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2009/2010 season thread.


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BBC SPORT | Football | Internationals | Smith opens door for banned duo

No. Just no. He bummed Rangers when he was on Sportscene and he bums them as head of Scottish football. What a dick.

I listened to the interview that story came from. It appears to be a case of very selective quoting. Smith was more or less explaining to the huns on BBC Scotland that they aren't lifetime bans. But they are currently out of contention for Scotland selection and will be for the foreseeable future.

He did say that there could be a situation where those 2 could pull on a Scotland shirt again, but neither he, the manager or anyone else on the SFA board could see such a situation at this moment in time.

It seems to me that the BBC, like all other media, has twisted a story to appeal to lots of people to bump up the number of hits they get. "Smith says McGregor and Ferguson could play for Scotland again" will get more reads than "SFA Chief re-iterates "Boozegate" duo out of contention for Scots".

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yeah i think your completely right about that one, i think they have to be careful after the players union got involved first time around, but i doubt we will ever see either of them in a scotland shirt again, Ferguson would be too old in a few years time anyway and Mcgregor isnt actually that good he is just in the squad as he is an old firm keeper, i honestly believe Clangers could do as good a job as back up keeper.

The media will always twist the quotes to make it say what they want to, for the obvious reason of selling papers, as keiran says stories saying "we still feel they wont play for scotland again" wont sell papers.

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what amazes me is, we pay JC and crew the best part of a million to pay him off, we're going to pay the well about 200 grand for McGhee, where the hell was this money for players when we actually needed them? IF jimmy had half of that to spend this season we would be alot better off as a team, plus they wont give our captain the contract he wants but again we blow this huge amount of money on managers..........

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i think the money situation involving MM may be off the mark, it's rumoured that he has a clause in his contract which will let him go for free. 200k is still quite cheap for a compo deal if it does require a fee though.

the money paid to JC et al was gonna be paid to them anyway and the board [hopefully] have budgeted for this.

i don't think seve really wants to stay and we need a more vocal captain anyways. transfers will most likely be bosmans and i'd like to see some of the better players from the lower teams make the step "up" to todders. MM is good at sourcing young talent, so if we get him this will likely be the case.

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but why not hand that kind of money to JC at the start of the season? All of this could have been avoided if JC was given enough money to match the unrealistic expectations of most dons fans. I would much rather see 1m of new players rather than a managment team that cost 1m to put into place.

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Yeah, I'm not thrilled about having to waste money on compensation, but lets face facts, JC would have only spunked it up the wall on dross like Tommy Wright anyway.

I'm confident McGhee will get the best out of the players we've got, and I'm sure we can get a few decent Bosman signings with the wages freed up by the likes of Smith and Severin. An experienced CB is a must.

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be fair Wright hasnt really had that much of a chance to show what he can do, injured for most of the season and jimmy insisting on playing makie ahead of him, i think he will actually do a decent job when he has a good preseason behind him.Mulgrew was a decent siging although not a left back, Kerr has proved to be decent enough as has Mcdonald, JC did pretty well with his signings i think.

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I heard the whole Gordon Smith phone call live on the radio on Saturday. First thing I said was "He has to go. He's just made a right tit of himself" and thought it would be all over the papers etc yesterday/today. BUt for some reason it was twisted to say he had opened the door for them again!?

A quick recap of what happened: Jim Spence, Kenny McIntyre, Tom English and one other jounro were discussing the Scotland campaign so far. When they go to the boozegate issue they all said their piece and that was pretty much that. Then, Gordon Smith, our esteemed Chief Exec, phoned the show in a fit of rage to pick on the journo's and their points of view. Only thing was - he was blabbering complete and utter jibberish and making himself look like a tit! Kept going on about "Its not a life ban, but they will not be chosen again..."

Also started jabbering on (this isnt a direct quote but he did say this) about how people dont have careers for their whole lifetime, and if the management of the team/SFA changes in the next 15/20 years they may reverse the decision and say they will be considered for selection.

Gordon - i hate to tell you this, but in 20 years time Barry Ferguson will be 51 years old.

Gordon - Are you a fucking idiot?

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He made perfect sense! All he was trying to do was get across the point that the SFA had never said the words "lifetime ban" referring to either of those players. He said they probably will not play for Scotland again, but they had not been given a lifetime ban, that term had been coined by the media. Though I admit the whole section of the interview where he was going on about career bans and stuff was pretty nonsensical. \he was clearly frustrated at the folk on the radio not understanding what he was telling them.

He was also taking issue with Tom English calling him "wishy-washy" when he refuted the statement that the SFA has imposed a lifetime ban on those players at some press conference. He wasn't being "wishy-washy", he was clarifying it. Telling the media there was no lifetime ban, the players could play for Scotland again (technically) but very probably wouldn't.

He then had to put up with Craig Brown having a go at him for saying the SFA Board had the right to tell Burley (who agrees with not selecting those two) that Ferguson and McGregor were ineligible for selection. Brown was nattering on about how when he was in charge, if he wanted to select a player and the board said no, he would have walked. Forgetting that this sanction was imposed for disciplinary reasons, nothing to do with the choice of players on quality/personal relationships with them. The SFA has every right to say no to any player they feel brings the Scottish game and national team into disrepute. IIRC Scotland shirts say "SFA" on them, the board has to be allowed to deny people who disgrace themselves in the manner Ferguson and McGregor did the right to pull on those shirts.

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Not a popular choice with the Pittodrie faithful, but I wanted John Hughes.

I like Hughes, honest and forthright, great with the media (he's EASILY, the best post-match interviewee) and I think he'd win the players over.

I suspect though, that McGhee is much more astute. Certainly one of the more intelligent and articulate managers. That, at least, is a step up from that fat sack of guts he's replacing.

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He made perfect sense! All he was trying to do was get across the point that the SFA had never said the words "lifetime ban" referring to either of those players. He said they probably will not play for Scotland again, but they had not been given a lifetime ban, that term had been coined by the media. Though I admit the whole section of the interview where he was going on about career bans and stuff was pretty nonsensical. \he was clearly frustrated at the folk on the radio not understanding what he was telling them.

He was also taking issue with Tom English calling him "wishy-washy" when he refuted the statement that the SFA has imposed a lifetime ban on those players at some press conference. He wasn't being "wishy-washy", he was clarifying it. Telling the media there was no lifetime ban, the players could play for Scotland again (technically) but very probably wouldn't.

He then had to put up with Craig Brown having a go at him for saying the SFA Board had the right to tell Burley (who agrees with not selecting those two) that Ferguson and McGregor were ineligible for selection. Brown was nattering on about how when he was in charge, if he wanted to select a player and the board said no, he would have walked. Forgetting that this sanction was imposed for disciplinary reasons, nothing to do with the choice of players on quality/personal relationships with them. The SFA has every right to say no to any player they feel brings the Scottish game and national team into disrepute. IIRC Scotland shirts say "SFA" on them, the board has to be allowed to deny people who disgrace themselves in the manner Ferguson and McGregor did the right to pull on those shirts.

Dont get me wrong, I understood exactly the point he was trying to make. The SFA had never said the words 'lifetime ban'. But to be honest - Smith was splitting hairs. He's trying too hard to be a politician and looks to be way out of his depth to me. He made a fool of himself on Saturday with the way he conducted himself, his choice of words, his stubborness and his complete lack of tact in some instances.

He's been a shambles since he got the job.

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