I was reading just how good the SPFL was this week. Obviously, part of the criteria to calculate ‘goodness’ doesn’t include having enough dosh to provide goal-line technology.
Hibs were denied a perfectly good goal against Hearts the other night because in Scotland, we have no way of checking whether or not a ball has actually crossed the line.
Motherwell took matters in to their own hands earlier this year having missed out on a couple of certain goals over the space of a few weeks, coming up with something of a Heath Robinson invention made up of scaffolding and a GoPro camera to collect evidence on behalf of the prosecution.
The cost of putting such technology in each SPFL Premiership ground is prohibitive, at around quarter of a million quid a pop. Therefore, you could be faced with a £3m initial bill, and another £500,000 the following season if two new clubs are promoted.
Which raises the question, as to why those who govern Scottish football were so mad-keen to ask Government for cash to fund face recognition cameras and technology to clamp down on hooligans or those likely to cause trouble, yet appear shy to ask for assistance when it comes to guaranteeing the integrity of their great league.
By all means talk up Scottish football, but remember incidents like the one at Tynecastle on Wednesday just makes it look such a joke.
I do hope everyone received everything they asked for at Christmas, and, maybe even a few unexpected gifts. That takes me back to my pre-teen years when Santa delivered me a Dundee United kit, including black velvet stripe down the shorts.
This certainly fell in to the ‘unexpected’ category as I’d never, ever shown any interest in the Tannadice club, nor, have I since – probably down to the trauma of receiving that tangerine number in among my tangerines.
Maybe my doting parents had mistaken it for a Holland strip, or, maybe they just had a perverse sense of humour. The fact that it lives with me to this day shows it meant a lot.
HARRY Kane is, and has been for a while, as good as it gets when it comes to the ultimate predator in front of goal.
On Boxing Day, he netted another hat trick – against Southampton – to take his tally for 2017 to 39 and past the previous record in the English Premier League over a calendar year set by Alan Shearer in 1995.
But when did a calendar year ever become a standard measurement in football?
Over a season, yes, when you play all of the teams in the league, from the title contenders, those chasing Champions League places, and those doomed for another league.
And, you don’t have a month off half way through.
THIS was the week that Virgil van Dijk became the most expensive defender in world football.
As I mentioned on Twitter, being the most expensive – at £75m – doesn’t mean that you are the best. Jurgen Klopp has merely paid what is the going rate in English Premier League for what are, at best, talented players.
Van Dijk is decent, but, how he will be judged at Liverpool is dependent on who Klopp pairs him with defensively.
Not an exact science at Anfield of late.
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