Well-Made

Consider it done. Hope you enjoy the day. Jim

I wish I could leave but the MOT has expired and I need it for work next week. Great thing about working in Glasgow for the last fortnight is I can get the train. However I'm back all over the country again next week. Just can't be bothered humping luggage about on the trains.

Was planning on going to get the tickets tomorrow, pay day after a long month. Thanks to Chrimbo. However my motor has put paid to that, failed it's MOT yesterday and is going to cost me around £300 (and that's getting it done by a family member). Not bad considering I have put the best part of a grand into it since the last MOT. So looks like I'll be watching it from the sofa. Disappointed as well, I had promised the youngest he'd get to his first Semi Final. Anyone want to buy a Renault Megane?

So Sky take all the lucrative games. i.e. The Old Firm, Edinburgh Derbies, even the New Firm and relegation battles. How does that encourage sponsorship and interest in SPL TV? Sorry might be being a bit pedantic about this all but interested to hear thoughts. See if I can be persuaded otherwise.

So quick question here, we're all busy talking about how it'll affect Motherwell FC etc. See the first season this happens, especially if they opt to return to 2 x 10. What happens to the poor sods that finish in the bottom 3 places of the 1st Division? They stand to lose a lot more than any of the SPL Clubs. This whole set up has to be looked at by everyone involved in the game. Not just those in the SPL as it will still need to be approved by the SFL, after all it's their clubs that will make up the most of SPL2. It's also their clubs that will be placed into a regionalised divisions if it was all to go through. Neil Doncaster can mump and moan about this all he wants but unless there is an agreement from all camps, no change is going to be made. What will it really change for the likes of QOS, Ross County, Morton and any of the others that get left in there when it kicks in? The only thing it changes is it makes it harder for them to get into the "big" league. I have been sitting on here quietly looking at what everyone wants and listening to the pundits and apart from JB coming out and saying he wants to assurances on what a relegated club would get. I have heard nothing else to explain how any of this makes Scottish Football better for anyone outside the SPL. They can turn around and say all they like about how this is to try and help create a bigger, stronger league in a few years time all they want. The question is where's the finances coming from this? If the top ten are going to be better off financially, how much more is there to filter down to the SPL2? Where is this money going to come from? Are Sky really going to pay anymore than they are just now? They already get their 4 Old Firm games every season, so no reason there to pay out anymore. As for the Edinburgh towsome, by rights Sky should have them 4 times a season as well. It's just down to those clubs underachievemment if they don't. Those games will already be paid for with the current deal anyway. So what's going to be new that Sky or any other TV company is going to be willing to pay more for. They "may" pay something for the SPL2 but if they don't show 1st Division games just now, then not much chance of that happening. SPL TV? We've been there before and it collapsed before it even got off the ground. If it did go ahead, it would be OF TV with a wee morsel for the rest of us thrown in. Footage for this will probably have to be bought from Sky\ESPN as well. If not, another reason for these companies not to raise the money they pay at present. I just wish I had an answer to all of this but other than telling the OF to go and find somewhere else to play and let us find our own level, I can't. The BBC could do a Football League show like they do with the lower divisions down South, but how much attraction would there be to stay tuned once your highlights were shown?

There was a fee paid for Martin Grehan in June 08. Hammy came back in the Feb of the same year. I think!!

Going by the reaction of some of the other SPL members, sounds like the Old Firm and SPL Exec are trying to push this through. Redistributing the finances and voting structure don't appear to be on the table. The statement does only say that all clubs have broadly agreed to the statement not neccessarily the restructuring of the leagues.

Can't believe they found him out so quickly.

And there was me looking forward to him netting the winning goal in the last minute at Hampden as well. Gutted I won't be able to sing "Is this the way to Casa Golda" now.

I did say it was the one thing I was disappointed in. It may well have been a poor performance but ith all the hype about him at the minute in the media, I thought we might have seen a bit more from him today.

The cameras did pick it up but nobody said anything about it.

Good performance from the lads today. Sutton proved again why he should be playing up front rather than wide left. Give him a new contract asap. Good to see Murphy end his goal drought as well. Thought he had a great game. One thing I was disappointed in was Griffiths, I just didn't get the hype about this guy at all. If he can be kept that quiet by Crags and Reynolds he won't make much of an impact in the SPL. 1st Divisionplayer at best. Well Done 'Well

He's been back at Blackburn since the start of the week. No definite news on where his next stop is yet although the Express and the Evening Times yesterday seem to think the sheepymehs.

It's okay it's only Alan Gow. Aberdeen and a couple of lower league English clubs interested. Apparently Fitzy getting a new contract until at least the end of the season.

The thing is, is it a myth? Until we try it we'll never know. The last time we had a league of 10, how many clubs had as many youngsters playing first team football as you see now? With a league of 10, more cash (supposedly), chairmen are going to look to keep their team in the top league. As a result the manager will be under pressure to play more negatively (as seen before). play older players who in return will want more wages than say a Murphy or a McHugh. So this extra cash gets eaten up with those extra costs. We go back to watching our club bringing in folk towards the end of the career rather than the excitement of seeing our next batch of youngsters coming through. Then in a few years time look at the league being revamped again to bring some excitement to it and the whole sorry mess starts again. For the National Team we once again see a decline in the quality of players available to us (yeah, it can get worse than it is just now). A lot of the problem with our National Team is down to the fact that our clubs ignored the ethos of growing our own. Scrapping the U21 rule will also lead to our supposedly bigger clubs once again ignoring their own youth system and raping the rest of us for any young player we deem worthy enough of playing in a team of 30 to 35 year olds.

Rumour posted on Twitter saying Celtic to offer £250K for Reynolds when they get shot of Loovens. Price seems a bit high to be believed though. Having said that Hibs got £250K for their donkey.

The steering group was Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen, Hibs, Motherwell and St Mirren So outside ourselves and the OF, everyone else is fighting a relegation battle at present. Looks like Turkeys do vote for Xmas after all.

You are right St Mirren.

You have to wonder why ourselves and St Mirren were invited onto the steering group ahead of Hearts and Utd. Was it because the OF knew we'd be easier to deal with and would bend over like good little public school boys should? Or did they genuinely feel that'd we'd represent the Hamilton and Inverness's of this league and listen to what we had to say? Or did JB just go along with it for the extra money? If it's the latter, then he has only himself to blame if we end up in the SPL2 in the coming years. A 12 team league has given us an opportunity to bring through more youngsters, a ten team league won't. We'll end up with tomorrow's equivalent of Derek Townsley and Karl Ready at the club. Those fans shouting about Crags being past it will be wishing they'd shut up. Every team outside the OF will be frightened of relegation and will play even more negative football. Which in turn will drive more fans away and hinder the development again of our younger players. Of course older players will also be looking for more dough as the clubs will supposedly be better off. The Press are on about 3 going down and 1 up at the end of next season if this was to go ahead but surely 2nd place in the First Division should be getting the playoff against 8th place. Or is that too much like playing fair? At least it'd give one of the 2 sides from the First Division a chance of staying up the following season. Then again could mean we lose a 1/3 of the league, instead of 1/4. Who are the SPL trying to kid? This isn't about what's best for the game, this is and always is what's best for the old Firm.

Why wait until the game is in progress to put on a bet that a Motherwell player would be sent off, when they could've done it before and may have got higher odds. Surely as the game plays out and a player that has a habit of not dodging out of tackles gets booked early in the game, should lower the price? No? As I have said earlier I thought about putting a bet on when Jennings got booked but it would've meant opening a new account and yes, may well have seen me close the account as soon as it was paid out. (I ain't a gambler per se but I had a bad habit with gambling way back in my Army days. If I left the account open it would be too easy a route to go back down again.) So bearing in mind that would've been placed in the North Lanarkshire area would that go against Jenno as well? I hope all those that won money with Scott Brown's sending off weren't from Glasgow and Edinburgh with new accounts.

As I said on the Referee thread. Why haven't the SFA suspended O'Reilly? He was involved in the sending off as well. So ifone should be suspended during their "investigation" so should the other.

I see the SFA have been writing to ask the Club to suspend Jennings whilst the investigations continue. So why haven't they suspended O'Reilly?

Not the most exciting of names but it doesn't have to be, it's what he brings to the team on the pitch that's important. If that translates into us at least getting back to the level we know the guys can play at, then I'll be happy. Welcome on board Mr McCall, lets hope your presence tonight lifts the team into a performance against Celtic.

That was posted yesterday, since then there's been stories that he ain't the man and we've gone back to Sbragia but he's said no again. Sbragia Revisited Today we have Stuart McCall in the race. So looks like JB's the only one that really knows what's going on. Starting to feel like we'll see the New Year in with GY in charge.

Penney interviewed according to the Beeb. BBC - Penney Interviewed