The Official Scottish Football Thread

[Driver101]

simoid said:

On the football front, it's heartening to see some locally grown, quality Scottish produce coming back to the Premiership. IE Arfield and McGregor. It's easier for fans to find an affinity with these sorts of boys compared to the imports. It's brilliant when quality professionals like Bruno Alves join our league to raise the standard, but I'm not sure that could be said of Pena, Dalcio and Herrera for example. What must the Rangers development squad think when managers bring in a minibus of mediocrity instead of giving them a chance? I hope a few other young Scots can follow McRorie, Cummings, Docherty into the Rangers lineup in the way that the Hearts boys have.

Tierney seems to be making all the right noises about staying in Scotland too*, and he could really become a poster boy for young Scots hoping to make a name for themselves. I did read this morning he says he's not jealous of Andy Robertson's likely Champions League final appearance but SURELY that's the sort of stuff every footballer dreams of? Is he being sincere?

* he wouldn't be the first to say the right things then F off...

Edited by simoid on Thursday 17th May 10:22

Has Bruno Alves lifted the standard of the league? I've not seen him contribute much to leave me impressed. He's been quite poor from what I've seen.

I didn't realise Arfield was only 29. He's not a bad player, but is he any better than Dorrans? I don't really know much about Arfield personally. What is his affinity to Scotland when he chose to play for Canada?

McGregor isn't the same keeper as he was years ago. That will be Rangers with 3 keepers on decent money now too.

It does make me wonder one thing. Where are Rangers getting the money to pay their wages? They are already in financial distress and are paying higher and higher wages.

As for affinity due to being local talent. How many times in the last few years have Rangers fans turned on players and managers who were supposed to be Rangers through and through? The people who didn't leave after liquidation were all supposed to be legends. That didn't last long and they were harassed out of the club. Affinity is with the players who play well. It just helps if they are the local club supporting guy who came good.

I think next year will be Tierney's last season. I can also see quite a few players leaving Celtic this season. There will be a bit of rebuilding to do over the summer. Getting lucky with players of the calibre of Dembele for cheap isn't easy.

[moanthebairns]

Anyway.........livi v partick, can't wait for this tonight. Thoughts.

[Driver101]

Nanook said:

Helicopter123 said:

Not so in this case

"a former Rangers youth player that was sexually abused by a coach at the club"

This was a youth player at the Club, sexually abused by a coach at the club.

Not sure how the club can wash their of this, and yet claim an unbroken history?

Not point scoring, but I think any neutral will struggle with this defence.

Who employed the coach? The club? Or the company? Which name was on the top of his payslips?

It's obviously not good publicity for the club, and the new company that owns it, but the law is fairly clear on this.

Shocking how widespread this sort of thing really was.

Rangers fans were really unhappy when players refused to stay after liquidation.

It was the same club then and the people leaving were all branded all sorts of names for leaving under a technicality. Now the technicality is the other way around they don't see it the same way.

Club/company responsibilities have chopped and changed like the wind since 2012.

[Driver101]

moanthebairns said:

Anyway.........livi v partick, can't wait for this tonight. Thoughts.

Partick will be too strong over two legs.

Since Livingston's repeated financial issues and relegations they've lost most of their fans. I'm surprised they've managed to fund themselves into a position of having the chance of getting back into the top division.

Their crowds are tiny these days.

[technodup]

Helicopter123 said:

This was a youth player at the Club, sexually abused by a coach at the club.

Allegedly.

[simoid]

Driver101 said:

Has Bruno Alves lifted the standard of the league? I've not seen him contribute much to leave me impressed. He's been quite poor from what I've seen.

I didn't realise Arfield was only 29. He's not a bad player, but is he any better than Dorrans? I don't really know much about Arfield personally. What is his affinity to Scotland when he chose to play for Canada?

McGregor isn't the same keeper as he was years ago. That will be Rangers with 3 keepers on decent money now too.

It does make me wonder one thing. Where are Rangers getting the money to pay their wages? They are already in financial distress and are paying higher and higher wages.

As for affinity due to being local talent. How many times in the last few years have Rangers fans turned on players and managers who were supposed to be Rangers through and through? The people who didn't leave after liquidation were all supposed to be legends. That didn't last long and they were harassed out of the club. Affinity is with the players who play well. It just helps if they are the local club supporting guy who came good.

I think next year will be Tierney's last season. I can also see quite a few players leaving Celtic this season. There will be a bit of rebuilding to do over the summer. Getting lucky with players of the calibre of Dembele for cheap isn't easy.

Of course he’s raised the standard of the league. He’s a quality player, present European champion and is off to the World Cup. I don’t think we saw the best of him, but there were some games he was head and shoulders above. Aberdeen at Ibrox springs to mind: his calmness and assuredness of passing were far above what you expect from Premiership centre halves. I would say that Berra at Hearts was probably a better signing and player this season (similar in that it was an experienced head on the wind down).

Arfield played most Burnley games (that team who qualified for Europe) this season before signalling his intention to leave at the end of the season. He’s at a far higher level than Dorrans who was a bit-part player in Norwich Championship team before signing for us. As an aside, Dorrans has been injured for much of this season and I’m not sure if he’s finished or just not quite hit full speed or just suffering from a generally underachieving team. Arfield played for Scotland at every level other than full international. He just didn’t get picked so decided to play for Canada.

McGregor just got Hull’s player of the year award so he must be doing ok. Let’s not mention the last player of the year of an English Championship team who joined Rangers

I disagree with the “affinity is with players who are playing well” and direct evidence for this is Andy Halliday. He is and has been absolutely and shambolically diabolical, so much so he looks entirely out of his depth in any position or role with which he has been lumbered in both divisions. Somehow he is revered by a large section of the support. My guess is it’s because he’s one of our own.

My expectation is that Rangers will not have 3 big earning keepers for much longer. I also expect that the Mexicans will be off the wage bill soon too, with a few Warburton signings to be moved on. I’m not allowing myself to get too excited yet by their replacements, but big reputations are rumoured.

[FN2TypeR]

Nanook said:

Campagnolo said:

JuniorD said:

So the current entity has retained old entity’s history of footballing success but not its history of abuse?

Seems even rangers lawyers believe there is an old club/new club scenario!

No, they understand that the club and the company that owned it are two different things.

You might not agree with how it all panned it, but do people really not understand it after all these years?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q3il9rf6lPE

Sorry, had to.

[Terzo123]

Nanook said:

Campagnolo said:

JuniorD said:

So the current entity has retained old entity’s history of footballing success but not its history of abuse?

Seems even rangers lawyers believe there is an old club/new club scenario!

No, they understand that the club and the company that owned it are two different things.

You might not agree with how it all panned it, but do people really not understand it after all these years?

The new entity are set up as a separate club and company. The old club wasn't.

[simoid]

Terzo123 said:

The new entity are set up as a separate club and company. The old club wasn't.

I don't know what this means.

[JuniorD]

Back to on the pitch matters - if you could select a SPL team of the season, comprising Scottish players only, who would be in it?

I can think of eleven off the top of my head for my attack biased team -

Craig Gordon, Kieran Tierney, Scott Brown, James Forrest, Stuart Armstrong , John McGinn, Callum McGregor, Kris Boyd, Leigh Griffiths, Steven MacLean, Lewis Moult

[Terzo123]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

To protect the "club" from insolvency events, some clubs do as you've said.

Prior to 2012 that's not how Rangers were set up.

Some claim otherwise, but none can provide proof of transfer of ownership of the club. If there was proof it would be very easy to show. But seen as there isn't we get this continuous charade. The press up here is Scotland sit on the fence as they don't want to upset 40% or so of their dwindling readers.

[simoid]

JuniorD said:

Back to on the pitch matters - if you could select a SPL team of the season, comprising Scottish players only, who would be in it?

I can think of eleven off the top of my head for my attack biased team -

Craig Gordon, Kieran Tierney, Scott Brown, James Forrest, Stuart Armstrong , John McGinn, Callum McGregor, Kris Boyd, Leigh Griffiths, Steven MacLean, Lewis Moult

You leaving Kieran Tierney to do all the defending? And you’ve got an Englishman who signed for Preston a year ago in there

I suppose bearing in mind my previous comments, Berra would be in there for centre half. McKenna at Aberdeen doing well too but my view is tainted by only really seeing him getting mullered at Ibrox. He was decent for Scotland against very average Hungary.

I’ll ignore anyone who is almost past it and go for a possible Scotland 2018 World Cup team of:

McGlaughlin
J Naismith, Hendry, McKenna, Tierney
Forrest, McGinn, McCrorie, Cochrane, MacKay-Steven
Griffiths,

[simoid]

By the way - talking of financial prudence: anyone care to take a guess how much the champions burnt on Musonda? I gather the loan fee for 18 months was £5m. It’s possible they’ve spent about £500,000 a game on the dumpling

[FN2TypeR]

Nanook said:

FN2TypeR said:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q3il9rf6lPE

Sorry, had to.

I'm not a Rangers fan, if that's what you're suggesting.

I'm not, but this particular topic of conversation reminded me of that particular sketch

[moanthebairns]

moanthebairns said:

A place to discuss Scottish football after the Huns and the Tims moaning "to go away to your own thread", So from Arbroath to the Warriors, Dundee to Hamilton , everyone is welcome. First up the League Cup Draw...

This has went well

[simoid]

moanthebairns said:

moanthebairns said:

A place to discuss Scottish football after the Huns and the Tims moaning "to go away to your own thread", So from Arbroath to the Warriors, Dundee to Hamilton , everyone is welcome. First up the League Cup Draw...

This has went well

I get the impression that Livingston do have a minimal budget. Scott Pitman for example was playing juniors a year or two ago, for example. Anyone know how their wage bill compares to the rest of the Championship? Much below Dundee Utd presumably.

[Driver101]

simoid said:

By the way - talking of financial prudence: anyone care to take a guess how much the champions burnt on Musonda? I gather the loan fee for 18 months was £5m. It’s possible they’ve spent about £500,000 a game on the dumpling

There is no way in this world Celtic paid £5m to loan a youngster for 18 months. I've read lots of figures, but £5m is the most ambitious by a long, long way.

He did come up with a massive reputation. I'm not sure what went wrong with him?

[simoid]

Driver101 said:

There is no way in this world Celtic paid £5m to loan a youngster for 18 months. I've read lots of figures, but £5m is the most ambitious by a long, long way.

He did come up with a massive reputation. I'm not sure what went wrong with him?

Not sure. Maybe just a bit young/immature? I don’t know that much about him. Transfermarkt says £2.5m loan fee. 18 months of £30k wages and bonuses would take the total cost to £5m or so.

That’s Rangers signed Jamie Murphy now so presumably we’ve ran out of money and that’s the squad finalised for next year.

[DocJock]

I think Murphy will prove to be a good signing.

[simoid]

DocJock said:

I think Murphy will prove to be a good signing.

Hope so. He can float past a man with the ball which is a rare talent, and he was involved in something like 15 goals (score/assist) in his 18 matches if I recall correctly.