Everybody always goes on about how bad the SPL is, but we've played friendlies against SPL sides recentley and not done too well. If I remember rightly, the season after we won promotion to the PL, we lost to Hearts (Csaba Laszlo's first match in charge) 1-0, to an Audrius Ksanavicius header (he now plays at FBK Kaunas in the Lithuanian PL). The season after we played Aberdeen as Dean Windass' testimonial, we lost that 1-0 as well, to a Lee Miller goal. (I remember being massivley underwhelmed by Henri Camara, who was on trial at the time). Then we played Dundee United and won 2-1, thanks to an own goal by their player. Say what you like about pre-season friendlies, 95% of the players in those games went on to be first team players for us the following season. Compared to us, the majority of the SPL teams would probably hold their own, you'd like to think we could get a result against Motherwell (who will be playing in the CL next season) or Hibs, but honestly, out of all the teams currently in there, only Ross County and St Johnstone would struggle. The rest would probably see off your Peterboroughs, Huddersfields, Bristol City's, even teams like Charlton and Watford. It's not as weak a league as people make it out to be, it's one downside is that the teams coming up from Scottish Div. 1 are usually pretty lame, so they go straight back down, but if you offered a player from Europe the choice of joining Hull City or Celtic, or even Hearts, they'd plump for Jockland everytime.
The part that destroys your entire point in my eyes is that they were friendly matches. I know the same goes for the opposition as us, but it's the mentality which keeps me from watching them. I think I've only ever been to one City friendly, and that was the Deano testimonial you mentioned.
maybe Scottish football can finally grow up , kick Rangers to the lowest league possible (i forget how many leagues there are this time around) Allowing the club back in will serve no medium term purpose to the fans or structure in Scotland. A club , a big club has to suffer properly before a lesson will be accepted as being out there let alone learned. Lets face it we all secretly want the Allams to spend spend spend while publicly offer sensible caution after what could have happened a couple of seasons ago :/
Can someone please explain to me why Ibrox, which is one of the biggest grounds in the UK and Murray Park, which is a £14 million training complex, have been given a value of £5.5 million when transferred to the newco?
You can't read anything into pre-season results, we lost 3-2 to Winterton Rangers in one game and stuffed Liverpool 3-0 in another, they're just training games.
No idea myself , when it comes to stuff like this there are people very good at juggling fog ! I read that Charles Green says the players must join any newco otherwise they would be in breech of contract . Now i just dont get how the contract can be a two way thing in this kind of situation ,
That does make sense, the point is the other SPL teams will have to support and endorse a team that cheated them out of money and trophies in order to remain financially viable themselves. Tough choice to make and I would have hoped they would have been strong enough to say no thanks. Whether they will or not remains to be seen.
They'll let them back in. For teams like St Mirren and Dunfermline, half of their annual revenue can come from giving up 3/4 of their ground to the Old Firm. 1/∞
You can play Rangers more often than that. They played 38 games in the season last year plus cups. If you finish in the top 6 you can then end up playing Rangers more than other teams so I expect the money would be different. You also have to take into account that some home fans may only come for the "big" games. Though I agree it is a balance between money lost and potential prize money. The SPL could also step in to "top-up" clubs financially to compensate. The other end of the scale is there could be a huge impact on lower league clubs as they suddenly get a much larger gate per game when Rangers come calling.
The thing is that the Taffs have worked their way for a very long while to be where that are now. Jocks want to come in at a competitive level, they think they can walk into the PL or at least the NPC.
It's to due with TUPE. Although I'm no expert on it I'm not sure that Mr Green is correct. I think that when a business buys out another the new co must agree to take all of the old co's staff. If they don't and the employee is dismissed as a direct result of the transfer of the business it's deemed automatically unfair dismissal. I don't think that there is any obligation for the staff to agree to move though. On the BBC the players' representative suggests the same. I may be wrong though.
yeah im currently in a TUPE situation myself - which is why i couldn't see it being a 2 way obligation , im pretty sure the players are free to say "Ram it!"
It's a shame but also true that most clubs spend money like it's monopoly money, I enjoyed back in the day when Rangers had half the English squad playing, Woods,Butcher,Stevens,etc
in a similar way the derelict boulevard mess was sold to the council a few years ago for around the same figure i believe. coincidentally identical to pay off gateshead's debt i also seem to remember. can anyone confirm the figures?
A point I made about ESPN perhaps taking the rights themselves if Sky pull out - it is possible ESPN will pull out of the UK altogether. Today they have lost the rights to their Premier League games starting in the 2013/14 season as BT have won them in the latest tender. (Sky regained everything they had except the swapping of Saturday 12:45pm games to Saturday 5:30pm games). That said, I suppose BT could bid for them and invest money. Again this is all depending on Rangers not being reinstated in the SPL.
I know, but pre season or not, they aren't bad sides, as I said the only teams that would struggle would be Ross County and St. Johnstone.
It's more debatable than that. Look, at the amount of players from weak footballing nations like Latvia and Lithuania who make a living in the SPL but do nothing else in their entire career. Look how many players are crap in England and then look amazing in Scotland. Remember Kris Boyd? People said we should sign him in the PL (and it seemed a reasonable idea at the time) Then Boro signed him and he turned out to be crap. Giorgios Samaras anyone? Utter gash in England and at the Euros, but a real handful for SPL players.
The only reason those 2 clubs do so well in that league is because they have all the money. If any other teams get in, discover or create a fabulous new player, the 2 Glasgow teams buy them and either loan them outside of that league or bench them. If they came South they wouldn't be able to afford to do that and would plummet faster than something falling really quickly. Plus honestly, would you want either of those 2 neanderthal clubs fans coming south for games? It would be like stepping back into the 70s.
