AJF

That's exactly what it is, your opinion. I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of football fans would be against mixed seating. You're not, which is fine. Just don't go making condescending comments and jumping to exaggerated conclusions just because someone has a different view.

Why? The better the condition of the pitch means the higher chance Saturdays game goes ahead which in turn means a higher chance Wednesdays game goes ahead.

I wasn't suggesting you were reliant on him. More that there would inevitably need to be a large scaling back in the operating costs - a third seems a lot. If that £3.6m shortfall can be made up after excluding any of the non-recurring infrastructure investments then there's no issue.

Had a quick look at the most recent accounts which shows turnover of £20.8m, with staff costs of £15.4m and other operating costs of £9m. Money coming in from benefactors was £4.5m so it does appear if Anderson was to disappear then Hearts would be in the red by about £3.6m. Given that staff and player wages don't tend to come down, that would need to result in quite a large scaling back of those other operating costs by over a third to try and break even.

This, as well as the play-off defeats against Motherwell. While we were a shambles that season, we were still strong favourites IIRC and completely shat the bed. St Johnstone at home in the Scottish Cup as well, when they scored with the last kick of extra time after Clarke had gone up and got his head to it. They went on to win on penalties.

I would imagine that the away attendance amount would be restricted to what we have already been allocated for Dundee. I don't think there would be enough time to get new tickets printed, passed over to Rangers and then distributed to fans in time for Wednesday. Where the fans are seated is another matter, but I don't see the amount increasing.

I think it would be reasonable to assume that the SPFL would’ve liaised with Dundee on the matter before determining which date the game was rearranged for. The fact that they’ve made no comment about it means we simply don’t know why the decision was made. People can speculate of course, but as I said, how do we know that Dundee never requested more time to work on their pitch as it is clearly in a rather critical state.

Is it? What if Dundee also wanted it to be delayed a further week to allow more time for their pitch to potentially become playable? We don’t know, and Dundee don’t seem to have made any comment voicing their displeasure at them being given an extra week.

Aye, this was something I was interested in looking at further as well. I appreciate you've given further context on what Anderson's money goes towards, but out of interest, what would Hearts' wages to turnover ratio be without it? And do we know what level of costs his money goes towards would be considered ongoing costs (e.g. the women's team)?

@Jacky1990never mentioned anything about battering each other. They just said they are not on board with mixed seating. Neither am I. Football is a vastly different sport compared to Rugby and the support is far more passionate and tribal. That doesn't mean anyone that is pro-segregation is also an advocate of fan violence. You've made a massive leap there and arrived at a nonsensical conclusion that implied they would be violent towards opposition fans and used that as justification to support an outdated alcohol ban.

Above was the original question from Eder. This was my response to prove it was not true that Clancy had not refereed a Rangers game since we had complained about him. Are you being deliberately obtuse? At no point did I claim that two games was a lot. I even went on to say two games was the norm, given that 7 other teams in the league had also only been officiated by him twice.

I really wasn't. I was simply using the fact that he had officiated two of our matches this season as evidence to refute the claim that he hadn't taken charge of a match involving us since a complaint. It was you that went on to emphasise the amount.

You know me, an arbiter of truth. As long as unfounded claims are made, I'll be here!

Celtic, Kilmarnock, Ross County, Hibs, Dundee, Livingston, Motherwell and Rangers. A list of teams Clancy has officiated exactly twice this season. He has only been appointed a St Mirren match once, which means the only sides he has officiated more than twice are Aberdeen, Hearts and St Johnstone. So aye, try as you might to make it seem like two matches is low to somehow fit a narrative, it’s actually the norm.

I think you’ve taken what I’ve said literally. And if you genuinely believe we’ve somehow got any influence that would result in the SFA appointing Beaton then Celtic fans are more far gone that I imagined. And no, I don’t believe that is true, no. Collum was in charge when we played Ayr in February which, obviously, came after the new year game against Celtic. And I’m not sure when we complained about Clancy? But he has officiated 2 of our matches this season.

I’m not sure I follow. I meant that we probably need to win this one given it’ll be a lot harder to beat Celtic after the split at Celtic Park. Obviously, two draws in each of these matches would technically be enough if both teams win their remaining fixtures, but I don’t expect that’ll happen.

I wonder if there is a decision made following a VAR intervention that Celtic disagree with if Rodgers will hold the VAR responsible rather than the on-field referee that makes the final decision like he did following the Hearts match. Something tells me Beaton will be the one in the firing line regardless if there does happen to be such an incident.

It’s kind of like Ibrix. He doesn’t make any “O” sound.

Rangers heading into this one with a crucial advantage after our preferred referee has been appointed to officiate it. VIP area of the Crown Bar has already been booked out with meet and greet and photo opportunities being advertised following the match. In seriousness, it’s probably a game we need to win if we want to win the title, with a difficult post-split fixture list looking likely which will include our visit to Celtic Park. Lundstram and Diomande seem to be almost certs to start. The question remains over who joins them. If we opt for Cantwell, we risk being overrun by Celtic’s midfield, while if we go with Sterling, we sacrifice a large potential attacking threat.

65 of his 131 have been penalties, so almost exactly half. Which is incidentally 12 penalties less than the prior record holder, Graham Alexander.

I think this sums up my feelings on it well. I think the applause on a certain minute idea was a nice touch a decade or so ago when it first started. But aye, now it is that common it doesn’t feel that respectful. That’s not to say anyone with this opinion is getting worked up about it or won’t show the respect by joining in, but it just feels forced a lot of the time now.

Not me, that’s why I said a compilation of his best goals.

A compilation of Tav’s best goals would be great viewing. Often seems to score belters.

Nothing. I’m not saying otherwise.

Yep, agreed it’s rather depressing that it got to a point where songs were categorised in this way.