Football’s better without manipulation

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I’ve no fondness for Stuart McColl but I’m disappointed the wheels have fallen off Motherwell’s bogey this season.  Delivering two consecutive second place finishes in a league populated with mostly better finances teams was exceptional.  Over the last three years they have lost players instead of paying money they couldn’t afford, otherwise they would almost certainly be challenging at the top of the table.

I like Gordon Strachan.  One of the things I like about him is he is almost impossible to get on-message.  Talk about manipulating football in order to get the ‘right’ teams in the top division is ludicrous, Gordon knows this, or he wouldn’t have used a word like “manipulate”.  On a substantive note, I think he’s wrong on this point.

The game changed when Rangers were liquidated, and it changed again when Hearts and Hibs were relegated.  Fewer people buy tickets as there is not genuine competition for the league title, but some things we can do without.

Scottish football survived without the ticket money these clubs brought them, and the country’s streets, pubs and A&E departments have benefited from not having to cope with the sheer hassle we used to put up with.

I’ve enjoyed our four lower tier-only games this season, they were atmospheric and entertaining.  If this was our future, I’d bite your hand off for it before I’d want to go back to the old ways.

Celtic, Motherwell, Aberdeen and the rest are defined on their own merits, and many of us are enjoying our football.

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  1. Lennon n Mc....Mjallby on

    Modren parroting the officially sanctioned truth of Rorsachian symmetry is defo rubbitch.

  2. 67Heaven ... I am Neil Lennon ....The angels are with Wee Oscar in Heaven.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors on

    geordie munro

     

     

    15:46 on 3 November, 2014

     

     

    It was a wee joke, Geordie………Doooooohhhhhh

  3. South Of Tunis on

    Peanut Butter Conspiracy – The Great Conspiracy .

     

     

    A gem of an Lp from 1967.Features a track called Invasion of The Poppy People.

  4. Turkeybhoy

     

     

    For the 3rd time, counting and reading not your strong points I take, I had a wee rant you asked me about it I answered you if that makes you despair well I’m sorry flower I^ll try to be more sensitive in the future…

  5. Davidopoulos

     

     

     

    15:39 on 3 November, 2014

     

     

     

    On the whole furore (add that to hoo-haa, brouhaha and hullabaloo) regarding the Sevco Semi, the situation is very simple…

     

    —————————————————————–

     

    I assume the Sevco Semi is something only Chick Young and Jim White would get?

  6. People are complaining about the SC draw.

     

     

    It’s a bit similar to when Apple brought the Ipod out.

     

     

    They thought the random Shuffle option was a great feature.

     

     

    However, the laws of probability kicked in that in a truly random situation, you could have the same song played, say, 3 out of 10 times.

     

     

    People complained, so they updated the Shuffle so it seemed more random to the user even though it actually wasn’t.

     

     

    It’s a bit like, if you go to NY and you see somebody in a bar that you worked briefly with once.

     

     

    You think ‘What an amazing coincidence’

     

     

    However, a life without any of these strange occurences would be more strange.

  7. NatKnow

     

     

    15:59 on 3 November, 2014

     

     

    Davidopoulos

     

     

    15:39 on 3 November, 2014

     

     

    On the whole furore (add that to hoo-haa, brouhaha and hullabaloo) regarding the Sevco Semi, the situation is very simple…

     

    —————————————————————–

     

    I assume the Sevco Semi is something only Chick Young and Jim White would get?

     

    —————————————————————-

     

     

    No, no, no they are available to all…but may occur for very different reasons…

  8. Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire on

    Never seen the draw, were the home teams all picked by the same man ?

  9. lennon's passion on

    Ffs panicking because we drew Hearts. They maybe beat us but the day I panick because we play them I will chuck it. As Hunskelper said the stadium will be full and bouncing.

     

     

    BUILD A BONFIRE.

  10. Lennon n Mc....Mjallby on

    Hertz are pish and Killie will beat the new club in the Cheap Holiday Gear Arena.

  11. GlassTwoThirdsFull on

    Bgx

     

    I thought the comments were incredible and posted about it earlier. I thought he might have had enough of manipulation after the post-split fixtures in 08-09.

  12. lennon’s passion

     

     

    16:10 on 3 November, 2014

     

     

    Yip, hearts away is my favourite game and has been for a while, everybody up for it great atmosphere HH

  13. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    Fifa saying world cup 2022 maybe moved to winter according to guardian.

  14. Hotsmokedsalmon on

    How many times have Sevco been drawn away from Home in their history? Anyone know?

     

    JJ

  15. Looking for some help please, where is best for breakfast in Belfast City Centre? Needs to be central and open at 8am? Any recommendations?

     

    Thanks in advance.

  16. bournesouprecipe on

    Next thing you know there’ll be ole Celtic fans so stupid they’ll tell you the live televised game in the Scottish Cup, before the old media.

  17. lennon's passion on

    hun skelper

     

     

    16:18 on 3 November, 2014

     

     

    Love going to Tynecastle. McManus last minute winner my favorite. The 7-0 game recently wasn’t bad either.

  18. Jungle Jim Hot Smoked on

    Based on a recommendation by a VIP, I have decided to adopt the above name so as to avoid confusion with the other poster who uses the JungleJim name.

     

    JJ

  19. Glasstwothirds…just seems to me that Strachan is getting way too easy a ride on here as its always”he sticks up for us “..well sorry ..saying things might have to be manipulated to have teams back in the top flight is just not on…and saying sevo were Punished….when were they Punished…

  20. To apply the logic of the article subject, losing 7 of the top 14 clubs at this point is clearly bad for Scottish football and this competition, so we should ‘manipulate’ this and have a re-draw.

     

     

    Not any dafter than manipulating 3 teams from league 2 to league 1.

     

     

    HH

  21. Jungle Jim Hot Smoked on

    I believe Gordon Strachan`s “support” of Celtic has been a bit like Mark Twain`s reported death ie greatly exaggerated.

     

    JJ

  22. Paul67

     

     

    Forgetting about the SC draw which gives us an interesting fixture to surmount, I think the comments by Strachan are totally in line with all those who live in the professional football bubble including the journalists who earn a living through it.

     

     

    In that bubble it’s Ok to go down in the box if touched to make a referee make a decision that favours you. It’s ok to ask a referee to send off a player for a tackle or a possible second offense no matter how trivial either might be.

     

     

    There is a lack of capacity to separate what is acceptable in the heat of play to gain advantage from the same thinking that if applied to the game as a sport will ultimately destroy it. Cheating is the word and it’s become acceptable. The only rule is don’t get caught.

     

     

    As oil is to the oil industry so is stupidity to football.

     

     

    It’s a shame WGS, whom I greatly admired as a player and as a person, has not risen above the cultural mindset that let’s him and others in the game think the game off the field is beyond or above ethics.

     

     

    I mean if cheating is totally acceptable, what exactly is the point of taking the field of play?

  23. GlassTwoThirdsFull on

    BGX 16:27 on 3 November, 2014

     

    Glasstwothirds…just seems to me that Strachan is getting way too easy a ride on here as its always”he sticks up for us “..well sorry ..saying things might have to be manipulated to have teams back in the top flight is just not on…and saying sevo were Punished….when were they Punished…

     

    ————–

     

    I think it was around the same time they came out of administration…..

     

    Just a really strange comment to make. Guess he must read the papers!

  24. F.A.B. Virgil 1903 v 1909 and 1888 v 2012 on

    FC broke but paying the living wage v FC rich but paying the minimum wage

     

     

    Wonder where the moral high ground will beach?

     

     

    HH

  25. Stairheedrammy on

    I echo everything that has already been said on here about the cup draw. Are Sevco allowed an away tie? When are the BBC announcing that they are covering the Sevco game live? FTSFA

  26. Jungle Jim Hot Smoked on

    Do all footballers and ex-footballers live in a bubble? Or is it us, on CQN , who inhabit the soapy sphere?

     

    JJ

  27. “I like Gordon Strachan. One of the things I like about him is he is almost impossible to get on-message. ”

     

     

    Who employs Gordon? Oh right. Sounds as if he is on message.

     

     

    His employers have tried to engineer it from the beginning. Luckily Scottish football fans united and managed to convince their clubs to do the right thing. Maybe wee Gordon should think about why Scots from all over were united against this engineering.

     

     

    Why are people acting like Scottish football is worse off?

  28. F.A.B. Virgil 1903 v 1909 and 1888 v 2012 on

    Auldheid

     

     

    Is an update on Res 12 on the AGM agenda?

     

     

    Cheers

     

     

    HH

  29. Well glad to see i aint alone on the Strachan comments…Sevco were Punished…yeah right….so if i stand in front of a bus and get smashed ..thats me being Punished…no ..its called Consequence….thats what put sevco out of the top league….GS..

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