Celtic set to sign Jota permanently from Benfica for £6.3m (€7.5m). The winger is happy to stay in Scotland and Benfica expect the buyout clause in his loan deal to be activated by CFC.
#Celtic
#Benfica
Can't recall a more wretched sight/sound in European football lately than thousands of Czech children booing Glen Kamara's every touch for Rangers against Sparta Prague. Inside a stadium meant to be closed by UEFA because of fans' racism. Appalling.
#NoToRacism
#Europe
BP made a £6.9bn profit in the three months to June. That's more than triple last year's equivalent and the second highest in their history. BP's half-year profit is £12.3bn. Still think the
#FuelPrices
are being driven by Russia-Ukraine? We are being robbed blind.
#CostofLiving
Today's statement from Hampden: "In the interests of sporting integrity, we have stopped Hearts selling season tickets, cut off Tynecastle's wifi, impounded Ann Budge's car and shut down the Gorgie Road chippy. This is the fairest solution to the issues facing Scottish football."
So to watch all of Scottish football, you will need to pay for Sky Sports, BT Sport, Premier Sports, Viaplay, a club season ticket/match tickets, a Scotland Supporters' Club membership & match tickets, plus your TV licence. Cost of living crisis might make that difficult.
Scottish FA planning to revamp Hampden and bring stands closer to the pitch as part of a joint UK & Ireland bid to host the 2030 World Cup. Something like this. 👇🏻😍🏴🏟
#Football
#Scotland
English fans spent the last fortnight at the World Darts Championship singing "Scotland get battered everywhere they go". Tonight, Scotland's Peter Wright beat England's Michael Smith to win the tournament.
😂🏴🎯
@snakebitewright
Quite enjoyed Stoke City fans at Tynecastle giving it the old "Scotland get battered everywhere they go" - then losing 2-1 to Hearts. One or two in the away end totally losing the plot near full-time. Tremendous entertainment.
Rangers have made contact to sign Xavi Simons from PSG, as per reports in Spain. Giovanni van Bronckhorst wants the Dutch midfielder (18) who is out of contract in June. Simons came through Barca's La Masia academy. RFC approached his agent, Mino Raiola.
#RangersFC
#PSG
#Football
SPFL face compensation payouts to Sky (£1.5m), BT (£2.5m), BBC & foreign TV, and maybe Hearts & Partick (£6m+). Clubs voted to end season early & may now have to foot a bill of £10m. Need an independent board in charge to end self-interest. The members' organisation doesn't work.
Let's not treat UEFA as bastions of sporting fairness in all this. They've literally just confirmed a new 36-team Champions League from 2024 - including free group places for big clubs with high co-efficients who don't qualify through their domestic league. A complete joke.
And to think all this carnage would have been avoided if the SPFL had just shown some patience and waited to finish the season on the pitch like most of Europe.
Sit back and appreciate how Scottish football is thriving just now: Club in a European final, champions straight into CL groups, three teams in Euro group stages, five European places altogether, Scotland in World Cup play-offs and unbeaten in eight games. Yaldy.
🏴🔥⚽️😎
Celtic have signed Cameron Carter-Vickers on a four-year contract from Spurs in a £6m deal. Celtic also working to finalise Jota's permanent move from Benfica for £6.3m.
Scotland win League B1, promotion to League A, a Pot 2 seed for Euro 2024 draw and a guaranteed Euros play-off place. England relegated to League B after failing to win any of their six games. Absolutely loving this Nations League caper.
#TartanArmy
🏴
Fantastic statement from Partick Thistle: "Why didn't the SPFL listen? Partick Thistle’s experience should serve as a lesson to clubs who thought we should take a hit for football with the demotion and suck it up. But it’s now gone way beyond that, enough is enough."
#Football
Would be an insult to Scottish football if Liverpool try to sign James Forrest from Celtic for £8m.
#LFC
paid £75m for Van Dijk, £66m for Alisson, £53m for Naby Keita, £40m for Fabinho, £35m for Oxlade-Chamberlain. Scotland's league shouldn't be seen as easy pickings.
#SPFL
Giovanni van Bronckhorst would seem an ideal replacement for Steven Gerrard at Ibrox. Won title & cups as Feyenoord coach, huge experience with Barca, Arsenal & Netherlands, knows Rangers as an ex-player, same 4-3-3 system and similar playing style to Gerrard.
#RangersFC
Champions League needs a rethink.
#Ajax
are team of the tournament (through 3 qualifiers last summer & might reach final) but if they don't lift the trophy they must qualify again this year. Meanwhile, fourth in German league goes straight to groups. Not right.
#ChampionsLeague
"You can play sports but only with members of your own household. Don't play in a league format because the competition might need to be ended early by a vote, and the results might be published before all the votes are in. It would be utter carnage."
Every England game free-to-air on Channel 4 while Scotland matches go to a Nordic streaming company yet to launch in the UK. Cheers, lads. 😳
#TartanArmy
🏴
So Premiership players at Aberdeen and Celtic ignored rules, but SFA/SPFL want Prem to continue. Instead, they're stopping training in leagues below (except Glasgow City Women) to check procedures & reinforce rules. No wonder Hearts are seething. Another crazy decision.
None of these huge games in the race for European football are live on TV: Aberdeen v Hibs, Hearts v Aberdeen, Hearts v Hibs. Also, no bottom-six matches will be broadcast despite a tense relegation fight. If we want to showcase Scottish football, these games should be shown.
A lot of English sneering at Scottish football again after Hibs' defeat by Aston Villa. Give clubs in Scotland £100m-plus every year TV cash, plus other sponsorship/marketing/exposure in the EPL and you'll find a far more even playing field.
Worth mentioning Johnny Russell amid Scotland post-mortems. Makes 4000-mile transatlantic trip from Kansas City every time he's called up. Rarely starts, never complains. Unused sub v Russia, got 15 mins v Belgium. He'll be back again next time. Real commitment. 👏
#TartanArmy
🏴
Scandalous stuff. SPFL met clubs virtually on Wednesday but muted their microphones to avoid questions about leagues being stopped. Stenhousemuir statement below says: "Football fans deserve better than this from our league bodies - change is needed."
#SPFL
#Scotland
#Football
Hearts fans now officially own their club. Foundation of Hearts become majority shareholders on one of the biggest days in Tynecastle history.
#HMFC
#Football
Some felt appointing Craig Levein was a mistake by Hearts. Then he gubbed Celtic, ended Hibs' derby run, set a new clean sheet record, wound up Lennon, Brown & Rodgers like toys, signed Naismith, Mitchell, Adao etc, & took
#HMFC
to their first
#ScottishCup
1/4 final since 2012...
Lawrence Shankland simply can't be left out of Scotland's Euro 2024 squad. Stats this season:
L Dykes: 5 goals/32 games
C Adams: 10 goals/32 games
R Christie: 1 goal/32 games
J Brown: 4 goals/25 games
K Nisbet (inj): 5 goals/28 games
L Shankland: 23 goals/34 games
#TartanArmy
🏴
Derbies in Scotland next season:
Rangers v Celtic
Hearts v Hibs
Dundee v Dundee Utd
Kilmarnock v Ayr Utd
Raith Rovers v Dunfermline
Easy marketing for the SPFL to find a title sponsor. 👀
Scottish Government reject Aberdeen's planned test to have 1000 fans at Pittodrie on Sunday v Celtic. Can't keep burying heads in sand over the
#LetFansIn
movement or it will soon be clubs we're burying. Folk can sit inside a cinema, cafe or plane, but not outside in a stadium.🤷♂️
Nicola Sturgeon: "I regret that some football players seem incapable of living up to their responsibilities. We can't have privileged players just deciding they won't bother. Don't expect Aberdeen/Celtic to play over the coming week. This is a yellow card. Next time will be red."
Wearing a poppy is not a sign of religion. It's not a Protestant or Catholic symbol. It's a sign of remembrance for those who gave their lives for our rights and freedom - so that we have the right to wear a poppy without fear or shame.
🌺Lest We Forget🌺
#RemembranceDay2018
Celtic will sign Argentinian left-back Alexandro Bernabei & Portuguese winger Jota in the coming days barring any late hiccups. Bernabei is in Glasgow for a medical ahead of a £3.5m move from Lanus. Jota's £6.3m permanent transfer from Benfica is all but done.
#Transfers
#Celtic
A year ago this weekend, Jason Cummings was a substitute for Danny Mullen as Dundee lost 3-0 at Rangers. Twelve months later he's in the World Cup knockout rounds hugging Lionel Messi.
Rangers talking to Giovanni van Bronckhorst today. If talks go well, a quick appointment could come in time for the cup semi v Hibs. Van Bronckhorst wants the job and feels he has the right attributes to succeed Steven Gerrard. Others also on RFC shortlist.
#RangersFC
#Scotland
Easy to slate Scottish football for imperfections & ignore positives. Young talent like Tierney, McGinn, McKenna, Cochrane, McGregor attracting interest; Good crowds per capita; Clarke, Gerrard & Rodgers clearly don't see Scotland as a backwater. SPFL isn't as poor as some say.
Scotland are on course to be top seeds at Euro 2024 (for those asking). They have the joint-best record in Europe as things stand. Still plenty
#Euro2024Qualifiers
to be played, but how good does that ranking table look? 😍
#TartanArmy
🏴
Exactly 25 years ago today, 16 wee kids and their teacher went to school and never came home. A horrible atrocity still felt throughout Scotland and beyond. Thinking of those families today.
#Dunblane
🏴
Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen, Dundee & Dundee Utd say they are working together with Deloitte to review the SPFL and recommend changes. Bigger leagues, teams not playing 4 times a season, plus fairer distribution of prize money would be a good start. 👍🏻
#Football
#Scotland
Scottish League Cup final should be live on free-to-air TV. Nothing against broadcasters who pay for rights, but terrestrial coverage is important. I'll watch Viaplay today but there are too many subscriptions for fans in cost-of-living crisis. Some will disconnect as a result.
Steve Clarke's updated record as Scotland manager: P33 W17 D7 L9.
Win ratio is 51.5%.
Other win percentages for comparison:
Gordon Strachan: 47.5%
Walter Smith: 44%
Craig Brown: 45%
Andy Roxburgh: 38%
Jock Stein: 43%
Ally MacLeod: 41%
Willie Ormond: 47%
#TartanArmy
🏴
River Plate removed the running track to renovate their Estadio Monumental. More seats, fans closer to the pitch, capacity up from 75,000 to 83,000. This lot would sort Hampden out.
🏟⚽️🔥😍
#Football
#Argentina
Rod Petrie will be confirmed as the new Scottish FA president today after an unopposed promotion. Regardless of the individual at the top, the SFA's cronyism and antiquated board structure needs brought to an end for the good of Scottish football. Not fit for purpose.
#Scotland
With or without league reconstruction, this is a sorry episode for Scottish football. When a club can vote no then change it to yes, the credibility of any proposal is damaged. Critics down south ridicule the Scottish league but they're only encouraged by this kind of shambles.
Love to see a club in Scotland take Ajax's approach: Invest in top youth coaches, develop your own players & promote the best EVERY summer. Sign a few experienced pros but otherwise use home-grown players & only appoint managers who buy into that. Would be popular & attract fans.
Impressed with Daniel Stendel overall. Good to deal with again at today's press conference. He's needed to be ruthless to make quick changes but there's no doubt he is up for Hearts' relegation fight. Doing his best to clear up other people's almighty mess. Wish him well.
#HMFC
That roar and scenes from the away end is why the Edinburgh derby is the best in Scotland for atmosphere right now. Similar at Tynecastle in October. A proper away support contributes enormously. Celtic and Rangers could learn a lot from the co-operation between Hearts and Hibs.
It's been 23 years. Don't be content just being there. Look at Wales & NI in 2016, Greece 2004, Denmark 1992. Look at players not at Euro 2020: Haaland, Ødegaard, Tadić, Mkhitaryan, Zahavi, Džeko. Huge opportunity for Scotland to make history. Let's have a real go.
#TartanArmy
🏴
A good news story to start the morning: Hearts director James Anderson has donated £1.5m of his own money to the Scottish Football Partnership Trust to help with community football across the country. The amount will rise to £1.875m through Gift-Aid.
#Football
#Scotland
🏴
Scotland will keep their current strip for next year's European Championship. No plans for new kit. Meanwhile, Sky Sports say Serbia v Scotland was the most-watched tie of the entire Euro 2020 qualifying campaign. Audience peaked at 2.6m during penalty shootout.
#TartanArmy
🏴
Fletcher & McManaman arrogantly refusing to give Lyon credit, saying they were expecting a "routine" Man City win. Lyon have knocked out Juventus and now a Man City squad costing £700m. Hope they enjoy their night. Thoroughly deserved. 👏🏻
#ManCityOL
#MCILYO
#UCL
Arsenal playing a clever game over Celtic's Kieran Tierney. Apparently they're now looking elsewhere for a left-back. Won't be surprised in the slightest if KT is at the Emirates before the transfer window closes.
#Arsenal
#Celtic
This is such a bad look for Scottish football. At a time when the game needs leadership like never before, the SPFL publish details of an unfinished vote to end the season early - with no idea when the remaining votes will arrive. Farcical.
Personally I hope Christophe Berra does really well at Raith Rovers. Great servant in both spells at Hearts. Put his body on the line, earned
#HMFC
£2.3m with Wolves move, always wheeled out to speak to media after bad results as captain and never refused. Good luck to him.
Liam Scales to Celtic from Shamrock Rovers is pretty far down the line. Left-footed centre-back, 6ft 3in, age 23, also plays left-back. Expected to play for Rovers in Estonia tonight against Flora Tallinn. Celtic deal worth over £500,000 should go through in the next few days.
Scotland's transfer window closed after 16 Hearts signings - the biggest recruitment drive in
#HMFC
history (free agents still possible). She may have a £15m stand to finish paying & a £6m wage bill to cover, but Ann Budge has backed her manager to the absolute limit this summer.
Exactly 35 years ago today:
Barcelona 1-2 Dundee United. A 3-1 aggregate win took
#DUFC
into the UEFA Cup semis, beating a Barca team including Gary Lineker, Mark Hughes & Andoni Zubizarreta. The 1980s was a brilliant time for Scottish football in Europe.
Tickets for Scotland v Spain at Hampden this month are £25. Tickets for Falkirk v Inverness at Hampden next month are £38. Ridiculous pricing for a Scottish Cup semi-final. Not to mention the 12:15 kick-off time for travelling ICT supporters.
It's actually okay to want Scotland to beat Ukraine. Hate what Russia are doing & heart goes out to everybody, but this is a sporting competition for a World Cup place. Ukraine don't want favours. If that makes Scotland fans the bad guys to some people, so be it.
#TartanArmy
🏴
Great quote from Rino Gattuso after taking charge of
#ACMilan
: "When I lost a match I broke down in frustration. Today players lose, take a selfie and put it on the internet. They make me sick."
#Italy
Referee a disgrace. Info initially that Scotland's goal by Scott McTominay was disallowed for a foul. Then changed to offside. I'm not convinced either way. That's before we get to Carvajal's blatant foul on John McGinn in the first half.
#TartanArmy
🏴
Craig Gordon. Saves a penalty on the night he equals the Hearts record of 32 Scotland caps. Tartan Army now giving it "One Craig Gordon". Great stuff.
#MDASCO
🏴