I like Scott Brown and Leigh Griffiths’ reactions to our recent adversity. It says a lot about them. They both personalise responsibility for what happens next, this is an important part of recovery – and success.
A week ago I wrote that the League Cup semi against Ross County was the biggest game in the rest of our season, and that it wasn’t a game I’d bet on. It provided the toxicity cup football can generate, creating a crisis mentality which rolled into Aberdeen on Wednesday.
This psychological phenomenon has to end now. Feel free to put a date in June in the diary to get back to it. We are in a genuine league title contest, something you and I talked about as a great thing for Scottish football not so long ago. We have no God given right to be miles ahead of anyone. We are here because we’ve made mistakes and an opponent stepped up. Welcome to Celtic.
If you want to open an inquest when the patient catches a cold, knock yourself out, but I’m not up for it. If we want this title, we circle the wagons and give the manager and players the encouragement they need to get the job done (and, erm, that includes you, ‘Phyllis’). You can be sure Aberdeen fans will do nothing less.
Tomorrow the focus switches to Perth, where Aberdeen take on St Johnstone. They won their first 8 league games this season, but the wheels came off the tractor immediately after their most important victory away from home – at Tynecastle. Next up was a League Cup game against Hibs, the loss of which plunged them into a five-week chasm.
They are a team who get notoriously nervous just when they begin to think they are in with a chance. We’ll see what Tommy Wright does with them tomorrow.
Enjoy your football. Enjoy this league race, the challenge and the disappointments. Enjoy that thrill when a goal goes against Aberdeen, or the downer when they score. It will make the finale all the more rewarding, I promise you.
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TBJ
Good to hear re Fr Morton….our mass the day was speaking about Mary’s Meals our parish’s chosen charity for the P7s making their confirmation we are having a backpack collection, wee Miss GFTB turns and says “dad is Mary’s Meals the same as Cqn’s Mary’s Meals” a wee sense of pride both of the good work for the charity, but love the fact the wee yin takes it all in
Beat bhoy
Excellent. … are they vhs or beta max; )
A wee read before the game….
Scottish Football Jurisprudence
by sitonfence
” Seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The only thing that really seems to have changed is that what a lot of people suspected for a long time now seems to be pretty squarely evident. Tell me which of these would have raised eyebrows if you’d said them 10-15 years ago…..
SFA – Incompetent and manipulative. Act in the best interests of Rangers to the detriment of other clubs. Self-serving quango who milk the game for all its worth while the real stakeholders are unable to hold them to account.
Rangers – Will do anything to maintain an edge in Scottish football. Chairman who has a flair for weaving fantastical tales of fairytale futures that have little basis in reality. Deep suspicions that said chairman knows full well that the real wealth behind the man is not what it seems. Significant problems with corporate governance and more specifically ‘integrity’ around the Board table. People that lent them money to fund the dreams are wielding real influence in the decisions being made.
Rangers fans – willing to believe in fairy tales of permanent supremacy and glory to come to the exclusion of reality. Anyone that doesn’t believe the story is a hater and deserving of contempt (and threats/violence/online abuse etc). Anyone that tries to tell them otherwise toes a fine line between also being a hater or just someone that is mistaken (normally depending on their surname).
Media – do what they are told by Rangers and anyone that steps out of line is told in no uncertain terms that their snout is out of the trough. Will not print anything that might in any way affect advertising or readership figures to the detriment of reporting the truth.
Celtic – Run with one eye on the bank and doing just enough to keep them at the top of the tree to the exasperation of their fans. Have a board that know how to run a business but little love between the fans and them as their decision making treats the club exactly like a business with little love for the fare dished up on the park.
The only thing that really seems to have changed is that in the digital age – more information and evidence is out there where the people can see it. More people are willing to challenge on it. No lessons have been learned though. This time we’re all just watching the car crash in slow motion replay with more camera’s showing more angles. Even in banking safeguards and monitors were put in place when the previous model was found to be deeply flawed. Nobody that can change things is listening or if they are they clearly think they are above reckoning (Broadfoot/King/Whyte all seem confident and SDM was never brought to book). All that’s really left to do is watch it all happen. Those Bears who fight the ‘haters’ the strongest are going to see the team they love crash and burn again dragging Scottish football through the furnace with them again. A Scottish football that – for the most part – has taken tough decisions to cut its cloth correctly and seen some measure of green shoots.
How many times does a phoenix rise from the ashes? Maybe Regan and Doncaster were right about Armageddon if you read that as ‘well we aren’t going to change – so do what we say or watch it happen again’. Keep up the good work JJ. Maybe the third time around people will listen.”
Unlike the SFA, I don’t question the loyalties of those who contribute to this site. I do my utmost to encourage debate. I keep the Rangers ‘haters’ at bay and filter out CFC triumphalists. If I express an opinion that is unpopular, I live with it. If I express an opinion that is inaccurate, I edit the article or delete it. Should I write something that puts the site at risk, you will note the device of asking questions. With a few exceptions, this site is open to a broad church of opinions.
The preface to this article raises a number of interesting points on the Glasgow Duopoly. As I write Aberdeen prevailed in a seven goal thriller against St. Johnstone to join CFC at the top of The Scottish Premiership. Neil Simpson’s ‘tackle’ on one of the finest midfield players I have ever seen play at Ibrox, Ian Durrant, was an assault. Mr Simpson should have been arrested for this assault. Despite this I would be delighted if Aberdeen won the title this year. No-one can doubt that they currently are the best team in Scotland.
The SFA are not fit for purpose. They sat on their hands as David Murray/Dave King/Paul Murray and others engaged in illegal systemic tax avoidance. They allowed contractual side letters. They were aware of the City of London Police raid at Ibrox in 2007 and what was uncovered. They chose not to act and allowed what Graham Spiers described as ‘cheating’ to continue unchecked. If this were The English FA, there would be pressure from Westminster for all of them to resign. To compound matters they allowed a career criminal, and an individual damned by his collusion in illegal systemic tax avoidance, to be chairman and vice chairman of Rangers. They even have the audacity to suggest that the law of the land has not caught up with ‘Football Jurisprudence.’
The SFA run a crooked game where clubs are not allowed to challenge their authority in a court of law as they are fully aware of how risible their so-called governance is when it’s exposed to legal scrutiny. Mr O’Neil QC, counsel for the SFA, might well have said: “It’s fitba M’lud, where Rangers play Celtic and we make money from selling their games to broadcasters and sponsors. When Rangers went bust we had to promote the phoenix club. We transferred the licence to Sevco Scotland and in time the supporters of other clubs will pipe down and accept that they are the same club, and tip their hats to their 54 title supremacy. Charles Green bought the goodwill and that’s good enough for us. Scottish fitba is all about the chase M’lud. When we are promoting Scottish Football to a global audience we must also promote our world record holding Rangers Football Club. Without Rangers, Scottish fitba is a local backwater with no global reach or prestige.”
The preface contributor’s point about the current Rangers board is apposite. As for the fans, the dissenters have all been bought off with blazers, naming rights and cyber pints. Those who routed Ibrox at the postponed Hearts game a year ago are now venerated at Auchenhowie and invited to sup from The Loving Cup. Everyone is currently having a go at Green and Whyte, but if the ‘prepack’ had worked we would still be in the SPL and the real criminals, King and SDM, would have been in our past. However SDM who pocketed a £6.3m EBT and charged Rangers £500,000 per annum to illegally administer Paul Baxendale Walker’s tax dodge with side letters, exacerbated the conflict with HMRC by lying to them in regard to the illegal administration of The Discounted Option Scheme. David Murray’s arrogance led to the demise of Rangers. He had everyone in his pocket. He had the power of veto in the press. James Traynor ran his copy by SDM prior to publication. He built Murray park on Lottery and Sports Council grants and soft loans from the Bank of Scotland. Some of these loans did not incur interest payments until 35 years after being approved. Should a £50m equity issue fail he would underwrite it at Murray International Holdings PLC. As a knight of the realm he moved in the highest of circles. He was untouchable and to this day remains out of reach.
As for CFC they stopped investing in the club when Rangers went bust. With no threat from Govan, they offset their UEFA impotence by selling their best players. At one time they had Forster in Goal, Van Dijk in central defence and red card king Wanyama in midfield. All three now play for Southampton. In their place they have Gordon, Ambrose/Boyata and Biton. They are poor substitutes. Everyone could see how poor they were in two UEFA tournaments this season but now their paucity is being exposed in the domestic game. They threw the babies out with the bathwater.
I don’t anticipate the ruling junta’s sandcastle being swept away any time soon. Career criminal King has always been adept at money laundering and what better way to do so than invest in a football club? There is no better country in the world to engage in this as the SFA will look the other way. If forced to react, Scottish Football Jurisprudence will apply where any alleged money laundering is deemed to be the ‘imperfect transfer of money.’
I would definitely sign John McGinn he has a lot of what we dont at the present
Efe at right back? That’s fine, he’s played there for Nigeria in the World Cup. The boy can defend. Let’s get behind the team!
TBJ
What’s VHS?
Gerry
We had the heady from the local high school talking about all the charity work they get their pupils to do including Marys meals
Father Paul introduced him as looking like one of the Mitchell brothers. The heady asked was it the good looking one or the baldy aggressive one . He then said father Paul had said he looked as if he had put on a bit of weight since father was away . The heady said it was comfort eating as he had missed our parish preist so much .
Mon the Efe
£2000 of tequila ? even the Eagles & The late lamented GLenn Frey never managed that in a night :)
Sunrise csc
2-2
Goal, Hibs …..yyeeeessss
What a save but Hibs stick in the rebound. 2-2
Well done the hibees.
Edin huns capitulate.
Hanlon booked for scoring
DESSYBHOY on 7TH FEBRUARY 2016 2:18 PM
I would definitely sign John McGinn he has a lot of what we dont at the present
__________________________________________________________________
Desire mate,I do wish the lhad would lift his head when
he runs with the ball though.
Great entertainment from Swinecastle, well done Hibs. Stubbs has given them something they always missed.
FOGHORN LEGHORN on 7TH FEBRUARY 2016 1:31 PM
67HEAVEN .. CHALLENGING THE LIE ..I AM WEE OSCAR…… IPOX BELONGS TO THE CREDITORS on 7TH FEBRUARY 2016 1:18 PM
FOGHORN LEGHORN on 7TH FEBRUARY 2016 1:06 PM
How are you doing on the richter ?
————-
A touchy subject
One of the neighbours complained about the noise I was making after i came in from the pub last week, so i suspect i must be high up on that!!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You’re high on SOMETHING…..HAHAHAHAHAHAHA ….JUST LIKE HIBS
MURDOCHAULDANDHAY
A helluva lot of £2.09 Gunness too,mate. I might struggle to do that in one night too-even wi all the lads in tow!
That wee prick Tanner cannot hide his hatred for anything green….” You would think they had won it”. Total fanny…
Couldn’t see a Hibs fightback,big Stubbsy doing
a real job there.
Hibs players show what it takes to come back from two goals down, in a big game, character !
We used to have that !
No matter what team RD picked there would be rage.
Henderson kept Hibs going
Well done Hibs, even after 25 years away from home my intense dislike of Hearts has never dissipated:))
JMCCORMICK
How does he expect them to celebrate?
Tanner defies logic-a fanny and a prick at the same time.
Cracking Embra Derby cup tie ! The Roseburn Bar will hear some sparkling wit and repartee this evening and again after the replay !
Scottish Fitbaw needs a strong Embra derby
Some players getting a rest and comeback in better form.
Hopefully back to winning ways and no injuries.
bournesouprecipe
Range rage, let’s be careful out there:))
what’s this 5 grand that is being talked about
Haha spellcheck
Radge rage..
QUONNO
SUN running a story that four Celts left a London restaurant without paying a £5k bill.
At Broomfield, looking forward to the game.
However, there doesn’t look if there will be much of a crowd,
Disappointing.
The hertz blog on lock down,maybe Paul67
should do the same when thing’s don’t go
to plan.
Big Stubbsy does like a last minute goal, right enough!
Laughed before the corner was taken as Thomson warned Liam about blocking the Hearts ‘keeper!
A stickler for the rules, depending on who’s breaking them.
TTT…..their all keeping dry in the pub!!!!!
Nye Bevans
New article
Liam Henderson had a stormer.
Once Stokes gets up to match fitness, he, Cummngs and Henderson will cause a bit of damage.
Before the game, my heart was hoping for a Hibs’s win.
After the first half, my head settled for Hibs being unencumbered by extra Scottish Cup games.
At full time, my heart was delighted fo Hibs, but, my head was also delighted for them.
Funny ol’ game.