ScottishRed

9 minutes ago, ooRya said:

There was a thread recently, asking why a city the size of Bristol doesn't have a top flight team.

Sadly, this is why.

So many people "prepared" to sell, or resigned to selling Semenyo and/or Scott, when in reality, if we ever are going to have a shot at the prem, we need to be building around players like this.

 

I know people will come back to this to say "£38 mill loss" "FFP" "Points deduction", but that's right now - what's the excuse for the past decades?

The ‘excuse’ as you call it is very simple and has been explained by myself and others many,many times.

When a club playing in a higher league expresses an interest in a player with the associated massive increase in salary, it becomes impossible to hold on to said player as they will want to move.

Ultimately, they are professional sportsmen who wish to maximize their income and test themselves at the highest level they can.

It is a simple as that. People need to remember that most of the pro players that turn out on a Saturday are not supporters of that team , they are simply doing their job.

As always, a large part of this will be the player himself.

If his head has been turned by what Palace have told his agent they are prepared to pay him, he will be off.

2 hours ago, TonyTonyTony said:

Not looking good so far for Giggsy is it? Nasty bastard

IF, his ex is being truthful then it appears he is a complete bastard. BTW, I am not doubting her.

But, anyone who has an affair with his own brothers wife is hardly going to be a paragon of virtue.

6 hours ago, Logical-City said:

The Johnson obsession some of you have is embarrassing 

I don’t think it’s embarrasing. 

SL gave him a job that he had no justification in getting then threw money at him and Swiss Tony to try to get to the PL which was utterly naive and has set us back years.

The real culprit is the owner not Lee BUT, Lee is a fraud who will always get work but really shouldn’t.

His latest interview on the BBC Scotland Football website when he describes how, when out of work, he became a Professional Gambler - his words, made me spit out my coffee.

I actually think Lee is a nice bloke, and I mean that, but is utterly deluded regarding his own abilities- which we will pay the price for for years to come.

The blame however, is the nepotism of the owner.

1 hour ago, PFree said:

We all get excited about football returning but why is there so much expectancy that City should easily turn teams over all of a sudden?

We scraped through last season and played some pretty poor football being honest. We haven’t spent a single penny on transfers this summer. We have brought in a couple of lower league players with potential, one player with a decent pedigree at this level, but all on frees.

A football team doesn’t somehow become world beaters unexpectedly, it takes time to develop a side, and a lot of investment. With FFP, we are basically broke and working with handcuffs on or balls and chains in reality, aren’t we?
That said there were positives yesterday, spells in the first half where our movement and tempo were quite incredible, albeit we didn’t keep it up. It is undoubtedly going to be a long season and if we somewhere towards mid table come season end, we will have done well.

Is our Manager the right man? In my opinion, there are better coaches around who have us playing better by now, but of those available when Nigel was appointed, he would have got my vote. In six to eight games though, if results don’t improve, I expect he will leave, but let’s hope we are in a much better place by then and that we build further..

Not much to disagree with there. The problems won’t go away if Nige walks and I suspect that he might feel he has had enough if things don’t improve.

I can’t see him being fired but he may decide to go of his own volition.

The question then would be who could we get in that could make a difference? 

I see Sean Dyche mentioned on another thread - not a chance that would happen.

I hope I am wrong and I don’t want Nige to go but I suspect we would end up with another SL ‘project’!

27 minutes ago, Cardy said:

A bad tackle led to a full on scrap I heard. 3 now out injured with broken bones & some of the others were sent home on gardening leave. Expect to see some of the u23s on match day.

How good is your source for that info? Seems astonishingly unlikely - particularly the part about 3 players out with broken bones!

If true, that is a hugely serious reflection on the togetherness of the squad.

All the best fella. As someone who is about to start treatment, albeit for a different variant of the fuxxker, my thoughts are with you.

Be strong and kick it’s arse mate.

3 hours ago, formerly known as ivan said:

Will never understand how he wasn’t given a chance at this club

I understand your point but we signed Palmer for a load of £ and Sammy seemed to be ignored after that that. He was also competing with Paterson too.

From what I saw, which was clearly not a lot, he was a L1 player at that point, but very young and had potential. 

Strange signing, like so many under Swiss Tony. 

Quite incredible that a club operating at that level field an ineligible player in ANY competition. 

Clearly that is not down to Lee but it does reflect on him.

As mentioned previously a good start in the league is imperative given that they were effectively out of the cup even without the admin cock- up.

I suspect this could end very quickly as their owner is not known for his patience.

35 minutes ago, BTRFTG said:

His post match interview cropped up on a social media feed (not sure why?)

Don't worry if you didn't catch it, you've seen it dozens of times before:

We deserved to win 

I'm disappointed

We were well prepared, great game-plan, not my fault, players need to look at themselves

 

 

 

Didn’t watch the interview on the BBC Football site but the headline was that he was ‘bored’ by their second half performance.

Nothing changes with Lee.

I think he needs to be careful in what he says to the media up there much more so than do here. It truly is a goldfish bowl and Hibs owner is not known for his patience. The much lauded Shaun Maloney, who remember, was assistant manager of Belgium before he joined Hibs, lasted 4 months!

12 hours ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

I thought there was no love lost between the Pars and East Fife? I actually had a couple of nights out with Jim Leishman when he was the Dunfermline gaffer and he waxed lyrical about his club’s hatred for East Fife! 

There was real rivalries between all 4 Fife teams but as the years have passed that has disapated to a certain extent. Mainly due to East Fife’s and Cowdenbeaths demise down the leagues.

Big Jim - what a man! 

Was treated very badly by the club in the early 80’s and left / was fired.

This led to protest marches from the town to the ground on match days, led by the late great Stuart Adamson of Big Country and The Skids.

Stuart was a huge Pars fan but none  of the corporate stuff for him, you would see him on the terraces if he was not away working.

13 minutes ago, sglosbcfc said:

Yes a very poor result for Hibs. Although a little context, Falkirk might be third tier, but they are arguably one of the biggest clubs outside the top flight. They are full time and capable of 5,000+ attendances even in the third tier. That said, the result puts a bit of pressure on Johnson and he'll need to bounce back with a handsome win in the next group match. Elimination at this stage would be unthinkable for the club.

Agreed. My hometown team, Dunfermline Athletic, are one of Falkirks biggest, if not their biggest rivals.

DAFC, were relegated last season and despite that huge disappointment, the fans are looking forward to the ‘derby’ games. I think you will find that 5k attendances are more than a little rare, but possible a few times a year.

Falkirk recently had a meeting with supporters and admitted that they are losing £1m a year, which is unsustainable. 

It puts into context tonight’s result.

Falkirk 1 - 0 Hibernian 

For those who don’t follow Scottish football, Falkirk are in the third tier.

Not a pre-season friendly, proper competitive game.

Hibs are about to pull in £3m  for a lad going to Bologna, small change for McAllistair really.

5 minutes ago, Simon bristol said:

Just been reading through this,,,, if i was a hibs fan i would be getting extremely twitchy…. They dont have a lot of money im sure,,, 130000 for them to spend on an unproven 16 year old is a huge amount,,, the club is basically paying 130000 to enable the mcallister family to relocate. Now the lad might be the second coming of messi, but if hes not, that is probably all their transfer budget spent on a 16 year old youth prospect 

Many many years ago Best signed for Hibs. I was still living in Scotland then and following my home town team Dunfermline Athletic.

They had a league game on a Sunday, which was highly unusual, against Hibs,at home, just after he had signed - it may have been his debut, but not sure.

Game was a total sell- out, simply because of George. He was overweight and never left the center circle....

Completely, ran the game,and showed what he could do even in his thirties. What a player he was.

1 hour ago, Taz said:

Made of glass.

Lot of hype and promise, but for me didn't show enough at any point. Mind you it wasn't for how often he was available because it seemed he was always injured.

Yeah, agreed, really sorry for the lad.

He only once looked a player for us, and I mean a real player, which was against Stoke at home second half. He ran the game but Butland had a stormer for them.

Just when you think it cannot get any funnier.......

To take the CEO’s PA off the Canaries must be the final straw.

6 minutes ago, billywedlock said:

They should have been made bankrupt . Instead we have public taxes being defaulted . So they can still play in L1 . It’s a disgrace . They have taken the pants down of HMRC and every tax payer . When you owe that about how on earth can you just have a slap on the hands . Derby should be starting anew from a very very low league position . 
 

so in football it pays to defraud HMRC . 

Just saw your post and completely agree. IF it is the case, there are enough questionable owners of football clubs that will be taking full advantage.

1 hour ago, chinapig said:

Other clubs are angry that Derby have almost certainly have got away with it and will want answers.

I would certainly be asking HMRC whether they honoured their claim that they never accept less than the full amount of tax due.

IF, HMRC have not been paid in full or have accepted a plan to be paid in full, it completely opens the flood gates.

I am really interested in what the detail of this is. Doubt I will get it though....

I hope this works out, as long as the creditors and, most importantly, HMRC, get paid in full.

Anything else is completely unacceptable and opens the floodgates to more Mel Morris’s.

On the current situation that the country is in there will be an utter outcry if the Government is seen to be helping fund a football club - and rightly so.

Bumped into him at Heathrow few years after he retired.

Had time for everyone who approached him, happy for pictures and conversation.

1 hour ago, TheReds said:

Bale is/was probably one of the best players in the World. But I don't think he will ever be remembered like Ronaldo/Messi will, even with his achievements, simply due to him seemingly happy to sit on the bench the last few years. Whereas if he had the same attitude and application as those players I think he would be bang up there with them, but it seems to me that is his biggest failing. Some could quite easily call that a waste, but I'm not getting into that argument.  

Also surely he would have had one or two B'allon d'ors to his name if he was that good, assuming he would qualify (I'm unsure what qualifications are required)?

 

Ps - Unlucky Cardiff.

I think that is a fair comment. Both Ronaldo and Messi could easily have retired and enjoyed their success and wealth.

But they are both very driven individuals, which, is questionable with Bale.

18 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

Scott is a fantastic player for his age but he's not Phil Foden. I would imagine he's played more minutes at this age group if I had to guess simply because Foden never needed to hang around the England Under 19's. He was too good for that.

Agreed. Scott has great potential and will have a very very good career as long as he avoids the usual pitfalls.

Foden is however, different gravy and, potential pitfalls avoided ( just like Scott), will become one of the best players in the world IMHO.

Which makes it strange that Pep can see this but Gareth Southgate can’t.

If I was the England HC, Foden and Grealish start every game if available.

(Sorry to be clear, by usual pitfalls I mean mainly injury, but also too much too young syndrome).

33 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Totally agree- although Nixon seems adamant that some kind of deal has been done HMRC wise, depends how big a % too doesn't it?

I think they should be paid in full- £35m last time I saw- Kieran Maguire suggested 80%, someone on the Derby forum suggested one of the bids was 50% over 3 years. However yes given Mel Morris donated to the Conservative Party in 2017- albeit once and not a lot- what can be ruled out here.

Ironically Quantuma themselves wrote a piece early into Covid on their website which suggested that HMRC had to be paid in full.

To clarify my point slightly, Derby and HMRC may agree a deal but I am surprised that nobody in the media considers the Tory donation of Mel Morris in 2017 to be of relevance given he still is playing an integral role here. Any Government involvement and...well.

@Mr Popodopolous If any sweetheart deal has or will be done with HMRC there will be hell to pay in the country generally and not just amongst supporters of other clubs.

IF, a deal in done I would be saying to SL for example, fill your boots and don’t bother paying the taxman you will get away with it as a precedent has been set.

Also, ANY, political party that gets involved in this and tries to influence are utterly insane.

For me time is up - liquidate them.

4 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Dunno if this has been posted but Supporters Groups are now asking Kwasi Kwarteng to intervene.

https://ramstrust.org.uk/wp/supporters-groups-send-letter-to-kwasi-kwarteng/

That is wrong on every level. No political party should get involved in a situation like this. They are grasping at straws.