkin says:
December 21, 2014 at 6:48 am
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http://willievass.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/201214-Rangers-v-Livingston/G0000NFm_3_2Ai0w/I0000sU.VvFRCbXM/C00000at32GkPV0c
Is Ali saying to Kenny McD
. . . i can’t believe how much of a wage rise I got for watching this !!!!
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Don’t think I’ve seen Ally look so happy for a while now. Looks like a weight has been removed from his shoulders.
andygraham.66 says:
December 20, 2014 at 11:45 pm
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Without using google, do you know the name of the Conductor and Fireman in Casey Jones?
Big Pink says:
December 20, 2014 at 8:53 pm
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You intrigue me greatly when you say you used to write for the Celtic View. Not that I expect you to say who you are! I was an avid purchaser of said publication until around 2004. I always thought the ‘Pravda’ tag to be very unfair. It’s hardly a shock that the club magazine will write positively about the club.
The Old Firm derby has gained notoriety across Europe for its violent outbreaks on and off the pitch, constant trading of religious insults and famed ‘90 minute racists’. This is a centuries old Protestant vs. Catholic dispute that pits English mentalities against those of the Irish, whilst seemingly casting Scottish pride aside for the duration of each match.
Now that Ronny Delia’s Celtic have drawn Rangers in the semi-final of the Scottish League Cup, with the tie due to be played at a neutral venue in early 2015, the debate surrounding the Old Firm fixture is well and truly reignited. We are left to ask where the derby stands in today’s current football climate? And whether or not it will carry the same weight as it has done in previous seasons now that Rangers are outside the Scottish Premier League?
Rangers’ unceremonious fall from grace to the lower echelons of Scottish football has been well documented of late. After a complicated process involving several bureaucratic buzz-words, such as administration, insolvency and liquidation, Ally McCoist’s side currently sit second in the Scottish Championship after winning the Scottish League 1 in 2013-14. Their rise back up the ladder of Scottish football may be going in the right direction, but it has nevertheless been a slow and painful process for the Ibrox faithful.
As for Celtic, the Hoops have certainly profited from the absence of Rangers in top flight Scottish football, as they have been the clear winners of the SPL in the past two seasons. The Scottish Premiership, as it has been formally known since 2013, now sees the likes of Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Dundee United try to fill the void left by Rangers in 2012, with the aforementioned sides simply unable to provide the intensity and excitement that the Celtic vs. Rangers top-of-the-table clash used to produce.
For what was once the most exciting fixture in Scottish football, the Old Firm derby has been almost completely obliterated from today’s game, both in the league and in the cups. The tense grudge-match always served as the pick of the bunch for spectators, but in its absence, the overall popularity of Scottish football is now at an all-time low.
It was common place to hear that there are only two teams ever going to win the Scottish League, but now with Rangers temporarily out of the picture, Celtic seem to be the only side left in it. Whilst Delia’s team will certainly share no sympathy towards their arch rivals, many Celtic fans would have to admit that they do miss the intense rivalry and purpose that has left their club in the absence of Rangers.
However, don’t expect the Old Firm clash to disappear just yet. Now that the two historic sides have drawn one another in the cup, the derby is still very much a realistic prospect for fans across the country. It is an age old dispute that has its roots in events that took place long before football became popular on these shores. For that reason, and for that reason alone, three seasons apart from one another has done little to end the feud between fans of Rangers and Celtic.
Although it hasn’t had a chance to flourish in recent years, the Old Firm derby has been quietly bubbling away under the surface, just waiting for the chance to rear its ever-controversial head once more. That is not to say that religious fuelled fights will definitely break out onto the streets of Glasgow when the two sides next meet however, and nor should they, but the dangerously obsessive desire to beat one another will still nevertheless be a present factor when Celtic face Rangers in the Scottish League Cup early next year.
As the notorious grudge match has been forcibly removed from the top flight of Scottish football in the past few seasons, expect this latest offering of the Old Firm derby to carry more meaning, more attitude and more passion than ever before.
http://www.footballfancast.com/scottish-premier/celtic/will-celtic-v-rangers-ever-be-the-same-again?#comments
Erm… NO (as summed up by a few, in the comments section)
Cowboys and Indians:
Stewart Regan – Sitting Duck
Neil Doncaster – Big Chief Talking Bull
Jake Cantona says:
December 21, 2014 at 7:33 am
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Cowboys and Indians:
Stewart Regan – Sitting Duck
Neil Doncaster – Big Chief Talking Bull
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Campbell O. — Lame Duck
Scottish media — Big Squawk (speak with forked tongue)
To be honest, the Bampot tribe has more in common with native Americans than most cowboys, in that what was theirs was taken from them.
Ah’ll get ma feather…
Good to have some light-hearted stuff circulating again eh ?
To paraphrase some Classic Father Ted :
Dougal : gosh Ted , some folk take this fitba stuff awful serious like . . I mean Ted , its really just a bit of a laff . .
Those who overdo the serious stuff risk losing their audience before too long . . .
Guess I’ll have to throw in Clint Walker as Cheyenne, Hugh O Brian as Wyatt Earp, and Chuck Connors as the Rifleman , these “Trigger” any memories?
Re the photo’s of Ally,I see in the background the subs bench can hardly contain themselves,anyone want to bubble up their thoughts.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2882220/Ally-McCoist-managed-Rangers-final-time-Mike-Ashley-prepares-replace-him.html#ixzz3MVp3STYb
According to the Daily Mail, we may have seen the last of McCoist’s managerial “talent”. If the story is correct, Ashley is on his way with a bag of cash in one hand, and a very large axe in the other.
As for the SFA, does Ashley care what they say or do- I really don’t think so.
neepheid says:
December 21, 2014 at 9:06 am
‘..As for the SFA, does Ashley care what they say or do- I really don’t think so.’
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We must insist that the Ashleys of the football world are MADE to care, by making it clear to the SFA that if they kow-tow to him for the sake of saving one club at the expense of principle, they will so damage our Sport that every other club will be in grave danger of losing significant numbers of supporters. Which of us is really so daft as to fund a corrupt, rigged, and rotten ‘sport’ any more than we would play poker with known card-sharps?
A plague on the rotten sods who have brought this all upon us!
oddjob says:
December 21, 2014 at 8:58 am
Guess I’ll have to throw in Clint Walker as Cheyenne, Hugh O Brian as Wyatt Earp, and Chuck Connors as the Rifleman , these “Trigger” any memories?
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Of course they do to a Glasgow kid immersed in the love of all things ‘Western’ and I mean via the flix and not Byres Road.
But ‘Trigger’ accompanied by Roy Rogers as his supporting act is one of my earliest childhood memories in terms of excitement and atmosphere. Funny I can’t remember the theatre but seem to think it might have been the old St Andrews Halls or possibly Kelvin Hall.
I was simply fixated on Trigger who brought the magic of the Wild West to the mean streets of Glasgow not just for me but for thousands of Glasgow kids raised in the bleak times of WWII and its gloomy aftermath.
Getting to the pictures was one of the few escapes and had to be paid-for by scrounged empty beer bottles. Funny I don’t seem to remember ginger bottles having a deposit in those days and in any case skoosh was a luxury my family couldn’t afford and there was sugar rationing after all.
Football was for men – many still traumatised after their wartime service – and of course they drank especially on a Saturday and many mothers sent their kids to the pics to keep them out of the road.
Those were the ‘good times’ apparently 🙁
Danish Pastry says:
December 21, 2014 at 8:35 am
To be honest, the Bampot tribe has more in common with native Americans than most cowboys, in that what was theirs was taken from them.
Ah’ll get ma feather…
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…and the SFA is run by cowboys
As to Ashley I doubt if anyone but him and a couple of his most trusted lieutenants have a clue what will be unfolded at the agm.
Personally I’ll wait to hear what is announced although it does look as though he’s decided he’s here for the longer rather than short term.
Tbh it might be best that we have it finally exposed what the SFA agenda is and whether it has any backbone which I doubt. But we are getting nearer to the final stages.
If Rangers survives through Ashley’s largesse it will be used and developed in the interests of SportsDirect and Ashley’s masterplan. I doubt if that will sit comfortably with a lot of Bears.
However it’s their decision either to walk away, accept what’s on offer, or form an alternative. Indeed they might well have a 3-way split.
But with Ashley drip-feeding the Ibrox entity it will survive financially of that I have no doubt. I also have absolutely no interest in the split of assets between Ashley and the mystery overseas spivs.
It’s not my team and as I was on the verge of walking away from Celtic before the Wee Man from Croy – who was actually from Kilsyth IIRC – arrived on the scene I will make no comment on whatever decision is reached by individual Bears.
Of course that all pre-supposes the SFA will collapse like a pack of cards. I believe they will at that point I will simply defend and support my club to the best of my ability because we will be operating in a lawless environment akin to the ‘Wild West’.
How things pan-out from there I don’t have a clue because there are too many variables at work IMO. But I have the feeling Scottish Football could be in for a very rough ride indeed.
Ally McCoist surely ‘Running Bear’ 😉
I’ll throw Tom into the Mix.
Good morni….. sorry, I’m on the wrong blog
Eco,
Re this rough ride we’re all in for……. Was always puzzling to see a rotting piece of wood with a paint scrawl of ‘Badlands’.
What was bad about them?
Why was there never a sign saying ‘slightly, poorly behaved, in the right circumstances, lands’?
And where exactly wiz ‘south of the peekos’?
Anywhere near Castlemilk?
For me it was either the Olympia, Orient, Arcadia or a dash across the Rio Clyde tae the Palace.
Audie Murphy has to be the man along with Fess Parker as good old Dayvee Crocket, King of the Wild Frontier ….. Near Govan somewhere!
I even had one of his hats, even though it looked as if it had been made wi’ a scabby cat!
Mind you, it wisnae as macho as we thought.
Seems old Randolph Scott would gave been a natural for ‘Brokeback Mountain’!
Re Trigger, IIRC it was in the Empire and remember seeing them. Trigger had his own room in the Central Hotel, allegedly, but I bet they sneaked him oot the back and dumped him wi’ his mates in the Polis Stables in Bell Street when the Press wurnae looking!
Happy days!
jimlarkin says:
December 21, 2014 at 7:13 am
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I had a Xmas drink with a few mates on Friday including one of my sons. A long-time Celtic supporter although his first love is rugby which he also played.
He no longer has an ST for Parkhead because he’s bored – and that’s pre RD btw – and says there’s absolutely no excitement/no buzz left for him.
He does think a return of Rangers might bring him back but actually isn’t sure.
And I think that’s the problem in many ways that – even if an Ashley controlled Rangers is in the top flight – that football is on a steady decline for a whole variety of reasons.
The reinvention of the ‘Old Firm’ might ignite a temporary interest but how long will it last as we are beamed much better football from all over Europe at the weekend and on a Saturday.
I just have a horrible vision of a return to ‘Old Firm’ clugfests. That may have got me roaring as a younger dafter man. Now it would simply sicken me because it isn’t the football I want to watch. I’m not interested in on-field bruising battles where the victor is often determined by brutal physical assaults.
I have matured and simply love watching good football being played and the older I get the less bothered I am about which team is playing it. The football is more important to me than anything – OK I expect to support Celtic until I shuffle off this mortal coil but that isn’t down to blind loyalty and my support is most certainly not unconditional.
However, the older I get especially on a cold, wet Winter’s day the harder it is to drag myself to the game. Especially against having a few pints in a warm pub with plenty of banter with mates and watching TV on telly.
Of course there isn’t ‘The Atmosphere’ but that’s slowly fading for me – whether that’s just me and getting older I don’t know for sure. But I doubt it.
I shudder to think that we have to return to the carnage of the ‘Old Firm’ to fill stadiums and find ‘atmosphere’. I won’t be going to the cup game v Rangers and will think carefully about whether I even watch it in a pub.
It will certainly be a litmus test as to whether we have made any progress as a society in the last few years and an indicator of what could follow if Rangers return to the top flight either next season or the following.
I genuinely hope I am pleasantly surprised but time and experience has prepared me to anticipate the worst and prepare and act accordingly.
Rumour has it that Mike Ashley has asked Santa for a cowboy outfit.
Having only recently become aware of the ‘Little Cabin on the Prairie’ fest, I’m absolutely shocked and stunned that there has been no mention whatsoever of Scotland’s own Super-Uber Cowboy!!(apart from a certain Mr. Whyte)
I give you Lobey Dosser and his two-legged horse, El Fideldo!
I now look forward to some nice wordplays on Fairy Nuff et al.
As to Rank Badyin, we have just too many candidates.
I should add that I’m expecting a (not too hard) pat on the head for introducing this thread.
ecobhoy says:
December 21, 2014 at 9:56 am
eco,
Back in the 50s my uncle was manager of confectionery at the Glasgow Empire and sometimes my dad would take us through to get in free, without being lifted over the turnstyles 🙄
One time he took us to see Roy Rogers, with Trigger. Was quite a thrill for a cowboy mad lad. Of course, Trigger gave a whole different meaning to the description ‘Trigger’s Broom’, having been replace god knows how many times!
neepheid says:
December 21, 2014 at 9:06 am
12 0 Rate This
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2882220/Ally-McCoist-managed-Rangers-final-time-Mike-Ashley-prepares-replace-him.html#ixzz3MVp3STYb
According to the Daily Mail, we may have seen the last of McCoist’s managerial “talent”. If the story is correct, Ashley is on his way with a bag of cash in one hand, and a very large axe in the other.
As for the SFA, does Ashley care what they say or do- I really don’t think so.
———-
Fraser Mackie is not a name I’m familiar with, bit it all sounds plausible.
Ashley writing off the £3m loans won’t fool some of the fans, though. They’ve already worked out he’s lending them their own money via the profits he’s made from RR!
Remains to be seen what deal has been done with Blue Pitch, et al. In one sense, they might see Christmas as having come early with Mike on board. Mug or genius?
Haywire says:
December 21, 2014 at 11:31 am
Paladin had a gun and travelled by Wells Fargo. Tonto and the LR made sure the stage got through. ‘Keep them doggies rollin…………….’
“CHISUM” at The George” cinema in Barrhead is one of my earliest memories. . Folks must have been big John Wayne fans cos I also recall being taken to see “The Green Berets” . . ‘course you dont realise as a kid that you are being fed american propaganda ! . . Was always on the side of “the injuns ” myself . . paranoid even at that age !
Big Mike was at bishopbriggs golf club a couple of months back … Family member said to me after seeing his picture appearing more & more in DR … Probably doesn’t really mean anything … But thought i would throw it in … A Saturday night party !
I could throw other scandal in but don’t think it belongs here … As in there exists a “poo’da” problem in govan … !
More in keeping with the blog … Even as a cfc fan … Sounds like a great game today … And great for Scottish fitba in general !!!
Companies House has had a “Compulsory strike off suspended” notice lodged for “The Rangers Football Group Ltd” (ex Wavetower). I wonder if it is Craig Whyte, Worthington or the legal authorities who made the request.
DISS16(SOAS) 20/12/2014 COMPULSORY STRIKE OFF SUSPENDED
GAZ1(A)11/11/2014 FIRST GAZETTE NOTICE FOR VOLUNTARY STRIKE-OFF
Armaggedon ?
Thought that was a great match and advert for Scottish football.
Well done United..To be honest draw probably a fair result…but great to watch
Only Marginally better entertainment than at Cappielow yesterday..honest !
Btw is it only me ?..but there were at least two strikers on that park who are far better players than the Guidetti fellow …
Sorry to mention football!
Carry on!
Great to watch Dundee United finally defeat Celtic. I’ve had a soft spot for them pretty much since I started following football in 1980. Linesman was shocking of course but I dare say Celtic got the odd bad call in their favour during their many wins over United. As an Accies fan I should maybe have wanted Celtic to triumph, as United could be rivals with us for a European spot (no laughing at the back!) but for the good of Scottish football and to see the inevitable delayed for as long as possible, today was a great day.