26th of foot

I was frantic in my attempts to receive an update on the Yahoos game on Sunday, driving along Eglington Street, the power lines of the railway surfing against AM reception. It appeared Radio Snyde were playing music. BBC Radio Scotland provided the good news that Dundee United had equalised. I tuned back to Snyde as I headed along Clyde Street, the music continued. It hit me, Snyde were NOT broadcasting football coverage and the Yahoos were playing at Tannadice. I believe this is Snyde's fourth continuous season without live coverage of SPL games? In 2004, Snyde refused to pay the going rate to provide live commentary, they relented to the era of the 'Magic Specs' ie watching all the live feeds of all games covered, doing lots of commentary from the banks of tellies, and keeping Lawyers on stand by to ensure they were not encroaching too far into the terrority of those broadcasters who had paid the going rate. Hence, all those pre-fixes of, 'we believe', 'we are told', 'we are informed',..........etc. Snyde masnaged to keep their level of coverage going because the Phoenix Group's owner, John McGuire sponsored every football related programme. Snyde promised the live commentary would return, it hasn't, and Real Radio has made significant inroads into Snyde's broadcast footprint. John McGuire has pulled the plug, Volkswagon Verve have taken over a much reduced deal. Simply, it appears that Snyde are caught in the laws of diminishing returns. Thus, no coverage of the Sunday, or Monday SPL game, and SuperscoreboardXtra has been reduced by 30 minutes each midweek night. I wonder if Snyde will provide live commentary on their favourite's Champions League adventures this season? Again, it was John McGuire's Phoenix Group that provided the means to allow Snyde to provide Euro coverage these last four years. It was five years past that Snyde's Chief Executive, Paul Cooney joined his fellow Yahoos, Wullie Hee-Haw, Stephen Purcell, Charlie Gordon, .......etc on the Board of Scottish Enterprise(Glasgow). He promoted protege, Bitter Martin to Sports Editor, with the promise that the CE post would be his several years into the future. I wonder if Cooney and Snyde founder and former Managing Director, Sir Jimmy Gordon are accepting of Snyde's continued downsizing? Snyde's owners must be asking questions too? Sailing the good ship Snyde into calmer waters would be a lot easier if they cut the securing ropes that have been tied to ra Sellik's PR machine these last 35 years. Jimmy Sanderson and Bob Crampsey, the real pioneers of Snyde's football coverage, must be turning in their graves.

In the spirit of May'99, you can leap from the top tier to the bottom. I believe an acceptable raison d'etre is, 'ah wiz gaun fur a pie an'at kno'.

Here is a sypnopsis : 'I own 91.8% of the equity, so none of this mess is my fault. Martin agrees with me on this point. Keep giving me, eh sorry, Rangers your dosh'. Brought to you by Belvision and Tele-Hachet from a vineyard en Provence.

The last accounts showed Bain's salary to be �£550,000(including bonuses).

My age can only be determined by a Dendrochronologist.

'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' by Edward Gibbon was the 'O me miserum' of every schoolboy of 35-40 years past, and I have no doubt beyond that period too. Five years of Latin demanded a plethora of translations sourced from Gibbon's hand. His tome would have been more accurately entitled, 'mea culpa, mea maxima culpa'. It was all his fault, Edward Gibbon was a complete cu-nt.

A dozen years past, Glasgow City Council(it was then Glasgow District Council) sold three streets to ra Sellik for a penny. That's right, 3 streets(Janefield Street, Dalriada Street, and Kinloch Street) for one penny. The families in the housing on these streets were paid Resettlement Grants of between �£3-�£4,000 per household. THe housing was demolished and the land cleared, all paid from the public purse. It is estimated that GDC paid out between �£1.25-�£1.5million to allow Sellik to significantly increase their landbank for the cost of a penny. Has the local authority extended the same largesse to other lasgow clubs? In the last decade, GCC have refused planning permission to both Rangers(St Anthony's junior ground to reserve/youth stadium) and Partick Thistle(develoment of ground at the Firhill Basin). As we know, the corporate colour of the Underground is orange, it's commonly referred to as, 'the Clockwork Orange'. This new line that goes out to the Sellik Park station and returns, will it run orange trains? If the sensitivities of the Yahoos are to be assaued over security fencing, how will they deal with the stock livery?

As the Stydome is being used for both the Opening and Closing ceremonies, I imagine it will be receiving a fair bit of titilation on the back of Commonwealth gelt. However, the stadium immediately across the road is the indoor arena being used for field and track athletics. I believe the long term intent is for Sport Scotland to move in after the Games.

We all know that the Commonwealth Games, Glasgow 2014 has been a huge windfall for the Yahoos. A purpose built stadium(latest estimate up to �£94million) immediately across the road providing lots of state of the art sports medical facilities and new training opportunities. Tremendous infrastructure and new lines of travel. A new railway station and the Glasgow Underground system being extended for the first time in 124 years. Initially, there were to be three new Underground stations, the planners eventually settled on one, Sellik Park. Of course, wndfall does not quite describe the deliberate long term strategic planning of all those involved. Glasgow City Council, the Glasgow Marketing Bureau, Strathclyde Transport Executive, and the Board of Scottish Enterprise(Glasgow). The various characters cross-decking all these organisations is quite incredible ................... Stephen Purcell, Wullie Haughey, Paul Cooney, Alex Mosson, ........etc No, they prepared the ground, cultivated it, and will rake in the harvest on behalf of their beloved Sellik. They even had time to ensure the private joke of Rugby Sevens being played at Ibrox was an early publicity release. The latest catering to the sensitivities of the Yahoos, is the security fencing that has just gone up around the site of the new stadium. A perimiter of over a mile stretching along London Road and down Springfield Road, several foot high wooden sheeting, all painted battleship grey. The corporate colours of the Commonwealth Games are blue and orange. We are constantly told the GFITW are mature and responsible, they have awards from both UEFA and FIFA to prove it, why couldn't the fencing be painted blue and orange? We should be told.