Kingsmills

There are strong suggestions that the Mileson family fortune is not what it was.

Well done Brewster and let's hope he does ! There, I told you that there was nothing rong with robust argument !

Hearts, despite their huge exposure to Mr Romanov and his bank, are not Gretna. Hearts are a very substantial footballing entity with a very large fan base. If their current "benefactor" pulled the plug Hearts would be in serious trouble and no doubt Tynecastle would be sold as a prime housing site. However a sustainable club, albeit one that might temporarily be without a home, would emerge from administration and would soon re-establish themselves. Gretna are a different proposition altogether, they are likely to revert to eing a non league side playing amateur football in front of crowds numbering dozens rather than hundreds and probably not at Raydale which will be sold to partially satisfy the debts which have been accrued while they were "living the dream".

How often must it be said, if Gretna fold no other team will be relegated in their place.

To get back on topic, I see that today's P&J is reporting that Brewster has now given Russell until the end of the week to agree his new contract or it will be withdrawn. Probably fair enough given that he has to plan for next season.

With regard to Spectre's most recent post, I think it's safe to assume that no other team will be relegated in Gretna's place.

The truth, which ought to have been self evident, is now exposed for all to see by the initial comments of the administrators. Administration is a process of protecting ailing companies from their creditors, for a limited period at least, with a view to finding a willing buyer and nursing the company back to health. Creditors have to come on board but usually they have little option faced with the prosect of accepting a proportion of their debt being repaid by the ultimate owners or often nothing at all if the company is wound up especially after the expenses of administration are taken into account. In Gretna's case however, there is no sustainable corporate body to nurse back to health, there never was. Even if the club own Raydale outright the Inland Revenue, who are a preferred creditor, are due a very large six figure sum, will be first in line for any sale procedes. As I've said before I can't for the life of me see how this particular club can survive adminisration and come out the other side. They will do very well to limp on until the end of the season and even then will have to shed virtually all of their first team squad to do so.

Please, by all means, have different opinions, this site would be very dull without argumenmt and debate but refrain from crude personal insults if you wish your posts to remain unedited.

I agree every time ICT stepped up a grade Roscoe proved he was up to the task. He may not be the most skillful player in the SPL but he's certainly one of the most committed. I, for one, am delighted that it looks like he'll see out his career at ICT. Or, to put it more succinctly, I agree with IHE !

How many of our promising young players would be ready to play to an acceptable standard week in week out in the SPL

Good news about Denzil I'm sure he has a few goals in him yet.

Looks like a good many of the Gretna squad will be released possibly by the end of this week. I wouldn't mind seeing Skelton at the TCS next season.

Surprising but congratulations nevertheless.

I'm not great at arithmetic but if one relegation place is reduced by one does that not leave a grand total of zero relegation places ?

The real question is will they survive long enough to be relegated ?

This topic has been moved to Anything Goes. [iurl]http://www.caleythistleonline.com/community/index.php?topic=6313.0[/iurl]

I agree, the statement seems a bit of a smokescreen.

Having the tag of favourites seems to be a curse in this season's FA Cup !

I agree but the SPL and SFL need to get their own houses in order first.

I believe that Gretna are a limited company so, if the worst came to the worst, the process would be liquidation rather than sequestration. I agree that they may well be able to stagger on until the end of the season but liquidation could indeed see them out of business before the end of the month far less the end of the season.

It looks as though Gretna might well not exist next season even if administration and an SPL advance help them limp on until the end of this. So what do the SPL and SFL do in that event ? The stock answer in the past has been to recruit another club but it seems to me that there are no longer any substantial centres of population that are unrepresented in the league apart perhaps from the Borders which doesn't seem to have a great deal of appetite for the round ball game. So what would be the point in a small country with far too many league clubs as it is in recruiting another club ? Even if it was relatively well run it would be another small part time club existing on league subsidies and crowds of three figures. Surely the sensible thing would be to take the opportunity of some radical reconstruction which might not be in place for next season but which could certainly be achieved by the season after even if it meant the Third Division operating with only 8 or 9 clubs for a single season or, more sensibly, combining with the second as an 18 team league with each team plaing each other twice. I say 8 or 9 as East Stirling have been pre warned that if they finish bottom this season, which would be the 8th consecutive year they've propped up a very poor part time league they risk being exluded from the SFL. If thy do finish last again this season then that is exactly what should happen. That would leave 40 teams to organise a league system for starting the season after next. My own prefernce would be for a full time top league of 18 teams playing each other twice thus getting rid of "the split" with a second national tier of 22 clubs which would be very largely part time. The additional games would give these clubs a little more revenue. Another possibility would be to revert to four leagues of ten with the top two divisions being run by the SPL and the bottom two by the SFL. Perhaps 25% TV and sponsorship revenue could be distributed among the "SPL 2" clubs meaning that relegation from the top tier wouldn't be such a disaster an that a prudently run club could sustain full time football there without recurring annual losses. Any reduction in TV income to the top league clubs would be partly compensated for by the fact the they would have four guaranteed home matches against the Old Firm rather than three as at present.

If Gretna fold before the end of the season, which even with the protection of administration and the benifit of an advance from the SPL, is quite possible, there will be no other team relegated. Whilst Gretna's results will be expunged, which will do ICT no good given that we've humped them twice, they will be deemed to be the relegated team. I know that the rules are less than clear on the point but the SPL''s management committee are hardly going t want to interpret them in any other way.

Gretna have no realisable assets and a minimal income stream compared to their debts and day to day expenses, even in administration and with the benifit of an advance of SPL monies, they will be lucky to limp on until the end of the season.

Never mind the runto the quarter finals was a credit to Rovers. Four FA Cup shocks out of four was asking just a litte too much. For what it's worth, with all due respect to Pompeyjags, I think you might just have gone out to the eventual cup winners.

Surely next time !