Those meaningless games allowed clubs the breathing space to blood youngsters . Our small league structure has sucked the life out of our game over four decades . Dp you think it coincidence that our game has went to **** while the top tier were busy milking OF fans for all they were worth . When we had larger leagues we also had successful European teams . Now we have pro footballers that cant trap a ball playing beside bargain bucket foreign journeymen . But you're right . Why bother trying something new when we can stick with the tried and tested shambles we have had since the 1970s If it aint working don't fix it . Mibbe the SPFL should buy a suit a ticket to Germany to see how a league vould and should be run
Medro decent fans would not be interested in big sponsors or anything else if The Rangers are involved in the SPL. Do you not know what the Murray man was up to. Have you no financial and moral ethics. Surely you done condone non paying to the Queen the money she was owed . Singing GSTQ is all well and good , but it doesn't compare to actually giving her the money owed .
The idea that scotland will become a football power again by changing the league set up is wishful thinking. The last time we had an interesting league was the 80s and that wasn't about the format which was much the same as the current. It was about having 3 or 4 genuine contenders for the league title each season. Unfortunately the financial disparity between Celtic (and Rangers when they get to the top league) and the rest means that's very, very unlikely to become the norm again. Introducing more cannon fodder to the top league certainly won't do it. Another reason our league is pish and getting pisher is the financial disparity between scotland and england. Our top league never really competed financially with the EPL (or the equivalent) but now SPL clubs can't evem afford wages that league 1 clubs pay. So now even our mediocre homegrown talent heads south. Take all the scots that are playing in the championship down south and put them in the SPL - you've suddenly got a whole lot better league up here.
The league in the 80s was interesting due to two extraordinary aberrations, Alex Ferguson and Jim McLean . We were also still producing quality players . The league in the 60s and 70s were ptetty interesting too . We had clubs reaching the later stages of Europe every season . Don't be fooled into thinking the Premier league was set up for the betterment of Scottish football or to rid us of meaningless games . The motivation was pure greed and it still is . While the clubs were raking it in they abandoned any semblance of youth development . That is why we are where we are . We are the dunces of Europe . 20 years behind every **** else .
surely The Rangers fans amongst us don't expect there to be any quality of a SPL containing The Rangers , it is totally inconceivable that The Rangers will be allowed to play against the decent teams of the SPL. Thank God for the Green and Whyte partnership who have planned The Rangers life span to be less than two years .
look you senile old **** . There is no SPL , there is no Strathclyde police . Time has moved on . These things are in the past . Just like any reason you had to stay alive . Do the decent thing and top yourself . Save the nurse the horror of wiping the ****e of your arse
You missed my point entirely. I'm not arguing against change, I'm arguing against changing to a system that doesn't address the real issues and will bring no benefit. Instead of change for changes sake, I'm arguing for radical change the will be effective. Not a return to an old sytsem that was deemed a failure in the past. Any European success Scottish teams had back in the 60s and 70s was bugger all to do with the league structure. It was down to the fact that it was more of a level playing field. Teams from the top 4 leagues in Europe are able to blow Rangers and Celtic out of the water financially these days. We now have a situation where Championship clubs are able to offer Old Firm players better deals. This simply wasn't the case back in the day. TV companies weren't giving English clubs at the bottom of the top division 10x the money that the OF were getting. As for the players' skill level, I don't believe it was any better in the past. The way forward is to change the way our kids play the game. 11-a-side games should be scrapped for young kids in favour of smaller teams on smaller pitches. This gives them more time on the ball to hone their ball control. They're either on the ball or moving into position to receive a ball from a team-mate. If you speak to the top Brazilian players, they all learned their trade playing futsal, before playing football proper.
We're a small country with two disproportionately big teams. Every so often we'll get Celtic or Rangers having a good run but we'll not go back to the days of regular appearances from our other clubs in the later stages of european competition. That's reserved for the teams from "big" leagues because now, it's all about the cash. Yes there should be more focus on bringing through young talent, but no amount of deckchair shuffling with league set ups is going to change the financial realities. And meanwhile any half decent scottish player with Aberdeen or Dundee Utd or Motherwell etc will play a year or two in the SPL then move to triple his wages at a lower half championship or league 1 side down south. And who can blame him?
Our kids play "fun fours" until they're 8, then they go up to 7's until their older, the game is completely different to when I grew up, 11 a side on full size ash pitch 9am on a Saturday morning.
So decent fans don't want money pumped into the game. Gotcha Queenie missed out on a small amount of money due to Whyte not paying her. No biggy. We still love her and she loves us.
Next season's SPFL will have no OF derby, no Edinburgh derby, no Dundee derby, no Lanarkshire derby, no Renfrewshire derby. These games generate big money for the participants and great excitements for the supporters.
So the league should merge because teams get relegated, or have periods of being pish (save for rangers who were not relegated - they are pish though) to ensure there are derbies?
The teams were relegated because the league is so neat that a poor season results in relegation. Football is about the fans, you saw last season how the Dundonians embraced their 4nr derbies. Flip side of that is that the Edinburgh derbies don't sell out now because they play each others so often, much like the apathy of the season when there was 7nr OF derbies. The balance of our league structure is wrong, and whilst Rangers are out the top flight, it would be the easiest time to switch to a bigger league. I don't buy this idea that by adding 4 teams to the top flight will result in swathes of meaningless games, nor that these 4 teams will be cannon fodder, I doubt there is much difference between Falkirk and St Mirren, or Dundee and Hibs.
The absence of derbies is a temporary thing. Rangers will be in the top flight soon enough and then we can have the first derby. Hearts, if they get relegated, will be back soon too. And whilst I agree there's not much difference between the likes of Falkirk and St Mirren etc, adding 4 extra teams will undeniably create even more meaningless games. How can it not? Is a bigger league going to create more competition for the title? No, it will still be a 1 or 2 horse race. There'll probably be a terrific battle for midtable obscurity ... Incidentally, I'm not against a bigger league per se, I just think it's far from a cure. And I'm not sure the the "novelty" of having extra and different diddy teams to play will make the top league that much more interesting ...
I'm in the same boat myself, I do feel that it's an option though. You can see the great lenghts the SPL went to to try and address the meaningless games in the old SPL (splits etc) that a bigger league could use to address the same issue, should it become a problem. But by using that same logic, the leagues of Europe and beyond must all be awash with meaningless fixtures.
Zero And your point? I can see the names of the players you have on the books. Pish end of story. No offence like
I just dont think making the league bigger will improve things overall. As in i cant see how it will improve the standards The only benefit to a bigger league would be you play the other teams less often meaning they may be a bit more competative. For example 2 old firm games only means if you lose one there is longer to wait to try and avenge that. With the whole 4 times a season (not counting cups) its only ever a few weeks to the next one Real change is needed in terms of investment in youth set up and the culture of football in scotland
I'm not claiming to be an expert, but I've started coaching my kids teams and I'm due to go up and do my coaching badges etc next year, all going well. I agree that investment is required, but football is totally different now to when I was growing up. It's a lot more structured to the kids needs and the facilities are 100 times better. When Scotland were producing World Class players consistently, it was because there were so many kids, not that facilities were better. Glasgow alone had 400,000 weans, nowadays, most folk are older, and having less kids. Anyway, that's irrelevant in the context of this thread. A bigger league will create more excitement and more diversity and create a more balanced structure. When this has been spoken of in the past, the argument has been that the finances didn't stack up as the smaller SPL clubs needed their 4 OF visits a season, well Rangers got relegated and the SPL clubs have been forced to deal with only 2 Celtic crowds, so I believe now is a better time than ever to expand the league.
