VincentGuerin

Salary caps are nothng to do with competitiveness, they exist in franchise systems to make sure the owners make the profits and not the players. You can bet your life the ESL will have one. Why the f**k should Mbappe and Bellingham be able to demand pay rises and eat into those sweet, sweet profits for the execs? Providing competition is a nice side effect and good for PR, but it's not the point. I think you're being unfair on FFP. FFP protects clubs down the chain (like ours) from inflationary pressure caused by unrestrained spending at the top end. And it puts the breaks on owners who are happy to distort the sport or risk the future of their club. It does prevent the biggest clubs being challenged, but is it really a good thing if Brentford are bought by a Sheikh who turns them into a challenger by just spending freely? Why is that good? I think that's a positive thing for the sport to be protected from. More competitiveness in football would be good. It would be tremendous if St Johnstone, for example, could realistically be champions of Europe. Why the f**k not? But the best route to that for the sport is through competitions being organised in a way that money is not the be-all-and-end-all, not by just deciding that everyone can spend what they want. In Scotland we've seen the consequences of this quite enough.

We've needed stability for years, but this squad is starting to look like the benchmark for non-OF teams. Miles clear in third two years ago with a lot of the same players, obvious on and off-field problems last year, stretching their legs again this year. Keeping the spine of this team together for 2-3 years should see us doing well. It's got a cup win feel to it.

You can choose to care which of them wins it or not. But the fact remains you have that choice. There is competition in every part of the league.

If I'm paying the thick end of thirty quid a pop to watch this shite, then I want there to be something riding on the game. I honestly think an 18-team league would gradually lead to a drop in crowds.

I believe this is now called The Champions League.

Fair doooos. I'm not sure that you wouldn't be bored after 4-5 years of an 18-team league, though.

I don't think it is as boring as f**k. At the moment we have a genuine title race. We have about 3/4 of the league who could still qualify for Europe. We're going to have at least 2/3 very disappointed clubs missing out on the top 6, and we've got probably a third of the league in relegation bother. Even Hearts, well clear in third, are catchable precisely because they still have a lot of tough games to go. Then we get to the Championship where literally every team can still quite feasibly be playing in a different division next season. You can argue the quality is shite, but it's not boring. And how, exactly, does a bigger league make it more exciting? Killie won't suddenly be able to challenge for the title. And if anyone things a bigger division will improve the quality of football, I'd like to direct you to the English Leagues One and Two. Horrific.

To what end? What do you hope to achieve? Crowds are good, and interest is probably at its maximum level. So, what would this change be for?

The current set-up is about as good as it's going to get. People will moan whatever the arrangement is. Football is a competition and our current set-up makes it as competitive as it can be in Scotland. A division of 18 would be fucking depressingly dull. I like the split. It adds interest, and we see this every season. I like the play-off systems we have. I'd just make the relegation from League 2 automatic. I love away trips, and the variety of aways would be nice. But most fans don't go to away days, and I reckon your average Hearts ST holder would take the hump with a derby, 2xOF, and Aberdeen replaced by Morton, ICT, Thistle, and Raith. Crowds are pretty good across the board. Do we reckon they'd go up if we had fewer big games and a bigger mid table? Fantasy Land stuff. Also, I find this clamour for a bigger league something I only really see online or when speaking to a fan of a lower league club. In real life I hardly ever encounter anyone in favour of it.

Please don't post like this in future. People already think Hearts fans are posh and drive Land Rovers.

That load of shite will get a huge amount of "engagement". Sad, but true.

I'm actually starting to think this is all some deep NFL conspiracy. Hear me out. Football is the world game. There's no doubt about this. The NFL people envy this. All right-thinking people agree that NFL is pure shite because the rules are hard to follow for a beginner and it stops and starts FUCKING CONSTANTLY, rendering the sport an unwatchable waste of time. And we've not even touched on it being played and watched, largely, by Americans, who are, let's be honest, generally insufferable. So, the evil NFL overlords have infiltrated FIFA with the plan of dragging fitba down to their level and achieving their end game of supplanting fitba as the world game, with all the reddies rolling in as a result. It's the only explanation for why football has turned away from being a quick-flowing, easy-to-understand sport, and changed into a shambolic mess that even the well-versed no longer truly understand, and that now takes fucking forever to play. I've always loved fitba, but I reckon if I was coming at it as a beginner now, I might just not bother with it. Drawing lines on a pitch to check where someone's toe is? Remembering blue, yellow, and red cards? f**k off. And f**k you, NFL.

The campaign to make the world's most popular sport as shite as possible gathers pace. Fucking insane.

Don't have Sky, so only had this thread to go on about the decisions last night and was thrilled at the prospect of watching the highlights this morning to see Hibs get robbed. Imagine my disappointment upon viewing the highlights to discover that both of Celtic's penalties were stone-wallers and Boyle's dive was, indeed, yet another obvious dive from a lad who has dived his way out of the benefit of the doubt with officials. Yes, he gets a touch, but it's not a foul. Maybe if Boyle hadn't spent years chucking himself to the floor, officials might view him going down more favourably. It's got to be on their minds. "Boyle again, don't get conned."

I think what St Johnstone are getting from Levein is what most folk expected. Grim to watch, but it'll stop you getting pumped every week. Not countering any of the criticisms you or other St Johnstone fans make, but I think the improvement since he came in justifies the approach and if St Johnstone are rebuilding next summer from the position of being in the Premiership, then he's done his job. Basiclly, this is what you signed up for and what you needed. Where you go from the summer is a different issue. How long is his deal?

Thought it was the same as our penalty at Dens in that whatever call the ref made would have been stuck with. Take the breakand move on. A deserved win overall. Not much in the game, but we looked the more likely side. The highlights err... highlighted that we were much more dangerous than St Johnstone were. Got away with one for the handball though.

Huge win for St Mirren tonight. Not out of it yet.

Looking forward to Sunday. It'll be a good day out, but hoping for a dull as f**k cup tie nobody will ever rmemeber with a boring 2-0 win.

Looking for Hibs in the table to see how far clear we are. But I had to read down the way for so long I got bored and gave up.

Hearts win again, Hibs Hibs it again.

Agreed. I reckon three wins would probably get us third. Fortunately, we've got as good a shot at the cup as anyone else. No reason for us to be worried about playing anyone. Exciting times.

Great result. For the second time this week a win when a draw would have done me at kick off. Clean sheet, and excellent game management at the end. 3 more wins and a couple of draws to seal third?

Oda's attempts to tackle people are actual laugh out loud stuff. He's like a wee dug jumping about.

Shankland is brilliant. Didn't bother with the first half of this game. Seems to have been a wise move.

Hibs v Celtic literally gets fitba stopped. No surprise.