stewarty

I might be wrong here, and I'll bow to superior financial knowledge if proved correct, but the JJB deal is worth an initial downpayment of £18m. This is spread over 10 years, the duration of the deal, meaning we get a £1.8m franchise type payment for every year of the deal. That being the case, how can Murray skim off the top? If he was paying himself a salary, taking dividends or any other means of direct payment then this would show on the books, right? Whatever his tactics with the financial situation of the club, be it with a view to selling or not, all the rest is speculation and with no hard evidence. Yes we're not 'net spenders' and the gap between us and Celtic is growing and Calscot's point about us being a couple of late goals away from being on the end of 7 in a row is pretty scary. I'd never thought of things in that way and ponders the question - where do we go from here? PLG is the first step but Rome wasn't built in a day. We can build a young team and look to the future but if we want to compete and be consistent then we need to buy some experienced players and look to build the squad around them. My opinion is that we need 2 experienced players. One centre half who is a natural leader and organises the defence, and also an experienced goalscoring striker who can take over from Prso who clearly isn't the player he was in his first two seasons. If we can stretch to getting those I believe the rest of the squad we have could easily develop into a team who can compete with Celtic who, after all, are doing the exact same things as we're doing, except doing this a season later and have had more success which is mostly due to our downsizing - not because they are vastly superior.

The defence definately looked very shaky once Smith went off last night - hope he's back sooner rather than later...

For the 3rd post in a row I'm saying the same thing - it's lazy journalism. It's easier to knock a team than give it credit where it's due. Yes we made mistakes but conditions were difficult, we played a centre half at left back and we were away from home. Despite all that we got the result we needed. What more can we really ask?

It's just lazy journalism - nothing unusual for the Record.

Lazy journalism - taking the words and making a story out of them. All Le Guen appears to be saying is that it's unlikely we'll go out and bring in lots of players - not exactly a newsflash and exactly what he's said any time this has been brought up.

Great result for Celtic. As much as my earlier post doubted Strachan's line-up - they played to their strengths, defended well and Nakamura scored an excellent free kick. Saha wants shot for his penalty miss and the chance he had prior to that.

Was in the Sun today saying that the only reason Rangers fans reported him to the police was because Rangers fans because our team was crap... So, nothing to do with the inflamatory gestures, goading of the fans etc. Also, the article was quoted as saying Nil By Mouth would not comment as Boruc had not been charged with a sectarian offence. We've come to expect no less from that shower.

Celtic have set their team up to frustrate Manure. Early on it looks like their best hope will be long balls and counter attacks. So, why has Chesney started without Miller, Maloney or Mcgeady? Arguably they are their best players for hitting teams on the break.

Haven't got a clue. Google was no help. It must be really old and obscure - bit like you Cammy!

Jeezo, and we think the gulf between the Old Firm and the rest of Scotland is big.

Oops. The missus was logged in and I didn't realise. Mcnee will have a field day with this on Scotsport tonight.

http://www.hearts.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=38596

Thats bizarre. Just shows you how biased UEFA are - as soon as one of the big boys comes crying to their door they slap us down with a disciplinary. Can you imagine Scotland making the same complaint and it being upheld if it was the other way round?

I know what you meant and I agree with your point though.

As i said - it's silly season!

I dont think we'll know who's really coming in (if anyone) until January. Given the amount of stick flying around my guess is that they'll be keeping their cards close to their chest. All the stuff on Brown & Thompson has all been speculation so far - nothing has come from Rangers.

Jammy bastad! (ha ha)

Whether he moved or not, you wound jump at the chance to go over and experience something different. If you dont take yourself out of your comfort zone, how can you expect to develop?

Walter Smith? Steve McLaren?

Not saying that I believe it but I suppose silly season is in full swing now in the lead up to the transfer window. Still think we're in with a shout of getting Beckham

Indeed - like giving Chrissy Burke the contract he wants!

Just heard a rumour that apparently we're interested in signing him for approx �£1m. Decent player but given his shenanigans with the Scotland squad I've got big question marks about his temperament.

Exactly. If he can manage 90 mins for France he'll be fine for at least the first half. Then at least Arsenal have a chance of killing the game early and he can go off.

I think Steve Banks was injured on Monday which was why Gordon kept his place so I guess it depends on whether he's fit. My guess is that Hearts will play their strongest team today including Gordon, Neilson, Hartley, Pressley et al.

I thought it was stupid arrogance of Wenger to leave Henry on the bench. They really came alive when he come on a sub and you would have to say they were unlucky with the number of chances they created that they didn't get another goal. A team like Newcastle, pish as they have been, are going to be scrapping for every morsel they can muster. The way Arsenal have been playing at home would mean he should be playing his strongest team to try and get an early couple of goals to kill the game, and then think about resting your key players for the Champions League.