There’s only been one story this week – should the titles be stripped and awarded elsewhere? Speaking as a Rangers fan, I’m all for it. We’re talking about getting a Rangers masters team to play AC Milan for the 1993 Champions League trophy, right?
Interestingly, football’s big names seem fairly reticent about giving their views. At least that’s what I’m assuming, given that I managed to read that Darren O’Dea thinks Rangers should be stripped of their titles. Something which I assume wouldn’t have made it into print had any of 200 others given their view first.
Interestingly Kyle Lafferty is engaged to Darren O’Dea’s wife’s sister – so Christmas might be a bit tense. It’ll be interesting to see whether Kyle comes out swinging or opts just go head-to-head and then collapse to the living room floor clutching his face.
Back to matters more contemporary though and the Celtic management’s current debate is not over a few years ago but over whether or not they’re better than Molde in the present day. John Collins says yes. Though presumably only because Celtic’s entire media team are off sick with stress brought on by him and there’s nobody left to stick a balled up sock in his mouth.
Ronny Deila also managed the quote, “You’re not a footballer if you can’t defend.” Deila certainly knows all about defending. This week he managed to say that Celtic’s defeats to Molde were down to Rangers not being in the league.
Deila has every reason to be feeling edgy though, given that the bookies have already installed David Moyes as the favourite to replace him. That would certainly help Celtic with their defending. Though quite how the Celtic support would react to the increasingly angsty presence of their former reserve ‘getting men behind the ball’ against Kilmarnock to come out of things with ‘a useful point away from home’ is anyone’s guess.
Across the city, Mark Warburton played down speculation linking QPR with an interest in him. Credit to Warburton for managing to frame his reaction as commitment to Rangers, rather than sheer terror at being linked to the task of instilling some sense into goings on at Loftus Road. Or having to try to find some common ground with Neil Warnock.
Ross County striker Liam Boyce told the press that he feels that losing two stone over the summer may have played a part in his improved form this season. The rest of the nation nods slowly. Mark Yardley shakes his head in disgust.
Garry Monk has been given an ultimatum to appoint a more experienced coach to support him at Swansea. Or, as it’s traditionally known in Scotland, the Tommy Craig move. What could be more supportive for a manager than to have someone standing next to him on the training ground who the board believe knows more than him?
Chelsea lost again at the weekend, though Jose wasn’t there to see it. That’s not to say that he wasn’t getting his message across though. Either that or the Chelsea coaching team were particularly engrossed in the latest episodes of Game of Thrones that they’d downloaded to their tablets. Granted, if you’re at Chelsea this season – who’d feel the need to download a show about backstabbing, treachery and intrigue?
Among other TV and radio credits, his football-savvy has meant roles as writer/script-editor on Offside and Only An Excuse (both BBC1 Scotland).
He set up ScottishComedyFC.com in 2011, hosts and produces the Scottish Comedy FC Podcast and is often the fingers behind the tweets on @ScotComFC.
These days, his content-creative and social media skills have led to him working as a content marketing specialist with a top Edinburgh agency. He remains in demand as a comedy writer and this year has been commissioned to write on the BBC Radio Scotland shows ‘The Good, The Bad and The Unexpected’, ‘The Fame Game’ and ‘Breaking The News’.
