Filed under: Arts, creativity, football, humour, life, Scotland, sports, stories, Uncategorized | Tags: arthur seat, celtic fc, Chips'n'cheese, easter Road stadium, Edinburgh, Edinburgh View, Edinburgh's Greatest Football Team, Hibees, Hibernian FC, Ian McAteer, Leith, Sunshine on Leith, The Bhouys, the hoops, the union
Advertising supremo, Iain McAteer, of The Union was climbing Arthur Seat on a chill but not Arctic New Year’s day.
The hike was an attempt to wash the bitter taste of the defeat (and too much red wine) of his beloved Chips’n'cheese-eating, potato picking, football team to the (ex) purveyors of the beautiful game, the mighty Hibernian FC from his mouth.
He turned to take in the glorious view and was rewarded with this stunning vision.
Filed under: advertising, creativity, football, humour | Tags: figurines, italy, napoli, Napoli FC, Saints
Napoli figurines.
Filed under: football, life, Scotland | Tags: Euro 2012, euro 2012 qualifiers, scotland v spain, spain v scotland
It says it all.
Spain will no doubt field a weakened side and yet Scotland is still 16/1 to win.
But then. To win you need a manager that is willing to field a team that might even try to score.
Had we have done so in the Czech Republic we may already be in the play offs.
God, I’m really sick of this.
We are in the hole we are in for one reason. Craig Levein’s tactics.
We could easily have beaten the Czech Republic home and away, after all since 2005 they have steadily slid down the rankings from 2nd to 42nd. We’re 47th and incidentally sit 5 places behind Lithuania.
However, we played in the Czech Republic with no striker, gambling on a 0-0 scoreline that failed to materialise.
On Saturday, forget the refereeing shenanigans (the Czechs had a stone wall penalty denied too after all), let’s focus on how Scotland set up. They were crap in the first half and sat back both at 1-0 and 2-1. Every time we had to push forward we threatened, including in the 92nd minute. But had we played the way we ought to the game would have been done and dusted. So that would be 5 more points than we have and 4 less for the Czechs. We’d pretty much have qualified by now.
One hard luck story (3 – 2 defeat to Spain) when the game was to all intents and purpose over (so the Spanish went to sleep) does not make us a great team and don’t forget we very nearly lost to Lichtenstein – a country with a population smaller than Falkirk and a football reputation worse that Fred West’s.
Levien contradicts himself more than the House of Commons. He says he won’t play players that are out of form or not playing for their teams and then he does.
He falls out with his players (shame our best striker is watching from home for no good reason) and he has the worst competitive record (including Bertie Vogts) over his opening 5 game tenure than any manager in the last 25 years; to Andy Roxburgh to be precise.
Yes, we have a bunch of talented players exposed to the Premiership, better than for a considerable time I’d say.
So why not believe in them and let them express themselves properly.
Me, I’m going to watch the Mercury Prize. (We’ve got a chance of winning that – Come on King Creosote!)
Filed under: football, life, photography, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: homeless world cup, scotland win homeless world cup, scotland win in paris, the Scottish dream
Yesterday Scotland won the Homeless World Cup in Paris.
Again.
64 nations competed.
We beat Mexico 4 – 3 in the final and it was said that our team may not have been the most skilled in the tournament, but we were the most committed.
It’s not like we lead the world in Homelessness.
We beat a nation many multiple times our population.
I suspect it had something to do with money not being a factor or a motivation.
I suspect it brought out our national pride.
I suspect it was a level playing field regardless of national stature or population.
This is an awesome concept and a creation of Scotland (Mel Young conceived it).
The fact that the story made a pictureless 3 x 3 story at the bottom of page 3 in our national paper is a scandal.
Scotland. Wise up.
Filed under: football, Hibees, humour | Tags: easter rd, fester slope, Hibs, hibs chants, junior agogo, the cabbage
Having thought about Calderwood’s signing of 31 year old “Junior” Agogo (he’s not THAT Junior at 31) for the Hibees I am wondering if it is worth a trip to Easter Road; if only to hear the Einstien Agogo riff when he scores.
I don’t think anything has put as much of a smile on my face , as a Hibby, for many a month. (Sorry; year.)
But you didn’t have to be an Einstien to work that out.
Filed under: football, jokes, politics, Rants, Scotland, sports | Tags: Scottish Football Association, SFA
“Lennon is currently serving a four game suspension imposed earlier in the season and will sit out the second of those games against Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Wednesday night. It was widely believed that the fresh punishment would take effect when the current ban was completed but Celtic’s statement confirms that they do not believe that to be the case.
Taking into account the SFA’s rules and the date the most recent ban was imposed, Celtic are claiming that both suspensions will be served simultaneously from this point on, meaning their manager will be in the stands for four more matches including the Inverness game and not a further six as would be the case if suspensions were served consecutively.”
I am not jumping on the anti-Lennon bandwagon, I simply can’t be bothered and I do have sympathy for the way he is treated in his private life. No, this is all about the SFA and their continuous bottling it. If Lennon has erred his sentences should not be commuted, like the last one was or run simultaneously. No wonder Celtic are not appealing. If they did even a commuted sentence would begin after the current one.
It’s a farce.
Filed under: bbc, football, humour | Tags: fighting, fisticuffs, football fighting, francis lee, lee v hunter, leeds utd, man city, Motty, norman hunter
Absolute quality fisticuffs.
Norman Hunter (bights yer legs) v Francis Lee (one pen).
The Rumble in the Jungle.
Northern style.
Filed under: football | Tags: arsenal, arsenal v barcelona, barrcelona, Champions League
Not a bad match, but not the best ever.
First half was better than the second.
The fact is that Arsenal were miles worse than Barcelona who totally overran them.
Sure Arsenal took their chances when Barcelona dropped their concentration for ten minutes or so. But there really is no comparison. Messi is just amazing.
However the comparison to the travails at Easter Road and pretty much anywhere else on Scotland’s embarrassing football soil was quite monstrous.
Filed under: football, Hibees, Rants | Tags: colin calderwood, Edinburgh, edinburgh finest, gibberish, Hibees, Hibernian, hibernian form, mark gorman, mark gorman gibberish, rod petrie, Scottish Football, SPL, the cabbage
After defeat to Motherwell yesterday this very odd man said…
“There are aspects of the game I enjoyed. Problems are there to be solved so that’s what I’m looking forward to doing.”
On Tuesday night after Hibs went out to a team two leagues below the odd bod Calderwood commented…
“We had so many good opportunities, the goalkeeper’s had a number of good saves, we’ve had efforts cleared from the line and I think they defended their goal excellently.
He has so far won 2 out of 15 games.
Being, at best, an armchair fan I have not seen him in action but I am told he stands impassively, hands in pockets, barely involving himself in games and certainly not leaping about like the madman Yogi Hughes had become.
It all just seems like he’s going through the motions.
Remarkably he claims to be “really enjoying it” at Easter Road.
Inevitably, the fans’ ire tends to turn to the manager or the Chairman in these sorts of situation. And Rod Petrie’s extended honeymoon is certainly looking to be over at this moment in time.
The sale of Stokes and Bamba appears to be hitting home now and our lack of action in the transfer market is becoming notable. I’m a great admirer of what Petrie has acheived at Easter Road but it feels like he has made an extraordinarily bad appointment in Colin Calderwood and his earlier reputation for canniness is in danger of becoming one for penny pinching (for which I am told he has a strong internal reputation.)
Lastly, of course, there’s the team itself; some say it is a shadow of its former self, one of the worst to have played for Hibs in many years (if not ever), but I saw Zemamma, Miller, Riordan, Wotherspoon, Murray, Stack and McBride (all in the squad yesterday) play Dundee Utd on 3rd October 2009 and destroy them before drawing 1 -1.
At that point the table looked like this…
A month later it looked even better…
And even by mid January Hibs (with this team) were in touch with the top, so my contention is not that it is the players themselves that are poor but the way in which they are applying themselves.
It feels to me that there is a cancer somewhere in Easter Road that is permeating the team and turning good players into bad. Yogi lost them, and Calderwood has never had them bar one freak night against Rangers.
It needs sorted, and quick.
Filed under: football, Rants, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: craig levein, euro 2012 qualifiers, fletcher, levein, naismith, Scotland, scotland qaulifiers, scotland v spain, Scottish Football, SFA
Flamin' 'eck. We only lost 3 - 2. At home.
The headlines will proclaim Braveheart!
The truth is, in my view anyway, Scotland huffed and puffed tonight.
Spain were not in top gear. Need they be? They were playing a team who had just lost to a team who had just lost a European Qualifier at home to Lithuania.
They gradually worked out a way to get through against the great blue wall.
Two up.
Job done.
Tools down.
And then; oops.
A wee Spanish banana.
Could the worst happen?
Could they really lose to a team who had just lost to a team who had just lost a European Qualifier at home to Lithuania.
Don’t be daft.
Supersub.
3 – 2.
Cue Lionheart. Cue whatever. It’s always like this.
Some good performances (Naismith, Fletcher, Bardsley) and a corker of a baddie. Whittaker will want to erase tonight from his memory forever. Run ragged, 100′s of mistakes, gave away the penalty just before halt time, got sent off. Doh!)
This was not a new dawn for Scottish football. It was just another close defeat to a huge team that nearly took their eye off the ball. But it was at least exciting.
Filed under: football | Tags: craig levein, FIFA, fifa rankings, levein, Scotland, scotland v czeck republic, Scottish Football, SFA
And this is before last night's results have been taken into account.
For a Jambo, Craig Levein is a nice bloke but that in no way exonerates him from open and outrightly hostile criticism in the wake of last night. It was so embarrassing that I forsee no future at all for our ‘national game’. We turned up to play a team ranked 37th in the world who had just lost a European Qualifier at home to Lithuania and we failed to play with a striker. In other words the limits of Levein’s ambitions was a 0 – 0 draw. To a team who had just lost a European Qualifier at home to Lithuania. The formation was 4 6. have you ever hard of that? Apparently Spain play 4 6, but that’s 4 defenders and 6 strikers! And this was to a team who just lost a European Qualifier at home to Lithuania.
If we had a chance I do not recall it, and yet after we went 1 0 down with 20 minutes to play he reverted to a 4 4 2 formation that, whilst unsuccessful, at least put the Czechs under some pressure which is hardly surprising because they are a team who had just lost a European Qualifier at home to Lithuania.
OK, Rangers have ground out two good results by playing ultra cautious tactics, but they played a striker at least. The same striker that is in the form of his life and only came on as a sub to create the aforementioned formation to a team who had just lost a European Qualifier at home to Lithuania. Rangers’ tactical decisions are fair enough. They were playing one of Europe’s finest – not a team that had just lost a European Qualifier at home to Lithuania. (That said, the Turks they played had never made the Champion’s League before and had just been humped at home by Valencia – but it paid off).
Levein looked sheepish, but unapologetic, after the game. I anticipate that the media will rightly go on a field day and, for once, I support them.
It’s very, very sad that our national game, one that only 30 years ago we were considered amongst the finest in the world at, has become a joke. A laughing stock.
How anyone could forgive us taking 96 minutes to pip Leichtestein (a country with a population of 34,000) is beyond me.
This result and this formation in particular, sets out our position in stark relief.
Losers.
And unambitious ones at that.
God help us on Tuesday night. Although. Although. Although. You can just see it can’t you. A backs to the wall Braveheart performance.
(And an unlucky 1 – 0 defeat.)
Bertie's back!
Filed under: football, sports, world cup 2010 | Tags: germany, holland, kaka, ozel, ronaldo, rooney, schneider, schweinsteiger, south africa, world cup 2010
Stand up the new world superstars of football. Who’d have thought, at the start of this tournament, that it would be Ozel, Schweinsteiger and Schneider that we’d be hailing as the greats. And good on Klose too; edging in on that record. I really hope he gets it. (And let’s not forget Diego Forlan of course!)
Germany have been awesome and deserve to win the tournament although I backed Holland at the start, so obviously I want them to do it, but on merit so far it’s Germany by a distance.
Filed under: football | Tags: argentina, brazil, Daily Telegraph fantasy world cup football, england, fantasy world cup team, Hibees, holland, messi, schweinsteiger, sol bamba, spain, World cup
Cannae wait till the World Cup, although I shall be playing in the second round of the Dundas Singles on opening night. Nevertheless my Fantasy team is submitted and I can reveal it here to you dear reader…
sexy huh?
My thinking is as follows…
Bamba plays for Hibees, so is first pick.
Coupla Brazilians, cos they’re gonna win.
Messi, cos he’s the best player in the world.
Coupla Dutch, cos they’ll go far.
Coupla Spaniards, cos ditto.
Token Englishman so I can’t be accussed of being a Jock biased bastard.
The Pig guy from Germany, cos he has the best name in Footie.
There you go. That’s how to get £20k richer.
Filed under: football, Hibees, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: Hibees, Hibernian, Hibs, hibs beat Killie 19 -0, hibs women
As the Hibees wobble the girls wibble.
Filed under: football, Hibees, humour, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: Camarra, Celtic, Hibs, Kilmarnock 1 Celtic 0, Robbie Keane
Try dropping the second E mate.
Only kidding.
Door open for Hibs to finally breach the evil sisters. Please don’t drop the ball now boys.
No. This is not an optical illusion. A game in hand and only two points adrift of a Champion’s league spot more than half way through the season.
Oh yes, and Hearts were dumped out of the diddy cup too.
Oh yes, and Chelsea dropped two points against Hull.
Oh yes, and Celtic didn’t take Stokesy.
Sweeeet.
I’m off to bed.
Filed under: football, humour, sports, stories | Tags: celtic v hibs, Hibees, Hibs, smash and grab, the cabbage
Hibs go to Parkhead.
We get a caning.
Celtic have 95% possesion. (Or so you’d believe listening to the commentary; when in actual fact they have 52%)
They have 16 corners.
We have 2.
They have endless chances. We have next to none (or so you’d believe listening to the commentary; when in actual fact they have only a few more than us. Well, 9.)
They go one up in 4 minutes then miss and miss and miss.
We break away and score.
We break away and score (again)
In the 92nd minute.
We win.
(The Jambos get murdered 3 – 0 at home.)
Thank you for that.
Filed under: advertising, Arts, books, business, family, football, golf, Hibees, humour, life, music, politics, Rants, Scotland, sports, stories, videos, work, Youtube | Tags: 2010
And so the noughties come to a close…
2009 was a funny old year in many ways.
Work wise I’ve never been busier and gained some fascinating new clients along the way not least STV, Ampersand, Corporation Pop and LA Media. But for some it has been a hell of a struggle and I hope things improve in 2010. My own prospects for 2010 look a bit less silly than 2009. Might even get some golf in. Only played three medals in 2009 but following my FIRST EVER golf lesson in November I went on to finish second. Yes, you heard that right, second in a winter medal and now sit proudly in 5th place overall in the winter league order of merit. Just shows you that you can teach an old dog new tricks.
It was a mare of a year music wise. I’ve already posted my tracks of the year elsewhere but I really struggled to pull together my top ten albums, so much so that I had to go into rereleases to make up the ten. Nevertheless, those that made it are great records in this or any year, there just weren’t many of them.
These are they;
The Phantom Band. Checkmate Savage.
The year started brightly with this oddball Krautrock-influenced Rock and Roll album from what sounds like a bunch of stoners from Glasgow. It’s great. And I notice that this video from the album is directed by Martin Wedderburn (who I’ve worked with on commercials and Bronagh Keegan! Who used to work for me at 1576. Not to mention Ray Allan as a Barman and some Tetrahedron masks.)
Melody Gardot. My One and Only Thrill.
Her first album showed promise, but her second is solid gold jazz and my personal achievement of the year was plucking up the courage to sing My One And Only Thrill from the record at the FAT concert on December 19th.
Doves. Kingdom of Rust.
This year’s Elbow? I suppose so, but this is to underestimate the quality of this beautiful, haunting and melodic rock record with real soul.
EG. Adventure Man.
Why does this man (Eg White – silly name I know) not have a higher profile? He writes many of Britain’s best pop songs (Chasing Pavements, Warwick Avenue, songs for Pink, James Morrison, Take That, Beverley Knight, Kylie Minogue, Will Young etc) . He’s current songwriter of the year and nobody has heard of him. This is only his third album in two decades and it is astounding. Pure wondrous pop. Check him out please.
Bill Callahan. Sometimes I wish we were an eagle.
He was in Smog. He WAS Smog. (So what. Nobody knows Smog either. Ed.) This album came from nowhere from my point of view so thanks to Ian Dommett for introducing it to me. It’s a wee bit like Lambchop from a vocal perspective but the music is way, way different. Trust me on this one.
The XX. The XX.
A quite extraordinary debut. Sounding like a cross between Young Marble Giants and The Cocteau twins, but nothing like either, this was surely the debut of the year. Electrifying and beautiful. Self produced too. Not bad for a bunch of teenagers. Interesting to see what happens next time round. This video has already had 1.7m hits on youtube so clearly they are hitting a few people’s buttons.
Andrew Bird. Noble Beast.
A multi instrumentalist from the states. This is his 5th album and I’d missed them all before. I will be catching up next year.
The Mummers. Tale to tell.
I saw March of The Dawn on Jools and was immediately blown away (that’s also where I discovered the XX). The rest of the album hangs together well but this is the stand out track for sure.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It’s Blitz.
Truth to tell I’ve not played this album that much, but it’s a great slice of arthouse rock and roll. The critics loved it. It only got into my top ten by the skin of its teeth though.
Kraftwerk. Radioactivity, Computer Love and Trans Europe Express.
The re-release of Kraftwerk’s entire back catalogue fully remastered was the music event of the year. This band’s influence never wanes. But it’s clear they had a golden period with the three albums above taking my personal plaudits. All of them pure 5 star and all quite different. I think Radioactivity is my favourite.
Although all of the following met with critical acclaim I’m cool on them; Noah and The Whale, Paulo Nuttini (Although this would probably win the family’s album of the year overall on default – Ria and Jeana loved it and Tom and I were OK with it), Pete Doherty, (back to being a wanker again I see – is that ‘cos nobody bought his so so album) even Graham Coxon’s latest wasn’t that brilliant.
Martha Wainwright’s Edith Piaf record is good but not great, the God Help the Girl album was not good at all (I think Stuart Murdoch is missing the influence of his muse).
Time may show that I have overlooked the Animal Collective’s interesting album but I’m not so sure – a bit like TV on the Radio, the critics love it bus is it actually any good.
My blog has hit 296,000 views in the year which is 40,000 down on 2008 and perhaps reflects fewer posts (only 385 in total). Or maybe it’s just shit now. Still I think it’s a respectable total and thanks for your comments but I’d still like more contributions telling me when I’m being a tosser. Especially you Iain as you regularly tell me offline.
The Hibees came back with a vengeance under the coaching of Yogi Hughes but the defeat to Rangers last week suggests a glass ceiling has been well and truly hit. But there is some hope AGAIN for the cup.
Our clubs in Europe were pitiful and my lowlight in that respect was Falkirk (population 34,000) going out to a team from the mighty Lichtenstein – population 35,000 – that’s the country, not the town the team comes from. Liechtenstein is so small it doesn’t even have a league.
Theatre played a big part in my year. Apart from as an audience member.
I enjoyed Confined Human Condition by Cryptic and The Last Witch during the festival (although it was a bit overrated). My role as a director of The Lyceum developed and I thought the production of Memoirs of a Justified Sinner was the highlight of the year. Truly awesome. But nothing was to match the impact of Ragtime during the festival in which Ria joined the ranks brilliantly and Ya Beauty which was an experience I will never forget. My dad would have had “the tingles” for months.
Amy did brilliantly at school and finally nailed her English which gives her a great bunch of results to pursue her further education later this year. In the meantime she’s doing great working full time at Dakota and having passed her driving test has her own transport (a rather beaten up Fiat Punto but it works, mostly). Sadly Stuart moved away to Port Knockie so we ain’t seen so much of him.
Tom’s golf continued to improve and his handicap went from 15 to 11. He won two medals and The Greenkeepers Trophy and competed regularly for the team which is an achievement as it’s probably Ratho’s best ever junior team. We went to watch but that ended in tears. A lot of the older guys leave for next year so interesting times. He also got into the Dunfermline Masters for the second year running.
He and Ria both have their Standard Grades this year and both got credits (in Tom’s case on appeal) in their English this year.
That particular subject has caused some grief as it is clear that Tom and Ria take rather different views on the importance of studying. But I’ll not go into that here.
Ria substituted gymnastics for drama and I think she enjoys it much more as she has made a great new bunch of pals at FCT and is in her second show this Easter (Just So based on The Rudyard Kipling stories. Watch this space.). Ria is working like a trooper and had brilliant results in her prelims. And she’s got a fella! He’s not had the Gorman grilling yet. But there is time for that.
Jeana’s work at Suntrap has blossomed (pun intended) and she loves it. She managed two open days this year to great success. Aided and abetted by her blog which you can find here . It has steadily grown and is now pulling in 10,000 views a month. She provided Tom and I with our comedy moment of the year when she slipped in Alvor during the summer holidays and cut her knee. The slip was a true Laurel and Hardy moment as she careered down a cobbled street on her knees. Tom and I wet ourselves but that was THE WRONG THING TO DO, and we were punished accordingly. Needless to say Ria was a tower of strength to Jeana in this moment of humiliation. Tom and I still laugh about it.
We apologise. Sorry Jeana.
However Alvor did give us our funniest collective moment of the year as you will see from this video which we shot in the town square in Alvor. It was the local orchestra playing and this wee bloke at the back had only one job which he executed with lack of enthusiasm but not a great deal of ability as will be revealed. We enjoyed it immensely as you will hear.
I also discovered the old 1576 promo videos that we created many years ago. Not a good idea.
In books only one really stands out in a disappointing year. I just didn’t have time. This is astounding.
But I enjoyed this too…
And my movie of the year? I got to see a lot of great movies this year and the ones that really stood out were; the Hurt Locker, Harry Brown, The White Ribbon, Sherlock Holmes, Looking For Eric and Drag Me to Hell but the best for me was a TV documentary/movie of epic proportions made by the History Channel.
TV show of the year? No Question. True Blood.
Digital gizmo of the year? Again. no question. Spotify. But Facebook make a major ressurgence. So much so that Jeana complained at one point that I was neglecting the blog. Yeah, right enough. Only 380 posts!. Twitter continues to not flick my switch but I persevere.
My man of 2008, was Yogi Hughes.
Idiot of the Year? Kenny Macaskill for doing a Tony Bliar [sic] on us about Magrahi.
Best party was the Yah Beauty wrap, followed closely by the Ragtime wrap.
Wife of the year? Jeana Gorman. 20th year running.
Put it this way. I couldn’t live with me. Still.
And so to 2010.
My hopes?
Hibees win the Scottish Cup. (You say that every year. Ed.)
Tom gets down to a 7 handicap.
I win something, anything, at Dundas Park
Amy gets into Uni.
I am healthy throughout.
Both Cath and Jean stay healthy too.
Tom and Ria do well in their exams.
The credit crunch doesn’t get worse again.
Filed under: business, football, life, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: anthony stokes, easter road, Hibees, Hibernian, hibernianfc, Hibs, john hughes, league and cup double, stack, the cabbahge, zemamma
And so, we approach Christmas.
Hibs sit within touching distance of the top of the league. Of course all will be nought should tRangers take the spoils on the 27th - but the fact remains that John Hughes has made a transformation at Easter Road. The big difference is not losing to the likes of Hamilton (apart from Hamilton) having raised our game the week before against the Old Firm and Hearts (we lost to Celtic and only drew with Rangers and Hearts).
Hibs aren’t even playing that well. But what we are witnessing is a remarkable manager in his element.
Why is he remarkable? Because he has done what others couldn’t; strung results together, brought the changing room together, got great performances out of mercurial talent (Zemmama specifically) and made good signings (Stack, Millar and Stokes).
He has a good team, which is astonishing in itself given the transfer activity at the slope, but needs must and Petrie has done a great job in steadying the ship and now, hopefully, the club will continue to invest sensibly on the pitch (see Stokes for evidence).
I am, once again, proud to be a Hibby (I always was actually) and look forward to the second part of the season with anticipation.
OK, the league and cup double may only be a dream, but it is NOT an impossibility.
Thank you John Hughes. You are a magician and everyone who follows Hibs owes you a great deal.
Filed under: football, sports | Tags: figueroa, figueroa goal, wigan v Wolves
Filed under: football, jokes, politics, Rants, sports | Tags: 2010 world cup, FIFA, Handball, ireland v france, Irish Football, Thierry Henri
I respect Henri’s frankness.
What disgusts me is FIFA’s predictable support for the big ticket frenchies.
You know what they are?
Gutless.
At least Henry isn't gutless
Filed under: advertising, business, football, humour, jokes, life, Scotland, sports, stories, The Scotsman, work | Tags: ads, George Burley, Scotland manager, Scotsman.com, SFA, The Scotsman
- Could you close the door behind you on the way out?
Filed under: football, humour, jokes, politics, Scotland, sports, stories, The Scotsman | Tags: Bertie Vogts, Celtic, European football, Falkirk, George Burley, Hibees, Hibernian FC, International football, Lichtenstein, Rangers, Scotland manager, Scottish Football, SFA, Wales, Walles v Scotland, walter smith
I am not, and never have been, a fan of George Burley. The performance by Scotland against Wales on Saturday defied description in the first half. At 3-0 down we gave away a stone wall penalty that wasn’t given and Marshall, the goalie, should have been sent off. So that would have been 4-0 with ten men. We’d no doubt have shut up shop at that point and sloped off with a four goal defeat. As it was we lost to a bunch of schoolboys by three.
He had to go. And go he has.
Our game is a mess. I mean, let’s face it, Hibs are within a win of topping the league despite a makeshift team in parts and having sold 11 internationalists in five years. How is that possible? I’lll tell you how. Because everyone else is dreadful. And if you want proof of that look at Rangers’ and Celtic’s positions in their European groups. Both bottom, neither with a pot washed.
Investment in Scottish football’s youth (outside of Easter Road) is lamentable and that’s why that old saying “There’s no easy games in international football” is true once again. Scotland is an easy game. Falkirk went out of Europe to a team from Leichtenstien.
Lichstentsien!
In the past, had a Scottish team drawn a team from Lichstentsien we’d have needed a calculator to work out the aggregate score.
So back to Burley. Cheerio and good riddance I say. We’ve had two clowns in charge (Burley and Vogts). It seems remarkable that the rose between those two thorns was dour old Walter Smith who got the team playing again, reaching unheard of heights.
He leaves? Splash, right back in the poo.
Smith is sitting in the Ibrox ejector seat so I suspect the SFA will make the predictable decision to send him a parachute. Indeed this may all be part of a “plan”.
By the way. Check out 60 Watt’s topical Scotsman.com ad in The Scotsman.
Filed under: football, Hibees, humour, Scotland, sports | Tags: cabbage and ribs, Hibees, Hibs, scottiszh premier league, SPL, the cabbage
Bring on the Jambos. Managed from hell.
Gradually Petrie is being vindicated, as I have mostly supported. (He’s had some amazing transfer deals – Whittaker, Brown and Fletcher in particular.)
Intake of breath…we have a team. Have you seen Liam Miller? Wotherspoon? Zemmama (on form)?
It’s actually quite exciting.
Went to see Celtic get eased gently aside by a third gear Arsenal tonight. Europa League here they come.
Filed under: football, Hibees, jokes, life, Scotland, sports | Tags: Hearts, Hibees, Hibs, the cabbage
I was just talking to Lee, my Hearts fan colleague, about how nice it was to see Hibs joint top of the league and Hearts joint bottom and he went and got all upset, libelous about Yogi and basically acted like you’d expect a Hearts fan to act when his team is £30 odd million in debt and joint bottom of the league.
He had to revert to boasting about the fact that they were top of the crap teams last year. And then he had the audacity to slag Hibs for being one down at half time against St Mirren. As if it mattered what the score was at half time. I don’t actually ever recall points being awarded for first half performances do you?
Filed under: football, Scotland, sports, stories | Tags: Hibernian, john hughes, Scottish Football, SPL, the cabbage, yogi
It’s a good day at Easter Road.
It seems we have hired who I have long thought might be Hibs follow up to Mozza (Tony Mowbray).
A manger who cares and who has a football brain. I now expect a much better season from Hibs but the absolute key must be about holding focus against the lower teams. Yogi needs to teach Hibs that although beating Celtic, Rangers and Hearts is good, beating Hamilton, St Mirren, Motherwell, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, et al is much, much more important.
Only one problem. In seeking decent images of Yogi Onliner…this was the only good one I could find.
Ach well, we set them up anyway.
