BiggestPieInGlasgow

Welcome Piedestrian!

I could never get on the Crowley train (as i'm sure you're all bored of reading by now!) For me he had flashes of pure brilliance, but against Walsall in particular we were lucky not to concede after he gave the ball away in some truly favourable areas, it seems every game listening to Stall all you heard was "ball to Crowley" then you had to hold your breath for ten seconds before the inevitable "and given away to [insert team name here] and now they're on the counter!" I don't think he was our best player, I think the clubs statement speaks volumes about what kind of influence he has or rather has not got in the dressing room "Whilst Dan has certainly been an influential figure for us, following the exciting additions of Will Jarvis and Charlie Whittaker, along with the return to fitness of Conor Grant and Curtis Edwards we have many strong options in his area of the pitch and we're very confident the squad can mount a strong challenge for promotion without him.", that's about as strongly worded as you can get from a club and one which, in my opinion, demonstrates the feelings about him. Ultimately, he should know his worth, and he evidentally wasn't worth what he demanded during contract negotiations, cracking bit of business for the club, in my humble opinion his departure will cause the defenders to breathe a heavy sigh of relief, alex bass can stop practicing for when Crowleys pocket is picked and the strong options in midfield should put us altogether stronger. He's MK's problem now

What a great signing. Class start to our January window. him, Jodi, Jatta up front with didzy support on occasion and we should *fingers crossed* start to regain some of our attacking threat which was massively missing with injuries.

TIGHT call, i didn't think so watching the replay, but with no VAR guess i'll have to suck it up shame cause i think we deserved the draw

Very unpopular opinion, but i think Crowley needs selling. He absolutely has flashes of utter brilliance, but so far twice in ten minutes where he's given the ball away, it seems every game has "crowley.... crowley to...and its given away!" his position means he can't afford to make those mistakes in the favourable positions, i think personally Notts will be much better off without his free gimmie giveaways.

could not agree more with all of this, I think its obvious the players play for Stu and the assistants. Hopefully this puts the Maynard out knobbers back in their box for a bit. Can't feel more sorry for the guy losing 6/7 of his preferred starting 11 and then dealing with the maynard out crowd on the socials. hopefully January is a good time for late christmas presents ideally in midfield i think, although wouldn't say no to a Macca loan return

A good game, good to see Notts return to winning ways. i was nearly dancing round the gaff after the quick-fire triple.

@Robbie Stenhousemuir are top of the league so an expected defeat I'd say, in terms of immediate future they've had no shortage of offers according to the administrators. The MSP is pushing for a supporter/community ownership which I hope will come to fruition. in short term however they appear to be largely stable; the club only has ~20 staff so 100k should ensure their job security at least until the end of the season. There does seem to be an expectation that they will drop this season however, being 6 points currently behind a team thats currently in a bit of form. Question remains though as to whether a community trust can afford to pay the price that would be required. Unclear times ahead, but hopefully they can reach a resolution soon.

*Puts on tin-foil hat* I'm no conspiracy theorist, however, I have suspicions that a certain ex telecoms engineer now king of the lane may have done some nifty unscrewing last night for the extra break and hopefully extra recovery time... *takes off tin-foil hat* damned shame though, games in hand give me the fear!

I think with the injury situation it's definitely an oversight, but hindsight is 20/20 after all, I wonder how much of his leaving was by his request rather than the clubs; no evidence to back that statement mind but it did seem a bit out of left field (pardon the pun) that he went over to MK. Nice lad though so hoping he smashes it.

Welcome K9 - Good to have you!

@liampie short term? absolutely, it'll pay the staff wages and prevent further debt build-up, and subsequent point deductions which will cripple the club further. long term, probably not. I don't know the exact figure of their current debt but I fear if it was only 80k (current figure of the gofundme) there would be other avenues instead of administration. EDIT: adding gofundme here as it hasn't been posted yet, in case any Magpies are feeling generous: The fighting fund for Dumbarton FC - Save our Sons (SOS), organized by cameron watson WWW.GOFUNDME.COM Support the fighting fund to save our club. Update Th… cameron watson needs your support for The fighting fund for Dumbarton FC - Save our Sons (SOS)

@Robbie the club I support up here is a phoenix club; a very similar situation to the sad franchise F.C. of Dons. Now one plays in the Scottish Championship, the other (phoenix) plays in the WoSFL, very sad for everyone involved. agree with what you say re; true independence, hoping the fact its a civil service department should increase the chances of impartiality, lots of roadblocks i foresee already, one big one being the different challenges of governing the NIFL, SFL, EFL & CLs. And an additional relating to scottish independence, will they insist on devolved powers, which will basically make it toothless? Far too many hypotheticals but i'm optimistic that at least as far as Dumbarton are concerned, this too shall pass

my personal thoughts on clubs in administrations are: Point deductions REALLY don't help, they only punish fans, and dedicated staff who actually give a damn where they finish the season, that ties in with my personal thoughts on crowdfunding, as you've said there Robbie, it only really helps if the club falls into a "fan trust" which gives fans the power to actually manage their club. and this is a situation that highlights that, the dissenters in this particular situation in my eyes have a point, its a get out of jail free card for years of mismanagement. I know this is a controversial POV but i'm a keen supporter in the previous governments proposal to set up a new Football Regulator, i think reckless and malicious owners have for too long ran unchecked; even in our mutual beloved Magpies; we are extremely lucky to have the owners we have now. I think the Football Regulator, under the correct guidance and backed by legislation is the answer to prevent the wider issue of reckless and poor stewardship; in the short-term, for clubs like dumbarton, i think they should settle for no less than 100% ownership, fan trust, write this season off and come back next year stronger, payment plans to restructure debts and shed the wage dead weight.

largely similar to how it looks now, i think the layout is actually not terrible, its a bit regionalised early which is a bit of an issue but geographically i think HL/LL needs to remain, I would overhaul the promotion/relegation process. Feeder leagues would need reorganised but thats a long-term job. Promotion wise, I'd have one promotion slot each in HL/LL, & feeder leagues one playoff promotion slot in each. Relegation wise, bottom four, drop to their respective leagues [HL/LL] remaining promotion relegation would be okay. In terms of breaking the old firm domination, i think the only way is to change the co-efficient spots, its the european money that makes the old firm unreachable by the remaining teams in the prem, perhaps an exclusion from the scottish cup would be best for those two teams just until the scales are balanced. Once the european money begins to dry up/go to other teams (e.g. dundee, motherwell, st mirren) that gives them opportunities to challenge for the title. unfortunately its all academic unfortunately, in Glasgow youre either green or blue and ultimately that'll never change. but i think fixing the league system is an easier step change to create more competitiveness. EDIT: to answer your questions; a transfer cap, wage cap would, in my opinion, simply drive clubs into administration, The large Japanese contingent at Celtic for instance brings a lot of ticket sales and merchandise sales, in my opinion it would prevent obtaining these "celebrity" players etc.