buster.

It now looks very probable that the League season will remain incompleted and I still believe that no matter what we do, Celtic will ultimately declared as winners. The campaign to undermine that potential and probable outcome should have publicly started way before Alastair Johnson talked about 8 and a half and not IMO initially by a board member of the club. If the present and ongoing battle can bring real change to the SPFL power structure then good, it will have been worth it. Otherwise, I´m struggling to see what we´ll get out of it. That said, the whistleblower evidence, if revealed, might or might not change the whole scenario.

A month of lockdown has pushed me back to the messageboards ? but what the F is going on in the world of Scottish fitbaw ? I´d followed the headlines without looking at the detail until Saturday when the howitzer was fired ! What is our endgame wrt what we want out of this ? and what are the chances of achieving it or at least enough of it so as to make it all worth it ? I note the SPFL now pushing a mediatic defence of their position ahead of their next move, which won´t be to open an independent investigation. Teflon Doncaster, ShiftyMcGinty and the overweight lawyer will probably look to take the initiative and fudge a solution that clubs will be happier with and carry on regardless. If more or less so (including no investigation), ...what do we do (including the whistleblower evidence) ?

A lot depends on the actual situation that confronts the board, some of which only they and a few others will be privvy to. Especially now, as the short term probably becomes the bigger priority. Ordinarily, you´d be putting forward a more holistic strategy and try to stick with it.

Newcastle Brown, Rioja or Low Flyer ?

I´d just add that a counter argument could be made about what playing clever might look like. The impression I get is for the confrontational aspect of the PR remit, the club or whoever was in charge have on the whole very much studied what the social media vibe is and reacted accordingly. Basically putting out what they think the support want to hear but without any type of joined up strategy that might bring medium to long term benefit. For example, post SC Final 2016 where you get the general reaction from our messageboards as ¨great statement¨, ¨howitzer¨, ¨boom¨......but there is no follow-up, no strategy attached and it ends up giving detractors ammo to use against us. That to me, isn´t clever but it might be judged to be practical in the short term if you think that attendance levels-revenue may drop at a time when the same board were putting their hand in their own pockets to cover shortfalls. edit ps. new keyboard and I haven´t got used to where apostrohe or quite a few things are yet!

Not really, it´s more about playing clever. Generally, that´s not something we´ve been doing.

On the face of it, yes... but I don´t think this logic applies here. It´s more about perceptions within the environment we are looking to effect. Both directly who we need to deal with and how they use it...and indirectly to the interested onlookers. Generally speaking, PR/Spin is very often only loosely and selectively associated with facts / logic. As I´ve already posted on this thread, I think the current situation that nearly all are going to suffer badly from could become a gamechanger in just about everything and PR would be the least of our worries. For boardrooms, it´s now about looking at things from a different perspective and trying to act to mitigate damage / push for or take new opportunities. Wrt to this topic...eg. the dispute with the BBC: Go and have a sit down looking to and for some compromise...New era, set examples. It´s a time to be less confrontational and just get it done.

It´s almost inevitable and now more about devaluing what would be a gifted title so as it doesn´t become accepted as 9IAR. Important to lay the groundwork quickly. 2019/20... The Title that Never Was !

Might get a case of San Pellegrino on the cheap !!

Is that what your Ex said...

In the event of an incompleted season, it looks as if they will be handed the title. If this course of action is connected to ensuring payouts from sponsers etc. then it´s probable. The issue switches to does this gifted title count as 9IAR ?....and the obvious answer is that it can´t. This is what will have to be strongly pushed at all levels that the club and the support can. The title that never was

People may have their opinions on religion/associated groups as a whole or it may vary between them but regards how it ties into the appointment of David Graham, it´s about loose and general perceptions formed by the watching punters. If it´s only down to the obvious partisan viewpoints then it´s a never ending tit for tat exchange of views. however, the issue is that there is an issue. You´d think that the club must have had a good idea what would come down the road after his appointment but you wonder given that after putting so much effort and resource into the excellent Everyone, Anyone Initiative,...This appointment presented the media a shooty-in chance to belittle the good work. The understandable reaction from some that points towards detractors/media and says we´ll get lambasted regardless of what we do so f*** them only keeps us in a place where our enemy wants us to be, one where it´s shooty-in for them to isolate us, further weaken us.... But it could be argued that this has quickly become relatively unimportant as football clubs face financial challenges at a time when the whole society does, hence if it got really bad, making it more complicated for widespread financial support from a fanbase . In these strange and potentially game-changing times it becomes much more difficult to see into the future. Many boardrooms will be weighing up circumstances as they contemplate priorities/significant moves and perhaps what is always the most important communication, between the club and fans, will become even moreso. In other words regards this thread, the apointment could actually be brilliant and far-sighted or another myopic OG. Only time will tell....

One thing for DG to get his teeth into is the possibe award of this season´s title to Celtic without having completed the fixture list. The aim being to put the asterisk in as bold and large a print possible print alongside it and push a general acceptance that morally it doesn´t count as a ninth consectutive title #buyingtime

Not much fun if you end up running out of ammo.... I think the bigger picture for the board is really about the football team winning the title to stop you know what and to that end, financially putting most and as many chips on Blue for 20/21. As it stands, Celtic, more or less have us where they want us both on and off field. We´re probably further behind off field than on, so the only way to really turn things round in a significant way is to win the league and use it as a base to begin another chapter of sorts. There is a high degree of risk to it but It is now what it is.

Hardly remarkable given context. Be better keeping that word for potential upcoming events that may merit it. My guess is that Hearts have went out on a financial limb in an effort to stay up and C19 potentially threatens to push them off the cliff. In that scenario, probably better to act swiftly. Already planned for/ further Fan financial contribution efforts as per their Foundation will be equally beset with potential C19 issues.

Good to see you still around Scott Day 5 of lockdown in Spain means you´ll have to put up with me ! It´ll probably be the second week before it drives me into The Lounge where I´d guess Coronavirus has already morphed into Corona = Communism for the resident XXXXx Just out of curiosity, question for @barca72 Re. Orange Order statement that I referred to several times that offered olive branch suggestions (re. marches in Glasgow). Do you know if David Graham hd anything to do with it ? I ask because I thought it to be an excellent proposal ...although it didn´t receive enough coverage/traction.

At board level, I think unsurprisingly the biggest current issue is finance. On the face of it, I´d agree regards the appointment being made in an effort to foster seige mentality with ST renewals in mind. Five years ago was the time to start building at least some bridges but when Paul Murray talked of this it was loudly dismissed by a largely angry support. Ever since we´ve been going one way into a lonely corner with a political situation that has put the tin lid on it. I agree with pretty much all you say about David Graham. I hope he´s a miracle worker at what he´s been hired to do, he´ll need to be very good just to PR himself into a position where he starts actually working for the club. Good luck to him. For years now, my impression has been that a lot of the attitude you see in social media from our support is taking us to a place where our enemy are happy to see us to go. The board have to a degree, been riding on this wave. In the short to medium term it´s helped with finance and if we win the League title next season then, no problem....war footing but happy....the potentially BIG problem is if we don´t.

New Signing

SG&Co Very fitting that pic, the success is very much about the coaching/mgmt. team as a whole.

You have to remember that gabbing the baws of other blokes is viewed as normal at Parkhead.

'Cream' is somewhat subjective but my idea of it is exceptional youth players. If we look at the last 30 years, I'd point to three Barry Ferguson (B), John Fleck and Billy Gilmour. What bigger clubs are doing now is just hoovering up 16 year old talented footballers at cream and cream minus levels. Further down the food chain, we look to hoover up at a lower level BUT as you say it's down to the acquiring club to improve them. Now if we are becoming more professional then good BUT as I said before,...then comes the pressures of consistently winning on managers who are expected to provide a pathway.

Over decades, our hit-rate has been rank awful at improving players of all ages. Generally, our record on injuries has been rank awful as well. I go back to the marked improvement in levels of professionalism that SG&Co brought with them. What went before 2015 was various states of poor to awful that at times was masked by chucking money at problems, ...which in turn eventually came home to bite.

My impression from afar is that we currently have a football operation (including youth development) that has a level of professionalism higher than Rangers have ever had previously. That's currently a big positive and begs questions of the past wrt making the most of what we had. Touch wood, but for an example of a major positive, I look at our injury list over the time SG&Co have been at the club, it's not about luck. Given the pressure to win or win at Rangers, the fabled pathway is a very difficult engineering project, even if the youth development structure is sound. As I previously mentioned, If you lose the projected cream then it gets more difficult. If today's system and financial hierarchy was in place when Barry Ferguson got to his 16th birthday, would he have ever played for us ? Youth Development at Ibrox has been a good news story for a while (the Sinclair departure seems to have been a positive)...but will it produce players for us or are we caught up in a place where the cream go to more resourced clubs and the rest end-up at smaller clubs, where occasionally we end up buying them back ? The only way I see a major change is if we were semi-forced down the road of playing more youngsters because of financial reasons.

A pathway will appear if the youngsters are good enough and the management team of the day are prepared to go down that route....BUT if we consistently lose our best youngsters, the chance of such a route becoming a regular feature is remote. We are putting a lot of effort and investment into our youth development but we need to see a return. If not, we may as well spend the money on poaching other teams youngsters.

Thank´s elfideldo !! With Leon King looking likely to follow the Billy Gilmour route, the problem seems to be the ability level that stands out, does so to other more resourced clubs in more attractive leagues...and therefore we don´t get the cream of our own crop to tread a pathway into the first team.