calscot

Young players need older players to learn from - otherwise they would get all the learning they need in the U21 leagues...

PS It seems like we'll win the league and be relegated AGAIN!

The top 12 SFL clubs will like the look of it and the bottom 9 are guaranteed another home game against us. If the SPL can do without OF games then surely we should be looking at an 18 team top league that will eventually give two?

I would take him now till the end of the season but not sure about the next - as long as his wage was in keeping with the current structure. I think he could be a great player to teach a lot of wisdom to our young strikers. He's got quite a few attributes in his game compared to many - like Boyd, although the latter could be a great coach for the one discipline of putting the ball in the net.

So the 12 team league is unanimously dead, the obvious answer is to change things, and the suggestion keep it the same and extend the same dead model to the next division... Utter madness. Scottish football just can't get any lower and really wish we'd joined the Conference instead of the SFL.

Maybe Robert Duval can do a film... They are more powerful in the mainstream than factual books that are a bit dull by nature as they lack a good narrative.

Who are they?

Didn't see Souness or Weiss. Didn't Patsy Kensit also support us?

Ally was produced by St Johnstone before going to Sunderland... Turned us down twice before coming at the third time of asking.

Seems to me that no matter what Green agreed, the fans will be able to sue as they will have suffered loss.

There's the possibility he'll do that in the second half of the season. I think he needs to get match fit and his confidence up.

Statistics are better with a larger sample but interesting none the less.

We WILL be going down the legal route. If no-one else, the RFFF will be paying for the fight - and myself and I'm sure tens of thousands of others will gladly contribute to the costs. The SPL will struggle to to stump up as much money for the fight as we will, and we'll appeal, appeal and appeal again if the judgement flies to brutish beasts and men lose their reason.

Eh, and who suggested that? If someone says they could do a better job than Cameron, McCoist or anyone, I think it's fair to ask for their credentials. Maybe it's better to read the thread and understand the points before jumping in half arsed and throwing insults around...

How would you get them to play more football? These guys are professional footballers remember, and will like to think they know how to play football... What knowledge of playing the game do you have to draw on? The thing about McCoist is that when I've heard him talk about football he comes across as incredibly knowledgeable and insightful - far better than most pundits. When I see the likes of Alan Hansen or Gordon Strachan analysing the teams on the telly, they seem to see stuff I didn't see at all but can see it after they draw their circles on the screen. Would you know how to train them, how to assess them, how to motivate them and how to man manage them? Do you know much about plyometrics, PNF stretching, target heart rates, VO2Max and other stuff that most people are oblivious to? How would you deal with a big personality who thinks he knows better than you? (Which would probably be all of them unless you can instill some respect.) What is your experience as a manager and your record of success? Can we come and watch your team win and play excellent football?

Ah but he's put us back 10 years! (I have no idea how a manager can do that - it took Souness one season to correct a decade of neglect.) And there are people on here who reckon they could do a better job - I can't imagine they'd even know where to start; I wouldn't either but can imagine most wouldn't know how to even start to put together a fitness programme that includes a balance of anaerobic, CV, plyometrics, flexibility (what does PNF stand for?), agility and other stuff I don't know about (although I'm sure SuperAlly on here would be in his element). And imagine your average Joe walking onto a training pitch of professional players and telling them how to play football... Just how would they take it? And think of the leadership skills where the likes of Sandaza would be told he's dropped because he's the worst striker that this new manager has seen... Imagine telling McCulloch he needs to "lose two stone" even though it's highly unlikely he has two stone of fat on his body in total... But then after their first draw with a "bunch of postmen" they'd be calling for themselves to be sacked anyway.

I think UEFA are tired of the whole subject and not open to discussion. It's a complex subject with no real answer and so they have simplified it. They have simply banned one song and I don't think you could really make a mature sounding argument about that. It's one song! Just don't sing it... If I were them I wouldn't want to spend a ton of time debating something so trivial.

Now read the actual article and feel like it's from a bible basher. I have no problem with people being religious but why do they always have to force it on everyone else (although I suppose that's one of the tenets of any religion - spread the word)? The guy wants us to start singing hymns now - maybe he should leave that for Sunday in the church (or at home) and encourage more of the self professed "prods" to actually attend and join in the singing there. Why do people insist on turning a football stadium into a church? And not even a good church at that, a bastardised church where aggression, sometimes verging on violence, with a mix of hatred for others and a ton of bad language is the norm? I really can't reconcile the tenets of most religions with average behaviour of even "well behaved" football fans. If people want to show off their religion they should do so by being impeccable citizens, who try to make the world a better and more godly place. Basically, "be good, not bad". The problem is that so many people don't demonstrate they know the difference, the attitude of most "prods" these days seems more to me like the devil's work. "Will your anchor hold" is all about putting your faith and love into Christ and his teachings and yet the same people that want to sing this also want to sing a song that associates themselves with a razor gang and to be up to their knees in someone's blood! It's a mad old world and shows why religion is the most misunderstood concept in the history of civilisation.

Why does it always have to be old songs? Can't we do something new for once? There's plenty of modern anthemic tunes around. Why do we have to always be so anachronistic? TBB is a good tune to sing loud but the problem is that our idiotic, stuck in the past attitude killed it for us. And if other clubs sing it, why would we want to? Let's set ourselves apart. Find a tune, use it and when others copy, find another. Be leaders, not just one of the crowd.

I was pretty much saying the youngsters are doing amazing, not the team as a whole. Well, I think they've been amazing at any rate...

Maybe you should read it again, I said it was amazing how well we're doing considering the number of rookies we've played. Probably, but I said that Ally was doing a passable job - which you have also just implied. I think expectations are difficult to make realistic under the circumstances. We may have greater resources but how much we spend is pretty skewed at the moment. We have not gone out and bought 22 SPL players, we have half a team of pretty much mediocre ones and it's obvious that many SPL teams sometimes struggle against lower league sides - even Celtic with about five times our spend. How do you reconcile playing six youth graduates who cost next to nothing and are probably on reasonably low wages? I don't think you can just say we've got more resources and then expect half a team of inexperienced young lads to play experienced, older professionals off the park. Just how does that work? You also have to take into account that for the more experienced SPL players we have signed (and some of them are still quite young) are not from the same winning culture as our previously resident experienced players like McCulloch and Alexander, and who are struggling to adapt to the pressures of performing and winning every game. I don't think it's a coincidence that the former two, along with Wallace are our most consistent players. Read again, I said he's done a somewhat good and certainly passable job, no more. There is no mention of miracle worker but then I don't think you often read me properly. I have nothing against young players but argue against the strange fascination for them by some people like yourself who think that they are a panacea and that teams should be full of them regardless of quality. I can never get your negativity against players over 21 who are the mainstay of the game. At the top level I don't see how a team full of kids is going to compete against a similar resourced team full of seasoned, international players with one or two youngsters in the mix. Everything else being equal it seems eminently logical that the more experienced side will win more often than not. The strange thing is that now we are in a position to play lots of promising youngsters due to the lower quality of the opposition but the negativity from people like yourself when the team doesn't play so well is mystifying. I'm even being positive now about the youngsters and you are surprisingly taking a contrary view. I differ in that I give youngsters and rookies a bit more slack for the same reason that I don't think playing a load of them at a high level is a magic answer - because they are inconsistent due to inexperience and still being on a learning curve, as well as usually having a less stable temperament that is mellowed with age.

Ally was certainly a threat to Celtic in the first half of last season so "never" seems just wishful thinking from a guy who does nothing but praise Celtic and bash Rangers.

Well, we're now half way through the league season and have accumulated 45 points which, if the second half of the season goes the same way we could end up with a reasonably impressive 90 points. That's 2.5 points a game and so in a 38 game league like the SPL would be the equivalent of 95 points. Not too bad - but you have to consider that to even get that amount we'd have to have similar bad results to those in the first half of the season. While I'm sure we'll still get the odd bad result, I think our teething problems are over and less points will be dropped in the second half of the season. Those of a negative bent will no doubt point out that it's only division three and previous teams would be expected to win almost every game but that is ignoring the fact that every previous team has been of a higher quality due to playing in the SPL or old First Division with much greater relative resources than we have this season. In fact I think it's amazing how well we're doing with the number of kids and rookies that we have in the team. In the past you'd be pleased with two or three playing regularly but this season we have about nine - and that is after the best four or five of our current crop left for nothing. I don't think we have many examples to compare our current challenges to so in that scenario, I'm reasonably happy with the way things are going. I was worried with our form at the start of the season but was sure it would improve and 11 wins on the trot and at least 15-18 points ahead has made me quite comfortable. It's hard to judge Ally in this one-off situation but I think you've got to admire someone who can at least do a passable job with a very young squad. Each division will bring fresh challenges and we have yet to see what Ally can do given a few stable seasons at the top of our game. However, given what he has achieved he at least deserves a chance to show it if he gets us there without delay. One thing is for sure, he's been good enough at the job for this season on the park as well as being a pillar of strength off of it.

I completely agree with that but instead of arguing the point our argument was "we can sing what we like" and we lost that case. Once it becomes illegal, it's time to move on - why not find another word that means the same thing but is unambiguous? Or we could forget about them altogether and just sing about Rangers - why not treat them like they don't exist? They don't deserve our attention.

I can't think of anything worse than wearing a suit to watch a live football match. I'm not a suit person but wear one on occasion albeit uncomfortably. Ally is probably like that too - he's been a footballer or TV personality all his career not an accountant or businessman. He probably doesn't mind arriving in a suit and being interviewed in one and wearing one for important meetings, but I really understand if he doesn't want to wear one all the time. People who wear suits all the time probably don't understand that.