Spikethedee

Priority Number One after sorting out the short-term contracts for the players who are due to finish in June should be getting Robertson on a 3-5 year deal.

I've seen the attendances at friendlies when the last season finished two months ago and the next one was starting in 2-5 weeks. Never seen the attendance at a friendly when there's been no live football at all for 3-6 months and the next season might be another 2-4 months away. Was about to say I would even pay to stream a new game featuring the Kernaghan or McIntyre Dundee sides, but that's not really credible, but you get the idea...

What about some kind of experiment? If, as seems likely, the 19/20 is called in the next few days, and we don't know how, when or if the 20/21 season will start, why not have a series of one day football festivals on streaming/pay-per-view? Basic idea - four or five venues, with staggered kick-off times throughout a day or weekend. Local-ish teams, so you could have Dundee v Arbroath at 10am, Montrose v Brechin at 1pm, Dundee Utd v St Johnstone at 4pm, Brechin v Forfar at 7pm, all at the same stadium. One set of groundstaff/safety people etc so less risk of multiple people like that needed, teams staggered throughout the day to allow for cleaning of changing rooms etc. Revenue can be shared amongst all teams as a one-off trial to see if it would prove popular (obviously extra paid to the host club) and if doesn't get enough subscribers, then it can be seen as a notice that closed-door games aren't going to be a money spinner. Obviously you have teams clustered where possible to minimise travel as much as you can, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Edinburgh, Forth Valley, Fife etc, so you get some derby games and possibly a bit more interest. Obviously, there are things to work out, but it's a basic idea that doesn't need all 42 clubs to have players signed for a season until we know what's going to happen.

Why would unemployed footballers not be entitled to any government support? They can be furloughed by whoever they were employed by on 28th February (think that's the correct date), even if their contract is finished. The club may choose to supplement their wages with the extra 20%, but doesn't have to.

Going by your signature - it should be Kusunga??!! A nice picture of Greg Stewart would go down a treat too....

He'll need a (much) bigger bit of paper to draw the legend that is Nade…..

It is true - when they need box office, they call the mighty Dees.....

McCandless, Kernaghan (shudder)

Looks more like a training top to me in those photos - the socks also look terrible...

Apparently, according to the Guardian, Amiens are looking at taking legal proceedings to stop them being relegated from Ligue 1 after "the French league (LFP) drew up the final standings according to a performance index – number of points per game weighed by head-to-head record". Am sure Ms Budge will be watching intently - Patrick & Stranraer too, I imagine...

So, when is this all-singing, all-dancing, going to put the whole world to rights, amazing, super-duper Task Force going to report back then? We then need to factor in the two weeks of deciding which member of the Bigot Brothers is more pissed off and whether or not it will pass, then a four week period for a botched voting process to be worked through before we can actually start to implement any decision made, time is marching on...

I'm pretty sure that, if things go the way it looks like they might without reconstruction, then Hibs might let us have quite a few players on loan or at low cost, just for the lolz of keeping Hearts down.... Agree with most of the names on your list, @Speroni*1, although I have never seen much from Slivka whenever I've watched Hibs...

I wish I could have seen this lot play.... Who do we have left now? Just Liney, Ure, & Seith? Have I missed anyone??

Just watched this last night and a few thoughts: 1 - No idea who Manly was, never remember him playing for us. 2- Wieghorst - what a forking player. 3 - George Shaw (& James Grady a couple of seasons later) - tiny wee forker(s) who could fair head a ball. 4 - Had totally forgotten that Shannon & Bett played for the DABS 5 - I know that it's starting from a low base, but the DABS top was the absolute pits. Tangerine to start with, but then a reddish ROVER logo, horrible stripes down it and the ridiculous font for the numbers on the back - an absolute abortion of a kit. No wonder hardly anyone in the stands was wearing one. 6 - Ballboy behind the goal - legend. 7 - Gerry Britton looks like a science experiment gone wrong and the ponytail didn't help. 8 - Totally forgot about "Pony" as a sportswear brand - what a lot of pish. 9 - Paul Tosh - oh dear. 10 - Jim Duffy's suit and tie - just wow.... All in all, a fairly enjoyable hour of lockdown. More please, BBC...

HTH

Technically, a furloughed manager/coach shouldn't be watching video/footage of potential signings for next season, developing tactical formations or anything like that, but I presume that watching stuff at home on YouTube etc is practically unenforceable for the police, so would probably just happen (wife/girlfriend wanting jobs done around the house that you've been saying for the past ten years that you've got no time to do notwithstanding, of course!!)

Top flight spot next season due to league reconstruction, Gorgeous Greg back in dark blue where he belongs and a keeper who can actually positively stop goals being conceded, rather than deliberately contributing to them being scored. That's all we need to keep us happy....

According to the BBC website, they are showing a 3-2 victory over the DABS from 1995 as extended highlights on Friday night. Can't say that game immediately pops into my head, so might have to have a wee look... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52360695

That's where I was coming from with the other points I made: It's exceptional circumstances and why would there be any harm in asking if it's possible? This is only if behind closed doors is the only way to continue in the medium term - you could have Premiership on Wed & Sat, Championship on Thur & Sun and Leagues 1 & 2 on Tues & Fri, so no games would be cutting across, or taking viewers away from the games already in the contract. No-one ever though that the government would agree to pay 80% of your wages whilst you sat on the couch and binge-watched TV box sets on Netflix, so is it really such a stretch to just ask if additional TV matches could be shown until fans can get back into the stands???

All I'm asking is that clubs look at every possible avenue before making a final decision and, potentially, not having any football at all until 2021. If it's a non starter or not financially viable, then fair enough, but I would at least like the question to be asked...

No, I'm suggesting that lower league clubs could look at selling individual games or packages of games to BBC Alba, STV, Premier Sports or whoever (maybe even SKY as an extra to their existing deal) on a pay-per-view or free-to-air basis, depending on who is interested, in addition to the current deal. Monies to be split primarily between the participating clubs, but with a pot of general money for all clubs to share. It may be better to have packages, so you can get Dundee v ICT, but also have to show Montrose v Annan or whatever as well. I'm sure a case can be made for a bit of leeway with the current circumstances, and showing those games is hardly going to intrude on SKY showing the Bigot Brothers v Hibs or Aberdeen... I'm not saying it's a definite answer or even particularly feasible, but it should be looked at as a possibility.

Apparently, these are "exceptional, unprecedented times", so it wouldn't hurt too much to look at some kind of leeway/dispensation for short-term deals to deal with this???

The Leagues/individual clubs should at least be looking in to the feasibility of small, pay-per-view or free-to-air contracts with TV channels for individual matches/packages of matches as a fallback option. You may not be able to look at top flight games due to the SKY contract, but having say, Dundee v ICT, or Dunfermline v Raith on BBC Alba, STV, Premier Sports or whatever might be a big enough draw for TV companies, as I'm pretty sure everyone would be happy to see some kind of live football, even if it's behind closed doors. This is only a stopgap option, to at least provide some kind of extra income if we can't have crowds back to start with - 65% to home team, 25% to away team and the rest into a shared pot for all clubs perhaps???

For next season only, have two divisions in Scotland - current Premiership & Championship as Top League, and current League1 & League 2 as Lower League. Scrap the League Cup and start the season with a playoff between current bottom of Championship & Top of League 1 for right to play in top league next season. The two leagues play out as normal, with top 12 and bottom 10 in the top league making up the top two leagues for the season after, and top 10, bottom 10 in the second lower league making up the two lower leagues for the season after. If the Highland League & Lowland League champions want in on the action, then they and the bottom of League 2 take part in a mini tournament at the same time as the playoff mentioned above.

Just thinking about it a bit more, would a shortened season of a top 12 Premiership with a split after home & away fixtures then top 6 & bottom 6 playing home AND away, be able to be fitted in? My dodgy maths makes that 22 games pre-split, then 10 after the split. Not sure when the season would need to start to accommodate that, but could be worth a look if not losing out on you-know-what is the big thing for SKY???