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

Cheers, thought Brown and McCall might've sneaked in there. Have no concept of passage of time.

Barca winning tonight means we are in some kind of Europe after Christmas. Good stuff. A wee draw or better tonight would be nice.

Tony Mowbray's first 14 league games at Celtic: W9 D3 L2 F30 A14 - 30 points (and one of those defeats was to Rangers)
Neil Lennon's last 14 league games at Celtic: W7 D4 L3 - F24 A13 - 25 points (with no Rangers to drop points to)

We had four more points last year when we were 10 behind Rangers and everyone was calling for Lennon's head!

american 20 yo juan agudelo trailing with celtic, might transfer. promising, needs to work harder, played on a terrible mls team last year

Thanks anky, someone mentioned a new signing today and I had no idea what they were talking about.

Feel slightly vindicated for not being entirely Team Lennon despite entire timternet disagreeing (apparently beating Barcelona negates chucking 57 year record against Killie - not for me). Also notice slump in home form coincides with me not attending games any more.

Feeling "vindicated" by defeat seems an odd reaction imo. Like us losing justifies your lack of faith in the guy who managed to turn a shit team around last year, win the league, qualify for the Champs League and do mad unheard of things like scoring and winning repeatedly away from home in Europe. Beating Barca doesn't justify losing to Killie, but neither does losing to Killie negate all our good results.

The league form is poor and he's making mistakes. I think he and the players are being too complacent about the league challenge.

- he needs to bite the bullet and bin Brown out of the team until he's either fit or retired
- he needs to stop switching Samaras to centre forward every time it's going wrong as that rarely makes it go better
- he needs to train Commons out of shooting from ridiculous impossible positions when he's missing easy chances
- he needs to sub players who aren't playing. How Hooper stayed on the pitch longer than Tony Watt is beyond me. Watt was poor too but he at last got on the ball
- he needs to stop arguing with clowns on twitter at 1.30am when he has a match the next day. If he wants professionalism from his players he needs to show it himself

I think they're struggling to adjust from chasing the ball in Europe to being expected to dictate the game domestically. Spending repeated midweeks having better players run you around the pitch can't be good for confidence. Injuries aren't helping either, he's having to cobble teams together every week and can't get any kind of consistency in any of his pairings.

I don't rate Lennon as highly as others seem to, never have, get roundly pilloried for it, feel constantly like I'm challopsing, and people are starting to agree with me and I'm glad that I'm not entirely mad and unique in not having emperors new clothes syndrome. I never said I *enjoyed* any of it.

I read this in the barber's this morning. Not often I say it but Bill Leckie is mostly bang on.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/columnists/billleckiesports/4665776/Blind-as-a-brat.html

Oh come on, does any Celtic fan seriously think that they might not win the SPL? Losing at home to Caley must suck but it's not like it will effect where the title goes

Ah well, it's as well I'm staying well away from Celtic Park these days innit.

(that post was brought to you by the word "well")

0-0 at HT at a chilly McDiarmid Park. Fairly even so far, maybe Saints in more control towards the break. I may have to stop moaning about dirty opposition teams as it seems they're all as bad as each other. Tade getting a hard time fromthe Hibs defence. Thomson is a terrible ref.

Think this is the longest i've ever had a 3G signal at a game.

yup celtic still going to canter league

Och.

BBC headline is "McGlynn baffled by defeat". Wish I was.

Oh dear, typical Saints.

I know we've won games this season that we probably didn't deserve to, but it's always shite to be on the receiving end. Even worse, I'm even feeling a touch of sympathy for Kenny Shiels.

It's what happens when you waste chances and have a penalty (and follow up) saved. Thought Saints played well, otherwise, and it was largely an enjoyable game. Hibs keeper did well, a lot of easy saves to make but thought he had a couple of good ones to make too.

I am aware I seem to find myself moaning after every game about dirty/physical opposition and shite refs. I'm starting to wonder if the latter is just normal supporter paranoia (though I'm convinced Thomson is particularly shite), and the former just my own lack of knowledge/understanding of the game. That said, Hibs were very physical tonight. In general I'm sick of seeing players clinging on to and blatantly obstructing other players. I texted a friend early on saying I expected someone would be sent off, either Hibs for the physicality or Saints for rising to it. In fairness, I think Saints are much more physical under Lomas than under McInnes.

I don't think it would be fair to state my opinion of Leigh Griffiths. Can understand why Hibees may love him, but...

Oh, and David Robertson getting his leg broken after five minutes on the park didn't help either.

And now an eight game ban for Lomas. I haven't seen it - what did he do?!

Kicked a water bottle in frustration after the penalty miss - Hasselbaink is not our penalty taker. Already had a suspended ban.

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/fail/148886/fc-emmens-jeffrey-de-visscher-has-contract-terminated-for-pooping-in-the-woods-claims-to-be-innocent.html

Former Aberdeen played sacked from Dutch club for drunk driving and shitting at the roadside.

Fergie got a knighthood for similar iirc.

Don't let the door hit yer arse etc

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/james-traynor-why-this-is-my-last-ever-newspaper-1470416

lol

That is something, isn't it? Such a complete lack of self-awareness! I do like how he chunters on and on about the woeful inaccuracy of everyone that isn't him, while saying shit like "Rangers and their fans, who deserve enormous credit for having saved their club". Um, does anyone want to break it to him?

Clown. Now just get him off the radio an'all and I'll be happy.

KILMARNOCK v ROSS COUNTY OR INVERNESS CT
DUNDEE v TURIFF UTD or MORTON
DUNDEE UTD v RANGERS
FALKIRK v FORFAR
HIBERNIAN v ABERDEEN OR MOTHERWELL
DUNFERMLINE V DUMBARTON OR HAMILTON
ST MIRREN V COWDENBEATH OR ST JOHNSTONE
RAITH ROVERS v CELTIC OR ARBROATH

Is this is a giant wind-up by the timternet or is Traynor really away to be Rangers' PR chief?

I read last night that his farewell column was a job application. It certainly reads that way. Can't imagine why you'd make someone with no PR experience (other than being spoonfed it and regurgitating it) your PR. Maybe he's onto an editorial job at the Orangers News.

Interesting draw in the cup there.

Ooh, hello! Aye, I'm sure Arbroath will bring a decent support your way :-/

xpost, he's got excellent practice in spinning good PR for Rangers, years at the Record/on BBC Scotland will do that for you. But aye, it did read like one of the Record's favoured "come and get me" pleas that they're aye telling us potential Ibrox targets are so fond of issuing. Surely at the end of a long career of hackery you'd concentrate on the good times, maybe throw in a tinge of regret about bampots making the written press largely redundant, whatevs. But going down in a "poor The Rangers, you just didn't understand and I can't take it any more" blaze of stupidity and false bravado is a really odd way to sign off.

http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/hearts/204137-comparing-the-wage-bills-in-the-scottish-premier-league-for-season-201011/

Rangers had the most responsible wage to turnover ratio of any SPL club other than Hamilton in 10/11. Where did it all go wrong?

Maybe their wage+dodgy undeclared payments:turnover ratio wasn't quite so impressive.

NewGers refusing tickets for cup tie at Tannadice.

Gies ma baw ahm goan in.

Have you guys covered this already?
http://local.stv.tv/elgin/news/203973-elgin-dancing-queen-mortified-after-96000-watch-rangers-camera-clip/

Meant to put that on the rolling wtf thread, but forgot. tbf, she's from Nairn, probably just transfixed by working electricity etc.

I spent a night in Nairn once, with barely functioning electricity. Scotland were 2-0 up after an hour against the third best team in the world (aye right FIFA) and the picture kept disappearing on my hotel room telly so I had to escape to a nearby pub to see us lose 3-2.

Can't actually remember the end of that game, now that I think about it, maybe the pub didn't have it on or maybe I missed the end or maybe I've blotted it out idk. Classic Scotland all the same.

Nairn is a shithole. My dad used to play for their team though, several gazillion years ago just after his cup-winning* glory days** with Ross County.

* North of Scotland Cup or Highland League Cup or something similarly unimportant. There is a picture of him with it in the trophy room at Victoria Park Global Energy Stadium or whatever it's calling itself these days though.

** not much glory in Dingwall in the 1950s, it would seem.

after Celtic's magnificent achievement in the Champions League, today's Daily Record features an amazing EIGHT PAGE RANGERS PICTURE SPECIAL

and David Leggat thinks Peter Lawell is running the Record o_O

Haha I didn't believe you there, but here's the piece online. How weird.

Elgin fan has an American rival:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOHkRk00iI8

Probably very late to this news, but jesus it wasn't a twitter joke after all: http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/2883-club-appointment

So in preparation for his new job in trying to manage the press, he decided to call the press a bunch of cunts? I'm sure all those dishonourable hacks he tore into last week will be desperate to help him wherever they can..

Actually given it's rangers, that sentence probably works better without any sarcastic inflection.

lol @ a guy who hates all forms of new media being in charge of it.

Decent wee display at Rugby Park today - now can we just sort home league form?

Fuckin refs. Denied around 124 penalties today. Best home performance in the league for some time and should have put the game away before half time.

St Mirren showed about as much ambition as Dundee earlier this season i.e. none. They gave the ball away in the their own half non stop - it's ok saying you want to play it out from the back but not much good if your players can't pass a football.

This will be the first season in over 40 years that the Hoops have gone beyond Christmas and still been involved in all four major competitions that they entered at the start of the season.

so Jock Stein > Neil Lennon > everyone else :)

Someone's had too much brandy butter

http://www.rangersfc.co.uk/news/headlines/item/2983-a-christmas-message

Ha, it's nice that the lower leagues have their own Vlad.

Fuck me, Only An Excuse was terrible.

(I'm not talking about football any more. I don't like it).

Jamie Murphy, Keith Lasley, Tom Hateley, Stuart McCall: fuck you all very much!

So long Ibrahim Rabiu. We hardly knew ye. At all. Gone to Killie, probably good for him as Sheils isn't the type of manager to knock the football out of him - though he strikes me as more of a St Mirren type.

Defender Rami Gershon in talks with Celtic. I know nothing about him.

He's quite good looking and he thinks we're called Celtics. That's all I got, based on a minute's viewing of STV news.

oh aye, also said he's a mate of Beram Kayal's but he hasn't actually spoken to him about Celtic. Hmmmm.