Football Season 2012/2013

[Northern Goblin]

United need 14 points from 10 matches, including today.

That's 4 wins and 2 draws from 10 games.

[Valeron]

It is even in doubt?

[Northern Goblin]

It is even in doubt?

Until something is mathematically impossible, I refuse to draw a line.

Bloody unlikely United won't win it though.

[mirodin]

Anybody watching the Dortmund game, they were 0-1 down and scored 3 goals in 5 mins .

[Northern Goblin]

Got Arsenal/Swansea on atm, though I feel like I should be watching Southampton/Liverpool. What is going on there?

[mirodin]

Soton is 2-0 up, quite interesting game a lot of chances on both sides. Ox hit the woodwork twice damn.

[Northern Goblin]

Michu's not quite firing on all cylinders today, that said the same can be said for Arsenal's defence. There's very little pressure on Swansea when they come forward.

[mirodin]

2-1 Liverpool scored, Cutinho

[Valeron]

yeah, I'd expect Michu to have at least scored on that great chance earlier.

Cazorla is having a good game, Diaby not so good.

[Northern Goblin]

Celtic down 1-3 at home to Aberdeen.

I'm setting up for a Koodle wall of text here, but Rangers being removed from the SPL has really screwed that league up. Celtic just don't play with the same level of effort anymore.

[mirodin]

Give me some Nachos!!!
2:0 Game set match. Holy hell Ramsey and Gervinho combine to score that not gonna see that again ever.

[Northern Goblin]

And in the other match of the day which we've all completely ignored, Stoke are drawing at home 0-0.

In other news, scientists discover fire to be hot, and water is wet.

[Valeron]

Arsenal the much better team this second half.

[laffling]

Would Mancini lose his job if City don't finish 2nd?

[Northern Goblin]

Would Mancini lose his job if City doesn't finish 2nd?

Probably, if he secures the FA Cup he might be safe though.

[Valeron]

Not sure what Mancini was thinking with the 3 man defense on the road versus a tough team like Everton.

[laffling]

England vs Wales and United game on at the same time why couldn't we have the early game for once.

[Tommy T]

Glad to see QPR lose. They really are the scum of the league.

Arsenal keeping with us and spurs. Will be a very interesting race for top four but I think us and spurs will just nick it.

[mirodin]

Glad to see QPR lose. They really are the scum of the league.

Arsenal keeping with us and spurs. Will be a very interesting race for top four but I think us and spurs will just nick it.

Well considering you 2 have to play each other and Spurs have games against City and Utd i fancy our chances

[koodledrum]

No need for Celtic to play real players in the league any more! Lets be brutally honest, Celtic have dropped 28 points in the league thus far yet STILL lead the thing by 12 points with a game in hand (incidentally, as I type this it's back to 3-3 at the San Giro) - that's not a competition, that's a damning indictment as to how monumentally shit Scottish football has become. The way they've approached the league this year has said it all, while they were in Europe they would effectively play 2-3 players from the "first team" & the rest of the squad was filled up with second string players while the first team squad have focused on European endeavours, which to their credit has served them well in the Champions League. But the truth is that any sensible person knew that Celtic essentially were handed every title in the mean time between Rangers being "exiled" from the league & their return - there is not anyone who is not mentally retarded (and I don't make any apollogy for using such language) who thought anything other than that.

To drop near 30 points yet still find yourself up by 15 points is something which if I was a player would lead me straight to my managers door with a transfer request - Champions League football is one thing, don't get me wrong that's where players want to play, but playing 38 meaningless games a season would say to me I'm essentially risking serious injury for something that was won before a ball was kicked. The numbers up here are shocking, we've had numerous games this season in the SPL where there have not even been 2,500 punters in the stands, only maybe 4 stadia in the SPL have had over 10,000 punters in them this year & on average Celtic Park has 15,000 empty seats every other weekend and that's on a GOOD weekend. You cannot viably suggest that the SPL has 12 clubs worthy of playing top flight football, 12 clubs worthy of playing for a shot at European football or 12 clubs who can honestly say they have a hope in hell of breaking even in a season! The "fans" who in their thousands claimed they'd never be back if Rangers weren't voted out simply put have shamed themselves by not turning out, so much shite they spouted over the summer only for their credibility to be shot to pieces by attendances which are on a par with CONFERENCE football down south.

There's a ton of nonsense about league reconstruction going on, clubs claim they need a bigger SPL to "make the game more appealing" - I'm sorry, do we really need to rock up to 14-16 teams in the SPL when only 1 of them (2 if/when we return) is in with a realistic shout of winning the thing? We could in theory look at a 14 team league where 13 teams operate at a loss & the only team making profit only does so because of European revenue, that's not progress, that's fucking madness & will lead to more clubs going to the wall. At this point in time Hearts in the SPL are teetering so close to administration it's the biggest miracle since the resurrection of Christ that they haven't done so already, their players haven't been paid in full numerous times over the last 2-3 seasons, they owe HMRC massive sums of money, £26m of debt & their owner's bank collapsed, losing him £250m. There's also Dunfermline, who this week have warned that they are in imminent danger of administration & potentially liquidation with multi million pound debt & owing HMRC around £150k which they simply do not have - they're cash in cash out right now to the stage it's doubtful they'll be able to see out the season!

Celtic managed to win today 4-3 but I think you really have to see it like this, if Rangers were in that league today there's not a snowball's chance in hell that Celtic would have dropped 28 points, not a snowball's chance in hell that they'd have been doing what they've done the majority of the season with regards to squads - simply put it they had, Rangers would be champions elect.

We scraped a 1-0 win today at Elgin, lead's up to 20 points but as Queens Park were not playing today (for some unknown reason) they have a game in hand, potential for the league as I said to be wrapped up against Montrose on 30th March, as predicted. Not to say we've been good, we've dropped 18 points, that's monumentally poor by all standards given the experience of the core of our squad, but I believe the term I'd use would be "professional" - we've taken our lumps, faced the rough & tumble of the league & taken care of business most of the time. I'm also not going to say we're not getting the medicine we somewhat deserve, but when you look at the afters & the bullshit (coupled with the fact HMRC were defeated thus essentially meaning we were liquidated over a tax bill under £10m which SHOULD have been paid) you have to wonder how disasterous this has been for Scottish football on the whole. There are some winners - lower league clubs must be loving the extra income from having Rangers in their pond - but the loss of revenue, credibility not to mention the skill set of players who will leave the Scottish game it will set the Scotland team back 10 years, which they could ill afford given how poor they had been of late.

(good enough wall of text reply? Not bad considering I'm cheering on Wales!!)