The Contractual Obligation Update

It's not been an easy time for the groundsmen at Scottish football clubs.

Earlier we heard that St Johnstone have suspended their groundsman over the postponement of the Rangers game last Saturday, which, by the way, has nothing to do with the upcoming Old Firm fixture and is in no way meant to give Rangers a breather before they play what could arguably the title deciding fixture against Celtic this weekend. The pipes where frozen, and that's all there is to it.

Anyway, the good peeps over at Fir Park, Motherwell, must be getting a little nervous as the SFA are considering slapping yet another fine on the club after seeing the state of their pitch in recent fixtures. It's amazing to think that the club already spunked over £250,000 on the pitch and yet it still looks like a ploughed tattie-field [BBC]

Another country all too familiar with muddy fields is Belgium. The country that gave us, amongst other things, Jean Claude Van Damme, Tintin, decent beers, the humble chip and Marc Bosman have now managed to overtake Scotland in the UEFA Coefficient ranking table, meaning we've lost one of our Champions League places.

It'll mean nothing to you if you're not an Old Firm fan - for us, the already pointless SPL has just become even more pointless - but for supporters of Scotland's League Champions from season 2012 onwards, it'll mean even more reckless spending as you battle your way through the first of 1,056 qualifying rounds against teams such as a Vatican City Select XI, possibly.

Celtic's recent financial results only highlighted the dependency the top two have on Champions League football, so this news must come as quite a shock.

Just a thought, but if I was a Scottish footballer, I'd be sending my CV off to Belgian clubs. [Scottish Football Blog]

That Alan McGregor eh, what a tube. Just when it seems he was getting his act together again, he goes and gets assaulted at a taxi rank. Walter Smith, apparently, is not chuffed at his keeper’s latest attempt to get himself a transfer to another club (a Belgian one, if he's any sense). [Times]

In an unusually good article by Graham Spiers, "pitiful" Aberdeen are seen as the Nottingham Forest of Scotland, which is quite a compliment, if you ask me. [Times]

One thing that will make Celtic's financial guru's smile is the news that Bobo "Baldy" Balde has dropped his claims against Celtic for breach of contract and "unauthorised deductions" from his wage packet. The former centre-back spent most of his time under Gordon Strachan's reign sitting on the bench and generally refusing to feck off - despite some generous offers - preferring instead to sit on his arse making "deductions" of £30k a week from Celtic's wage bill. The tit. [BBC]

Mince & Tatties 02

Sorry, I can't be arsed blogging too much today as I've got a lot to do before I'm away on my holidays at the end of the week. Besides, I missed most of the weekend’s action due to sheer apathy, so I'm not exactly a fountain of stroke-yer-beard insights theday. The following is pretty much all I could muster as I sat staring into my mulligatawny soup and contemplating my sweaty cheese sandwich over lunch this afternoon.

19.02// The Scottish Fitba Weekender

Oh Jesus, here we go again.

Another weekend of anguished scanning of the Sky Sports website while I'm pushing the kids around IKEA. At the risk of going on about it, can Aberdeen get back to winning ways? The omens don't look good as Falkirk, their opponents tomorrow are - if not already, then certainly come May - a lower division side, meaning it's going to be another afternoon of clenched buttocks for all associated with the Granite City.

Another team with problems all their own are Celtic who, in keeping with the tradition of these previews starts off our tour of the Scottish football fixtures across all four divisions. Alphabet-tastic!

Fit's Adee?

I'd be failing in my duty as a blogger, firstly about Scottish football, and secondly as an unashamed Aberdeen fan, not to say something more about the latest Pittodrie Horror Show. And trust me: I'd rather not, but here goes anyway.

Shocking. Cringeworthy. Brutal. Mince. Keech. Humiliating. And perhaps the most unpleasant of all, the three tragic words: To. Be. Expected.

Yes, it was a deeply terrible, terrible result. The inconsistency that has plagued us all season long returned with a vengeance last night to produce a result of such epic badness that I am struggling to find the words to express how I feel this morning, so I'll let the picture above do the talking for me.

The definition of embarrassment

It's not easy being green (and white)

Celtic manager Tony Mowbray puts his head in his hands as Steven McLean draws Aberdeen level for the fourth time in Saturday’s key SPL encounter at Pittodrie. The 4-4 draw, coupled with Rangers' 3-0 defeat of Hibernian at Ibrox puts Walter Smith's side firmly back in control at the top of the SPL. With only 13 games left until the end of the season, the title chase may be disappearing from Mowbray's grasp as that 10 point difference seem larger than ever.

There are still two Old Firm fixtures to come - wins in both games would put the cat firmly amongst the pigeons again, but Celtic's defensive frailties need to be sorted out if they're to avoid dropping more points along the way, a point made by former Celtic player John Hartson, who played under Mowbray at West Brom.

Off the field, the latest financial results brought little comfort to the Parkhead club. A decrease in turnover of around £8m to £36m, together with a fall in profit and a rise in club debt only serves to underline the urgency for Mowbray to deliver a league title and European qualification (the drop in revenue was largely attributable to "disappointing" European competition) to prevent the financial trickle becoming a full-scale haemorrhage.

The financial results do not include spending in the recent transfer windows and which saw big names such as Edson Braafheid, Marc-Antoine Fortune, Jos Hooiveld, Diomansy Kamara, Robbie Keane, Ki Sung Yueng, Landry N'Guemo, Morten Rasmussen, Thomas Rogne and Zheng Zhi joining. The spending is offset by the departures of Gary Caldwell, Willo Flood and Barry Robson to Middlesbrough.

On the positive side, Celtic chairman Sir John Reid underlined the fact that season tickets sales, sponsorship and merchandise have all been "holding up well".

Celtic are at home to Dundee United on Saturday; Rangers are away to St Johnstone.

McGhee takes a Cup gamble

Ahead of tomorrow's SPL tie against Celtic at Pittodrie, Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee has stirred up the passion for this game, though these are mostly those of the Rangers supporters.

The reason for their ire: McGhee has hinted in an interview that he may pick a weakened site to face Celtic as his team prepare for a crunch match against Raith Rovers on Tuesday.

13.02// The Scottish Fitba Weekender

Phew. The games are coming thick and fast. We've only just recovered from Wednesday night and lo, here comes another batch of top-flight action. As I was saying to The Scottish Football Blog during their live-cast from the Motherwell-Rangers game on Wednesday, it was a strange evening altogether: Celtic picked up points, Rangers dropped them at time we didn't think they would, United got pounded by a team at the bottom of the league and Aberdeen scored two goals. In the same game.

It's really quite remarkable, as David Coleman used to say.

But hey, we're not the backward looking types here: we look forward. Forward to another weekend of action, beginning with....

Falkirk take a gamble with survival..

So another manager leaves his post.

Eddie May became the third casualty of the season, following Jim Jefferies and Jim Gannon as he resigns from struggling Falkirk. His appointment was always filled with a certain degree of risk. A youth coach, responsible for setting up and running Falkirk's relatively successful youth academy, May was thrust into senior management after the hugely (no pun intended) popular John Hughes moved on to Hibs.

It's not been an easy ride for May. Falkirk has won only three of their 25 domestic matches and their performances of late showed little of the spirit seen under Hughes. Wins where becoming increasingly hard to come by, and with 15 games left to save their place - and financial future - May fell on his sword (there seems to be no hint he was pushed down onto it) and did the honorable thing by stepping aside and letting someone else take over to save the club from relegation.

So Eddie May has been replaced with Steven Pressley, a former Falkirk player, and a man himself a relative novice to league football management. At first glance it's a strange move, one fraught with danger, because there's a lot more at stake for teams like Falkirk if they don't start winning a few games: Falkirk are rooted to the bottom of the table where they've been for most of the season, and there's little sign of that improving, even allowing for the 'new manager' syndrome'. But it's the cheap option as the Scottish football blog correctly points out, one forced upon them by the ravages of the economic climate we all find ourselves in. A short-term contract (he's got till the end of the season) covers all bases in case it all goes horribly wrong, allowing the club to get rid of Pressley without incurring Rafa Benitez-esque costs.

Pressley will be assisted in his Herculean labours by Alex Smith, a wily veteran of the Scottish football management merry-go-round, and formerly Falkirk's Director of Football. Having at various times managed teams with similar infrastructure and finances (Stenhousemuir, Stirling Albion, St Mirren, Aberdeen, Clyde, Dundee United and Ross County), Smith may well be the ideal man to help Pressley achieve safety, something Pressley had (perhaps unwisely) promised the Falkirk fans during his first press conference.

Pressley and Smith have got their work cut out for them. Sadly, I just can't see them surviving, and I worry for their financial future should they find themselves in the First Division come next August. Their only hope is that Hamilton returns to their losing form. The Bairns are only three points from safety at the moment, but with the likes of Celtic, Hibs and Dundee United to come before the split, that gap may well have become unbridgeable.

Here's what the other Scottish Football blogs had to say about it:

May Day → [Scottish Football Blog]
Now Or Never → [Scottish Football Blog]
Elvis is in the building → [Scotzine]
Elvis gets his way → [We Love Fitba]
Eddie Leaving Falkirk → [We Know SFA]

10.02// The Scottish Fitba Mid-Week Preview

There's another full card of SPL action tonight as the League tries to ease the pressure on the fixture list following a somewhat harrowing winter. We preview the games, try our hand at predicting some scores and look forward to another evening of top-drawer football in the Highlands, as two teams who between them have conceded 112 goals all season meet up to send another generation of  Highland children straight to their nearest shinty club.

We begin, as ever, in the SPL and in perfect alphabetical order. Step forward Messrs Mowbray and Jefferies.

Update: Scottish Cup Quarter Final draw

As most of you probably already know, the draw for the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup takes place atHampden this afternoon, quite possibly behind closed doors, and right in the middle of Bargain Hunt.

With only eight teams left in the competition - including a healthy smattering of First division sides - the 'Big Boys' of Scottish football will be hoping to avoid a tricky away-day to some far-flung corner of the empire, where the chances of things going horribly wrong make for an exciting evening in front of the wireless.

Gie's a break, min!

Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee is beginning to feel the strain of the turgid display his sides have put on for the paying punters since taking over from Jimmy Calderwood at the start of this season.

The former Motherwell manager spoke out over the behaviour of some in the Aberdeen support who booed the team off the park on Saturday following their near exit from the Scottish Cup at the hands of Division One side Raith Rovers.

With realistically only the Scottish Cup to play for (assuming they beat Raith Rovers in the replay next Tuesday) and currently in seventh place in the league, trailing some way behind the European places, Aberdeen face a tricky away tie against Hibernian tomorrow evening, with a defeat leaving the Dons trailing fourth-placed Dundee United by 12 points - a gap too big for some supporters.

This season has not been one to savour for McGhee, a member of Aberdeen's '83 Cup Winners Cup team. Since taking over at Pittodrie, Aberdeen have lurched from some remarkable highs to spectacular lows - and pretty much everything in between.  Frustration amongst the Red Army over the teams inconsistent form  has been growing in light of recent defeats to Motherwell and Falkirk. That frustration came to a head on Saturday as the Dons needed a 95th minute equalizer to force a replay against Raith Rovers in this seasons Scottish Cup, prompting McGhee to appeal to fans to end the abuse. [→ BBC]

Mince and Tatties 01

The big news of the week has been Scotland's group of near-death for the upcoming European Championship Qualifying odyssey.

Spain (by that time quite possibly Word Cup Winners) are just another Holland, so we fear the worst. We've actually performed better against Spain, statistically, than against the Czech Republic (or Czechoslovakia, for those of you born before 1989), so you may want to hedge your bets. Personally, I fear for our game against Lithuania and the prospect of playing Lichtenstein keeps me awake at night - the scope for things to go wrong know no earthly bounds.

» [Pie and Bovril] does a grand job of summing up the draw, as does [The Scottish football blog]
» In preparation, Scotland get their man [Unprofessional Foul]
» ... but Barry Ferguson is not the only one having second thoughts about playing for Scotland [BBC]

Meanwhile back at the coalface,

» life at the arse-end of Division One ain't all that and a bag of chips [Scotzine]
» Mark McGhee resorts to bad language [We Know SFA] and then goes all out to win over the hearts and minds of Aberdeen supporters [BBC]
» and all is not lost for Stirling Albion, as Scotland's top sports surgeon Gordon Mackay says his bid to buy-out Stirling Albion owner Peter McKenzie is "not dead". [Daily Record]

Finally: a new template. What do you think? Does my bum look big in it? (don't bother, changed my mind).

Dancing on the streets of Raith

So there I was, up the town, being slightly distracted by what's going on around me as I'm trying to find out by how many goals Aberdeen are leading Raith Rovers. Checking the Sky Sports Score Center for the Aberdeen score on my phone, it was hard getting a signal, and the score took forever to appear. I believe I was halfway down the frozen food section of my local superstore when I finally got a connection. Raith 1, Aberdeen 0, it said. "Fuck" I said. Rather loudly.

Within three minutes of the final whistle having gone at Stark's Park and the score still seemingly at 1-0 to Raith, I had an article written in my head, the title of which compared manager Mark McGhee to one of those things you find at the top of women's legs and the rest of the squad to an assortment of items you'd find in books about reproductive gynaecology. But I calmed down when someone told me via Twitter that Gary McDonald had equalized for Aberdeen in the 95th minute. So I calmed down, came home and wrote this article instead.

The Scottish Cup Cavalcade!

Back in the day when an Aberdeen appearance in a Scottish Cup final was a reasonably regular occurrence, the prospect of playing some lower Division canon-fodder was generally greeted in the same manner that the owner of an abattoir welcomes another delivery of mangy cows and sheep to his premises. We'd hack and slice our way through our hapless opponents in a determined, if not always pretty fashion, to emerge victorious and quite often blood stained at the end of it all. Yes, football was a man's game in them days...

But oh, how the ravages of time have made a seemingly innocuous game against a team that's fourth from the bottom of the First division the sort of affair that would have you watching the highlights from behind the sofa through the fingers of your hands, your buttocks clenched so tight that not even the most perfectly formed gaseous excretions could get out, and cramp sets in after the first five minutes.

I realise I am being rather hard on my beloved AFC of late (ref: our previous posting), but fuck it, I feel like a right spanner walking around IKEA on a Saturday morning in my replica top being pointed and laughed at by small children; the parents are generally not much better either. Things have got to change, starting tomorrow. So, back the meat wagon up against the doorway at Stark's Park and herd those Raith Rovers players into the whirling knives of our killer attack.

Oh, there are some other games on as well, by the way.

Clueless mediocrity

This article may well consign my application as a regular contributor for the Aberdeen match day programme to the bin, but it won’t be the only thing around here that's worth binning, to wit: Mark McGhee, Aberdeen FC's dreams of European football next season (or any season, for that matter) and the hopes and dreams of a life-long and long-suffering Aberdeen supporter.

This season has been a ride (in more ways than one), the likes of which people would queue up for at Disneyworld. There have been so many ups and downs, so many sharp turns and sudden halts that even the most hardcore of roller coaster fanatics would be wiping the sweat off their furrowed brows.

The great Celtic gamble

There’s a wave of optimism spreading across the east end of Glasgow.

Tony Mowbray has strengthened his side considerably, bringing in three strikers and two defenders as he continues the chase for his first league title since becoming Celtic boss. The gap between Mowbray and Walter Smith remains ten points, but with Rangers selling rather than buying, can Robbie Keane and the rest of the new Bhoys make the difference between a league title and possibly a very expensive gamble?

That's your Jim Jefferies back in a job then ..

Barely two weeks ago we posted a piece on Inside Left about the sacking of Jim Jefferies from Kilmarnock. At the time we made a correct prediction about who would succeed him at Rugby Park but we failed to even imagine where Jefferies would end up. Now, in light of recent events, it all seems so obvious - the third worst job in Scottish football.