VincentGuerin

Jamie Mole, we'll never know. But Calum Elliot's treatment at Hearts was disgraceful. He was a fantastic young player with a great attitude and the way he was fired off to Motherwell with zero support and seemingly zero plan for his career the following season was utter negligence. He never recovered.

In a democracy it is your right to not engage with politics whatsoever. You're completely free to do that. It's undemocratic for the authorities to be able to insist you take part in an election you don't want to and I think opens the door to a dangerous path. I always vote, but I think the right not to is a good thing.

Finland has one post-split game against each opponent, but as of last season Slovakia has two, meaning they play half their opponents 4 times. 32 games for each team.

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Croatia, Cyrpus, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Wales all have league systems where teams play some or all of their divisional opponents four times per season. It is not remotely unusual. So, going by your logic, it must be a good idea? Including us, I make that 21 countries, including 4 of UEFA's top-ranked 13. Still, we definitely need to change it to get ICT and Morton into the top flight. That'll make things much better.

And Shankland made sure we lost two goals so that they did just that. His "goal" was just cover. I'm not falling for it.

It is though, within the context our league exists in. In Scottish terms, Hearts v Aberdeen is a big game. I would not like to play Aberdeen twice a season and Hibs twice a season and replace those with fixtures against teams currently in the Championship. Nobody's claiming it's Real Madrid v Barcelona, but it's more interesting than Aberdeen v Morton. There is no evidence Scottish fitba will be improved by putting more smaller clubs into the top flight.

No offence, but a lot of this is demonstrably wrong. Every team in the league is currently playing for something. No team in the Championship is currently certain which division they'll be in next season. Of the 42 clubs in the SPFL, there are very few whose seasons are over, and it's almost the end of February. You want to change that so that we can have some more of the smaller teams in the top flight? The clear question is Why? And you haven't provided a single compelling argument for it. This stuff about another team being able to challenge with a bigger league is mince, and it's been explained why loads of times. You say nobody cares about Hearts - Hibs games. Ok, while I don't think that's strictly true, do you think more or fewer people would care about the Hearts -Morton game you want to replace it with? Do you think the crowd gets bigger? Do you think it suddenly makes the league more competitive? I think the answers to those questions in order are fewer, no, and no. I'd love to see your working for a disagreement. Yout final point sums this up. The whole Scottish league system at the moment works quite well. The divisions are competitive and exciting in their own ways. By making the leagues bigger you lose that and still don't solve the problem of the OF having a fucking pile more money than anyone else. It's a daft idea and it'll never happen.

Ah, got you. Cheers.

Did he score against them on our last two vists there by accident?

Hearts' form this season would not see us up there. We're one win and one defeat to Celtic, breaking even against them so far, and we're still ten points behind them because we lost at home to Motherwell, drew at home to Killie, lost at Dens etc. It's a complete fantasy that putting more cannon fodder from the Championship into the division would help us catch the OF. We'd drop points to the new shite teams in the league much more often than the OF would. Stop and consider what you're actually proposing. You're proposing cutting the number of big games in the league, and you're claiming that would make the division more exciting. Stop and think that through. It would almost definitely have a negative impact on attendance, as the removal of big games would lead to a lot of fixtures that nobody can be arsed with. No offence, I get why fans of some smaller clubs look on this favourably, but fans of the bigger clubs (as far as I'm aware) do not want to replace fixtures against each other with games against the likes of ICT and Morton. I'd want a considerable discount on my season ticket for that. And as for these big attendances we see when the smaller clubs meet each other in League One or the Championship, those will become a thing of the past as these games will simply have less riding on them and fewer people will give a f**k. Forget getting them on the telly, too. Attendances in the Championship being good is a sign that the current system is good. We would be mad to change it. Big league, bad idea. The only winners would be smaller clubs who generally fail to make the Premiership and want a slice of the action.

Nothing. He's an idiot and should be sacked.

Always, always, always chase for the Why? Best hope is any new buyer is just a rich idiot happy to lose some money. There's pretty much no other genuinely defensible reason for a foreigner to be interested. Hard to see any legitimate road to profit. No significant profile involved in it. So, why?

We wouldn't need him against a feeble opponent like Celtic, anyway, tbh. I'd rest him.

30 years and about 15 minutes ago.

A win here and Hearts will probaby go on and win the title. It's just a question of how early we win it. Any result other than a Hearts victory will be clear evidence of corruption and dark forces at work.

Am I right in thinking Morton were the only club to consult their fans? Can any Morton fans confirm what form that took, and if I've missed any consultation from other cubs, it would be handy to hear about it here. Don't want my letters or Sportsound truth-bombs to be full of errors.

Fucking hell. 0/10 for being quick on the uptake. FWIW, I'd bet most folk on this thread moaning about VAR have done precisely nothing of use.

This thread is depressing. Nothing to do with actual VAR, which anyone with half a functioning brain predicted would be terrible, is terrible, and always will be terrible. More the fucking streak of pish Negative Nancies on here givng it "oooh, it's shite but there's nothing we can do". Get a fucking grip of yourselves and get your fingers out your arses, you spineless c***s. Err, with respect. If you're on here moaning about VAR, then why don't you do one of the following: 1) Write to/email your club's SLO and board of directors. If Motherwell, for example, start receiving dozens of these letters, it becomes an issue they need to address. If you moan about it on P&B, f**k all will happen. Explain your reservations about VAR clearly and respectfully, ask if the club has considered the view on the impact on paying fans in the stadium, remind your club how much of their income is from paying fans, and ask if they have any plans to consult with fans on how VAR is going, and if not, why not. At least hint that you're considering attending fewer games and your ST renewal is in doubt. That gets the c***s' attention. I have done this. Disgracefully, I received no response from either my SLO or the board of directors at my fan-owned club. They'll be getting another letter soon. Why the f**k not? Bombard the c***s. 2) Loads of c***s on here listen to Sportsound every week. We know that from all the fucking moaning about it. Some c**t fucking phone them and, again, respectfully and clearly, explain that the Sportsound panel and SFA shills they have on there are not paying supporters. Explain your experiences and objections, again, hint that you're considering going to fewer games, and raise the issue of why there has never been any meaningful consultation on the issue with the fucking mugs paying £30 a go to watch this pish. I am at a game most weeks, so this is tricky for me. But I have made a solemn vow to some mates that I'm going to do this. I'll be on kidding on to support someone else (if I get on) so none of you c***s will know it's me. It doesn't sound like much, but the VAR converation in the media has moved past "should we have it?" and we need to bring it back to that point. Phone them, you lazy c***s. Same goes for any of our brain-dead contributors, but obviously, you can call Super Scoreboard. Every little helps. Move the conversation to where we want it to be. If they're getting these calls every week, it becomes an issue. 3) Write to the paper. Papers are dying and they'll literally print any old shite. They probably make up half the letters they print (or get some unpaid intern to write them), so they'll be delighted to get a real one. Write out a letter outlining your objection, and send it to all the papers. Someone will print it. If they start getting loads of these, they'll run with them. And if they become a theme, some opportunistic hack will take up the cause as they're all dying for attention and relevance. My letter is nearly finished and will be going to all of Scotland's publications in the next two weeks, I think. Write a letter, you lazy b*****d. So, all you fucking surrender-monkeys on here giving it the "oooh, poor old us, what can we do?", put up or shut up. VAR is shite, but it's up to us to do what we can to try and get what we want. At the moment, the conversation around "should we have VAR?" is off the table, and that's on the supporters. We've let that happen. The first step in getting rid of it is getting that question asked again. I'm serious. If you're reading this and want rid of VAR, then do one, two, or all three of the things I've suggested and we might fucking get somewhere. If you don't, then you're right; f**k all will happen. Stop fucking moaning and do something, you c***s. Respectfully. Viva la revolucion.

Very much this. Within easy travel distance of Newcastle you've got numerous clubs to visit. A great place to base yourself for a weekend, get to some good boozers and head out for a game in the National League/North/Northern League. If anything, the Benidormish reputation makes Newcastle under-rated. It's got to be among the best places in the UK for a fitba-watcher.

People who say "rock" probably also say "gotten" and call invitation "invites". Wronguns.

Got to be honest, after the recent marvelous Hearts - Dundee threads and the strong bonds and associations formed therein, I would say the Hi-Dees relationship is at risk. I think a controversial penalty award in this game either way will see a high profile P&B controversy as this alliance crumbles. We'll all be watching closely. This thread already seems a bit strained. Like a marriage on its last legs with people trying too hard to convince themselves it has a future.

Clickbait thread title very much on-brand for a discussion of a Sun article, imo.

My teams on an amazing run and is very much in the hunt for Europe and the cup. I go to fewer games now than before, and while it's not the only factor, VAR was the last shove I needed to stop going every week.

Shhh. Never show fear. We're winning the Champions League. If it goes wrong, we'll just blame Naismith.

The final's in Munich, which is fitting as that's where the Champions' League final was the day of the 5-1. So, it seems written in the stars etc that Craig Gordon is hoisting the trophy in Munich on May 31st next year. I'm booking th Monday off.