ol1vercloff

I don't think there is relegation in the MLS, they hate failure, it's all about success. So I'm not sure Steven Spielberg and the boys will be making Diddyball anytime soon.

The romance of the cup + Jambos boo boys that don't know how good they have it getting on the backs of their players = the underdog rising up? Perhaps...

My argument is to mirror the English pyramid system as closely as we can, which includes more than one automatic relegation spot. No contradiction here. It will be difficult to convince wee clubs to vote on an increased risk of relegation. But this current system with a relegation playoff is no good.

I think a game between two in form teams in the Championship would be a far better game than a declining Premiership side and an in form Championship side. Most of the games in the Championship are far more entertaining than your bottom end Premiership games. Two teams get automatically relegated and we have a promotion playoff instead.

A relegation playoff is like a cup final in reverse. Instead of showcasing your best teams in a televised event at the national stadium with all the buzz and excitement, the relegation playoff puts one of your worst teams in a televised event at a diddy team's ground with a disgusting reek of panic and negativity. Realistically, clubs won't vote to relegate another 1-2 teams automatically to make the magnificent promotion playoff set up work. I get that clubs will have their own interests at heart, instead of having an exciting promotion playoff. But surely clubs have to think about the product we're putting out at some point? If you can type more than half a dozen words, I'd love to hear why you think a relegation playoff is better and has more fan appeal than a promotion playoff.

Irrelevant. I cannot believe that a neutral could watch the English Championship Playoff Final and not enjoy it as much as any relegation playoff final. So the majority of Europe's top 5 leagues have opted against a relegation playoff? Unsurprising. Wasn't your experience in a relegation playoff not god awful? Absolutely rank rotten games to be in. Promotion playoffs is where it's at.

You at a loose end at the moment? Deary me

It's still money and status that's at stake in either version of a playoff. Playing for the survival of a club and people's livelihoods is rank rotten. Players and fans will remember a promotion playoff victory with more fondness in the future. Only Scottish people could think that a relegation playoff could be enjoyable, we're a miserable bunch of horrible b*****ds. There is worldwide appeal for a playoff where a team moves up in the world, we're going against the grain and making an arse of it. I'm not sure Hollywood movies about sports teams in a relegation playoff game would be quite so popular. Gary Busey as Callum Davidson in 'Diddyball'.

I think the English pyramid system is spot on. Of course, we would struggle financially to form 4 league divisions with 20 teams each, but we need to at least scrap the relegation playoff. What an utterly depressing occasion. England gets their playoffs absolutely bang on. It should be about in form teams battling to win promotion at the national stadium, not battling to avoid relegation at Recreation Park or something.

If Max had half arsed coming for high balls like that against Aberdeen, we would have lost the game in the closing stages.

I remember a sheet of paper with a long statement from Massone being on everyone's seat at a home game once, accusing the governing bodies of being out to get him and the club and that he was working on a plan to save us. Colin the tannoy guy read the tinfoil hat nonsense statement out. It was absolutely toe curling. I believe I still have a copy of it somewhere. Priceless memorabilia.

It doesn't sound like it was something to be 'cancelled' about, it's easy to jump to conclusions about the intentions of online abuse in today's world. It just shows that your brother is sensitive towards these issues and probably half expected Chuk's abuse to turn toxic. But thankfully, I don't think it did. There are certainly worse things he could have tweeted. I, for one, will continue to listen to the podcast religiously. All the best to your brother, he's a big funny lad, it's not the same without him

Marvin Bartley's tweet at Callum Carson was a bit ridiculous. If players/managers/assistant managers can't take the criticism, they should come off social media. They love it when they're getting praised. Callum's tweet wasn't even that critical, it was stating a reasonable opinion. Journalists, local or otherwise, don't owe it to football clubs to go easy on them. Perhaps the relationship between the club and Callum has been too pally pally over the years, so when the cold, hard, truth is spoken, people's feelings get hurt. I wouldn't put it past the club to react by not helping Callum out with interviews etc now. They can be petty from time to time. But basically, if Caleb can't handle some criticism, then maybe professional football isn't for him. I must admit, I missed this whole Almondview race row that people are talking about. Can someone fill me in?

What's the protocol for submitting a formal complaint about a ref? Card happy Clancy deserves to be refereeing at Clachnacuddin next week.

They definitely did their homework on us. They put pressure on the defence to play the ball back to Max's feet quite often, knowing he has a clanger or two in him. Fully expecting us to take points off Aberdeen at the weekend. Raise our game against the big teams, get are bum bums felt by the wee teams. The Livi way.

Damn you, Livi. Did we not give St Johnstone the same amount of respect as we gave Hibs? How do we beat a top 6 team then lose to the bottom team? It's a tale as old as time down at the 'Vale. Getting sick of the 'Alan Forrest show', hope he got a rocket up the hoop for his ball greediness last night.

Hope I'm wrong, but expecting us to get pumped tonight after pumping Hibs on Saturday. It's the Livi way.

Lawson has got over his home sickness then?

Fairly confident that Fitzwater will not be leaving us for an English Premier League side this season. It's got a whiff of the sort of rumours like Snodgrass going on trial at Barcelona when he was a youngster at Livi.

Since when did a rag tag farmer team get money to bid on players?! Barley sales must be booming right now. I wouldn't be overly disappointed to lose Forrest, unless he later scored against us, then I'd be sad. I've always thought he's too lightweight for the division. Reminds me of Liam Buchanan - looks lively but his 'Livi best bits' montage would definitely include a lot of being brushed off the ball with ease.

Livingston's first ever Russian player. Quite the milestone. Hope the fact he's been at big clubs like Spartak Moscow and Rubin Kazan hasn't distracted Davie from properly assessing this guy. We don't want another Cece Pepe on our hands.

Hopefully we stitch Blackpool up on the money this time after they did it to us with Wes Hoolahan all those years ago

What's wrong with the technique? He's never missed with it. Loads of players do the same thing as the hop throws the keeper off Maybe I'm just old school that likes penalties blasted into a corner. The 'Jorginho' type penalty is fine...until he misses, which I'm sure Ayo will at some point. Like Jorginho did in the Euros final

A great result, ground out. I'm sure that'll be a valuable few points come the end of the season. Although, if Ayo was to miss that penalty, he should have been rightly banned from taking any future penalties with that technique

At this level, with the budget, scouting resources, covid restrictions and work permit issues due to Brexit Martindale has had to look at different markets for signings and every signing will be a gamble. It's well publicised that guys from the EFL tend to struggle with the fitness levels required on Scottish football and our style of play requires tip top conditioning. I'm sure if we could afford to bring in proven 20+ goal men then we would be doing just that I'd say we've always had various restrictions over the years that have prevented us from signing proper good players, but Martindale was still able to find diamonds in the rough with next to no money. I do think he needs an experienced adviser or someone to bounce ideas off. I'm sure Bartley and Imrie know their stuff, but they're rookies. Who's the modern day Archie Knox, the eternal assistant manager, who'd work for beans?