its called the Barclays premier League, thats why swansea are in it and Rangers and Celtic would hold a comfortable midfield spot if not better
The other teams in the league thrive off the money they get from the Old Firm. Yes a TV deal could be struck but the cash on offer would be dramatically reduced without the Old Firm. And how many people are realistically going to watch St.Johnstone vs Dunfermline on the telly? Do you think Sky or ESPN would continue to offer Scottish football if the viewing figures were terrible? But football has changed quite a bit since the days before Sky, wouldn't you agree. Well that might be you but I'm sure the majority of others would watch either side of the Old Firm vs an English team. So picture all the kids growing up. Are they gonna support a Scottish team playing in the EPL or a Scottish team playing in an inferior league? Again I would say the EPL. Most kids over here support an English team & sometimes a Scottish team as well because the football here is so bad. If the top teams in Scotland played in the EPL they would easily have top of the range academies and scouting networks to pick off all the decent talent from the rest of Scotland. That's not hard to understand. Well you could see it that way or it could end up goign the way of the football over hear. All the decent players go to England. If they don't make the grade they come back here.
Wait. In response to me telling you that I would rather watch my own team in action – the team I’ve supported since I was four – as opposed to watching your team in action (if they happened to be playing a team from England), you graciously conceded that: “Well that might be you but I'm sure the majority of others would watch either side of the Old Firm vs an English team.” Hmm. You’re “sure” that fans of other teams would prefer to watch your team in action – I’ll just confine myself to Rangers for the time being, as this will surely be more your area of expertise - as opposed to watching their own? Can I ask what you base this certainty on and how it came to pass that you believe any loyalty fans may feel towards their own teams will suddenly be thrown out the window if Rangers are on the telly? And does your logic work in reverse? If Aberdeen were playing Liverpool, say, would you watch that game in preference to watching your own team play? Would you really so readily ditch those loyalties in search of the mildly exotic? If so, then fair enough, I’m simply astonished at the meagre nature of your ties to Rangers and your wafer-thin sense of loyalty. If not, then how ever do you feel qualified to disparage the fans of other clubs so easily? Or do you believe that it’s only fans of “big” teams who develop a sense of unbreakable loyalty? And does your presumption spread elsewhere, I wonder? Would fans of Birmingham and Southampton, say, rather watch Rangers involved in a big game than their own teams slugging it out? Do they (very, very secretly) yearn for the day, Medro, when all of Rangers’ big games might be shown on TV at the expense of some coverage of those teams they had, up until that very moment, quite innocently presumed they supported? Or is it simply Scottish people, to your mind, who are incapable of maintaining an interest in their own teams when Rangers are on the box? Have you ever noticed, by the way, how bored and irritated some people become on General Chat when Celtic and Rangers are the topic of conversation? (I wonder if someone might be kind enough to move this thread to the Scottish boards, in fact?) Anyway, I’ll get back to all your other (perfectly valid) points, one by one, without exception – I don’t like to cherrypick, it feels intellectually feeble and dishonest – but I’d just like to check that you’re actually saying what you appear to be saying on this count and whether your logic pans out. Maybe it does, who knows?
