Gribz

But the option is there....as it currently stands games get called off in the winter and end up being played midweek in freezing Jan and Feb which results in a loss of attendance straight away. 10 team or 16 team league, 1 thing I think every agrees with is the season needs to start a lot earlier.

Yip, the money would have been better used by keeping Novo for 2 years rather than signing Beattie.

Yeah that was my first thought too, most clubs have come out against it and now its a big thumbs up. Calscot is probably right, give 14 a chance. Its slightly more attractive than 12 but doesnt remove the amount of games you can play against the bigger teams. The 10 team set up is far too reliant on the OF and Skys money and will do nothing to improve the product on offer - and i thought they standard is 1 thing they wanted to improve. We have to look at playing the game in better conditions and take a continental view for the set up. There is no point letting some bloke Doncaster come in ask the fans a survey then going completely against the majority with his own ideas which puts us back 20 years. If he thinks just because Aberdeen and Dundee Utd were successful in the 80s with a 10 team set up (this was quoted) and that they will be good again then he is from another planet. As much as the spilt is laughable with teams gaining home games and others losing a home match plus 7th place finishing with more points then 6th but not moving above them in the table, I agree with Calscot that it is more attractive to have a fixture card of Celtic, Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen and Utd coming up and that the bottom teams do go into a good battle for mid table but it wasnt thought through properly to make it fair and even. The whole situation is a mess and needs someone with common sense with fans views also to come in and make a decision rather than the money men who are thinking short term and rubbing their hands at a higher wage packet only for a 5 year plan to fall flat in its face and the leagues to be in a worse state while they move on out of the game.

Reading that I can see the arguments for a 10 team league a bit better but its all short term aims and too reliant on Rangers and Celtic and Sky's money. Its all for more income in the short term. The issue of summer football or play offs etc is all irrelvant and a different argument altogether as you can still have a 18 or 10 team league with play off structure any time of the year. They havent looked at a 16 team league with summer football - that would earn clubs more straight away as more fans would go to matches. All they have said is its a "non starter".

Who is this spud Doncaster? Why cant they at least try at 16-18 team league and if it doesnt work they go back to 10 or 12. Nonsense.

Robbie Keanes move to Birmingham fell through as he was being greedy with wages, as if he needs money with the amount of signing on fees he's got. Sunderland should sell Bent and use the money for Keane.

Its too true, nobody could turn away from a man like Mols, its one of those things you had to see. Awesome man and awesome player. I was at the Motherwell game where he bagged all 4 goals - still my best memory of him. I remember Advocaat saying Amato can leave as Mols was coming and I was wondering who Mols was and hoped Amato stayed as i thought Id never see such a skillful player as Amato but Mols was better. What a team we had in 1999! Seeing that line up before the PSV is unbelievable and if Mols didnt get injured against Munich I firmly believe we would have went a lot further in the comp that year. He was the final piece of the jigsaw.

Villa the new Middlesboro? McGregor could easily walk into a top 5 BPL team though.

Alright Jimbo....how you doing sir? Still cant believe you werent willing to give me a lift up to Aberdeen so I could attend that party in edinburgh with you's all those years back Eightball should be back on here soon, I was out with him for few beers about a month ago while he was over here during his year of travelling, but he has just got back to NI in the last week or so....I'll drop him a line to get back on.

Once again its showing up to be a really interesting league and any from 8 can go automatically up at the moment. i watched Norwich v Cardiff last night rather than any of the Premier League games that were on and enjoyed it. Fair play to Norwich and Leeds who only came up last summer and are doing well. Lambert looks like he is following in the brand of top scottish managers. Forest had a slow start but would be joint top if they win their games in hand. Team P PTS 1 QPR 26 49 2 Swansea 27 46 3 Cardiff 26 44 4 Norwich 26 44 5 Leeds 27 44 6 Watford 25 42 7 Reading 26 40 8 Nott'm Forest 24 40

Whanks. Ur right Dado...Hibs are fuckin awful. Worst hibs team in last 7-8 years...normally they would give Celtic a game but they dont look like getting a shot on against Celtics worst in 15 years.

That would be brilliant if true. Get rid of the dummy. I thought MON was tailor made for Liverpool and thought he was a banker to go there. Alan Curbishley was on TV last week saying he spoke to MON in Dec and that he was ready to step back into a job in January....so if this is true it could have been on the go for a while. Cant see MON getting on well with the owners as they interfere but woudl be good to see him get a crack at it. Stay up this season and top 8 next.

Celtic have been jammy in a load of away games. Hibs were a decent team last season but have struggled lately and havent won since November. I fancy Hibs to end that barron run today in the early kick off. They are probably a better footballing side than Hamilton etc so Im having a ten quid flutter on Hibs at 7/1.

Crikey I thought he would be signing up to finish his career. In that case I can well understand Miller looking at other options. If he signs a 1 year deal with us he may struggle to get something else next year.

Glad to hear he will be involved.

Good signing regardless of the length. If anything it is 1 monkey off the back for the management and he can be in the plans for next season. Papac has been in the consistant gang this season along with Weir, McGregor, Naismith and Miller. He showed he has quality in the Man Utd away match where I thought he was fantastic. Not sure if there is a policy for over 30s as Novo was only offered a 1 year deal but wanted 2 yet if Miller signs it would be a 2-3 year deal.

Agreed that the figures cant be compared but the fact that money was made available at open will says something. The other side of the coin without the money figure is to look at the quality of player we were capable of bringing in - now that does say something. What would Terry Butcher at his prime be worth today? So it shows that we could attract top notch players and now we are chasing Goodwillie from Dundee Utd - says it all really! But that also shows how much scottish football has went back, when we were signing Terry Butcher Dundee Utd had a terrific team and players like Sturrock, Hegarty etc were easily a higher standard than what Utd have now.

Pretty gutting to read that. Souness signs Englands captain and No.2 keeper.....thats like us signing Ferdinand and Foster? today (although McGregor is better than Foster). WS signed Goram who was easily a top 5 internation keeper in the 90s, 2 top Scottish internationals who would walk into both Rangers and Scotland teams today along with a Russian great. Advocaat brought in 2 dutch stars, a french world cup winning keeper, a premiership legend, a couple of neat goalscorers, one of Scotlands best defenders and...well erm Prodan. Imagine getting the equivalent and Johnny Woodgate today!

Yip agreed. I have no problem with Miller looking at other options and TBH he has went about his business quietly and hasnt commented to make broken promises. I suppose 1 delay could be he and the family are out in Italy looking around the place to see if its for them or not.

My preference would be to keep Miller on a new deal - perhaps with some of the cash from the cup game - rather than bring in Goodwillie. Miller out Goodwillie in does not improve the squad IMO.

And i suppose that creates the catch 22 situation where a) we should sell those with 12-18 month contracts, but b) if we sell them we dont have funds (or not allowed funds) to replace them.

Be interesting to know who's position would most fans rather be in at the moment.....Celtics on 46pts or us on 41 with 3 games in hand. At this stage of the season id go for the 41 with games in hand as id be confident enough about us winning them, however 2 of our games in hand are tricky with 1 being against Inverness at Ibrox who are our current bogey team and Dundee Utd away. If it was only 1 or 2 games in hand with a closer margin I might opt for the points on the board but considering 2 wins from that 3 would put us top is enough for me to be happy with the standings at the moment. Obviously there is a fixture pile up coming for us and our squad is thin so winning these games isnt a given.

Also some players do well at one club and not so good at others. Make that a level thing or just not being suited a certain league or being played out of position. I dont know why some get too defensive of Adam, he was terrible for Rangers and is doing well for Blackpool - fair play to him. But others are like Libor Sionko. He was a decent winger before PLG signed him then gash for us bar 1 or 2 games but then i remembered seeing play well elsewhere after he left Ibrox

Yip thats the one thing that bugged me about Adam (and its the same with Whittaker at the moment) he always tried to do 1 thing too much. Adam is probably given a different role for Blackpool under Holloway and probably gets more time on the ball in a league that prefers the ball on the deck hence he looks a bit better down south. Rbr - I see what your saying about some being criticised a lot but it comes down to a) some have much more expectations from our team and b) we have been spolit with class players from the time we watched Rangers until as recent as Prso.

For some reason I knew we were going to get celtic. Whats the date for the next round??