andy steel

The problem is that there is no comparable fanbase for the non-league clubs in Scotland in the way there is for the non-league clubs in England. Even teams like Crawley can count on fans of other London teams turning up when their own side is playing in Newcastle or wherever. Adding new faces might freshen things up but unless these new faces have a sugar daddy - not the most fashionable model to follow - they are not now and will never, ever be in a position to do more than throw a new name into the early rounds of the Scottish Cup. The English version of football is, at present and for the forseeable future, as different to the Scottish game as cricket, and offers no clues as to how to revive the game up here.

I agree completely, when we stick the boot into the SPL we have to remember who it was who were behind the monstrous creation in the first place. Otherwise it just looks like sour grapes. Good to see plenty of scepticism abroad this morning, and even better to see the bullies of SFL1 getting a pasting.

Oh pfft. Gersnet seems to run perfectly well in between my hissy fits and melodramatic exits. Thanks anyway for all the kind words. Love it! That should be the start of the opinion pieces in the papers, but I suppose we'll have the usual flag waving for the SPL from the usual suspects. Their enthusiasm for this crap is genuinely bewildering - I just can't see what the big whoop is. Big Robbie!

http://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/latest-news/141-the-vanity-of-human-wishes Let Observation, with extensive view, Survey mankind, from China to Peru; Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife, And watch the busy scenes of crowded life; Then say how hope and fear, desire and hate O’erspread with snares the clouded maze of fate, Where wavering man, betrayed by venturous pride To tread the dreary paths without a guide, As treacherous phantoms in the mist delude, Shuns fancied ills, or chases airy good. (Johnson: The Vanity of Human Wishes 1-10) Samuel Johnson, apart from being fat, gouty and a dab hand with a quill, was rarely at a loss for a put down of matters Scottish. He'd have loved the infighting of recent years, from the meaningless (football) to the slightly less meaningless (the independence referendum). But even a man as self-regarding as he would surely be a bit taken aback by quite how appropriate his words above are when we consider the 'venturous pride', the 'treacherous phantoms' and the 'fear, desire & hate' on show this weather. As the SPFL struggles through its agonized birthing pains, fans must hope that it becomes a healthier body than either of its predecessors, the SFL or SPL. The omens are not good: were you to study the entrails of a seagull this afternoon, I should think you will find them diseased and disordered. You don't need to be a modern version of Tiresias, the blind seer of Thebes, to see that the mewling, newly hatched SPFL faces a long and difficult struggle to achieve healthy maturity. Maybe we ought not to be negative, as the fantastically out of touch head of the SFA tells us. Maybe this actually will come good and the football will improve, the fans will return, and the game will flourish at domestic and international level. I'm just not sure, at this point, exactly what it is that has changed which will bring this about. Mediocre and under-achieving even by their own modest standards, clubs like Hamilton or Morton are not, surely, in any position to light the touch paper under the much needed revolution in the game. The new deal offers them a chance to continue on the life support machine: it doesn't offer them a means by which they can achieve fiscal comfort and allow them to plan for the future with confidence. Utterly incompetent, the administration of the new league will feature the usual faces spouting the same meaningless garbage in return for more than handsome remuneration packages. This will have to include our former secretary Campbell Ogilvie, which raises the question of whether we're in any position to lecture others. No, we're not. But that, to any sane mind, is no reason for the rest of the game to ape our mistakes of the last two decades with quite so much gusto. Having listened, bored, to many many people berate the Old Firm for their selfishness, their refusal to think of the bigger picture, to allow the minnows a voice, it sticks in the craw to hear Les Gray, for example, berate smaller clubs than his for their selfishness, their refusal to see the big picture, to allow (his) minnow a voice. It's as if, in an especially Scottish fashion, useless chairmen of meaningless clubs have looked around for the worst possible example they can find of self interested carnage being wreaked upon a game and thought "Aye, whit The Rangers did with the SPL looks like a plan!' But then, we got a freakish 1-0 win away to Croatia last week, and our spectacularly crap boss at the SFA tells us the feel good factor is back. So I should stop being negative. It is, though, difficult to get excited about the same teams, in the same leagues, playing the same garbage brand of football, while the same people who shouted loudly about others' self interest parade their own quite so nakedly. I wish it well, I hope we are soon at the pinnacle, such as it is, proclaiming our victory, but given the people involved; given the rationale behind it; given the example (our second worst move ever, helping form the SPL) being followed, I just can't see it. Johnson's title above, 'The Vanity of Human Wishes', has never seemed more appropriate. I foresee the usual crap, but maybe that's just my own vanity wishing enemies ill. Time, as always, will tell, but this time, by the time we find out, no-one may be looking.

Very much so. And you are right, Spence has no idea. Maybe now he will understand how he has been used by others, but I doubt it - the man is a cretin.

There definitely were.

Winner of this year's 'Least Sensitive Reply Possible To Make To A Berliner' prize.

Nice dig at the SFA! This is good scenes, man.

Look on the bright side, Edge - their Unionist songs were hardly picked up with enthusiasm, were they? See this IRA stuff - first I need to say I had a lousy day at Ibrox today, with the game and even more with the people around me - moan moan fucking moan at every bad pass. But what weirds me out is why the 18 years olds near me feel the need to sing about Bobby Sands? I can dig shared heritage as much as the next man, but he died, his side lost, why bother? Most of the people singing wouldn't even have been born when he checked out. Let it go, ffs.

Don't think Ally managed today very well. I cannot see why Black was left on the pitch when his head had clearly gone. Anyone see him 'let' the ball go out so the physio could come on? He didn't mean that! The guy was miles away today with his victim mentality, which, to be fair, is merited. As long as he's there I'll back him but in passing, reading about Edgar Davids going to Barnet or somewhere like that, it did occur that we maybe missed a trick there.

I will do Inverness if you like.

What is really depressing is that the same people who spent the summer screaming relentlessly about us will just let this slide. It's quite hard to believe that two SPL sides could be so stupid as this. Apparently, the thinking is that they can make more money by coming second in the SPL under the current financial distribution rules than they would under a new structure. Like Allan, I am assuming the two clubs who have agreed to do Lawwell's bidding are Dundee Utd and Hibs...neither of whom you would put much money on finishing regularly in second place. Even from a Mr Spock, purely logical position, only one of them can finish second, so defending this set up can be nothing better than a 50-50 gamble. I thought we were run badly, as well. However, we ought to be happy that rank self interest stands brilliant lit as the motive force behind the SPL (as it was for us when we were in it). You can bury 'sporting integrity' under a vast pile of bullshit now!

Dave Jones = arse Fan = arse Goalie = wussy arse Warnock = don't mind him.

I'd probably call them 'Irish'. Is it really in Ireland? That's weird...I know English borrows words from many languages but Irish Gaelic is not usually one of them. edit: as explained above!

There was a band in the 80s or 90s called 'Brother Beyond'. And let's not forget the historical expression, 'beyond the Pale.' I always thought it meant something so bad that it made you even more pale than pale, but I read somewhere it was a place of exile for (I think) Jews in medieval Europe. Belgium, somewhere?

I think most people don't have a clue what has happened. And probably never will. I do know that I've learned nothing from a single post of yours on the subject. Is there any chance you could give it a rest?

From what I've read, these cities already have memorials in place.

No doubt Timothy will be preparing a banner in protest at the visit of Barca, the well known tax avoiding football team from Spain.

3PM. Saturday. Sold out stadium. Work it out, league reconstruction experts.

Best laugh I've had in ages, that. I suppose if they mean, on the grounds that the huns urny in it, I can see their point. If we're talking quality on the pitch...this acceptance of crap and talking it up does nothing to help the game go forward. Anyone calling the shite you see in Scotland week in week out anything other than mediocre is part of the problem, not the solution.

I confess that even now, at 41, if a Rangers player talked to me I would probably burst into tears as well. Pitiful but true.

The problem we have is not lifestyle. It plays a role, certainly, but it is not the main problem we have. The problem we have is coaches who refuse to play passing football. Until that changes, we could have 2,000 super fit, ultra-committed players with the ascetic fitness regimen of Nelson Mandela on Robben Island and it would make no difference.

Excellent piece. Many congrats to the writer. You'll go a long way before you see a better match preview than that!

This is far more like the thing. Well said that man!

True, but they were under no obligation to do so. Especially given our tactics toward them (Whyte's insane no-pay policy)...I can't see Starbucks trying that one out. And if they did, they'd probably get the boot put into them as well.