Leigh Griffiths seems to have found himself in a state of some skitters since the SFA took an interest in his comments about Craig Thomson. Whenever I suffered the same as a kid, I always reached for a bottle of Lucozade – but perhaps it’s best that Leigh avoids that given the publicity the last time.
Griffiths’s comments stemmed from Thomson’s failure to send Andy Considine off in the Dons 2-1 victory over Celtic at the weekend. It was a tough weekend for the Celtic team but some consolation for Ronny Deila that his side’s first domestic defeat of the season came at a ground where he could probably pick up Norwegian radio.
Jordan McMillan was banned from football for 2 years for testing positive for a metabolite of cocaine. What’s happened is a personal tragedy for him – however it’s come about – so I’m not really going to take the piss. All I’ll say is that I think there should be a differentiation made between substances that enhance performance and substances that just make you tell everyone your performance is enhanced. Mind you, your marker might leave you alone at a corner if you’ve spent the previous half dozen of them telling him about the amazing album that you’re going record.
Speaking of testing, Mark Warburton announced that the Rangers squad have their urine tested every day, though for hydration levels rather than illicit substances. Changed days from Walter Smith’s ‘team that drinks together, wins together’, when all that would have been tested would have been the size of the head on their samples.
Warburton also acknowledged that his team are targeting a Scottish Cup win this season. One man who’ll be targeting the Johnston’s Paints Trophy instead though is Ian Black, who’s signed for Shrewsbury Town. Will he make a losing debut? Don’t put your money on it. And yes, I’m talking to you, Ian.
Speaking of former Rangers players, Barry Ferguson is apparently set to sign Marvin Andrews for Clyde. Never mind keep believing, Marvin’s now at an age when it usually gets hard for people to keep remembering. As well as Marvin, Stephen Hughes is also set to sign for the Bully Wee. A player as thin and will-o-the-wisp as Marvin’s knee ligaments.
In England, another former teammate of Ferguson’s was making his mark. Steven Naismith scored a perfect hat-trick against this season’s Chelsea team; for whom ‘left foot, right foot, header’ has generally been a description of Branislav Ivanovic’s attempts to trap the ball.
The situation is now so grave at Stamford Bridge that the press are reporting that ‘banter’ has been banned at the club. Personally, I can think of few things more appealing than the banning of anything that people tend to class as ‘banter’, ‘bants’ or – particularly – ‘bantz’. Hopefully Jose’s inspired new management technique can catch on in offices across the UK.
El Hadji Diouf made a return to the newspapers by hitting back at Steven Gerrard’s criticism of him in his new book. ‘Dioufy’ as Sam Allardyce always strangely tenderly called him, announced that Gerrard had a problem with black people and hadn’t achieved as much in the game as Diouf himself. The thing is Dioufy, if you want to be taken as a credible witness for the first bit, you really have to restrain yourself from coming out with the second bit.
If you are looking for evidence of xenophobia in English football then the city of Manchester seems like a good place to start. United and City’s Champions League performances suggested such a desire to exit Europe early that it puts them on a par with Nigel Farage.
Of course, sadly, Luke Shaw’s injury became one of two traumatic events to unfold over the course of the evening.
The other being finding myself as a Rangers fan cheering an Aberdeen win.
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’.
