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choptastic

Listed below are comments made by choptastic between Friday, 3rd April 2009 and Monday, 28th September 2009.

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Can football learn from rugby league's play-offs? 12:51pm on 28 Sep 2009 To be fair, the Catalans pick actually doesn't change the dynamics of the play-offs in Super League at all (with the exception of a 15 minute chat on satellite news channel with some Yorkshire gentleman dressed in a suit) as that is how the draw would have panned out anyway following the weekend matches.

The play-offs in football are an excellent idea and one that I have grown up with watching it. We have had similar situations up here when restructuring, the most memorable being when Dundee United edged out Partick Thistle to keep their Premier League place over 2 excellent games of football. It was kept for a couple more seasons but didn't go ahead due to SPL stadium criteria and Falkirk not meeting this, saving Motherwell one year and then Aberdeen and Dunfermline the following year when a 3 team play-off was scheduled.

As a supporter of a team struggling in the SPL but having spent many a year in the first division as well I would not be against the introduction of play-offs to decide a 2nd promotion/relegation spot in the SPL, such as in place in the lower Scottish leagues now where the 2nd bottom team are in play-offs with 2nd to 4th in the league below. These have worked to an extent, however I feel would benefit from being one off finals played on the same day at a stadium such as Tynecastle, Fir Park or Easter Road and get neutrals as well as the supporters of all 4 clubs in the stadium rather than being over 2 legs and in front of slightly above average crowds of a few hundred.
Chelsea will suffer if transfer ban stands 2:50pm on 04 Sep 2009 The problem is this will likely only be an issue to England as a "major" footballing nation and those countries where players can sign professional contracts at 16 years of age, instead of at 18 in the case of the majority of mainland Europe.

The main issue with FIFA's ruling is that a player inbetween the ages of 16 and 18 has no contract with the club so therefore can surely sign for one of these clubs in a country where he is allowed to sign a professional contract, with the reimbursement to the "nursery" club being minimal.

Oh, and Platini actually wont have too much to do with this as it is a FIFA matter, not UEFA.
The new season awaits for Annan Athletic 2:38pm on 11 Aug 2009 Chris, how does it sit with guys at the Third Division level that you are effectively being "stuck" with Livingston being demoted two divisions?

Not sure if you can comment exactly, with the SFA potentially reviewing blogs for comments that bring the game into "disrepute" (if it isn't already), especially as it also wont be likely to happen with well run clubs like Annan, but would you play for nothing if your wages from Annan were unpaid? Also, it must fill you with a lot of excitement at being able to play a couple of games (if they are still in existence of course) at a stadium like Almondvale for a league game rather than a cup tie.
TMS ready for magical Ashes 11:16am on 03 Jul 2009 Blowers Number 1 Fan - "Yes its the Ashes" is going to be on tomorrow, which is a full 4 days before the opening day of the First Test!

Should be good - hopefully the text commentary will be good (and on auto-refresh) for those of us not able to listen in at work! Even more so, I shall have my digital radio at T in the Park next weekend in order to keep up to date with play before and inbetween bands with the TMS team.

Looking forward to it, though shame Cardiff's first test match is an Ashes one (the first test at that!) instead of doing what the ECB have done over the years with the Riverside in giving them the opening matches against generally weaker opposition ahead of the main draw of the summer tests going ahead in the Midlands or the South. Hopefully Durham will start getting to host some of the bigger test matches instead of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka over future years.
England get through with sheer guts 1:35pm on 08 Jun 2009 The feed is actually not even Sky's for these tournaments, but it is ESPN Star Sports of India (i believe) who then show them through the verious platforms - Sky for live coverage and Beeb for highlights. Oliver can confirm this but the only bits that are either Sky's or the BBC's are when it is Ian Ward in the Sky Studio or Manish Bhasir doing his cuts from the pitchside.

Chappell was right with one of the calls when the batsman backed away past leg stump and made it look wider than he was, however I felt the rest of the wides were justifiably given, no matter how long the delay for Billy Doctrove to tell Steve Davis that it was height!

As for the net run rate - England are through, it is virtually (though not totally) impossible for the result to send England out.

It was a shame to see us Scots put out by a top class South African performance - will be very interesting to see them in the Super 8 as I think they are the best side in this event by quite a considerable distance.
How Owen Coyle got Burnley smiling 1:13pm on 30 Apr 2009 Paul - don't know if there's something that you can post up of future blog interviews or stories that you are covering for such anecdotes, especially at they do make a change from the normal interviews given in most of the media content out there today.
How Owen Coyle got Burnley smiling 1:57pm on 29 Apr 2009 He sounds as west coast as a west coast Scotsman can sound like (just ask Ray "Paddy" Houghton!!!).

One thing about Coyle that sticks in the mind from when he managed Saints was the revelation that when he had the chairman (Geoff Brown) round at his house either interviewing him or offering him the job, he offered Mr Brown a cup of bovril as it is the only hot beverage he drinks!
How Owen Coyle got Burnley smiling 11:20am on 29 Apr 2009 Fletch, tremendous blog. As a Saints fan he was a good manager for us, however he just couldn't put an entire season together (especially the one where we lost out to an injury time winner for Gretna at Ross County as scobby_sjfc mentioned - Gretna were 13 points up with 6 games to go and nearly blew it spectacularly!).

Cup runs are great - he led us to a League Cup and Scottish Cup semi in the same season, knocking out 7 different SPL teams and very nearly beating Celtic in the semi final - but left at the right time for the club and for him.

I hope he gets promoted as I don't want to see West Brom at Turf Moor next season as they'll beat the Albion convincingly again I imagine!!!
Riveted by Stamford Bridge cracker 12:00pm on 16 Apr 2009 The misplacing of names against numbers will be down to whoever prepares the teamsheets that get handed round the various hospitality areas and the press/stadium announcer on the day. A lot of the stats for the games outwith the SPL are taken from the Press Association, who will have 1 person taking a feed of information, usually from the stadium announcer or the club. Either that, or the gaffer has just given you guys the wrong number in the changing rooms!!!

As for the race towards the end of the season, what are your thoughts on clubs giving up sections of ground traditionally occupied by their own fans? I raise this as a St. Johnstone supporter who, providing we beat Queen of the South on Sunday (live on BBC Alba), can go to our nearest and dearest rivals in Dundee next weekend to win the league and they are giving over their traditional South Enclosure (aka "the Derry") to us for the anticipated large crowd. Fair to say we are delighted, but they are obviously not!

Final question - what is your thoughts on the overall standard of refereeing this season? I am especially interested as you are at the sharp end of where all new senior list officials come into the league structure looking for the promotions towards the upper echelons of the Scottish game.

Good luck for the remainder of the season.
Scots duo pay dearly for mistakes 8:14pm on 03 Apr 2009 The players should never have been brought into the squad again after they had been asked to leave on the Sunday/Monday let alone be put on the subs bench, where there was going to be lots of media attention. That would have been punishment enough and then we get on against Norway in August with both in the squad (though not necessarily in the starting XI).

The SFA have screwed up in their handling of this, though the players are the main culprits. While I agree the end of their careers at international level is harsh, I also agree that an example was required to be made and, if it was to be made, why do it with such brutal publicity as the SFA have done?

Anyway, nice to hear an "insight" from the story rather than some of the nonsense spewed out by certain tabloid rags, however I would question one thing - "the Tartan Army - many of them Rangers fans" is a nonsense comment, of the 30,000 Travel Club members, I would be surprised if any more than 5% were of the Glasgow blue variety - they prefer to be watching our nearest and dearest from south of the border.....

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