Swello

What's amazing about this new stuff from Alex Thomson is that everything us diddies accused Traynor of over the years turns out to be completely true - allowing Whyte to edit his articles is an utter embarrassment and shows the depths that he latterly sunk to. The only legacy of his (initially decent) career is that he will for ever more be a by-word for crawling OF sycophancy....

One thing I don't understand is why the SPL and not the SFA are running the dual contracts investigation. Given that the SFA hold and administer registrations and are the overall governing body, surely it would have made sense for them to investigate it and avoid this inevitable juridstiction pish that we are seeing. Am I missing something obvious here?

The part of the statement that wins the prize for disingenuous shite is where he pointedly referred to Rangers being "mismanaged for 10 months" - when it is obvious to the even the most blinkered Peepils that despite Craig Whyte putting the icing on the cake, mismanagement on a grand scale went back over a decade. McCoist's way of operating throughout this is symptomatic of a lot of OF people who are used to a pliant, unquestioning media in Scotland - he has basically come out with a lot of shite that doesn't stand any sort of scrutiny, safe in the knowledge that the MSM would give it any. Whether he's whipping up a witchhunt against Panel members or trying to incite Sevco fans with his latest pish, we've all seen the real McCoist throughout this and he's come across very badly indeed.

Is this the point that ex-Rangers fans come out from 4 months of hiding to show that legendary humility is still intact? FWIW, McCoist has been a walking cliche throughout this - and his grand tour of the buffets showed that his charm isn't as effective on football chairmen as it is on Sue Barker.

Classic stuff. One of the greatest stories in the history of sport. That Gretna did a few years back already Hope the ending to this particular high-budget fairytale is the same.

Amusing timing for the announcement. I wonder how many things will be hidden behind the Olympics Initial reaction is that on the surface Sevco haven't extracted much from the negotiation other than short circuiting the normal membership election process... EBTs will be investigated - so presumably the threat of titles being stripped is still there? Punishments are being accepted Transfer embargo accepted

B...but, we were promised Armageddon! What about the £3m deal that was the most we could expect. I refuse to believe this broadsheet pish until I see it confirmed in the Red Tops

I think the fact that it seemingly needs 5 (five) parties to agree to register a new 3rd division team as an SFA member is another reason why the administration of Scottish Football needs a massive axe taken to it - The SFA, SFL and (especially) SPL cannot be allowed to exist in their current forms after this debacle. The Media rights cock-waving was pretty inevitable I think - but the thing that has really staggered me is the idea that Rangers would have the balls to ask for the dual contracts investigation to be halted - even by their standards, that shows a stunning degree of arrogance. It's a bit like Fred West saying "Well, You did give me that parking ticket, which I paid - so let's forget about all them murders I done and we'll say no more about it. Oh - and you owe me a new patio". At a very basic level, I cannot understand why Sevco's license application is being treated as a negotiation by all involved when in reality it should be a process.

In Financial Armageddon!!!!11! news, I see that Motherwell's main sponsor has just extended our deal to the end of 2013/2014. They must be utterly mad to do that in a league without Rangers - I hope Jim Traynor can get a hold of them and tell them the error of their ways before the paperwork is signed!

I think all the candlelight from the vigil has caused the picture to become over-exposed.

I don't know what's worse - the continuing denial amongst a section of the orcs about what the "truth" actually is or the fact that any Rangers fan, no matter how mentally sub-normal, could possibly think the scottish media is "sewn up" against Rangers If you look at the hurricane of baseless, scare-mongering shite that's been peddled by the MSM here over the past weeks in a concerted effort to keep Rangers in place, it takes a pretty special brand of paranoia to see an anti-Rangers agenda at work....

Fantastic post there. I think the problem with actually starting a Real Rangers from scratch would be the danger that those starting it would be traditionalists and would fancy getting back to the "undiluted" version of the club that existed pre-Souness and not the version you'd like to see. Anecdotally, I think it's fair to say that there were a number of Rangers fans that felt alienated because the club made some moves away from the overt sectarian stuff in recent years (although to most of us, it's been a skin deep change and nothing more) - and these people given the chance would move things backwards. I am interested to see how it goes with the new club in the Third, as presumably it will be closer to the hardcore Rangers support that will turn out regularly (assuming that glory hunters will be turned off fairly quickly) - and I honestly think we'll see the "banned" songs, etc back in full flow before too long.

Necrophiliacs presumably

The utter lack of action and organisation amongst the orcs has been a stand out feature of this entire saga. "Worldwide Fanbase" bullshit aside, there a lot of people in Scotland who profess to be Rangers "fans" but their voice has been completely muted throughout this, even with a willing MSM , eager to give them a platform. There is no doubt that the fans of the diddy teams have been heard loudest throughout this via non-traditional means (the MSM have even been unable to ignore that fact) and their actions have appeared to be more co-oridinated (even without any structured campaign) and that is pretty staggering whichever way you look at it. I can only conclude that a false sense of entitlement and a lot of complacency where they thought "we'll be awright" meant that they didn't make anything happen apart from some misguided boycott threats that actually made the decision to refuse them entry to the SPL easier. A few years ago, if someone told me that the Rangers fans would tamely let their club fold in the manner that it did - I wouldn't have believed it quite honestly - and the fact that there hasn't been an effort to start a "Real Rangers" from scratch is also a massive surprise to me. The current entity that is entering the 3rd Division is clearly an utter farce with precious few links to the past and I'm surprised that enough people aren't of a mind to start their own club - especially with a Pyramid allegedly on the horizon.

"Oh I do Like to be beside the seaside"? Should be no problem getting a sectarian add-in somewhere in there.

Surely he will be back watching Dumbarton as they are the higher placed team

Motherwell got pumped so badly in our league cup final loss against them that I'd be embarrassed to get it retrospectively. Stripping titles is one thing (and I think should happen) - but awarding to others is problematic and shouldn't happen IMO.

Oddly - as I have never seen Motherwell play any of those teams, that looks excellent to me!

They were quiet certainly - but if their approach was to use the Media, the SFA and SPL Chief Execs to push the agenda that suited Celtic (and by extension Sevco) best, then it is anything but conciliatory in my view - sleekit might be a better word A true conciliatory approach by Celtic would be to see the way the wind was blowing and voluntarily offer to amend the SPL voting terms and TV rights distribution (esp given that TV money is a disproportionately small percentage of Celtic's turnover) to help cushion the blow for others. Celtic have/had a real chance to claim the moral high ground here but in truth, they have been doing everything in their power to protect the position of their main "rivals". I'm not naive enough to think Celtic would voluntarily make things worse for themselves of course - but it is an example of what conciliatory would really mean in practice.

Celtic have also come out of this fiasco looking pretty impotent. They have done their business behind closed doors and using others as a proxy which was possibly a good strategy - but given that Sevco in the bottom tier is the worst possible financial outcome for Celtic PLC, their approach has been a dismal failure. A number of parties (SFA, SPL, the former OF, the MSM) have had a bit of a rude awakening regards how much influence they really have over the Diddy Clubs and their supporters. I'm ready to move on from all this pish and get on with the season as the CL draw is on Friday - but the one thing I still need to see resolved is the removal of the 11-1 voting. Once that's done - we can deal with whatever consequences are in store.

One major thing that is now required given that we know who is playing where is some clarity on the TV deals. Realistically, it will be a negotiation* and so I don't expect an answer today - but I'd imagine there are more than a few chairmen waiting for some sort of indication and I'm keen to understand the impact on my own club obviously. *If Sky have read the Powerpoint of Doom, they will know that Doncaster's valuation is £3m of course - so it should quite easy for them

You're not the only one - I think his involvement has been over-hyped to a large extent - although he has been of some use. On one hand, he hasn't exactly set the agenda as you point out and much of his stuff has been based on the work of other blogs, etc - however, as a "serious" journalist from outside the nepotistic Scottish Fitba Writers bubble, he has been very useful in at least articulating in the MSM an alternative view to the ARMAGEDDON pish that we have been force fed otherwise. By not having a clear commercial interest in the survival of Rangers at the highest possible level, he at least has taken no heed of the party line espoused by our home grown media and has ruffled a few feathers in the process and that is a positive contribution IMO.

I'd like to know what McCoist is doing there also - but it has to be said, the McCoist and Green dream team haven't exactly been a roaring success so far - they have charmed their way into the 3rd Div without any apparent concessions...