SPL Season 2009/10

[Jock Dodds]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=743846&sec=scotland

SPL loses second Champions League place to Belgium.

A fall to 16th also means the 2010-11 SPL champions will not qualify automatically for the following season's Champions League group stage.

Oh well, there's 10M that Rangers can kiss goodbye to in a year's time.

 

[Jock Dodds]

You really think that?!

No, I was inferring that Rangers will probably win the league next year.

Anyways who cares, we win the league this year and its another £10million, we'll enjoy that

If by 'enjoy', you mean 'give to the bank', then, yes, you will 'enjoy' the £10M.

 

[Jock Dodds]

Bank only needs to get 1 million. As stated by AJ when we win the leaguer this year we could spend at least 5 million on players. Not much but after 18 months of no-one its an improvement. Time will tell though.

Lighten up it was joke!

 

[Jock Dodds]

Like you lot will be doing this year?

Whoosh...

 

[Jock Dodds]

Decent performance and a good result for Celtic, we still look a bit soft though, what we need now is an easy away fixture to get a wee run goi...FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU

 

[Jock Dodds]

Thanks but it's not actually my birthday, nor am I 62!

Can you provide any quotes from this 'Celtic source'? Preferably sans tabloid hysteria. The referees themselves have admitted their performances have been dire this season.

Nothing wrong with a bit of mind games in the lead up to a big game imo.

 

[Jock Dodds]

OK, here's the quotes:

"We are considering contacting the SFA to highlight our concerns at some of the major decisions we feel have gone against us this season,"

"The refereeing performances are a concern and a frustration to us."

"It seems that officials are struggling to keep up with his pace,"

"Several key offside decisions have gone against him purely because of his speed."

What's wrong with any of that?

Mind games are part of football, Alex Ferguson does it all the time. Unfortunately Scotland seems full of bitter, angry, paranoid people with nothing better to do than phone up radio shows or vent their spleen on fans forums. Verdict: Mountain out of a molehill.

Also, the fact that this 'source' has said "We are considering contacting the SFA' and the SFA have said "discussions between the Scottish FA and Celtic have taken place", suggest that this 'source' isn't terribly well informed. Probably a cleaner with a vivid imagination.

 

[Jock Dodds]

Are you saying that the discussions never took place? George Peat says they did.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11781_5979509,00.html

Sorry I thought I was quite clear in opining that this so called Celtic source is speaking with no more authority on the business of Celtic FC than you or I.

 

[Jock Dodds]

In your opinion.

Yeah that's what 'opining' means.

 

[Jock Dodds]

Hoping for something like this tomorrow....

(warning: this was originally broadcast by Sky in a less enlightened age and there is one instance of the 'H' word, sensitive souls are advised to mute the video)

 

[Jock Dodds]

It's going to be hard to regain our CL place and retain the European places we have left. UEFA is intent on squeezing nations like ours out of the picture. I read an article just after the recent qualification revamp that explained this better than I ever could, I'll try and dig it up.

Essentially it boiled down to a vicious circle where less european income begets lower quality teams begets less european income...

To turn this around there's going to have to be an unprecedented level of co-operation between the governing bodies in Scotland and, of course, the clubs.

I just don't think the people in charge of the Scottish game are capable of enough joined-up thinking, at least not until we enter such a dark period that they're forced into it to survive.