Steven Naismith is still bleating about the ‘injustices’ of the 2007/08 season when the SPL simply scheduled matches to suit Walter Smith’s UEFA Cup flops.
The Hearts boss was asked about Celtic’s reduced ticket allocation for Tynecastle on Sunday when e decided to harp back 15 years.
In December 2007 the SPL postponed an away match at Gretna to assist Smith’s Champions League hopes although it was to no avail with Lyon winning 3-0 at Ibrox despite 11 days of preparation between matches..
In contrast Celtic played Shakhtar Donestsk, Hearts and AC Milan on November 28, December 1 and December 4 with vital points dropped at Tynecastle.
Discussing the issues surrounding the reduced ticket allocation for Celtic fans at Sunday’s match the Hearts boss told Edinburgh News:
We could learn a lot from other leagues but we tend not to. It tends to be individual agendas. When I was at Rangers, there was congestion of fixtures when we got to the UEFA Cup final [in 2008]. This season, every team struggled through the start with Europe but the league don’t help you. That’s not the league’s fault, it’s everybody in Scottish football’s fault
For the only time in history the SPL season finished on a Thursday night with five of the top six clubs having to wait 11 days to play their final fixture to accommodate one club. A club rammed with players on secondary contracts that were deemed disguised remuneration at the Supreme Court in 2017.
Justice was done at Tannadice with Celtic winning the title on the back of an eight match winning run, the previous week Naisy watched from the stand as Zenit St Petersburg lifted the UEFA Cup.
Four years later the current Hearts boss refused to TUPE over to Charles Green’s Tribute Act, moving to Everton as a free agent.
I wonder if UEFA would have shown more balls than the SPL/SFA and stripped them of their trophy had they won the UEFA Cup that year due to playing a full team of ineligible players. What they conveniently forget to mention is that Celtic had to come back from Seville in 2003 and play the last league game of the season a few days later.
Thing is when you get to BUY your history
Seems you can rewrite that history to include any old excrement you want
My own particular memory of that farce was the extent of the redtops pushing the ‘extend the season’ agenda resulting in even fans of other clubs thinking it should be done, in order to ‘give rangers a better chance of winning the UEFA Cup for Scotland’. I routinely pointed out that it wasn’t to do that, it was to give them a better chance of winning the league and the UEFA Cup! Enhancing their chances of winning the UEFA Cup was in their own hands – they could have abandoned the league and concentrated on the European game.
Ironically, virtually all of the ‘neutral’ support for the idea melted away like snow after their shaming of the whole country in Manchester…..
Two cup replays and a game postponed because of their pitch was unplayable and also the gretna game being put back all added to the farce.by the way they only disgraced themselves in the manchester riots not the whole country.
Most sensible people recognise that those goons represent themselves and themselves only, but there is a bit of residual shame that the country as a whole has never dealt with what virtually everyone recognises as a disgrace. Toleration of them in polite circles is lower than ever now, but I liken society’s refusal to confront them to everyone in the pub ignoring the obnoxious, slobbering drunk and pretending he’s not there instead of throwing him out.
Naesmith is a nasty little shite a wee twerp of the highest order…
Not that I’ve much time for the Hearts support as they were quite a nasty bunch in ma time of attending Parkhead
But, But, But…
What on Earth must they think of Halliday bumming up Sevco on a regular basis on Clyde Superscoreboard…
And What on earth must they think about Naismith at it now as well !