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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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Why does anyone need a stand at a training ground. Apologies if it has been explained.
If you have a Football club that is losing money on operating as Football club, have a stadium and training facilities that are in need of basic maintenance, why add a stand at the training facility. Maybe it is just for the squirrels though.
I understand that a Football club needs training facilities for the players to hone their skills and keep up their fitness. Do the fans need somewhere to practice their: sitting on their erses watching other people play; skills.
Dutchmul @ 10:07
interesting comments about the Indie and its mini version the ‘i’.
if its new owners at the Scotsman wanted to downsize into a Scottish ‘i’ due to falling circulation then they could always call it the ‘Och i the noo’
I’ll get ma coat
I think any outsider reading Warburton’s (reported) comments can only draw one conclusion.
Austerity, swingeing austerity, is finally coming to Ibrox.
They’re going to be a lean, mean football machine that’s paid on results. Any new contracts will be offered as a basic (very, probably) salary, topped up by cash per point. Since next season onward, points won’t be the ‘gimmes’ that they are this one, the wage bill could be reduced significantly.
If they are going to offer short(er) term contracts as a matter of course, it gives a player greater opportunities to refuse new terms & to leave, possibly without a fee. Of course, it’s also easier to get rid of ‘dead wood’.
Mungoboy
‘Och i the noos’
EKloon
Touché et chapeau!!
No mention in EDC planning applications. Maybe I am looking under the wrong name What do they call it now?
http://planning.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/online-applications/pagedSearchResults.do?action=page&searchCriteria.page=1
Would it also be the case that applications must be accompanied by gazette notice, and a visible posting of intent on site?
neepheid 21st February 2016 at 8:56 am
‘………I thought quite highly of Warburton at first, he is clearly a far better manager than McCoist2121, but he seems to be coming out with some real nonsense recently…
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Apart from raising an eyebrow at the apparent folly of a cookie sharp enough to have been in the barra-boy end of the ‘money business’, I gave no great thought to Warburton one way or the other, beyond acknowledging that, inexperienced though he was, he has got a very indifferent team to perform far better than McCoist got a notionally ‘better’ team to do.
But -and it’s a big but- he seems now to be losing his grip on reality, with comments that could be described merely as fatuous, if it were not for the underlying TRFC malice and ill-will and ‘blame-others’ culture that is the context for his remarks.
TRFC already use artificial pitches. Their new one is second-rate , relative to Killie’s IRB standard.
So where does that leave Warburton’s comments as other than condemnatory of his own Board’s parsimony and his own readiness to accept ,as he believes, that his players will suffer injury?
Warburton as football manager? Fair enough.
Warburton as a willing tool buying into a fairly despicable culture? Does himself no favours in the wider world by his own readiness to endorse nonsense.
I think the overanalyses, speculation of motives and state of mind, and allround negativety towards Warburton a bit strange. His comments about artificial pitches don’t seem that bad to me and pretty consistent in comparison to what other managers have said about them.
With all the comment and rush to condem pretty much anything that comes out of his mouth are some indulging in the very thing they criticise the media for doing regarding Ronny Deila? I think he has been reasonably sensible in his dealings with the press so far and comes across no better or worse than most managers.
Very valid point Incredibleadamspark, you beat me to it.
It seems to be open season on Mr Warburton on here because he happened to be a Rangers manager who opened his mouth and some people don’t like that. He has said nothing outrageous or offensive. Can you imagine the furore if he had actually said something along the lines of what Mr Collins said earlier in the season?
There have been many wrongs done by and in the name of Rangers but the outrage over nothing that is being shown currently simply seems like hatred overflowing. I’m well aware that now there will be many follow up posts justifying hatred of Rangers, how the songs the fans sing are horrible and how there was a sectarian signing policy for years, etc. etc. Yawn.
I do not buy newspapers, I do not listen to SSB, I listen to the BBCSportsound less and less and the the reason why is they all do not openly report truthfully on all aspects or issues related to the Govan club new/old and there is a very high pecentage of ex Rangers players/supporters as pundis and journalist (I use this term loosely) which creates an unbalanced view.
Journalists/radio presenters and pundits know what we know (as they read blogs like this) they may even know more than we know. They will never say it and they will never print it and so are not fit for purpose. The SFA know for certain more than we know and they will never come out and say for example the Ibrox club is a new club, they are not fit for purpose and IMO heavily conflicted in this scenario (5 way agreemnet etc…,how many is a guess but a fair view I would imagine). Are there NO journalists/pundits willing to do their job correctly ? (I know in the past some have and the fear factor and threats came and put an end to their reporting and I understand their actions for then not continuing reporting the truth). We all know the underlying current from the fans of this club and what they are capable of doing but is that it?, we simply bow to that? IMO they as fans are not fit for any purpose that is benficial to our game and that IMO goes for their club as well.
Corruption, fear tactics and cheating has no place in our game and has to be removed and it starts with portraying and honest reporting by everyone on all the past and present actions of the Ibrox clubs. Four years now of not reporting on the truth and hopefully it starts with these up and coming trials. The club was Sevco then, who know what they are now and who knows what they will be in the future, but we know what their fans will be like and that is the worry. Although it is a worry we have to be able to tell the truth and deal with the consequences sadly to say otherwise we have not got a sport worthy of watching, or a press worthy of reading and as for the SFA well…………..
incredibleadamspark 21st February 2016 at 1:22 pm
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You seem to be implying that people here are jumping on everything Mark Warburton says. That is not my experience, people have commented on a couple of specific things recently. They happen to be close together but that is because of when he chose to say them.
He has said he doesn’t think there should be artificial pitches in the top division. Firstly he doesn’t manage a team in the top division so it really isn’t his business. Secondly they make good financial sense for clubs struggling financially. They can be use all year round for both games and training, for all levels of players. They can be rented out for other to use in all sorts of weather with minimal upkeep. For a lot of clubs they make absolute sense. Has he provided evidence that the players who use them every other week suffer more frequent and more serious injuries. Or as suggested earlier that is actually his player’s own fault for taking the penalty and his colleagues’ for then jumping on him.
With regards the contracts. In my opinion he is simply being disingenuous. He is trying to make a negative look like a positive.
With regards the comparison to Ronny Deila, I think that is more apparent in the media than on here. Deila, 6 points and 30 goals clear at the top of the top of the division is painted an abject failure. Warburton, 5 points and 27 goals clear at the top of the second tier is never criticized and if anything receives nothing but praise.
Great post Finloch… But I’m pretty sure that it was Robinson & Deans that had the club and not Mercer when Hearts won the cup in ’98
incredibleadamspark 21st February 2016 at 1:22 pm
RyanGosling 21st February 2016 at 1:31 pm
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It is the sheer stupidity of a manager commenting adversely about damage to players caused by artificial playing surfaces when his own club not only already plays on them in training, but is installing a new one that isn’t even up to the highest standards that I, at least, was commenting on!
I myself have never played on an artificial surface, so cannot comment from personal experience on how good or bad they may be. But I listen to Willie Miller, who seems to make the very sensible, matter of fact observation that there appears to be no evidence that grass-field injuries were fewer than the injury count attributed to artificial surfaces, and that on a turn your studs can stick in grass (just as your sannies could stick on the gym floor) and cause a right sore one.
To be consistent, the complaining manager should ask for Auchenhowie to be grassed!
Ryan Gosling, agreed. If Warburton had said what Collins did about Scottish players the Internet would have broken.
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Ryan,
I understand the point you make – I even agree with you up to a point in this particular instance. However you really ought to know better than to ascribe criticism of your club as ‘hatred’ – or any other character defect for that matter.
That’s exactly the kind of language we are trying to avoid. There is room for criticism of anyone or anything on here as long as it doesn’t descend into language which discourages further discussion.
I doubt being accused of Rangers hating is something that I would find conducive to further civilised discourse – partly because it is not true, and partly because I would regard the discussion as being over.
John Clark, playing for 90 mins as opposed to occasionally training on an artificial pitch when the weather is bad is comparing apples with oran…. not apples. For clubs who have these pitches the players are playing a match every other week on them and possibly doing all their training on them too.
Tommy Wright has stated he left Steven McLean out of matches played on artificial surfaces. Robbie Neilson and Ronny Deila, amongst others, have all criticised playing matches on these surfaces and I bet they all train on them at some point throughout the season.
Homunculus 21st February 2016 at 1:55 pm #incredibleadamspark 21st February 2016 at 1:22 pm
With regards the comparison to Ronny Deila, I think that is more apparent in the media than on here. Deila, 6 points and 30 goals clear at the top of the top of the division is painted an abject failure. Warburton, 5 points and 27 goals clear at the top of the second tier is never criticized and if anything receives nothing but praise.
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Aside from when Jock Stein was in charge at Celtic, I can never recall any Celtic Manager being treated with the same respect by the media their Ibrox counterpart is. The de-facto position in Scotland is that the Rangers Manager is a man of great integrity and dignity. Counter that with the jibes poked at Celtic Managers. Interestingly I recall reading an article when Dick Advocaat was Rangers Manager and Jo Venglos was at Celtic. Advocaat said any country in the world he had been in Venglos was very highly respected in football circles. He noted Scotland was the only country he had witnessed the man being subjected to ridicule. Wim Jansen too was widely ridiculed by the media before even setting foot in Scotland. There are many other examples regarding other Celtic Managers. Whatever shortcomings Ronny Deila has, he is at an immediate disadvantage simply because of who he works for. In my view history shows that beyond doubt. He doesn’t even have a Christian name at the publicly funded national broadcaster, whose presenters and pundits almost try to outdo each other in terms of how badly they can speak of the man.
Latest from John James. Five Way Agreement content.
https://johnjamessite.wordpress.com/2016/02/20/the-farrago-of-deception/
When Warburton produces his “medical proof” (not just evidence, mind, but actual proof) regarding Waghorn’s injury being attributable to a FIFA, UEFA and SFA approved playing surface, then I’ll consider changing my mind regarding him talking nonsense. Until then, so far as I’m concerned, he’s talking utter nonsense. If he does have his “medical proof”, he should forward it to the relevant authorities, not blow about it (without actually revealing it) in the .papers
With regard to Ronny Deila’s opinion on artificial surfaces. I know nothing about them. But I seem to remember reading an article last year (maybe during Euro games) that he had no big deal with ‘plastic’ pitches they are used widespread in Norway for obvious reasons. Where he did have an issue was that they should be sufficiently watered before a game.
On the criticism of Mark Warburton’s recent words of wisdom.
Since his arrival he has had a media profile far higher than that given to any other manager. That is any other manager since, well since Ally McCoist. His words have elicited fawning adulation from the press pack, with his previous, non-football, career held up as something of wondrous significance. Initially, what he said was acknowledged on here, and elsewhere, as a breath of fresh air from an Ibrox previously more renowned for it’s wafting hot air. Gradually his words have come more in line with those of a man under pressure, reminding me of how McCoist’s own pronouncements deteriorated and became more nonsensical as the pressure built.
We are mostly of the belief that the money is getting ever more dangerously short at Ibrox, and clearly Warburton has not been given the money he was led to believe would be forthcoming when he first took the job. Warburton’s is the only voice we have heard recently from within TRFC, at a time when monetary matters must be reaching a critical level. Their most saleable asset has an injury that seems to be quite a worrying injury. A manager, conceivably under pressure (and perhaps aware his rumoured £0.5m bonus may be becoming a pipe dream) to produce a team brim-full of saleable talent, starts to blame another club’s pitch for that asset’s injury, even though it was an existing one. That deserves to be analysed somewhere, and it’s not going to happen within the media that still report on him as some sort of messiah, their own messiah!
Next, at a club that not so long ago was promoting the idea that the way forward was to sign players and develop them to sell on at a healthy profit, Warburton is extolling that the smart way to go is to sign players on short term contracts (so will that be one year as opposed to the more usual 2 or 3 years?) and keep them hungry!
Not only are the words he is coming out with now contradictory, they, quite simply, show that there is cause for exaggerated concern over an injured player verging on panic, in a sport/business where injuries are par for the course, and that a well publicised, and common sense, income plan is now changing to one that makes no long, or even medium, term sense whatsoever!
At this moment in time, when RIFC/TRFC is touting for huge amounts of money from the supporters, while not producing their half year balance sheet, nor making their financial position known (other than in an unsubstantiated way in court, but also duping their counsel into telling untruths) I’d suggest it is in the best interest of all TRFC supporters that every single announcement that gives any indication of how things really are financially is debated critically by the media, and as they won’t do it, then online in places such as this are all that remain.
We might get it totally wrong, but if nobody challenges what’s said, then the fleecing of supporters will continue, unabated (or until the ship sinks)! For those who think the ‘anti Warburton’ posts on here are wrong, ask yourselves, were we wrong to do the same about Whyte, Green, Ahmed, Murray, McCoist, King…? Did criticising the critics work out well?
The only sense that can be made of Warburton’s comments, as opposed to a man losing it a bit (through frustration), is the word ‘squirrel’. The same could be said for the goings on at Murray Park, where there must be less need for a new stand than there is for repaired stands at Ibrox! Again, supporters about to hand over very large sums of money should be asking ‘what’s that all about?’ But they won’t, and neither will the succulents!
Dutchmul 21st February 2016 at 10:07 am #
justshatered 19th February 2016 at 9:00 pm Shocking figures for a scottish national paper, however, not a surprise, the record and sunday mail have been in decline for a long time. I would suspect that the age demographic for those 2 “newspapers” is very high as well, nothing to attract the young to buy them.
What was interesting in the last 2 weeks was the indy’s decision to go online only and to sell their i daily mini newspaper to johnston press(owners of the scotsman). I see the end for the scotsman with this purchase, it’s content(such as it is) will be incorporated into the i (as a scottish i?) and the scotsman goes online only.
Newspapers in general are in decline and the indy is just the first to throw in the towel. In scotland, the scotsman and herald are in terminal decline along with the record, although the record still has a 6 figure readership, the scotsman and herald would struggle to reach 50k between the two of them.
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Whenever I visit Edinburgh on business the hotel I use is invariably awash with free copies of the Scotsman. Are these included in the circulation figures? If so, is this just another example of the delusions that seem to afflict our traditional media?
Like John Clark’s meeting with the SFA, I don’t think there is as yet a proper understanding by traditional newspapers of how media channels have changed.
Comment and analysis is no longer the sole province of a small group of sports ‘journalists’ used to agreeing a ‘line’ to take and spoon-fed stories aimed at keeping them onside.
As when JC visited the SFA, the people now asking questions are often professional, experienced people more than prepared to investigate and evaluate before making comment that is grounded in fact.
Researched work like that of Auldheid has most likely not been seen before by people like the SFA President and his communications manager. They need to start realizing that this is something that is here to stay and that they need to properly engage with such people. JC asked fair and well researched questions. The responses were only one step above bluster.
Scottish Football needs a strong and challenging new media.
abit off topic but well done young man for the recognistion
http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/news/newsid=2330663.html
redlichtie 21st February 2016 at 4:14 pm
Yes, I believe the overall circulation figures include bulk (free) copies to companies etc, for instance, the mail on sunday has the highest circulation of any sunday paper but the sun on sunday has the most paid for sales.
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/national-newspaper-circulations-may-2015-mail-sunday-overtakes-sun-sunday-times-remains-biggest-growing
I think the scotsman is below 15k paid for daily sales, I stopped buying it about 6/7 months ago as the price has spiralled to £1.40 per day whilst the content has gone down in terms of both quantity and quality. eg, I bought a copy of the herald and the scotsman a while back to read some sports info, however, the stories in both papers where pretty much identically worded(so close as to be the same) but under different journos names.
I think the scotsman(and the herald) in their print form are not for this world much longer.
Michael O’Halloran signed for Rangers right at the end of the January transfer window, 3 weeks ago.
It is widely reported he was given a four and a half year deal. One would question if he would have made the move had he been offered a 1 year contract.
Neepheid, being approved by FIFA, UEFA or the SFA is hardly a badge of honour. We’ve to take note of these thourghly discredited organisations because the Rangers manager has some criticisms of artificial surfaces? Players, coaches, managers and players organisations all have reservations about these pitches.
As I said, Tommy Wright doesn’t play Steven McLean on artificial surfaces because he has suffered two serious injuries on them and a surgeon has advised him not to play on that surface. Are we to assume this medical professional is talking nonsense too until he produces some proof to your satisfaction?
The latest Warb’s drivel doesn’t make sense, on any level; apart from saying that they are skint.
What does a one year contract effectively mean?
it means that a player can sign a pre contract with another club in January, and leave for nothing in June.
The first question mark against Mark was, why did an intelligent man, with a background in finance, throw his lot in with a convicted criminal and a judicially certified liar, to boot?
it’s not as if he had any visible emotional connection to Rangers, old and new.
So,the question remains, why?
Birds of a feather?
RyanGosling. I try to keep an open mind and T/U your posts when I can. I had to do the opposite just then.
If the Ibrox fans are glorifying in the spillage of blood of people like me, and I take umbrage to that, I
find it very sad that it bores you. (Yawn) Sorry but I will continue to bore everyone about this until the day I die, or until they stop, or the Ibrox board stop them! Oh well, I can always dream…
Please do not trivialise this. At least not if you’re to be taken seriously.
How would you feel being on the recieving end for half a century and more?
Anyway, hope to meet you in Perth if you can manage.
On the length of contract. It appears Mark Warburton would prefer players on shorter contracts with rewards if certain targets are met. I do not know if he decides on contracts at Ibrox, I doubt it as managers tend not to these days, and would guess that Stewart Robertson is in charge of this.
So it’s no great shock to see players offered longer contracts despite Warburtons opinion on such things. He probably doesn’t have the final say and this is another non-story.
Also MW said short term contracts were good for ‘some’ players and as far as I have read he never mentioned one year contracts. So this is not a one size fits all scenario regarding the contracts and should not be implied as such.
incredibleadamspark 21st February 2016 at 2:40 pm #
John Clark, playing for 90 mins as opposed to occasionally training on an artificial pitch when the weather is bad is comparing apples with oran…. not apples. For clubs who have these pitches the players are playing a match every other week on them and possibly doing all their training on them too.
Tommy Wright has stated he left Steven McLean out of matches played on artificial surfaces. Robbie Neilson and Ronny Deila, amongst others, have all criticised playing matches on these surfaces and I bet they all train on them at some point throughout the season.
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I can confirm that Hearts have certainly been training regularly on artificial surfaces, both outdoors and indoors. The weather over the last three months has dictated that any grass surface will turn to mud if played on every day. They do train at Tynecastle on a Friday where they can practice their set plays in private, which is not possible at their Riccarton base.
Hearts also chose to switch their Development League home this season from the grass pitch at Newtongrange to the artificial surface at Ochilview, so all the U20s and the fringe first team guys who play Development games are well accustomed to it.
The new National Performance Centre at Riccarton is progressing well since work on it started around a year ago. Three grass football pitches and two rugby pitches were completely dug up and relaid with new drainage and irrigation facilities, during the summer. Although they should have been in use months ago and the grass has been cut regularly, they remain out of commission, and have never even been lined.
The old artificial pitch which had been in situ since 2004 has also been replaced with the latest FIFA 2 Star standard surface, complete with a shockpad underlay. I can confirm that the new pitch both looks and plays superbly, indeed much better than the grass pitch alongside it that Hearts use for training and Heriot Watt University use for matches . The old 60 x 40 indoor pitch has similarly been upgraded.
The new full size (105m v 68m) indoor pitch should be ready for use around late summer / early autumn. I don’t know if either Hearts will seek to play Development games on it or if the University will use it for East of Scotland League games. I certainly would have no hesitation in playing competitive games on it.
ThomTheTim, Your first mistake is to credit me with some intelligence. Your second is to think I would waste my time trying to waste others time. I have been posting on here from the very beginning and do not always agree with everything that is posted and If I have the time I will post accordingly. No nuts here, my friend.
Yep another non story. Funny how non stories originating from Auchenowie or Govan are given far more coverage in the media than real stories from elsewhere,
incredibleadamspark 21st February 2016 at 4:40 pm # Neepheid, being approved by FIFA, UEFA or the SFA is hardly a badge of honour. We’ve to take note of these thourghly discredited organisations because the Rangers manager has some criticisms of artificial surfaces? Players, coaches, managers and players organisations all have reservations about these pitches.
As I said, Tommy Wright doesn’t play Steven McLean on artificial surfaces because he has suffered two serious injuries on them and a surgeon has advised him not to play on that surface. Are we to assume this medical professional is talking nonsense too until he produces some proof to your satisfaction?
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While there can be no doubt that these organisations you mention are somewhat compromised on an administration level, is there any evidence that those in the more technical areas, such as examining the properties of artificial pitches, are in any way corrupt? There might be some brown envelopes pass hands in terms of contracts issued, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the pitches are bad. As I type I have pain in my knee from a football injury, sustained long before artificial pitches existed, where my foot/studs stuck in longish grass, resulting in my knee bending in the wrong direction and ending my playing days forever! No other player was involved. Bad things happen to footballers all the time.
There will no doubt be injuries that occur on artificial surfaces that don’t happen on grass, and vice versa. There will be players, and managers, who will complain about surfaces, no matter what they are made of. A good manager will not put a prized player, carrying an injury, out on a surface he, himself, thinks might cause, or aggravate, injury. Or, at least, if he does, he’ll admit it was his fault and not someone else’s!
High profile managers, especially when that high profile is also artificial, should, perhaps, spend some time thinking about what they say, before they say it, for it might give away more about their own insecurities than it does about what they are complaining about!
As I said earlier, with so little news coming out from Ibrox about their precarious financial position, we here have little to go on and have to analyse whatever someone, with inside knowledge, might be saying to enable us to make somewhat informed guesses. Warburton’s press statements have gone from very measured and assured to knee jerk responses, suggesting something is wrong and he isn’t happy. It’s not as though this is the first game his side’s played on a synthetic pitch, but it is maybe the first time a player with sufficient value to cover any bonus he might be due has been injured! Hence the apparent anger.
Almost every word, ThomTheThim.
Just for the record, I think it would be impossible to “prove” that any individual injury was attributable to the type of playing surface. Mr Warburton clearly disagrees- he says he has “medical proof”. Well then, let’s see it. What’s unreasonable about that? And before we start, a doctor’s opinion is not “proof” of anything. It is simply an opinion.
We can all agree that the SFA, FIFA and UEFA are corrupt organisations at the top. That hardly invalidates the expert opinions of the professionals who are employed by, or are consulted by, these organisations regarding the safety of artificial playing surfaces. The expert concensus regarding 3G pitches is that they are safe to play on. That is, of course, just an opinion.
Since Mr Warburton claims to have proof to the contrary, then he surely owes it to the game at large to put his proof in the public domain, so saving lots of unnecessary injuries, presumably. And the same applies to Mr Wright, if he thinks he can prove that these pitches are unsafe to play on.
incredibleadamspark 21st February 2016 at 5:12 pm # On the length of contract. It appears Mark Warburton would prefer players on shorter contracts with rewards if certain targets are met. I do not know if he decides on contracts at Ibrox, I doubt it as managers tend not to these days, and would guess that Stewart Robertson is in charge of this.
So it’s no great shock to see players offered longer contracts despite Warburtons opinion on such things. He probably doesn’t have the final say and this is another non-story.
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I think any half decent manager/coach would prefer to have players he could develop and benefit from their improvement, than to watch them walk away for free after all his good efforts. If Warburton finds that players on longer contracts lack motivation to play for his team, perhaps he should look at his own motivational skills rather than to introduce insecurity to his squad to induce the required hunger.
Regardless, I still can’t understand why he would come out with this rather unusual idea, other than that he’s been requested to, to provide justification for a short-term squad, in the Premiership, for financial reasons. Of course, loan players tend to have short-term contracts…
The latest post from John James on the complicity of our clubs who make up the membership of the SFA, SPL and SPFL in the continuity lie.
https://johnjamessite.wordpress.com/2016/02/21/the-juxtaposition-of-the-five-way-agreement-the-lns-recommendations/
Allyjambo, the players could leave under freedom of contract or they could just as easily extend their contract on improved terms. There have been plenty of players who were happy to sit and pick up big wages and do very little to justify them.
Again, he thinks some players benefit from this approach and not all. Doesn’t seem like the most outrageous thing I have heard from a Rangers manager. This rather ‘unusual idea’ seemed to work very well at Brentford and they managed to sell a number of players for millions. The club has been less successful since his departure but that could be coincidence.
You think he has been instructed to come up with this idea to justify any future squad building at Ibrox. I think that is reading too much into things and we are only discussing this at length because it’s the Rangers manager who said it.
tykebhoy 21st February 2016 at 5:37 pm # ncredibleadamspark 21st February 2016 at 5:12 pm #On the length of contract. It appears Mark Warburton would prefer players on shorter contracts with rewards if certain targets are met. I do not know if he decides on contracts at Ibrox, I doubt it as managers tend not to these days, and would guess that Stewart Robertson is in charge of this. So it’s no great shock to see players offered longer contracts despite Warburtons opinion on such things. He probably doesn’t have the final say and this is another non-story. Yep another non story. Funny how non stories originating from Auchenowie or Govan are given far more coverage in the media than real stories from elsewhere,
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Perhaps Adam is somewhat correct, and it has been issued as a non-story! A typical Level5 produced story, that turns out to be a worse strategy than saying nothing would have been, in the belief that ‘they are Rangers’, so they have to keep filling their media with words!
Re: the Murray Park ‘stand’.
Immediate reaction: a big construction squirrel.
However…
If there is a grain of truth there, could it be a potential, new revenue stream?
Charge the punters to watch training sessions, meet & greet with players, pies and Bovril etc ?
IIRC on the continent some big clubs get crowds for training (?).
But yes, one would think that more immediate issues / bills should be addressed first by TRFC.
Highlander, that is a sweeping generalisation that is quite unpleasant in tone towards me and in no way related to anything I have been debating.
RyanGosling 21st February 2016 at 1:31 pm #
Ryan I think you are confusing hatred with incredulity.
My guess is folks on here are just fed up of Warburton being given carte blanche and an unquestioning platform to open his gob on all matter of things. Not because he has any particular standing, knowledge or great experience in the game but merely because, as you point out, he is T”Rangers manager.
Nothing against the guy. I am a great admirer of people making major career changes to follow their dreams and wish him every success.
However no one will be expecting Killie’s new manage Lee Clark to be telling the Scottish top flight how to run the game, what pitches to play on etc etc, despite him having a 440 appearance professional career, England U21 caps and 10 years in coaching and management. Nor would the SMSM give him maximum column inches if he does end up having something interesting to say as Warb’s favourite breakfast cereal will most likely get more coverage.
Folks,
Adam is a valued and respected poster here – as is Ryan. They deserve the same respect as everyone else – and neither is guilty of trolling or obfuscating.
If you can’t match their arguments without resorting to petty remarks, your posts will be removed, followed by your posting rights.
Adam
I think you are correct that Warburton is more readily discussed because he is the Rangers manager. I think that it is a double-edged sword though. Our readiness to discuss and dissect his comments merely mirrors the MSM’s readiness to give air to his views.
By and large i think the man has gained much respect here over his incumbency, but he is perhaps being done a great disservice by the media in their overkill approach – and also being exposed somewhat by the haphazard PR which is very board-facing, and not football facing.
I think he is as entitled as any of us to criticise the pitches in question, but I can also understand why people here see ulterior motives in everything that comes out of Ibrox.
In general though, I believe scrutiny at a football level is subjective, and less suited to our particular skills here.
I apologise for the cheap and nasty shots that both you and Ryan have been subjected to today, but please continue to fight your corner 🙂
My profuse apologies to incredibleadamspark, and to the mods who have deemed my previous post to be unsuitable. My only defence is that it categorically was not aimed at you (I respect your posts and those of Ryan), or indeed any individual, but at the fanbase in general. However, I bow to the mods judgement and apologise unreservedly for any offence.
incredibleadamspark 21st February 2016 at 6:26 pm # Allyjambo, the players could leave under freedom of contract or they could just as easily extend their contract on improved terms. There have been plenty of players who were happy to sit and pick up big wages and do very little to justify them.
Again, he thinks some players benefit from this approach and not all. Doesn’t seem like the most outrageous thing I have heard from a Rangers manager. This rather ‘unusual idea’ seemed to work very well at Brentford and they managed to sell a number of players for millions. The club has been less successful since his departure but that could be coincidence.
You think he has been instructed to come up with this idea to justify any future squad building at Ibrox. I think that is reading too much into things and we are only discussing this at length because it’s the Rangers manager who said it.
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Adam
‘the players could leave under freedom of contract or they could just as easily extend their contract on improved terms’
So what? It would be the same under a longer term contract. A decent player isn’t going to accept a short term contract at any club, unless it’s a last resort, or his name’s Kenny Millar
, which is probably the same thing. I’d suspect a player, previously on a longer term contract, is more likely to accept an extension, than someone who hasn’t been around long enough to have settled down, particularly if he has family, and only players with something to prove don’t insist on security, so, no matter how hungry they are, a great deal of luck is required to find a gem!
In truth, all Scottish clubs sign some players on short term contracts, but it’s got nothing to do with keeping them hungry, it’s usually to get a half decent player (one they couldn’t normally afford) on the promise of putting them in the shop window. So the question remains, why has he come out with this now? Other than to say players on long term contracts aren’t hungry Warburton hasn’t said anything to justify revealing his brainwave. Even ordinary supporters came up with the description ‘wage thief’ years ago, which is just another way of saying some players hang around taking their wage without trying a leg.
I’ve no idea what success he had at Brentford with this, but if he had any, why has he already signed players on longer contracts, while none on those short term deals that were previously so successful? Did he forget about the super strategy and just remember in time for his latest presser, or is it just another load of mince from Level5’s squirrel mincer?
I’d say that this is either just a space filler, to fulfill whatever contract Level5 have with their media partners, or, if it is something TRFC/Warburton want said, it is preparing the support for something they normally wouldn’t like, for why else talk about player contracts less than a month after the transfer window closes? What other club managers are discussing signing strategies in the media?
Of course, maybe in his previous career, Warburton found it was a good idea to let your rivals know your latest business plan so they could use it too! Just in case you are unaware, he was involved in a cutthroat business where it is considered honourable to lie to get a march on your rivals!
While I note Highlanders apology that he may have overstepped the mark I think his post totally removed was in the main very accurate. The thrust as I recall was mainly that even if the SFA, UEFA and FIFA are totally discredited from a governance PoV, there is little to discredit their technical judgement. Therefore attempts to discredit artificial services because these bodies have rated them needs to be backed up by the ratings being flawed or made corruptly. Those defending Warburton’s comments on the Rugby Park pitch need to play that ball rather than tackling the messengers that the surface, as things stand, is perfectly legitimate and safe. In my opinion of course.
StevieBC 21st February 2016 at 6:28 pm #Re: the Murray Park ‘stand’. Immediate reaction: a big construction squirrel. However… If there is a grain of truth there, could it be a potential, new revenue stream? Charge the punters to watch training sessions, meet & greet with players, pies and Bovril etc ? IIRC on the continent some big clubs get crowds for training (?). But yes, one would think that more immediate issues / bills should be addressed first by TRFC.
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i to belive this to be a massive bushy squirl
as for 1 the parking and acsses to and at murry park are almost non exictant
so why build a stand to seat hundreds when it is harder to get to than hampden on final day???
Allyjambo, to repeat myself, Warburton said this approach worked for ‘some’ players and I’m not sure if he has the final say on contract lengths and wages. That is probably Stewart Robertson, as MD. Just out of interest have you read the article in question? Because I can’t believe the amount that’s been written (myself included) about something so unimportant.
Thanks Big Pink, I’ll keep fighting my corner even if it’s a bit crowded and I don’t fancy my chances much. I’ll make no more comment on contractgate as I’m just repeating and boring myself and everyone else.
No worries, Highlander. My response to your post was maybe a wee bit over the top.
Re Mr Warburton’s view on the benefits of short term contracts – does that apply to managers too?
“Rangers appoint Mark Warburton as manager on three-year contract….”
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/15/rangers-appoint-mark-warburton-manager
Scottish Football needs a strong Arbroath.
Now – I’ve had a glass or two of Valpolicella tonight, in combination with an excellent chilli prepared by the fair hand of Mrs. Haywire. However, I am somewhat stunned/puzzled about the way in which our Incredible Madam has been cushioned on cotton wool and protected by the Mods. Needless to say, I have had my credentials felt by the Mods in the past (even when I have not had a drop), but I feel that I must remark on the excessively favourable treatment that has been extended to one of the few (to be honest I don’t now know what to call them) unbelievers.
As a Killie supporter, I am used to the ‘no plastic pitches in Scotland’ pitch, but folk used to complain bitterly about our pitch when it was grass (or rather mud & sand between October and March)!
My, admittedly biased, view is that the man with WAR in his name if getting his excuses in early, just in case they (hopefully) end up in the play off slot.
Regards to all, and particularly JC.
incredibleadamspark 21st February 2016 at 7:51 pm # Allyjambo, to repeat myself, Warburton said this approach worked for ‘some’ players and I’m not sure if he has the final say on contract lengths and wages. That is probably Stewart Robertson, as MD. Just out of interest have you read the article in question? Because I can’t believe the amount that’s been written (myself included) about something so unimportant.
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Like you I haven’t read it, but have just gone on what’s written here, perhaps he said something in the article that made the talked of point here of more value. If he has, then I apologise if what he says makes what the rest of us have said nonsense.
The thing most people here are discussing, though, is not the importance of what was said, for there is no importance in saying what everybody that follows football already knows, but rather that it should be said at all. TRFC have, since their inception, existed on lies and deception. Mark Warburton, who at first seemed to lift the press releases from Ibrox to a better level, has more recently been inclined to be more negative towards those outside the TRFC bubble, while appearing to be a conduit for the board’s PR puff pieces. The TRFC board, perhaps because of on going court cases, or just because they have nothing encouraging to say, have been uncharacteristically quiet of late and so anything that is said from the club is naturally subjected to critical analysis on here.
As I’ve said before, the bampots were roundly criticised by all TRFC favouring outlets when criticising Green, Whyte etc, and told that much of what we said was irrelevant. Much probably was, clearly looking for sporting integrity was rather naïve, but every single character to darken the Ibrox walls, who was criticised by us all and their claims questioned and ridiculed, has proven to be no more than a charlatan, or just someone interested only in lining his own pockets. That TRFC supporters continue to accept anything said from those involved at their club without great suspicion astounds me. Particularly now that they have the begging bowl out to the supporters.
This is the time every TRFC supporter should be taking a leaf out of our, and John James’, book, and questioning everything, before any money is handed over and is gone forever. Remember, if we are wrong, and there is nothing sinister in what is emanating from Ibrox these days, then all that means is that the can is kicked down the road a bit further in the hope someone with bags of money comes along to throw it at the club. But if we are right, and the supporters groups hand over their money without checking out what we suggest, then the chances of anything emerging from the ashes are greatly reduced!
But back onto what Warburton has said. Do you have any idea why he would speak of signing policy plans at this time, with the January window closed and the next one some months away? Is it something football managers are discussing generally in the media just now? It just seems a strange thing to volunteer, and just as strange to respond with it if asked a question about signing policy out of the blue!
I had intended to respond to a comment by goosygoosy I saw a little earlier but it seems to have been deleted.
The subject of perceived or actual press bias is a difficult one since without a highly unlikely admission by journalists that they have been systematically duping the public, we can never be sure whether our perceptions of deception are merited. There is a danger that we might be thought of as paranoid if we point to patterns of activity that are so subtle that only observations over the long term could elucidate insight.
However subtle these perceptions might be, it does not mean that they can be dismissed without consideration. Over the last couple of years I’ve taken an interest in psychology and recall the following concerning the human capability to perceive when they are being lied to.
Our ancient ancestors lived in tribal groupings that existed on the very precipice of annihilation. The tribe needed command of all its resources if it were to survive and ultimately prosper. The ability to detect deception would have been absolutely critical in the achievement of such prosperity. Food and labour tasks would need to be shared amicably if the best outcomes were to be realised. A tribe member who took more than their fair share or who did not accept their given portion of labour would have been a deadweight on tribal development. In such strictured environments there was no room for passengers. They would have been found out and our senses would have become highly attuned to illicit such deceptive motives.
We know we are being lied to every time it happens. However without evidence of intent or practice, we may not be able to happily confirm our suspicions till much later on. If some kind of alibi or diversionary story were concocted to throw us off the scent, this would further delay our embrace of the subconscious knowledge that we had been duped. It would not delay it indefinitely however. ‘The truth will out’.
The point that goosygoosy made concerning patterns of newspaper headlines in my opinion is a symptom of this deception unravelling that we are all capable of. This blog has a long history of speculation, discussion, elimination and ultimately verification. Seeing through the smoke and mirrors is what we are all about.
easyJambo 21st February 2016 at 5:31 pm
Or were we hardier than today’s cossetted metromen?
‘……. I certainly would have no hesitation in playing competitive games on it. ..’
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Oh,if I was fit and well enough to play, I think I’d be ready to play on the broken-glass littered back-courts of the1940s/50s ( when the air-raid shelters were removed) that I used to watch the National Service squaddies home on leave ( big , tough men as they appeared to me: in fact, 18 year-old boys!) play on, sliding tackles from behind included!
(Are the G2 or G3 pitches any worse than the Carntyne ash-pitches of my secondary school days?)
Castofthousands 21st February 2016 at 9:29 pm #I had intended to respond to a comment by goosygoosy I saw a little earlier but it seems to have been deleted
The point that goosygoosy made concerning patterns of newspaper headlines in my opinion is a symptom of this deception unravelling that we are all capable of. This blog has a long history of speculation, discussion, elimination and ultimately verification. Seeing through the smoke and mirrors is what we are all about.
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You put my point much more eloquently than I did in my post……… which I did not delete
And without implying as directly as I was
That
IMO
The MSM Rags in Scotland regularly reduce the impact of positive football news about my club with a negative story in the same edition written around a minimal “quote” from a named ex player of yesteryear
And have been doing so for a very long time
Oh come on folks!
Ash at Queens park my whole fitba life. 13 pitches some great teams and players on there.
Get a life everyone.
JC I play almost every week on what I think is classified 2G. Very short fibred plastic covering on a bed of sand. As a 5-a-side keeper I can say its tough to land on but the grip is usually good and the impact no harder than the baked grass pitches you can play on with little/no recent rain between May and late September. I don’t mind that surface.
I haven’t played on 3G much and my personal opinion is I don’t like it. Mainly because of the rubber granules that seem to get everywhere within your clothing. I also don’t think it plays any truer than all but the most ploughed up grass pitches. What can;t be denied though is it is pretty much all weather and is usually playable when grass might not be. Its also softer to land on but with less grip on the turn
As a kid I played on tarmac (school playground, car parkss and even roads)and that was much more unforgiving than the 2G which is why it isn’t as prevalent today. Onr thing that has always intrigued me though is how a frozen solid pitch is deemed unplayable but a baked hard pitch is totally acceptable.
Haywire 21st February 2016 at 8:41 pm
‘… I’ve had a glass or two of Valpolicella tonight, in combination with an excellent chilli prepared by the fair hand of Mrs. Haywire….Regards to all, and particularly JC.’
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Haywire, I’d raise your excellent chilli and Valpolicella by my ever-loving wife’s ( I love that Damon Runyon phrase!) pollo alla cacciatora with insalata di carciofi crudi and as fine a glass of EST!EST!EST! as was ever bottled in Montefiascone!
But that’s not what I had tonight!
My regards to you, and I think I like the cut of your new manager’s jib. No family connection, of course.
Maybe see you at the Perth Symposium (or Colloquium, or ‘Conversation’ or ‘Conference’-we need a better name than ‘meeting’!).
tykebhoy 21st February 2016 at 10:14 pm
‘..Mainly because of the rubber granules that seem to get everywhere within your clothing…’
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That reminds me: didn’t someone on the radio discussions say something about those granules possibly being carcinogenic? Now, that would be a cause for concern!
Some funny stuff on here tonight so I will keep my downbeat posts until tomorrow morning to help you with your post vino callapso hangovers into sobriety… Hell mend yees.
John Clark 21st February 2016 at 10:35 pm #tykebhoy 21st February 2016 at 10:14 pm ‘..Mainly because of the rubber granules that seem to get everywhere within your clothing…’ __________ That reminds me: didn’t someone on the radio discussions say something about those granules possibly being carcinogenic? Now, that would be a cause for concern!
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Yes, I understand that they may be carcinogenic – if you eat them! I suspect that, if you bit chunks out of car tyres, they might be carcinogenic as well.
Gary Harkins tells it how it is
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/dundee-star-gary-harkins-rangers-7413876#3XDJCtm9be08agLw.97
Yes, I understand that they may be carcinogenic – if you eat them! I suspect that, if you bit chunks out of car tyres, they might be carcinogenic as well.
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Clinker from Collviles was definitely carconegenic no need to check that out.
jimbo 21st February 2016 at 10:43 pm #Some funny stuff on here tonight so I will keep my downbeat posts until tomorrow morning to help you with your post vino callapso hangovers into sobriety… Hell mend yees.
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Who is this guy/guyess Jimbo? We should be told! Sober on a Sunday night (apparetnly – that spelling was deliberate – honest) – having just watched ‘The Night Manager’, and having read the book when it came out, could somebody tell me if it bears (sorry) any relation to the book, please? In passing, I am aware that Olivia Colman is a man in the book, by the way.
I don’t post too often, but it’s usually nonsense when I do.
P.S. I realise that this issue is completely and utterly O/T, but I was shocked and stunned to note, via James Doleman tonight, that the utter buffoon BoJo is the best regarded ‘politician’ in the UK. I did wonder if the poll included the votes from the Scottish Jury, and then I started puzzling over the question folk were asked, e.g., which politician would you most like to slap, for example.
Phil Mac makes the following comment in his latest post:
“I understand that the cost of transporting the Chairman from his abode in South Africa to board meetings has recently been discussed.
The putative cost of these trips is approximately £10,000.”
While Phil suggests the advantages of teleconferencing, my memory recalled epic journeys made by the famous Norwegian, Thor Heyerdahl. Saving lots of money on the cost of air travel by building a balsa raft he crossed thousands of Pacific miles on his raft which he called Kon-tiki. Maybe Mr King will solve his travel cost problems with something similar – Kon-triki perhaps?
easyJambo
grinnin,Mischievous,lobbing grenades,dear oh dear
John Clark 21st February 2016 at 10:28 pm #Haywire 21st February 2016 at 8:41 pmMaybe see you at the Perth Symposium (or Colloquium, or ‘Conversation’ or ‘Conference’-we need a better name than ‘meeting’!).
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How about “The SFM Engine Room Subsidiary Event’?
Those who elect not to attend could then be descibed as not being ERSEd…
The SFM Engine Room Scribblers Event works for me too.
Scottish Football needs a strong Arbroath.
Haywire, this is spooky. I started to post a post about the Night Manager and then decided I couldn’t match up enough characters. Did my half started attempt appear for a micro minute?
I’ll tell you though nbsp; I thought my comparisons were in my next episode. Jean Brodie is involved. That’s all I’m saying.
And Big Pink & Tris, well that’s obvious who they two are.
What does nspb mean? I never printed that honest.
tony 21st February 2016 at 11:29 pm #easyJambogrinnin,Mischievous,lobbing grenades,dear oh dear
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Dinna fret Tony! ….One day we will be reading that “(insert name of choice), the ex Rangers player, shows his lunatic tendencies, by claiming Sevco is Rangers, after previously saying they died. No doubt this is just (inserted name) indulging in gamesmanship before Sevco’s first big crack at a trophy”
For those discussing carcinogenic surfaces, it could be that goal-keepers are more susceptible, with at least anecdotal evidence to support it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426039/Artificial-football-pitches-cancer-warning-study-claims-hundreds-cases-linked.html
Corrupt official
i know mate i know,cant believe after 4 years we are still getting denials
While many people are talking about pitches I’ve jusr watched Sportscene and couldn’t believe the state of the playing surface ar Celtic Park, especially towards the main stand. What is that all about?
Well said that man!! – Gary Harkins.
Problem is, it will probably come back to bite him on the bum when we lose to Dumbarton in the replay!!