Sportsound Watch

[Ric]

14 minutes ago, paranoid android said:

As with Doncaster's other recent interview on Sportsound, it wasn't exactly Frost/Nixon.

Another  interview on Doncaster's terms - just a one-to-one with a tame BBC presenter - last time it was Richard Gordon going through the motions - this time it was David Currie walking on eggshells.

If you wish the flip side, I felt English's interview with Budge was just as lacking in bite.

[Moomintroll]

54 minutes ago, virginton said:

If you had said eight weeks ago that Neil Doncaster would be easily outmaneuvering posturing club executives like Nelms and Budge, before slaughtering ill-informed media critics like English then you'd be quite rightly have been taken away to an asylum. Perhaps the lesson learned by SPFL executives from the Armageddon fiasco has been to let your critics spout their mouth off in the media first and dig a hole for themselves in the process. All that Doncaster and Gray have needed to do in recent appearances has been to rubbish the grand conspiracies that have grown in their silence and so discredit the likes of English who have been batting for Team Budge all along.

You don't often get things right vT, but you have summed this up well. All Neil Doncaster has done is ride the shitstorm & occasionally popped up to point out the obvious bollocks & this has made him seem almost statesmanlike in comparison to the toys/pram outage interface scenario that is Parks & Budge. Lest we forgot however, the man is an incompetent wugwump who is being made to look better than self interested shitgibbons who are somehow even more incompetent in spite of the fact they have built very successful businesses elsewhere.

Edited May 10, 2020 by Perkin Flump
Missed an s

[DA Baracus]

28 minutes ago, wastecoatwilly said:

Martin O'Neil just rinsed jabba the nut I don't think there will be an apology this time.   

This is a point worth highlighting.

They were falling over themselves to make tearful apologies when Michael Stewart said that Traynor is a shite talking p***k (or words to that effect).

They won't be doing that here. I do wonder why..

[DA Baracus]

Allan Preston earlier was crying earlier that one of the seasons it was unfair that the League 2 playoffs were binned is that Kelty have spent loads of money.

Kelty are just another Gretna in waiting who will be cheered through the leagues by the sycophantic media when they should all be asking serious questions about Kelty's sustainably and the SPFL's rules around financial fair play.

[Ludo*1]

Rangers have punted Jim Traynor on the sly.

Some DUP Councillor apparently:

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18312935.jim-traynors-loyalist-replacement-pr-disaster-rangers/

 

[EdinburghLivi]

3 minutes ago, cmontheloknow said:

Well the SPFL have withdrawn Brechin from the play of altogether which makes it topical. My understanding is they were going to kick the LL clubs out the Challenge Cup if they didn't accept Brechin into LL, despite the cut off being the Tay bridge, all because Brechin recuited a relegation-standard team from the Central belt.  Maybe a change of signing policy rather than the disregarding of the LL/HL catchment?

Topical and something that should be questioned but not a smoking gun of wrongdoing in the saga, in my opinion.

Agree that Brechin should go to the HL based on the boundary and not to the LL based on their preference. I am just an observer on the LL/EOS/WOS forums so I am not sure of the history of the boundary and why it was placed at the Tay Bridge, for what it's worth. Reading the forums, it seems like there is little appetite for moving it further north.

[HeWhoWalksBehindTheRows]

18 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

Today's Sportsound on BBC Sounds for anyone who missed it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_scotland_mw

Have I woke up in an alternate reality with chic talking sense or is it just that he sounds sober for the first time in my life?

[cmontheloknow]

Just now, EdinburghLivi said:

Topical and something that should be questioned but not a smoking gun of wrongdoing in the saga, in my opinion.

Agree that Brechin should go to the HL based on the boundary and not to the LL based on their preference. I am just an observer on the LL/EOS/WOS forums so I am not sure of the history of the boundary and why it was placed at the Tay Bridge, for what it's worth. Reading the forums, it seems like there is little appetite for moving it further north.

The Tay Bridge cut off was what the SPFL, LL and HL all agreed on ans has been in place since the play off first popped up in 2014 (?). If it is going to be changed, then fine but perhaps not mid season on the say so of the club who are bottom and have a rep on the board. To move it north brings another 20+ teams into LL catchment (the Tayside Juniors plus those in SPFL) and could create at tier 5 a Stranraer v Brechin fixture.

The Tayside Junior clubs do want to see the boundary shift however as they don't want to go the HL route.

[kingjoey]

2 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Tom English is done.

Hes chucked his career down the pan for absolutely no reason. Incredible.

P&B posters love a good overreaction. 

[kingjoey]

28 minutes ago, cmontheloknow said:

Well the SPFL have withdrawn Brechin from the play off altogether which makes it topical. My understanding is they were going to kick the LL clubs out the Challenge Cup if they didn't accept Brechin into LL, despite the cut off being the Tay bridge, all because Brechin recuited a relegation-standard team from the Central belt.  Maybe a change of signing policy rather than the disregarding of the LL/HL catchment?

There was an implication on yesterday's Sportsound that this might be the case, but nothing more than an implication.

[EdinburghLivi]

8 minutes ago, cmontheloknow said:

The Tay Bridge cut off was what the SPFL, LL and HL all agreed on ans has been in place since the play off first popped up in 2014 (?). If it is going to be changed, then fine but perhaps not mid season on the say so of the club who are bottom and have a rep on the board. To move it north brings another 20+ teams into LL catchment (the Tayside Juniors plus those in SPFL) and could create at tier 5 a Stranraer v Brechin fixture.

The Tayside Junior clubs do want to see the boundary shift however as they don't want to go the HL route.

Thanks for the context. Is there more chance of the boundary moving south?

Also irrelevant to this discussion but have been wanting to ask for a while - is there a formal East/West boundary?

[DA Baracus]

Is the boundary not a point latitude? Pretty sure I've seen it before it, and even it places it around the Tay it runs right across the country east to west (thus negating the need for an east/west boundary).

[DA Baracus]

If the Highland or Lowland team wins the final they are promoted to League Two, and the team finishing 10th is relegated to the appropriate regional league depending on whether they are north or south of 56.4513N latitude (middle of the Tay Road Bridge

[Swordfishtrombone]

20 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

Dodds is the typical wee man Scottish coward who followed the old, dead Rangers due to glory seeking reasons and who was such a wee shitebag that he felt playing for the old, dead Rangers was the pinnacle of things. He's a dime a dozen and an absolute moron utterly lacking in ambition.

Seems a bit harsh. I’m no fan of Dodds as a pundit, he certainly has a bias to Rangers and is a bit thick, and I know Dundee fans have reason to dislike him but as a player he was a very good Scottish top flight striker and probably achieved the most he could have with his ability. He played for his country and played very well for a few clubs resulting in a move to a very good Rangers team. He was a niggly wee b*****d and a constant nuisance and goal threat as a player, I don’t think coward is a fair word to describe him.  He’s somebody I can’t get annoyed about. There are far worse than him. 

[NorthBank]

English is citing all the clubs unhappy with the SPFL board. By some strange coincidence the list is all the clubs who were relegated or didn't get the promotion they dreamed of. Around 9 or 10 clubs in total ie around 25% or less. The other clubs are not complaining.

Now any proposal to tie things up was going to upset clubs. Some wanted no reconstruction; some wanted reconstruction for 1 year; some wanted permanent reconstruction; some (all league 2 clubs) would not entertain additional clubs. So it was impossible to get a univeral agreement.

A vote was taken on a proposal. The majority 80% voted for the proposal. The others are pissed off which is what would happen in any vote. Accept it and move on.

Get doon.

[DumbartonBud]

4 minutes ago, NorthBank said:

English is citing all the clubs unhappy with the SPFL board. By some strange coincidence the list is all the clubs who were relegated or didn't get the promotion they dreamed of. Around 9 or 10 clubs in total ie around 25% or less. The other clubs are not complaining.

Now any proposal to tie things up was going to upset clubs. Some wanted no reconstruction; some wanted reconstruction for 1 year; some wanted permanent reconstruction; some (all league 2 clubs) would not entertain additional clubs. So it was impossible to get a univeral agreement.

A vote was taken on a proposal. The majority 80% voted for the proposal. The others are pissed off which is what would happen in any vote. Accept it and move on.

Get doon.

Given this position it is actually remarkable that they managed to get 80% of the clubs to agree, perhaps they are in fact acting with the overall members interests at heart and it is a just small noisy minority that have managed to stir up some noise via some friendly media people who are only too happy to contrive controversy to give themselves some thing to talk or write about to keep themselves in a job. 

[Ginaro]

7 minutes ago, EdinburghLivi said:

Thanks for the context. Is there more chance of the boundary moving south?

Also irrelevant to this discussion but have been wanting to ask for a while - is there a formal East/West boundary?

Move it south, to where? Move it to Cupar and you only include 7 more clubs (only 1 SPFL), so you'd need to go all the way south to say, Inverkeithing, to make a meaningful change. But that would mean Kelty, BSC, Stirling Uni, Cowdenbeath would be in the Highland League area. So, no chance.

I do understand the position and self-interest of Tayside and Angus clubs, but moving the boundary north can't just happen on its own as it creates an imbalance between Highland and Lowland. If League Two operated its relegation and play-off like League One then you could easily address the imbalance with one Highland and two Lowland clubs involved. But the SPFL clubs are hardly going to vote for that.

If you mean a formal boundary between the East and West of Scotland Leagues, then no there isn't. But right now you could draw a line along the borders of Stirling, Falkirk, West Lothian, and the Borders council boundaries and no teams would be on the wrong side of the line.

[wastecoatwilly]

22 minutes ago, kingjoey said:

P&B posters love a good overreaction. 

In fairness the egg chaser is usually half decent so he could be playing the Simon Cowell role here for affect.  

[cmontheloknow]

37 minutes ago, kingjoey said:

There was an implication on yesterday's Sportsound that this might be the case, but nothing more than an implication.

I believe there is more to it than just an implication. We shall see! There's very little SPFL can do to make life 'difficult' for LL seeing as they are separate bodies and the can't routinely cancel play off (and it was not in their gift to sink this one either).

[cmontheloknow]

39 minutes ago, EdinburghLivi said:

Thanks for the context. Is there more chance of the boundary moving south?

Also irrelevant to this discussion but have been wanting to ask for a while - is there a formal East/West boundary?

It keeps being raised and the EoSL in theory don't cover territory north of the line so if a club wanted into the pyramid they are stuck. Highland are chatting with North Juniors and North Caley league but a united front seems quit distant.

No formal E/W boundary but it has not been required until now. There are a few clubs in EoS FA who are now within WOSFL territory but Gretna 2008 have straddled the SoS region without much fuss (and no involvement in their competitions) so as long as clubs nominate their desired tier 6 league I guess that is how it will run.

Edited May 10, 2020 by cmontheloknow