EdTheDuck

What's Stuart Baxter up to?

Good and fucken proper like

The hoofball, attrition fitba has gone. Indeed the very possibility of launching it seems to have been scrubbed from the teams conscience and there's a determination to play to a different philosophy. Maybe better players, but certainly different kind of players. Far be it from a miserable b*****d like me to get carried away with a half a dozen good performances but I am getting carried away with half a dozen good performances.

McInnes version 2014-2017 apparently in the dugout. The guy has rediscovered his mojo, we're as good to watch as we were back then. what the f**k actually happened?

Given the S*n's horrendous and wholly insincere apology this week following their ghastly Death Express extravaganza, it is irony way up the Biblical Scale for this inept c**t to be calling out anyone else's apology although the AFC apologies were really only missing "we'll win the cup to make it up to you" crap from the standard club apology that pollutes the local press on a regular basis.

3-0 wins for St Johnstone, Hamilton & Celtic would be justice In the case of the Celtic game McInnes will be dancing around the training ground in delight at just 0-3

I'll have settle for the highlights on the BBC because I'm fucked if I'll pay a ridiculous fee that will largely be used to finance English football and treat ours as filler item at best. That I miss out on cunto Boyd is just a bonus

Ah

Why's the game against Hamilton been postponed?

I don't know that that is, in fact, fact. Our split has advantages and disadvanages. The most obvious advantage is that it adds a target for mid-table teams in the run up to the split i.e. making it into or cementing your place in the top 6. Post split, the advantage is guaranteed games against your 'peers' and the ability to influence your final place (title, europe, relegation, play-off). This has led to some big old crowds turning up. Round robin, particularly double round robin, does not guarantee such games at the sharp end of the season. The argument is about "meaningful" games. Some people will argue that every game is meaningfull, even the mid-table nothing-at-stake run-in games in a 16 or 18 team league, although I think that is really the self appointed super-fan; try selling it to the not-s0-super-fans (the vast majority) or a TV audience. You won't. The disdvantage is that the teams in 7th and maybe 8th are stuck in 7th or 8th and cannot climb any hgher or qualify for Europe (always thought if 7th ended up with more points than the team in the final EL qualifying place, that could be a playoff but then again they had 33 games to make it into top 6 so, y'know...) As for the dross skelping title challengers I had a look back and can't really see it happening pre-split days, but I found a few examples of teams in the top 6 'who are safe' not only beating a title challenger but influencing the destination of the title (Motherwell most famously (last day), Aberdeen in 2008 (last day), Hearts & Hibs (last day & 2nd last day) jointly in 2009 (draws)). Fact is, most seasons ante-Sevco were usually mileas ahead or miles behind the other ugly sister and the safe teams or the dross had very little influence in the run-in.

*their The league structure has f**k all to do with success or failure of the national or club teams Scotland qualified for World Cups under 18 and 10 team top divisions. Scottish clubs have won European trophies under 18 and 10 team divisons and got to finals under 18, 10 and 12 team structures with and without splits

Anything else you said has dissipated into the ether because this couple of sentences stands out like a wosname at a whatchamajigger. Anyone or anything that champions B teams in the senior leagues can, as the bard himself once said, get to f**k.

To paraphrase Kryten, I realise I'm quoting the same quote twice, but I thought it was such an important point it was worth quoting twice

The reason we ended up with smaller leagues is because attendances had collapsed. In the two decades after the Second World War until Celtic won the first of their 9-in-a-row; attendances fell from their peak by more than 50%. This was in a period where 7 different clubs won the title, 8 years out of 20 the champions were not one of the Ugly Sisters, it cost the equivalent of about £3 to get in and there was no live football on TV. All the things people reckon would have fans flocking to football nowadays. And it failed spectacularly. Don’t forget, in them days gate money was virtually all the income clubs had. The first year of the Premier Division produced exactly the results they hoped it would; an extra 330,000 people watched the top ten clubs. Of course The Rest were, frankly, thrown to the wolves, the stupidest fucking decision ever in Scottish fitba was 2 X 14 playing just 26 games and the Spring Cup to make up the difference. An utter disaster. Yes, that was then and this is now, a completely different world. Commercial income, TV money, sponsorship and all that. But the reasons 18 failed in Scotland haven’t changed and they’ve got worse. There won’t be 7 different clubs winning the title over 20 years and there won’t be 8 seasons out of 20 when one of the US don’t win it and it won’t cost a fiver to get in. Anyone who thinks more people will turn up at Dens Park or Fir Park to watch Morton rather than a second game against Hamilton because of a novelty factor at £25 a head, particularly if the home clubs are coasting in mid-table, do not have fully functioning frontal lobes. Clubs know all this and there will never be a return to 18. Personally, the only change I’d make is I’d make the Championship a 12 too, complete with a 33 game split.

yeah...but no

FTFY

bribe /brʌɪb/ Learn to pronounce verb verb: bribe; 3rd person present: bribes; past tense: bribed; past participle: bribed; gerund or present participle: bribing dishonestly persuade (someone) to act in one's favour by a gift of money or other inducement. "they attempted to bribe opponents into reconstruction"

Glory hunting, pure and simple, although if he has continued supporting them through the Wiggy era then the glory hunting is negated and he becomes a bona fide sheep shagger.

God forbid. We'd have a 24 team top division, 4 down/up, Fiver to get in and no TV coverage except highlights on Sportscene at 10:30pm on a Saturday & Wednesday in no time flat because 'that's what the fans want'. Wage caps, summer football, limiting foreign players (for a given value of foreign) are other unworkable solutions routinely regurgitated. It's often suggested that the ugly sisters leaving our game would result in our football leagues declining to Welsh/Irish levels but that is bollocks. It's usually trumpeted by idiot "succulent lamb journalists" but it's enthusiastically echoed by some fans. In fact catering to what "the fans" want as per above would see Scottish Football essentially part-time inside a decade.

Just imagine If they did win their game in hand If they did win the two Ugly Sister games If the green meanies hit a form slump Boy o boy, I couldn't give a flying f**k, not a single f**k whatsoever

f**k all to do with it being boring, we ended up with 12 as a payoff for the "breakaway" big (greedy b*****d) clubs to form the Scottish Premier League. The split was no more than a parctical solution to avoid playing 44 games btw, it was not some brilliant marketing dude* at the SFA/SPL who foresaw the possibilities of the race to the top 6 or the high stakes games it would guarantee post-split. *I don't even know if the SFA/SPL/SPFL have marketing dudes and I would bet the mortgage money there is no one in any of the organizations that would be termed brilliant by anyone outside said organizations.

and implementing fair shares of TV money, gate sharing to enhance that democracy and rules preventing running at a consistant loss

What are the advantages of playing once at once away (sic) ?

Precisely what did happen in the old 18/19 team leagues. Clubs came up then went down again then came up again then yadda yadda yadda (Stirling, Clyde, Ayr...) The thing was though, by the time the 10 team Prem Division was introduced there were 9 full-time clubs left in Scotland, IIRC, so part timers did ok in the Second Division cuz they all were.

self interest is, as usual, going to paralyze Scottish fitba although this time it may actually take a few of the runners out of the game completely. The complete lack of imagination will see whatever eventually does emerge from the stramash being even more tedious than what it replaces.