Uilleam

Pedro Caixinha is in the stand at Scotstoun watching Glasgow Warriors v Edinburgh. Also there: Murray, P., and Robertson, S. Is he looking for hairy-arsed defenders? Or merely inspiration? (If the latter, then he could have picked a better match.)

This is, apparently, a true story. During the War -the actual War, WW2, that is, Young Team- BBC radio kept morale high among the population by broadcasting live commentaries of football matches, among other things. One day a match in Edinburgh was cancelled, due to fog. However, no mention was made of the prevailing weather conditions as it was thought that news that Edinburgh was fogbound would have been intelligence of use to the Luftwaffe. On the other hand, it was recognised that cancellation of the football coverage would have been likely to tip the wink to Herr Goering. The dilemma was resolved by broadcasting a spoof match, completely improvised by the commentator(s). Makes one proud to be British.

Giovanni Van Bronckhorst is doing well at Feyenoord, and should wrap up the club's first title since 1999, sometime soon. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/may/06/giovanni-van-bronckhorst-feyenoord-18-years-title Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s quiet revolution returns Feyenoord to summit The former Arsenal and Rangers midfielder has taken the Dutch ‘club of the people’ to the verge of their first title since 1999 despite his unassuming nature Feyenoord need one win from their final two Eredivise games to be assured of the Dutch title and ensure their current crop of players can party like it’s 1999 Ed Aarons Saturday 6 May 2017 10.00 BST Just when Feyenoord supporters thought it was safe to crow after 18 years in the wilderness, along came Bertrand Traoré, Kasper Dolberg and co. Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side travel to Excelsior on Sunday knowing victory would secure a first Eredivisie title this century, although Ajax’s 4-1 victory over Lyon in the Europa League semi-final first leg at the Amsterdam ArenA on Wednesday has already threatened to put something of a dampener on the celebrations. “All the emotions are a little bit spread at the moment,” admits Bert Konterman, the former Rangers and Holland defender and a member of the Rotterdam club’s 1999 title-winning side. “Half the country supports Feyenoord and the other half Ajax so some people really don’t know whether to be happy or sad.” With two matches to go, a 10-match home winning streak at their De Kuip stadium has cemented De club van het volk (The club of the people) into pole position in the title race. But while Ajax’s surprising achievements in Europe with a squad with an average age of less than 23 have evoked memories of their mid-90s triumphs under Louis van Gaal, Feyenoord’s success this season has been firmly built on a mixture of youth and experience. Five of Van Bronckhorst’s squad have Premier League experience – the former Liverpool goalkeeper Brad Jones and veteran forward Dirk Kuyt, the ex-Aston Villa midfielder Karim El Ahmadi, plus the wingers Eljero Elia, who was on loan at Southampton last season, and the Watford loanee Steven Berghuis – yet each of them arrived in Rotterdam with a point to prove. The 21 goals and 11 assists provided by the Denmark striker Nicolai Jorgensen have proved invaluable to a side that employs the traditional 4-3-3 Dutch system, with the emphasis firmly on attacking. “In July, the chairman announced that they were hoping to win the title this year, although the goal for the season was to qualify for Europe,” recalls the NRC Handelsblad journalist and Feyenoord supporter, Mark Lievisse Adriaanse. “Everyone was saying: ‘Yeah, sure, winning the title: look at last season. You finished third but lost seven games in a row so there is no chance of winning the title this year.’ So nobody expected this. They have dominated the league by being top of the table since day one and it feels like a wave of suffering is falling off after 18 years of waiting. This will probably be the most beautiful league title the club has ever won because the suffering has been so hard. We were almost bankrupt, lost 10-0 and were not serious competitors for years.” That 10-0 defeat by PSV Eindhoven in October 2010 proved to be a watershed. With the club already mired in €40m of debt, the most humiliating result in the proud history of the 1970 European Cup winners hastened the arrival of Martin van Geel to replace Leo Beenhakker as technical director. One of his first acts was to sack the coach, Mario Been, at the end of the season and replace him with Ronald Koeman, who had been out of work since leaving AZ Alkmaar 18 months earlier. “At the time Feyenoord had a very young side that wasn’t much different to the team that had lost 10-0,” remembers Lievisse Adriaanse. “Players like Stefan de Vrij, Georginio Wijnaldum, Leroy Fer and Bruno Martins Indi had started to come through but Koeman introduced a very professional attitude that meant he would not accept losses or small influences in the club that blocked progress. Hiring him was very important for the process and Van Geel must take a lot of credit for that. But on the other hand he also hired Fred Rutten, who was less successful. When he left in 2015, there was no other candidate for the job than Van Bronkhorst.” Despite spending four years as an assistant to first Koeman and then Rutten, who coincidentally was in charge of PSV for that 10-0 defeat, the former Rangers and Arsenal midfielder was an unexpected choice. But Konterman believes the appointment of the former Holland midfielders Jan Wouters and Jean-Paul van Gastel, club captain in 1999, to his backroom staff was a masterstroke. “Giovanni has surprised me,” says Konterman. “I played with him at Rangers and for Holland but in my eyes he wasn’t a leader. What he is doing now is fantastic and he has done well to organise a strong team around him. The combination of these three, who are very different characters, has been so influential. There has been a lot of pressure on the group, especially over the last few weeks, and it can be difficult to handle that. So the experience of players like Kuyt and El Ahmadi has also been crucial.” In particular, the transformation in the midfielder Tonny Vilhena has caught the eye. Having burst into the first team under Koeman as a teenager, he appeared to be on his way out of the club after refusing to sign a new contract and falling out of favour with Van Bronkhorst. Lucrative moves to Leicester and Milan were on the table but the 22-year-old’s dramatic U-turn ensured he remained at the club he had joined 15 years earlier. “Everyone was surprised he stayed. But the most important thing was that his mother had cancer and he didn’t want to leave her,” says Lievisse Adriaanse. “He knew that if he went overseas then he would not get the chance to see her much. He’s been one of the star players this year. A couple of years ago the criticism was that he was too selfish but all the problems that he’s had seem to have vanished. In the Netherlands we’re used to having teenagers in the team but it’s usual to have a period after they break through when it’s more difficult.” Vilhena’s commitment to the cause was underlined this week when he agreed another contract extension until 2020, with rising stars Terence Kongolo and Emil Hansson following suit as they prepare for next season’s Champions League group stages. A new 63,000-capacity stadium is also in the pipeline. They may yet be followed into the group stages of the Champions League by Ajax should they win the Europa League but Konterman, who now coaches the Twente under-19 side that produced Leicester’s Wilfred Ndidi, is convinced that rivalry will only benefit Dutch football in the long run after recent years in the doldrums. “More young players must be given a chance and then there will be confirmation in what we are doing in training and educating the young players,” he says. “We have been searching for the right way to make changes and have lost our vision. The average age in the Dutch league is much lower than it used to be – in my day it was around 27 or 28. A lot of the boys from 1999 were internationals already and used to the big games. There are also more Dutch players in the teams now – we had players from Argentina, Russia, Brazil and Poland and I think that reflects the fact that the Eredivisie has become more of a feeder league. We know our place in Europe and that means we have teams with young players who end up going to England or Spain to earn the big money. It’s not nice because we want a strong league as well but we can’t compete with the TV money in those countries.” For now, though, the focus is firmly on Sunday. Defeat at Excelsior would give Ajax a sniff of overhauling Feyenoord at the summit but, with a match against Heracles at De Kuip to come next week, surely they cannot blow it this time. “The significance for Rotterdam is huge,” says Lievisse Adriaanse. “I was five in 1999 so I don’t remember anything about the last league title. For a whole generation of supporters, we are experiencing what is happening right now for the first time. I don’t really know how to feel.”

Leicester City, of course, would be a case study showing the opposite. But last year was a one-off.

Not my logic. I have seen it demonstrated.

Will we get Work permits for any/all of these guys? We are not rasellik, which, evidently, can get WPs for any jobbing superstar, at the drop of Padraig Nevin's beret.

Yes, but in most leagues the correlation will hold. Maybe all that SPL positions show is that Rangers is overpaying. The general assumption is that wages will relate to quality, although at Ibrox the odd (5,7,9) dumpling has presumably filtered through the net

I am told that the strongest correlation between money and success is that between salaries and success. The higher the wage bill, the higher the likelihood of success (trophies, high league position, European progress).

I don't know if they -the squad?- ever recouped their deferred salaries. However, a postponement is far from a voluntary renunciation, if we wish to discuss the altruistic aspects of their characters

Were the wages/part wages not deferred, rather than relinquished completely?

More than a club, indeed; it's a criminal enterprise, it seems. When will the football authorities shut this den of thieves? Or will bucketfuls of sanctimonious oxterguff see them into the clear. Neymar to stand trial for alleged fraud and corruption over move to Barcelona • Barcelona and Santos also face trial, as well as striker’s parents • Neymar could be banned from playing football during any judicial sentence Neymar’s move to Barcelona, which occurred in 2013, has been a success on the pitch but problematic off it. Thursday 4 May 2017 17.06 BST Last modified on Thursday 4 May 2017 19.47 BST Neymar and his parents are to stand trial over alleged fraud and corruption. In addition the Barcelona president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, and his predecessor Sandro Rosell will go on trial for alleged fraud and corruption over Neymar’s transfer from Santos in 2013. The two clubs were also ordered to stand trial. All have denied wrongdoing. Spanish prosecutors have recommended Neymar be handed a two-year jail sentence and fined €10m. Sentences of two years or less are usually suspended for first-time offenders in Spain. However, Neymar could be banned from playing during a judicial sentence. His arrival from Santos has been a huge success for the Spanish champions on the pitch but a judicial nightmare off it. The 25-year-old striker is being investigated in Brazil and Spain over his move to La Liga. The case began with a complaint from the Brazilian investment company DIS, which owned 40% of Neymar’s sporting rights at the time of his transfer. DIS received €6.8m – 40% of the €17m fee paid to Santos – with the company claiming it was denied its real share because part of the transfer fee was concealed by Barcelona, Santos and the Neymar family. Spain’s national court suspects Santos were paid €25m, which would mean DIS was cheated out of €3.5m. Barcelona originally published the transfer figure as €57.1m, with €40m of that given to the player’s family and the rest to Santos. DIS has called for five-year sentences for Neymar and his parents, who acted as the player’s representatives, eight years for Rosell and Bartomeu plus a €195m fine for Barça. In July 2016 a judge ruled that irregularities in the transfer were detected but said it was an issue for a civil court, not a criminal court, to settle. However, prosecutors successfully argued the player and his father were aware of potentially fraudulent dealings between Barcelona and Santos to the detriment of DIS to fully overturn that decision. The decision to order Neymar to stand trial is another blow to the image of the Spanish giants and the player himself. Barcelona hoped to bring an end to the murky affair when the club agreed to pay a €5.5m fine in a deal with prosecutors in June to settle a separate case and ensure the club avoided trial on tax-evasion charges over the transfer. Neymar is far from the only Barça star to find himself embroiled in problems with the Spanish authorities. Lionel Messi and his father were given 21-month suspended jail sentences in July 2016 for tax fraud relating to the player’s image rights. The defender Javier Mascherano agreed a one-year suspended sentence with authorities for tax fraud this year. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/may/04/neymar-trial-fraud-barcelona-santos

The man violated young boys over what we now surmise is a significantly long period of time. Violation of visa requirements pales to nothing in the circumstances.

Hard to tell from necessarily selective 'tweets', but I'd agree with that. McGill's examination also involved a lot of paper productions (letters, e mails, contract documentation, etc) which the bewhiskered one did not seem to dispute.

Reportedly Naismith was trousering a cool £50k/wk.

I am not, never have been, a fan of "bringing them back". It rarely works, the returnee never seeming to aspire to, never mind hit, the heights of previous campaigns. It has often seemed to me that such moves are made, because the manager, or, perhaps more likely, the commercial director, thinks that it will please, or appease, the support, and thus sell more tickets, scarves, sweaters, and club related novelty ephemera. Sometimes it is clear that Board member(s) liked him as a player first time round, and that this admiration solely drove a return. Frankly that kind of 'vanity signing' gets a "No, thanks", from me. Things have moved on, and the future is not in the past, so let's not rush to tie a yellow ribbon, nor to kill a fatted calf, nor to celebrate a 'homecoming', please.

A desk jockey, out for the o/t. And the constabulary charges for this.....

Sorry, mate, that was a rather tasteless joke.

Yes, but the Yanquis are flinging him back from whence he came. i thought that he might have headed for Brazil, but he's been there before, apparently.

Clearly the US authorities don't want him on their soil, and it's quicker and cheaper if he leaves voluntarily. While he is a UK citizen, I have to say that I should want him in this country only if he turns Queen's Evidence, and spills the jelly and ice cream on the fetid, rotten carcass of sellikfootballclub.

Amorality and cynicism are not sufficient grounds for prosecution of Lloyds.

These things happen. It was only £18Mill, after all, and a Scottish Institution, hardly worth being punctilious about. From what I can see, LBG would have taken as proof a hand scrawled declaration in green crayon on the inside of an empty fag packet, and postmarked Carstairs.

It reads like "Financial Assistance" which used to be illegal, but the Law was changed in 2008, abolishing the restriction on FA. Apart from that, the transaction with Ticketus was undertaken back to back with the sale to Whyte, ie Whyte contracted with Ticketus, after acquisition, or simultaneously with it. What may be of interest is that under the Companies Act directors of a company have a statutory duty to act in a way that they consider to be most likely to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole. This might apply, I imagine, to directors placed on the board by, or at the insistence of, oh, say, the company's bank.

Well I never! A Pandora's Box is opening before our eyes. No doubt, they will see the £1 Mill as money well spent, if it kept the creeps' traps firmly shut.

They will attempt to continue the cover up, of that there is no doubt. Many favours will be called in, much twisting of arms will take place, a lot of commercial deals will be put under review, the porkheid panjandrums will put out the call to the ummah eireann. The end will justify the means, it being more than a club, after all. It does seem, actually, that it is not so much a fitba' team, more a paedophile ring, or should that be a huddle? It will be interesting to see if anyone/any medium has the cojones to fully plough the sellik furrow. There is a rumour -internet based, so it must be true- that rasellik paid Torbett's Trophy Centre c£1Mill GBP, over 4 years, after his conviction(s). That represents a lot of POTY prizes, I imagine.

I think that you may be right. It will be interesting to see how their friends in the press, the radio, and television, try to run interference. Deny, deflect, diminish, and demean will be the editorial order of the day. Make no mistake, it will be shameless.