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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Graffiti on the wall, thanks for that post.
Bourne posted a picture last year of a guy with red hand tatoo which had six fingers in it.
They ur ra peepul, kno
C’mon Andy Bhoy.
Dallas Dallas where the heck is Dallas
18:17 on 10 July, 2015
Graffiti on the wall, thanks for that post.
Bourne posted a picture last year of a guy with red hand tatoo which had six fingers in it.
They ur ra peepul, kno
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Deeper than you can imagine m8.
Nephilim, that worried me seeing that.
Worshipping Fallen Angels.
Jam, anyone?!
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/jam-tomorrow/
wtf by roger.
best ever Tennis shot?
C’mon Andy.
hamiltontim
18:04 on 10 July, 2015
Gave up our tickets for tonight because the Boss accepted an invitation for dinner with our PP before realising Celtic were playing.
Before Wednesday’s game I’d like to see Ronny start with what he considers his strongest current 11 at the moment.
Gaun the Cellic!
——
Button it part-timer.
You have no mandate for choosing the team. ‘Were you at the match, caller?’
I assume the presence of the PP means that Bishop Brennan did appear on your skirting board!!!!
;-)
HH jamesgang
WP Roger, unlucky Andrew.
bobby murdoch’s curled-up winklepickers ….. jamesgang ….. HH
YES YES YES
THE FED EXPRESS!!!!!!!!!!!
Right Delaneys.
I’m in the Caledonia Bar on on Greenock Rd.
Occasional stickies. Nae Tims I can see. I left the BV and good chips for this!!!!
Hurry up you!
HH jamesgang
Roger is starting to sweat in his interview.
I love that.
SueBarker.csc
petec
as good a display of serving as I have ever seen from Federer,
Murray played a brilliant game today,just came up against a better man
jamesgang
you didn’t half pick a classy establishment to go for a beer
Nadir, Ronny is gonnae make you sweat.
All good in the hood.
gordybhoy64,
Cannae wait to actually drink with you Great Celt.
Roger was rockin’
Majestic from Roger
The best of all time
gordybhoy64
Bl00dy Delaneys!
I’m the only one here with 10 fingers!!
Some have 9. Some 11. One has 7 and a half!
HH jamesgang
Great game of tennis. However if they made the court larger and had 2 nets one at each end instead of just one in the middle I think it would improve the game. Also make the ball bigger and give each player ten assistants and do away with that bat thingy it could catch on
jamesgang
18:32 on 10 July, 2015
gordybhoy64
Bl00dy Delaneys!
I’m the only one here with 10 fingers!!
Some have 9. Some 11. One has 7 and a half!
HH jamesgang
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If this post was on a Sevco page, i would be asking if thumbs had been included! :))))
jamesgang,
I would check when you leave that you still have ten,
they would steal the milk from your tea and come back for the sugar
Wits put up a Donkeeee, if anyone wants a nibble.
We are Blessed to have All that contribute to this Blog.
Corker 7:50 Indian Rupee
Patrick27
18:32 on 10 July, 2015
Majestic from Roger
The best of all time
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Certainly @ Wimbledon.
Don’t ever forget though.
Remember
jamesgang…
Keep your hands in your pockets, it’ll be a giveaway by the sounds of it…DD will keep his in his pocket anyway ;))
petec,
aye looking forward to a swally and a few games of pool,
roll on the new season starting
Petec
Gambling is evil
gordybhoy64,
I hope ye urnae as good as the DD @ Pool, scratch that, I hope ye are.
Amazing seeing quality. This site is riddled with Quality.
The big 7 Million fraud in the 6 Counties has nothing to do with the Robinsons or the DUP.
Peter said so, so that’s that. Move along Timmy, nothing to see here.
CORKCELT
What is that about,not heard of it?
Cork celt
Was there talk that Robinsons were involved
Fraud is an equal opportunities employer
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 15s16 seconds ago
Celtic team to play @RealSociedad: Gordon; Lustig, Boyata, Mulgrew, Izaguirre; Brown, Bitton; Armstrong, Johansen, Mackay-Steven; Griffiths
What is the Stars
18:41 on 10 July, 2015
Petec
Gambling is evil
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m a terrible Sinner, shocking beyond Belief.
Sunday Monday….
Happy Days
Strong Celtic team with Mulgrew in for VvD who is suspended for Wednesday night.
Looks like the starting line up v Stjarnan to me
Evening all
Sad to get in just as Murray loses- one wonders now if he will ever ascend the heights he did 2 years ago.
As for the Rog all I can think is that dear departed mum will be smiling as she looks down. 14 years ago he beat Sampras and she said he was going to be the best ever. In my experience the most glorious player to watch ever he might not just be the best male tennis player of the Open Era but Ali excepted the greatest sportsman of my lifetime. Even if Novak beats him on Sunday.
Jimbo67
istanbulcelt
I think they’re sitting on their thumbs bud!
gordybhoy64
I know! I grew up here!!
HH jamesgang
Bobby murdoch
Irish govt formed a body called NAMA ( national assets management agency) to take over distressed loans from failed building developers and speculators when the crash occurred. They then tried to recoup the money by selling off the assets. As the market recovered and property increased in value they actually did make profit on many of these loans. However there have been allegations of back handers kick backs and insider dealing. This latest one involved a northern ireland development and it seems the loan book was sold for a lot less than was available in the open market. Then 15 million turns up in an Isle of Man account. Curiouser and curiouser said Alice
Loooooostig!!!!
HH jamesgang