EdTheDuck

I see the BBC have now corrected the table from the erroneous one above. Would this be because they trawl P&B for opinions & news or because someone at BBC Scotland pointed out the error? I think we all know the answer to that

I don't know if the Scottish BBC are just awful fucking journalists or genuinely stupid but they still don't understand the League Cup points system.

He appears to be talking to himself, best not to get involved, sort 'let sleeping dogs lie' etc etc and so on and so forth

It may have passed you by, but the possibility of a game involving the two larger Glasgow clubs just this last season which actually had no bearing on the destination of the title had the SPFL hierarchy having kittens. Can you even imagine the head exploding hysteria having them meet twice in the last 6 games would cause?

Ah, righto There's a plethora, an honest to God plethora, of guest houses in Bucksburn, Stoneywood and Dyce.

There's like a bazillion new "apartments" for rent at Stoneywood, within walking distance of the conference centre. Can't remember the name but I pass it on the way home will put updetails later actually...https://www.dandara.com/apartments-rent-aberdeen

Don't worry, you will

I'll defer to Jimmy Shaker who is the resident expert on all things SHFL, but AFAIK the SHFL is still invite only, unofficially or otherwise. BoD have stated unequivocally they're in favour of the pyramid so why aren't they in the SHFL or at least exercising their "right" to apply? The reason the SFA/SPFL rumour of a Northern League emerged is because the SHFL is a closed shop and appears to working on a geological timescale to implement any pyramid changes. Having said that the SFA/SPFL do not, in all honesty, give a flying f**k about the arse end of the football hinterland and a Northern League is probably more bother than it's worth in their eyes.

9 years... I've wasted my life...

Banks o' Dee are interested in a 'Northern ' league I think but that is no longer the SHFL after the way they were zinged a couple of years back. If the SFA or SPFL create their rumoured Northern League, because the SHFL is not just dinosaury but dinosaury-stuck-in-a-tarpit, BoD would be at the front of the queue. There are others in the North Juniors with potential (Sunnybank, Culter, Dyce, Ellon, Stonehaven, Inverness City (hopefully)) but they're currently mired in a league that is "amateur" in all but name and pretty much rumble along with the mythical two men and a dog watching and certainly display little interest in expanding their horizons. However, I believe if the pyramid was in place we might see the people with a bit of drive coming to the forefront and pushing these clubs on. They are there, the folk with ambition and vision but they are stymied at the moment.

Zidane quits, Hopkins to the Bernabeu...

Just awful, awful news

Is that how AFC fans have to gauge it now, is it? "Hey, we might have got thrashed by Motherwell in both cups this season but ye be thankful, at least it isn't Mark McGhee..." That should be inscribed over the gate at Kingsford, what a fucking motivator that would be, eh?

Yeah, the Scottish Cup is exactly the same as championship playoffs and what has UEFA got to do with the championship format? Not changing the voting structure is a very good barometer of just how self serving and stupid certain of our larger clubs are, so yes.

The only thing that will help Celtic in Europe is following the template they used to reach the UEFA Cup final in 2003, namely running up vast losses and carrying substantial debt. Martin O’Neil knows this, as he was instrumental in doing so.

Colombia used to do just that. Each half season they'd play everyone once with a second game against their traditional or local rival. They've dumped that extra game this season. Colombia adopted the Liga MX system a few years back by the way, top 8 playing a KO for the title.

I have no idea what they've spent but earlier this year they had, allegedly, £30M cash in hand. Cash. In. Hand. I don't know about anyone else but I find that singularly depressing

They're still spending 'just enough' to see off the teams around them as witnessed by their catastrophic performances in Europe although of course this has enabled them to build up a War Chest (I think that is the appropriate term) of sufficient depth to ensure they will spend just enough in the coming season to ensure that even the remotest possibility of a revival from across Glesgae is ground into the dirt post haste. However, that wasn't really the point.

The lack of self awareness among these mutants is epitomised in a single post. While The Rangers were on their journey Celtic took 4 seasons to win 6 trophies while six other clubs won a trophy in those four seasons. Since The Rangers made it into the Prem Celtic have won the lot twice. It's all their fault . We need to remove Them from the Prem again, for the good of Scottish football

Of course, it wouldn't always be like that... We have to go all the way back to 2015-16 to find a reasonably close call, the Winter League (Apertura) ended like this; On the second last round, however, Celtic drew at Dundee and Aberdeen had the chance to get within 2 points...but they drew as well. Before that it's all the way back to ... the season before and again the Spring League, it ended On the final day Aberdeen just had to beat Dundee at Pittodrie to win the Winter/Apertura title...and they blew it, a 3-3 draw Prior to that it was a whole 2 years before the previous close call and this is a doozy, it kind of demonstrates why the split season is such an attractive proposition to me. I appreciate the Spring (Clausura) League is 6 games short because of the Split but with 2 rounds left the top of that table would have looked like this As it happened Celtic won by 3 points from Ross County & 4 from Motherwell but the interest with a couple games to play would surely have been through the roof The thing about the short season is that the 'smaller' clubs can go on a good run that would get them in the mix where over the 38 game 9-month slog resources just make it impossible for Motherwell, Ross County or Aberdeen to compete. You spoke about an 18 team league and if we were going to have one, this would be the way to do it, with a split season. With only 1game against each of the OF(RIP) and additional games against weaker opposition, the likes of Hibs, Aberdeen, Hearts and Motherwell and Ross County would likely have an even better chance of making a real impression at the top of the table in one half or the other. Even McInnes, surely, wouldn't be able to state "we can't win the league" in such circumstances?

The possibility of the Highland League even trying to have mid-season playoffs a la Mexico would be something to see, clubs cramming 8 games into a week…

Which South American formula though? The Mexicans use the apertura/clausura with playoffs, as do the Colombians, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela Whereas Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay use the apertura/clausura without playoffs Brazil and Chile use the European double round robin while Argentina currently has a 28 team Primera Divisione that plays each other once. South/Central American fitba is extremely varied and changeable...or mental if you prefer.