Look Back to Look Forward

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Everyone on this site has football experiences, views, stories and opinions. Everyone also wants things to be better in the future too. These are bonds that make us who we are and this forum what it is.

I’ll share a few experiences with you now.

I will never forget an impromptu and inspirational 60 minute Q. and A. masterclass by Davie MacParland to a group of relative youngsters at Hampden in 1975 after Scottish Unis had played a friendly with his team.

It was “over the moon Brian” time for me on finding a £5 note in my shoe. This was after I played my first game (unexpectedly) as an S form in the Highland League when my club’s  Aberdeen-based players had been held up by a road incident.

So happy and corrupted was I that I never questioned the widespread practice of giving money to amateur players thereafter so I’m part of the problem.

I also sat next to a young Jim Leyton who came to Butchart to watch himself on a match video after he had let in two goals when we dumped Deveronvale (where he was on loan) out of the Aberdeenshire Cup.  It was the very early days of video and Jim had never seen himself on a tv before.

Every person in the SFM community will have equally diverse and interesting experiences and I’m going to share one more with you now in a little more detail.

In the mid 90s I was given an amazing insight into how Scottish football really worked. In many ways it hasn’t changed much since.

Back then I was part of a small group brought in to help find funding for the upgrade of Tynecastle with the urgent need to construct three new stands. At the time it was a massive requirement for a very financially challenged organisation and at a push there were potentially just about enough pots of monies available from several sources to trigger the investment from the Football Trust and squeak over the line.

The most critical pot was mobilising the fans.

My role was to find a way of getting them to come aboard working with some fine lifetime Hearts fans like the late Alex Kitson so it would all look like a Hearts Community rather than a Mercer initiative.

The then, colourful Hearts majority owner was under constant pressure on other fronts at the time.

The team was not really performing with relatively new manager Jim Jeffries trying to get best out of predecessor Tommy Mclean’s mixed bag of old pros and kids. Making things worse was a growing, highly critical and very vocal consortium of local business people trying to get Mercer out (and themselves in).

I guess you could say in today’s parlance that they were RHM and civil war was very much happening down Gorgie way.

Anyway I can’t now recall all the detail and apologies if my memories have fused a little but a key AGM type meeting for Hearts shareholders at Ingliston was coming up and there was an agenda that looked like it might hurt “The Chairman” as Wallace liked to be called.

Never any flies on him though, he had seen the danger signs and was ready in his own way.

He turned up with his trusted few and simply yet quite brilliantly hijacked the negative agenda and ignored the real issues. He didn’t have a solution for them and couldn’t implement the changes that were in reality needed but quite simply he kicked all the trouble into the long grass.

He did this because he fundamentally understood that most shareholders in the room were just ordinary football fans and wanted nothing more than to be able to talk about football the game, Hearts their club, who they were due to play next and who would be playing.

It was that simple.

Mercer’s message to all that night was “Yes things have been tough but our best possible future is with me”.

He rammed this home by confidently telling the assembled body that Hearts were on the up because we had a new manager who needed time and then blew everyone away by announcing he just signed three amazing new players for them, Giles Rousset, Bruno Pasquale and Hans Eskilsson. After the applause and mayhem died down he had won.

Bruno and Rousset were newsworthy in any Scottish football context one being a French International and the other an ex Juventus tough guy with a EUFA and a couple of Coppa Italia winners medals.

Oh and Eskilsson had amazing hair.

Mercer’s simple bit of insight, showmanship, brinksmanship, call it what you like, led to the survival of his regime.

In a parallel maybe to what the SFA did after their meeting with Craig at the Hotel Du Vin in Glasgow, Mercer had enough time to be ready for the trouble he knew was coming and used his power to ignore the real issues and the detail and move on with a big gamble.

Looking back Wallace got a lot right .

He understood what the majority of ordinary football fans wanted. He’d also learnt that good press was needed and came from feeding the football writers enough tasty exclusives so they’d look after him in a symbiotic relationship, the kind of relationship that remains much the same today.

Even back then in the days when there were less full-colour pages pre-allocated to certain teams to fill and  more able journalists to fill them, the sports pages were about game reports and gossip rather than insight.

The packs of hacks all craved being handed tasty semi-exclusive stories.

It was and ever is thus and in those days the Daily Record was a wee gem with circulation nearer 700K than the 200K-ish today and amazingly all its costs were covered by it’s advertising revenue alone. The proud boast of Endell Laird was the purchase price was pure profit.

With hindsight Wallace may only have postponed the inevitable campaign by the RHM rebels that night at Ingliston. History tells us that the Robinson/Deans rebellion eventually forced their chance. They did have to dig much deeper financially than they ever wanted when their time eventually came, and soon fell out too, but that’s another story.

Wallace’s long grass was just never going to be deep enough to hide the issues he wanted to ignore but to his credit on his watch the stadium was upgraded and the first Scottish Cup since 1956 was paraded to the fans.

Mr. Mercer was an operator who like others before and since could see personal and business value in owning a club.

He cultivated friendly football writers.

He learned that the SFA could be difficult to deal with but much less so when you placed people on their various management boards. That was key to the inner power sanctums and brought you at best influence and at worst early warnings.

He may have been autocratic but knew you needed powerful friends at other clubs too and was always close with David Murray in particular.

So what has this little piece of retrospection and a handful of Finloch football stories got to do with a blog on SFM?

Last week I met Big Pink for the first time over a few coffees.

It was like meeting an old friend in the pub because of all the stuff we’ve lived through and shared over the last 5 or so years.

We talked about stuff and traded stories and opinions on life, football and about SFM what it does and what we are.

We got on to the subject of it’s future and with my business background he asked me to consider a piece for the blog about where the SFM, our fledgling business might go from here.

I maybe agreed too hastily because I have found it challenging to gather and spell out my thoughts.

So this is very much a starting couple of steps to bring in the SFM minds and set up future discussions following this blog and when we meet in Perth in April.

My starting point was to first consider what we are today.

It’s a personal view but to me SFM is a valued medium I come to most days. It’s for when I want to find out or to discuss what is happening.

It is populated with a bunch of people with different backgrounds, skills and insights, is always polite and often very funny.

I’d actually like to see more headline blogs because I enjoy them but our biggest value will always be analysis discussion and good humour.

SFM is fundamentally different to the MSM back pages that still offer us all a mono diet of whatever day-to-day gossip they have been spoon-fed by the Level 9’s of this world or made up and maybe embellished with a random phone call for a quote.

Yes their world is declining and will inevitably see fundamental restructure and change but that change has in reality nothing to do with how they cover and will continue to cover Scottish football.

I’d even posit (to use a wee word I’ve learned from the excellent JJ site I visit sometimes) that the red tops currently see their style of football coverage as a way of slowing their inevitable declines because it delivers the difficult to reach male audience their advertisers crave access to.

As a spectator I’d say the MSM in Scotland mostly seem to suffer from a polarised demographic focus/ bias too but that can never excuse their revisionism or the Spiers and Haggerty episodes we’ve just witnessed.

There is one benefit though. One you maybe hadn’t thought about from all the dreadful MSM football reportage.

The stuff they collectively generate enables all of us to have daily conversations with friends and strangers without actually saying anything about anything.

It gives us our daily top-up for the international language of football minutiae we all converse in every day.

I’ve been able to speak it fluently since I was in my teens. You know the kind of thing – the ins and outs, the ups and downs, the comings and goings and the toings and froings.

The good news, the bad news the made-up news – its all part of being involved with a team or indeed just being a football fan and it’s all conversation for the males of our species.

There are plenty of places I can and do get access to that kind of stuff but SFM isn’t and never has been a source.

I quickly found out that most of my pals don’t want to talk about side letters in the pub on a Friday, or the need for asterisked titles because they are more interested in tomorrow’s match and who will be out of contract at the end of the season.

Without being disrespectful in any way I think they are cut from the same wood as the majority of Mr. Mercer’s Hearts shareholders and if I’m honest part of me is too.

That has given our administrators and clubs too easy a ride.

Beyond the gossip it is fair to say in the last 40 or 50 years football has changed beyond all recognition.

It has become a source of power and money and as we know proverbially and in real life power can corrupt and money can be the root of all-evil.

The stuff happening at FIFA now can be no surprise to any fair-minded fan and I’d be inclined to think that there have been finagled decisions at the top for longer than the current stewardship of Mr. Blatter.

Way longer.

Football-land is a dirty world. A world where all the transparency is for show and real stuff has always been controlled and rewarding for those in the right places.

Closer to home football in Scotland is no different. Power and money have been the origins of our own North of the Border soap opera saga.

Its sometimes been very funny, often been entertaining too but is ultimately tragic and a sad indictment on our country.

Being Scotland nothing is ever as simple as it should be.

We started from a unique kind of place where for over a century we have had to live with an unhealthy, quasi-tribal, two-club duopolistic domination of all things football including the fans, the trophies, the money, the media attention and the administrators controlling our game.

The stark reality of 2016 is our biggest club/economy now finds its real ambitions thwarted, potentially forever, by its location in our restrictive league structure. It has nowhere currently to go and annoyingly the biggest league in the world is just over the border and part of the same country in political terms.

This is a destabilising influence on our game that won’t go away until change allows the next evolution.

Our second biggest economy as we now know had to cheat a little to keep up, post Fergus, and is now making its way back to the top end but with some truly nuclear baggage that I guess we still really only know the half of. Nothing will be simple in its return to what we’re told everyday is its rightful place. It too is a latent destabilising influence awaiting like a grumbling volcano.

What depresses me is the fact that the much-vaunted return of our dysfunctional duopoly is not a formula to recreate  the European success we all took for granted for so long. Those days will never return.

The decline of the Scottish giant that was and is Rangers has dominated our thoughts because it encapsulates so much more than what is wrong with our game.

It is a huge business and establishment fall from grace. A shocking story that has become an elephant in the room to our politicians, our media and many of our fellow fans and is still playing out to deafening silence in some quarters.

In the manic run up to the decline of David Murray’s club we benefitted from insights from the seminal RTC and were bombarded with mass denials from almost everywhere else.

We witnessed the £1 sale to Craig Whyte, the subsequent McCoist European failure, the eventual slide into messy liquidation with tax issues etc.

Our administrators failed us all the way through because they had a different agenda.

Our MSM didn’t want to know partly because it involved more than regurgitating press releases and partly because it was real news for real reporters and not back pages gossip.

Their editors failed us there too, big time.

Now the revisionism and invention of the post-liquidation ephemeral club and company scenarios has been creative to say the least.

I remember Mr. Traynor’s  initial headline and smile how he and others are now wading in a contradictory swamp of their own making. It’s all confusion when it needn’t be.

I only know the kind of stuff that really happened because of this site and its RTC predecessor.

Four or five years on and I think these guys (SFA, SPFL) acted like Wallace Mercer did at Ingliston and ran roughshod over process to “win”.

These well paid admin staff were never off-piste though and our clubs share complicity for their actions to varying degrees.

If I was Regan’s or Doncaster’s devil’s advocate I could just about comprehend that they acted because they feared for their TV revenues. The prospect of being without half of their duopoly ace card and the blue fans scared them and they were mandated by the clubs to maintain the status quo.

I don’t mean all the clubs but if we look at the key committee structures we’ll easily see who were in that inner sanctum at the time. They collectively decided to throw their rulebook out the window and there is no grass long enough to bury their collective actions because truth always outs.

Cast yourself back a few years not long before the St Valentine’s day 2012 news when the push was all for a 10 club league.

I remember Stewart Milne aggressively trying to sell us all a 10-club league because of the TV revenue it delivered (to the few).

At that time there seemed to be a collective “TV Gold Fever” prevailing in the cabal of top club chairmen that makes the real decisions and tells our administrators what to do.
Luckily they failed.

They nearly failed again too in 2012 with their tawdry 5 way agreement  and we all owe a debt of gratitude to the late Turnbull Hutton whose personal integrity, bloody-mindedness and leadership meant a significant change to the premeditated 5 way plan that our top clubs had all signed off.

Since then we’ve all suffered from Armageddon and long may it stay.

SFM has been at the forefront of the last five years. A place where fans from all the clubs come together to question, analyse, give insight, balance, consciousness on all aspects of the meandering road that has been this story so far.

It’s all recorded on our archives somewhere too. We’ve noted and discussed the following and more –

  • Two different signatures from the same club on the 5-way agreement
  • Two different and concurrent memberships of the SFA
  • Players TUPE-ing for free and no lawyers getting rich in trying to get them back
  • Pre-season games being cancelled because of registration and insurance issues
  • The Brechin game coming too soon for the paperwork
  • The entry-round in The Ramsdens Cup for the old club or is it the new club?
  • Record crowds, an even more aggressive songbook
  • Ian Black getting a surprise call-up and a bit of a game to legitimise  The New Rangers with their first cap
  • Millions raised from a gullible city and desperate fans but still several last gasp saves needed to avoid new financial stramashes
  • A charity that pays for holidays in America
  • Quasi-legal stuff with dodgy parameters for questionable enquiries like Nimmo Smith
  • Bryson and his logic that Spartans could and should have used to stay in the cup
  • A “Hopelessly Conflicted Chairman” re-elected and a new one who has fitted in seamlessly
  • Real legal stuff like HMRC appeals, and phrases like side-letters
  • Charlotte Fakes and maybe even Fake Charlotte Fakes
  • Fit and proper persons running our clubs
  • Recorded conversations
  • Onerous contracts
  • Metaphysical concepts of what football clubs in our courts with big bucks being spent on our behalf by our administrators

There is and has been a whole lot more and more to come on the schedules too.

How much of this would I have found on our MSM?

Very little – so thanks to those who go the extra mile for us including John Clark, EasyJambo and others at the courts,  Phil who will never go away, James Doleman and others too including JJ – all playing blinders where the hacks don’t dare.

Finally fast-forward to today.

Most Scottish fans probably know a little about the stuff I’ve touched upon and we’ve debated in depth. Not enough though.

But we have Darryl Broadfoot who is the SFA so we can all sleep rest assured each night.

 

Going forward we must address how we communicate as a medium to spread the word.

Ask yourself – Is what we do more important than knowing Rangers signed Dean Windass’s son from Accrington Stanley on a free because he’s going to play for England one day and stuff like that?

I’d say it is different although both have a place.

Our challenge is to create more impact with ours.

In finishing I have one serious starting proposal to make as a community but first a thank you.

Thank you to all the blog writers and posters because we have collectively created a site where real stuff can be dissected and discussed politely and in a non-partisan way.

Well done to the mods in particular and to our community In general

 

My simple proposal as our first step forward is to start a Wikipedia style library of the facts and keep it on our site.

Dates, happenings, people and all the stuff that will not allow any of it to stay buried forever in the long grass. The kind of detail that is in Auldheid’s amazing and resolute Resolution 12.

Chapter and verse whys and wherefores with dates and names.

 

This will achieve three things.

  • It will create bedrock for us as a trusted media channel whatever we decide to become.
  • It will put stuff factually into the public domain forever.
  • It will contradict any highly paid revisionists trying to change what really happened for their own agendas into the future.

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1,978 thoughts on “Look Back to Look Forward


  1. tayred 14th March 2016 at 11:10 am
       I have always maintained that the death of Rangers(I.L.) wouldn’t kill Scottish fitba, but the birth of Sevco might.  I will be quite happy if I am only 50% correct. 
       The article is basically just saying, what most sane folk were saying at the time. Take your medicine !
       Not just Rangers (I.L.)……But the SFA too.
       They never did, and now it looks like the bottle and big spoon are going to be handed to UEFA to administer. It may have to wait until the resolution of the court cases, but the slab with the leg and arm restraints will be waiting. 
       


  2. It’s funny how things work out. 
    Last night I posted a comment on the changes to the SPL Articles that led to the Doncaster – LNS misinterpretation of a ‘Club’. 
    I put forward the proposition that those changes were implemented to allow for the possibility that a club, that was not a company, could join the SPL. At the time,  the SPL was attempting to launch SPL2.
    I checked this morning and discovered Brechin won the 2nd Div (3rd tier)  in season 2004/05. Brechin are one of the very few senior club’s that have not been incorporated. 
    The new articles were adopted during the following close season. Had Brechin remained in the second tier and if SPL2 had been launched in 2006/07 season the new articles were in place to allow it.
    So it appears those new articles were written to accommodate the very club that was the first to play an official match against (what was then) Sevco Scotland. 
    There is a certain irony to that.


  3. Folks,

    We are starting to put together our schedule for the radio thing. Content is important, and we are looking to solicit your assistance in lots of ways – including in the first instance some ideas for sport-based programmes.

    The phone-in and interview format is fairly well established as a the bread and butter of the medium, but we are looking at ways to bring a fresh perspective.

    Discussion on the blog is fine – although some the MSM outlets could nick good ideas 🙂

    You could also mail me direct at bigpink@sfm.scot

    Cheers.


  4. Hows about a ‘Club News’ feature?  You could send a flyer to all clubs with contact details to TSFM asking them for anything of interest they want broadcast. For instance promoting up coming events (free advertising for them!).

    It might encourage a wider fan base for TSFM.


  5. Notice that UEFA has decided not to charge Man Utd or Fellaini in the aftermath of the Europa league match with Liverpool ,  but no mention of pyros .I watched some of that match and saw the smoke . Is it just the diddy leagues who get punished ?


  6. Re the Celtic Res 12 issue. 

    The final chapter of the Celtic / Jim Farry row years ago was an independent tribunal chaired by a QC. It is a matter of public record that the SFA halted the case halfway through and admitted Celtic were correct. Previous to that they held two internal investigations, both of which had cleared Farry. So is there a mechanism for a similar independent  tribunal to be held for this case, or did the SFA concede to it in the Farry case believing they would win? Have they even held an internal investigation into the allegations behind Res 12. If they genuinely believe they have done nothing wrong then why not go public to clear their name? 

    Given the way football is it is far from impossible Rangers could win the Scottish Cup this year in the belief that success would qualify them for Europe next season. As others on here have have pointed out, they do not meet the criteria. Yet for the SFA to refuse to put them forward would result in the same media and public outcry that would have happened in 2011. The media won’t print or say anything that might prejudice Rangers case. Could history repeat itself?


  7. upthehoops 14th March 2016 at 6:22 pm

    “If they genuinely believe they have done nothing wrong then why not go public to clear their name?”

    As I’ve said a few times recently, the truth is easy, as there is no need to find a way to present it – specially when there is documentary evidence available, as there will be in this case. Of course, that documentary evidence might mean telling the truth is rather embarrassing, or even incriminating! 


  8. Ah, we can all relax now, for the reliable DR has reported;
    “…
    SCOTTISH clubs have been reassured that Euro big guns have no plans to form their own closed-shop Champions League.
    SPFL chief Neil Doncaster and Scottish clubs were panicked when European Club Association president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge revealed plans to create an elite league for the top five nations, with the door firmly closed on any participation from Scotland.
    …they have no plans to leave Scotland and the so-called smaller nations adrift…”
    ================================
    Doncaster is on the case, so that’s that sorted !  09

    …but if I was a relatively new, and perhaps a foreign owner of e.g. a ‘big’ EPL club – and didn’t really have much knowledge about ‘soccer’ and the league clubs’ histories – but I was keenly aware of the potential opportunities to increase the value of my investment…

    …then establishing a ‘closed-shop’ / franchise of some description would be a top priority, IMO.

    All this risk associated with non-qualification to the Champions’ League – and even with domestic, top league relegation – can absolutely bugger up long-term financial forecasts !
    If football is now a business first and foremost, then the major Euro club owners will want to protect and develop their business – and they just won’t give a monkey’s for the ‘minnow’ clubs / leagues.
    [Barca’s view maybe different as IIRC it is a community/fan-owned club ?] 


  9. Listened to Kenny MacIntyre cheerleading the Sportsound show tonight as they discussed potential manager of the year candidates. It really was quite fascinating to hear how these guys operate. MacIntyre asks who the top four are. English comes in with his selection
    Jim McIntyre. Already has a Cup win to his name and 4th in league. Reasonable call
    Derek McInnes. Appalling cup and Euro record( none of which mentioned by TE) but could win the league. If he wins the league he would be a shoo-in in my opinion. Again, a good candidate.
    Mark Warburton. Will win league 2 , has revitalised a shambles of a Rangers team and could conceivably win a Cup. I assume he meant the Scottish rather than Training cup. Fair shout if that came to pass.
    Alan Stubbs. Could get promotion via playoffs and win Scottish Cup, having lost league cup final. Again, rationale ok.Ronny Delia. His team are Champions, leading the league and could win the double for a second consecutive year. Nah, no chance. Not a worthy MOTY, does not make English’s cut.
    Where do you even start with this nonsense?
    I have my own answer. No more Radio Scotland. It’s now out parodying Radio Clyde. Disgraceful.Tom English should maybe stick to rugby.


  10. Twentys Plenty.

    It really is beyond the pale for Kilmarnock to charge an extra £6 for Celtic away fans above and beyond every other league competitors.  They should be ashamed of this disgraceful behaviour, so should there fan base.  Speak out Killie fans!


  11. The Rolls of Court throw up a little curio for tomorrow.For all that I try to keep reasonably on top of all the court actions that impinge on, or spin off from, the ‘saga’, I find sometimes that I’m not managing all that well!
    Tomorrow’s little piece of business is
    ” Petition 1227/15 The Rangers FC Group Ltd  re adjudication claim
           Ennova Law                        Brodies LLP ”
    To be heard at some time between 10.00 a.m and 12.30 pm.
    I find myself struggling to remember  what precisely this is about: the old brain cells are dying in numbers at an alarming rate!
    Anyone got a step for a hint? I intend to attend, even if it means hanging about for a couple of hours.

    I take it this is not the Law Financial “Floating Charge” case which I think is also up tomorrow?
    BP


  12. John Clark 14th March 2016 at 11:12 pm Thanks JC!


  13. As a former distinguished poster on this blog used to advocate, I did my own ‘research’: knowing that the Rangers FC Group Ltd used to be Wavetower, I googled Law Financial Ltd and was reminded of this :
    “The Herald understands that Law Financial Ltd is seeking up to £25 million saying it holds a security over Rangers oldco RFC 2012 plc. It was was first inherited by Mr Whyte when he bought the club from Sir David Murray in May 2011.
    Their claim, which is expected to be strenuously challenged by the oldco liquidators, if successful, would make them the only secured creditor and first in line ahead of the taxman and ticket agency Ticketus and other unsecured debtors to take money from the pot.”
    If tomorrow’s business is at all related to that, I doubt if it will be more than a brief procedural matter, over in a matter of minutes, rather than anything of substance. Still, you never know, and every wee crumb of information about what went on in the whole disgusting saga is grist to the mill of those of us who are deeply suspicious of the relationships between the SFA and those involved in the liquidation of RFC(IL) and the creation of a new club.


  14. jimmci 14th March 2016 at 8:38 pm
    ‘……Kenny MacIntyre cheerleading the Sportsound show tonight as they discussed potential manager of the year candidates….’
    ____________
    Aren’t they now something of an irrelevance, discussions on particular aspects of a corrupt sport?
    If a new club can be regarded officially by the the ruling body as being the same club as a 100- and- something-year-old-club that is languishing in Liquidation, before being expunged from the records of Companies House, then it matters not a tuppenny toss what any tuppenny tossers of football ‘pundits’ might have to say about anything.
    The biggest act of sports cheating in Scottish Football history is ignored, covered over, denied, by the very men whose job it was and IS to expose the whole dirty pile of excrement.
    They choose instead to talk mindless trivia aimed , and purposely aimed, at trying to legitimise the wrongdoing by propagandising on behalf of the ‘creature’ created by that very wrongdoing as if there had been no wrongdoing on anyone’s part!
    All the Kenny McIntyres, all the gombeen gobsh.t.s , all the ‘Chicks’ with their great biographical knowledge of Rabbie Burns,all the folk busily employed in propagating the myth, simply CANNOT overcome the simple Truth: the game has been dealt as severe a blow by the discarding of sporting integrity, by the very people charged with protecting it, as other sports have been by dope-taking by individual athletes, cyclists, tennis players.


  15. “I take it this is not the Law Financial “Floating Charge” case which I think is also up tomorrow?BP”
    ______
    It looks as though it is.
    I had thought that there was no more Court activity until the resumption of the Fraudco hearings, but felt prompted this afternoon to have a wee shuftie at the Rolls of Court. Maybe a good omen!02


  16.    Why didn’t Bill Miller say, “Haw ! Whaur’s ma secret effing 5 way agreement ?” 
    Or was it his walking away, that led to it’s creation, opening the door for Charlie? ….Imagine if you will, that the SFA, just to keep some sort of Rangersy thing still in folks minds,  made promises they couldn’t keep. Silly wee things like Premier league fitba…..Then 1st Div fitba’. 
        Who would then have the upper hand in negotiations and able to demand compensation should he decide to continue with his bid?…….Silly wee compensations, such as titles and history, or even a myth. 
       Imagine if they never told SFL clubs this was to happen, when they voted to allow a new club entry into the league system.
        What I’m saying is, Suppose it isn’t Sevco in breech of the terms of the secret 5-way agreement, but the SFA……..For making promises they had no authority to, and were unable to fulfil?


  17. jimmci 14th March 2016 at 8:38 pm #Listened to Kenny MacIntyre cheerleading the Sportsound show tonight as they discussed potential manager of the year candidates.
    ===========================

    Kenny MacIntyre allowed his guard to drop a couple of times last night. He engineered a situation where two of the panel (English & Spiers) would go on to ridicule Ronny Deila. He seemed to take some glee from the sniggering Graham Spiers was apparently indulging in which listeners obviously couldn’t see. Even as a Celtic fan I would struggle to give Deila Manager of the year but surely he does not deserve to be ridiculed almost on a nightly basis on Sportsound? On the flip side the slavering over Mark Warburton was something to behold.  I was also puzzled at a couple of references on the show to Ross County being ‘all about Roy McGregor’s money’.  Perhaps McGregor should save himself a few bob by not paying PAYE and N.I. Scottish football case law has established he could do that, liquidate Ross County, and keep the League Cup honour the club has just won, while continuing as if nothing has happened. Or could he??????


  18. jimmci  14th March 2016 at 8:38 pm #Listened to Kenny MacIntyre cheerleading the Sportsound show tonight as they discussed potential manager of the year candidates. It really was quite fascinating to hear how these guys operate. MacIntyre asks who the top four are. English comes in with his selectionJim McIntyre. Already has a Cup win to his name and 4th in league. Reasonable callDerek McInnes. Appalling cup and Euro record( none of which mentioned by TE) but could win the league. If he wins the league he would be a shoo-in in my opinion. Again, a good candidate.

    I don’t listen to the show, nor any other, except for live coverage of games. In the same way I wouldn’t dream of buying a copy of the Record or any other daily rag – there is plenty in life to p*ss me off about this world without adding to the disbelief reading crap like that!

    With regards to your points, I think Deila is being given an extremely rough ride by the SMSM. I think the media bias against Deila is some of the worst Ive seen for a while. Compare and contrast Deila versus McCoist – I don’t rate either as spectacularly good managers, but I know who I’d rather have (but only if he does away with that cringeworthy Ronnie roar nonsense – does he still do that??), yet McCoist was treated like some sort of demigod, even whilst sitting fleecing the club whilst attending to his garden gnomes.

    But, I’d be hard pushed to accept Deila as much of a candidate for manager of the year. Yes, Celtic are defending champions, yes they are top of the league and strong favourites to retain the championship. But for Celtic, with the money they have and the squad they have compared to everyone else in Scotland that is exactly where you would expect them to be. You would expect them to win the league, and have at least one cup final appearance. At the moment I would suggest he would have to attain at least that to be in with a claim to manager of the year. Its down to expectation and I think that is a reasonable expectation level to have. The levels expected of all the other clubs are somewhat lower, to stake a claim for manager of the year I think you should have first and foremost achieved something beyond the initial expectation. For that reason I’d suggest that Jim McIntyre is a strong shout and the omission of Robbie Neilson is more surprising than that of Deila – but we are just reaching the business end of the season now.

    McInnes – ok if Aberdeen win the league I agree it should be a shoe-in. But Aberdeen haven’t done great in the cups (although McInnes record of 1 cup is I believe the same as Deila so far?). I think your appalling claim is a bit strong, especially in Europe. I think we did ok, I think we could do better, but we eventually came up against a very strong team from almost the other side of the world who were backed by some very wealthy individuals. A rub of the green and we might have gotten an easier draw, we didn’t, such is life. Maybe we will get it easier in next years Champions league draw 2109


  19. Tayred, if you don’t listen to any radio phone-in type show or read the Record or any other daily rag how can you reasonably conclude that Deila gets an extremely rough ride from the SMSM when you don’t know what’s said or written about him by a large section of it?
     
    There is no doubt that McCoist got an embarrassingly easy ride from the media in the beginning but as his failings became all too apparent it was more difficult for them ignore performances. They tried their best though. Particular highlights for me? Linking him with the vacant Crystal Palace job in 2014 or Chick Young breathlessly blurting out McCoists name during a manager of the year discussion. Richard Gordon’s exasperated response of ‘Chick!’ was a joy to behold.    
     
    Anyhoo, generally speaking, on last night’s show I didn’t think Deila was unfairly criticised or ridiculed nor Warburton excessively praised. No one picked either as their manager of the year and Speirs thought the real test for Warburton would be performances against better quality opposition on a more regular basis. They did complement him on the job done at Rangers given the state of the team when he took over. I think that’s a fair enough observation. McInnes, Stubbs, Neilson and McIntyre were also mentioned in the discussions. The general consensus, at the moment, was McIntyre for manager and Griffiths a shoe in for player of the year.


  20. incredibleadamspark  15th March 2016 at 10:10 am #Tayred, if you don’t listen to any radio phone-in type show or read the Record or any other daily rag how can you reasonably conclude that Deila gets an extremely rough ride from the SMSM when you don’t know what’s said or written about him by a large section of it?

    Fair point. You unavoidably hear some of it though, even if you don’t actively seek it. I’m no fan of Deila, I’m sure there are many other managers who could be doing a better job than he is. But there is for example the  constant questioning of Deilas position by the media – Chris Sutton for one before the Dundee Utd v Motherwell game on BT sport last week stating he didn’t believe Deila would be at Parkhead beyond the end of the season.


  21. I do not listen to SSB or even BBCsportsound now.  I do not buy any papers as their is no balance whatsoever.  The big 2 were always classed as getting the majority of the media cover (fair enough) but never ever think that the coverage between the 2 is balanced, never. It is all about one club dead or alive and that is how simple it is.  The amount of Ibrox club ex players or supporters in media is again unbalanced. IMO if Celtic had been liquidated and not the Ibrox club the coverage would funny enough have been honest and as they would have reported everything with great glee. Sorry but that is just the way it is in Scotland concerning the Ibrox club and their media followers.  The criticism Neil Lennon got and the way the man was portrayed in our media was appalling. Mr Deila is again getting very unfair treatment by the whole media, shame on them all.  I rely on sites like this where criticism and praise is on the whole very balanced and fair and hope more sites will come on line and eventually the smsm become totally irrelevant (they are that now as far as I am concerned).  The smsm media approach to Ibrox club’s liquidation goes along the lines of lets move on , there is nothing to see here it is all in the past, for the good of the game let us move forward. For the good of the game the smsm must also be liquidated IMO, meantime they should be starved of our audience and then maybe we could move forward. For the good of our game it must always be stressed and voiced at all times that the team playing at Ibrox  is a new club.  We can say it, they do not want to say it. It happened we all witnessed it and they even for one day printed it. 


  22. I have to say that negative comments regarding Deila in the SMSM are nothing compared to the ones I hear from Celtic supporters! Couldn’t print them!
    Meanwhile I think he is doing a grand job 03


  23. Good Afternoon.
    Following the suggestion of an article on ETims today, I have written to Stewart Regan regarding Resolution 12. The letter is posted in full below. Please feel free to share more widely if it is of any interest!
    Keep up the good work!
    TC
    >>>
    Dear Mr Regan
    I would be very grateful if you could confirm or deny the claims made by a number of Celtic shareholders that the SFA has not given full answers to questions posed in July 2015 regarding the awarding of a UEFA licence to Rangers Football Club in respect of season 2011-12. As you are no doubt aware – both from your role as SFA Chief Executive, and as a frequent participant on social media – those questions relate to whether Rangers had ‘overdue payables’ in respect of social taxes, and should not therefore have been granted a licence to play in the Champions League.
    For ease of reference, I attach a link to the Celtic shareholders’ Resolution 12 which gave rise to their letter. http://www.celtictrust.net/index.php?func=d_home_documents_view&id=47
    I understand that the shareholders’ letter specifically raises questions about possible breaches of rules by both the licensee (RFC) and the licensor (the SFA). The shareholders are (of course) the people who own – and appoint the board of – the club which
    a) is a member of the SFA,
    b) plays in the SFA’s Cup competition; and
    c) engages in the SFA’s UEFA licencing process.
    If it is true that the SFA has not replied to each of the legitimate questions raised by shareholders, I would be grateful if you could explain the following:

    • Why there has been no comprehensive response from the SFA?
    • What specific things would the SFA require in order to respond fully to shareholders?
    • Whether you agree that SFA processes not only have to BE above reproach, but also SEEN to be above reproach.
    • Whether you agree that if errors were made in the awarding of Rangers’ UEFA licence in 2011-12 it is in the interest of all SFA member clubs, their owners and fans (as well as the credibility of the SFA itself) for these to be investigated, the findings placed in the public domain, and for revised processes to be put in place as necessary.
    • Whether you stand by your comments of 24 April 2012 that “The Scottish FA has a responsibility to all its members and must implement its rules without fear or favour.” and that “The Scottish FA must act with integrity and with the best interests of the game at heart.”; and
    • Whether failure to respond to the questions raised by Celtic shareholders, and take any necessary subsequent action is consistent with those comments.

    I write to you as a fan and shareholder of Celtic Football Club, but also as a fan of Scottish football who believes that a transparent and effective governing body is absolutely crucial to the future of our wonderful game.
    As a fan of one of your member clubs I want to be reassured that licences for Europe’s premier club competition are handed out on merit according to the rules.
    As a shareholder (and therefore part-owner) of one of your member clubs, I want to be reassured that the vast amount of time, effort and money invested in building a sustainable operation aimed at securing Champions League participation has not and cannot be rendered a complete waste of time as a result of the SFA’s administrative processes.
    And as a fan of Scottish football I want to be reassured that all clubs are competing on a level playing field and going about their business under the benevolent leadership of a modern, efficient, and transparent governing body. In an ideal world, fans of Scottish football wouldn’t have to give the SFA a second thought. It would be there in the background running the game effectively and ensuring we have one of the most exciting domestic games in the world. But where there are fundamental concerns about an aspect of the SFA’s work, it is only right that fans and shareholders should be able to ask challenging questions and expect a clear and frank reply.
    Finally, I think it is important to note that as one of the privileged few who sit on the International Football Association Board and make laws for the game around the world, it is incumbent upon the SFA as an organisation, and you personally Mr Regan to set a good example. If legitimate questions have been raised about the way the SFA observes a number of rules, I believe you have a non-negotiable responsibility to respond to them and then take any necessary action. Without fear or favour.
    I have copied this email to Celtic Football Club and look forward to your reply
    Yours sincerely.
    TC.
    >>>
    The Clumpany can always be found at https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/


  24. Neil Lennon has left Bolton by mutual consent.  Just watch the media go into meltdown linking him back to Celtic.

    So predictable.


  25. Well, I spent a pleasant enough hour and a bit in Court 8 in the real log-fire reeking atmosphere of Parliament House.
    I and one or two other spectators were each handed our personal copies of the reporting restrictions order of November 2015, updated by Lord Doherty today.
    I don’t think I’m in breach of the order if I simply report that the business today was just about when the real business will be dealt with.
    Lord Doherty ,after hearing Counsel, retired to have a think, and returned after some time to announce that he had decided that it would be best dealt with at a later date when other issues elsewhere had been resolved.


  26. John Clark 15th March 2016 at 1:03 pm #

    ———————————————————————
    Been out of the loop for a while John , what case was this referring to ?


  27. Howdy, can I ask before all the ” Shenanigans”, has the Scottish Manager of the Year award ever went out-with the top division ?


  28. Christyboy 15th March 2016 at 2:10 pm #Howdy, can I ask before all the ” Shenanigans”, has the Scottish Manager of the Year award ever went out-with the top division ?

    ========================
    I had a look at this earlier. The award from our esteemed sportswriters has, so far, always gone to a top tier manager, But then again, no second tier manager has worn a magic hat before now. 
    I didn’t post on this earlier because, quite frankly, I find the whole thing nauseating in the extreme. It just sums up Scottish fitba’, it really does.
    However if anyone can point me to a bookie taking odds on this “event”, please let me know and I’ll shove a few quid on the “Warbmeister”. Because he will win it, nothing surer. Just think- both Chris “Union” Jack, and “Radar” Jackson have votes in this. A sure bet, if ever I saw one.


  29. To briefly return to a previous topic;
     
    Is it not farcical that the upcoming match involving a new club – TRFC – and CFC is being promoted as the ‘recommencement’ of the ‘Old Firm’ derby games ?
     
    And that this misrepresentation is being played out in the ‘flagship’ SFA tournament of the Scottish Cup.
    And that this misrepresentation is also being staged at Hampden – the spiritual home of Scottish football.
    And that both the SMSM and the SFA management will enthusiastically support this misrepresentation ?
     
    IMO, this is also part of the PR groundwork for the ‘Rangers return’ to the top league next season – and to try and frustrate the ‘new club’ protesters into submission.
     
    But the non-TRFC fans in Scottish football know the truth – and the image of the Scottish game sinks just that little bit further into the gutter.
     
    …and all because of 1 dodgy club…   11

    [Nice new layout by the way !]


  30. Well that explains why the comment box went AWOL,  I come off, go back on and hey presto! a new looking site. 02


  31. Good morning Jimbo,
    You do have a good point but Glasgow Celtic charge Killie fans(and other visiting fans as well as some of their own support) 29 Pounds. The visiting fans also have the “big pole”impediment obscuring the view though the way Killie  have performed at Parkhead on occasions this is a plus!! (I won’t mention Big Cillian scoring a cracker in our first win there since 1954/55, 2-0 when King Kenny was still our manager!!) So technically yer getting a 3 quid break Cheers my friend.
    yours in sport
    Gaun the Killie


  32. Killie1962,  I likewise disagree that Celtic should charge your away support £29 (I wasn’t aware of that).  Honestly I believe in the twentys plenty approach.  When you factor in the travelling costs for fans it’s more than enough.

    I thought Celtic had plans to address the problem of restricted views for away support, maybe next season?  It’s not as if they don’t have spare capacity to move fans around a bit.


  33. neepheidMarch 15, 2016 at 14:50

    Did Jimmy Nicholl not win SFWA Manager of the Year when Raith Rovers were promoted from Division 1 and got into Europe?


  34. Good morning fellahs,
    I was looking over the various comments about “Manager of the Year” and “Player of the Year” which got me thinking of the biggest robbery on Scottish soil ever,(even outstripping “The Great Train  Robbery”) The year would be 1965 when that band of Ayrshire warriors proudly lifted the Scottish League Division One Championship after a wonderful day in Edinburgh leaving the “old firm” in 5th and 8th place. Glasgow Celtic in 8th place were 13 points adrift and in these far off glory days it was only 2 points for a win !! That was not a great season for Glasgow Celtic, they did reach the Scottish League Cup Final (despite losing 2-0 to the “Might of Methil” East Fife in a Quarter Final first leg tie) where the original Glasgow Rangers beat them 2-1. Despite this poor season the Glasgow team reached the Scottish Cup Final and won it by sneaking past another team from Fife, Dunfermline Ath, by 3-2. Now this is a crime story(not Glasgow Celtic’s league performance) but it involves that club from the East end of Glasgow. When the “Player of the Year” awards were announced by the SMSM led by the Glaswegian Mafia of the era the whole of Scotland (except the Green side of Glasgow)let out massive sighs of disbelief and gave all and asunder astonished looks, especially in East Ayrshire, as the great old warhorse and Killie Captain/legend Frank Beattie was named runner up !!! ????? even Rabbie Burns, that other great Ayrshire stalwart turned over in his grave!! Now who stole this prize from it’s deserving and obvious winner? Non other than Billy McNeil who had led his team to 8TH spot in the league, defeat at Methil and then in the League Cup final against their(at that point)oldest rivals. Albeit they did win a closely contested Scottish Cup Final but the obvious thing that swayed the vote in Billy McNeil’s favor was the Glasgow Cup Winning performance where the Celts ended up beating Queens frigging Park 5-0 in the final!! Now if you can show me a bigger case of robbery in Scotland(Stone of Scone doesn’t count, it was returned but not to it’s rightful place!!)then I will be left speechless!!!!!
    yours in sport
    Gaun the Killie 


  35. neepheid
    March 15, 2016 at 14:50
    _______________________________________________________________
     
    There are two managerial awards; the SFWA and the PFA. It looks like the writers one has only ever been given to managers in the top division. The exception is Andy Roxburgh who won in 89/90, presumably for qualifying for Italia 90. The PFA have given their award 4 times to a manager outside the top division.
     
    Respectfully, I think you’re positing a hypothetical situation so you can rage against it and I’d be surprised if Warburton won any of the awards. If Rangers won the Championship, Scottish cup and Petrofac cup he might deserve it, I suppose. I think it will depend on what other teams do. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
     
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFA_Scotland_Manager_of_the_Year
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SFWA_Manager_of_the_Year
     


  36. Hi BP.

    A bit of snagging here. I’m getting a cookie – wrong api error.

    At first I thought you were just being insulting saying something about not giving cookies to the wrong ape.
    There again, maybe you were and should throw the toys out of the pram.


  37. bluMarch 15, 2016 at 16:15
    ______________________________________________

    Good spot. I never realised Raith were in the first division when Nicol won it.


  38. You do need to clear all cookies and cache to get the new look. 22


  39. Killie 1962,  I think you will find it was awarded to Big Billy in anticipation of him lifting the European cup a couple of years later.  That was the days of real journalists they could look ahead. 21


  40. Let us hope when the site is completed it runs better than it is now very slow for me never had that problem before.


  41. I think I lost that last post so I’ll repeat.

    A “wrong API” error with regard to cookies  popped up when I refreshed the page.


  42. Re the new look – The SFM logo and the menu bar at the top of the page look disproportionately big on my laptop. It takes up a quarter of the screen.


  43. They are the same on the comp as well I only get one short post in view at a time before was a full page of then almost.


  44. How do you want us to treat this BP?

    How temporary is temporary? We would be wasting your time posting snagging issues if the next change will bear no resemblance to this iteration.
    I, for one, will gladly suffer formatting errors, for instance, in silence if it helps.

    On the other hand if the info would be useful…..


  45. Just a wee observation on formatting.
    E.g. Ads / blog photos and avatars aside: the site colours seem to be predominantly red, white and blue ! [& black].
    Mibbees there could be some way to also incorporate colours which represent all the senior clubs, to be ‘visually inclusive’ ?
    Just my tuppence worth.  


  46. I quite like the look of the temporary site. My only concern would be missing posts due to the way replies are appended to the originals, although it makes it easier to ‘follow’ a discussion. 


  47. Might be hard to incorporate all the senior teams colors, how about Lord Rosebery’s racing colors, it was good enough for Scotland’s national team in both centuries, he was also the richest ever former Prime Minister when he died (a real warchest and despite his antics in the Boer and South Africa it was never laundered) and the pinkish red colors Could be tinged to match the  blushing faces of our own gruesome twosome  Doncaster and Regan. wait, nothing could give this pair a reddy !! New site is working fine here in the USA.
    yours in sport
    Gaun the Killie


  48. EddiegoldtopMarch 15, 2016 at 14:04
    ‘…. what case was this referring to..’
    ________
    Former Wavetower as renamed The Rangers Football Group Ltd, claiming £18M from the Liquidators.


  49. Good to see that Les Hutchison is progressing a transfer to fan ownership at Motherwell by selling his 76% stake in the club to the Well Society for £1. 
    http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2016/03/15/club-statement-ownership/

    I would like to wish Motherwell greater success than the last club that was sold for £1.

    A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by majority shareholder Mr Les Hutchison and the ‘Well Society in which Mr Hutchison has agreed to sell his 76% shareholding to fan group the ‘Well Society for £1. This MoU allows the advanced negotiations to continue to a mutually agreed conclusion over the coming weeks.


  50. test…Darn! i still need to use this google chrome to post


  51. Ah Killie 1962, that explains everything.  You are in the USA!  Wondered about the ‘good morning folks’ after noon.  Have to admit thought you might have had the beginings of a wee drink problem, turned night into day.  Or drinking those cocktails that The Clumpany likes – Buckfast and Bleach!  09 0909 15 0501


  52. JEAN7BRODIEMARCH 15, 2016 at 20:12 0 0  Rate This 
    I am totally lost with this new site. Yes I’m thick!!
    ========================
    No you’re not! Unless I’m thick too——-20


  53. Hi Jimbo,
    Funny thing is that I worked for Johnnie Walkers for 10 years before going into exile (now owned by Diageo who own everything else and also closed the original plant down a few years back) and in a local bar at night, watching Killie in the eighties required that alcohol was prescribed daily in large doses by the medical profession. The time difference meant an awful lot of early drinking starts, eight hour difference, one all time classic was when I watched the Scottish League Cup Final against Celtic in 2001 at the Fiddler’s Green in Millbrea California, this was where the local Celtic Supporters club watched all the games(Unsurprisingly the Rangers Bears watched their games at the Britannia Arms) and as the game started at 3pm GMT(7.00am PST) on a Sunday I thought it would be busy but still with space. I clean forgot it was St Patricks’s Day 17TH March and the Bar owner hadn’t closed from the Saturday Evening shenanigans, the place was rocking at 6.0am with the juke box on at full blast and I felt like Custer at Little Big Horn. Still, we lost 3-0(close game till Durrant limped off at half time) second half was a nightmare but the Celts were in a generous mood after the game so the train ride home to San Jose was spent in  snooze mode !!!!

    With all the talk of TV Deals and product it’s interesting to note that for a few seasons in the late nighties and early part of the new century  I was able to watch 2 games, one live and one tape delayed from the newly formed Scottish Premier league on Fox Sports Americana’s (the Spanish speaking sports channel or as we called it, “the Mexican Channel”) Now what made this unusual and enjoyable was the fact that it was not strictly Rangers and Celtic matches shown, they did show some but there was a much broader scope shown of the regular weekly match ups and on the opening day of one season they showed a triple header beginning with St Johnstone against Dundee United,Rangers  versus Killie and finishing off with Dunfermline against Hearts. The football was good but the commentary was all in Spanish. During the season it was funny to hear the poor guy trying to pronounce the Scottish names-McKay was Mahkie and Duffey was Doofee!! Still, the point being was that someone had negotiated a decent TV contract outwith the Scottish market and not just for Celtic and Rangers game. I don’t know who did it but the powers that be need someone like that working for them again though no doubt there would be an excuse about the “product” not being viable.

    I live in wine country, Sonoma County(next door to Napa) but the Buckfast has not yet quite made it to the local tasting rooms though I have pointed this fortified delicacy out to the locals as well as recommending that fine old South African classic-Lanliq or Lanny, maybe that’s why Dave King moved to South Africa, cannae beat the actual source!!!!
    yours in sport
    Gaun the Killie


  54. Absolutely wonderful to hear Ally McC’s dulcet tones ,but on BBC ? Will this go down well at Ibrox ?


  55. Killie, I could listen to your stories all night mate (except I’m about to get sleepy) 
    Whats your prediction for our up and coming game?  Me?  Kilmarnock 1 Celtic 3.

    CMON the Celts!   04


  56. There is only one concern so far,  The SFM banner across the top of the screen takes up c40% of the screen , so annoying.

    Very odd J. Can you send screen grab and details of what browser you are using?
    BP


  57. EasyJ
    Am in discussions as we speak.
    Well announcement to be taken with caution until I clarify.10


  58. Nice picture of all the Dr Whos, all eleven of them, then I thought better check.
     
    “Twelve actors have headlined the series as the Doctor. The transition from one actor to another is written into the plot of the show, as well as the differing approach to the role that each brings, under the concept of …
    regeneration into a new incarnation” now that sounds familiar ??  21


  59.   My questions to Stewart Regan

     Can you confirm if you have considered, and indeed, passed on your response to the CFC shareholders and board?
    If you have not yet responded to the shareholders and board of CFC, do you intend to do so, prior to the shut-off date for complaints to UEFA licensing control committee?
    Can you confirm you will not be responding to the shareholders and board of CFC, and if so, on what grounds do you take this step?   

      His reply

    Dear Mr “Corrupt Official”
     
    Thanks for your note. I can confirm we have written to Celtic FC on this matter.
     
    Regards
    Stewart Regan


  60. @Jimbo

    Print Screen button – prt scr (usually top right hand side of the keyboard) for the whole screen
    alt-prt scr – to capture only the item in focus.

    paste into app of your choice.


  61. Thegamesabogey,

    I tried that but no joy.  Also, I don’t think I have ever used an app in my life.  But EJ may be having the same problem and has informed bp.  Thanks anyway.  I think I am good with computers but in all honesty it was mostly work related systems which were idiot proof.  02


  62. Jimbo,

    These youngsters call programmes apps because it is more hip(as my generation would call it).

    So the “app” could be MS Word or similar.

    Silver Surfers never die, they only get left behind.


  63. Reiver @ 09.41 March 16

    I must compliment you on your UEFA submission – a very well presented , logical & persuasive document . I hope you manage to engage them in correspondence to gain traction & action on what is a national scandal .

    PS I hope you copied Alex Thomson of Channel4 who takes a close interest on matters up here (unlike our local media)


  64. Just saw this on the BBC sport website. As someone suggested yesterday, the premise is Deila out/Lennon in.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35819284
    More important, though, are the pundit comments of one Alastair McCoist. I hope the media are reporting this accurately, because in support of Lennon, McCoist states empathetically that he understands the problems Lennon faced because he faced the same problems at old Rangers – “The club obviously going into administration. Our own club went into administration then liquidation.”
    Will any one ask him how he reached this heretical conclusion?

Comments are closed.