Eddie Hitler

So now we sit back and see who publicly declares an interest today? They wouldn't release this statement without knowing some clubs would come forward to get the ball rolling. Right? RIGHT?

Yeah, they don't want to join a senior league but, hang on, if they did it has to be "one in, all in".

If. Step two definitely won't happen before they take step one.

But no-one has even said there will ever definitely be an LL West? It's a proposal that might come in one day. And in the interim this "loss" could be avoided by going as a bloc. Then teams relegated from the LL who belong in the west (by geography) at least, would get relegated into the West Prem at tier 6. I think you have to take it one step at a time. If an LL West follows on from the west teams joining the pyramid and the LL as a whole growing very strong, then so be that. But that's not happened yet.

Why would you need to restructure the leagues? If a team from the West Premier is promoted to the Lowland League, one should drop into it (the West Premier). I accept that sometimes it will be an East team that finishes bottom of the Lowland League but that should just mean more promotion from lower levels of west (if you want the top league to have even numbers and are less bothered about bottom tier being uneven, that is). But that's unlikely to happen so much that you lost a net of eight teams!

Does it, though? If all else stays the same in the interim, why is there likely to be any more openness towards "west at tier 5" than there is now? It just sounds like a way to get them to dangle for another year but it's unclear why doing so should change the attitudes of other parties (ie the SFA, the EoS, the LL) towards "west at tier 5", especially if the west clubs won't do anything that shows commitment to the pyramid first.

I have been watching this thread with great interest for more than a year, on and off (since around the time the East clubs broke away en masse and joined the EoS). Entirely unbidden by anyone, of course, but here are some of my observations (on the latest developments plus some general ones). 1) It has been said before by many that it seems farcical that the SJFA think they can just turn up late to the party and demand access. I agree. It seems obvious that they should join in a manner that existing members decree. Therefore, the West should join as a bloc if they want to (while they still can!) and the existing East juniors should decide what they want to do, stay in juniors or join EoS. It's a bit much for west teams to be held back from joining in the name of some form of "solidarity". 2) I confess that I am a fan of a senior club and so maybe I don't understand some of the issues. This said, it amazes me how often that fans of some of the junior clubs (who I accept will know their clubs and their desires better than me) seem not to know what joining the pyramid *necessarily* entails for them. An oft-cited wish is "we still want to play the local games". But it always seems to be ignored that most teams are going to be able to do just that because change (in the form of progressing to anything like a "national" league) is going to come slowly for most, if at all. 3) Again, without having ever been at one of the meetings or anything like that, it seems fair to say that some important figures in the junior game are very resistant and that this seems (based on what we are reading here about last night's meeting) to be swaying some West juniors away from joining the pyramid. In particular, it seems the carrot of tier 5 is being dangled by people who know it's unlikely to be achieved. Why would they dangle that when they know as much? One can only imagine that it's to delay change, so that nothing is settled. 4) Why would junior clubs listen to these people? Again, I accept I am on no committee but it strikes me as being one of two things. Either it is because they believe that the top west juniors deserve the status of a tier 5 club (there may well be a good argument for this, in all honesty, but they seem to have missed the boat). Alternatively, it comes down to a worry that the promised benefits (for the ambitious clubs, at least) will take a while to materialise because they will have to win an extra promotion so it might take an extra year to reach, say, the SPFL2. But the counter to that is that all these delays put in place arguing that you should be tier 5 or tier 6 seem just as likely to make progression take a long time, 5) Lastly, it would seem that (because of a split or because of intransigence among officials who don't want change) that the safest way for West clubs who want to join the pyramid to do so in a timely manner would be to do what those East clubs who wanted to two years ago - split away, but perhaps state that you will if the bloc doesn't join en masse. More generally, I think it is exciting (and should be exciting for the ambitious clubs) to see how far some of them might go if they join senior. I think it's positive for the game, avoids stagnation (at league and non-league level) and I'll be thrilled to see my team draw new teams in the cup etc. I'll always be delighted to see new teams make it into the league, showing some ambition to compete because that's what football should be about, after all!

Yeah, they have Giles Fraser on. Give this one I miss, I am thinking.

Liked this, even if the fighting and stuff was a bit clunky (especially by the time the second one came out). Enjoyed the story element and really wanted to see where it was going to end up. It had the odd innovation too. It was one of those games that myself and one of my mates often talked about and thought we'd never see the rest of the series....which, if I recall rightly, was originally supposed to be seven games long. They'll need to make sure the gameplay is up to par though, as they will not get away with Ryo walking as if he is on ice with a stick up his ass these days and things like that.

My favourite game of all-time, perhaps because I was at the right age when it came out. Someone bought me a copy of it and a PS1 cheaply a few years back but there was a point early in the game that it just wouldn't go past, was very annoyed. Would love to play a remake! I notice some people have been talking about which was the best in the series upthread (years ago, right enough, but the thread became current again...). Still think VII is best personally but have a lot of time for IX, which I *really* enjoyed as well. Didn't like VIII nearly as much and never really bothered with the newer ones.

Not that I agree that voting to stay 'IN' the EU is 'dumb' (haven't 100% made my mind up) but I am pretty sure there is a poll being talked about today (Ipsos Mori, I think) that suggests that upwards of 60% across the whole isles are currently planning to vote to remain in the EU. So, clearly some English people must be 'dumb' if that's the criteria. As for impoverishment, almost every state in Europe is swimming around in debt, particularly the UK. Would an independent Scotland be punished for being in debt by the 'markets' faster than the UK is? Possibly, but that has nothing to do with realism or any of those kind of arguments and everything to do with the fiddle being in if you're deemed to be the 'right sort of place' to escape censure for running a massive deficit.