“We were told the SFA shuts at 5pm on a Friday" - Scottish Football 2016/17

Started it so it exists.

I decided to pass on a season ticket this season and just pick and choose games, maybe take a half season ticket after christmas. So far I've been to our cup game against Stirling Albion. Blissfully ignorant ATM.

I'm a good luck charm apparently. Came up for the festival and went to tynecastle yesterday. What a delight!

I'm hoping that ICT are similarly clueless next weekend!

Im enjoying the swashbuckling (aka defensively inept but able to score plenty of goals at the moment) style of Brendan Rodgers at the moment. Trying not to get too carried away but a breath of fresh air thus far. Rangers starting well and so far defying my expectation that they will be nowhere near the top of the table in the Spring.

Im enjoying the swashbuckling (aka defensively inept but able to score plenty of goals at the moment) style of Brendan Rodgers at the moment.

John Barnes anyone?

I enjoyed the swashbuckling style of John Barnes.

So did I, we were banging goals in left, right and centre, 5-0, 6-0, 7-0, in fact didn't we beat Aberdeen 7-0?

Is it time to reevaluate John Barnes' managerial reign?

(no)

I think we did, during the terrible Mowbray months. "Not nearly as bad as Mowbray", I think was the verdict.

Could have gone a few buckles being swashed tonight. And never seeing Saidy Janko again as long as I live. Which will probably be about two hours given the strain that match has put on my heart.

aye that was brutal. i followed most of it via the medium of text as well as im at work and my lunch break is only half an hour. still, back in the Champions League, 25 million euros in the bank :-)

It'll be a chunk more than that once you factor in gate money plus nearly £500k for any point we scrape.

it's such a boon. not going to do much for the competitiveness of the spfl mind you

Oh I don't know - they all get £200k each for us qualifying so it all evens up.

Janko was as bad as any defender we've ever had. Cowardly shitshow from several others too. Not many pass marks.

Currently debating whether or not to go to the pub at 4am for El Glásigo this weekend.

the tie made the New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/sports/soccer/scottish-premier-league-rangers-celtic-rivalry.html?_r=0

I'm working so I'm going to miss it. Fucking bastids.

Tell Rodney to get a fucking move on

https://mobile.twitter.com/Liam_O_Hare/status/772946182968606720

as so often with him, i'm torn between chuckling and thinking "you're a mean man and spend your time exploiting your power dynamic as the boss to make others look stupid and you look like a funny cleverclogs"

oh and hey while i'm being a curmudgeon! doncaster is talking about allowing 2 premiership teams to enter colt sides into league 2; do ilxors have any idea which two spl sides might be offered this competitive advantage, and what fair, transparent and equitable process might have been undertaken in order to decide?

Have to do some freelance work in Bridgeton of all places tomorrow - dreading it tbh (think I'm going to get in very very early)

admire the "well we're already called paddy so it's not like we're going to feel the effects of a boycott" vibe to this

https://twitter.com/paddypower/status/774188001396158464

as so often with him, i'm torn between chuckling and thinking "you're a mean man and spend your time exploiting your power dynamic as the boss to make others look stupid and you look like a funny cleverclogs"

Definitely the second one. Funny or not it's clear he's now permanently a bitter wee guy getting his own back on the world.

yeah he doesn't mind bullying people does he

the fuck, Celtic, letting these clowns back into the match right before half time?

Turning out swell though.

That'll do.

just popping in to say "lol"

Indeed. Well and truly skelped.

That was quite enjoyable. Senderos and Barton are a bit rubbish, eh?

Hahahaha rangers are shite

Is that really the challenge Scottish football has been missing?

Well done Cammy Bell on today's other hat trick.

<3 Lustig's beachball hat celebration!

Cammy Bell:

https://youtu.be/rdONmv35a3U

(far be it for me to suggest he probably didn't get much experience of having to face penalties at Ibrox....)

Got a feeling Barcelona vs. Celtic is going to be reminiscent of Celtic vs. Rangers.

In that the home team will destroy the opposition.

We'll be lucky to escape with 5-1 tbh.

id take 5-1 haha

Keeping it down to single figures might be all we can hope for.

Well, this wasn't quite the night I wanted Barcelona to rediscover their innate Barcelonaness.

ilxors ananimus (onimo) wrote this on thread "You've no right to be angry with John Collins". SPFL, season 2015/2016 on board I Love Football on 03-Feb-2016

I can't even.

I mean.

Fuckin

We're just gonnae try out a completely new formation with players making champs league debuts away at fuckin Barcelona. Aye ok Brendan. Give it a go. What could go wrong?

Also, quit fucking fannying about at penalties. Blooter the fucker. Jesus.

We were always going to get beat. But we didn't have to get totally humped.

Fear what might Aguero might do to us, fair enough getting murdered by Barcelona but Man City would be too much to bear.

ho ho ho

http://stv.tv/sport/football/1367209-joey-barton-s-rangers-future-in-doubt-after-training-ground-row/

also chucklesome:

People keep asking me if I'm okay. Of course we're okay.

barton obv remorseful. thought he was coming up to skoosh the league and win some silverware for once, realized pre-season how guff the team is - and with the visit to the 6 counties probably cottoned on to how horrendous the fanbase is - and now he doesn't want to be there. how bad must his strop have been to have him telt to stay away from the training ground?

the press, after really warmly welcoming and praising warburton to the hilt, seems to have taken against him after the poor start to the league.

the fact that the next Glasgow derby is scheduled for lunchtime Hogmanay is hilarious. wish I was home for it (or do I? maybe better to think of myself as out of harm's way).

I'd agree that Barton may be having second thoughts - never saw it myself but a Rangers supporting colleague said there was a post-match interview with Barton sfter the Hamilton draw where he looked surprised that they'd been given a game. I'm all for players coming up here and finding it not as easy as they expected.

As for Warburton, he kind of has a point about the hysterical negativity of the Scottish media, particularly when it comes to Rangers and Celtic.

he has a point about the negativity but he's coming across very poorly while making it. seems thin-skinned, overly-defensive, and as if he's trying to deflect attention/lessen the import of the weekend's result/performance

I agree with all of that, Jim.

Read earlier on Twitter that Barton said during his wee rant that "my son is older than this club". I really want that to be true.

from a satirical feed

a not particularly funny and not overly followed feed at that

Oh, read it from a couple of folk, wasn't sure where they'd got it from. Ah well.

how amused folk can be by new club jokes 4 years into the new club bemuses me

I am easily amused.

Also seeing how irate some folk can get at the very suggestion that their club might have been liquidated (when, y'know, it happened) still makes me chuckle, so a wee slapdown now and then is a cheap giggle.

As an aside to this, there's a team in our local pub quiz who used to have a variety of Rangers-related team names prior to liquidation (my favourites were when they changed it to Red Whyte "make sure it's spelled with a Y" and Blue the week our favourite googly-eyed charlatan rode into town, and also "you reap what you sow" when the new club rocked up in the third division. They then settled on Team 54 in honour of the league titles won until their demise. When their team won the third division, they changed their name to Team 55 to hoots of derision from everyone else in the pub, then Team 56, then a wee wait until changing again to Team 57. Then they thought about it at the start of the season so they're back to Team 54 again. Which presumably they'll be keeping for a while.

I suggested Team Zero and got glowered at.

also "you reap what you sow" when the new club rocked up in the third division

also re barton above, totally agree this is about regrets, but wonder if that goes both ways too - the very heavy punishment being the gers hoping for an excuse to boost him a la sandaza. He's looked like a staggering waste of money in the (admittedly few) highlights I've seen..

Yeah, there's also that. Clears a five figure weekly sum off the wage bill that lets them bring in true reinforcements. Or keep the lights on.

Superb stuff from us today. Having half an hour of dominance then conceding a wonder goal all looked a wee bit last season but the reaction was really good. Dembele looked deadly and Rogic showed amazing control throughout. I'm finally coming round to Tierney being a better option than Izzy.

Shame we've got Sergio coming to destroy all our confidence this Wednesday.

"I'm not going to answer questions from the general public"

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/watch-gordon-strachan-deliver-sarky-9000645

Such a dick

exciting times for the jam tarts then

always find coaches such as cathro a true unknown quantity. obv spoken of very highly by journos and colleagues. retained by rafa when mclaren was sacked at newcastle - which is not that common. but as he's yet to be a head coach it is very hard to predict how things will go for him.

the hunt for second place should be competitive this season, and hearts have got as good a chance as the dons or rangers.

Cathro is an awesome appointment. Just last week I was conversing with a Geordie fan about what would be the natural next move for him and I'm not in any way a Hearts fan, but this seems like exactly the right level for him. Two seasons from now and he will be able to take his pick from the bottom two thirds of the English Premiership. When he was at Forfar and Brechin I had discussions with old boys in The Pub about him, we knew he was headed for bigger things, I was resigned to him being a future Rangers manager but hopefully he has sidestepped that now. Maybe Bournemouth once Eddie Howe goes to Arsenal, or the Swansea job will surely be opening back up. Basically I think he's great.

rangers no longer a step up from hearts either financially or in terms of competing for trophies so id imagine it's on to england if he is a success at hertz

exciting post! xp

I hope he has more ambition than moving to milton fucking keynes anyway

Anyone who can stop Rangers from finishing 2nd in the league is fine by me, what a depressing prospect otherwise.

Not sure about Cathro. Part of me likes that it's a move away from the merry-go-round of the usual suspects, but then again, so was Ronny Deila :-( Fingers crossed he's better than that.

For it's a grand old team etc etc

Celtic now further ahead of the second placed team than the second placed team are of the bottom team 0_o

Might spend the whole afternoon watching Mikael Lustig's rabona on repeat.

tatty bye warburton

In the question of sport green room, a man in a pair of fake breasts dusts off his cv

Omg

@BBCchrismclaug
Mark Warburton says he's unaware of #Rangers statement regarding his resignation. Says he hasn't resigned. Bizarre.

jesus this is hilarious

Was out last night so just catching up with all this now. Absolutely amazing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38979368

The government has named 360 businesses which have failed to pay either the National Minimum Wage (NMW) or the National Living Wage (NLW).
Among them are well-known names like Debenhams, Subway, Lloyds Pharmacy and St Mirren Football Club.

Typical Paisley, amirite? Also, well-known?

https://www.facebook.com/gordon.sawers.73/videos/129102230941963/

this Kilmarnock fan seems very unhappy about the Lee Clark departure.

Got about two minutes into that Killie thing before my will to live dissipated.

Bit of a goalfest at Pittodrie the night, eh?

6 in a row, 'mon the Hoops.

Congratulations to youse!

as a tim that grew up in the 90s i can't help but smile when i look at the league table, while also simultaneously i can't help but think it's some sort of deranged fever dream.

trade-off for the world turning to shit

Great goals on Sunday too btw.

Winning the title in the Jambos' backyard almost as sweet as winning it you-know-where.

Someone's just txted me, "Was Moravcik playing?"

... and the St. Mirren Great Escape continues apace. Been a good day so far.

I'd put Jack Ross in with a decent shout at manager of the year for what he's done to St Mirren over the last few months (including doing me for over a ton on my BTTS acca this afternoon by improving their defence beyond recognition, the bastard).

P 38 W 34 D 4 L 0 F 106 A 25 Pts 106

No' bad, eh? Wouldn't have thought that at the start of the season when we were utterly shite against Lincoln Red Imps.

Also good riddance to Caley Thistle.

thank fuck that season's over

aaah poor aberdeen :(

great game that. congrats to ilxor celticers

congrats must have worn a bit thin by now

oh for sure

and now u've pointed out i see it's p much all i've posted here this season

congrats to me on failing to walk the tightrope b/tw magnanimity and sycophancy

Never in doubt :-)

Never saw this season coming during the dark days of Lincoln Red Imps away, eh?

was just going to say, we'll always have gibraltar etc

Talk about irritating, entitled Celtic fans, I was working today and found myself hoping it went to extra time so I could find a pub to watch Celtic winning the treble at least half an hour of the game.

get in!

Scotland 1 Brazil 0

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40144470

howling

Was going to start a new thread and make the first couple of hundred posts just "hahahahahahahaha".

Dying here.

Oh my good God!!!!!!!

To be fair though, Rangers FC had never played in Europe before.

ahahahahaha

HMRC win the big tax case. Grab your popcorn.

Uneventful start to the new season.

Should probably start a new thread, eh?

Indeed, I forgot we've got Celtic vs. the DUP Linfield to look forward to, huzzah!

Surely they can appeal the result

Yesterday's I mean

supreme court unanimously rejected appeal

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/dundee/462883/supreme-court-rejects-rangers-appeal-big-tax-case-articleisfree/

we need to strip the titles.

SFA have already said no further punishments I believe.

they have, but the clubs and supporters should really be pressuring them.

the lord nimmo smith garbage makes no sense in light of this verdict (well even less than it previously did)

Undoubtedly but I don't see that working, tbh (xp)

in my dream world the Celtic support (and at least also the Dons) would boycott Hampden this season, the club would not allow players to go on international duty for Scotland friendlies. Anti-SFA banners and chanting etc. Really make the bastards squirm.

Lennon had better get the Hibees on to it too.

i don't see how regan or doncaster can possibly stay in post

(i fully expect regan and doncaster to stay in post)