gingerjaggy

What realistically do we want tonight?

I guess we want a queens win over Raith to keep us within one win of them but that then draws queens level with us. 

As for the other game i guess a draw works as we can move to within 1 point of Scumdee at home and stay ahead of Dunfermline. 

There are pros and cons to all results tonight being such a tight league. 

I've seen enough this season to suggest there is a good team team but it is inconsistent and for me the biggest issue is lacking a number 9 who can put the goals away. Keatings is past his best but is the best natural goal scorer in the squad as Toddy isnt prolific and Shane showed in the big moments that we cant rely on him to take the big chances to make a difference. The league table is a contridiction of pros and cons. The pro is it still pretty tight that IF (big if) caley go on a winning run they will sneak into the play offs but is there much confidence that they will in those play offs? But flip it upside down and the league being tight is also very dangerous as make the wrong move and could be looking at a lower division. For me it is about self preservation now making sure we stay safe which I think we will. If that leads to the play offs then great but these are the games to cash in and frankly it hasnt been good enough 

Just got my one buying 2 print at homes and 2 souvenir tickets. Once for me and my sister who used to be season ticket holders great idea and real thanks to the Hearts fans who have backed this brilliantly 

Well Robbo not slurring his words in the post match interview. Very scathing 

just seen that he has signed a new deal with rangers and is in line to go on loan to Raith 

I dont know where is read it but i am sure the SPFL said the pyramid would be closed this season too , which is an absolute tragedy if true  

5 hours ago, CaleyCanary said:

It's all very depressing and, along with the appeal from Dundee Utd, Raith and Cove for help with legal funding to support their battle against the possibility of losing out on promotion, it drags the reputation of Scottish football further into the mire.

This could all have been so easily avoided if the clubs had just done the sensible thing and voted for the 14-10-10-10 setup in the first place!

I listened to yesterday's Sportsound where Donald Findlay and Cameron Lauchlan were on and they kept doing the same old of course we feel sorry and yes we want reconstruction but it was too late to do for this season. They never actually explain why though just there isn't the time but they would like to create a larger championship even if the Prem doesn't change to get rid of 4 times a season. Frankly if Hearts and Partick win then the only team i have real sympathy with Cove who did vote to end all this where the other two and many others gave this crap we feel sorry for them but not actively helping to secure their position.

Tynecastle and Easter Road for me. Great atmospheres plus some decent results too 

17 hours ago, Scotty said:

Tongue may be firmly in cheek but its a valid point and symptomatic of the cluster**** that is the SPFL management .... the whole thing leaves the SPFL wide open to litigation if people had the stomach (and finances) for it ... you relegate teams based on partial season points ... potential litigation from 3 teams. You decide not to promote teams from lower divisions - potential litigation from 3 more teams. You deny entry to the league for two teams who could get there - 2 more sets of potential litigation ... and finally, however unlikely, and harder to quantify, teams in playoff spots in all 3 divisions could make a case that they have lost out on an opportunity for promotion and the associated financial windfall it would bring to them based on the decisions of the SPFL .... You bully your wayto retain the status quo and everyone feels just a little cheated and that we lost an opportunity. 

Amazingly, allowing 14-10-10-10 would take away all those litigation criteria in one fell swoop yet it is basically not considered because increasing the Premiership from 12 to 14 would reduce prize money a fraction ... probably not even enough to buy some new silks for the QCs involved let alone the cost of any action itself !!  If they had come out with this at the start they could have looked progressive, forward thinking and mindful of making sure their members were not disadvantaged during this crisis. 

Maybe those in charge of the North Caledonian League who just made a quick and decisive change to their own format should act as consultants to the SPFL !! 

 

 

The thing that makes it worse is that the SPFL lined up the extra payments to Brora and Kelty but reducing Celtic and Rangers's cut (1st/2nd) by 0.02 or something minute like that so the actual arguement from lower clubs that another two mouths to feed is pretty poor when it was coming from the old firm which i think Celtic voted for.  

9 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Republic of Ireland got £4m from FIFA to back down after threatening legal action, after a poor refereeing decision allowed France a goal in their World Cup playoff. 

May have also been something to do with suddenly seeding the play offs when Portugal/France looked like they may not qualify and so gave them an easier chance to qualify instead of the potential to play each other which it had been before then haha

21 hours ago, TheMantis said:

I know every pound is a prisoner but for all the talk of a 4th stand, I'd rather see a covered terracing there. That's where most of us used to stand in the good old Pele days. That would do wonders for the atmosphere. And somebody will correct me but aren't you allowed to use terracing in the Premiership nowadays?

I think terracing as they were will never return to the top leagues in the UK but it maybe that the terrace could be reopened as rail seating but that will be costly. I don't know if the rules have changed but would be surprised to see terracing as it was allowed to be used in the premiership even though the ones that Caley would have wont be very big.

By the sounds of it the voting structure will strike again and make it fail. I think county are against as uncle Roy doesn’t believe that a global parade mix is extraordinary enough for a change. Probs be at least one more that will kill it but if it does get through then I’m afraid 6 need to pass in the championship and I doubt it will fly as most clubs will not be able to resist to stop doing something that will be good for us. Scottish football will never move forward until the voting system is sorted out that will allow things to change more regularly. The change proposed is not radical compared to other proposals and even financially the changes to prize pots makes minimal change to add kelty and Brora. But because clubs will lose at least one extra game against the old firm in this bottom 8 and clubs in mid table have no meaningful games it won’t pass. The meaningless games argument I find really poor as it could be a chance to blood youngsters and give them the exposure clubs can’t allow atm 

They can do what they like. If this doesn't go through Hearts will go legal and with the precedent from Europe they will either likley hold up the season or  run in the financial compensation that will come out of the tv money. Lets see Uncle Roy squirm as his wallet gets hit when he could avoid it all by pretty much agreeing to the least radical change of everything that has been proposed.

Reconstruction will happen but it won’t be budge’s proposal but more natural down to who can play and who can’t. League 1+2 will likely mothball barring Falkirk and Patrick and likes of queens and a few other in champ may not get started so we may get some change. The most interesting part of sportsound was budge’s comments on wealthy backers looking to hand a no strings multi million pound donation to mainly the lower leagues. Sounds like Doncaster is not doing his job if true that the spfl are not negotiating atm 

12 hours ago, Highland F Weekly said:

Thanks for the feedback. Dont know about you but the various podcasts are keeping me going in lockdown and I'm loving the work of the guys from the Wyness Shuffle podcast too.

Just thought I'd let you know we've had some Caley Thistle content over the last few weeks with Yogi, John Rankin, Nick Ross and Mark Ridgers on and Russell Duncan on tomorrow's podcast.

Cheers

Absolutely loved the Yogi one and I think it does put his view across from the stormy end with the whole raven debacle.

Listened to all the Caley Thistle ones so far, you've done a great job Ian.

The John Rankin one brought back back vivid memories of me losing my rag at Artur Boruc as he celebrated in front of us after Kenny MIller scored that last minute cup winner.

Keep up the good work!!!   

27 minutes ago, IBM said:

I agree with you on this one but if it comes to a vote Uncle Roy has already stated that he would vote against it and other clubs in the lower end of the league will vote the same for their own interest unless the SPFL think Hearts may have a case against them and pressurize clubs to vote yes. 

The interesting thing is that there is more benefit to those lower Prem clubs to expand as it gives them a better chance to stay up. It is more likely the higher clubs torpedoing it as they will not be concerned by that and more concerned about losing a chunk of their pie to accommodate to extra mouths. 

In a perfect world 14/14/16 would be the best that we can hope for as the old firm keep the 4 games and therefor don’t impact the sky deal. Sky don’t care what the structure is as long as they get that. In fact sky would welcome 14 as it keeps the second biggest derby in the top flight and adds the highland too (although doubt it will get tele coverage). My fear is the lower divisions won’t want to add the Highland and lowland so more likely get 14/14/14.

Although permanent would be great why can’t it be temporary to get through this period and if it works then can be kept. If it doesn’t then the status quo can be returned to or another suggestion is made. I hope it does happen but I’m not naive enough to believe it will or have any expectation but we will see.

1 hour ago, Kingsmills said:

The SPFL have now agreed that the Premiership season should now be concluded on a similar basis to the other divisions with Celtic being crowned champions and Hearts relegated. I have no difficulty with that. Although not ideal it does have a certain fairness.

The important thing now is that we draw a line under this season and put all the rancor and divisions of recent weeks and all clubs work collaboratively with the appropriate government agencies to try to work towards starting next season in some manner that allows clubs to survive.

Season 2020/21 is not likely to start on schedule or in a normal fashion but if everyone pulls together it can surely finish in a much more normal manner come next May or June.

Being able to do that depends entirely on the all concerned focusing firmly on the future and putting the hugely damaging and embarrassing recent past behind us.

I would hope you are right but this has a little to run yet.

The reconstruction talks will drag for a bit longer and then require a vote.

And if that fails then my mate, who is a big Jambo already says that there is a crowdfunding to help cover legal costs and that the club will go for it.

Now Morton have come and attacked us saying the records story is correct 

We are talking about the record though 

What would we gain from voiding the season if that was the plan if the resolution had been ditched

If we were aggressive then surely an independent investigation that we are backing would show badly on that

The EGM will not pass but if there is a clamour from enough clubs then it will put the SPFL under pressure to do something all that I know is just because the vote is unlikely to happen this isn't the end of this turbulent time

Judging by Falkirk’s response this like the Rangers saga may continue to run. I too like most people thought this would likely fail but let’s be honest this decision pretty much kills Scottish football. It needed change and yet had Covid 19 not happened reconstruction would not even be mentioned. Whether you believe this has been driven by Hearts to avoid the drop or for the greater good reconstruction makes the season endings fairer than the status quo. The 14/14/16 idea I thought was very good and combats the issues that the SPFL wants avoid. Of course what Aberdeen said today is important need to work on ways to get football back and how to make money with the potential of closed doors to begin with. But reconstruction is also part of that as a way to stop clubs going to the wall and sporting integrity hearts were not adrift, Patrick were one game in hand from being off bottom, Raith champions by a point to Falkirk with at least one game between the two. And then there’s is the pyramid with Brora and Kelly adding freshness to the league system but as usual self interest rules the day and Scottish football loses an opportunity that may not happen until it’s way too late. Legal challenges could be coming.

14/10/10/10 fairest as nobody goes down only promotion and of course the pyramid is open. 14/14/16 does keep the pyramid but you have the league 2 clubs standing firm atm and this will alienate 4 league 1 clubs who will end up in the bottom tier. I suppose Like doofers dad said that the details of play offs and splits maybe key but also the money. If those league 1 clubs end up in the bottom tier but don’t lose out on income then can’t see what the issue would be overall.

1 hour ago, DoofersDad said:

The club is in an incredibly difficult position at the moment.  With discussions going on around restructuring, there is a real possibility that we might be back in the top flight next season.  But then there is a real possibility that we won't.  The club simply don't know where we will be playing but they do know that the revenue streams from those two options would be very different.  In these circumstances it is almost impossible to do any realistic budgeting and to decide who they want to keep and who they don't.

It may well be that the best option is to plan for just keeping afloat in the Championship.  If we do end up in the Premiership then we would do so on a very low budget and would be hot favourites for the drop.  However, a low budget and increased revenue stream would help make us financially stronger and would allow us to be in a much better position to be competitive in the Championship the year after in the likely event of us being relegated next year.  Of course, we might not get relegated, in which case we would be in a position to strengthen.

The club might expect that if we end up in the Premiership, we will be a more attractive option to out of contract players who may be happy to be on a lower wage if it gives them exposure in the top flight.  The club is not really in a position to be making commitments to out of contract players at this time.  Once a decision on the possible restructuring is made then the club should be in a better position to make decisions.  The continuing Coronavirus situation will, however, continue to impose other very considerable uncertainties for some time to come.

 

Totally agree with this statement but I think it also goes beyond uncertainty of which league I think it goes to uncertainty of when fans can attend. Of course Celtic/rangers will bring income in terms of tv if we were promoted but playing behind closed doors could kill us as it would most clubs in Scotland as gate money makes it vital for clubs to make money. So not knowing what league and then not knowing about paying customers having access to the stadium is also very worrying 

I wonder if the decision can be reversed at some point. It is unlikely that many if any clubs are in a position to be signing players so if the reconstruction sees us up (doubt it) then maybe we can offer him a deal later one if he hasn't already moved on. Down here Colchester United have released most of there out of contract players including a number of first team players that they would likely have wanted to keep because of the uncertainty. They did say though that if they get clarity then they would be happy to reverse the decision. But clarity is hard to give as i saw something last night that suggests the premier league are looking at the impact playing a whole season behind closed doors as experts don't believe a vaccine will be ready until mid way through next year.

21 hours ago, alternative maryhill said:

Really appreciate the feedback guys - thanks. Part 2 is a cracker too - Carlo and Greg were brilliant. 

Excellent banter and really gave me a chuckle. Can’t wait for part 2 keep up the brilliant work 

16 hours ago, CaleyTennis said:

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/john-robertson-unfinished-business-hearts-manager-and-league-reconstruction-doubts-2552496.

Ignore the part about reconstruction. I'd be very worried about the other main part of the headline :(, never mind players being signed or sold etc.

Discuss your thoughts on that :(. 

If anyone heard the podcast that the press have taken it from Robbo never used the words unfinished business he just said if he got the chance again he feels he would be better with the experience he has gained. he did say never say never but at the moment it is the press spinning a harmless conversation about his career.