Time for Scottish football to take a look at what Germany done to change their fortunes round. I'm in no way suggesting that Scotland/Scottish teams can become as great as the current German teams/set up but surely they have a model that works.
What is the German model? The style is certainly eye catching at the very top level. I am just wary that any time any new style achieves any success everything has to get shelved and seemingly Everyone wants to play this "new" way. I see the same think in Gaelic football at the moment. Everyone played this mucky horrible possession game for a while.nit reached its zenith in 2011. At that time a goalkeeper had some success with long range frees. Then all of a sudden loads of goalkeepers are doing it. That was the next fad. Not that GAA is relevant to this just that I see everyone mad keen on throwing the baby out with the bath water. Celtic have a good set up. We have a vision and it seems to be consistently held throughout the club. I expect we would learn from the German model (whatever that is), but not get overly carried away.
Starting off with cheap season tickets that allow you on their transport for nothing on match day . End of an era seeing Barcelona demolished in that fashion . Agree the style of German football is the way ahead .
Now that I`m away from it I`ve begun to see Scottish football as some kind of historical anachronism, where the fans are treated like some sort of latter-day version of Victorian era working poor, who are forced to endure the drudgery of life tied to the whims and fancies of some unscrupulous mill owner. The treatment, facilities, customer care etc in other countries and in other sports is the kind of model they need to be looking at.
Is that the same changes we made to our whole structure when Berti Vogts, and more prominently Raider Bonhof came to Scotland? The same ones we abandoned and changed to the Dutch strategy when Mark Wotte came in? Or how about the current proposals that just 2 years later we are to change it all again to follow the Spanish structure? It's a ****ing joke. Until Scotland realises that having a Scottish structure, that utilises our strengths with the key learnings from all the varying country's approach, and commits to it for at least 10+ years, we will be in a never ending cycle of pissing money up against the wall and getting **** all for it.
You can get a top-up card as well in the Bundesliga. Take it to any stadium in the league and can use it to buy beer, food, other assorted pish. FFS you can't even get a pie in Inverness that doesn't break your teeth.
Its not about the style of play its the putting the fans at the centre of the decision making. Catering for the fans needs and making the game accessable rather than the squeezing every last pennie from loyal fans. Weans can't even watch highlights on the telly at a decent time unless they have sky anymore.
German football has been quietly going about its business for a number of years, attracting the biggest crowds in Europe, keeping ticket prices low, attracting the biggest sponsorship deals, and yet mostly not engaging in the mad arms race (+debt) that English and Spanish clubs have been engaging in. The only reason that not many people have noticed is because it doesn't self itself well internationally - it is a bit of an insular or isolationist league. In saying that there are any number of random factors involved in getting two German teams to the final - probably similar factors that have made English clubs have a bad year, despite England almost always having representatives at the latter stages in the previous decade.
