exiledjag

Kakay I think had a shaky start with us but I thought he made a very good contribution to the team and got better with every game. By comparison Cole, at least when I saw him play, was largely anonymous in our midfield and had very little impact on the game. I would take Kakay back but would need to be convinced about Cole. Signing for QPR is a good gig for him. Hope it goes well but have my doubts.

I am not so sure this "two club" view of how football in this country is administered applies at the moment. Perhaps in the past I would wholeheartedly agree but at the moment I am not so sure. The SPFL (not so much the SFA) in particular have been running football for the benefit of one club and that club is Celtic! Even though Newall is going this will remain the case as long as McLennan and Doncaster remain in control. The events of the past year were all about getting Celtic their 9th Title and setting them up for the 'historic' 10th Title. To do this the Leagues needed to be 'called' instead of being declared 'null and void'! We were just collateral damage. However, being a believer in Karma I am delighted it has served up to Celtic a shambolic and disastrous season which I hope will take them a few years from which to recover. It's no secret McLennan and Doncaster have had their problems with Rangers FC. There is so much wrong with the administration of Scottish Football at the moment and I agree root and branch change is needed. Removing McLennan and Doncaster for the good of all would be a good start!

I agree with this post. The only rationale I can offer for trawling the Lowland League is that perhaps, for whatever reason, there are at the moment players there who should be playing or can play at a higher level!

Well that's the defender, midfielder and striker that I wanted. Wonder if any of these players have pace?

Our ageing squad will be fine as long as John Beaton referees our games. He is reluctant to move out of the centre circle and when he can be bothered to do so he is always at least 15 yards behind the play!

I honestly have no idea about the quality of these signings! I would simply like all the players we have already to be fit and ready to play! Oh I would try to sign a forward, midfielder and defender all with pace! So looks like we will have to go with what we have or can get!

Lots of very perceptive insights on this thread. I am impressed. If we can just get the same quality onto the football field we will do alright! I especially like the onus to act being placed on the SPFL! I always felt that last summer the SPFL should have been leading the reconstruction effort and not Ann Budge. She allowed herself to be out manoeuvred there! OK assuming this proposal is approved that's 8 wins and we are promoted!

Agree but think the first 6 words are also important "as almost 50% of the SPFL"

That could be right. When I got mine the website suggested only small/medim/large sizes remaining which is why my limited edition number of 3/100 surprised me!

Sorry I clearly misunderstood your post! From memory I think QotS were in the bottom 3 of the Championship when the Lower Leagues were suspended. I think Alloa were bottom and Arbroath & Queens made up the other two at the bottom. Since then Queens have had a string of good results to get up the League and challenge for a play-off position.

Just had a look at the Leagues and looking at the situation from a football perspective there is every justification for at least 8 of the League One Clubs to vote to restart the League. If the games played are levelled up even Dumbarton in 8th (and Clyde in 9th spot) have a chance of being within touching distance of 4th and the play-offs. The SPFL shouldn't null and void the League 2 Season but 'Call' it and declare Queens Park the League Champions. This would encourage Clyde and at the very least Forfar to vote to play. If not current league positions for those clubs who don't wish to play should stand and Forfar should be relegated! For those who wish to play which should be at least 6 clubs including East Fife (perhaps also Peterhead) there should be a series of Fixtures leading too a Champion and 3 play-off places. This would put the cat amongst the pigeons. This proposal would also upset the Championship and lower PL Clubs which can't be bad!

I would have thought in addition to the Jags and Falkirk, Cove, Montrose, & Airdrie would want to play out the season! All the clubs in the Division were after all given £150000k to see them through the pandemic! League 2 will I suspect want to mothball. If we get the minimum 3 votes required will the other clubs have the right to say "we are not willing to play". Would they not be exposing themselves to SFA/SPFL sanctions. After all we know how important these organisations consider rules to be regardless of the circumstances!

You make some good points here. I don't accept I went to the default position of blaming Westminster by including England in one of many comparisons and I have added another one at the end of this post. Nicola Sturgeon and the Scot Govt have admitted they made a mistake by transferring hospital patients into Care Homes without first testing for the Covid. My first point though was that this wasn't just a Sturgeon mistake as the original poster was inferring. It seems Europe decided to handle it one way and Australasia another way - the latter being more effective in respect of Care Homes. My second point was that Sturgeon learned from this mistake by prioriting Care Homes for both first and follow up vaccinations. My third point and notwithstanding the successes in Australia and New Zealand is that Scotland is now out performing them in rolling out the vaccination problem - Best country in Europe & 3rd best in World! I think that answers your point about raising the bar! In relation to saving lives and I am lowering the bar again what about the 20,000 lives that could have been saved had Johnson listened to advice to go into lockdown in February 2020. He could see what was happening in Italy and Spain but he didn't have the bottle to make the decision until he was forced to go into lockdown in late March. A few months ago an English Tory MP said that he was concerned that compared to the Prime Minister, Nicola Sturgeon was 'leading' Scotland through the pandemic by working to a consistent plan based on scientific evidence, appropriate decisions and very good communication. The Prime Minister and Westminster by comparison appeared to be 'winging' it! ATM I am not even sure I will vote for her and if she is found to have lied to Scottish Parliament she won't be around anyway. So far, in spite of Alex Salmond's blustering, I have seen no evidence of her misleading Parliament. But we wait and see! Now time to get back to football, I think!

I imagine wee Roy McGregor (Ross County) will be horrified by the thought of team(s) being promoted from League 1 after playing only 18 games and the knock-on effect this will have for promotion and relegation in the Premier League and Championship! Hope he is prepared to take his medicine!

Very sensible and good post. Any chance you can get onto the appropriate SFA & SPFL Committees? I am sure they don't have your insight or in fact any a clue how to proceed!

Pre- vaccination the Care Home issue was not one limited to the Scottish Government or Nicola Sturgeon. Most of the major countries in Europe starting with Italy and Spain moved patients out of hospitals into Care Homes without testing for Covid-19, to make space in hospitals for potential Covid cases. These two countries were soon followed by France and other European Countries including the the UK. So to suggest this was a Scottish Govt/ Sturgeon mistake is just nonsense! However it appears Nicola Sturgeon was one of the few to learn from this mistake (and was honest enough to admit publicly that it was a mistake) by prioritising Care Homes for vaccination as I described in my earlier post. By doing this approximately 2 weeks after the first vaccination 84% of Care Home Residents and Staff had been vaccinated this compared with 6% in England. Seems Boris Johnston is a slow learner. In addition about a week to 10 days ago most of the Covid vaccination Centres in Scotland were temporary closed for about a week so that NHS staff could once again prioritise Care Home Residents and Staff to administer their second vaccination. On top of all that by the 17th February Scotland was ahead of all other European Countries (and 3rd in the World behind Israel and Chile) in terms of effectively rolling-out the vaccination programme. England's performance was just over half that of Scotland's and I think the worst of the Home Countries. So we should be acknowledging a fantastic performance by the Scottish Govt and the Scottish NHS and its Staff instead of being critical. As far as making the pandemic a political event - the only comments I have read or heard of that nature have come from Westminster, and in particular Hancock! On the point of being political you won't find any reference to the great performance in Scotland by that pillar of impartiality known as the BBC. What you will be reading though in the Tory dominated Media is every bit of negative news on Sturgeon/SNP it can find or manufacture from now to the May Election. Don't tell me this isn't deliberate.

Totally disagree! Unlike our Prime Minister who courts popularity, Nicola Sturgeon has been consistent throughout this pandemic in that all her actions and decisions have been made with a common purpose - to save lives! A recent article in the Financial Times states quite clearly that the Scottish Govt's decision to prioritise vaccination of Care Home Residents and Staff (was made knowing it would slow down the vaccine roll-out programme and therefore invite criticism of the Govt. from political opponents) has saved hundreds of lives in these establishments! We all know there was no justification for suspending the Lower Leagues in the first place and if suspension was justified then it should also have applied to the SPFL & Championship! I think the Covid issues at Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and St. Mirren prove the case. However my point here is that if she was after votes she would not be taking the difficult and unpopular decisions that resulted in tough restrictions throughout Scotland and in the case of football the suspension of the Lower Leagues!

As this thread seems to be fairly active I would like to put a plug in for the Limited Edition Jersey! Please go to the Limited Edition Jersey thread and read my comments at the end of P2? Got mine today and really like it! Cheers All

When the Leagues were stopped (and we were subsequently demoted) I am pretty sure QOS were 2 points above us in 9th place having played one game more than us! In other words we were in bottom place, 2 points behind our nearest rivals, but with a game in hand!!

Just thought you would all like to know that I received my limited edition Jersey this morning. After much swithering I decided to buy (actually my wife paid). I can say with confidence that Greaves have sold......... 3! My number shows 3/100! I think the quality is very good and I am very happy with it. Looks much better than the pic! Can anyone boast of a higher number. BTW large is comfortably large - not the tight fit of our previous supplier! Come on everyone buy one you will be pleasantly surprised and its money to the club!

Doncaster is still in a job (one where he receives a salary of just under £400k) because he is never required to make a decision! As SPFL CEO he doesn't determine strategy - the SPFL Board does this! Approval of all business decisions, for example, commercial contracts and sponsorship again fall to the SPFL Board. Doncaster doesn't even have any football oversight responsibilities - that falls to the SFA! What Doncaster does is run the SPFL Headquarters office/administration function, service and facilitates various committees including the SPFL Board and he is the point of contact with the SFA by serving as a member of the SFA principal management Committee. In every instance he, as far as I can determine, prepares the ground for decisions to be made but doesn't actually make a decision himself beyond general Admin level. He is therefore not accountable, untouchable and for what he does is grossly oner paid!

I accept McCall hasn't been the success we all hoped he would be and he also made mistakes. He hasn't though been dealt a winning hand and by his own admission the job was a lot more difficult than he realised. However I think some of the comments qare a bit unfair. 1. The squad he inherited was totally unbalanced with lots of midfielders and little of anything else! 2. He did well with the inherited squad but was never going to be more than midtable with them so he did the right thing by starting to move them on 3. The players he brought in were better than those moved on and when the Leagues were called we were actually starting to play decent football. Does anyone seriously believe we would have gone down had the season been completed? 4. This season has been noted for one injury after another and with a couple of suspensions we have had as many as 10 players not available for selection. McCall, to his credit, just got on with things but eventually broke by commenting the injury situation was the worst he had known in 22 years of management. OK he did make mistakes. Bringing Archibald back is IMO one of them. Also the turnover of players in January (out and in) was obviously going to be unsettling but how could he possibly have foreseen the calling of the Leagues. I am hoping the period of inaction will result in all our players recovering from injury and when they are match fit we will see if results improve. If they don't I will agree McCall has failed and should go with his management team!

Yes a spiteful wee man who has lost his way in life and who is prepared to do as much damage to the cause as he can on his way down! Rooney - never liked him as a player (so slow I thought he was in reverse gear) and even less so as a manager!

I always liked Doolan and delighted he is still scoring goals. Hope a few more to come for him! I think his decline and journey towards the exit door started with Archibald! It mystified me why Archibald frequently dropped him to the bench! He was in his prime and scoring goals for us and Archibald treated him like a 'bit' player. That sort of treatment can only hasten decline. I know a lot of mistakes have been made since, eg the appointment of Caldwell, some would say McCall as well but for me it all started with Archibald and why he is still at Firhill is just scandalous! When I win the Lottery and take over he will be the first to go!

Only Small, Medium & Large available. Suggests lots of Jags Fans need to get the running shoes on and draw up a personal fitness plan! What size did I buy - state secret!