VincentGuerin

Got to be honest, I'm buzzing for next Saturday and absolutely can't be fucked with tomorrow.

I sort of understand this, but it's not something I've ever really been on-board with. Firstly, I think people enjoy the collective moan about Hampden. It's not amazing, but it's fine, really. It's ok. I've been going sort of regularly for decades and I can't ever remember thinking 'this view is terrible!' any more than when you get an unlucky seat at any ground. Secondly, it's not the theatre. It's a one-off game. I don't care where my seat is, and I don't really understand people getting really worked up about it. It's not about the view.

Well. I know as much as you. You just speculate differently from me. Much obliged.

I always take these things with a pinch of salt, but just going by what's available and what sections are done it looks good. Think it's a shame Hibs' tickets seem to have been sold in a way that looks likely to leave a big gap behind the goal. Just seems amateurish.

I think that's a generous take on it. The interview is just standard football-politician stuff. What is he meant to say in public? But you like Aberdeen, so you go for the generous view. I don't really like Aberdeen, so I'll stick to my view that they're c***s. Cheers.

No, I know about the Setanta thing. But why did Aberdeen block the voting change? I can't see any reason other than that Milne thought they'd skoosh the old Rangers cash.

So, what was the reason then?

I think I've found your error.

This is how I remember it at the time. Milne was always a c**t, and this was incredibly short-sighted faux Billy Big Baws behaviour. This kind of thinking perhaps explains how Aberdeen ended up with no medium-term advantage from a situation with Rangers liquidated, Hearts in administration, and Hibs managing to relegate themselves. Incredibly stupid.

Great stuff from Hearts. Nice to see the club not recruiting and renewing like maniacs anymore.

I find it baffling that anybody who could go wouldn't go. What's the point of being into fitba if you're not going to a game like this? Every Hearts supporter I know personally is going apart from one boy who's abroad for work. One of my mates is binning of a mate's wedding to be there. Amazed that someone who could go wouldn't.

Yeah, it's not the same thing. Essentially solidifies the rich clubs' advantage.

No, I mean Scottish clubs compete against clubs from dozens of other countries. Imposing a pay cap here would put our clubs at a disadvantage. No league is going to choose to disadvantage itself, and some leagues would happily watch competitor leagues disadvantage themselves and pick up their players for a fiver more. It just doesn't work. You'd need a Europe-wide salary cap, which is unworkable. The NBA is its own competition. It can do what it wants with no damage.

Doesn't work in an international market. American sports can do that, but you can't really make it work in European football in a way that will meaningfully help competition.

I can understand why Scottish players stay at the Old Firm for a long time. Good money, you'll win medals, don't need to move house, likely get to play for Scotland. But the professional challenge elsewhere must just be on a different planet. It was quite weird watching Celtic celebrate their titles, especially when Rangers were away. This almost performative delight as if they had to prove to people that they really were happy and it really did matter. It must have been a bit weird for them. But even with their pals back, most weeks must be dull. It's actually funny when you hear the Scottish media praising Rangers or Celtic for a narrow away win. 'They just get the job done, that's the Old Firm etc etc'. I mean, they've got a team worth probably 10-15 times that of their opponent. Of course they 'get the job done' FFS.

Hearts public sale started today. Huge early rush, as expected. My mate said he was behind 3,000 in the queue just after 9am. Seems they're flying off the shelves. Interesting to see if this continues al day or if it's just that everyone is terrified of missing out and we'll sell no more after lunchtime.

While Celtic's period of dominance was utterly boring, and I doubt many of us believe even their fans protestations that they don't agree, it's worth remembering that Scotland is not alone here. It's just a question of scale. They have an Old Firm, it's just their big foreign-owned Champions League regulars. England has essentially gone the same way. In the 80s there were thirteen different clubs in England who won major trophies. This included Wimbledon, Luton, Oxford, Coventry, Norwich, Wolves, Forest. The 90s saw 12 different winners, including the likes of Villa, Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Leicester. By the 2000s it's down to 9 winners, but you've still got Spurs, Portsmouth, Blackburn etc getting their hands on trophies. In the last decade only four trophies in English football have been won by clubs outwith what we could call England's Old Firm. Leicester have won two, Wigan, and Swansea. That's four trophies out of the last thirty not going to the Old Firm. They're fucked too. People laugh at Spurs, for example, for not winning anything. But they're up against a closed shop. Trophies now are basically only won by a tiny group of clubs and that's just the way it's going. In England we can now add Newcastle to the Old Firm from next season. In Scotland 9 of the last 30 trophies have been won by clubs outwith the Old Firm, so you could argue that in a way a Hearts, Aberdeen, St Mirren, or Ross County fan is better off than an Everton or Aston Villa fan. We're all in the same boat in that our teams won't win the league, but we've got about a better chance of maybe winning a cup.

Who plays in front of an empty stadium?

"As well as this there has been a continual failure from anyone – Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen – to systematically believe they could challenge the status quo. All the non-Old Firm pack start off each season with the belief that the best they can do is finish third in the league and maybe win a cup: it is a philosophy which breeds being second-best and not trying to win."

One could praise Hearts, Hibs, and Aberdeen for the frequency with which they finish high up the league and qualify for Europe. But one can't help but wonder whether East Fife and Peterhead could maybe challenge us more if they just wanted it more and believed a bit more. Shame on them for being so defeatist.

Yeah, you're right. That completely obliterates the point... Nobody is saying shock results don't happen. But had Celtic somehow managed to lose to Hearts in that cup final, it would have been a monumental failure on their part. Expecting the other clubs to 'want it more' is facile bullshit. It's only peddled by Old Firm types who want to convince themselves that their team's successes are in any way meaningful.

We hear stuff like this all the time, and it's nonsense peddled by our OF sycophant media. Hearts have a financial advantage over clubs like Ross County etc, but we also operate in a pack where there are a number of clubs with our budget or a lot closer to it than we are to the OF. It's much, much, much more likely in any season that Hearts, Hibs, or Aberdeen will be relegated than it is that anyone can compete with the Old Firm. It's not even close.

"As well as this there has been a continual failure from anyone – Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen – to systematically believe they could challenge the status quo. All the non-Old Firm pack start off each season with the belief that the best they can do is finish third in the league and maybe win a cup: it is a philosophy which breeds being second-best and not trying to win." This part is complete bollocks. It's unfathomably simplistic. Come on Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen, we know you don't have anything like their budget, but TRY HARDER! BELIEVE HARDER! Maybe when Hearts were a goal up in the 2019 cup final, Hearts could just have BELIEVED HARDER to stop Celtic's eight million pound striker scoring the two goals that cost us the cup. f**k off, put this shite in the bin.

This is true with people who have a real problem. But we shouldn't just be aiming at them. We should be thinking of the number of people who are happily slightly overweight but who could easily help themselves out with a few more well-informed choices. If you eat out pretty regularly and actually see what the calorie count of that is, it may lead people to choose different meals when eating out or to opt for more home-cooked meals. We all know people who are constantly mystified as to why they're not losing weight despite regular gym trips. A lot of people are simply ignorant about what they are eating, and giving people more information is no bad thing. How you use it is up to you.