Galabankie

The SFA have a responsibility to all teams/members, likewise the SPFL have a responsibility to all 42 teams – the harsh reality is that the impact of the introduction of Colts teams will see the demise of certain clubs if the bribe is accepted, the bigger picture and end game becomes much closer. It starts with the two clubs introduced in the pilot who will be redistributing monies received from the SFA through the performance awards and elite academy grants. After the pilot the remainder of the premiership clubs will be introduced into the Leagues which will be undertaking a reconstruction at the same time - distribution monies, number of teams in each tier, introduction of ‘B’ teams, regionalisation, automatic relegation from L2, the potential introduction of a differently formatted European League replacing the Champions League/Europa Cup along the lines of what is happening with National Team. The Saturday leagues will no longer be the bread and butter for the top Premiership teams – the midweek European Leagues will bring home the bacon and then there will be no limit to where the ‘B’ team will play note the term ‘B’ team (this is different from Colts) – this might seem far- fetched to some, to others not. When the SPL and SPFL merged clubs were warned as to what would happen if they didn’t vote it through, the same fear and bullying tactics will be applied again, as recent as last season two L2 board rooms reported that they had been informed by the Chief Executive that the Colts proposal would be imposed on the clubs if they didn’t vote for it. Next Steps - Neil Doncaster will be inviting the chairmen of the dissenting Clubs for a 1 to 1 dinner! FOOTNOTE - Anyone that believes Doncaster & Regan are not involved and supporting this need to book themselves back in to the funny-farm. Last season Elgin City were told that if the L2 clubs didn't accept the proposals the changes would be imposed upon them, I believe the same point was put to at least one other L2 club Chairman.

WELL DONE ANNAN ATHLETIC COLT TEAMS IN LEAGUE 2. No doubt supporters and members of Annan Athletic FC will have heard of the proposal to trial the inclusion of Rangers and Celtic Colts ...teams in SPFL Division 2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42793072 The board at Annan have discussed this and at this time are not minded to support the proposal. We would like the views of our supporters and members on this and you can give us your opinion by e-mail to annanathletic.enquiries@btconnect.com. We will use any responses to aid our thinking should this come to a formal proposal which requires a vote at SPFL level.

A few Thoughts The two year trial will include Celtic and Rangers Colts and any other Premiership club that wishes to take part, it is suggested by the SPFL that only the two OF clubs are interested in the pilot. That would seem the other Premiership clubs are all happy with this for now as they are more interested in what will be the end game. After the pilot there will be re-structuring of the Leagues (with potentially all 12 Premiership colt sides in the mix), I just hope all the L2 clubs voting for this think that £7500 - £10000 for each of the next two seasons is worth it, accepting this bribe is very short term indeed. Here is a sobering thought, if the two Colts teams finish 11th and 12th respectively, the team in 10th place will be in the relegation play-off position. The pilot will have the clubs playing each other 3 times and wowee clubs will potentially achieve savings - an identified plus by the authors of the paper submitted to the clubs. I can't reflect what the loan deals have been for other clubs but Annan have had Jordan Hart (Celtic), Jack Breslin (Celtic), Andrew Mitchell(Rangers), Ryan Sinnamon (Rangers), David Ferguson (Motherwell), Steven Lawless (Motherwell), Blair Henderson (Hibernian), Tom Fry (Motherwell), Harry Monaghan (Hibs), Jordan Halsman (Motherwell) from Premier League clubs. This will impact on more than L2 clubs. There is a lot of bullshit in this trial about player development, increased crowds in L2, greater hospitality/marketing opportunities, hopefully Annan remain firm in their position and vote against this - whatever the fans differences are they all need to unite and lobby their respective clubs to throw this pilot proposal out and prepare for what will be a bigger fight in the years to come.

So the golden egg / carrot has finally been dangled then !

Not quite sure what is actually being argued, Annan became Associate members on July 5th 2008, we were then given immediate ground improvements prior to season starting, there were others that had to be achieved by the end of the four year probation period, at the AGM in May we were given full SFL Membership despite one outstanding item - removal of slope and levelling of pitch, considering we had already started the work to install a synthetic surface two weeks earlier the decision was easy to make. If we wind the clock back to 2008 we completed our application late May, we were visited by the SFL's working Party in June, they inspected our facilities, accounts etc, I would therefore suggest that we had registered our ground in the application process

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/4424393/Rangers-on-the-road-to-nowhere.html Annan Athletic's stance remains Div 3 or nowhere

Harry was appointed on 29th May 2006 - interesting stuff, I had a suspicion Harry would be close to the longest serving manager in Scottish Football. I had suspected there were no SPL managers serving longer than him though I wasn't sure about John McGlynn but knew he'd served longer than Brian Ried who played at Galabank in a tournament then brought Ayr down to Annan a season later.

Jamie, Do you have details or know where I can find details of who the longest serving managers are in the SFL from longest to most recently appointed.