I haven’t written much on the blog recently.
Virtually nothing since the lockdown.
The main reason being that there’s nothing much to write about it.
The football is off and will be for some time and that’s’ what I like to write about. Football.
Uncertainty is the only word you can use with any certainty when it comes to the beautiful game in Scotland right now and indeed across the entire globe.
Of course, some Scottish journalists in a sad and crass attempt to remain relevant as their role rapidly becomes the opposite of that try to create the myth that it’s only on these shores that we face issues.
That’s nonsense as the same problems that we face within the game here are a worldwide football issue.
Indeed Scottish football, on the whole, has governed itself quite prudently financially in recent years – with a few notable ongoing exceptions who just refuse to learn – and as a result, most clubs are not in the immediate danger being faced by swathes of clubs down south who leveraged themselves with huge debt in a misguided attempt to chase a dream.
A decision will have to come eventually on whether the season is abandoned and to be honest I don’t actually see the rush right now.
The pandemic is a continuously evolving situation and it might be that games could resume as early as June albeit behind closed doors.
But hey ho the SPFL under pressure from clubs desperate for prize money due to years of financial mismanagement say that league positions must be decided now.
Well not so much decided. More rewarded.
You see I get Heart being against the recent SPFL resolution to end the season as it stands. They will get relegated if league placings were decided now and will feel that under normal circumstances they would have had enough games to get themselves out of it.
Relegation will be a serious blow to not only their football but also their commercial aspirations and it’s generally accepted that a club of their size would be missed from the top flight.
But in saying that, let’s also look at how woefully mismanaged they have been this year.
They have the fourth biggest budget yet sit bottom of a 12 team league with only four wins from 30 games all season. I mean that’s absolutely pathetic.
Considering how badly they’ve screwed up both on and off the pitch this season – persisting with Craig Levein when even Stevie Wonder could see he was a lame duck, in particular, comes to mind – your sympathy starts to wane.
Then, of course, there’s Rangers.
They want the money for finishing second without it actually being acknowledged they finished second because apparently they still believe they could have finished first.
Well surely by that logic Motherwell could still technically finish second so shouldn’t they have dibs on that too?
Rangers post-winter break form has been nothing short of a disaster and it wasn’t long ago that the committed ‘loyalists’ were calling for their own managers head due to his incompetence something which has been conveniently brushed under the carpet through all of this.
They talk of integrity yet are literally exploiting a pandemic to stop us winning a league championship something which their own fans had conceded long ago.
Then they accuse the SPFL of corruption when it looks like a season-ending vote isn’t going to go their way despite the fact their own chief executive is on the board they are making accusations about.
According to their fans, they don’t even need to produce evidence of these allegations.
No, they want it fast-tracked to an independent judiciary panel such as CAS even though they only deal with appeals.
Ask them to define the legal framework for these actions and what even the SFA and SPFL’s never mind UEFA’s stance is on how to process such claims then it’s crickets.
They don’t have a clue. They just want justice.
Strange they weren’t so determined for truth and transparency to prevail when it became clear they were playing European football back in 2011 despite not having properly audited accounts and having fallen foul of various UEFA legislation on the matter.
Na. That was just folk being petty.
Then there’s Dundee.
They were going to vote no to the recent SPFL vote but apparently, their vote got lost in the e-mail.
Taken down by a firewall they say. What utter bollocks that is.
Of course, when their vote wasn’t received the SPFL should’ve just made a simple phone call to confirm and called them on it but alas…………
And now they are making more statements than Rangers the club for which the term ‘statement o’clock’ was invented.
Without even the slightest hint of irony, they are bumping their gums about transparency, fairness etc, etc.
Today’s statement from them includes: “Whilst it is not our responsibility to take the lead on solutions – we believe this is the role of the SPFL – it is our duty to attempt to ensure that the future of Scottish football remains promising for all the clubs.”
Yeah, yeah I’m sure it all had nothing to do with Dundee Utd being crowned champions and getting promoted if you voted yes.
The truth is they were too incompetent to submit their vote on time and have waffled and wavered since.
We need advice from that clown show like we need their ex-director, the war criminal associate Giovanni Di Stefano’s blueprint for a brighter Scottish football future.
Dundee are a basket case of a wee club who’ve had almost as many administration events as they’ve had trophies in their history and the fact that they are effectively kingmakers now on what happens next in the game up here is about as strong as an indictment as you could get on the administration of it.
Funny thing isn’t it. Rangers, Hearts and Dundee plus Inverness Caley and Partick Thistle are the clubs most opposed to the proposed resolution on ending the season now with final placings as they stand.
All of those clubs either have been in or were on the brink of financial oblivion in the recent past. Yet all want to tell us what is best for the game up here.
Lunatics running the asylum comes to mind.
Whether they like it or not it’s clear what the vast majority of the clubs want.
And in the end, the majority always wins.
Celtic know that so have kept their powder dry thus far.
Rangers sycophants want to dream of conspiracy theories of back-alley deals to derail title #number 55.
The reality is there was no need for that. It wasn’t happening on the pitch for them and they know it.
We were thirteen points clear with eight games (nine for them) left and looking odds on to gub them at Ibrox days after they’d been hammered at home in the Europa League by Leverkusen.
With their manager in the ejector seat, a wantaway owner, and star striker who couldn’t hit a barn door in recent months them winning the title was pure fantasy.
Their belief that they can get the season scrapped and deny the inevitable is more of the same.
NB: Dundee have apparently since entered a vote of ‘Yes’.
Like I said in the article this was inevitable. Commons sense. Majority rule.
Facilitated by a duplicitous media Rangers will now attempt to undermine this and will scream injustice.
I trust they’ll refuse the prize money as a way of underlining their protestations.
My arse they will!
....Always A Tim! 