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dougiedanger

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Everything posted by dougiedanger

  1. Looks like Mr Whyte might have to do without any further Scottish Cup cash too. :(
  2. Some good points, though I don't think the 90s comparison quite works either, as that was a time of unprecedented spending in the Scottish game, and not only among the OF. No one has that kind of money to throw about, including Celtic, who are priced out of virtually any big-name players, and who seem to be buying promising younger ones to sell on later. The truth is that any new era would offer challenges and opportunities that have not been seen in any previous period, and that the clubs most likely to prosper will be those most able to see and exploit the opportunities that the future will hold.
  3. We have complained for years about the stranglehold the OF have on the Scottish game, and we know that the status quo does not work for anyone. So, there seems little point in clinging to the old simply through the fear of the unknown. In fact, it is not so unknown, as in the 80s there was proper competition, when RFC were weak. I think most of us would relish the return of that kind of competitive environment, even if we attract less sponsorship money. Young players would come through as they did in the past and as a nation we would find our proper place in the footbal hierarchy. The Irish comparison does not really work either, as they have no real history of competitive football leagues, while we do. The reinvention of our league should be our priority, not the retention of a failed model that is strangling the game.
  4. Tend to agree with this. What is the point in tyring to maintain a status quo that is detrimental to the game as a whole, and which has run its course? Let any club that has unsustainable practices take the natural punishment for them, and allow clubs time to find their feet and for the game to reorganize itsef in a way that benefits as many clubs as possible. The worst thing that could happen would be to prop up any club that cannot run its affairs properly. We have had enough of a set-up that has all but killed the game. All clubs should look to the post-OF future and consider the ways in which it could bring a rebirth for the game.
  5. A lot of talk in the papers and online about the severe problems at Ibrox, even some prospect of them going down the tubes completely. A lot of the media people seem to think automatically that this would be "a bad thing" for the game in Scotland, though some might say such a shift in power would let other teams into the frame and perhaps spark a revival in the game overall. Where do you think ICT as a club and as supporters would stand on this issue, in particular, would the club vote to keep RFC in the SPL if it came down to that? Or is this a chance to end the OF stranglehold on the game?
  6. Something that always puzzled me: how was it that after selling two prime sites in the centre of town the club ended up with a half-built stadium at the dump? And did no one think of the potential problem of the gas pipe when deciding on the stadium site?
  7. Football is virtually dead with this bill, it's like going for a night at the opera FFS.
  8. Apparently, to make ends meet he is doing some painting and decorating. Different kind of plastered I suppose. IAN BLACK is working as a part-time painter and decorator as the Hearts wage row bites. The Tynecastle players have been hit hard with no sign of their pay packets for the last two months. And the midfielder is struggling to make ends meet so much he was out helping a tradesman pal in Edinburgh on Monday to make some extra cash. SunSport can reveal Black's feeling the pinch ahead of Christmas as he struggles to buy presents for his eight-year-old daughter. A source told us: "Because the players are not getting paid, it got to the stage where Ian's now started working for his mate. "He owns a painting and decorating business and Ian was out doing hard graft on Monday on his day off. "He is looking at the possibility of working twice a week for him in the run up to Christmas. "He said to the gaffer last week he might have to work on a Monday and Tuesday because he has to put food on the table for his kid. "He has got an eight-year-old daughter and needs money to go out and buy Christmas presents as well as put food on the table." The players have had one ?1,000 payment but the rest is nowhere to be seen and their December wages are due to be paid on Friday. But our source added: "We are not expecting to get paid on Friday at all." Players are suffering in the pocket and SunSport understands some players can't pay their bills. Our source, who is a first-team regular, said: "I am having to avoid my bills and I have constantly been getting reminders. "I have a mortgage as well but I have spoken to the lenders and they are not too bad with me about it just now."
  9. First song: can't call huns huns any more, I am afraid, as that is dead sectarian, and huns don't like it.
  10. Only 70 years or so behind L.A..
  11. Absolutely Dougie. I think this was very much the post war philosophy which also embraced the likes of Garden Cities. Certainly the house we lived in on St Andrew Drive had a pretty big garden, bigger than average for Dalneigh I suppose, with a back lawn which itself was 10 yards long and then there was a vegetable patch before you reached the back wall of the St Ninian garages. And that was just half the garden. There was another chunk parallel to that which was like a wee croft running down to the minister's hedge! The Swedish houses are all 3 bedrooms and all identical to or mirror images of each other. The bedrooms were pretty large, especially the "master" bedroom at the back and the one above the livingroom also had a fireplace. The other rooms were big too and there was lots of cupboard space. In fact I was just today relating a tale of a previous era when the large collection of fireworks which - aged 10 - I had bought used to be stashed in the cupboard beneath the stairs! (Aye... the "lobbing bangers into front porches" craze culminated one year in one headcase putting a Roman Candle in Mrs Anderson the P5 teacher's front hedge!) Other friends of mine (such as Beys and Kavvies for those who remember Inverness and Caley football of a bygone era) lived in stone houses on St Valery Ave and St Fergus Drive and these were pretty big too. The "electric flats" were maybe a bit different. The streets were also quite wide - especially the bit of St Andrew I was on which had the transformer. I remember the Swedish houses well, especially the "master" bedroom at the back, it seemed massive. The top of the stairs was also very spacious as I recall. Pretty cold upstairs though with no central heating, though I do remember the fireplace in the bedroom at the front. What I like too is the close proximity to the private houses that surround the scheme, so that you don't get the feeling of being isolated or in a ghetto. Very democratic again. I guess Bruce Avenue and the like would have been built in the late 60s/early 70s?
  12. Looking at the Goggle map, you get a sense of how well laid out Dalneigh was, with crescents, green spaces, shops, big gardeens, and plenty of living space. It tells a story: that of the post-war feeling that working people should have a decent home and standard of living, which contrasts with today's serious lack of public housing and the over-priced boxes that people are expected to live in. I recall too that the houses were quite spacious inside. It must have been a dream for people to move from tenements and the like to the greenery and space of Dalneigh.
  13. Because that's where the creme de la creme of Dalneigh were to be domiciled and they wanted a sweeping boulevard to remind them of their vacations down the Champs Elysees.
  14. Quite right girls. Great to have women fans nowadays. They add so much that was lacking before. Maybe the club should have a nail painting concession installed by the pie stand, in fact make the pie stand a cup cake joint or some such. Also, sales of work could be a real moneyspinner.
  15. Dougie, I refer you to my previous answer regarding Souness. Souness and his band of brothers were universally despised in the same way as Lennon was last season. Those you refer to as 'the people' are widely despised, mainly because of their triumphalism and arrogance, but they would not have ascribed sectarian motives to this, neither now, nor back in the days of Souness. The other lot (or 'not the people' as they could perhaps be called in a reference to a once famous fanzine ) seem to have a problem separating sectarian motives from other motives. And no, I'm not excusing the actions of a handful of lunatics who see fit to send bullets or attack Lennon in the street. Thankfully, to most of us it is just a game. I do see what you are saying and respect your point of view, but it seems to suggest the old idea that one lot is as bad as the other, when it appears more complicated than that. One is not simply the flip side of the other. Souness & co may have been unpopular, but they never received bullets or bombs. I agree absolutely that it is only a game, and that is how it should be.
  16. Yes, thanks, that's what I meant. We can all dislike Celtic or any team for the reasons you suggest, and it certainly does not make us sectarian to do so. Nor does it implicate us in sectarianism if we admit there is a sectarian problem in our country. To constantly deny its existence however is to perpetuate the problem (not meaning you obviously).
  17. So Lennon and several other high profile Celtic supporters are sent bullets and put in fear of their lives by death threats that beyond any reasonable doubt come from supporters of another football club, and then Lennon himself is subject to a disgraceful show of hatred at Tynecastle, and yet the "real danger" in the whole thing comes from those nasty "Celtic fans," who to my knowledge have not retaliated to the very real anti-Celtic (and no doubt anti-Catholic) intimidation that characterised last season's Scottish football. This whole episode was a disgrace to Scottish football and the whole nation. Even the Sunday Post condemned it at the weekend! The real issue here and probably the "real danger" lies in the blind denial that there are sectarian issues at play in all of this, and in the implicit idea that somehow Lennon, Celtic, and their fans deserve it, that "they bring it on themselves." After all, they are not "the people".
  18. Actually a decent point and I am sure Mr Bannerman would be confident enough to stand his version against conflicting viewpoints. Or maybe the "refuseniks" should go ahead and write their version. If only there were one who visited this site...
  19. Not really wanting to get into all this again, but the Hearts security official, a former police officer, testified that he heard the assailant call Lennon a "Fenian b**tard." Not sure of that is sectarian enough for the jury or indeed for some on here, but as Scotty says, seen from the outside, the whole episode must paint Scotland in a very poor light.
  20. I know, the Gers do get lucky with their chairmen. Murray leaves after a glorious reign and next minute they have another billionaire on board, wealth off the scale, lives in a castle, everything.
  21. To be fair, that first post was so full of genuine 'rage' that he is probably still seething after the result. It was real 'crush a grape' stuff.
  22. Hats off dougal, you always reel them in.
  23. Reflections, then the What and on to Relax.
  24. Sad thing is we are so used to this kind of decision making that we start to question our own judgment, while outsiders can see there is something not quite right going on.
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