Swello

I'm a big fan of terracing and would love to see it back in whatever form - but I wonder how many people now (esp. in the top flight) would like to go back to open ends with no weather protection. Used to hate Tynecastle and Easter Rd for that reason and remember plenty of soakings at those places (most other grounds had some cover for away fans at that point if memory serves)...

The problem is that in the incredibly small world of Scottish Football, very few people deviate from the accepted line to take, but not necessarily from bias as such. Ex-pro's are usually loathe to criticise their mates or (as there is basically 2 degrees of separation between everyone in Scottish Football), their mates' mates. The 2nd problem with many of the ex-pro's that are asked to give an opinion is that they don't actually have the mental capacity to form one of their own - so standard boiler plate from MOTD is used ("entitled to go down", "seen them given", "too honest", etc). And finally, yes, you get hopelessly biased ex-OF players who would never derail the gravy train in case they get less invites to steak pie dinners at supporter's clubs with "emerald" or "loyal" in their name. Hacks, with a few notable exceptions, are not going to pick an OF example to go against the grain, as it simply makes their job harder and invites all the mouth-breathers to have a go at them. If they (for example) criticised a Celtic player for diving to win a penalty, they'd get a public rebuke from Brendan and they'd privately find their drip of information and stories drying up pretty quickly - and that matters if your job is to fill newspaper websites with inconsequential bullshit about Celtic (or Exclusives to give them their Sunday name).

That's really impressive and good to see. Is there an indication of the underlying position when all the "one-offs" (manager compensation, transfers, CL money) are stripped out? To be clear, I'm not saying that transfer fees shouldn't "be counted" or anything like that, as selling players is part of everyone's business plans I guess - but I'd be interested to see how close Killie are to break-even without that stuff (just as I will be when 'Well release their annual results).

I think the off-field stuff has only taken effect now that we have a squad that isn't packed with guys on the downward slope of their careers or where 'Well was the peak of their careers. Having guys that are young and want to get themselves a good move, is a lot different from the situation we had before. Having a large amount of competition for places for the first time in years has magnified the effects too.

Cusack would probably be seen as a dirty player now - but he was basically a late 80's/early-90's model centre forward who needed to be able to look after themselves considering what centre halfs were still allowed to get away with at that point. He was no Mark Hateley.

In a similar way to the fact that the political output of the balanced BBC is largely lead by the lines taken by highly partisan newspapers, the subjects covered by Sportsound are pretty much led by the lines taken by tabloids that have a massive bias towards OF coverage for commercial reasons. For Sportsound to cover "the rest" with any sense of proportion would require them to become a sports news-gathering organisation which doesn't seem to be a focus for BBC Scotland. Instead, they produce a cheap programme that effectively discusses what's in the Record that day and is an easy way to fill a schedule.

Alan Campbell as a young boy understandably isn't that comfortable in front of the press - but his "in aboot them" attitude is *brilliant* and sums up where we are these days. Earlier in the season, I joked that most of the players were new to the league and hadn't learned our place yet but it's turning out to be true. That point the other night felt like a loss - and a sore yin at that - but now all the impotent rage is dying down, it surely sets us up well for the season as the players I suspect will take even more belief out of it. On Robinson - two things jumped out. Firstly, he clearly couldn't be bothered with the statement we released and I would guess he was either against it or wasn't part of it at all. Secondly, the desperation of the hacks to keep everything going into this 3rd game was actually quite funny (especially whatever mile-oot was quoting Brown's snide remarks in the hope of getting a quote). Even though I obviously know that goes on, this week has been a real insight into the constant, overblown hype and manufactured drivel that follows everything Celtic (and Rangers) do - As a supporter, I genuinely couldn't be fucked with that all the time (and I actually have some sympathy with hacks that need to generate it as a main part of their job - there's no Pulitzer's to be had in sexing-up a Craig Gordon quote).

Anyone else really looking forward to games against other diddy teams again?

If you read Burrows' comments on the thread, it looks like Brown/Celtic using the "crowd" stuff as a distraction from the penalty basically pissed them off, as 'Well have always dealt with the constant damage/vandalism by Celtic fans behind closed doors and haven't tried to make any capital out of it. You could argue of course that having thousands of Celtic fans paying-in makes the damage something that is worth bearing, especially as Celtic themselves presumably pay for it - but the fact that a lot of 'Well fans clearly feel that the club have been too passive this week and the fact that the coin-chucking stuff was out there, meant that there had to be some sort of response. As statements go (and Celtic have been no stranger to them over the years), this is extremely tame.

The last paragraph is sufficiently enjoyable.

I can't read it......Have the club got the worst hosting deal in the world?? The number of times that the site is unavailable when we make any kind of press release (minor signing, new strip, a hopefully seethe dripping statement ) is bizarre. I'd happily chip into a crowd funder to get them a decent host....

On Campbell - I think he was rested at Aberdeen and Grimshaw came in and did really well and kept his place for the next game and there wasn't much else too it - but it was tough on Campbell (who is a better player when on his game) to miss out in the final starting places. His tackling ability in midfield made all the difference last night - Brown was doing his square pass routine from deep but the minute he stepped up at all, Campbell was all over him, which was great to see. Petravicious showed in flashes against Hibs that if used properly (ie - with the ball in front of him), he could be a real asset with that pace (a Lithuanian Chris Humphrey? ) - not sure last night was the game for him to start though.

It was one of the more surreal things I've seen there. Hauling Tommy Sheridan out of hospitality with his Celtic scarf on, for a wee chat about the bhoys...I particularly enjoyed the stunned silence after the intro. "We've got a couple of people here to do the draw that you'll know" <everyone expects former 'Well players> "Tommy Sheridan and Des Clarke!!" <stunned silence>

Said the same on the match thread - it's difficult to boo and cringe at the same time (but I managed it).

The ones I've seen on-line (and even a couple I know IRL), are bizarrely raging that the penalty/red card is even been questioned. I guess it has deprived them of the moral high ground, which hasn't gone down well. If you can't play to a narrative that your lavishly funded team are like plucky underdogs that somehow won through (against a team that is on a seventeenth of your average wage), it must be tough. I see Dembele is out for this week's games, he must have injured himself trying to maim McHugh when he was raging.

Pretty controlled press conferences from Robinson and Rose I thought - despite a few snidey wee questions to try to and get a headline before tomorrow's game. They sensibly stayed away from sounding like bad losers or paranoid delusionals (the's what supporters are there for) or by trying to stoke it up further. I'm not sure about the result tomorrow but I don't think we'll be going into the game on a downer...

At least Thompson is consistently shite.

Chat seems to be that we've not appealed the Red card from sunday. Part of me is raging about that (especially after reading Rodgers using the trusty "clever" euphemism to describe Sinclair's dive) - but I can also see why the club wants to move on from it. The cup is gone, and losing the appeal (which I think for purely political reasons, we would do) would effectively validate the red card and the penalty which would be a bit of an own-goal. It's a shite state of affairs but I think it's probably the right decision in a no-win situation.

John Wark played and scored at Fir Park, but it was for Liverpool in our centenary match (when they had the class to do everything possible to avoid pumping us off the face of the earth in a 1-1 draw)

There's a piece in The S*n today with Tom Boyd talking about Phil O'Donnell that got me thinking. Given that Boyd was at Motherwell for 8 years having come through the ranks, made over 250 appearances, captained us to the Cup and had been fucking dynamite on the left with Cooper for his last couple of years - is there a more fitting candidate to be a 'Well legend that in reality just isn't viewed that way? I get that he went to Celtic and never really gave us a thought after he left - but we tend to eulogise guys that did far less in their time at the club than Boyd. Lambert and O'Donnell both went to Celtic (and took tons of stick when they came back to Fir Park in green and white) but are (rightfully) seen as 'Well legends - why not Boyd?

Jeez-o - That's the butterflies started and it's only Friday....

Celtic getting ridden by PSG and Lustig limping off injured has made some nice viewing so far....

Another good interview - he's the most enthusiastic person ever. I guess the best way to deal with all this manufactured hysteria over the "physical" stuff is to embrace it and not be embarrassed about it. It is interesting that we play games every week and no other manager has made anything negative of it (probably as it would ask uncomfortable questions about how their team can't handle a battle). I think it's becoming useful actually - in the build up to the Rangers game, they talked about nothing else and at the weekend, Aberdeen completely (and fairly disastrously as it happened) changed their approach to accommodate ours - and if Celtic do the same, that can only be good. I saw someone mention on Steelmen something that I had thought too - namely that Hartley being wheeled out twice in a row at the same stage in the build-up wasn't an accident. Last time he was challenging Morellos to a square go and this time, he was telling people to go and play basketball if they don't like contact - and it all helps if we want people to assume that they are in for a kicking match and to ignore the other aspects to our game...

It's the way that the coverage of instantly pivots to "Celtic as plucky underdogs" when they are playing in the CL, when no such allowances are made in week to week league football. Where Man City or PSG are spending their way to titles, diddy clubs here are lacking ambition and failing to provide Celtic with sufficient challenge.

I've been quite enjoying some of the build up stuff in press - this piece in the Herald is the best one I've read yet...