VincentGuerin

Like it does at Dens, aye?

Yeah. Paul Kane scoring a beauty for St Johnstone's 2-0 (almost everybody seemed to get one) was the low point for me. By the time we got gubbed at Dundee I think I'd already accepted relegation.

That season went from terrifying to hilarious. I just checked and we scored one goal in eight games then followed that with twenty-two in our next nine. I still think we should persevere with Derek Lilly.

It's starting to look more likely than not. As a Hearts supporter, there's an element of pot kettle black here, but I have no sympathy with the majority of Derby fans. I know plenty and it was proper head in the sand stuff. Maybe a big (ish) club in England actually being liquidated might spark the kind of response that sees a bit of a change in culture among fans. The Rangers issue never really made much impact here. Derby actually being liquidated would have much more of an effect. As you say, they need a lot of cash quickly. But even then, the potential legal action could finish them anyway. The very point is that it might take years. You're unlikely to find a buyer willing to take on the club without protection from that. Only MM can give that, and he won't do it. I think Boro and Wycombe should take them to the cleaners, personally.

If MM thinks he's likely to be hit with a big legal bill from Boro and Wycombe, he might just sit tight as he is. As you say, Ashley is no mug, so he's not likely to buy the club knowing he could be taking on that potential hit of tens of millions of pounds. It's easy to see how this just grinds on into liquidation. MM has already lost a fortune, and may just decide he doesn't want to be liable for any more. If he does, who buys the club and why? Not as simple as just waiting till the last minute and hoping he'll buckle.

Devastated I missed it. Nothing quite like a good BOOOOOOO! Even though I'm not as bothered about him as most, I'll 100% be joining in the booing if he's playing on Saturday. Great panto stuff.

I went to Hereford last night. Midweeks at Hearts are too much of a stretch for me these days. Hereford is great. Proper shite wee ground. Highly recommended. 2-0 home win over Kidderminster.

Maybe he made it up?

Depends how you see it, I suppose. I'm not really doing anything different in terms of work-load compared to before. Either way, it works fine without me or him needing to sit in traffic twice a day and spend on petrol etc. I think an employer in the 21st century who needs to see people in the office is a poor employer. Communication is different now. Younger staff especially are perfectly capable of doing the relationship-building stuff from a distance.

I can see a bit of a point here, but I think it's a bit out-dated. People are just finding new ways of communicating and doing the relationship-building (arse-kissing) in different ways. I've got a manager who values pointless 'face time', so I indulge him with a cheerful call every now and then to update him, have a quick laugh, then next time I email him I make a joke about something we talked about. He's lapping it up. Good work plus a slight understanding of how to communicate and you're fine. Employers who want to pressure staff into commutes etc will ultimately just lose good staff. Good people will always have options.

Is that common? I can't think of anyone I know ever telling me they've been chased for it. I actually didn't pay it for a couple of years after moving house about ten years ago now. Just got lost somewhere and me and the wife realised we weren't paying it. Started paying it, but in the meantime nobody had kicked our door down. Nobody even called.

Amazing that the 'why should I be forced to pay for it' lobby still get airtime. It's a public service. You pay for it to subsidise people who couldn't pay for it otherwise. It's like saying 'I haven't been to hospital for years, why do I pay for the NHS?' Also, even if all you watch is Sportscene, Match of the Day, and cup finals etc, it could be argued you're getting pretty good value for money already. That's before radio, online content, tv series etc etc etc. Scary how successful the right-wing media has been in getting its propaganda out on this one.

Much more to it than that. Any buyer will be looking for the previous owner to take responsibility for potential legal action by Middlesbrough and/or Wycombe relating to previous seasons, and probably for him to include the stadium in any sale of the club. Those are two big stumbling blocks and someone as savvy as Ashley is unlikely to buy a club with no stadium and facing potential legal costs of tens of millions of pounds.

I really fucking hope not. I live and work around a lot of Derby fans. A hugely over-inflated sense of their club's place in the world.

Probably to do with Rangers' wee holiday for a chunk of that. And their manager managed to win it for the gargantuan achievement of leading Rangers out of the second tier. If it had been awarded in 2020, Lennon would almost certainly have won it, having won the treble (or, at least, double that became a treble). This would give us 4 OF winners in the last 6.

f**k it, call it ten million! All players are mercenaries. It's their job.

There's also the point that it's not good for us to be seen to be punishing players for progressing their careers. All clubs except about five or six in the world are stepping-stone clubs. Best course of action for us here is to be smart and negotiate with Rangers within reason to get this done now and move on.

I agree. This stuff cuts both ways. Clubs try and force players out when it suits them and expect loyalty from them when there's a few quid to be made. Players expect their clubs to treat them well but will jump shift as soon as a better offer comes along. Anyone looking for loyalty or kindness in any of this is living in a dream world. It's annoying it's gone against us this time, but it'll go for us other times.

Are the people there all wee?

This is the kind of thing that's easy to say from the outside. But maybe he's got a partner who doesn't want to move and he'd rather not go without. Maybe his partner has a really good job/career of his/her own at home and they don't want to disrupt that. I live in the Midlands and my sister-in-law used to be married to a professional footballer who was based in this part of the world because it gave them the best chance of having a settled home. He'd spent the first few years of his career moving north and south by himself for a year/eighteen months at a time and found it a lonely existence that put a strain on his relationships. Eventually he just decided to only play for clubs where he could live in their house and commute. It cost him one potentially good move, but that was the thinking behind it. I fully get a player being offered big money to stay around their settled life choosing to take it. Don't get me wrong. I'd like a bit of loyalty from my Hearts players. I travel a shitload every year to watch them. But this is just how it is. I'm not going to get angry at someone else's life decisions. What's the point? It'll be someone else soon. Why get worked up?

The latest Private Eye has a good section on this 'unrecognisable' trend for pictures where people look completely recognisable. I wonder if this stuff is produced by someone on a wage or by some chump getting by on 'exposure' and 'experience'.

Following this thread for a while and chuckling along at the anger here. Every time something like this happens I'm surprised so many people get so annoyed about it. It's a bit annoying, but in his situation who wouldn't want to make loads more money and not even have to move? This will make him rich, and good luck to him. Who wouldn't take it? I don't buy the Champions League angle. If Rangers are in that comp next season his CL experience will just be getting absolutely battered. That's not as attractive as regularly playing in a better league. But he's entitled to take the money. It's his job and these are the rules. Move on.