Al B

Noticed on the official site they have a job going in the ticket office, advertised at £6.00 per hour. Am I not right in thinking that the national minimum wage is £6.08, going up to £6.19 on October 1st?

Do you actually mean a better team? Or do you mean harder to beat? If you mean harder to beat then i'd possibly agree with you, in the sense that Gus McPherson's St Mirren could at times be harder to beat than Dundee United, even though they weren't as good a side. If you do mean they were a better team, then I just can't agree with you. The Pana side were full of natural footballers, comfortable on the ball, one touch, two touch, instant control, play the ball and move, always someone available to take a pass...that instinct that takes the need for thought out of the basics of the game. There were times in the game last night though where Levante were just rattling the ball up in the air, launching it, hammering clearances off Motherwell players right in front of them. Hard to beat? If you're not on your game then it would seem so. Effective? Obviously! Good side? Nope. Maybe it's just differing opinions on what constitutes a good side. For me, it's footballing talent and ability...for others something different.

I think generally, we've done fantastically well as a club, and have had a good gradual build over the last 10 years which has made our relative success a lot more stable and sustainable. Each thing we've achieved has been made possible by the previous achievement, for example: We'd never have made the Champions League if we hadn't had a season like the last one We wouldn't have had a season like the last one if we hadn't had a good grounding at a higher level of football in European competition. We wouldn't have had regular higher-level experience if we hadn't hadn't made the first break into Europe. We wouldn't have managed that without the first season that Mark McGhee gave us, We wouldn't have had that if it wasn't for Terry Butcher dragging us kicking and screaming through the bad years. Nothing we've done has been a flash in the pan and then disappearing, we've worked hard to build and sustain, done things the right way and built a foundation first before adding to it over the years where we can, and we should be really proud of that.

I think a lot of it has to do with the opportunity to see us do something that generally can't be done ie - play in the Champions League. I'd much rather have played in that than won a cup, but now that it's done, from now on i'd rather win a cup that qualify for Europe. Win a cup Vs play in the Champions League for the first (and only) time - The latter. Win a cup Vs playing in Europe generally - the former. We are one of only 4 clubs who have won this countries top division, both top level domestic trophies, and played in everything European football currently has to offer. I'm quite proud of that, especially if you generally accept that no-one else will ever manage it.

Bit of reading required. Most people aren't saying they would struggle to finish in the top 6 of the SPL. In fact anyone remotely mentioning league position seems to be saying they would. Of course they would. What's being said is that on the basis of last nights game, which is the only time me, you, or anyone else has seen them in the flesh, there are 4 teams in the SPL that could beat them, including us if we weren't slitting our own throats as a team. You need to stop focusing on league position when trying to counter people's points...as that's not the point people are making. No-one is saying Celtic, Hearts, United and ourselves would all finish an SPL season above them. We are saying that in one match Celtic/Hearts/United/Ourselves all playing at their best, would beat Levante as they played last night. You're making your point well, it just doesn't have anything to do with the point being made by the people your disputing.

You are bang on, it is a terrible argument. It's that terrible because you're about the only person that saw Levante as anything other than decidedly average, who doesn't think there at least 4 SPL sides that would scud them. Including us if we weren't having a complete holocaust. And regarding your second point, I haven't checked but i'll assume Livingston had a decent league finish the following season with the same team then?

Yes, Valencia would have fucking scudded us til we were bleeding, but we were playing Levante.

Livingston finished 3rd in the SPL and played in Europe. Is that their level because they did it once? Feel free to bookmark this, I will personally meet you at Fir Park and hand you 100 quid if Levante come anywhere close to their league finish of last season.

Anyone who watched that game tonight and thinks Levante would be anything more than a reasonable top 6 SPL side, based on tonights game, should be sitting beside them watching something else then.

That's got about 186 contradictions within just 2 lines. Well done...that's quite a feat!

Both Hearts and Dundee United would have rattled Levante tonight. Absolutely cunted them. Gary Mackay-Steven would have had to come home and clean his own jizz off his boots he'd have loved it so much.

The annoying thing for me, is that Levante are fucking shit. We were just worse. If we'd played exactly like that in a Motherwell v Dundee United, or Motherwell v Hearts fixture, it would have been about 5-0. Almost every pass we played was 2 yards too short, or 2 yards off target, and the ones that were accurate were met with a first touch that did nothing but open up a 50-50 ball which we invariably lost or gave away a free kick. Not a chance Levante are a decent side and I genuinely believe anyone that thinks they were is grossly underestimating how embarrassingly bad we were tonight. It was as if none of them had got any sleep last night.

In that one post you've pretty much summarised what pisses me off about the "there were x amount and hampden, where the fuck are they now?" point. Within a few sentences you're ripping folk for being "part timers" and saying you'd rather they didn't bother, then saying you can't understand why people aren't coming for a one-off game. Always a ridiculous amount of hypocrisy on this subject

My keyboard's only got one L on it

Turns out folk were 100% right to criticise your earlier shanner efforts...it's inspired you to come up with some decent ideas. Might want to check the speling of pyjamas though.

Must be some size of a feeling.

Me: Kirky, what do you think of 'comical' imaginary chat scripts? Kirky: Cringeworthy as fuck.

Why, are you about to fuck up a quote and a picture in one post, and give us all a migraine trying to read it? Cheers for the warning.

Perhaps Weeyin, but surely you get the point being made in that in the States (which was an arbitrary country I chose, could have been anywhere), there's an inherent internal pride that comes out particularly in things like sports, whether it's national, state or city...whereas in Scotland there is a general dislike of anyone who may seem anything other than the ordinary man on the street. A "make sure you know you're no better than me" attitude, regardless of whether they are part of your own team/city/country....often more-so if they are! It's not just confined to sports, the attitude to perceived success in Scotland doesn't lend itself to celebration of it, or excitement from it. The more successful someone is at anything, the more they need to be brought down. As long as that's the case, sport in this country won't flourish because success is only seen as a good thing until you get it. A gold medal winner in any other country would be treated as a national hero if they were seen in public with their medal, in Scotland they would be treated like an arrogant prick who better not think he's better than everyone else just because he won a gold medal.

There's a Scottish apathy these days that will never change. People here would never be seen to be excited enough about something like football for there to be huge regular attendances. For example, if the Bears quarterback was seen out for a meal in Chicago on any given night, people would be flocking from all around and be really excited, and people all over the city would be telling "Oh my god, I saw Jay Cutler last night!!!" If he walked down the street in San Fransisco, even in a city other than the one he plays for, he would still be mobbed for autographs etc and even 49ers fans would be telling people "I just saw Jay Cutler, just walking down the street!!". In this country, Michael Higdon out for a meal with his wife would generate a post on here along the lines of "Seen Michael Higdon out for a meal last night. c**t should be having a salad then maybe he could fuckin jump" "Autograph? Did I fuck...I pay the c**t's wages, he should be asking me for mine" Or "Seen Scott Brown swanning up Buchanan Street with his Gucci carrier bags...dunno who the wee prick thinks he is" There's a Scottish mentality of not wanting people to think they are any better than you that result's in a need to try bring them down a peg or two, rather then glorifying them. As a result of that, a regular football match will never be a huge occasion in this country, because there's no hype surrounding it from it's customer base.

I'd rather we played nothing then.

There's not a topic on it, because it didn't happen. It doesn't mention the club at all in that article apart from it being his former job!

I think initially I read someone on here saying McCall had told them directly. Evidently pish it would seem!

This.