City Slickers

I didn’t see the 5-1 victory of Manchester City over Spurs last night but their impressive form continues.

I recall when I was in London more than 30 years ago (1979-80) going to see City play at White Hart Lane. That season City finished 17th in the old first division and it was their North London opponents who had the star players – Ardiles, Villa, Hoddle, Jennings, Perryman etc. Mind you Spurs only managed 14th place despite such a playing staff. Spurs as I recall won 2-1 on that occasion.

I really can’t see how anyone is going to stop City on their march to the title. They are a very impressive outfit; bankrolled by UAE billionaire Sheikh Mansour who is paying his squad of players £233m a year according to City’s last published figures.

To put these figures into some sort of perspective, the entire annual turnover of the club I support wouldn’t even approach City’s wage bill, (£639,000) for a single day.

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Rough Diamonds

Just watching the Airdrie v Rangers game on BT Sport.

I am struck by the similarity between the Airdrie manager and chairman.

Gary Bollan

Jim Ballantyne

Malkied

I can’t believe the way that Malky MacKay has been treated at Cardiff City. The man who got the Welsh side into the top league for the first time in 51 years was given his thank you bonus today – i.e. the sack.

I’m sure former Celt MacKay will lick his wounds and will find another top job in football before long.

He has been the victim, it would seem, of unrealistic expectations from the club’s owner.

On checking out Cardiff City’s history I found that they are the only non English side ever to win the FA Cup (in 1927). The scorer of Cardiff’s winning goal that day against Arsenal was Hughie Ferguson, a Scot. He later transferred to Dundee for £500 but failed to live up to the Dens Park side’s supporters’ expectations.

After a training session at Dens in 1930, Ferguson gassed himself having been dropped from the first team.

The fitba’ can be a hard game – and that’s not a new thing.

Show Some Respect?

On Remembrance Day last week there were symbolic two minutes silence held at sports grounds all over the UK. It is interesting how observation of remembrance or respect has changed over the years. Quite often there will be a minutes applause instead of silence (Originally thought of when some eejits would spoil the silence).

Over recent years players have changed from the ‘stand up straight to attention’ mode to standing with their arms around each other.

And then there’s the mascots.

How do you think West Bromich Albion’s ‘Baggie Bird’ contributes to this picture of solemn remembrance?

Or Arsenal’s ‘Gunnersaurus’?

There are more here

No Bonus for the Game

I’m reading with complete incredulity that David Longmuir had a £100,000 bonus drawn into his contract with the SFL. Now don’t get me wrong, Longmuir has done some good things during his tenure. Sponsorship deals with Irn Bru and Ramsdens during tough times were a credit to him.

However £100,000 seems way out of proportion to the job he’s in.  Longmuir and Neil Donkeyster are now in a tussle to see who will be the new Chief Exec of the new SPFL.

As Keith Jackson puts it succinctly in this morning’s Daily Record, “Rome is burning. And the men in charge are fighting for the fiddle.”

Broken Hearts

A sad day for one of the country’s biggest fitba’ clubs but something that in all honesty has been coming for a long time

Stoking Resentment

Because my wife has a family connection to Mark Hughes we always keep an eye on his career. I notice that 13 minutes ago it was announced that he is to be the new manager of Stoke City.

It seems that some Stoke fans have already made their minds up about the appointment. This is from their stadium car park…..