ictchris

I was about to post that Clyde statement. The SPL is saying 'vote the way we want or we will breach a valid contract'. Absolutely disgraceful behaviour. One point made in the statement is that you have to wonder how UEFA are looking at this - there could be sanctions against Scottish clubs in Europe or the national side because of what is going on.

Don't do it Blackie.

Channel 4 News' Alex Thomson on Twitter alex thomson @alextomo Scottish Football: the spectre of management and governance utterly terrified of delivering what their customers demand - D3 for "Rangers". And a business that wilfully ignores its customer base will find painfully soon that it has no business left at all. I have to say, if there are clubs who's entire business model is based on getting money from Rangers/Celtic then they need to ask themselves if this model is worth saving.

I've not been followin this as closely as others but a couple of questions regarding the leaks that have happened over the last two days 1 - Apparently 6-8 clubs risk going bust immediately if sevco are admitted to the Third Division - are we one of these clubs? From a limited knowledge of our finances I don't think that's the case, we don't have any bank debt that could be immediately called in and, as discussed in detail elsewhere on this forum, don't have expensive long term contracts to fulfill. 2 - What have Sky and ESPN actually said about the TV deal? Have they said that it will be cancelled entirely if there isn't the prospect of a Rangers in the SPL in the next couple of years? I find that hard to believe - obviously Rangers are a big viewing draw to Sky/ESPN but so are Celtic, who would still be part of the deal. Is this £16m/season loss projected, how would that be split among the clubs - the vast majority of the TV deal money goes to the Old Firm, has anyone shown the SPL chairman an actual calculation of the loss that each club would face? Surely given the structure of the current deal Celtic would lose the most with sides who are shown less often being hit lower in absolute terms. I'm not convinced that Sky/ESPN would pull out completely - Sky have four 24 hour sports channels to fill and ESPN don't have a crammed schedule. What is happening now is the chickens of the SPL coming home to roost. The mentality of the Scottish game has, for a long time, been that we need the Old Firm to survive. That's why we have created a league where 80%+ of the revenue goes to two teams, who also hold a permanent veto over the other clubs on any changes. That has created this situation, two clubs have effectively had a veto over any reforms. It's no wonder that the SPL have allowed a member club to engage in corruption and rule breaking for a decade. The likes of Neil Doncaster are stuck in this mindset, one that has reduced the quality of Scottish football and pushed the game to this point. Fourteen years of the SPL and now apparently up to two thirds of the clubs in it are on the verge of bankruptcy! Some achievement.

What happens if Rangers are allowed to join the First Division / SPL2 but don't win the league? Would they just get immediately promoted? What if they do win the league but get relegated the next season? Abandon relegation?

Not only is his opinion nonsense, his posts read like they were written by a 13 year old doing a creative writing assignment two weeks after hearing their first Smiths album. I can imagine him skipping round his room waving a bunch of daffodils before posting.

Your posts really do sound like a stupid persons idea of what a clever person sounds like.

Ross County's summer signings pose with strips and scarf.

Johnny Hayes made nine assists and scored seven goals. Gregory Tade scored nine goals. We need to replace those goals.

Fabian Cancellara wins the prologue, Bradley Wiggins second. When is the Armstrong verdict due, that could overshadow the Tour if he's convicted during the race.

County aren't some sort of homespun, Old Ma's Kitchen club. They won the First Division by assembling a squad of experienced lower league players under a good manager. Their title winning side didn't feature any youth players and the only local players were ones they'd signed from us who had come through our youth system. That absolutely isn't a criticism of County, the job of the manager and the team is to finish as high as possible and win the league and they did that. It's worth noting though that County signing Ross Tokely hasn't made them into some sort of Highland Dream XI. A lot of people on this site have turned into pantie-knotted knicker-wetting whiners, especially when it comes to County. In terms of our signings, we've always operated in the basement of the transfer market, certainly since we went into the First Division. Most of the players that everyone would laud were rejected previously by other clubs - Barry Robson by Rangers, Dennis Wyness and Russell Duncan by Aberdeen, Liam Keogh at Celtic, Craig Dargo by Killie, Darren Dods by St Johnstone. I'm not sure that this quality of Scottish players is out there in that market any more. Wyness was a youth player who came through at Aberdeen and got released - do we think there's anyone who'd score 20 goals a season in the First Division being released from the AFC youth programme now? If so, who? Dargo was released by Killie and no-one else wanted him, we even had him on trial for a week before offering him a deal - he went on to score 20 goals in his first season. What realistic targets have been released by a Scottish team this close season who you could be confident to any extent of performing like that? I'm not saying that I agree with the signing policy, it's pretty obvious that releasing Grant Munro was a huge error, one that cost us dearly in the league last season. Freeing Tokely could be this summer equivelent but we'll have to see. I can see why we target English players, England is a bigger market and there are literally thousands of players available every summer. The only question is how good are the players we bring in. We signed guys from England last close season and had a disappointing campaign but previously built our promotion winning side with guys brought in from England. We signed loan players (two of our best players last season were loan signings actually) but the results weren't that impressive but look at other examples - Killie signed Alexei Eremenko on loan and he was arguable the best player in Scotland that season, Hearts signed Craig Beattie on loan and he was excellent for them last season.

Any trialists on Day 1 of pre-season?

We signed Ryan Esson, Paul Sheerin, Ian Black, Jonny Hayes, Lee Cox and Richie Foran from lower league football in England, Here's hoping the current batch of mercenary prostitutes are as good as they were.

Not sure this signing will be anything to crow about.

Methamphetamine lab at the stadium.

I haven't been following this that closely but one point I've noticed is that Charles Green thinks he can TUPE all player contracts from Rangers to the newco - no chance. Having worked in companies that have featured employees being TUPE'd there's no way they've crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's. Surely there's no way newco are going to be admitted now?

Am hearing rumours that Hayes has been spotted at the Ecuadorian embassy with Julian Assange.

Twitter is brilliant, people who don't like it are doing it wrong.

Great use of tabloidese there - 'ink a contract'. When I worked as a contractor, I never 'inked' a contract.

Seriously? I thought your post was quite a clever joke! yes that's it a clever joke. yes. Hopefully we vote No to Newco, btw. I doubt we will but there you go.

I forgot our chairman was called Cameron Fail.

What exactly are you asking or expecting David Cameron to do here? Would you not be better writing an 'open letter' to someone who actually has a vote on the matter, like the SPL chairmen?

Positive spin - we have a nucleus of good young players who will only get better in the SPL. Aaron Doran and Andy Shinnie will be fit this season, younger guys like Graeme Shinnie, Nick Ross, Shane Sutherland and Josh Meekings have another year of experience. Butcher signed the core of the side who won promotion and did so well in 2009, he can be relied on to bring in a good standard of player from England. Tokely was over the hill anyway, if it wasn't for his history no-one would care about him leaving. Negative spin - We have stripped the heart out of our squad. The big personalities, the leaders have gone and we are left with the chaff. Butcher's signings last season were dire and we are getting more Dan Stratfords than Johnnty Hayes'. With the budget cuts we're certain to go down.

He doesn't like Nandos, as exclusively revealed on Twitter. Must be the only footballer who doesn't.