Today's headlines are dominated by Chris Sutton, who has typically harsh words for the Celtic hierarchy, Mark Warburton, who is eager to strengthen his hand in the transfer market, and Seb Coe, who faces an extraordinary fight to save the credibility of the IAAF.
Today
- Chris Sutton (above) says Celtic fans have become used to ‘bang average dross’ but having stuck by Ronny Deila the board must now back him
- Warburton: Rangers won’t be held to ransom on transfers
- Efe Ambrose on how switching to man marking has helped Celtic and how the boo boys have helped him become a better player and stronger person
- Motherwell boss Mark McGhee on his 900th game as a manager and how ended up at Motherwell and not Liverpool
- Dundee Utd close in on Stokes as Inverness give up on bringing the striker north
- Hamilton goal-keeper Michael McGovern feeling the heat after conceding 19 goals in six games
- Falkirk give Peter Houston a new three year deal
- Partick Thistle put a £1m price tag on Stuart Bannigan
- Madrid teams hit with transfer bans
- Doping investigator Dick Pound claims Seb Coe in clear in spite of vast scale of instituional corruption in athletics
- Edinburgh make 11 changes for Challenge Cup game against Agen as Stuart McInally captains the team having signed a new contract
- Edinburgh's Toolis twins start together for the first time
- Glasgow close to agreement with council on new Scotstoun pitch
Mark Warburton will be keeping his hands firmly in his pockets rather than signing cheques unless the price is right
Efe Ambrose reckons he has responded well to Celtic's boo boys
900 matches as a boss and Mark McGhee hasn't lost his touch
Sought-after striker Anthony Stokes
Michael McGovern, keen to prove he is still a safe pair of hands
The rewards just keep on coming for Falkirk manager Peter Houston
Million pound man Stuart Bannigan
Stuart McInally to captain Edinburgh in Europe after committing to club
06.05 Radio Scotland sports headlines
Andy Murray to face Alexander Zverevin first round of Australian Open having beaten the 18-year-old German in the Hopman Cup last week and avoids Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the draw... Seb Coe says the IAAF is to re-double its efforts to clean up his corruption riddled organisation... Dundee United boss Mixu Paatelainen says his bottom of the table side fears no-one as they prepare to face Celtic
06.30 Radio Five Live sports headlines
Paul Radcliffe claims athletics would be in a wose position had an IAAF president other than Seb Coe been elected athletics... Murray to face Zverev in Australia while Alex Bedene, the British number two will meet American Steve Johnson... women's number one Heather Watson to meet Hungarian Timea Babos... England the happier of the two sides aftre first day of third cricket Test in South Africa... Mohammad Amir making first Test for Pakistan for five years after match-fixing ban... Bristol City sack manager Steve Cotterill... Rhinois confirm Danny McGuire as captain... Barry Hawkins into Masters snooker semis
Grandstanding - today's sports comment
The National's Martin Hannan examines the credibility of claims that then vice president Seb Coe knew nothing about the institutional corruption that was taking place in the IAAF, while in the Evening Times Derek Johnstone expresses his satisfaction with the way Warburton is going about his business, Davie Hay agrees with what he reckons is the vast majority of Celtic fans in calling for Ronny Deila to stick with playing Leigh Griffiths and Carlton Cole together up front and the Times ‘Pick of the Pucks’ column explains the British Elite League’s uniqueness in the sport because the play-offs are considered less important than who finishes top of the season-long qualifying competition.
Back Pages
The Evening Times carries ex-Celtic striker Chris Sutton's views on the poor fare being served up by Ronny Deila's team and Mark Warburton's insistence that Rangers will not be held to ranson in the January transfer window as does The Herald which also includes WADA chief Dick Pound's claim that Seb Coe is the right man to lead the IAAF through its doping crisis and the banning of both Madrid’s big clubs from making new signings, while The National leads on the pressure that is growing on Coe and also reports that John Hughes has given up on bringing Anthony Stokes to Inverness.
Sporting Twitterati
Kirsty Gilmour offers insight into life as a modern sportswoman
Back on the road! 🏸 Glasgow> Dubai> KL> Penang ✈️😎 #Yonex #MalaysiaMasters pic.twitter.com/P49tT6n7Cp
— Kirsty Gilmour (@KirstyGilmourr) January 14, 2016
Meanwhile Herald colleague Nick Rodger offers slightly more disturbing insight into life as a modern sportswriter
@C_SScott @MattLindsayHT @NeilCameron5 ...Neil and Matthew are harsh colleagues. Every Thursday,they force feed me budgie's budgings
— Nick Rodger (@NickRodger1) January 14, 2016
Meanwhile Seb Coe has never said a truer word...
Seb Coe on WADA report “The corruption that it has revealed is totally abhorrent, and a gross betrayal of trust by those involved.”
— Mark Woods (@markbritball) January 14, 2016
Today’s top message
Sometimes you are left to wonder whether there is any point at all in recording and/or writing down the words spoken by politicians.
This week we have already reported on how, two years after Scottish government ministers sought to associate themselves with the success of our curlers in Sochi, they made an announcement that a National Performance Centre for the sport would be built, only for nothing to happen in the interim.
The main national sports agency sought to explain that away by saying that it had put up some of the money required, but the bottom line is that the sports minister Shona Robison appears to have made that statement without being sure that the proper funding was fully in place, thereby falsely raising the hopes of those involved in the sport, several of whom have since made clear their public support of Dave Murdoch, skip of the rink that claimed Olympic silver, in backing his call for the project to go-ahead as was promised.
Meanwhile a former Westminster government minister Seb Coe has somehow been deemed the right man to address the institutional corruption in athletics. This just weeks after he was forced to accept that it was inappropriate for him to continue to be on the pay-roll of Nike, one of the sport's biggest backers, while he was vice president of the organisation while the worst of the excess was taking place.
In a way you have to admire the gall of a man who accused the media of declaring war on his sport by raising the issues that the IAAF was ignoring when standing in front of cameras claiming that it would be quite wrong for anyone to have got the impression that anyone in the sport was in denial.
It is touching, in its way, that other high profile figures in British athletics like Paula Radcliffe to lining up and say that Coe is the right man to steer athletics through all of this, but given his involvement at the IAAF top table throughout I was left to wonder, for by no means the first time, how that contention is being viewed in the likes of Russia which is currently the great pariah.
How would we, in this country, react if we were told that a Russian official who has been one of the top officials in their country throughout a period in which doping has been endemic in their athletics, was now the ideal man to sort it out?
As someone who has reported on sport for more than 30 years, however, what I find most bizarre is the way in which these professional politicians seem to feel that they can simply walk away from things they have said previously. And then they wonder why public confidence in them is so low.
Thanks for reading... Kicking Off will be back on Monday
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