Reflections on Goalposts

A recent autumn storm caused the destruction of the metal goal fame in our garden. The small goal with the weather-beaten net had fallen into disuse. But I liked it seeing it there on the grass. I suppose I half-expected, half-hoped, it would be used again. Once, it was a father and son thing and had been constructed carefully from a nice set of plans. At the time, it impressed both son and daughter no end. But that was then, this was now.

One of our trees, blown over by the recent high winds, caused the goal frame’s final demise. As I unscrewed the twisted metal I thought of the hours of innocent fun it had given us. It had been the scene of many goals and not a few great saves. My son, who is soon off to uni, smiled thoughtfully as I mentioned that this was the end of the ‘goalposts of childhood’. Perhaps he knew what I meant.

My own childhood goalposts had been ‘doon the back’. Drawn with chalk on the red brick of the ‘sausage wall’ at one end, and on part of the ‘wash hoose’ at the other. Many a league, Cup and international match was played out between those goals on the Dennistoun dirt. We once put on a parallel version of a historic England v Scotland match while the real match was being played at Wembley. Jim Mone sitting on one of the dykes had a transister radio to his ear. As we played our match he chalked up live score updates on the wall — our Twitter and FaceBook anno 1967. What a day.

We did use a pile of jackets up on the old Dennistoun cricket pitch, but only rarely. Mostly, we played on the red gravel surface at the Finlay Drive entrance. That pitch was fitted with real goalposts — like the ones they had at Hampden. Or so we imagined.

These sentimental memories of receding years accompanied my removal of the ruined metal goal frame. But, as you can imagine, it seemed an almost symbolic act. For fans of Scottish football the ‘goalposts’ that once defined the game of our football childhoods — have not only been moved, they’ve been been twisted and mis-shapen out of all recognition.

The past decades have seen a fundamental change in the way our game is run and governed, at home and abroad. Money is now king and sporting consideration is a luxury we sometimes have to put to one side — or at least, so we’re told.

At the risk of stating the obvious, sport, if it is to mean anything at all, has to be based on clearly defined rules and principles. These rules must be applied equally to all the participants, they are certainly not optional extras. However, to misquote and paraphrase George Orwell, ‘all teams are equal, but some teams are more equal than others’ — at least, when it comes to Scottish football.

The efforts by the SFA to re-interpret rules to fit the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the demise of Rangers FC in 2012 have left most of us scratching our heads. Much of the Scottish media has backed up the SFA’s efforts, something which has added to the general confusion and chaos. In fact, it’s become clear that the death of Rangers, as we knew them, has been such a traumatic event that it must be denied. The authorities and media seem to have been so besotted with one club that its loss is out of the question. And so, it’s been gifted a bizarre kind of immunity from liquidation and death that implies its on-going existence, long after it drew it’s final breath.

This situation has opened the door to a legion of businessmen on the make. They have been allowed to perpetuate the myth, with SFA blessing, that they ‘saved’ Rangers. And their unwavering message is, that they can only succeed if fans keep giving them their hard-earned cash. To those outside the blue bubble it looks like a huge con trick. If the only source of real money in football is the fans, then the Ibrox faithful have been royally fleeced.

How different it could have been if the former club had been allowed a dignified end. A year out of the game would probably have allowed fans to restart a newco of their own. They could have applied for entry into the professional leagues along with the other clubs waiting in line. Chances are they would have been given special dispensation, and walked straight into the bottom tier. Of course, they would have claimed to be the continuation of the spirit of the previous entity — but would anyone have argued against that? How different it could have been if the rules governing the game had been respected. The SFA may even have kept their dignity intact and the press not felt obliged to print half-truths, falsehoods and lies.

You’ve got to wonder why Dunfermline and Hearts fought so desperately to avoid liquidation. After all, the Scottish football authorities now seem intent on convincing us that liquidation has little or no effect on a football club. Even past sins, such as wrongly-registered players are as naught — if, at the time, they were thought to have been registered correctly. By this logic, we have to ask: if a ‘company’ running a ‘club’ bribes a referee, will retrospective action will be taken against the ‘club’. The players and the club, after all, will have done nothing wrong. And since the referee was not known to have been bribed, and not struck off, he was qualified to referee the match in question, at the time. Using the SFA thought process, the result would probably be allowed to stand. Personally, I’m not sure I follow SFA logic. They’ve ‘moved the goalposts’, and (you saw it coming) bent them into an unrecognisable shape.

Which brings me back to our garden. The old metal goal frame is waiting to be driven down to the local re-cycling centre. The twisted metal and worn-out net are useless. Ruined by forces beyond our control. There is no interest in a replacement at present. Perhaps, if we have grandchildren, they will show an interest in football. If they do, I’ll build a new set of goalposts. They’ll be straight and true, the way the goalposts of childhood should be. The way goalposts should always be.

4,642 thoughts on “Reflections on Goalposts


  1. Lord Wobbly says:
    January 19, 2014 at 12:07 am
    0 0 Rate This

    Transfermarkt have some interesting market values for the current Ibrox squad.

    http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/rangers-fc/startseite/verein_124.html

    Click on the individual players and check out those graphs!

    ————————–

    I would take any information they provide with a generous pinch of salt. A brief look at the club history has squad records dating back to 1956/57!!! An amazing feat for a club formed in 2012 I’m sure you would agree haha


  2. iamacant says:

    January 18, 2014 at 11:38 pm

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    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/10581698/Rangers-manager-Ally-McCoist-blames-rogue-traders-for-clubs-plight.html

    Ally now a financial wizard? Another CA in the making at Ibrox perhaps?
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    This caught my eye. The truth does that when it appears,

    “Sir David Murray, the prime mover in the club’s downfall, bought success with the Bank of Scotland’s money but, when Lloyds took over that failing institution, he could no longer depend on his cronies to continue extending credit with which to fund his lavish spending.

    The new fiscal prudence at Lloyds and his decision to sign players he could not afford, brought Rangers to their knees. He then claimed to have been duped by Craig Whyte when he sold the club to him in 2011. “


  3. I Predict
    Wallace has no intention of making the draconian cuts spouted at the AGM. He needs the crisis to continue until the the Gullible are in a state of acute anxiety. So he publicises nonsense options like the 15% pay cut which have zero chance of happening
    His real aim is to get the next ST round brought forward “To save TRFC from Administration and Liquidation” ……………..because there is no other option
    As son as the Gullible swallow this guff he will declare that the ST appeal has failed and put TRFC into Admin pocketing the ST monies and the assets as payment of debts owed to RIFC
    Its that simple
    The Guy`s a Spiv
    He works for Spivs
    He`s well paid for his Spivery
    All his actions are Spiv actions
    Admin is coming
    The Fans will be blamed for not buying enough STs
    And it won`t end there
    Some of the less competent business minded Rangers men will form yet another consortium
    They will ask the Gullible to fund a bid for the “brand” in a rented Ibrox with no MP for training
    Meanwhile
    More astute Rangers men with money will bid to form a new Club prepared not to play at Ibrox until the ground is sold for a pittance


  4. JackBauer says:
    January 19, 2014 at 12:18 am
    iamacant says:
    January 18, 2014 at 11:38 pm
    ————–
    I think this is about the bravest statement made in relation to SDM and the Bank of Scotland’s pro-RFC over-the-top bias:
    “”Sir David Murray, the prime mover in the club’s downfall, bought success with the Bank of Scotland’s money but, when Lloyds took over that failing institution, he could no longer depend on his cronies to continue extending credit with which to fund his lavish spending…”

    One would hope that the banking ‘cronies’ got their own merited come-uppance, although I suspect that they are still golfing , unashamedly, with the man who destroyed their ‘Scottish Institution” and who made his dislike and hubristic if not rac…disdain for the brilliant Dr Poon so disgustingly obvious in his responses to her questions.


  5. Whyte didn’t pay off the debt to Lloyds, he bought it.

    It’s an important distinction, as it made the club indebted to the holding company which also owned it.


  6. Auldheid says:
    January 19, 2014 at 12:43 am
    2 0 Rate This

    iamacant says:

    January 18, 2014 at 11:38 pm

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    Rate This

    Quantcast

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/10581698/Rangers-manager-Ally-McCoist-blames-rogue-traders-for-clubs-plight.html

    Ally now a financial wizard? Another CA in the making at Ibrox perhaps?
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    if you haven’t read this article, can I recommend that you take a minute or so to do so. This is the first piece that I have read from a journalist that actually tells the truth about the fiasco that’s been occurring in G51 over the last couple of years (and beyond). It questions the actions of SDM as well as those who came after and shows the current team manger to be either a liar, extremely incompetent, a sycophantic buffoon and an extremely dangerous person. Or, of course any combination of the above. This looks like being the first real blow from the pick axe of truth against the aged concrete wall of denial and intransigence. The interviewee is shown to express a concerning lack of common sense and/or a total disregard for both the long term future of his club and the hard working followers of the club who have lined the pockets of several past and present directors an well as his own pockets. This piece, more than any articles previously shows this man to be a thoroughly despicable human being who couldn’t organise or run a raffle and a really nasty piece of work.
    Read the article for yourselves and make up your own minds. Personally, I believe that the edifice in beginning to crumble on the outside whereas previously all the damage seemed to be on the inside and away from prying eyes/


  7. That Telegraph article : McCoist’s quoted comments are rather perplexing.

    Do we have any resident psychologists on TSFM who could give an opinion on McCoist and his thought process ?

    Strange.


  8. Tom English adding his voice to Grahame and Hannan. That’s three articles not written in the parallel universe! And wasn’t it Graham Spiers who, one week ago, answered ‘Yes’ during the Q&A on Sportsound, as whether it was was a new club? I think at the same time he said, ‘I refuse to have my intelligence insulted.’

    It’s hardly a new era of enlightenment, but still, cause for optimism.

    http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl-lower-divisions/tom-english-rangers-flunked-their-finances-1-3273646


  9. StevieBC says:
    January 19, 2014 at 4:11 am

    That Telegraph article : McCoist’s quoted comments are rather perplexing. Do we have any resident psychologists on TSFM who could give an opinion on McCoist and his thought process ?
    =================================================================
    I would think we have gazillions 🙄 And no doubt enough armchair psychiatrists to assist Mr McCoist with his problems of detachment from reality which appear to be growing by the day 😕


  10. From Martin Hannan in the Scotsman,link posted earlier.
    Anybody up for having a serious attempt at answering this ,for “the board”?
    20 questions

    1 How serious is the “severity” of the situation as Ally McCoist calls it?

    2 Given that chief executive Graham Wallace, pictured, initiated the attempt to get the players to take a pay cut, and given that McCoist has backed the players in such a strong refusal, is the contradictory stance of the chief exec and manager a concern for the board?

    3 How much is the club losing per month?

    4 What are the average monthly figures for income and outgoings?

    5 How much money remains from the share issue?

    6 Is the club paying all its tax and VAT bills on time?

    7 Are all debts being paid on time?

    8 Are the club’s bankers, accountants and auditors comfortable with the current situation?

    9 Given Wallace’s call for cuts, can the board say if it approved his strategy?

    10 Did the board in any way initiate these potential cuts?

    11 If the cuts are to proceed and the players won’t take a pay cut, where does the board see the savings coming from – player reduction or other staff wage cuts and redundancies, or both?

    12 Given that the manager claims the player budget is a third or less of club costs, can the board say what the other two-thirds consist of?

    13 Can the board give a guarantee that administration is not being considered?

    14 Since the newco took over the club, who has made profits from share deals and how much did they make?

    15 How much has been spent on paying off staff?

    16 What new sources of investment are being sought, i.e. another share issue?

    17 In the interests of transparency, will the board name the people behind shareholders Blue Pitch Holdings and Margarita Funds?

    18 Since June 2012, how much has been paid to outside consultants?

    19 Does the board intend to invite Dave King to discuss investment?

    20 The chief executive told the manager that, with hindsight, bad decisions were made. What were they?


  11. While I’m here,
    Some guy on RM wondering if fans could “galvanise around a single issue club”, to have a fan owned rangers, Honest!
    Any ideas which single issue would seal the deal?


  12. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl-lower-divisions/rangers-previous-regimes-blamed-for-money-woes-1-3273992?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
    ===================================================================
    Martin Hannan in his list of questions asks:

    14 Since the newco took over the club, who has made profits from share deals and how much did they make?
    17 In the interests of transparency, will the board name the people behind shareholders Blue Pitch Holdings and Margarita Funds?

    The problem with No 14 is that it isn’t inconceiveable that the current Board doesn’t know who has made any profit quite simply because it doesn’t know the actual owners of the shares and, in particular, the owners of the 1p shares. I would point out that I use ‘Board’ in its collective form and it may well be that at least one individual member of it does know.

    One thing for sure is that at the current share price the only people capable of making any profit are the original recipients of the 1p shares – I exclude the other ‘normal’ things that go on in AIM like ‘shorting’ and other mysterious acts of spivvery designed to part the gullible and their cash.

    This links to Question 17 in way because Blue Pitch and Margarita aren’t the only hidden shareholders – there are plkenty of others. And, of course the Margarita shares – according to the CF supplied TRFCL Board minute of 31/10/2012 – were transferredaround June/July 2012 to APT.

    And yet we have the curious anomaly of the possibly non-existant Margarita shareholding being used as a proxy vote at the recent Rangers agm.

    This of course takes us back to the second incomplete Annual Return filed for TRFCL which – in breach of Companies House statutory requirements – fails to provide the required shareholding information including all purchases and transfers from May 2012 until May 2013. All that is provided is a ‘snapshot’ for one day I think it was around the IPO in December 2012.

    The SMSM has walked away from that story at warp speed and Companies House appears to be sitting doing nothing about the breach – talk about chocolate fireguards and kettles 🙄

    A question missing from Mr Hannan’s list appears to be a complete breakdown of all the IPO expenses which appears to have been studiously avoided by Mr Stockbridge. One can only wonder why 💡


  13. thepinkpanther says:
    January 19, 2014 at 7:52 am

    While I’m here,
    Some guy on RM wondering if fans could “galvanise around a single issue club”, to have a fan owned rangers, Honest! Any ideas which single issue would seal the deal?
    ================================================
    A love of football perhaps ❗


  14. Overnight we have seen 3 articles from the MSM all critical of the current Ibrox based regime. It’s about time this was happening, of course, but two of them merely dip their toes in to test the water, while one dives straight in, absolutely. While those two are content hint at the shortcomings of past regimes, they make no effort to say how far back this cash burn goes, Ewing Graham lays the blame squarely at the feet of David Murray – where it clearly belongs.

    I wonder how long it will be before Martin Hannan, or perhaps some more senior hack, actually asks one or more of those 20 questions, and doesn’t just accept the first words that are uttered in response as an answer!

    On a more positive note, clear signs over the past week that the smell of succulent lamb is no longer wafting around the noses of some of the MSM reporters (they, at least, are moving up from being mere hacks), and for the first time we are seeing criticism of those still in power (Stockbridge being the only one till now who has received genuine criticism while still in office). There must be something in the air that’s making it safe for them to raise their heads above the parapet!

    On another point. When Hearts first had problems meeting wages the media were straight in to dig the dirt though contacts on the playing staff. Why nothing similar from their ‘insiders’ in the Ibrox dressing room re the wage cut ‘offer’?


  15. From Martin Hannan in the Scotsman article

    “McCoist said: “The chief executive at the moment is aware that some of the problems are there because some of the decisions were made for the short term, maybe a year ago.”

    Asked point blank if some of those decisions were made for “other people’s benefit”, the manager nodded his assent.

    The clear implication is that he feels some of those investors and directors of bygone months made decisions that lined their own pockets rather than fill the club’s coffers.”

    Just a thought but might that not equally apply to the issuing of penny shares to one Alistair Murdoch McCoist?


  16. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/graham-wallace-battling-enemy-within-3037631

    The link is from this morning’s Record – I know, but there are a couple of unmissable gems in there. How about-

    “Graham Wallace is battling an enemy within to halt financial crisis, hints Rangers boss Ally McCoist”

    Is that you talking about yourself again, Ally? Because if I was a CEO who had a manager who not only refused to fully back my cost-cutting plans, but positively undermined them with his staff, then “the enemy within” is exactly the description I would use.

    And now we are privileged to share some really deep analysis from a truly penetrating intellect-

    “Asked what made Wallace so sure there would be no administration in the short term, McCoist said: “No idea, you’d have to ask him that.”
    And he added: “I feel a lot of emotions – disappointment, anger and sadness – that although we are not going down the same road we are going down a similar path.”

    Could someone skilled in semantics unpick that last sentence for a dim old man, please? I need to know where a similar path to the road to liquidation leads. Is it just a different route to the same destination, but narrower and rockier? I think we should be told.


  17. Am I the only one who, when reading the excellent telegraph article can only hear chick in an open all mikes fashion stammering yes but, no, but, yes, but no hang on though, but yes, only, yes but…..damn.

    Neeps, that “enemy within” is a cracker. Again like above I am transported off, this time to one of her majesty’s establishments where Fletch confides to the assembled group of inmates ” Gentlemen, I have to inform you that somebody here is a thief”


  18. I’d be very interested in who set up these interviews for McCoist.

    The net effect is to hold him up to ridicule.

    Who might want that outcome?

    Scottish Football needs a continuing and growing MSM effort to grasp this nettle and ensure what is coming is properly held up to scrutiny. Ballon d’Or standard instead of the usual Balloon d’Or.


  19. “Asked point blank if some of those decisions were made for “other people’s benefit”, the manager nodded his assent.”

    A nod during a presser? This is making me curiously nostalgic. Wasn’t the Great Traynor-Young Schism of 2011 triggered by an errant nod from AJ? Back then the Telegraph described Johnston’s alleged cranial adduction as a “silent nod of assent”.


  20. A gentleman called BlueNotWhyte comments under the Tom English article. The OED could adopt this as a new definition for “Denial”. How can any sentient being come out with guff? With everything that is in the public domain I am genuinely at a total loss. Could it be Jack?
    Warning – the following quotation contains dangerous levels of hubris and wishful thinking.
    ————————————————————————————————————
    “The bears were onto the case of the boards financial recklessness right from the start, and were influential in removing the worst of the offenders from the fray as well as plugging the flood of mutli-million handouts to the former directors and their cronies.

    We all know there are still cuts to be made, and that further cuts will be made. Repeating this established fact ad nauseum does not a news story make. It is an ongoing process that will result in a leaner fitter business model that will lay more solid foundations for the Rangers FC’s future prospects.

    Compare and contrast if you will with the Great Brainwashed and their looming Armageddon over the bank loan and council land deals scandals. Not one bhoy raising his voice in protest against their own boardrooms financial delinquent Titanic heading full speed towards the iceberg of retribution.

    Such is the clear difference between the boot-licking kow-towing of a brainwashed sectarian cult and a proper football support never afraid to criticise their own.”


  21. There’s a sense of things coming to a head now and I wonder if anyone else has this scene in their head, as I do, of a Roman tragedy, played out within the marbled and pillared halls of Ibrox, with all the main players, all resplendent in togas, some wringing hands, some lying prostate upon the stairway with arms outstretched pleadingly, while others whisper in corners plotting; in the meantime, heading out a doorway in a darkened corner, someone, dressed in green, sneaks off with all the loot.

    There is definitely some tragi-comedy going on at Ibrox, with half the audience completely bemused and unable to follow the story, while the other half are rolling in the isles in laughter at the complete ineptitude of the main characters. It all ends with a Frankie Howard like character, munching a pie, saying, “Oooo, madam, who are these people? We demand to know their names!”


  22. Tincks says:
    January 19, 2014 at 10:38 am

    “… Such is the clear difference between the boot-licking kow-towing of a brainwashed sectarian cult and a proper football support never afraid to criticise their own.”
    ————

    Oh, I don’t know, that last line may have given away the author as a rival supporter on the wind-up with a bit of advanced irony 😛


  23. Re Ally and his path and road issue, the road is what david Murray drove your club to liquidation by his actions in his tenure at the club ,the path is the one you are walking the club to the same destination,simples.


  24. “Just a thought but might that not equally apply to the issuing of penny shares to one Alistair Murdoch McCoist?”

    Excellent question, clearly McCoist also doesn’t do irony.


  25. The boldness of the spivs has more to come ,their pierre de resistance piece as a final boot to the gonnards will be to ask the gullibles to purchase 2 or more years of season books to once and for all leap the club to where it rightly belongs,ok we all have our thoughts on where this might be .


  26. Tincks says:
    January 19, 2014 at 10:38 am
    …………………………….
    I wouldn’t pay too much attention to those who post comments to online newspaper pieces…they tend to be a meeting place for those who left their brains in the fridge….with some using it as a vehicle for expressing the lowest forms of hatred towards others.


  27. FIFA says:
    January 19, 2014 at 11:02 am
    …………………………………
    For those who set up a direct debit for last season…should keep an eye out for early debits for next season?


  28. If memory serves me….the debit facility was not arranged through the normal high street Company?


  29. Yerevan says:
    January 19, 2014 at 6:11 am
    —–
    Good link.
    But of more immediate interest to me, Yerevan, is: how come your blog name is the name of one of the characters in my not- yet-completed (and not likely ever to be completed! and even if completed, would have no hope of being published: it would be dross, but at least, it would be my dross!) first novel? Which, incidentally, features the Blues and Greens of Byzantium in the 7th century). ❗ ❗ ??


  30. john clarke says:
    January 19, 2014 at 11:22 am

    John has managed to find the only sport more corrupt than our wee footie competition – the chariot races in Ancient Rome, nice one!


  31. Paulmac2 says:
    January 19, 2014 at 11:15 am
    …………………………….
    I wouldn’t pay too much attention to those who post comments to online newspaper pieces…they tend to be a meeting place for those who left their brains in the fridge….with some using it as a vehicle for expressing the lowest forms of hatred towards others.
    ——————————-
    I don’t even read them anymore, it’s a real mix of windup Merchants, the immature, ignorant and the intolerant. I think the MSM prefer it that way as any intelligent feedback or counter argument to the report is easily drowned out with bile and hatred!


  32. I had promised my business student son a wee trip to a local cinema to see ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. Too much excess and a dearth of financial detail. Nevertheless, the bit about taping money to the charming lady in order to transfer cash across international borders reminded me of the audio moment where Charles expressed a mix of excitement and relief at discovering how easy it now was to move between European countries with a suitcase full of dosh.

    Makes you wonder if some of the ‘missing millions’ have been spirited out of the country, and not via a bank transaction. Possibly too Machiavellian, but there was a lot of foreign travel at one point that was yet another aspect of the new regime that had me ‘scratchin ma heid’, plus lots of cross-Channel trips to find a chateau.


  33. FIFA says:
    January 19, 2014 at 11:02 am

    The boldness of the spivs has more to come ,their pierre de resistance piece as a final boot to the gonnards will be to ask the gullibles to purchase 2 or more years of season books to once and for all leap the club to where it rightly belongs,ok we all have our thoughts on where this might be .
    ===================================================================
    Don’t forget the new fan membership ‘society’ which is being crafted as we speak so that all Bears can join – for a fee of course – so they can present one unified fan voice. Sadly many will fall for it – at a stroke dissent is marginalised and more pockets emptied.

    Oh there will be benefits of being a member like a weekly ‘free’ dowload of Ally’s goals – how many was that again? Still there’s enough to keep them going for quite a while. A bit like building a pirate ship out of weekly parts 😆

    And who better to be Il Presidente of The New Rangers Supporters Association but the man himself who will never walk away as long as a coin can be extracted. No not Stockbridge but our very own Fans’ Champion Ally McCoist.

    I have seen the vision – free pies for all members :slamb:


  34. iamacant says:

    January 18, 2014 at 11:38 pm
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/10581698/Rangers-manager-Ally-McCoist-blames-rogue-traders-for-clubs-plight.html

    Ally now a financial wizard? Another CA in the making at Ibrox perhaps?
    =============================================================================
    I would dearly love to take young Alistair on as my “apprentice”, as we were called in days gone by.
    Not that I would have to pay him much, as we were not in days gone by, but he would probably be the wealthiest “apprentice/trainee” ever engaged. I would love to treat him the way my “masters” (yup, they were called that too!) treated me during my apprenticeship, but current EC Human Rights legislation has outlawed this.
    PS…did I say “in days gone by” more than once…?


  35. StevieBC says:
    January 19, 2014 at 4:11 am

    That Telegraph article : McCoist’s quoted comments are rather perplexing. Do we have any resident psychologists on TSFM who could give an opinion on McCoist and his thought process ?
    ===============================
    Not a psychologist but can claim a modest level of corporate management on my cv including a few board positions so from a business perspective I can suggest that we have a classic example of Peter’s Principle with Superally. Good at his job, both as a player and a “good guy” to have around, reasonably articulate, well presented etc., he wants to be a “manager” and his bosses duly promote him. He likes the title, the salary, the perks, being called boss, the parking space and all that but doesn’t like the difficult stuff and is pretty crap at the job anyway. Very common across all industries.
    To be fair and specific to the business of football these guys are usually found out very quickly and move on to be pundits or publicans but the unique dynamics around Superally, the spivs and ST’s have kept this one in the job. He is probably right to cash in for as much as he can.


  36. ecobhoy says:
    January 19, 2014 at 11:39 am

    I would like to think that those in charge at Ibrox would not be so cynical, and that the fans would not be so stupid.

    Sadly, recent history says otherwise :mrgreen:


  37. So Ally does his calculations on the bag of a fag packet. I never even knew he was a smoker. Anyway it seems that decisions taken a year ago are hurting the club financially to this day. Ally is not to blame because speculators did it and ran away. I find it strange that the old CEOs wouldn’t ask the manager for his opinion on the cost and length of contract that should be the going rate for the players that were signed last year. But that couldn’t have been the case otherwise a manager who decides a player on the shite side of average should be paid several thousand pounds a week then surely that manager would have to shoulder some of the blame.


  38. The introduction to Tom English’s piece this morning:-

    LAST summer, when Ally McCoist’s request for nine new players was granted by his then chief executive, Craig Mather, who was at fault? This was a club that had financial problems, that didn’t have the luxury of adding players to an already gob-smacking wage bill and yet added them anyway. Who was to blame?

    It wasn’t McCoist. Managers everywhere will push their luck from now until kingdom come. It’s part of their gig. They go to their boss with a sob story and a cap in hand and hope for the best. Sometimes they get a result and sometimes they don’t. And McCoist got a result. You cannot blame the Rangers manager for recruiting but you can most certainly blame Mather and his financial director, Brian Stockbridge, for allowing him to recruit.
    ——————

    Although he later in the article issues a mild admonishment to McCoist he nonetheless IMO fails to recognise the power and influence McCoist holds at Ibrox.
    To accept McCoist’s claim- that the financial package on offer to his new recruits was out with his remit and he had no input to this: is naive in the extreme. To meekly acknowledge that any manager will push his board to sign as many players as possible is insulting to the majority of football managers, it also betrays his ignorance and lack of understanding of how important McCoist is to those who implement the business strategy in play at RIFC.
    McCoist is vital to the Board if they are to convince supporters to buy Season Tickets. McCoist knows this and is skilled at ensuring he uses his leverage to maximise his return. I suspect he also recognises his frailties as a football manager and hence to ensure perceived success he will have demanded a player squad miles ahead of the competition.
    The Board will have had no choice but to give in to his demands and now he is attempting to distance himself from any blame. I also suspect that this is his first steps in manufacturing a situation which will end up with him distancing himself from Ibrox. If Rangers is to have a future, although there would be an initial adverse reaction, in the medium term this would be no bad thing.


  39. tilhotdogsbark on January 19, 2014 at 12:13 pm
    0 0 Rate This

    The introduction to Tom English’s piece this morning:-

    LAST summer, when Ally McCoist’s request for nine new players was granted by his then chief executive, Craig Mather,……………..

    Especially if too much money was paid to those nine players. Say for instance we pluck a number of say 15% over the odds paid. What would be the ramifications this year 🙂


  40. Apologies if I am repeating a previous point, just in from my own footie job…

    AmcC….
    He said: “Absolutely, I can understand. There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge before then – season tickets are a long way off renewals.

    Just never heard that saying in the future tense.. 😮 😕


  41. AmcC taking a step up from using his fingers and toes…

    But the Ibrox gaffer believed in his heart of hearts that – by his back-of-a-fag-packet calculations – the club could and should have been able to afford the new faces he brought in back in the summer.
    And on one hand, he’s defiant…
    His costs are less than 30 per cent of the turnover and every contract he persuaded a player to sign was approved by his board. What’s a manager supposed to do?

    What AmcC needs to help him understand is more CA’s at the club, just my observation. He had previously said he had no real influence on contract details..Mmm Ok..!

    Being rather disingenuous IMO, I think the numbers AMcC and other have used WRT the salary percentage etc is actually based on the first team and not the 50 and more players he commands. As we know and I work with many statisticians, most stats can be shown in a number of ways that can show 2 very different pictures…


  42. Reading some of the MSM contributions this morning makes interesting reading, but I do not see it as any great leap forward in terms of more open and honest reporting. The same people may soon be putting intolerable pressure on whoever they need to, in order for a convicted tax evader to take his seat in the Ibrox boardroom. Once that happens the natural order will resume – I have no doubt about that.


  43. I have been watching the Bears whipping themselves into a frenzy over the Celtic Land Deals and what a PR squirrel it is. Having dispatched the Lennoxtown land deal gibberish I thought I should take a look at Westthorn and the machinations of the secret society which runs Scotland.

    Its Board members, drawn only from Glasgow Cooncil HQ and the Rulers of Scottish Football, operate from an underground bunker which masquerades as a SUDS facility under the Chris Hoy Velodrome and can only be accessed from the inner sanctum of Celtic Park whose exact location I am unable to reveal on pain of death. However for those not of the inner sanctum let me suggest you think SUDS and what happens when Ibrox disappears down the plughole to begin its journey down the Clyde to the Turdey Ocean.

    I have spent a couple of hours this morning looking at Westthorn as part of the complex tapestry of historical and recent land deals in Glasgow’s East End a number of which involve Celtic or affect the interests of the club. After my research I have to say that I am highly impressed by the forward vision that Celtic has shown in assembling the land to build their vision of an oasis of sport and sporting integrity and help regenerate a long negelected part of Glasgow whose day has come especially with the economic pump-priming of the Commonwealth Games.

    However enough of the candyfloss – just let me say that despite being in awe of the Celtic ‘vision’ I am left utterly astonished at how professional Celtic and their agents are at handling their land deals all of which are open to public scrutiny. Perhaps Ibrox should take note but perhaps there just isn’t enough time left.

    One deal that on the surface appears to hold some water as far as the Bears are concerned is the Westthorn site between London Road and the River Clyde. I won’t bore you will all the details of the publicly available council minutes which detail the various decision taken regarding the site over the years since it was first leased by Celtic. Most people know the general history of the woefully inadequate training facilities that Celtic struggled under and the leasing of Westthorn was an attempt to improve that situation.

    However back to the nitty-gritty. The Bear Thinkers have come up with a ropey mechanism where they have divined that Kier Homes must have paid between £11-£12 million for the former Belvidere Hospital site – next door to Westthorn which is roughly half the size of Belvidere and which means Westthorn’s market value as a housing development is therefore £5 million. From looking at the Greater Glasgow Health Board minutes it looks as though Kier Homes might only have paid £5 million for Belvidere. So to retain the specious argument that could end-up with a £2.5 million open market valuation on Westthorn for building houses on.

    I am comforted that the Bear Property Mastermind states: ‘The Greater Glasgow Health Board which sold Belvidere got it right. It appears to have been an open transparent transaction.’ Of course they said exactly the opposite about the same Health Board over the Lennoxtown deal 😆

    The same leading proponent of the alleged land scandal does state that this back of a Rizla paper calculation assumes: ‘Westhorn land was of similar condition to Belvidere’. Sadly they have been blinded by their usual terrible myopia of only being able to see what they want and not the actual facts. They made the same elementary mistake at Lennoxtown where they thought Celtic should be paying a land price based on house building permission for the site when it is; was; and always will be subject to strict Greenbelt planning constraints which rule out housebuilding.

    So why should Celtic only pay £675k to buy Westthorn – well one thing about land in the East End of Glasgow is it suffers extensively from abnormal ground conditions as part of its industrial legacy of widespread, mainly uncharted mining activity and heavy metal soil contamination from long gone industries fuelled by the Industrial Revolution. Obviously land near the River Clyde also suffers from the normal problems which arise from that type of proximity.

    Claimers of a dodgy land deal have latched onto an allegedly ‘missing’ or ‘secretly disposed of’ Glasgow Council geological report into land conditions at Westthorn which would show the land and ground conditions there are very similar to that at Belvidere and should be valued the same on the open market.

    It’s an interesting theory and, if true, should be reported to Police Scotland and not the European Commission as it would have nothing to do with State Aid but simple criminality.

    However as usual the facts are much more boring and if the Bear Land Sale Experts had spent five minutes on google they might have seen what the problem is with Westthorn. Let me give you a clue – look at the old maps from the 1860s 😆

    No Freedom of Information request required – no searching of dusty old archived minutes – and no fatuous comparisons with Belvidere which was never an industrial site but was a greenfield when the smallbox hospital was built in 1877.

    But on the northern edge of the Westthorn site running up to London Road was a huge claypit operated by the Westthorn Brick Works – also on the same site. Towards the southern border but north of the existing allotments are the two enormous filled-in reservoirs of the Glasgow City Corporation with their pumping station built right on the river. Going by eye I reckon they occupy approx 40% of the total site – a huge area of made-up ground which might support a football training pitch but might need totally excavated and refilled to support housing or expensive piling alternatives.

    I would suggest that it is impossible to compare the two different sites on an equal basis and, indeed, would go further and suggest that there isn’t a Bear with even an average IQ and in possession of the actual facts that would be stupid enough to do so. This leaves me with a strong suspicion that the land deal and Co-op Bank furore is a giant PR Squirrel designed to divert attention away from the Spiv plan for Ibrox.

    I have always wondered why these ‘expert’ Bears have shown such an obsession with Celtic while the deathwatch beetle is busily dismembering Ibrox. I am pretty sure now why this exercise, which has been underway for many months, was launched especially when I note that McMurdo’s Blog has heavily promoted the theory since Day 1.


  44. ecobhoy says:
    January 19, 2014 at 1:26 pm

    Outstanding both for the wit and the research.

    Sadly, we can write as many articles like this as we like, and it will make not one jot of difference to the Ranger’s fans.

    They need the big dark baddies running an external conspiracy to destroy their club, because if they accept that there is no external conspiracy, then they would be forced to look in the mirror to find who is responsible.

    That self examination is something they are culturally incapable of.


  45. @Ernie very good summary mate on Mr McCoist…

    If Rangers had been old rangers competing in the SPFL and Europe I do not think AMcC would have been manager this season… Perverse circumstance has elongated his usefulness and vagueness and desperation in general has kept the wolves (bears) at bay at the new rangers…

    In the next few weeks when ‘assurances of no administration’ are diluted and the threat of major problem ahead become more apparent actions will HAVE to be taken, albeit apparently AMcC will not be a part of that…!!!! I fear the longer things are left the more desperate they will become and if certain factions at rangers do no pull in the same direction then there will only be ONE outcome.. Too little too late (again)…


  46. PhilMacGiollaBhain says:
    January 18, 2014 at 7:01 pm
    135 3 Rate This

    The level of “analysis” shown by Keith Jackson tonight on the BBC regarding the demise of RFC and the response of the football authorities in 2012 really was Work Experience stuff.
    Awful…………………………..
    Phil,my son is in his second year of his course in journalism and if he can’t do better than KJ, I’ll eat my hat…He’ll also be barred from the house.


  47. One member of the cast in the summer of 2013 profligacy, who has not been mentioned, is the one and only Walter Smith
    The man that is on record as saying that the club must spend, spend, spend


  48. scapaflow says:
    January 19, 2014 at 1:35 pm
    ecobhoy says:
    January 19, 2014 at 1:26 pm

    Outstanding both for the wit and the research.

    Sadly, we can write as many articles like this as we like, and it will make not one jot of difference to the Ranger’s fans. They need the big dark baddies running an external conspiracy to destroy their club, because if they accept that there is no external conspiracy, then they would be forced to look in the mirror to find who is responsible. That self examination is something they are culturally incapable of.
    =====================================================
    You think I am joking about the bunker 😆 🙄 😆

    Seriously – I thought it was time to start letting them down gently on this one as the NHS is under enough pressure these days. Poor sods have been marched up to the top of the hill again by the False Prophets who are leading them to Oblivion.


  49. ecobhoy says:
    January 19, 2014 at 2:01 pm

    Eco

    I have never accepted the too wee, poor and stupid line, but the more i see of the Ranger’s fanbase, the more I realise that like all caricatures there is an element of truth in it.

    God help us


  50. Tom English seems to imply Mather didn’t see the problem. I suspect he just followed on from Green and kept Sally and the fans onside while he organised his exit and payoff. For these guys there was no problem, it was all part of their plan.


  51. @Eco Westthorn…Good point on the land deals and special privs on purchases by Celtic. I hadn’t thought of the angle it could be propaganda based on the short term future of the rangers assets amidst much recent speculation. Squirrelly activity at it’s best..

    I do read some bears saying selling Auchinhowie might be an options so there is a realisation that stripping to the bone needs to happen to allow some stable period to build on…

    If they sell that site for a fraction of what it cost to build all hell will break loose. The Celts getting cheap land assets but when the rangers sell their prize assets they get a pittance.. Of course land is only useful if there is a plan to make something of it… Not sure a sports complex out in the sticks would be a real good investment opportunity…


  52. helpmaboab says:
    January 19, 2014 at 1:55 pm

    I hope your son goes onto great things in the trade.
    I visit quite a few colleges and universities wearing my NUJ hat to speak to journalism students.
    I am increasingly impressed with the first generation of digital natives coming into the job


  53. Ecobhoy
    Excelent piece,though I might have used the Dung beetle as opposed to the Death beetle.


  54. McMurdo minor really putting the boot into Mr McCoist, open rebellion, churlish, petulant, childish just some of the nice things he has to say about Mr McCoist

    Given Mr McMurdo’s closeness to the current regime, looks like Mr McCoist’s coat may be on a shoogly nail


  55. FIFA says:
    January 19, 2014 at 2:15 pm

    Ecobhoy
    Excelent piece,though I might have used the Dung beetle as opposed to the Death beetle
    ===================================================================
    Nah dung beatles are really useful in an ecological sense and actually not only give life through their dung ball but it provide the food and shelter to raise the next generation of little dung beatles 😛

    The death watch beatles leaves only devastation and homelessness in its wake 🙁


  56. What has McCoist been told that has finally caused the penny to drop that his beloved club is genuinely in dire straits? It clearly wasn’t enough for him to sit through Graham Wallace’s speech, at the RIFC AGM, for the coinage to rattle it’s nasty message in his head as he continued to tell his friendly hacks that he knew of no reasons why he couldn’t go out and sign whoever he wanted to. Now this man of the players can’t even bring himself to be the one who breaks the news of pay cuts to his team, full of signings that he, no doubt, promised the world to. Is it a case of a man who is not the best at figures finally having it all explained to him in words of one syllable, or has he been up to speed all along, but putting a brighter face on things to appease the fans, doing what he thinks is the best thing for the club? If it is the former, then perhaps things are no worse than we all suspected. On the other hand, if it’s the latter, and he’s had word of something about to happen that neither he, nor we, were previously aware of, it sure seems to have spooked him big time.


  57. Martin Hannan asks ‘Is the club paying all its tax and VAT bills on time?’ Surely after all that happened before, they would not get away with this?


  58. ecobhoy on January 19, 2014 at 1:26 pm
    35 0 Rate This
    ———-

    Great piece @echo. ‘Subsidence’ is synonymous with parts of the East End. Your conclusion about the diversionary nature of the story certainly has the ring of truth about it — burying the story of one ‘land deal’ behind the smokescreen of a bogus land-deal story.


  59. ecobhoy says:
    January 19, 2014 at 1:26 pm
    Re Celtic’s Westthorn Land Deal
    ====================================
    In my post above I mentioned that the two Glasgow Corporation Water Department reservoirs on the Westthorn site, from my eye, appeared to occupy roughly 40% of the site.

    The reservoirs each held 4 million gallons of water which was supplied for industrial rather than domestic use. The pumping house lifted the water from the Clyde and it was distributed over a large area of the East End and as far as Bridgeton and Hutchestown and actually across Glasgow Green by way of supply pipes with the main from the Westthorn reservoir a whopping 42 inches in diameter – a slight problem if you want to build a house on top of a slowly corroding pipe – but it gets worse just read-on.

    Another measure of the industrial activity on the site can be gauged by the fact that it supplied 2.5 million gallons of water every working day during its operational lifespan from c1870-1930.

    The privately-owned Dalmarnock Water Company on the Cuningar Loop – adjacent to Westthoen closed by 1897 and interestingly it’s reservoir was used as a landfill site. An old photo in 1934 shows an aerial cableway which was apparently used to dump paper from the Dalmarnock Paper Mill into the disused Cunningar Loop Reservoir.

    I’m speculating but I wonder if the two redundant reservoirs at Westthorn were similalry employed which means the in-fill really is rubbish and would need removed prior to any housebuilding taking place. More cost – I’m beginning to think Celtic paid far too much for the site especially on paper as it literally might be 😈


  60. FIFA says:
    January 19, 2014 at 3:32 pm

    Echobhoy
    Fair point ,death watch wins,when do they start.
    ==============================================
    They already have but as their carapace provides total protection they are happily at work, hidden by the asbestos, munching away 😎


  61. ecobhoy says:
    January 19, 2014 at 1:26 pm
    ‘….But on the northern edge of the Westthorn site running up to London Road was a huge claypit operated by the Westthorn Brick Works ‘
    ——
    The playground of my boyhood, ecobhoy! A death trap of green water filled craters like something in a first world war battlefield, gradually infilled with building- rubble, old timbers, asbestos sheeting, oil drums, until full enough to be roughly levelled round about the early 1950s.
    The first building on it was that of ‘Priestman Excavators’- a not very heavy single storey building ( to avoid the need for pile-driving, I expect, or the need to avoid turning up chemical waste).


  62. nowoldandgrumpy on January 19, 2014 at 2:13 pm
    5 0 Rate This

    So the Easdales want to put 20 mill into Rangers after they sell up McGills buses. Why then are they wanting to buy up a Maltese bus company then?

    From KDS http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140119/local/mcgillss-scotlands-biggest-bus-firm-eyes-malta-bid.503154#.UtuR6BA1gjI
    ——————————
    Maybe it’s nearer to middle eastern investors that the Easdales have connections with through RIFC.
    How easy it to transfer money to Malta?.


  63. Ecobhoy
    Excelent piece,
    Westhorn land, Belvidere’,London Road, River Clyde,the existing allotments
    The playground of my youth 🙂


  64. Gawd looks as though there could be another huge problem about building on the Westthorn site. Ra crooks oanrat Glesga Cooncil hiv definitely robbed Celtic blind on this land deal.

    I’ve written about the giant clay pit and associated old brickwork, the 4 million gallon capacity of each of the two reservoirs which were probably infilled with rubbish in the 1930s, the 42″ main water main running from the Clyde through the site and gawd knows how many smaller ones.

    So what else traverses this site that the Bears think has perfect housebuilding conditons and is worth at least £5 million ❓

    National Records of Scotland
    Reference RHP81326
    Title Plan and section of outfall sewer from London Road to River Clyde across lands of Westthorn.


  65. Do you think that Celtic should be suing the Council for compensation, if they knew they were selling the club what is effectively little more than a nuclear wasteland.


  66. ecobhoy says:
    January 19, 2014 at 3:57 pm

    Eco

    So what you are telling us is that this criminal genius behind

    “a conspiracy on a scale so immense as to dwarf any previous such venture in the history of man. A conspiracy of infamy so black that, when it is finally exposed, its principals shall be forever deserving of the maledictions of all honest men.” –

    would be less a Blofeldt and more of a Blofeck?


  67. neepheid says:
    January 19, 2014 at 9:33 am
    McCoist: “… that although we are not going down the same road we are going down a similar path.”

    neep: … I need to know where a similar path to the road to liquidation leads. Is it just a different route to the same destination, but narrower and rockier? I think we should be told.
    ——

    The destination is evidently not the same liquidation, but a similar place. 😉


  68. Ecobhoy of course has a serious point about brownfield sites. To give an example from my own experience:

    There was a pit near here which closed decades ago, council decided to re-use the land for housing, the site had been long cleared, a survey revealed everything was stable , land sold off new scheme built,job done.

    However, there was also an associated bing, on an adjacent site about twice the size. The bing had caught fire years ago, and had been burning away ever since. Council called in the experts, who said level it and landscape it and in 15 – 20 years you’ll be fine. Two decades later council sent in new experts, who came back and said, “if you want to build there, all that material will have to be lifted”

    So there the site sits feck all use to anyone, expect as a nature reserve.


  69. “Graham Wallace is battling an enemy within to halt financial crisis, hints Rangers boss Ally McCoist”
    By Gordon Waddell 19 Jan 2014 07:32
    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/graham-wallace-battling-enemy-within-3037631

    Back Page Sunday Mail 19 Jan 2014
    “Ally hints at inside Ibrox sob.”
    Gordon Waddell

    Ok both essentially the same story, but the different headlines caught my eye.
    In particular the Sunday Mail.
    What exactly is an “Ibrox sob” is it a short cry of pain followed by tears?
    Is it different to a Pittodrie sob? Or a Tannadice one?
    Is it only inside and never outside?
    Or is it more sinister! As in Son of a B.
    Shurely not, 😀 the “a” is missing ! Not very journalistically correct?
    Or could it just be journalistic licence? Or did Mr McCoist use this in his interview? As in Son of a B :mrgreen:
    Just what is this “sob” should we not be told?
    Does it mean an enemy within and shortened to sob to save newsprint in the Sunday Mail.
    I demand to know. ❓

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