Scottish Football Discussion Thread 2010/11

[InvertedSmiley]

A bigger league with fewer games against each team makes sooo much sense. Forget the TV deal for a minute. Just think about how much closer things would be. With the ability to go on wee runs against the lower level teams, the clubs like Dundee Utd, Hearts, Hibs and maybe a couple of others could stay in touch with the Old Firm, without 8 games a season for the gap to open. And don't forget how Hibs' attendancr shot up when they got relegated because fans could see them win for a change. If there were only a few points between the top four at the end of the season, crowds would go up big time for the run in.

It's posts like this that are the reason you'll never have a job at the top end of Scottish football, Kenny.

 

You're talking too much sense. You need to be a complete idiot to be anywhere near in charge of our game.

 

The problem is, the people in charge are looking at the possible financial ramifications in the short term, instead of looking at the benefit to the game over a few years when, as you say, the crowds will get bigger.

 

A ten team league which sees us play each other four times mimimum a season is a joke.

It can't be a coincidence that Scottish football's hayday of the 60's and 70's came with an 18 team top division.

 

Though it has to be said that a ten team league was more productive than the current set-up in terms of competition and allowing our clubs to succeed in Europe.

 

How hard can a 16 team league, playing 30 games home and away with a winter shutdown be to implement? The smaller clubs are worried about losing revenue, but you've got to lose some to gain some. I've been thoroughly convinced for a long time that a 16 team SPL playing through the summer - when none of the other major leagues are playing, meaning more exposure for Scottish football - would benefit our country greatly. There are plenty of good clubs in the First Division who could step up and contribute to a successful league.

 

As usual, Scottish football is stuck in the past, scared and unwilling to change.

[Kenny McBride]

I hadn't even thought about that. Summer football would offer us a free run at every sports channel on the continent for a couple of months every year. It would also help us get fit for those early European qualifiers that routinely trip us up.

[David]

I'm not sure if anyone has been following the Bill Leckie controversy regarding his article on the minute silence to remember the Ibrox disaster at the recent old firm game, but it's certainly been causing a stir.

 

I personally don't buy The Sun, the fucking rag that it is, but I managed to find an online copy of Leckie's column, which was as follows;

 

Freddie Ljungberg missed his debut with the sniffles.

 

And their fans even took a coughing fit during the minute's silence.

 

No wonder Neil Lennon looked like he needed a Lemsip and a lie down as time ticked down to the game many reckoned could make or break him.

 

But there's no tonic on earth like a win.

 

No medicine like seeing your team sweat it out to get their job done.

 

No hangover cure for the punters like seeing the league table this morning.

 

If they're honest, they must have feared the worst. Injuries, illness and international call-ups had left them nine men short.

 

The team Lennon picked seemed as thin as a one-ply tissue.

 

Yet in the end, it was Rangers who caught a cold. It was Gers who went home spluttering.

 

They ran out of ideas faster than a sneeze escapes your hooter.

 

The longer it went on, the more mistakes spread through their ranks like a virus.

 

Twice they had possession in dangerous areas deep in Celtic territory. Twice they ended up picking the ball out of their own net.

 

Long before the end, they looked around themselves and wondered where the draught was coming from.

 

Then they realised it was the doors being booted open as fed-up punters decided they'd had enough.

 

There's surely no worse feeling on these days of tit-for-tat gloating than seeing the other lot celebrate on your patch.

 

Back in October, it was the Celtic hordes who had to put up with it after their players were run out of it in a one-sided second half.

 

Now, the tables were turned.

 

And the Bluenoses masses weren't hanging about to see the Broomloan Stand party.

 

They could be waking up this morning two points clear the top with two games in hand. Instead, you doubt if they fancy emerging from under the duvet.

 

It was a strange afternoon, one where the usual poison mingled in the chill air with the raw emotion of remembrance. Where Celtic had made a big show of keeping out a rabble-rousing element of their support but when the cops let others smuggle in smoke bombs and one guy even got through the turnstiles in a Pope costume.

 

And where the ultra-moronic found a surreal way to try and screw up a tribute to the 66 lives lost in the 1971 Ibrox Disaster.

 

As the stadium fell still on ref Craig Thomson's whistle, a cough came from the Celtic End. Then another. Then another and another and lots more anothers until it was as clear as the red nose on a flu-ridden reindeer's face that this was an orchestrated effort to make a point.

 

What that point was, we'll never know. But it seems some lame-brains just don't have the civility to shut the hell up for 60 seconds in memory of others.

 

As the seconds ticked painfully slowly, someone in the middle of the away support started to applaud.

 

To the credit of others around him, he was quickly and quietly shut up.

 

So, with the minute's silence at an end, we settled down for 90 minutes of tedium.

 

Because, boy, it was a duff game.

 

There were times when you couldn't have trusted either side to pass the salt at the dinner table, never mind move a ball ten yards to a team-mate.

 

Here were 50,000 fans, paying fortunes for the privilege of a seat, waiting in vain for someone to have even a quarter-decent effort on goal.

 

Worst of all, here were two teams taking part in what's meant to be the most passionate derby on the planet, laying less of a glove on each other than Audrey Harrison had on the boy David Haye.

 

I've said it many times and it's worth repeating. Take away the insanity and Old Firm games have become some of most mind-numbing of the season.

 

Though 'who cares?' chorus Celtic men in loud unison.

 

What they saw was a patchwork side repelling whatever Rangers could throw at them - however little that was - before slowly but surely imposing themselves on the game.

 

Young winger James Forrest should have scored from Paddy McCourt's cunning reverse pass in the first half, but hesitated and was ploughed by Lee McCulloch.

 

McCourt himself then ran clear 56 seconds after the break, but dragged his shot across the goal and wide.

 

By the hour, it was becoming hard to see where a home goal was coming from. Though that didn't make it any less surprising to see an away one.

 

Ricky Foster had any number of options to choose from as he cut inside from right-back, 20 yards inside the opposition half.

 

Passing straight to Joe Ledley shouldn't have been one of them - and in an instant, the Welshman released Samaras, who skipped past Allan McGregor as the keeper needlessly raced 30 yards from goal and rolled the ball into an empty net.

 

Ledley ran and leapt into his manager's arms. Samaras went into the crowd behind the goal. Some of the crowd behind the goal tried to get on the park.

 

Rangers stood like statues, frozen by their own stupidity.

 

They never defrosted again.

 

Eight minutes later, with 20 to go, they had options again when Celtic only half-cleared a corner - yet once again they lost the ball and once again Samaras was away.

 

This time, he was wide on the right. He looked up and saw no support, so held and held until he saw a chink of light between young midfielder Jamie Ness and defender Madjid Bougherra.

 

The Algerian hung out a leg. The Greek went over it.

 

The whistler pointed to the spot.

 

Done and dusted.

 

A Celtic team who had come with hope rather than expectation were swaggering like champions. A striker left to graft away on his own had found an endless supply of pals.

 

From the away end, up went chorus after chorus of the 80s classic Just Can't Get Enough.

 

But the rest of Ibrox had already seen way too much.

Now, I wasn't at the game, but from reading other newspapers, and other more respected journalists, I was led to believe that the silence was observed in an impeccable manner?

 

Following Leckie's column, Irish journalist Phil Mac Giolla Bhain (the same guy who broke the Hugh Dallas email scandal I believe), penned this rather excellent reply;

 

As I travel through life I am increasing dismayed at the power of myth in human communities and their need to create legends from virtually zero evidence.

 

People seem to need myth.

 

Especially groups of people.

 

It appears to be the glue that holds them together through an agreed feel good narrative.

 

If the discernible verifiable reality doesn

[FUM]

Bill Leckie is a fucking knob. The fact everyone has rubbished his claims except the members of Follow Follow goes to show that he is a complete tool. Follow Follow are using their own clubs stadium disaster that killed their own fans to point score.

 

Rangers do have decent fans, my best mate supports them but it is the absolute filth of their fans that reside on Follow Follow. I wouldn't believe a word that comes off that board. Child abuse.. yes, very funny. Wankers.

[unfitfinlay]

I used to like Leckie's column (before, like David, I stopped buying the Sun) but that was really offensive. Does he really expect us to believe that the coughing was audible in the press box despite not being picked up by any microphones? I wouldn't blame Celtic (or their supporters groups) if they decided to take Leckie and the Sun to court over that.

 

Phil Mac Giolla Bhain can fuck off as well though:

 

It will now be an article of faith in the Rangers tribe. They will believe because they want to believe, because it tells them that they are intrinsically better than

[Bettencourt]

Packages containing bullets sent to Neil Lennon & Niall McGinn. WTF?

[David]

Packages containing bullets sent to Neil Lennon & Niall McGinn. WTF?

Aye, I heard about that.

 

They were found at a post office centre though, and didn't get to Celtic Park luckily enough.

[bAzTNM#1]

Lennon will be used to it by now. Water off a ducks back.

[David]

Lennon will be used to it by now. Water off a ducks back.

I doubt anyone could really get used to something like that, especially when they have a family, children etc.

[bAzTNM#1]

If somebody was actually going to do something, they wouldn't send you bullets and a letter saying they are going to "do you in".

 

Lennon will still be rather nervous, but nothing like he would be had it happened about ten years ago. I'd imagine he's got a squad of bodyguards around him at all times now.

[David]

If somebody was actually going to do something, they wouldn't send you bullets and a letter saying they are going to "do you in".

You think so? There is plenty of evidence of this kind of threat being made during the troubles, and being followed up on.

 

Don't get me wrong, it probably is a hoax, but it wouldn't be unheard of for something like this to happen.

 

Lennon will still be rather nervous, but nothing like he would be had it happened about ten years ago. I'd imagine he's got a squad of bodyguards around him at all times now.

No he doesn't.

 

As far as I know, and someone else may correct me here, he comes in & out of Celtic Park everyday by himself.

 

Also, he doesn't have any bodyguards during a game.

[Chaka Demus]

As much as I don't condone this sort of behaviour at all and I think that Rangers as a club should publicly come out and distance themselves from the idiots behind this... As long as Neil lennon continues to socialise in Republican bars, the Loyalists in Ulster will continue doing what they are doing to him.

 

 

If that was anybody connected to my club, let alone the Manager I would want the club to get shot (No pun intended) of him.

 

No doubt the usual suspects will come in here to attack me for this post. But fuck it, Lennon brings it on himself.

[Bring Back Minipops]

As much as I don't condone this sort of behaviour at all and I think that Rangers as a club should publicly come out and distance themselves from the idiots behind this... As long as Neil lennon continues to socialise in Republican bars, the Loyalists in Ulster will continue doing what they are doing to him.

 

 

If that was anybody connected to my club, let alone the Manager I would want the club to get shot (No pun intended) of him.

 

No doubt the usual suspects will come in here to attack me for this post. But fuck it, Lennon brings it on himself.

 

Even as a Celtic fan, Ive never liked Neil Lennon and he does do stupid things like that at times, but then Andy Goram and others have done similar and no-one sent them bullets in the post (that Im aware of). I doubt the people involved are "loyalists" probably more just idiots who thought this would be a good idea.

 

However the bit I find strange in this is the fact that Niall Mc Ginn got sent bullets as well but Paddy Mc Court didnt. Surely the loyalists or whoever did this opinion is sweeping ie if Mc Ginn is a target for this Mc Court would be too. Remember they both play for Northern Ireland and both turned down the Republic to do so, so sending them bullets just because they play for Celtic doesnt make sense. Similarily people I work with today were saying they have been at Windsor Park when the crowd has been cheering BOTH Mc Ginn and Mc Courts names so that makes it even stranger. But yes surely if one of the two is being sent bullets both would be no?

[bAzTNM Fan]

However the bit I find strange in this is the fact that Niall Mc Ginn got sent bullets as well but Paddy Mc Court didnt. Surely the loyalists or whoever did this opinion is sweeping ie if Mc Ginn is a target for this Mc Court would be too. Remember they both play for Northern Ireland and both turned down the Republic to do so, so sending them bullets just because they play for Celtic doesnt make sense. Similarily people I work with today were saying they have been at Windsor Park when the crowd has been cheering BOTH Mc Ginn and Mc Courts names so that makes it even stranger. But yes surely if one of the two is being sent bullets both would be no?

 

If he was sent one as well as Lennon or McGinn, then these character would have Paddy McCourt's Fenian Army to deal with

[Bring Back Minipops]

However the bit I find strange in this is the fact that Niall Mc Ginn got sent bullets as well but Paddy Mc Court didnt. Surely the loyalists or whoever did this opinion is sweeping ie if Mc Ginn is a target for this Mc Court would be too. Remember they both play for Northern Ireland and both turned down the Republic to do so, so sending them bullets just because they play for Celtic doesnt make sense. Similarily people I work with today were saying they have been at Windsor Park when the crowd has been cheering BOTH Mc Ginn and Mc Courts names so that makes it even stranger. But yes surely if one of the two is being sent bullets both would be no?

 

If he was sent one as well as Lennon or McGinn, then these character would have Paddy McCourt's Fenian Army to deal with

 

 

Seriously though I dont get why Mc Ginn would seemingly be a target and Mc Court isnt/wouldnt be.