"The monkeys start to squeal, lie and create conspiracy plots" - Scottish Football 2012/13

I'd like to think the draws are an indication of a reasonably matched bunch of teams (i know, i know), where it'll be whover gets their head above the parapet that'll profit. Or something.

Hibs sound much improved over end of last season, no? Beginning to wonder if Fenlon isn't the donut he seemed.

Re Templeton: Hearts have put out a (slightly sour) statement saying he was desperate to go anywhere that payed big bucks, which T.A.F.K.A.Rangers are presumably doing. I'm really surprised he'd go to the third div though. Can't totally blame him for wanting to leave - just don't think this is the right move. On the other hand I don't think this is the worst move for us given the circumstances - he was out of contract in eight months, had made it clear he wouldn't renew, we got a bit of cash for him and in the short term we haven't sold him to a rival club (until newco are parachuted into the Bon Accord UltraPremier next season at least). He's been our best player by far this season so it's obviously a loss, but we do at least have some good replacements for his position (Novikovas, Driver if he can get back to form). Based on potential I'd rather have kept McGowan if I'd had to choose.

Just seems strange that no-one has told Templeton "you know that goal you scored away to Liverpool in Europe? You've just guaranteed that will be the high point of your career."

yeah talk about badly advised..

What's he been told? Getting Bocanegra off the wage bill for a year, signing actual decent players...looks like there's a future of some sort.

There's two ways this is going. Reconstruction to get TAFKAR into the SPL asap*, or "woops, sorry lads, you're decent players, you're better than Div 2**, we need to sell you, good luck an' that, why, thank you for your money, opportunistic buyer"

* still no Europe, but
** Div 3 if Sally continues in this vein

Yeah I imagine he's been promised the former, ie after this season you'll be in the nu-prem son.

Obvs keep in mind I'm massively bitter when it comes to a) losing our best player and b) being unable to fend off poaching by a team three leagues below us

good luck an' that, why, thank you for your money, opportunistic buyer

This should be the title of Minty Moonbeam's memoirs.

Ha! Agreed!

Prior to the start if the season I expected to see a resurgent Hibs or Aberdeen but not both. Point was made on Sportsound in their interview with Fenlon that there's only something like 4 players left that were there when he arrived.

That's a huge clearout. I'm not sure I could name many of the calderwood squad, mind..!

Super soaraway redtop has it that sally wanted zaliukas too. The guy's obsessed with hearts.

Good result for Dundee today! Our first win (and 2nd goal?). So what if it was a penalty, still pleased.

Derby Day, September 9th 1963

Other highlights are Archie's glorious coiff, and the camera-shy pigeon fanciers

Well that wasnae great...

Naw. When you're sitting around questioning the existence of Barry Bannan and debating whether a fit Darren Fletcher would win it, the game's up (I figured the missing link was Scott Brown, btw).

I genuinely can't think of anyone who would take this on and improve it. I'm actually coming round to the idea of Gordon Strachan, despite his proven adherence to the concept of Kenny Miller.

Strachan pioneered the concept of Caldwell in midfield. It's also worked tonight and Saturday, but only in absence of proper midfielders. I'm not sure it's an actual thing. Happening via accident rather than design is not really the confidence inspiration desired.

I'm basically stumped for ideas. Is anyone-but-Levein enough yet?

I'm really torn. I like him, think they had the right idea bringing someone in for the long term to overhaul things from top to bottom (which he did brilliantly at Tannadice) and I'm loathe to call for someone's head early into a competition... but he's had an entire tournament already, he's lost the press (to the extent he had them), he's definitely lost the fans (and his chemical ali routine last night makes it look worse) and given how lackluster and disinterested they seemed, it looks like he's lost the squad. So even if he's got the germ of a point in that it's not as bad as the press hysteria would have you think (if we'd been a bit more adventurous we could have beaten serbia on sat, who smashed wales to bits last night... but then who's to blame for our not being adventurous, I guess?), his position has got to be pretty close to untenable. You could read the tea leaves when you saw Wattie was the studio guest - every time a scotland boss is on the ropes he pops up as a statesmanlike pundit to tell everyone he's sticking up for his fellow manager but och well as you're pressing me here's what I'd do if I was still scotland boss, which never say never etc etc

What has happened to Bannan, btw? Is he crocked? And what was that they were saying about Commons - is it public knowledge that there's been a falling out there, or was that just the wee gerbilfaced sky cunt's innuendo?

Do think it's a bit harsh to round on him for not picking Steven Fletcher though - the guy spat the dummy and didn't want to play. Not sure what else Levein could do.

As a person I don't particularly like Strachan - for similar oh-isn't-he-acheeky-chappy reasons as Sally - but fuck it why not? Have the stuart baxter jokes started on twitter yet..?

(wb btw- hope you had a good holiday)

acheeky-chappy

Read this in Gino D'acampo voice for best effect

Haven't been on holiday yet, just having a wee break from moaning about shit in this thread (saving myself for the results of the dual contracts/FTT stuff!).

I was watching in the pub with the sound down, what was he (Tanner?) saying about Commons?

Steven Fletcher was tweeting good luck wishes to the squad yesterday, I was doing my dinger about it in the pub to all and sundry about how ridiculous it was he was giving a shit about Scotland while refusing to play for them (I remember someone else (Kris Boyd? Davie Weir post-retirement?) doing the same and moaning about it then too). I don't think he's exactly the saviour of Scottish football, but I wish they'd kiss and make up and give us a not-Miller option.

I too liked the noises Levein was making at the start of his tenure, but he's really not backed it up with performances. I wouldn't be averse to keeping him in some capacity, but someone with a better ability to manufacture silk purses out of sows' ears as well as being a long-term thinker wouldn't go amiss in the dugout. I've mentioned Terry Butcher before, and I genuinely can't think of anyone else involved in Scottish football I'd give a shot at it (Danny Lennon, maybe? Kenny Shiels?). We're so insular when it comes to recruitment though, so it'll probably be Walter Smith again :/

Another improved performance from Saints today, hopefully putting the Abredeen fiasco behind us and getting into gear.

Went along only expecting a humping, Commons scoring after 4 mins did nothing to dispel my gloom. Looked second best by quite a bit for the first 15 or so, until Tade's equaliser. Can't remember the last time I saw Saints dig in and come back from behind. All the same, I thought Celtic were pretty wasteful in front of goal, a few good chances in the first half. Thought the second half was a great showing from Saints. Pleased that Vine and Tade are starting to click, both weren't quite firing against Utd.

I was saying to people yesterday that we could take anything from 0 to 7 pts by the end of the month. Happy we're on the way.

Sorry, belated reply. Tanner was asking Wattie and McCann pretty leading questions about whether Levein had the team onside, and said something along the lines of we know he's got a problem with fletcher, and there may or may not be a problem with commons. One of the guests (can't remember which) answered by saying we don't know if there are really problems with commons or not, but he hasn't been seen in the team for a year and kinda left it hanging. I haven't even heard any rumours...

You're absolutely right re Fletcher hypocrisy. He's played it all quite well - he's in the news today turning the screw by saying if levein asked him back he'd play. IMHO he's making the right noises for the next boss, and hoping by making those noises he can accelerate the incumbent's departure. But yeah unfortunately he is quite good and we could do with him.

I've always (well, post-playing career) liked terry butcher, right enough. But yeah, for a country famous for it's neverending stream of good managers, nae bugger ever wants to get involved with the national side. (Can't blame them I suppose).

Re 'in some capacity' - would be a nice solution to punt him into more of a wotte type role, if we didn't already have wotte..

Cheers. I think he was entirely justified in not picking Commons last year on his poor form, but leaving him out now seems odd.

and *cough* well done to St Johnstone and all their supporter. Ouch.

Oh hey yeah- congrats to the saints. But defo not the other saints. Ahem.

How come beattie's no playing? (or is he?)

Tangent - always get annoyed when the Midden get referred to as "Saints", can we not all call them the Buddies seeing as they have that too?

As far as I know Beattie's not been playing due to a combination of lack of a pre-season and a couple of weeks out due to picking up Chickenpox off one his kids. Think he started training properly last week, so may be in the squad soon.

Fine by me. I've always known them as St Liedown.

Aaaah. Makes sense.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa

so what does Ally have to do to get sacked?

Dunno, taking a team the division above you to penalties is an achievement, is it not? :)

Best twitter quote of the night "Rangers will be turning in their grave"

hah that's brilliant!

following scottish football from the west coast of north america is a right pain in the cunt. went to where the local csc watch the game the other day for the benfica game, at 11.45am, and they were, despite there being a north american channel showing the game, watching a shitey stream off the internet. ultra-shitey. cycled hame at half time and got a much better stream going within 2 minutes on my girlfriend's shitey laptop. now tomorrow they will be showing the game, and actually off the telly i think, but at 7am after ive had a few ales the night i just can't be fucked.

obviously i'll always keep up with the scores and the news about the team, but i really don't feel like a supporter if i can't go to parkhead or watch the games in the pub with my pals :c

Where are you now? I still remain somewhat staggered by the fact you can find a wee band of folk watching Celtic anywhere in the world. I shall be partaking of the 8 hour time difference on holiday next week, fecking 4.45am kick-off :(

live in vancouver now.there were about 20 for a midweek game in the middle of the day.

Nice! That's a decent turnout. My overseas experiences have been rammed-to-the-gills pub in Orlando for a game against Rangers, about 30 in a pub in Naples, Florida for the last 16 game against Milan, Irish bars in Paris and Gothenburg (where I met a bloke who knew my dad!) and various bars in the Costa del Sol where you'll always find an expat or three. We get everywhere!

i have a friend who is an archaeologist, he was on a month-long dig in the Indonesian jungle and he still managed to find 2 local Celtic fans w/ satellite tv to watch matches with!

Aw look at the poor abandoned fitbaw thread :(

SPL looking v competitive at the moment - Hibs go top with another good win, three points separating 2nd and 8th! Looks like anyone other than maybe Ross Co and Dundee can beat anyone else. Celtic can go top if they beat Hearts tomorrow and make it look a wee bit more like the one horse races it's supposed to be.

Partick Thistle finally lose a game! To Morton! Five wins in a row for the Ton.

Did anything else happen today? :P

we fucked the scum 4-0 away!

i am so pleased that my team, morton, the team that i support, are doing well.

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u292/hailfknhail/celtic-champions.gif

Greetings from Las Vegas, where I have just found out the Sevco score :-)

lol @ merdeyeux

Spent most of the second half with my head in my hands, but another 3pts for the real Saints. What a difference a few weeks makes.

merdeyeux - has Peaso got himself injured yet again? not seen him on the teamsheet the couple of times I've looked this season.

Algerian Goalkeeper - how's Stevie May looked so far? Hoping he'll stay with us long term, but worried that he won't.

Nervy at times today and did our best to help Hearts back into the game. Pass marks for Ambrose, Izaguirre, Lustig, Commons and Ledley. Everyone else seemed to be having an off day or a day off. Hearts were wasteful with a couple of decent chances and one total sitter, it might have been a very different game.

Referee Craig Thompson was on some kind of strong hallucinogenic drug and was watching a game that wasn't happening. I can think of no other explanation for his decisions.

Is Jamie MacDonald ok? I couldn't really see what happened from the other end of the stadium but he barely moved after the collision.

Jim been on his travels?

http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/sport/football/corinthians-sorry-as-fans-get-shirty-with-celtic-fan-1-2565265

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/comments-suspended-on-football-articles-1374220

The comments on there were the worst but it's really sad its come to this. No doubt one teams supporters will blame the other.

Must have been a nightmare moderating those comments.

Fuck reading a Daily Record comments page, it's bad enough reading their articles.

And now we take our turn in 2nd. Best start to the season since 71/72 (under Ormond), with apparently 14 fit senior outfield players. Armageddon?

Mad that we're quarter of the way through the season and three points separate two thirds of the league.

Celtic's busy midweek calendar might delay the one horse race aspect a bit further, though they're a game in hand from making it a proper gap.

A wee run for Dundee United and it'll be Celtic, ten others, Dundee. I suppose that was always going to happen but it's good that the ten are so closely matched.

This thread is dead :(

Hib got Hearts in the cup!
Levein got sacked gardening leaved!
Celtic still limping in one horse trace!

Meanwhile: Armageddon II: Hector Goes East
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20241385

Hearts have been issued with a winding-up order by the Court of Session in Edinburgh after failing to pay a tax bill on time.
The matter is unrelated to a £1.75m tax bill Hearts are currently contesting.
This latest order is understood to be for unpaid PAYE and VAT and BBC Scotland has learned the sum due is a substantial six-figure amount.

Levein got sacked gardening leaved!

Also, I guess Gogs is going to get the gig? Dunno how a man who sees himself as a track-suited training ground coach fancies a national job but I suppose £400k a year for 6-8 games is tempting for anyone.

I did mention him a while back as a possible in some thread or other - not on this one as this is my first post here??!!?

Was it on the "craig levein fuck off" thread?