Referees' Strike - for those interested!

[Incognito]

Nor should you be. The pitch was extremely sodden and Wilson's momentum carried him through the tackle more than normal. Presumably the Ref made allowances for the conditions.
What was probably of more importance however was the fact that Conway did not make a big drama out of it, angrily gesticulating in the Ref's face for a card to be shown, in the time-honoured Rangers stylee!!

If it rains on sunday expect most of those wearing blue to be falling over like indignant skittles right left and centre.

Oh and finally, it won't be a fixture congestion that loses you the league, it will be the fact that most of what passes for talent in your paper-thin ageing squad already has one eye on the exit door. That and the fact that we have a younger, stronger, fitter, deeper, and much more committed group of players than you.

Can you no read Paddy?

It was a bad tackle. I can only thank the referee for not sending me off because I feared the worst. It was probably worth a booking.

Source 'lucky' Mark Wilson.

[shaunbhoy]

Source 'lucky' Mark Wilson.

I can only assume that his over-exposure to "honest mistakes" had clouded his own judgment.

Fortunately the Referee, now unrestrained by the shackles of Obergruppenfuhrer Dallas', exercised a bit of much-needed common sense having seen for himself the state of the pitch.

[Incognito]

Laugh my ******* ass off



Minestrone and Shauny, two peas in the same pod:

Scottish football, he believes, has been hijacked by bands of extremist minorities who will stop at nothing in their seemingly endless quest to be offended by anything and everything.

Who's this sound like:

"These are people who have no friends. If me and you want to have a chat about something then we'll do that after work at the pub. But the people who spend 10 hours a day on the internet have no one to talk to.
"They are the same people who go on X Factor. You know right away they are useless singers but they didn't have any mates to tell them the truth. If I told my mate I was going on X Factor he'd say, 'Are you f****** kidding? Don't be so stupid'.
"But these people don't have friends to keep them right. So they go on X Factor, get four 'no thanks' and are laughed off stage.
" So they go home disappointed they didn't make it on X Factor and think, 'What will I do now? I know, I'll get my computer out and write stuff on messageboards about Celtic and Rangers.It's the same people!'

Full article below from the ex-Celtic manager

GORDON Strachan had sensed it for a while. Bit by bit he suspected the lunatics were slowly taking over the asylum.
When Hugh Dallas was booted out of the SFA it gave the former Celtic manager his final, conclusive proof.
Scottish football, he believes, has been hijacked by bands of extremist minorities who will stop at nothing in their seemingly endless quest to be offended by anything and everything.
Strachan, you see, has never quite settled into this new PC world. And the more he gets to know how ruthlessly it works the less comfortable he has become.
First Dallas. Then Andy Gray and Richard Keys. The bodies just keep coming. And Strachan believes it's time for the silent majority to stand up and reclaim the game before it is gone for good.
He said: "At the time of the Hugh Dallas sacking I read an article from Jim Traynor who said the only thing to be offended about was the fact it was making fun of child abuse. Jim was right.
"But it was made out that Hugh was guilty of attacking a certain religion and I couldn't get my head around that. How many of us have had questionable emails sent to us? "I get them from my brother-in-law all the time, there's something to offend everybody but it's meant as a joke. You can't stop that.
"What about when Frankie Boyle is on TV having a pop at everybody and everything? What's the difference?
"When I spoke to Hugh he was trying to explain himself to me. I told him there was no need - I've lived up there, I know what it's like. He was telling me personal stuff and trying to make it clear he was not a bigot.
"But that's the way we are now, everyone is so scared of being branded something or other that we have to explain ourselves even when we have done nothing wrong.
"The problem is that the zealots had taken control of the situation. Hugh was having to answer to them."
That is something Strachan simply cannot abide. "Keyboard cowboys" he calls them. The virtual mobs who spout their views from behind the safety of a computer screen.
He admits there were times when the climate they created spoiled his enjoyment of leading Celtic to three SPL titles in a row.
And he could never understand why Parkhead staff would pay t hem serious attention.
He said: "I used to say to them, 'What are you doing? You are meant to be intelligent people! But you are actually listening to what these people are saying'.
"I kept telling them: 'For all you know these people are not even Celtic supporters. Why are you worried about what they say?'
"These are people who have no friends. If me and you want to have a chat about something then we'll do that after work at the pub. But the people who spend 10 hours a day on the internet have no one to talk to.
"They are the same people who go on X Factor. You know right away they are useless singers but they didn't have any mates to tell them the truth. If I told my mate I was going on X Factor he'd say, 'Are you f****** kidding? Don't be so stupid'.
"But these people don't have friends to keep them right. So they go on X Factor, get four 'no thanks' and are laughed off stage.
" So they go home disappointed they didn't make it on X Factor and think, 'What will I do now? I know, I'll get my computer out and write stuff on messageboards about Celtic and Rangers.It's the same people!'
"I made a joke about it before when I said they were all dressed in tracksuits with their devil dogs and cans of lager. That was my way of saying this is what's happening out there. We need to be careful who we listen to and who we allow to set the agenda.
"The internet is a powerful tool. People are bringing down the government in Egypt by going on the internet, so it can be used for good. But you have to realise three or four abusive idiots on a football messageboard do not speak for the majority.
"But we are all scared to stand up against them, even in jest. It's a scary situation.
"Listen, I don't dismiss the opinions of others and in Glasgow EVERYONE has an opinion. You get to hear them every time you walk down the street. But they were real opinions from real people, not just abusive rants from the keyboard cowboys.
"I enjoyed loads of it at the time and I enjoy going back to Glasgow now. But when you are right in the middle of it as manager of Celtic it's very hard to enjoy anything.
"The fundamentalists and the zealots make it that way. The whole of society is now pandering to this very vocal minority because the ones who scream the loudest seem to be listened to more than the silent majority. It could be racism, sexism or bigotry but somewhere along the line the decent majority have lost their voice.
"There is a fear that if you don't agree with the fundamentalists you will be accused of being sexist, racist or a bigot."
Strachan, being as he is of the old school, was always likely to be targeted by at least one group of the morally outraged.
And he knows that even by expressing his own opinion he will almost certainly come under fire.
But he said: "Put it this way, I know someone who has watched over 1000 games. That person thinks listening to a woman commentating on a game doesn't sound right. That person also believes women linesmen and women refs just don't look right in the man's game.
"I asked a female journalist if she thought that was a sexist view and she said it probably was. I then told her the person who feels this way is my wife. Does that mean my wife is sexist?
"The girl didn't know how to answer. And that's my whole point - this was simply an opinion, a woman's opinion. But if I said it as a man I'd be branded a sexist. As a matter of fact my wife feels more strongly about women linesmen than I do. But that's the environment we live in.
"People are scared to have an opinion. Even governments are scared to say what's right and wrong because a tiny minority will cause all kinds of problems.
"While the majority might be in complete agreement they are too frightened to speak up because they'll be accused of intolerance. That doesn't just apply to Scottish football - it's all over British society.
"That's why I use the example of my wife. After watching 1000 games she has every right to an opinion. She prefers men doing these things and I feel the same way. You might feel the same way too but you'd be scared to say that.
"Women have far more jobs in football now than 20 years ago.
So what are they complaining about? What do you want, 50-50?
"You can't run things like that. You should only be rewarded for being good at your job."

Gordon Strachan: Keyboard cowboys have hijacked Scottish football - The Daily Record

[shaunbhoy]

Dear oh Dear. Poor wee Gordon, oppressed by the faceless millions squatting behind their keyboards. Did the same cabal of faceless cyber-warriors hound him out of Middlesbrough too?



The naked eye may have seen nothing but football message-boards creating the ruckus which led to Hugh Dallas' disciplinary hearing, but I can assure you, the message-boards were little more than a designated vehicle on this occasion. That story was not conceived by lager-swilling-devil-dog-owning-tracksuited hermits. Steven Craven took his complaints against Hugh Dallas to the Sunday Mail, others took their concerns to the new media.

Without the internet this story would still have reached the public domain. The News of the World carried the offensive email allegation on its front page, while BBC Reporting Scotland were first to produce the email itself, facts already obscured by the fog of time.

Gordon goes on to explain that his wife “thinks listening to a woman commentating on a game doesn’t sound right” and that she also believes “women linesmen and women refs just don’t look right in the man’s game”. Apparently concluding that such thoughts cannot, therefore, be sexist, whether they come from a woman or a man.

I suppose there was a time when a woman doctor, magistrate, head teacher or police officer didn’t look right to many. Then we got our heads around the fact that all talent should benefit from equal opportunities.

To those who say Gordon couldn’t fill Andy Gray’s boots at Sky Sports I’ll leave you with his thoughts on progressive employment policies, “Women have far more jobs in football now than 20 years ago.

“So what are they complaining about? What do you want, 50-50?”

[Incognito]

it's a conspiracy, it's a conspiracy, it's a conspiracy, it's a conspiracy, and repeat.



YouTube - It's a conspiracy!!

All of Scotland are laughing at you.

[shaunbhoy]

it's a conspiracy, it's a conspiracy, it's a conspiracy, it's a conspiracy, and repeat.

Yes, very droll. What an imagination too.

All of Scotland are laughing at you.

I doubt that, but I suspect there will be more than a few muffled titters doing the rounds when HMRC finally finish adding the noughts to the end of RFC's outstanding Tax Bill!!!
Tell us again about the latest buyout of RFC. That always has me crying!!!! The Whyte Knight one!!

[jmo21]

Actually you're both correct.

All of Scotland is laughing at Celtic, and all of Scotland WILL be laughing at Rangers should anything come of the tax case.

HTH

[Bunk]

Actually neither are correct. Scotland stopped laughing at the old firm a long time ago. Now most right-minded people wish they'd both just shut up and keep their bigoted nonsense to themselves. They spend their whole lives trying to convince everyone that they're in the right and the other side are the bigots. Everyone else knows they're both as bad as each other. Their mistake is thinking they're actually important and that anyone apart from themselves want to hear their tulipe.

HTH

[TestMangler]

What he said. Why don't both of you **** off to some mythical atlantic league or join the EPL.

[shaunbhoy]

What he said. Why don't both of you **** off to some mythical atlantic league or join the EPL.

If we did, who would Murderwell have left to lie down to?