Just listening to BBC 5 Live Scottish football looks to be really feeling the pinch financially..............sad, but an unfortunate fact of life, Rangers, Celtic massive clubs in a lot of respects are struggling, as are the likes of Hearts, and even Hibs (who appear to be a well run club) well they appear to be right up against it................when you consider the success of most of our Scottish imports over the years, and with Malky's Scot's connections, could the SPL be the place to look for "rough diamonds" in January? With the likes of Leicester, and others spending a lot of money...........well with Malky's connections...........will we get more "bang for our buck" north of the border?
we beat rangers to the signing of conway, leicester beat them to danns, heck, they cant even compete with the championship let alone the premiership! of course its all about money, or rather their chronic lack of it. not so long ago i remember both rangers and celtic both appearing in uefa cup finals, and competing in the CL group stages, now they cant even qualify for the europa league. celtic are full of crap foreigners, journeymen like cha du ri who was in the german second division i believe when they signed him, majstorovic, aged 33 and crap, newcastles 3rd choice keeper was their 1st last season, it really isnt a good time for the SPL.
i think both players just wanted to get away from the club, ledley because he had outgrown the club and matthews because of a falling out with the manager i guess. celtic offered ledley a good wage, and a chance to play in europe every season ( ) , and matthews probably got a good wage too, one he couldnt command here. ledley probably thought stoke would get relegated, so did i, but in hindsight he made the wrong decision
I dont think it will be long before their bigger clubs are amalgamated into our leagues, then they can go for a similar set up to the Welsh league and turn semi-pro. The ones to make the transition imo would be Celtic, Rangers, Hibernian, Hearts, Aberdeen, and maybe Motherwell, but how to get them amalgamated would be a major headache and i think the old idea of a Premiership 1 and 2 will raise its head to accomodate the changes. Watch this space as they say.
no chance you would ever see rangers and celtic/hearts and hibs amalgamate, my dream is for a british cup rather (or also) the FA & Scottish, Welsh, Irish cups, how would alloa go against yeovil etc. Aberdeen have noone to amalgamte with, the 2 dundee sides could, hamilton and motherwell, partick/clyde/st mirren all too hard
If some kind of amalgamation was to take place I would imagine the 2 Dundee clubs would get together so as to not miss the boat and join in a cross border league and get a slice of the revenue of course. Neither would want to be left behind with whatever would be left of the Scottish Leagues. Not so sure then fans of either club would be too pleased though.
I don't think ronny suggested anything about Scottish clubs amalgamating. Someone's got the wrong end of the stick. Phil Gartside, the Bolton chairman proposed a two tier Prem league a couple of years back. That would have included at least the two Glasgow clubs and others based upon ground capacities and support would also be invited. Those suggested included Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday and Leicester.
yes, reread his post, Celtic and Rangers would accept nothing bar prem imo. dunno what he means by the semi-pro comment
Musty - I think he means that with the larger Scottish clubs out of the SPL, the remainder wouldn't have to compete with the "big boys" and could revert to a more sustainable semi-pro set up. In other words, no need to break the bank in just trying to survive amongst those clubs who have dominated the SPL over past years.
The Scottish leagues without the Glasgow big 2 are still way in front of Welsh domestic football. But tbh I think the real point is why does the PL need Scotish football? It's the most successful league in world football. I get why they'd want to join but not why they'd be let in. As is sort of touched on above, while the PL let them in because they're big clubs why not let Leeds and Forrest back in? Take it a step further and don't relegate anyone with more than 25K gates etc etc. If they want to leave Scotish football, join at a low level and spend 8-10 years going through the leagues to get to the top of English football fair enough. If not why should they be let in? The championship has developed into one of the most entertaining leagues in the world, it wouldn't be if the 'prize' of PL football wasn't there. There's no need for PL 1 & 2, English football already has the best 2nd league in the world by an absolute mile. If the powers that be decide that size and reputation of club is more important than a fair and equal league system it would be absolutely devastating for league football in this country. Remove the access to the top tier via the fair means of the league system and with it goes hope for every football fan in the country not lucky enough to be involved in their PL at that point. Sorry that got a bit long winded (if you could be bothered to read to this bit.........)
If Scottish clubs want to join the English system, fair enough, let them and any Welsh or Irish clubs that wish to join start at the bottom of the pyramid and work their way up...........if it's good enough for Newport and Wrexham........well it's good enough for Rangers and Celtic.................would Wrexham or Newport be "fast tracked" into the premiership, if a lot of people watched their games?
Sorry guys, it's not a question about "being let in", no more than it's a Football League issue. This is the Premier League we're talking about - a League with more financial clout in the game through the huge rewards from media coverage than Berlusconi has over the Italian parliament (and that IS saying something). If the present Premier clubs elected to accept the broad proposals of a two tier Premier League with only one up one down between divisions and NO relegation from division 2 - in other words a closed shop - it would happen. Invited clubs, such as the two Glasgow teams would then have to decide upon their own future inside of outside their national associations. Goodness knows who would police player registrations. We're all aware that money often talks louder than principles, and whilst it would turn the Football League system on it's head, I doubt they could prevent it. That doesn't make it right, but since when has that stopped existing elite clubs, and those that are given the chance to become one, from ensuring their own financial future?
