AndyDD

It struck me that the coverage of the colt proposal was awash with terrible journalism, in ways pointed out across multiple platforms and even multiple threads across this forum. The laziest claim, though, may be that colt teams will grow from playing against battle hardened, seasoned campaigners, these experienced pros, running through league 2. Alas, none of these journalists have bothered checked the average age of the players in League 2 which, according to transfermarkt.com, is 25.2. That makes it the youngest league in the entire SPFL.

I seen Neil McCan strangely citing Andy Robertson as an example of why colt teams should be backed, which makes little sense to me. "The classic example is [Liverpool and Scotland defender] Andy Robertson, who left Celtic but is now captain of our country. He's captain because he got real football at a good level, and afterwards a brave manager took him to Dundee United - then he went on to flourish." Yes Neil, but if he was playing for an old firm colts team rather than Queens Park, how likely is it that he'd have been able to go to Dundee United and get first team exposure at that level so quickly? Seems to me that he'd have been more likely kept in the Celtic system that released him, kept in the Colt team until and unless they decided to take him into the first team squad of celtic proper, rather than making the jump to Dundee United and competing against the likes of the Celtic first team. The colt system seems far more likely to have hindered Robertson, rather than helped him. Especially since every article and interview cites his punting by Celtic and rebuild at Queens Park as vital character building.

'Helps' being the operative word, aye. It helps towards that goal, it doesn't achieve it all but it's lonesome. It's not a cure all, not a silver bullet, yet from the moment it was first mentioned it has been described as the salvation of the sport. We're still firmly in the woods peering out. This has cleared some of a the path, but there's a ways to go yet. My initial grip with Doncaster was that he was overselling it, not that he was grateful. Of course he is. As he should be. As we all should be.

He says that this enables clubs 'to return to playing as early as it’s safe to do so'. That's just factually incorrect. It will be safe to do so long before it will be financially viable to do so for lower league sides. This grant will not be enough to bridge that gap. He can leave that last part out and his statement would be fine. He could use the word 'assisting' rather than the world 'enabling' and it would also be fine. But he says enabling and that is just incorrect.

I don't have all that strong an opinion on Neil Doncaster either way, chiefly because he doesn't really have the level of power to justify the attention that is paid to him or the scrutiny he is put under, but my god why does he have to oversell thigs so cravenly? “This extremely generous donation from James will help protect all of our clubs from the very worst effects of Covid-19, enabling them to return to playing as early as it’s safe to do so' No it doesn't, Neil. The barrier to lower league clubs being able to start back at the same time as the top flight is not going to be breached by £50,000. Testing coupled with the income barrier of closed doors outweigh that by a significant degree. This is a very welcome gesture on its own merits, 50,000 free pounds for each club. That's enough grounds to praise it and James Anderson on. It is NOT going to be the silver bullet that eliminates the Covid-19 barrier.

Think WWII scuppered Alloa, as well, didn't it? Pre-war, top flight, post war, papped back down a league.

Really liked both home and away kits last season (3rd kit not so much) so be good to see what Umbro have come up with. Still unclear when we'll see the players wearing them on in a game, though. Anyone think we're back playing before 2021? first division looking at October but hard to see the entirety of Leagues 1 and 2 being able to do the same .

I could be well of the mark here but it's looking increasingly likely that the top flight will be able to start again in August. Despite being in favour of a structural revamp and probably prefer a 14-14-14 or a 12-12-10-10 to what we have now, the reality appears to be that the lower leagues won't be starting for a while yet. I think we're going to need to press ahead, at this stage, with setting the top flight off as a 12 in August and concentrate on getting the other divisions operational as early as we can. I don't think at this stage in proceedings that any restructure has a realistic prospect of going through. I also feel that whilst Hearts maybe could be ready to go again, I am not convinced ICT would be fairly treated by being told, in June or July, to prepare themselves for a stint in the top flight. Yes they would get the financial boost, but one expects they would be greatly disadvantaged and I fear a really compromised competition there if they were club 14 with such a quick turn around. That might be unfair on ICT, but based on the final table, there doesn't appear to be much between them and the teams who would have been their prospective playoff rivals. At this point, I think status quo will and probably just about should prevail. The bigger fight is this colts thing, which the old firm seem to be preparing the ground for. They likely know they can't get it across the line for the start of this impending season, but watch them try and push it throughout as a long term solution, either season 2021/2022 or the one after. Their opportunistic, lip licking manoeuvre is typical of their natural cabal, and one that will need vigilant and concerted opposition to combat.

One of the problems with Sportsound of late has been the regularity of the contributors. Granted, one hopes they try to get a wide range of people on and it could be that only the same voices agree to go on there, but even the lower league chairmen they get on tend to be the same ones over and over. Jim McInally is a decent listen but he's one of the very few lower league managers they ever have on. That's on top of the seemingly narrowing group of contributing pundits. This 'sameness', this sense of homogeneity, has been most keenly felt on this colts issue. Saturday in particular saw near unanimous agreement about the benefits of this latest example of old firm vampirism. In the larger context, though, we have a continued top flight lens through which every story is observed and digested. They can and should get some managers from the championship, league 1 and league 2 on there and give the likes of Neil Mccan a rest. It's getting to the stage where you know what he is going to say. He's not alone in this, but when the wider context of the game is getting discussed, you need to widen the lens accordingly.

I knew there could well be consequences, so only myself to blame.

Regards the colts debacle, I've sent Airdrie an email outlining my opposition to this and emphasising it in the strongest possible terms (no season ticket, withdraw club 1924 membership, no attendance as long as they are in there etc etc) and have asked them to confirm if they plan to make any sort of a statement on this or any of the other recon plans that have been floated. I expect no reply to be forthcoming, but one never knows for sure.

£2 million equates to £50, 000 per club. So at £2,500 per week for testing, you're looking at enough to cover 20 weeks. That's all it will stretch too, though. The lack of income is by far the most pressing issue for us lower league clubs. It's awful nice of the guy and i'm sure every club will be delighted to be gifted £50,000, but this is hardly the manna from heaven it was trailed as by many members of our illustrious media. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52912118

I know it sounds like unreasonable radicalism, but yes, yes I am.

Because the top 12 clubs in the SPFL take 84% of all income that comes into the league, as outlined in the rules of the organisation? Because the top 12 clubs already have the Sky sports broadcast deal to alleviate their troubles when it comes to playing without supporters and paying for weekly testing? A couple of reasons to start with.

I'd be willing to still hand over my £51, as a pay at the gate supporter, if it comes to it and the club needs some support from more than just season ticket holders not wanting a refund. We are going to have to wait and see but we could be in for a very truncated season if we get any sort of closure to the season at all. The longer we go on, the harder it will be on the club as it continues to go without income. When you consider the annual churn of players going out of contract over the summer, as well, it's going to get quite messy if it lasts as long as it looks like lasting. The securing of a number of players on extended contracts earlier in the season looks even more sensible in hindsight. Long way to go yet, but you'd hope we get a clearer picture in the next 4 weeks or so.

Ultimately how they handle things like league standings and the potential hurt feels or sense of hard luck for some football fans is small cheese in the here and now. Beyond the health and well-being of the citizenry, in a football sense the priority is the survival of clubs in this league and others who might be in trouble. I'm sure Celtic, Dundee united, Raith and Cove will be irked if actions are taken that prevent title parties/promotions, but by and large their supporters, and those of all pother clubs, will be far more concerned with more serious matters than football league prizes.

Aye, it is quite reassuring, at least for now, to see the club discussing this as having knock on effects on the budget next season, rather than suggesting there is any danger in the immediate term. Here's hoping. It's a situation that will be fluid for the foreseeable, so we shall but see. We could be looking at a rather unusual set up in whatever form 'season 2020/21' takes. Most importantly, hope everyone stays well; look after yersels and each other in the short term and we'll see where we are in a few weeks time. Airdrie for the cup

Chuckle. The alphabet predates the **** in any of their guises, as it happens.

I thought they changed that eventually, though, right? That's why we were able to rightly get our name changed back from Airdrie United to Airdrieonians, as they let them amend 'The Rangers' to just 'Rangers'. Either way we win the league so that's nice.

Ehm. Think you might want to double check that. S comes after R, not before.

Assign standings by the alphabet, surely? Congrats to Aberdeen, Alloa, Airdrie and Albion rovers. Commiserations to, ehm, St Mirren, Queen of the South, Stranraer and Stirling Albion. ... what? Seems fair.

I suppose they will have long ago already set up emergency service cover for the events this weekend, though, including the rangers v celtic game on Sunday. Since the science doesn't indicate that the outdoor gatherings are particularly bad for spreading the virus, they are looking at the next couple of weeks onwards when thinking about the need to free up emergency service personnel. We'll see, though; one would expect this to develop further as the day goes on. Hope they give the Aberdeen fans enough notice if they do call off the game tonight, or shut the doors.

I don't think so- UEFA, which is to unite the various components of European football on Tuesday, is expected to announce the suspension of the Champions League and the Europa League on this occasion, as well as the postponement of the Euro to 2021 https://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Coronavirus-l-uefa-devrait-annoncer-la-semaine-prochaine-la-suspension-des-coupes-d-europe-et-le-report-de-l-euro-a-2021/1119058

Suppose we'll see what comes pout of this meeting on Tuesday, but I see L'Equipe are reporting they will indeed postpone the Euros to next summer.

This is going to wreak havoc for all divisions in the country, you would think. The top three in our league have never registered a home gate of less than 500 all season long (league games). Montrose, in 4th, are usually above it as well, with a few in the late 400s, meaning that the stewards and staff take it above 500 anyway. East Fife in fourth are similar, with only 4 gates below 500. Cove Rangers have been above 500 all season long, too, and Elgin City are usually getting just above 500. So going to be a bit of a quagmire to sort out. It is looking more likely that they will either just prevent any fans or suspend the games for an indeterminate period.