Thinker

Definitely. Even if he'd somehow gotten lucky (e.g. the tax case result had gone in our favour early, we'd had a lucrative European run) and avoided cash flow problems, he'd have exploited his position to our detriment. Maybe over a number of years before we would have been able to get rid of him. But... the way HMRC operate surely has to be looked at. That they can declare money is owed them and strangle a company by having cash ring-fenced, only to later find out that they are wrong?! That's appallingly unjust. They're the root of the "guilty until proven innocent" nature of this whole affair IMO.

Some pointless day-dreaming for your distraction - my plan for Scottish Football next year. 1) SPL executive abolished, top division placed under the jurisdiction of SFL. 2) Rangers’ transfer embargo lifted with immediate effect. 3) Top division expanded to 14 teams [1 relegation from former-SPL to SFL1 | 2 promotions from SFL1 to new top division | Rangers restored to top division] . A 14 team division is a compromise which allows expansion and spreading of wealth to more teams, but also satisfies TV demand for 4 Glasgow derbies. . Each team would play each other twice before the division is split into top 6 and bottom 8. Each team in sub-division would then play the others twice more giving 36 games a season for top 6, and 40 games a season for bottom 8. (Although this asymmetrical split seems clumsy, IMO it would reduce the load on the top 6 teams and ease fixture congestion caused by success in European and domestic cup competitions.) 4) SFL1 and SFL2 merged to form a new second tier of 18 teams [2 promotions from SFL1 to new top division | 1 relegation from former-SPL to new second tier | 2 relegations from SFL2 to SFL3 | 1 promotion from SFL3 to new second tier] . Each team would play each other twice. . In future seasons this division could be expanded to as many as 24 teams by increasing number of promotions from SFL3. 5) SFL3 remains as a 10 team division [1 promotion to new second tier | Rangers restored to top division | 2 relegations from SFL2 to SFL3] . SFL3 to become the top of a national pyramid system of regional leagues, equivalent to the Conference Premier in England. . In future seasons this division could be increased in size with expansion teams promoted from junior and regional leagues. 6) Obviously this will never happen.

You'd think the SPL would have sense enough to save themselves a few bob. I'm sure the bill for seeing this waste of time through won't be trifling.

The SPL should be dissolved and we should be fast-tracked into the new top flight - for "sporting merit" like Fiorentina were in 2003.

I don't know if the rest of you are seeing it this morning, but there's a lot of ugliness on display from the anti-rangers. Their masks of righteous indignation have been torn away and they can't hide their true faces any more. To be fair, it's only what we knew was there all the time: spiteful bitterness driven by envy. No remorse or shame at all for sticking the boot in.

Even if the wage cap is 33% of our turnover that's still almost certainly greater than 100% of the turnover of all the SPL clubs bar one. So talk of relegation is a bit panicked. Financial fair play regulations are going to have to be adopted by all clubs so caps are going to become the norm. And I doubt Green is daft enough to run the club in a way that it can't compete for the title. That would clearly end up being less profitable as attendances would fall.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20302632

Not at all. It's just a criticism of his style of "journalism". His writing is so propagandist (repetition of catch-phrases, attaching defamatory nicknames to people, etc.) that my natural instinct is to disbelieve him. If I'd taken his word for it regarding Green I'd be left with the decision of following him round the u-turn, or clinging to his previous opinions-dressed-as-facts. We need people who thoroughly dig around for the truth, so fair play to Leggo for that - but anyone who seeks to convince rather than inform, when the facts are scarce, deserves to be met with scepticism. I don't thing his scaremongering over the last few months has helped anyone.

I see where you're coming from with that radical suggestion, but in general it's better to have divisions which contain teams which operate on roughly the same scale. Ideally any team should stand a reasonable chance of beating any other in the division. Too many foregone conclusions kill competitions. Years of the SPL being a two-horse race is the root of the current mess, IMHO - and now it's a one-horse race things are only going to get worse. Gradual progress up a tiered system is how clubs grow. Throwing minnows in with the big fish just makes them dependent on scraps.

The U-turn is complete. Just as well I don't take Leggo seriously....

Hands off Hearts!

Ach, go for the head-shot - it's just tea-break talk really.

If that's the case, I'm tempted to put £125 in as well as getting my own share.

Here's a thought that's completely out-of-the-blue, and there's almost certainly a barrier to it but... Is there any possibility here for a merger/takeover? We buy Hearts out, get their players, get their place in the top tier (much as I'd hate to go back to the SPL and save their bacon), get back in Europe sooner rather than later. I wouldn't wish it on any club, but if it did come to the point were they were going to disappear completely it would be better to salvage something. A daft idea probably, so shoot away.

I think the chances of them going bust are remote. It was only a freak (although perhaps not coincidental) set of circumstances involving HMRC that stopped us getting a CVA. They'll probably just go in and out of administration, I'd say...

In a way, it would be good if they did wreck the place - as long as we made the authorities cough up to cover the damage. It would be an excellent opportunity to turn the "bad fans" story round on them. "Tut-tut, look what these hooligans have done." See if Tomo is interested in covering it...

We should say yes, and then on the match day declare the gates will remain locked unless they give us our prize money...

Trumpet-blowing from Leggo today. The moral of the story: if you make bold claims while the evidence is still patchy, sometimes you're right and end up looking clever, sometimes you're wrong and end up looking like a chump.

If you're predictable you can be more easily out-manouvered.

A spectacular U-turn from Leggo! I don't quite know how to react to it... Maybe it's a positive sign that even he is now comfortable with Green. On the other hand, I'm so used to disagreeing with Leggo that maybe I'll have to start being more suspicious of Charlie...

I'd say the attendance figures for this year show we're the best supported team in the country. Whether that makes us the biggest or most popular is debatable - both terms could be interpretted in a number of ways.

If one of the other teams had roared out of the blocks (like QoS in Div2) then things wouldn't look quite so nice. But the fact remains; Ally was given ample resources to win Div3 at a canter and probably the Ramsden's cup. The fact that we're under-achieving is not due to lack of funding.

That might actually be a concern if we were in the SPL. As long as we improve the squad in time for our return to the top-flight it's all good. Having a top quality squad right now would be a waste of money.

Not seriously, no. All I'm saying is that some people might read the article in the OP and think, "Hurray, Green saved us from this corruption", while others might read it and think, "Hmmm, Green emerged from this corruption". I don't think it reads as a glowing endorsement of Green, so I'm not convinced that it's an attempt to suck up to him like frost is. The timing of it is strange though.

I don't think it necessarily reflects well on Green. I like Green, but some folk might read that article and, considering the chain of Murray - Whyte - D&P - Green, not be too happy about his (admittedly quite distant) links with this alleged corruption. Not much of a "big-up" if that was the intention IMO.