Kingsmills

No, Gretna will be deemed to be the relegated club so next season's SPL will be the eleven continuinmg members plus this season's first division champions assuming they meet the membership criteria which Hamilton may not at present.

That's correct.

The Gretna players are now all officially free agents and we could sign any of them immediately. I still think that Skelton would be a good addition to our squad.

So what can the SPL do, impose a substantial fine or dock them points ? Neither is a realistic sanction in Grenta's situation. The only other possible sanction is expulsion from the league.

David Bingham's gravy train will have come to a shuddering halt. Still, he's had a pretty good ride for his money or rather for Brook Mileson's money. I wonder whether he'll be content to continue to turn out for Cowdenbeath for ?30 a week rather than the ?1,500 a week he was reputed to earn under his long term contract with Gretna ?

The suggestion is that they will be short of players to field a team at the weekend which, given that they had over 40 registered players, suggests that a very large proportion have decided not to carry on playing for nothing. The SPL are not usually sympathetic to requests for postponments where a team has a sufficient number of fit players of whatever level of experience. I wonder what their attitude will be to this particular request ?

PS. I know that this thread, which originally started as a discussion on whether ICT might be sucked into a relegation battle has gone off topic but I would be inclined to let it continue to run on the main board as the issue is of such high profile and of interest to everybody with an interest in scottish football.

I feel sorry for their traditional fan base even if it is very small in number. I feel sorrier still for the employees who are likely to be out of work very soon without any sort of redundancy package. Whilst the players are more than likely to find employment elsewhere albeit on reduced salaries, there will be very many other empoyees who might be struggling to pay their rent or mortgages or even put food on their table. A very sad end to the tale indeed.

That should be interesting.

Don't forget that the loan is secured on Tynecastle and interest alone is likely to be in the region of three million pounds a year. Hearts were on the verge of selling Tyncastle before Romanov stepped in when the debt was about half of what it is now. I think that if Romanov lost interest Tynecastle wold have to go but Heats would undoubtedly survive.

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 !

potato

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".

Dinner

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

aroma

Scent

sense

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.

soft

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 !