I was disappointed for St Johnstone at their exit from the Europa League last night but not for Scottish football, or our coefficient points. Saints are a provincial club in a very rural part of Scotland. You only have to travel through the hills to Perth to realise that pocket of Scotland, with its tractors, knitwear and wellie boot shops, has no God given right to beat a team from any municipality anywhere.
They have done very well for the last couple of seasons, from a tiny catchment area, but managed to reach Europe by pipping Dundee United, who ironically were good enough to have key players poached midseason.
St Johnstone don’t have potential superstars, they are also the oldest team in the league, which gets you through a long campaign but they are never going to sparkle. Or earn Scottish football a hatful of coefficient points.
Dundee United were decimated by the loss of those two players midseason, and were done no favours with the shadow of uncertainty which enveloped backroom and boardroom for months, but they, Aberdeen and Celtic are the only Scottish clubs capable of getting their act together to the extent required to reach European group stages. For everyone else, Europe is strictly a July pursuit, so don’t stress about it, and Tommy Wright is well within his rights to talk up his own club.
If Scottish football wants to get all introspective about last night, we should concern ourselves with concentrating resources on clubs who are independently financially viable: Dundee United, Aberdeen, Hearts, Celtic, Hibs and maybe Dundee. If more of our sponsorship and TV money went to Aberdeen and United and less to the thirty-or-so hangers on, they would be better placed to consolidate their development work and compete in Europe.
Celtic are five days away from their opening competitive game of the season, so I would think tonight’s friendly against Davie Moyes’ Real Sociedad will be the last strenuous exercise the players go through after what will have been a taxing first few weeks of preseason. After this workout it should all be about recovery before the visit of Stjarnan on Wednesday. The usual caveats apply to Nadir Ciftci, if he looks like he couldn’t run upstairs, he’s about where I’d expect him to be right now.
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Cosy Corner Bhoy
12:05 on 11 July, 2015
It is not BMCUWP’s birthday until 2350 tonight. Was I sweating that night:):)
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my Da wisnae as fortunate , my young bros birthday is the 12th , we get together on the 11th :))))))))))))))))
JAMESGANG. 1206
Nice wee sting in the tail of that post,ya oul’ cleverclogs!
I share the same ambition,btw…
Ohhhhh and reports Elbows getting the killie player/manager gig later today or when they all get back fae the walk,
Made for each other
BHOYLO83
Best to your Dad too,mate.
papajoe55
12:51 on
11 July, 2015
Squire Danaher
Thanks , that was an amazing tale of brave men from a different era real heroes.
Tontine Tim
Re St Kessog
There is reference to St Kessog in Comrie in Perthshire about 10 miles from where I live.
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
so yer a Crieff man eh… which hostelry to you sup in??
BMCUW you are in good company as it,s Ma Wee Maws 89th today hope you have a Good one.
Doc, we are heading for The Falcon Bar St Ninians for a Family lunch for 17, Eileen will be in attendance.
Cowiebhoy don’t you be gate crashen.
Awerabest PJ.
Bobbio
I thought since it was a dig at us you and I you’d let me away with it!
No Hoopy returns from me till 11.50 tonight. If you kept yer auld da waiting and worried so I’ll do the same to you!
;-)
HH jamesgang
BMCUW…. hoopy bithday … assume yev given up counting them!!
JAMESGANG
He was only sweating from pulling me out!
birthday, even.
DD- Mighty Mouse? Funny how you can see things/people differently.
I made the mistake of complaining about playing rugby instead of fitba.
MM started practice with me being tackled, hard at hip height by the whole class. They loved it :-)
Not wanting to show my hurt I shrugged ma shoulders saying is that it?
That was mistake number 2!
MM then proceeded to show the class how to do it properly.
I think you can still see the dent in the turf doon at Scotstoun!! :-))))
PAPAJOHN
Spoil her dreadfully,mate. 89 is worth a wee bit of spoiling. And yer Mum always is.
HH
DESERTBHOY
I prefer to think of myself as a slightly backward 25.
Hoppy birthday to BMCUW!!!
The unseen Swindon Fenian :)
Inside The SPFL @AgentScotland
Bolton have enquired about Anthony Stokes, put off by the £1.5m valuation – if no-one matches it expect him to go on loan near Deadline Day
Bmcw, your bang on, you’ll never miss a Mother’s Love, you know the rest.
Awerabest PJ
see you dyslexics!!
JOHANN MURDOCH
Yer not looking hard enough. Check under the table in any local hostelry,you’ll find me eventually.
And,of course,thank you very much!
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
Happy birthday.
Have a great day/night wherever you end up -)))
Stokes has 2 year left on his contract. 1.5 million about right.
BMCUWP…
Happy birthday boaby, have a grand day on the Guinness. HH
Just back from my da’s, he gave me my birthday card today although it’s not until during the week, bless him :)
Sips
Technically tomorrow is during the next week. Anything you want to share?
;-)HH jamesgang
Inside The SPFL @AgentScotland 18m18 minutes ago
Bolton have enquired about Anthony Stokes, put off by the £1.5m valuation – if no-one matches it expect him to go on loan near Deadline Day
BMCUW,
Many hoopy returns
Papa john
Whit time you there, I just passed it :-)
Spoil yer Auld Maw
Very very Hoooopy birthday to her
Enjoy the day ( not sure if it’s any good in there, used to be Cowielhady called Janice who done the meals, which were good, not sure if she still does, as I think she is now running the bar in the Cowie Welfare?)
Hail Hail
Oh and Boaby
A very very Hoooopy Day to you as well
I know you try not to celebrate these days now :-))))
Hail Hail
Ht some of the game was like watching paint dry…
Hold on wait a minute…:)
jamesgang…
HaHa, luckily my ma held on for four days, my granda Joe would have went ballistic as my uncle Charlie’s birthday is tomorrow :(
Desert Bhoy
So I ma !
Cowiebhoy thank you for your kind words, we were there late last year and all was well, good grub, so hope it will be on par as then.
Awerabest PJ
johann murdoch
13:32 on
11 July, 2015
Desert Bhoy
So I ma !
……………………………..
you a backward 25 yo an aw??
Sips
;-)
HH jamesgang
Anthony Stokes seems to have fallen out of the picture recently. Does he simply not fit into the Ronny style? Looks like time for him to move on.
I’m sure he could find a club in England, he scores goals and that’s always in demand. If big Darryl Murphy can become one of the top championship strikers, he’s got to fancy his chances
Phil MacGiollaBhain retweeted
Inside The SPFL @AgentScotland 32m32 minutes ago
Bolton have enquired about Anthony Stokes, put off by the £1.5m valuation – if no-one matches it expect him to go on loan near Deadline Day
BMCUWP
All the best pal
http://youtu.be/uANs-Cn7uCw
HH;))
BMCUW
Happy birthday mate
KTF
Lennon’s passion
7/2 ladbrookes terrible odds
BT… school trip finished again??
The FFin’ Artless Dodger’s tactical genius:
“For the avoidance of doubt – Kings ‘statement of intent’
It seems as though quite a lot of posters have issue with the lack of investment in the team so far – taken from the fact that King promised to invest a few million if required.
One thing you have to remember is this………..
King & the other good guys still do not own 100% of [Sevco].
If they go throwing in millions upon millions, then the club grows in value and by virtue so the value of shares goes up.
Now for example, remember that Ashley still owns around 10% of the shares – so if King ploughed in $30m then the value of Ashleys shares would go up, so when King et al offered to buy him out, they would have to pay more.
Yes, thats right, pay more to a greedy b****** that has already had more than his moneys worth out of the club.
In laymans terms, it is the equivalent of you renting a house and then spending $40k renovating it, then a year later offering to buy it from the landlord. You would have got it for say $100k last year, but now the new improved house is worth $140k – so in effect you would have been paying twice. Im sure we would all agree this would be madness.
So be patient, remember the big picture and that we are all here for the long game – Rome was not built in a day as they say!”
——
“should keep that up here for everybody to have a read”
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“Wise words”
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“Excellent, sensible comments”
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“Thanks for explaining that to simpletons like me.”
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“We all know King has our best interests at heart”
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“I think the biggest problem has been the right players not available yet. I dont expect us to spend a fortune but possibly a couple of million if the right players become available…. Perhaps that has been held up with trying to relist on a stock exchange….bears have to keep posting the obvious against an onslaught of negativity – an indication of how much our club is hated and it’s revival feared by so many.”
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“All makes good sense to me”