flyingscot

I would love to have a standing terrace. Far prefer it to seating.

I'm back from it. Decent atmosphere, Ravenhill, once you find it buried in the houses, is a cracking ground (apart from the roof not covering the standing areas). I'd love for Saints ground to be like that- standing all round at the front, seating at the back. No issues at all between the fans and the Ulster fans were great despite their whining last week, happy to chat in town and out and about. Couldn't work out what side the Ulster fans were supporting some seemed to prefer Munster as they were Irish and seemed quiet when Glasgow scored, but others were just enjoying the game and some backing Glasgow. I don't know enough about Ulster fans to know if that is political element! Not sure what to make of Belfast though. It's a decent enough place to visit but you can sense that some areas still have a bit of tension as you walk though. It's kind of like a small Glasgow, but it seems a bit behind the curve in some areas development compared with say the mainland cities or Dublin. I mean the buses on Saturday night finish at 10:30pm! Perhaps it is due to the political issue in the last 30 years, but they need to keep pushing on to improve. Still enjoyed it and the people were great.

I think Gary Teale being asked to re-apply makes the 'next manager' market difficult as the next manager could be the same one!

Playing well and winning games would improve the atmosphere! Think the prices are fine. Gate prices are going to be £18-20 quid anyway (maybe £23 if we want to fleece the new club) in the Championship- that's what Falkirk and others charge.

The main problem this year I feel is not backing up the kids with an experienced core in the team. Really missing a Steven Thomson, a Shuggy etc. Stark is so uninspiring and I didn't feel he did a great job with the U21s. Perhaps harshly I'm not entirely convinced he didn't get lucky at Hamilton with the talent coming through at the right time.

He's had some poor games but has become a total scapegoat. Against Kilmarnock, early doors, he had a bad pass at one point and shortly afterwards tried to beat a defender but got tackled. Some of our 'fans' after barely 15 mins are all over him with the "get him off" patter!

Depends. £215-£350 odd quid. I'd suggest we'd fall in line with Falkirk and be around the £270-£280 mark.

The tackle at Firhill did him. Was a shocker too. He's a good player, injury prone yes, but a very decent midfielder.

If we'd signed him people would have said 'another striker who's washed up and doesn't score. 6 goals in his last 60 appearances etc.... In any case they have Sutton who is a handful, play him right, he'll score. Is there problem not the same as ours in keeping the ball out at the back?

The other aspect I'm slightly confused in is why Mike Ashley is being investigated for potentially owning Newcastle and Rangers, when Hearts have done this before with Romanov owning Kaunas and loaning many players into Hearts?

Very disappointing. Can't get it to add up. It's a total steal from Aberdeen. I wonder if we were faced with losing him in the summer said that if he re-signed and someone came along offering the compensation value we'd not stand in his way. We then got McLean for an extra 6 months. Feel for Teale, he's got a hard job now.

He's right to apologise as Arquin was daft, the goals were onside. He should point out the penalty we should have had though. The only people to blame are ourselves too, if we score the McGinn and McLean free headers it is was easy street.

Is that not pretty much what I said? Reported that LT Pub Management now run the Canal Station, Clockwork and Dram. Not sure who owns them right enough.

Not good news. Canal Station I think was only managed by them along with some others and has been moved on to a new management group. The Bull and Three Judges will be run by the administrators although you'd fancy they'd be secured.

In rugby what they do is the fixture list has games on weekend of 23/24/25 January. Once the TV companies have decided they firm up the fixtures to the exact date and time. I think they have just done the fixtures up to end of April. It makes planning away trips a bit more difficult as you have to take a punt and book or wait and risk price rises, especially as most away trips involve a flight. However it avoids the football scenario of a Sat 3pm fixture being switched a month and a bit before.

They've occasionally given players back when not going to be starting in the matchday squad. Braid has been playing, seems to have been doing well but is not the kicker for LS. Maitland has joined London Irish next season. His stats are strong but he's not really kicked on this year from what you see. A must that DTH is signed up now. Losing Matawalu, Maitland and DTH would be a right blow.

£2m seems a heck of a lot. If you wait till the summer £250K would likely be his value really given training compensation rules?

The same thing binned in the past because people had enough of it apparently- too many fixtures, same old clubs. The league cup has a poorer attendance, but should be a first half of the season tournament finished by November or December. The Scottish Cup should be moved back to January to May. Plus no doubt the groups will be like they were in the old days and you can't even them up so someone ends up unhappy at being too far away.

They could probably buy Ibrox! I was at the RDS for the final last year. It's a bit like Scotstoun and has 2 large uncovered temporary stands as the two end ones are removed for other events. They weren't numbered seats in there and looked packed- Glasgow fans were mainly allocated the modern grandstand anyway. I'd love a home final at Rugby Park, sadly don't see it this year. We have to go away to Leinster and Munster and will have a squad hit by 6 nations withdrawals. Who is our 10 if Finn Russell is with Scotland and Duncan Weir is injured...

Yep totally correct. Silly mistakes cost the BP. Not getting any points when they were down to 14 in the first half and we were on the line was criminal. Murrayfield is the listed alternate ground I believe, but for a final I agree that Rugby Park, Kilmarnock will be used, hence the trial run via Tonga. Funny how the Pro12 regs are just big enough to cover the RDS!

That would make things easier but still ways they can get through on 4 points. Montpellier beating Toulouse would help but that seems unlikely.

Montpellier. Should have been 5 point win. Need to go to Bath and win next week. Easy

I was going to write a detailed post, but this has it nailed and sums up my thoughts nicely. The only thing in the back of my mind is that we are likely to go down which would further hurt a sale. Is there an element of cutting losses and moving on involved here?

I'm resigned to relegation at the moment. The takeover issues are a side show. Kinda feel for Gary Teale in all this to be honest.

Foreign owners. Well that's always worked well in Scottish football Despite that I have huge concerns with any new owners no matter if they are from Paisley or not. I'd want them to answer these Qs- Why Saints? What you want to achieve? What if it goes up a certain creek? And how on earth are you going to get £1.5m back when our board has spent years trying to sell it and it looks like we could be relegated? Obviously the history with foreign ownership is poor so I have concerns these guys are the Angelo Massone, Claude Anelka et al. Dundee did this 'foreign stars and sell them on' and bar Speroni and Caniggia who sold for about £1.5m couldn't shift many others despite them being decent. It ended in tears with admins and £13m of debt. Dundee United are however having a field day with a youth system bringing through kids like Gould, Goodwillie, Russell, Robertson etc. Whilst we've been crying out for a change in the boardroom, I hope this is the right move. I hope due diligence has been done and I hope it isn't just the board being tired at the situation and bailing as the stuff people are posting about Chile etc. isn't all positive. We suffered badly in the 90s when our debt caught up with us and endless clubs spent too much. They worked hard to get us out of a huge mess and deserve credit for that. When the rest of Scottish football is hitting the straight and narrow now would be annoying for us to go the other way.