buster.

Scottish football is the sporting equivalent to a low budget Groundhog Day. Same Shit Different Season. - League reconstruction - Summer football - Old Firm to England - Fans behaviour - European Failure for clubs - Scotland fail to qualify - How can we impove - Go back to the top of list

In familiar territory.

So ludicrous I thought it was a spoof at first.

I wonder if SDI might look to have the judge changed with all this personal stuff appearing? Would be nice if they try and were unsuccessful. Have no idea of how courts work in this regard.

Judge criticises Sports Direct in Rangers legal case Tuesday 19 January 2016 14.49 GMT Sports Direct, the embattled sportswear chain, has “abused” the legal system, according to the high court judge presiding over the retailer’s bitter legal battle with Rangers football club. Mr Justice Peter Smith took the surprising step of registering his disapproval of the company’s approach after Sports Direct withdrew its claim for damages in the case –in which the companypreviously failed to have the football club’s chairman, Dave King, jailed over allegations he violated a gagging order. King has been accused of breaching a confidentiality agreement between the football club and the FTSE 100 group after giving an interview to Sky Sports in July, in which he revealed the existence and contents of meetings related to contracts Rangers has with Sports Direct. Sports Direct’s 55% owner, Mike Ashley, had claimed in his witness statement that the damage to the retailer of the alleged breach and others ran into “tens of millions of pounds”. The company then claimed £200,000 in damages, before reducing the claim to £50,000, and then withdrawing the claim on Monday. It is now asking for injunctions on the disclosure of its commercial deals with Rangers. After being told by Sports Direct lawyers that the company was no longer seeking damages, Smith said: “The whole way that the claimants have been conducting themselves [in relation to the damages] … shows that they have been abusing processes of the court.” Smith also struck out sections of Ashley’s witness statement that dealt with the alleged damages, which he said were not supported by a “statement of truth”. William McCormick QC, for Rangers, told the judge: “They [sports Direct] simply will not deal with us on a proper basis. I am sure it is not the lawyers. It must be because they are held by their instructions.” The latest chastisement of Sports Direct comes after the company was widely rounded on by politicians, business people and unions following a Guardian investigation in December. The reports revealed how the retailer was effectively paying thousands of temporary warehouse workers below the national minimum wage. The coverage led to an urgent question in parliament, calls for an investigation by HM Revenue & Customs, and criticism from the Institute of Directors, which branded Sports Direct a “scar on British business”. On New Year’s Eve, Sports Direct pledged £10m for a pay rise for staff from the start of this year. Ashley has also promised to lead a review of all Sports Direct’s temporary staff terms and conditions. In December, when Sports Direct failed to have King jailed, Smith queried whether Ashley was interested in having a “sensible” business relationship with the Rangers chairman “or grinding him into the dust”. The judge added: “Maybe he is interested. I don’t know.” The retailer’s claim over whether King breached the confidentiality agreement will be heard in February. Sports Direct did not comment. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/19/judge-criticises-sports-direct-in-rangers-legal-case

A general momentum has built up that seems to have no shortage or letting-up of fuel being added. The bottomline is that it is his own decisions, actions, business practices, corporate goverance etc. taken together paint a horribly negative picture of a rich billionaire. This at a time when so many people are becoming aware of and suffering that stems from the efforts of some of this bracket to get richer, often taking advantage of loaded dice, wanting more still and not caring for the 'rules' or properly being held responsible if caught breaking them. Mr MASH needs to be made an example of and the people need to see it.

By 'exposingtherhats' The man has built himself up from nothing. Ruthlessness, graft and perhaps a bit of ingenuity has led to him building a near monopoly in his industry and billionaire status. Of course any ruthless businessman makes enemies, the at times flamboyant lifestyle, liking for casinos and disdain for the dull city types hasn’t helped. There are concerns the maverick risk taking style of doing business could lead to corporate governance failures but this guy is a serious operator, genuine billionaire and realistically is simply too big to fail. The two paragraphs above could easily have been written to describe the late Robert Maxwell in 1988, by 1991 he was floating face down in waters off the coast of the canaries leaving behind a pillaged pension fund and the largest corporate black hole in UK corporate history. Now I’m by no means suggesting the same fate will befall General Big Mike, I also absolutely haven’t chuckled at the thought of such a re-enactment resembling a scene from Free Willy. However there are parallels and they become more striking by the day. Full blog at https://exposingtherhats.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/big-mike-too-big-to-fail/

Mr MASH may be concerned about potential fall-out coming from the ongoing criminal proceedings. With this in mind he may or may not have been looking to impact the clubs cashflow and go after King the individual so as to affect any efforts at bringing him to account, both legally and financially. He may or may not now be considering a different approach which has been mooted from various places. ie. 'retreat'

Yes, Ashely would still be impacting our cashflow but the 'intangible price' he is paying regards this action leaves him with an important net 'loss' thus far. Not forgetting that the trial is still to come.

Anyone hear the thumping sound of a large bastard stumbling backwards as he takes 'shots' from various directions?

It should be kept away from predictable and incompetent vote seeking populists. They should be concerned with getting rid of unnecessary legislation (2010), which was rushed, is badly flawed and discriminatory. The 'I'm Offended Bus' is pathetic and based on subjective and selective judgements.....whether it be in a so-called 'MODERN SOCIETY' or not. People might want to take a closer look at how the 'modern society' is developing and ask themselves in what general direction are we going.

The more obvious issue for me is the amount of players who play their best football as a contract is coming to an end. I'd hope that there is a positive momentum at Ibrox with good habits being adopted all round that pushes and encourages players to give their best consistently. I also think that the current footballing operation is something we haven't seen before and looking back is of limited value regards predicting the future.

Coming soon 'Canned' football atmosphere with advertising slogans being chanted? United... 'I'm Offended'... Kingdom

Getting the MacKay contract sorted out is for me more important than signing O'Halloran.

Both MacKay and Oduwa have ability. MacKay is also brave, determined, senses his time has come and wants to make sure he does everything to grab this opportunity. Oduwa over the piece wasn't so committed and as players on loan sometimes do, seemed to lose interest and it's best for both him and us that he moves on.

Predictions for the next PMGB blog. 'Bluenose Judge Peter Smith wanted the club to concentrate on the transfer window and get some players in'

Our financial clout in the transfer market is and will be for some time WAY BEHIND that of Celtic. So regards winning the title......."excuses" or "reallity" is that looking at it from a numbers POV, we won't be winning the title next season. At the moment it'd be best to forget about Celtic and winning the title because they are unreasonable expectations and will only put uneeded pressure onto a football operation that is trying to develop and needs time. That is also hampered by financial constraints that in turn stem from extraordinary circumstances. Obviously the club won't be allowed to forget expectation levels, even if unreasonable. The club has to manage this situation but after our fantastic start to the season, DK started to talk too much and only fueled unreasonable expectation and put extra pressure on the football management. MW&Co need time to develop the football operation and get better value for every pound spent than we ever have done in the past. If we want to become both successful and viable it's the only type of philosophy that is going to work for a prolonged period. Given the stage we are at we need to embed this philosophy and when MW eventually leaves then the infrastructure is in place. An obvious danger to this is unreasonable expectation levels / timescale. We have to accept that the days of throwing money at problems and if it doesn't fix it then throw more money at it are gone. That aside we can all argue the toss about individual players. An important aspect to the football operation is a good success rate with signings and thus far it has been good. We now have McParland on board and we'll see how things go.

There are obvious financial constraints that we have to work within, nor forgetting that we are in the second tier of Scottish football. Give the football operation (especially the link between chief scout, first team mgmt and further coaching) a chance to show that it can find value, the right type of player who 'fits' and can improve them.

From FF 'Talking about TD having said to Brentford he wants to come to Rangers' Originally Posted by scottyboy_1 "he's already done that, as I said talks are ongoing and I'm confident we will get him! 3 bids wer made and the 3rd met the "original valuation" Middlesbrough made ano approach and the brentford valuation went up! diagouraga's advisors weren't happy made feelings known, he was left out the squad for the weekend and we are still at the table haggling" Edit / further update from same poster "just passing on Info from the person behind the article stating we got our man!! Friday lunchtime he was due to travel north, Friday late afternoon brentford wanted 800k upfront and another 200k add ons! but the board have backed warburton and if he wants o'halloran and diagouraga (which I'm led to believe he does) then I think the board will get this over the line, the fact we are happy to leave crooks and windass till the summer alludes to this also! I believe these 2 lads are priority" Poster has track record for inside info

Would it be verging on paranoia to consider the timing of this bid might have been in part influenced from outwith 802 Works Ltd. (ie. by MrMASH) ? Note I don't know for how long this hearing had been pending.

Wasn't too difficult really.

That is not what I was doing. I was trying to get an answer out of you for my own curiosity. Failures Grammar + Comprehension = 'One of those days' ?? Green + Charles = 'One of those regimes' ....

I don't think he really needs to tbh as there is a 'par for the course' feel about it.

Was Scottish Cup November.

It wasn't meant to be offensive. It is simply a straightforward question in plain language. Do you fail to understand the reason for or disagree with the rationale of posting the Leckie article? edit I'm not usually one to pick people up on their grammer as I make plenty of mistakes myself but did so above because I wanted to avoid doubt as to what was behind my question.