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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I have a job! Anybody who wants to come to Mad Jack's brewpub in Bailey, Colorado this evening - the drinks are on me.

Awkward.

All bow to the "grade" eh? people on this thread mostly only care about their club and what is best for it, not the "grade", only their club. They don’t buy into the cultish behaviour that seems so prevalent in the Juniors. We've been over that ground before of course. Meanwhile you and your sidekick have mocked, criticised, denigrated Junior clubs, Dalkeith are "mediocre" apparently because they had the audacity to try and better themselves. Then you have mocked, criticised and denigrated clubs in the Lowland League, EoS and the Pyramid as a basis for any point you have to make. Now anyone in favour of the Pyramid is labelled as “anti-Junior monkeys” and I’m the “organ grinder”. Posters (notably kefc) have taken the time to set out the benefits of moving to the Pyramid and why, in their experience, this is a better future for Kelty as a club and would be a better future for others. Other contributorshave done likewise for their own clubs. Meanwhile you have been asked umpteen times what benefits there are to remaining Junior but have completely failed to come up with anything, zip, zero, nada. Your credibility is shot to bits. The quality of the debate from the “pro-pyramid” side is not in doubt, the same cannot be said for you and you have now resorted to abuse and ludicrous conspiracy theories and calling the thread “utterly abhorrant”, frankly you have lost the plot and you’re better leaving this whole thing alone. All you’re doing now is trolling the thread along with your sidekick Khufa2.

88 Days until the new season starts - the time taken for Mercury to go once around the sun.

Did you ever actually explain/ acknowledge the whole Martin nonsense? If not I think you should. It's impossible to take you seriously.

It will start with a 3 cheers to David Bates then after the strawberry tarts have been eaten the projector will be lowered and Sim will appear like the scene in Austin Powers with Dr Evil. After that they'll show a montage of Alan Young's best bits like they do on Im a Celeb after someone gets voted out. Mario Caira will bring out a taster menu for next seasons catering plans (I've heard there's going to be ice cream next season) and then down to business. Tom Morgan will be told to stand up on a trap door and told he has 30 seconds to convince Sim why he should stay on the board. His answer will likely be "because I like it" and then he'll be dropped into a pool of piranhas. Sinton will be knighted as new Chairman and Barry Smith will be marched in by storm troopers and made to kneel in front of the projector screen and beg for forgiveness. He'll be spared but left with a smaller budget than last season and told he's on his final warning. Bill Clark will be sitting in the corner silently watching all of this sinisterly smoking a clay pipe. Sim will do a Raith TV interview next time he's back from his island layer and convince everyone that everything's going to be ok because we have a plastic pitch now and we can all go for pints at the 200 club again.

Can we not let this distort the fact that it's been a brutal season? Much improvement needed. Thank You.

Kelty have played an absolute blinder, while others sat badmouthing the Lowland league they did their homework and realised the Pyramid was the future and beat the rest who’ll now bottleneck at Tier 6.

^^^ talks about being respectful but calls those who disagree animals type post. Thats right up there with you making the case for the pyramid last week.

Hi guys, hope you’re well. Here’s a handful of my favourite posts after you lot won a friendly back in July. Thanks for the giggles. Sincerely, The big team x

Assuming Gerrardiola is capable of a bit of mental analysis, after dissecting this latest omnishambles from King (which has Jabba’s flipperprints all over it- no feckin’ way did King come up with that by himself), he should be drafting out his statement of “I’m A Non-Entity - Get Me Out Of Here” toute de suite. Hopefully the TOP will be all over King like a rash, as should the SPFL/SFA. Any other club chairman who basically announced that his club was broke would be hauled over the coals. Let’s see if Mr. Maxwell possesses a pair of testicles. All banteresque levity aside, Sevco’s antics over the piece are really making a c*nt of the Scottish game at a time when most clubs have their house in order and things are on the up. They can’t die quickly enough, IMHO.

Is there not a wee bit of a difference between a minor bauble competed for by a mix of part-time and effectively amateur teams from a single country vs. major european trophies...?

Nobody at Dalkeith is too offended by this, but we are determined to improve the club beyond your 'not very good' description. What you probably don't realise is that over the last 5-6 years our Community Club has steadily grown to 400+ playing members including around 50 girls in addition to 40 qualified coaches. We have a disabled football section, over 50s walking football, our over 35s won their league 2 years in a row, our Sunday Ams got to the Scottish Cup semi-final the season before last, we have 2 adult Futsal teams and will have an Under 20s development side next season, and plans are in place for a Women's team. We are one of only two East Region Junior clubs to have an SFA accredited club Chaplain. Last year our own training facility was upgraded to 3G astro and by the end of the year we'll have access to a full size 3G training pitch. Our SFA Club Licensing application is being processed now so we have been making improvements to the ground and are developing things accordingly. Dalkeith is the 'county town', and Midlothian is the fastest growing Local Authority in Scotland with 4000 new houses to be built within 3 miles of the town centre over the next 10 years. A new train station was opened at Eskbank in 2015, and the main visitor attraction at Dalkeith Country Park has benefited from considerable investment by Buccleuch Estates. The town is definitely on the up and it deserves a strong football club for the locals to follow. You can only wait and see if Dalkeith Thistle's potential is realised, or if it is still 'mediocre' in 5 years time.

Making this whole staying up thing look rather easy, it's amazing what the pressure coming off can do. Has been pretty brutal but I don't think the problems are that extensive. Three things we need imo: Some stability, let's not sign ten players and chuck ten players and let's not be forced to rebuild our centre back pairing three times. Someone to put the ball in the net. Think the returning slayer brings a fair bit of creativity, don't mind Gardyne too, would really like a Templeton type. Keep blooding youngsters, even if they screw up. They are our future and where we have invested it has paid off. It rarely does so instantly.

I think you mean "fewer".

I'm just glad Kelty had the vision to jump ship last season as gonna be a tough league coming up , so glad to see it though , clubs removing the limitations put on them by being junior wish them all well in their new adventure

The only thing preposterous here is that you think that a trophy that has failed to get a credible sponsor since time immemorial can be considered 'hlghly prestigious'. The two bob and a tangerine that your level can provide to the winner says otherwise, loudly and clearly, to everyone else in the Scottish game. The delusions about your setup are crumbling all around you.

I have to admit I'll miss Young for his weird interviews - all those odd pauses and inflections: "Now [5 second pause] this MAN!..."

*sigh* I can’t even be fucked writing a new response. I’ll just cut and paste from Fantalk. I have been buying a season ticket every season since Grant Murray got the job. I wanted to help the club out but I have lost that feeling. I think i’m probably going back to paying at the gate. I like the cup games and taking them off the season ticket makes buying a season ticket less appealing. However, that’s a minor thing. I am just sick of the Rovers. The last two years have scunnered me. After the McKinnon season it’s been all downhill. Since the Reclaim The Rovers thing we’ve had a token fan on the Board but that’s all it seems to be, a token gesture. If the club want me to stick my hand in my pocket and support it, then they’ll have to try and convince me it’s my club and actually make me want to attend rather than feel duty bound. Basically any goodwill I had for the club since Reclaim the Rovers has been booted out of over the last two seasons. In short, f**k this.

Seconded. @SuperHans is often worth reading but you can't help but get sidetracked by the whole Martin carry on.

So was the Weimar constitution but there you go.

....and 70 a couple of weeks later.

Can't wait to be dazzled at BTW tomorrow night by Don Paul's Powerpoint skills, revealing the lineup of navy blue adonises as I chuck back a few cheeky drumstick cocktails. #WeAreFalkirk

No. Even if you take at face value all of the incorrect things he said yesterday (protip: don't, it's a pack of self-serving lies), then you'd have to believe that he doesn't understand the basics of his obligations. He would have known about them before his concert-party machinations; he was reminded and warned about them during the coup, and they have been played out at 4 separate regulatory or judicial hearings since. As well as a couple of additional CoS things that addressed his not doing what he wasn't quite required to do. The timeline is that prior to going over 30% (late 2014), King became liable to make the offer, and subsequent selling of his shares can't change that; then in late 2016 the Takeover Panel found the fact of his actions to require an offer - simply applying the code; then there was one of King's best extended periods of dishonesty, I recommend reading the TAB judgement (early 2017) for anyone who thinks he can tell the truth; then he checked with the Takeover Panel that NOAL could make the offer (March 2017), and they said that was nae problem; then all the CoS stuff. He knows that selling at this stage is irrelevant. The thing that gets me is how transparent and blatant his lies have been, in all areas where it's possible to check them against the known facts. Last year's panicked approach to placate and pay off Ashley was a classic: King in really big trouble after a pre-hearing damned him, and looking like being subject to a mauling on the RRL front. Then announces a much improved deal with Ashley - although the details he released were identical to the existing deal - then it was found that he had paid Ashley off, using Rangers funds - to the tune of £3m. It. Is. All. Lies. The strange thing is that a lot of them are checkable in 5 minutes, and there are no checkable non-lies to balance them out.

Really? It’s great having someone ITK helping us out.

Barry Smith once referred to Kevin McHattie as the best left back in the division. That should temper any expectation of him stamping a positive, non dud influence on the team.

(Posting for no other reason than I'm fed up of seeing a The Rangers jersey on our page in the app)

Why on earth are you comparing Scotland to England? England has over twelve times the population of Scotland. When we actually look at leagues that aren't among Europe's elite, we find a very similar pattern to Scotland - attendances are pushed higher by two or three 'big clubs' in the country. None of that changes the fact that football attendances in Scotland are higher per capita at every level of the senior game than any comparable country in Europe. In Slovakia for example - a country with an equivalent population - the average attendances in its second tier, 12th to 28th in the league system, are equivalent to the fourth tier in Scotland - just under 500. The same is true of the second tiers in Croatia, Serbia, as well as the third tier in Denmark. There is no reason why a fourth national tier can't function in Scotland while second and third tiers operate in comparable countries, because Scottish football is better supported and so can easily sustain 42 teams in a national setup. And no amount of whataboutery from yourself about England or the Old Firm can change those iron-clad facts.

I know m8, lol

8th you say?

The number of people who have such a massive problem about travelling and want their club to stay in a cul-de-sac league as a result - arrogantly assuming, btw, that their club would get anywhere near the national level of the game - is dwindling as rapidly as the number of clubs in the Junior setup. The game is moving on regardless and you're just going to have to deal with that.

Why do people on here always refer to the clubs who have joined the e.o.s as defectors.going to play in a ametuers league, all did their own investigations as to the quality of the teams are have been dissatisfied with the sjfa.and looked to better themselfs weather you agree or not.if your club has chosen to stay junior thats your choice.all the late applicants must have had second thoughts.again their choice.

I remember similar moaning when I was on the Dumbarton supporters bus last Wednesday evening travelling up to Arbroath. Oh wait, no I don't, because we're not a bunch of children that find it utterly ridiculous that a football team playing in a national competition might need to travel the length of the nation. The attendance was 892 as well. What exactly is it about a few hours travelling to watch your team that you find mad?

Probably the same way that guy felt about his cheese.

I imagine playing for Stevie G would be enough, and that no actual payment would be required.

There is a working pyramid - backwards looking clubs have chosen not to join it, you resent those that have joined, The only laughing stock I can see round here is you and your tedious argument about Dalkeith.

Well done sir Neil

Funny how Isa and Khufu both stick to the exceptionally tired cliché of "mediocre" when trying to describe forward thinking clubs, its almost as if they cant accept clubs using the options open to them in terms of ground improvements, fixture lists, youth development, community involvement, opportunity to progress up the pyramid, Scottish Cup entry and of course club licencing are progressive clubs but in the world of the "grade" it somehow makes you a lesser club than those that choose to be left behind at the lower "grade". Its an odd way to look at things, not sure how you can call the likes of Dalkeith a mediocre club when they are one of the few progressive clubs in the Juniors. But then again as we know by now for those that are being left behind by progress its not about improvement its about the "grade". As with 99% of this thread I'm still waiting on information from Isa/Khufu about the benefits of staying in the Juniors as opposed to moving senior, come on lads you've had weeks but cant seem to come up with a solitary answer. Surely you can come up with something.

So King’s grand plan is to hope than Gerrard is a managerial genius and he can win the league and qualify for the CL with £6 million plus whatever he can get for moving on the shite he has now. My dream is to drive a Nissan GT-R and eat Ariana Grande’s arse.

As said above, it's madness to compare Scotland to England as they're so much bigger! Here are some more accurate comparisons: The Netherlands, 18,986 average, without Ajax/Feyenoord/PSV/Twente 12,539, 34% drop Belgium, 10,867 average, without Bruge/Gent/Liege/Anderlecht 8,266, 25% drop Portugal, 12,341 average, without Benfica/Sporting/Porto 4,090, 67% drop Greece, 5,116 average, without Olympiacos/PAOK/AEK 1,834, 64% drop Denmark, 5,996 average, without Kopenhagen/Brondby 4,573, 24% drop Serbia, 2,301 average, without Red Star/Partizan 1,468, 36% drop Switzerland, 9,944 average, without Basel/Young Boys 6,939, 30% drop As can be seen, some countries have a larger drop than others, but it's the same in all European leagues outside the top: take away the top and the average attendances drop significantly. Of these countries, only Denmark is roughly the size of Scotland. All others are significantly larger. The attendance in Scotland without Celtic/ Rangers is higher than in all other countries outside the top leagues, with the exception of The Netherlands, a country with a population 3 times the size of Scotland's. Scotland's attendance without Celtic/Rangers is still larger than the average in Greece, Denmark and Serbia, while not being much less than Switzerland and Belgium.

The pyramid setup has already happened - as shown by a Lowland League club (Edinburgh City) winning promotion and put East Stirlingshire out of the national leagues in the process. No amount of tantrums about the rightful place of the Joonyurs can change that fact. Thanks for playing anyway.

New cans are on the way, Team.

"He slipped on his fucking Rs.. Steve Gerrard, Gerrard"

89 days until the new season - the time taken for the fastest clipper ship to sail from New York to San Francisco around the Horn.