I can remember about 15 or so years ago now when Celtic knocked Liverpool out of Europe and regularly held their own in European competition, and fans of Rangers and Celtic would harp on and on about how they would be able to win the premiership if they joined with the English leagues. Last night's results, wth all 3 Scottish teams being knocked out, Hearts being thumped by a serious margin by Spurs and Gers and Celtic getting knocked out by teams with no real history of European success or pedigree. We've also seen a migration of 'top' Scottish league players in the past few years to the Championship i.e. Boyd who have been anonymous at best, so if the League structures were to merge where do you think the teams would fit in? Personally I think that Celtic and Rangers would start off as mid table Championship teams, but over time progress to the Premiership as their fan base would give them a financial headstart, after that they'd be no better than mid table sides. As for the rest, I think they'd seriously struggle at Championship level, with some of the low end teams in the Scots prem struggling in L1 Scottish Football - Making English football fans feel good about themselves for years
It would take both Celtic and Rangers years and years to get out of the championship .It will never happen , well I sincerely hope it doesn't . After what the Rangers fans did in Manchester a couple of years ago we should be looking at renovating Hadrians wall .
I agree - Celtic and Rangers would be mid-Championship teams with the rest of the SPL either bottom Championship/League 1. I don't know how most Scottish clubs keep going, with crowds of 700. A few years ago I went to Glasgow on a stag weekend. Partick Thistle nil were playing at home so we went to watch them (I think they'd been relegated from the SPL the previous year). It's one of the funniest/most bizarre football matches I have ever been to. The home crowd (all 4 of them) booed their own team onto the pitch, and the guy in front of me spent about 20 minutes stood up, shouting the name of Partick's left back. When the left back eventually looked up to see who was shouting his name the "supporter" just shouted to him "you're ****ing ****" and sat back down. That didn't seem to help motivate the left back into performing any better!
Scottish football is dyeing and fast. One of my friends lives in Glasgow and she is a massive Celtic fan. She accepts that the SPL is worse than the championship. Last nights results have done nothing to prove that thought wrong. Even Shamrock Rovers who beat Partizan Belgrade away from home last night and on aggregate are now into the Europa Group stage. Shamrock are just part timers. R.I.P. scottish football.
The reason they (Rangers/Celtic) can't compete in Europe anymore is they can't buy any decent players from those teams and bench them, like they do with any Scottish teams. Scotland could probably have a semi decent team if it wasn't for the way those 2 clubs conduct themselves to make sure they remain top.
I couldn't go last Saturday, but there was 2 of them sat behind me at the Blackpool game, although they didn't just limit their criticism to Dudge
I was unfortunate enough to live in Scotland for 3 years, and its sad but true. You quickly become really sorry for any of the other clubs. They produce/find/develop a semi decent player that could do a job for them and make them competitive, one of the 2 glasgow clubs buy the player, and either farm them out of scotland or put them in the reserves.
maybe thats why not many folks out of scotland have any sympathy for them. maybe time for the SFA to act and stop this practice in some way ? how, well that is another matter.
15 Years ago? Celtic reached the final of the UEFA Cup in 2002/2003 and knocked Liverpool out that season. (I think?) And Rangers reached the final in 2007/2008, with a great deal of luck and a few favourable draws. But all-in-all, it's absolutely ****.
It is hard to imagine now that Celtic won the European Cup before any of the English teams had even appeared in the final. I think that in days of yore when players - for the most part - played in their own countries, smaller nations (population wise) had a chance of being competitive. No longer. BTW, our match with Birmingham has been postponed as they are in the Europa League. And Celtic may get reprieved as Sion have been accused of fielding ineligible players due to their transfer embargo.
They would struggle in League one, the football in scotland is shocking. When we had all scots playing in the championship, Sturrocks Buys, we were awful, They are better off out of Europe.
Amazing to think also that, that Celtic team were entirely Glaswegian as well. In fact half of them were born and bred within ear shot of Ceptic (i mean Celtic Park). Alot of the Rangers players that won in the 70s were Jocks and all.
