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

Leigh Griffiths' first ever, I think.

Hibs vs Falkirk
Celtic vs Dundee Utd

Johnny Russell ruled out for a while with a leg fracture.

Totally forgot the draw was today. Dundee Utd the worst we could have got, obv, but lack of Russell is a help.

Hibs >>>>>> Dundee United atm imo

What I've gleaned from twitter: BBC says Jon Daly is to sign for the huns on a bosman, and Romanov, his family and Fedotovas have all resigned from the board of UBIG. STV thinks this means he's relinquished control of hearts, but the Herald think otherwise.

Why? Why would Daly do that?

Oh, he's 30, I thought he was younger than that. Money, then. Will they never learn?

Still, can see his choice of celebratory flag going down well at the sportsdirectbargainbin arena

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/8333/jdtric.jpg

Wouldn't that make him the first ever Republic of Ireland player at Rangers? If anything proves they're a completely new club it's that!

The first since WWII I think? First was in the earliest days of the league, 1903 or thereabouts.

1903 = pre-Republic, I don't think there have been any since ROI was formed, if so they're uncapped.

Alex Stevenson then, 1930s.

A couple from the o.g. Irish team before it split.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rangers_F.C._international_footballers#Ireland

oh wait
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Stevenson

Stevenson is the only footballer to have played for both the FAI XI and Rangers and is one of only three players born in what is now the Republic of Ireland to play for the club. The other two were Alex Craig and James Lowry McAuley (Reuben Evans was another Rangers player from the Republic of Ireland but he did not play for the first team).

xpost, obv

That's a bit misleading as James McAuley and Alex Craig were both pre-1916.

my god all this talk of Rangers signings dredged this up from the farthest recesses of my memory http://youtu.be/oUXhW3JC9Zw

Ah those innocent times when you could laugh at anti-Catholic employment policies.

Can't find any more than Alex Stevenson so I think that makes Daly's signing somewhat significant. I have no idea of Daly's faith, if he has one, but he may well be the first Irish Catholic to play for Rangers.

They can't actually sign him until January, is that right?

Still, bit of a pishy one when you have a £20m warchest to win the second division. Moonbeams!

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/rangers-chief-executive-charles-green-1497340

They can sign him as a free agent and register him on 2nd September - they'll use a bunch of Bosman's to circumvent the spirit of their transfer ban.

Meanwhile, these cunts:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-21656061

The latest SPL accounts show directors pay and benefits increased by 16.5%, despite a 6% fall in revenues.

Oh aye, that makes sense re Bosman fudging.

"Bosman's"

ugh sorry

Right, so what's the craic with Vlad? He definitely away?

No one really seems to know - he's resigned from the board of UBIG (who own hearts) but is still their majority shareholder. (I think?!)

I've never been to Tynecastle. I feel like I may regret not taking the opportunity tomorrow night with the way things are going.

It's actually a decent wee stadium, even if it is filled with Jambos (sorry sktsh!).

lol

I'm sure it'll make a lovely Tesco as well.

Good win for Hearts tonight, that's them the 18 points ahead of Dundee they'll need to avoid relegation once they go into administration.

STUPID BLIND CUNT OF AN ASSISTANT REFEREE

That was worse than the lampard vs Germany. ffs

He should be sacked for that. Embarrassing stuff.

Didn't see the game, but just seen a clip of the "goal". Fucking hell.

Some bookies paying out on Griffiths first goalscorer as a result o_O

Yeah, I was out too. That's a horrendous decision.

"goal" of the season too. Still cant believe it wasn't given.

Same useless prick that chalked off two goals for Saints a couple of weeks ago?

Sir Alex Ferguson has pledged to help out cash-strapped Dunfermline by fielding a full-strength Manchester United team for a proposed friendly at East End Park in the summer.

That's if they last that long.

I suppose it's not like he's a multimillionaire former player who could help dig them out with actual cash.

I was reading earlier that if Hearts can struggle up to the top six before going into administration, then they'll stay top six even with the points deduction and can't be relegated. That seems a bit o_O (though maybe how Hibs never got to beat them with a perfectly good goal </paranoid>)

Nice gesture by Raith to offer the Pars an extra share of the gate money on Saturday. Turnbull Hutton seems to be on a mission to be The Nicest And Most Reasonable Man In Scottish Football.

Anyone got a thought on the SFL Colt Teams proposal?

The more I think about it, the less I understand why we can't just have the amalgamated league body and fairer distribution of money but leave it 12/10/10/10 but with playoffs between 11th in SPL and 2/3/4 in SFL1.

I don't understand why a 3rd division team get to have a colt team in the league set-up.

I mean, I do understand why, but it's a kick in the baws for the youth development plans of every other club in the country, surely?

Yup. I don't agree with the proposal at all. Would the colt teams be restricted to only playing in the bottom tier, or second bottom tier, or whatever? Is that not a kick in the balls for other teams in the ceiling division, who may win promotion but only from 3rd place, being denied a title, however inconsequential it may be to fans of bigger clubs?

I am not in favour of play-offs to avoid relegation, they should be for promotion only.

The idea is that they don't get promoted out of the bottom tier, I believe.

Ok, still a bit of a shitter for teams who may like to have a bit of silverware for getting promoted from 3rd to 2nd.

No, I picked it up wrong, Longmuir explains it all:

"The colt team would be unable to be promoted to a division above if that colt teams 'parent' team were participating in that division, nor could they participate in any cup competition where the 'parent' club were participating."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21763900

So Sevcolts don't get to win the Ramsdens Cup then :)

Load of pish - dunno how this Longmuir cunt still has a job.

If the The Rangers first team can't beat Annan what exactly will their reserves do halt the decline in quality of Scottish league football?

do to halt

No-one thinks this is a good idea except Longmuir, aye? I mean, seriously, it's so fucking stupid on every level. What are the logistics? What happens if The Rangers get relegated to the 3rd, do Sevcolts get papped out, or could they pass each other on the way? They'll just drive more traffic into Celtic Park and the SportsDirectArena and away from the other clubs, aye? And presumably Coltic and Sevcolts could have their pick of the youngsters across Scotland, thus fecking the development (and subsequent market value) of all the other clubs' weans.

They'll just drive more traffic into Celtic Park and the SportsDirectArena and away from the other clubs, aye? And presumably Coltic and Sevcolts could have their pick of the youngsters across Scotland, thus fecking the development (and subsequent market value) of all the other clubs' weans.

and therefore more money for celtic and rangers. So i assume those clubs aren't against colt teams?

On another note its time games from parkhead and ibrox were shown on tv. Why should other clubs take a hit on gates and those 2 be protected.

I dipped into the Rangers site to see if Traynor was advocating colt teams but can't find anything. Did discover this though:

http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/opinion/item/3085-remember-sporting-integrity?

blogs clattered out by individuals who are no better than semi-literate.

This club, the biggest one in the country, were not invited...
We are then entitled to conclude that this club are not important

I know there's wiggle room with the "Blur: is/are shite" thing, but not when you're explicitly referring to the club in the singular. This are wrong to my semi-literate eyes.

Traynor's blogs are brilliant though - it's like he's finally been released to say what he wanted to all these years but had to conceal under a (very) thin (ok almost imperceptible) veneer of impartiality.