Scottish fitba!

[SALTIRE]

Ooops, McNamara punted from Utd then. What do they expect to happen when they keep selling their best players on. Have a bit of sympathy for Jackie but not too much coz its well, you know, the dirty Arabs!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34371088

 

[DarkSithLord]

Ooops, McNamara punted from Utd then. What do they expect to happen when they keep selling their best players on. Have a bit of sympathy for Jackie but not too much coz its well, you know, the dirty Arabs!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34371088

Now Confirmed - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34382964

 

[Gulliball]

Dundee Utd must be the absolute worst example of how to run a promising football club. Sell anyone of value, with the manager on a percentage to sell them to his old club, and nothing at all being re-invested. Dundee Utd should be fighting with Aberdeen for the top three, not fighting relegation.

There would be some sympathy for the manager, but he's been taking his slice of every fee, so he can hardly be hard up.

Selling Armstrong and GMS last January was absolutely horrific. Compare that to Cally Thistle, who lost Shinnie on a pre-contract to Aberdeen in January but held firm and won a cup.

Simply put, Dundee Utd have reaped what they've sewn.

 

[rudebwoyben]

Did Inverness Caley Thistle hold firm on Christie? I thought Celtic were going to buy him for £500k?
He had a bit of an eventful match against Aberdeen on Saturday!

 

[Gulliball]

They've sold him and loaned him back for the season. He can play against all the other sides but not vs Celtic.

Smaller clubs will always lose their better players to bigger clubs, that's not my problem with Dundee Utd. Cally sold Christie in the summer, and have time to work on a replacement. Dundee Utd sold two players (one for absolutely peanuts as he had already signed a pre-contract) to Celtic when they had a cup final and another cup semi final against Celtic coming up. They ended up losing both games and haven't re-invested any money. Graeme Shinnie stayed at ICT and lifted their first ever Scottish Cup in May.

 

[HertsWolf]

So what happened to Stranraer? Last season they played their best football ever? This season, they are like a shit version of Blackpool.

 

[SALTIRE]

Davie Bowman not endearing himself to the players here already.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34413136

 

[SALTIRE]

Dundee winning, Arabs heading to the bottom of the league and Aberdeen getting beat 5 - 1 at home! What a day!

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Just a bit of Mark Burchill bringin the game into disrepute:

 

[Gulliball]

The wheels have fallen off for Aberdeen. It's incredible to think that they haven't won since I saw them destroy Hearts 3-0 away from home. That was a near perfect performance, to make it 8 wins from 8, only a week after they beat Celtic at home. Since that day they haven't won any of their 5 games, including a cup defeat to Hibs and 5-1 battering at home to St Johnstone.

Not sure what to make of it, as it's so hard to understand. Hopefully it can end soon, because if Celtic put daylight between them then it won't be caught. Something isn't right though.

 

[SALTIRE]

The same story with Aberdeen as they had last season. So good for so long, then they went on a dodgy couple of months and that was that.

Utd getting demolished 5 - 0 at Celtic, good stuff!

 

[Stevencc]

 

[Super_horns]

Dundee (owned by Americans) and Celtic want to take a league game stateside..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34906274

Would it really work - Celtic already have the US tour anyway.

 

[SALTIRE]

Dundee (owned by Americans) and Celtic want to take a league game stateside..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34906274

Would it really work - Celtic already have the US tour anyway.

I dunno, but its worth trying and its good to see its the mighty Dees doing this with Celtic, I hope it goes through.

 

[Gulliball]

Weather caused chaos today. Hearts was called off, which is probably only a few hundred metres from my front door. It's been a horrible week for wind and rain, and I imagine most of Scotland was the same.

I watched Aberdeen away at Dundee in the lunchtime televised game and they looked absolutely brilliant. It reminded me of the Hearts vs Aberdeen game I went to in September when they were 3 up at half time and looked like world beaters. The two months in between have been awful (mixed if you are being kind) but with performances like they showed today (and vs Hearts and Celtic) they can be as good as anyone in Scotland on their day. They've played 12 games in Europe in the last two seasons too, holding their own against and beating a few reasonable names. The accounts last week showed a half million profit and record ever revenue (beating the season they made the UEFA Cup group stages) and debt free for the first times in decades, so things are looking bright for Aberdeen in the future. At the very least they should get 2nd in the league and another shot at Europe next pre-season.

 

[SALTIRE]

Won the derby and condemning those filthy Arabs to championship football, sweet!!

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

i thought the SPL was expanding and thus no one would go down?

or has all them sort've talks gone no where.

 

[SALTIRE]

i thought the SPL was expanding and thus no one would go down?

or has all them sort've talks gone no where.

The bottom club gets relegated and the second bottom goes into a playoff with the winner of the playoffs in the Championship to see who plays in the Premiership the next season. I don't think it has changed this season and I've searched to see if I'm correct.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

fair enough I must have just read that idea some while back.

I thought they were thinking of alternate ways to get Rangers back incase they fail again.

 

[Super_horns]

Edinburgh derby in the Scottish Cup.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35282296

 

[SALTIRE]

Edinburgh derby in the Scottish Cup.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35282296

That'll be a good game, both teams in good form.

 

[Gulliball]

I'll go to that if it doesn't sell out too soon. I imagine getting a ticket will be hard though. I went to Hearts vs Aberdeen in the cup on Saturday and the home end wasn't full, but with no derby this season and it being in the cup, it will sell out pretty fast I think.

I've now seen Aberdeen go out of both cups away to each side of Edinburgh. Pretty strange draws to get them both - it was nice for me personally to get to see my old local team twice within walking distance, but was not a good draw for them as they lost both games at the first hurdle. When you think Celtic got Stranraer and have East Kilbride in the next round, getting Hearts away wasn't great.

To compound a really bad weekend, Liverpool recalled Danny Ward today. He's the first decent goalkeeper they've had in 10 years and was the single biggest improvement they made to the squad for this season (discounting Graeme Shinnie who was signed on a pre-contract last January). As a loan player he was always going to have to be replaced, but that decision is now 6 moths earlier and possibly without any budget left over to sign someone of a high enough quality, even if there are targets identified. I suppose it doesn't really matter too much as their season is effectively over - out of both cups and won't catch Celtic - but 2nd place in the league should be routine as long as they don't implode, and losing the safe pair of hands in goal is one of the easiest ways for that to happen. Best case scenario is a new keeper gets six months to gel before next season, but the worst is that Hearts and maybe even St Johnstone are not too far behind if it doesn't work out.

 

[SALTIRE]

Great game there today from Ross County as they smashed Celtic in the league cup semi at Hampden 3 - 1, and they did well not to capitulate as Celtic scored after 27 seconds! Superb!

 

[Super_horns]

Celtic do often seem to mess up in these cup semi finals.

Seems ironic that in Scotland despite the dominance of Celtic the cups are won more by unexpected sides than they are down here.

 

[rudebwoyben]

Celtic do often seem to mess up in these cup semi finals.

Seems ironic that in Scotland despite the dominance of Celtic the cups are won more by unexpected sides than they are down here.

That's very true - St Johnstone, Inverness and St Mirren have all won cups recently (this is just from the top of my head). What would be the equivalent in England?
I'm not sure that Ross County's second goal should have stood as Gordon was clearly being held back as the corner came over but Ambrose definitely deserved to be sent off.

 

[Super_horns]

Wigan I guess?

 

[Gulliball]

I don't know, Dingwall has a population of about 5000, so about 1/60th of the size of Wigan. Even taking the respective leagues into account they're still a tiny team - a very good team though and possibly the 4th/5th best side in Scotland right now.

It's a great tie for Hibs, especially as they should get 35k odd tickets and the two Celtic players will be able to play. It'll be a cracking game too, one that both sides will really fancy winning.

Celtic's cup record is appalling when you consider they have no competition and spend more than the other 11 sides put together. Lennon's record wasn't good and Deila has done even worse. It's great for the rest of Scotland though and it'll be a great shame for them when Rangers come back and normal service is resumed.

 

[SALTIRE]

Nice one Aberdeen keeping the challenge alive.

 

[Gulliball]

Was a good game - Aberdeen were up for the fight and deserved to win it after a slow first half hour. The gap is now three points, but unless Celtic go on a bad run it's still probably too much. Aberdeen have 6 of the next 9 away from home, including a few tricky ones. Still, after 0/12 points against Celtic last season that ruined any title chase, 6/9 so far already is a big improvement and keeps the challenge going into the later months at least.

My groundhopping got off to a slow start last Saturday when Cowdenbeath vs Forfar was postponed. This Saturday is St Johnstone vs Aberdeen in the away end, which should now be quite a good atmosphere, and the week after I'm going to Livingston vs Hibs, also in the away end. Two new grounds and backing two underdogs in their title chases against the old firm.

 

[rudebwoyben]

Funniest of all would be Falkirk pipping both Sevco and Hibs to the Championship title, although that's not a very likely possibility.
Maybe a move north of the border will do Simon Church some good. He needs some first team minutes before Euro 2016.