Politics of the game encroaching on Neil Lennon

847

It is one thing for football fans and administrators to be embroiled in the politics of the game but it’s no wonder that Neil Lennon tires of such subjects.  His team are top of the SPL and in the knockout stages of the Champions League but he is being distracted by references to his club emanating from the lower leagues.  Maybe he should limit his comments on this subject to those of Walter Smith, “We wish the new Rangers Football Club every good fortune.”  Every “new” club deserves the same courtesy.

Can you imagine the reaction if Neil said the same!

Speaking of which, I see the man who has avoided trying to win friends among other clubs since his arrival in the game last year is now trying to influence people on league reconstruction.  Good luck with that.

We spoke over the weekend about well-run clubs in the SPL (Inverness, St Johnstone, Ross County, Motherwell), where managers come and go but results tend to remain buoyant.  Notably absent from this list was Dundee United, who have underachieved for years, but whose manager, Peter Houston, was today given permission to speak to English Championship side, Blackpool.  Houston has been unable to sprinkle magic dust over Tannadice so, if offered the Blackpool job, I expect him to accept.

United need to ask some fundamental questions should they be forced to replace their manager, like why they have vastly more resources than Motherwell, and appear to be able to produce prodigious young talent, but consistently fail to match the Lanarkshire side the in the league table.  They are a club in need of vision.
[calameo code=000390171cc0c3617c8cc lang=en page=72 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]

Click Here for Comments >
Share.

About Author

847 Comments
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. ...
  10. 23

  1. philvisreturns on

    Gordon_J – You old hippy, you.

     

     

    Charles C. Green does not do flouncing. He does investors. (thumbsup)

  2. Paul…. You and I both know exactly what the media are wanting from these questions …

     

    The headlines today bear no relation in context to the answers given .

     

     

    A lets all hate fiery snarling neil Lennon campaign is trying to get off the ground .

     

     

    Next time a hack asks Neil any question regarding servco I hope he answers with no comment ! Ask me a question about my team

  3. Good afternoon CHAMPIONS

     

     

    Paul67

     

     

    Did you read my idea to raffle/auction an official brochure/programme from the 20th anniversary tribute to the Lisbon Lions in the Normandy Hotel on 24th May 1987 to raise funds for Wee Oscar.

     

     

    Weefra HH

  4. Been thinking about the media led greatest fans on the planet the £12m Jelavic bid came from…..

     

    With the attendances at world record levels, when the annual accounts come out (quiet at the back) and they show ticket sales of not very much, this figure divided by the many millions that pass through the turnstiles will give you the price of the average ticket…

     

    Is there anyone running a book ? for charity ?

  5. tomtheleedstim on

    Vmhan – train to Leeds with the bike and cycle to Liverpool with us lot. Easy (ish) peasy.

     

    If you occasionally cycle 35 miles to/from work then you would be our yellow shirt guy.

     

    We did about 22 miles yesterday and that is the most I have ever cycled.

  6. Gold Hill @ Shaftesbury….near where I live. Good wee cafe at the top where you can sit and stare wi’ that tune fae the head earworming yer brain. I was there not so long ago. Come back summer…please. This damp winter is dementing me.

     

    Anyway, Shaftesbury is like Glastonbury, but not as touristy. Same sorta mythic misty landscape, ageing acidheads and assorted well-to-do furtive hippies etc.,.

     

    Now I’m boring myself.

     

    And you.

     

    Probably.

  7. How on earth did Scotland get 2 elite referees and about 10 others onto the European panel?They’re useless!(And I hate exclamation marks!)Gollum? Who looks at their performances?Specsavers?Irish League refs are twice as good and that’s saying something.This means these plums actually think they are of international standard.Jesus wept….

  8. I suspect part of the reason for Chuckles missives is to make shareholders/potential buyers believe things can improve quickly, otherwise the collapse in SP (which admittedly didn’t happen straight away as I though it would), may come to pass. There have been no buys today, and as far as I can recall no buys last Friday either. Only sells.

     

     

    Without broker support the price should fall more rapidly than the drift down we see. At least to the point where their market cap is more realistically below ours, rather than several millions higher.

  9. philvisreturns on

    spikeysauldman – philvis, did tim vine understand you ?

     

     

    He asked me to leaf. (thumbsup)

     

     

    Thindimebhoy – Everybody knows that surely? (thumbsup)

     

     

    Folly Folly – I think I’ll go and eat worms. (thumbsup)

  10. weeminger

     

    14:51 on

     

    14 January, 2013

     

    I suspect part of the reason for Chuckles missives is to make shareholders/potential buyers believe things can improve quickly, otherwise the collapse in SP (which admittedly didn’t happen straight away as I though it would), may come to pass. There have been no buys today, and as far as I can recall no buys last Friday either. Only sells.

     

     

    Without broker support the price should fall more rapidly than the drift down we see. At least to the point where their market cap is more realistically below ours, rather than several millions higher.

     

    ——————————————————————————————————————

     

     

     

    I use spanners in my line of work, I understand spanners. ;-)

  11. philvisreturns on

    At this rate of attention seeking it’s only a matter of time before Charles Green scales Buckingham Palace dressed as Batman. (thumbsup)

  12. I am drawn to the notion of always referring to Charlie Boy as Shuggy after the super slick Hughie ” I mean this most sincerely” Green. With his “sincerity” and ” Opportunity Knox (sic)” approach, the name is perfectly apt.

     

     

    JJ

  13. Bawsman – 15:01 on 14 January, 2013

     

     

    Ha Ha fair enough.

     

     

    Put it this way, Chuck wants the price of his spanners to stay high so he can make a profit when he’s allowed to sell his stock pile. Right now nobody wants to buy Chuck’s spanners and the price is starting to fall. Probably sooner than he wanted.

  14. Summa

     

    I am not going to check but I am sure most of the 93 will have been about Sevco and just the odd (!) one will have been about Rangers. Yes? No?

     

     

    JJ

  15. Time to reunite Celtic and Rangers for the sake of Scottish football

     

    14 Jan 2013 00:01

     

    IF administrative policies forbid Rangers and Celtic from moving South of the border, then they quicker the two clubs are reunited in Scottish leagues, the better for all football supporters.

     

     

     

    I PLAYED for and helped manage Celtic – but I reckon Rangers have been punished enough and it’s time to do whatever we can to reunite the big two for the sake of our game.

     

     

    We need the best teams in the best league and if that’s not going to happen it’s only fair we let the two of them go and play in England if internal politics ever allow it.

     

     

    SFA president Campbell Ogilvie says his governing body would not stand in their way if UEFA’s softening attitude towards cross-border movement continues.

     

     

    And no fan of any other club should raise any objection at the same time.

     

     

    They’re always telling us the SPL would be much more competitive if other clubs thought they had a chance of winning the championship and breaking a Glasgow monopoly that’s gone on for over a quarter of a century.

     

     

    If there was a countrywide vote on the subject the majority would say let Celtic and Rangers go elsewhere.

     

     

    But if that can’t happen for administrative reasons the sooner they get back to playing each other and heightening the competitive atmosphere, the better it will be for all of us.

     

     

    Celtic have no meaningful challenge to them in the SPL as it stands, which can’t go on indefinitely without doing more harm to attendance figures.

     

     

    And Rangers are so far out of sight in the Third Division it’s becoming a joke.

     

     

    But now they’re getting used by other clubs who are making money off them and could soon vote to keep them exactly where they are because it’s better for business.

     

     

    There is no one in the game trying to make Rangers a force again and I can understand why they’re feeling tender about that state of affairs. There are too many people concerned with making money out of Rangers to appreciate they’ve been punished enough.

     

     

    The club have been banished to the Third Division and slapped with a transfer embargo. Enough is enough.

     

     

    What about the general state of the game?

     

     

    I’m not in favour of the 12-12-18 proposals put forward by the game’s custodians, the SFA, SPL and SFL.

     

     

    I don’t like the split in the SPL as it operates now so I’ve no time for two leagues of 12 that become three leagues of eight after 22 games.

     

     

    When fans buy season tickets they should know how many games are played in a championship and who they’ll be against.

     

     

    You can’t come up with an entirely new league system in the middle of a championship, leaving it immediately rendered meaningless. It’s morally indefensible.

     

     

    Significant change is being rushed through and I have to ask: Why?

     

     

    There were unanswered questions about the pyramid system and play-offs when Stewart Regan, Neil Doncaster and David Longmuir met the media at Hampden last Tuesday. How can that be?

     

     

    I accept that unless we improve our product at the highest level, television will start to lose interest in the Scottish game.

     

     

    And if that happens, and there’s a reduction in coverage, then club sponsorships and advertising will start to be seriously affected.

     

     

    The standard of player brought here will drop a couple of notches and others will want out to get a better standard of living down south.

     

     

    If our game’s rulers don’t come up with a system that entices Rangers to stop talking about leaving this country our game will suffer.

     

     

    But if the will of the people is that the big two should cross the border then it doesn’t necessarily mean the death of Scottish football, in spite of what Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said at the weekend.

     

     

    The fans of other clubs are always saying they could handle that situation so they should be given the chance to show they are as good as their word by turning out to support their team.

     

     

    Celtic and Rangers supporters, meanwhile, would turn out to watch their clubs play in any division down south.

     

     

    But they would have to get used to the culture shock of initially being also-rans who don’t win trophies and can’t challenge for titles until they’ve bedded in and acquired a better standard of players.

     

     

    This will be an easier job for Celtic than their rivals because Neil Lennon’s got a much better squad than Ally McCoist at the moment.

     

     

    But both of them would at least have a light that is the English Premier League at the end of the tunnel.

     

     

    And wouldn’t there be clubs there who’d love to play in front of 50,000 people at Ibrox and 60,000 inside Celtic Park every other week.

     

     

    The Old Firm fans would gladly pay even more money for their season tickets if it meant getting a stronger side for a better league and being able to feast on the best the game had to offer.

     

     

    When I was playing for Celtic and Davie Hay was manager he once famously said we should go to England because the club wasn’t getting a fair shake from the game’s authorities.

     

     

    Rangers are in that position now and, unless there’s common sense shown sooner rather than later, it will be fairer to let both of them go

  16. Surely having Chuck & Jabba employed as an alternative to wind farms would be more economic. That pair of gasbags could keep the country powered for centuries with all the wind they talk.

     

     

    HH

  17. I watched Barça annihilate Malaga last night. Their playing was described, amongst many superlatives, as ‘sublime’. So, as far as I know, we are the only team to have beaten them in a meanigful competitive set-up this season.

     

    So, have we transcended ‘sublime’, and become, in the process, ‘ascendant’?

     

    It would be great to think so.

     

    I’m off to watch THAT match agin them once more and revel in our greatness.

     

    NotReallyDelusionsOfGrandeur CSC

     

    p.s.

     

    and have not some of our intrepid supporters booked accommodation in London, believing that there is every chance we will be at Wembley in May?

  18. .

     

     

    Jungle Jim

     

    15:17 on

     

    14 January, 2013

     

    Summa

     

    I am not going to check but I am sure most of the 93 will have been about Sevco and just the odd (!) one will have been about Rangers. Yes? No?

     

     

    JJ

     

     

    ..

     

     

    I Could say it’s the Same thing..

     

     

    But that would result in the Next 500 Posts about Errrm..The Same thing..:-)

     

     

    Summa

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. ...
  10. 23