I’m pretty sure Players’ Player of the Year rules oblige nominees to come from more than one club, allowing players the opportunity to vote for at least one opponent, instead of a team-mate. That being the case, we will probably see a token Aberdeen player on the list alongside the Celtic nominees.
This award, voted by the professionals, has been dominated by Celtic players for a lot longer than the league title itself. Di Canio, McNamara, Larsson (twice), Viduka, Sutton, Hartson, Maloney, Namakura, McGeady, Brown, Izaguirre, Mulgrew, Commons, Johansen and Griffiths make an incredible 16 Celtic winners in the last 20 years.
The current holder missed the chance of defending his title after an early season injury kept him out of the team, then the irrepressible form of Moussa Dembele made Leigh’s chances of a sustained run unlikely.
Moussa, alongside Kieran Tierney, are likely to be nominated for both Player and Young Player of the Year. Stuart Armstrong’s late season form may see him nominated, while Tom Rogic’s early season form deserves a shout, but all electorates have notoriously short memories, so Stuart stands a better chance than Tom.
Scott Sinclair has been the transformational element in Scottish football this season. His speed of thought and control are exceptional. He was the player who Celtic battered defences into submission early in the season as Celtic picked up from some nervy European qualification performances, and transformed into a well-oiled machine.
Scott’s performances in his debut season in Scottish football reminds me of a former PotY winner’s debut season. Both arrived as support forwards in their mid 20s. They share the same speed of thought. This instant the ball arrives(d) in their vicinity, the next phase is already underway.
I remember commenting during the season that stopped the 10 that Henrik Larsson was “precious” to Celtic. It was clear he was having a huge impact on the team, but Jackie McNamara and Craig Burley outshone him for many as they picked up the Players’ and Writers’ trophies respectively that season. Henrik’s true talent was still unfolding.
Scott Sinclair’s impact this season has been no less precious. For me he is the stand out Player of the Year. Oh, and the nomination from Aberdeen, I suppose it has to be Ryan Christie, who steadied a stuttering Dons team and helped secure what will surely be second place.
Join prodigious Celtic writer, Paul John Dykes, at the launch of Tom Campbell’s new book, Bobby Evans, Celtic’s forgotten hero, at the Admiral Bar, this Thursday, 6 April, at 7pm. You get register and find all details here.
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Blantyretim. Tried your old email for contact. Got it back not known. Can you get in touch please?
I had read that YPOTY was only open to Scots? So MD & PR wouldn’t be eligible. KT for me but MD would be a strong competitor which might split the vote?
By the way, what happened to all the Hun red and black scarves?
Árd Macha
Big Jimmy
Beatbot?? I’m definitely changing this moniker!
I took the “cut and run” in your post as a reference to another Independence referendum, and I was pointing out the poor economic case made last time by the SNP, and its failure to proffer any progressive policies in place of the ones they complain about which emanate from Westminster.
That economic case has, if anything, become even weaker, given the collapse in the oil price since, and the £15billion black hole in funding for public services.
If you come on and talk politics, why would you take any posts that argue with you as being somehow undemocratic?
If there’s any people suffering from a democratic deficit it’s the 2 million people who voted ‘”No” in 2014, that old ‘sacred will of the Scottish people’ ( wipes away tear) which has been so disrespected by the SNP since the vote, but which is suddenly flavour of the month again since the EU vote.
Despite the ‘once in a generation” promises made to scare people who were understandably unconvinced by the White Paper that they’d never get another chance at Independence.
You’ve had plenty to say about Theresa May, but at least she’s shown an ability to respect the results of referendums, unlike the SNP leader.
As for your personal troubles, I sympathise, and was glad to read recently that in your legal fight, things have taken a course for the better? I can also see how your personal experience might have shaped your voting choice.
But that doesn’t mean I have to agree with it, or not point out what I see as inconsistencies in your argument.
Any condescension you perceived wasn’t intentional, though the sarcasm was!
BIG JIMMY on 4TH APRIL 2017 1:20 PM
The fact that the SNP’s flagship policies of free prescriptions, no tuition fees and a council tax freeze all benefited the middle class and better off at the expense of the poorest doesn’t suggest to me that they will do anything worthwhile with extended powers over benefits.
BIGJIMMY
You’ve clearly been wronged by every support network that a working man has. Employment law should not have seen you fired,a tribunal should have had you back in work,your union need a bliddy kicking.
(Btw,I withdrew from every union,including Unite and its predecessors Amicus and TGWU when they allowed the rump of the EEPTU to join. GMB for me now.)
You’re not alone-far from it-in turning your back on Labour,in Scotland or in rUK. Perfectly entitled to cast your vote as you please.
I ripped up my membership when Blair was made leader. Not once did I vote for him-or against him.
But that Labour Government stopped two decades of decline in public services,and yes they should have done more to roll back punitive labour laws and housing legislation and many other things,but it’s easier to break things than it is to fix them.
I’m struggling to see any way forward for the underprivileged or even the ordinary bloke nowadays,but ask yourself which party has done most in your lifetime to achieve that.
BLANTYRETIM
When I read VFR’s post last night-and his follow-up this morning,you were the second person I thought of. After my kid sis who also faces it every day.
I don’t know how you both cope,frankly.
Big Jimmy….braw post …..
The unionists have had their day …..if you are not already reading wings over Scotland ….I recommend it….as yet never been proved wrong in analysis, and debunks a lot of what the unionist voters and media spout out.
Hope your days get easier,watching Brendan,s bhoys certainly helps..
Smiley Indy thing…
Braw
Ernie….
Without challenging your basic premise can you explain why/how no prescription charge is not so beneficial to the poorest?
HH
I thoroughly recommend a look at JOHNJAMESSITE with a reply from VERITAS at 1253.
Ernie
Firstly, I did not mention Scottish Independence.
Secondly, how could I lie about something I have not mentioned.
Thirdly, stop making stuff up!
And fourth – You are correct that it is around 5%. I did mistakenly highlight the 8,9,10% incorrectly as you stated as I mixed that up with the % of government tax income. So almost 10% of all income recieved in the UK goes to paying debt interest annually.
No any comment on the other info. You know the £1.76 trillion of debt in relation to huge financial hole. A debt that increases year on year.
I hope you are not of the thinking that we are not living in a huge financial hole currently in defense of the union over independence?
Or are you?
MWD
THIRD63
Exemptions.
The comment…Veritas said..
says:
April 4, 2017 at 12:53 pm
Really Excellent JJ
I see RTC has tweeted this morning the details of the 5 players 3 confirmed ( 2 to be confirmed )where Guilt was conceded by Rangers on EBTs
This is on top of the Dos Scheme guilty players Flo De Boer and Moore I believe .
The SC ruling is only about the quantum of cheating ..ie ” is the totally confirmed murderer guilty on 8 or 55 counts of murder?”
The names laid out by RTC this morning will I suspect cover the vast majority of the the titles from 99 onwards ..
A victory for HMRC will be icing on the cake but the SPFL board and the SFA should strip all the titles relating to these 8 players whatever the outcome .
I hope they are just waiting and hoping the SC make the job easier for them
One other important point JJ re the consequences arising from the SC decision .again if HMRC win there should be a truly independent non Scottish enquiry demanded by HMRC and the U.K. Government into the taxation implications on every single player and registration from the minute that Murray arrived at Ibrox back in 1988.
Let’s not forget that an ex Rangers director intimated that these dual payments went way back!!!!
MOONBEAMSWD
7% but your point is still valid. Who pays for it?
How do we stop it?
The UK government has rarely run at a surplus in my lifetime,in fact Roy Jenkins was celebrated for years for simply balancing one. I don’t recall a surplus before-or since-Gordon Brown was Chancellor.
Bar selling off family silver,of course.
Debt grows. The country has maxed out,like so many. Which has consequences.
BMCUW……
Exemptions??????
HH
THIRDS63 on 4TH APRIL 2017 2:15 PM
Ernie….
Without challenging your basic premise can you explain why/how no prescription charge is not so beneficial to the poorest?
##
The poorest were exempt from prescription charges.
The policy was paid for from a fixed budget.
So other aspects of the health budget were cut to fund the free prescriptions.
Progressive? Not to my mind. Populist? Undoubtedly.
Who doesn’t like free stuff?
VFR
Yes Glasgow for last 10 years
MOONBEAMSWD on 4TH APRIL 2017 2:20 PM
As a proportion of GDP the UK’s national debt is, in historical terms, fairly modest.
http://www.economicshelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/uk-debt-100-years-600×446.png
The huns will try and say Wallace was injured, when he was getting a chasing against Canada, to try and claim his wages.
Lee Wallace stomach problems ?
So the truth is out there…Pedro can NOT be associated with a “Tactical Masterstroke ( Daily Rectrum yesterday)”, when keeping Wallace in the dressing room at half time v Motherwell ?
As Mr Royle would have said…” Masterstroke my arse” !
HH
blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on 4th April 2017 2:29 pm
Do you work in the East End (sorry, this is staring to sound like a party game!)?
KTF
ERNIE
£1.76 TRILLION is modest is it?
Yet you are saying what is reputed to be £15 billion as a huge financial hole?
Make your mind up.
But as usual you don’t answer the question put to you unless it is agreeable.
Is £1.76 trillion debt a huge financial hole? A hole that is growing annually as the uk cannot finance it’s debt and reduce it’s deficit at the same time.
If UK was a business it’d be bankrupt. I honestly think David Murray and the BoS are running the country at times.
MWD
Historically terms.
Yes it is modest compared to WW1 WW2 era’s but it is also modest compared to 17th and 18th century stats.
Now an answer from you to a direct question would be good at some point in history and or the future.
MWD
One of the statements from Pedro`s presser today
=========================================================
Rangers FCVerified account @RangersFC 2h2 hours ago
More
PC: I will tell you my first XI. James Tavernier, David Bates, Danny Wilson, Myles Beerman, Jason, Andy, Emerson, Barrie, Waghorn and Joe.
80 replies 359 retweets 437 likes
Reply 80 Retweet 359
Like 437e
=========================================================
So, Pedro, your first eleven? I counted ten. Unless the ref is the eleventh man?
*Historical
MWD
BMCUWP
it has been almost 10 years since the bank were allowed to crash world economies. How long is the current UK government or any future government for that matter going to keep blaming the crash that previous government\s allowed to happen?
The UK is basically bankrupt at this time. and it ain’t going to get any better with Brexit. Any financially huge hole there is now is nothing like what we will see in the next 10 years if Maggie May follows the stupid and the racist continuing down the track of divorce from the EU.
Whether or not I believe we would be better or worse off under independence is neither here or there. I am undecided as I haven’t looked at the economics and figures since the run up to the last indy ref. But I imagine that once Brexit kicks in and all the immigrants are deported that we will see only economic failure on the part of this and future governments.
MWD
VFR
No
CityCentre,Anderston and Finnieston
Blantyretim1@aol.co.uk
Big Jimmy….
Enjoyed reading your post mate, it was from the heart with no hidden agenda.
Like yourself the unite Union have let myself and fellow workers down. They no longer represent the workers but bend over to managements that continue to erode conditions. HH
ERNIE and BEATBHOY,
Sorry for misspelling your moniker earlier BEATBHOY, but I do have disabilities in my hands and fingers ( amongst other areas0, which means that I am not as fast nor as accurate when I try and type.
Neither of you two Bhoys ( with respect) have offered up any viable reasons why I SHOULDN’T vote for the SNP.
As for PM May ” Showing that she respects the will of the people etc” ??????
She is doing the very opposite by totally DISRESPECTING the will of the Scottish people who voted to STAY IN the EU.
Not forgetting two other major points 1) It is now emerging that many of the “Leave EU ” voters were DUPED ! The “LEAVE CAMPAIGNERS” ( Including clowns like Boris and Farage) gained votes by LYING to the Brit public that Britain would remain in the single market !
2) It SHOULD NEVER be forgotten that the Leave/Stay Ref on the EU was wholly instigated by the feckin Tories arguing amongst themselves. PM Cameron was as shocked as anyone that the Leave campaign won !
Cameron ( like with many issues) completely misread the whole situation.
Finally, I won’t be holding my breath either to see IF £350 million ( Which was promised) is put into the NHS after we officially leave the EU….More lies from messrs Farage and Johnson…and others.
Anyone who voted to leave Europe obviously trusts clowns like Farage and Boris…..I wouldn’t send either one of those fuds for a feckin loaf !
HH & KTF
My last word on the matter
SIPSINI 3.23,
Thanks mate.
Sorry to hear that UNITE have messed you about also ?
that general Secretary Len feckin McCluskey is only interested in buying himself a luxury hosue with the members money.
The elections are coming up for General secretary for UNITE in the next couple of weeks and I got a phone call from one of McCluskey’s Aides last week, asking for my “Vote for Len” ?
i told the guy in no uncertain terms, ” Listen mate, I’d sooner vote for Donald feckin Trump than Len McCluskey” !
i think he was rather shocked by my tone ?
HH
BIG JIMMY on 4TH APRIL 2017 3:27 PM
Jimmy, just 2 points: firstly, Scotland didn’t have a separate vote on leaving the EU; neither did wales, Northern Ireland or England. I was a UK wide vote so, IMHO, it’s an irrelevance to state what areas/regions voted which way. How far down do you drill – Yorkshire voted to leave but Lancashire voted to stay; if London (with a larger population than Scotland) voted to remain (I don’t know if they did) should London be allowed to remain? It makes a mockery of the process.
Secondly, I voted to leave Europe but do not trust Farage, Johnstone or many others in the political sphere. I voted based upon economic and political grounds and wasn’t fooled by the arguments on either side; particularly those who argued to remain in the EU (an organisation that should be anathema to independence voters IMHO) and then argue that they want self-determination. A political oxymoron indeed!
KTF
MOONBEAMSWD on 4TH APRIL 2017 2:41 PM
One figure refers to an accumulated debt the other is an annual shortfall.
Surely you are aware of that and understand the difference?
STARRY PLOUGH 3.27
Fingers crossed mate.
Between The feckin Tories, The solicitors that I alone meet, UNITE the so called Trade Union, The Law Society of Scotland who allow crooked solicitors off the hook, and that cheatin makie mob from Govan…and any other corrupt organisations that I have failed to mention……..they are all cut from the same cloth, and I don’t know who is worse ?
Yes I do….those cheatin mankies from down Govan way, !
HH
Ernie
I am aware of the. Yes.
But that is not the full context with regards the current UK financial huge hole now, is it?
Still no answer to a direct question.
Colour me surprised?
MWD
…☘️.☘️.
☘️.
☘️.
☘️.☘️.☘️.
☘️.……….☘️.
☘️……….. ☘️.
☘️………..☘️.
…☘️…☘️.
“Dembele for £500,000 was good value for money”
Charle Nicholas
Good Afternoon!
Here is a little something about John Brown and what he might bring to the coveted Sevco No. 3 job…
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/browned-off/
VFR800 3.36
i respect that you voted for the reasons that you state, however you can not dispute that many leave voters were duped by the likes of Farage etc.
I believe that the vast majority of the English Leave voters did so because of immigration .
In other words, their vote was based on racism, that was stirred up by the likes of farage and many others.
Given the “Leave Bus Slogan”…£350 million every week to put into the NHS, and the continuous claims to that effect throughout the whole campaign, did you seriously believe that ?
IF, and it’s an almighty IF…that happens, may I suggest that soon after the NHS will be saying..” No more money for us just now, as we have more money than we know what to do with…give it to someone else” ?
I don’t think so.
Also I don’t remember much discussion and/or thought given to what happens in Ireland and Gibraltar, after Brexit ?
I also don’t recall much talk from the Leave camp about the Proposed Divorce Settlement of possibly £50 Billion to be given to the EU ?
Whenever I have tried to make sense of Brexit, I have always came back to the one and only conclusion, millions of the English have always hated Europe, and most of the English nation and her Tory politicians still wish to cling to the feeling of “them being better than anyone else”, in other words….” We arra peepil” !
As i said earlier about possible Scottish Independence, the same applies with Brexit….as I am of an age now that I may not be completely affected by it in the long term, whether one or both goes completely tits up, so I calm myself in knowing that probability, unless I live longer than I expect ?
HH