Soulsonic5791

Beat me to it Ian. If that isn't calling out politicking, I don't know what is. Good on Club1872.

Thanks for the comments gents. Yes, it wasn't easy striking a balance between trying to be constructively critical and tempering one's frustration. The manager is new to the job and is learning as he goes along. Obviously, he has a tremendous breadth of knowledge to start from, not to mention working under some keen football management intellects as a player, but there is no substitute for gaining first hand experience of something for yourself. I trust him and his staff implicitly to get it right over the course of the season. For what it's worth, I think we did the right thing by ending on the positives of good player recruitment and extended European participation. Onwards and upwards.

I've read through the whys and wherefores proffered by both sides of the argument throughout this thread and it brings me to an inescapable conclusion: no matter your party preference and regardless of suitable reasoned justifications or lack thereof, if anyone in the cold light of day doesn't think that this decision is politically motivated, then I'm afraid, they are sadly deluded.

Here's a question. Can you be considered a real/proper Rangers fan if you think that Scotland should be an independent country, taken in isolation regardless of politics?

Aitken's haughty, sneering tone was to be expected. And Gerry Braiden's grubby fingerprints may well be all over the communique as has been suggested. However, the fact remains that they were always going to play the card that the zones at Hampden and Parkhead were not using a community facility. Hampden is somewhat of a sideshow. The real prize is highlighting favourable 'off market' deals afforded to Celtic. Her connivance and intervention must be laid bare.

Let the cheap flights scramble commence!

A tough group. But I dare say it could've been tougher.

If what Stevie has said post-match are his true feelings, then it'll be a tricky task of man-management that he needs to undertake. There will only be so much that he'll take of the immature, petulant and selfish behaviour given that he has been talking up Morelos publicly. Privately though, if it were me, I'd be tempted to fine him a week's wages but he probably won't because he played his part in getting us to the play-off round. Other than that the only thing he can do, short of transfer listing him or making it known that he's for sale, is to drop him. Before Lafferty signed that would have been a self-defeating mechanism but not now that big Kyle is available. It wouldn't surprise me if Stevie is on the blower to José Pékerman during the international break to ask him to help in getting the boy to grow up a bit by cutting out the stupidity in his persona. Whether or not it can make any difference remains to be seen.

Thomas Kerr's letter to David McDonald. I wonder if Robert Connelly would be forthcoming regarding the 'disabled car park'?

It would be interesting to note what if any s75 obligations will accompany this transfer of land. Come to think of it, with regard to the disposal of said streets to enhance their estate footprint back in the '90s, it would be of equal interest to note what s75 agreements were put in place. I could be wrong, but I don't recall Celtic building any primary schools as part of 'planning gain'. They seem to be in the business of demolishing primary schools. Anyone on here work in Development Control in George St that could enlighten us?

Stewart McDonald's language is over the top in response to Adam Tomkins' tweet. Sounds as if cages may well have been rattled.

Are you teaching me how to suck eggs on the definition of a word?

How so? I take it by your use of italics that you are displaying your political allegiances?

I would imagine that a great many bluenoses feel disenfranchised when it comes to mainstream politics.

We let them dictate the match in the second half. I would've thought that this will concern the Manager. Too often we went long and gave them the ball back when we needed to get our foot on the ball and take the sting out of their kick and rush gameplan. The defending was too casual at times by certain players and I think that we relied too much on the notion that we'd be able to handle whatever they threw at us. We also gave away corners needlessly in injury time which contributed to the pressure building. Can Flanagan play in a back three, switching sides, and against a team which is arguably the strongest in the league at deploying the tactic of pumping the ball into the air and feeding off the scraps? Debatable imo. Having a mobile second anchor missing today stuck out for me. That's not to say that Andy Halliday didn't have a reasonable game. Lass was, again, a big miss. Food for thought for Stevie. P.S. Thomson was his usual nightmarish self.

The name of the game is - don't get beat. If we can win that's a bonus and big psychological blow to them no matter how underplayed it would be. Make no mistake, going to the Chamber of Secrets with only 500 fans will be a difficult proposition, especially coming off the back of the trip to and from Bashkortostan.

I've alluded to this before, so, apologies in advance for the repetition. The questions for me remain. How are PQ allowed to adopt and more importantly, maintain the editorial line/stance that they currently take? Who has their back? Are they directed from London? Or has Ken McQuarrie's empire building been rubber stamped from upon high, allowed to propagate by design, furthered by his acolytes like Donalda Mackinnon and afforded serious amounts of autonomous latitude in return for something else? Given the accusations of bias by BBC Scotland against 'Yessers' and promoting the status quo in terms of UK statehood, do the powerbrokers in London take the view that any mechanism (however seemingly trivial to the casual onlooker) that can be deployed to present an air of impartiality is acceptable? Is PQ a law unto itself? Was the BBC as a whole infiltrated by a socio-political sub strata twenty or so years ago and we are now in the midst of the ramifications of that with the hijacking of an organisational agenda? Or is it the case that as an organisation the corporation is struggling to come to terms with representing a changing Britain of many disparate viewpoints and we as a support and licence paying demographic are just unlucky in 'getting the shitty end of the stick'? You could be forgiven for thinking that the BBC is, as someone once famously said, 'a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma...'.

Too true Stewarty. I read it all and the tone is sneering. Any compliment to Kyle's playing exploits are done so grudgingly. As impartial as it would appear to read, the tone overrides everything.

I haven't seen a finer main stand for a stadium anywhere in world football. We have a lot to be thankful for. All we need is Stewart Robertson to hire a man with a five-way harness and a cherry-picker to do a spot of weeding.

I was aware of the new doc Pete - cheers.

Are you referring to Paul Jackson Pete? If so, I have direct experience of him as he used to be my GP. My knowledge is a bit sketchy in this regard. Medicals used to be carried out at Ross Hall but I'm unsure of what the procedure has been of late prior to the recent change of them being carried out in Manchester. I would've assumed that specialist staff would carry out the medical and provide a report rather than our in-house medical staff being the personnel conducting the tests. The report would then presumably be okayed by someone on our staff. If someone knows the exact chain of events, I'd be interested to find out. To the best of my knowledge, Paul Jackson reverted to his previous role at Auchenhowie. If he's subsequently decided to leave, then that's news to me.

Why do you think that they are introducing a new 'Scotland' channel imminently? They as an organisation play a huge part in shaping hearts and minds. PQ wields more influence than the casual viewer would give credence to. If people like Tom Devine are invited on to any given platform to give us all the benefit of his wisdom, inevitably some will be influenced by his 'truth'. And Tom is one of many such agenda shapers deployed by the BBC PQ mandarins. To that end, anyone who thinks that the BBC is an irrelevance in both narrow and wider senses, is naïve in the extreme imho.

Well put. As I mentioned earlier, how high up does it go? Where does the agenda come from - Scotland or England? Is it coincidental that mindsets changed after Mark Thompson became DG? How have our allies become marginalised within the organisation in Scotland? I have my own theories on the above but would really like some info from someone on the inside to provide some insight. As Gaspard says, there is as much chance of a BBC climbdown as I have of picking six numbers correctly this saturday night.

I'd like to know a few things re Dorrans. a) who really signed him. b) how much he actually cost both in terms of the fee paid and his TCO. c) who carried out the medical and who signed off on it. and, d) who finally okayed his purchase. We need to cut out profligacy. The initial signs under SG on that count are good, thankfully.

Jim White is a phoney. A former head boy of my old school, and a social politician of the highest order. A bluenose but nevertheless, one for the watching.