Swello

Watching that presser - I was wondering if Preston were one of the "good" clubs who contacted us first or one of the implied "bad" clubs....

I was at Ibrox for the cup game that day and they broadcast that total minter live on the big tellies. Added to a superb day all round. The dignity that Rangers showed before, during and after the LC cup semi recently just serves to show why we should never engage with them at any level, never mind the fucking abomination above. I love the taste of re-heated seethe.

But will we get a replacement for Moult in Jan if he's still here? (I'm sceptical about Preston offering 500k or whatever if they already have him on a pre-contract)

Yep - the only silver lining is that there is enough time for other clubs to get involved and may be start the fabled bidding war...

If the Moult stuff is true, then surely pre-contract is the worst of both worlds for us? Unless I'm being thick, it means that there is no sell-on in future or transfer fee now and (as much as I admire Moult's effort and honesty), you tend to get a ghost of a player for the last few months of their time. If the five-figure weekly wage stuff is close to being accurate, then you simply couldn't blame the guy for not putting life-changing amounts of money in jeopardy...

Yep - a huge blow him being out - but we're losing him in a few weeks anyway I'd imagine, so it's really just bringing it forward albeit at the worst possible time given the concentration of games coming up. The only (tiny) crumb of comfort is that the goals have been a bit more spread around this season compared to the previous couple...

A popular religionist of the day. A lot of people didn't have TV's, so they'd turn up en masse for any old shite.

Knowing the grubby way football works - I'd be amazed if talks hadn't been on-going between Rangers and someone acting for McInnes already (and for some time) - in fact, I think it would be very unusual if they hadn't. I always assumed the "permission to talk" stuff was just the public signal of the end of the compensation negotiation and nothing more as (in this case) Aberdeen can't stop McInnes negotiating a new job ahead of time - just as our employers can't.

That's about 3 times the crowd that the football team got in those days.

On the subject of Moult going - I'd assume that we'd sign someone to replace him. The reason is that the Jan window is quite useful if you have some money to spend on a transfer fee, even if it's fairly modest. We can test another team who's best player is out of contract in May and steal a march on competitors who are waiting for the summer or trying a precontract. I'm sure that's how we got Marvin..

Is there a better example of shite, cringing journalism than thinking that *anyone" gives a buggering f**k that Pedro Caxhinha, the no-mark's no-mark, has got a new job?

Fair enough - as long as they know that they made me feel it was Friday when it wasn't...b*****ds.

Why this on a Tuesday?

East End Park was my favourite pre-taylor ground - almost all covered, perfectly safe and could generate a really good atmosphere with only a few thousand supporters. That (and similar grounds) were never going to be improved by seating. On the flip side, just being able to go to a game without getting soaked or wading in the pish flowing down the terracing from the stone age cludgies would elevate a trip to Tynecastle.

Fair enough - that's a superb bit of business.

I assumed they'd be very close to break-even or in profit as I assume that not all of the big transfer fee for Coulibaly would be paid at once. In any case, I think it's a good news story that most Scottish clubs seem to be in reasonable shape compared to 10 years ago (even with Armageddon in the middle of that time).

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.