stu2910

That would feel better. As a 31 year old, the concept of being so positive about both Dundee and Scotland makes me feel queasy.

You're up against Dundee, one of us has to be successful however bizarre that seems... Watch as we pip you to 5th and then get denied a UEFA license for the pitch or something.

Would love for that to happen but I'd imagine they'd still rather send him to a bigger club down south than back here to play, in all likelihood, 2 European matches. Hopefully even if he's not fit he gets a chance to come back for the Killie game to say bye. It's something that we never managed to do with Gowser and potentially Kerr by the look of it - whatever people's thoughts on those 2 they at least earned that. On Beck though, outside the mental era of the early 2000s, have we ever had a player make such an impact in so few games?

Spending choices will be influenced by promotion, but I only mentioned promotion in the sense that we would all try to “sell” our clubs to people that don’t go to games. I think we should maybe leave this one here before we derail this thread which is about journalism apparently.

So we should just not try to grow the league because people can spend their money how they like? Do you work for the SFA? Surely the whole point of advertising is encouraging people to spend their money differently.

I knew it had been a bit skewed but that’s ridiculous. Even if it’s replaced with an average game against, say, Hibs, we are looking at easily 4000 less tickets sold. Even if we’d only had 2 extra derbies to bring it up to 4 and 5, that’s potentially £150k-£200k in lost revenue. Imagine what that could pay for, oh yeh, a fine.

Deserving is always a dangerous word to use, but yes, Scottish clubs need the money more than English ones in general. Scottish table tennis needs the money more than Scottish football. I need the money more than Scottish table tennis. Someone using a food bank needs the money more than me. Given the discussion was about reallocating money already being spent on football, on a football forum, I’m not sure bringing anything else in to it was overly relevant.

Not even sure what point you’re trying to make with that, but yeh we probably should. Or literally anything that isn’t just chucking at some of the biggest business in the world that wouldn’t miss it.

It’s not taking a moral high ground. It’s questioning how we can encourage others to consider why they put so much time and money into a sport in a different country when they could have much more impact with that input on their own doorstep.

I’d love to be proven wrong but I just don’t see Sharp or Robertson having any future here. Robertson looks great and has good technique but influences the game very little. He would have ripped up league 1 in that Falkirk team. I don’t think randomly bringing him in for the toughest games makes a lot of sense. Sharp maybe can reach the level required but he’s never going to get a chance to do that here. Both need a full season of being regular starters at Championship level really, but that division is so cut throat at both ends that finding someone that will give them that chance is a bit challenging. The likes of Airdrie are maybe a decent bet.

Overlooking the derbies drives me insane. The Edinburgh Derby is absolutely the 2nd biggest game in the country and should be given that profile. Even if you accept that Aberdeen v Rangers etc has appeal, the Dundee Derby has got to be in our top 5 biggest matches, certainly in terms of spectacle if not always quality - regularly a full house and the 0-0 draw we had last season ended a run of 28 matches without one. The idea that these games are ever overlooked is just mindblowing. They are among our very few opportunities to show the best of our game without 2 clubs. Imagine the heads gone down south if the Manchester Derby wasn't on TV.

That's all fair. I think to try to bring this to an end will we try to agree on something: Scottish football is marketed terribly, particularly with the focus on 2 clubs, but is also screwed over by being one of only 3 national football associations who's national broadcaster is also the national broadcaster for a much bigger league.

I'm not disputing that someone living in Stockport will be interested in Stockport, that's not the point. In the last few posts you've said that people in Scotland will be interested in Stockport v Tranmere but then go on to question why someone in England would watch Partick v Ayr. Other than, oh I don't know, massively increased media attention, what does the English game have that's so interesting? To get back to the original point, why is this considered interesting enough to show across the board while the Scottish game isn't? You're not wrong that people outside of Scotland don't care, but the coverage has to come first. I doubt you care about watching table tennis but how would you if you never see it.

I think Main at his best was better than Bakayoko but whether he'll ever get there again is debatable. We can probably get better than Bakayoko, but he's absolutely someone I'd at least want in the squad. I think Beck is well out of our reach and I'm not sure we'd struggle to replace Costelloe. If we can sign McCracken, Boateng and Bakayoko then that would be a tremendous start. Dodgson, Mellon, Donnelly and Robinson I could see the logic in signing but I'm not sure we'd miss any of them.

This is kind of the point I was trying to make before. England doesn't care about Scottish football but they're never going to care if they're not able to see it, unless our league suddenly becomes like Saudi Arabia which I can't see happening somehow. The quality might not be amazing at the moment, but one of the most consistently interesting aspects of Scottish football is the Championship. A division that until recently was ignored completely and even now is broadcast exclusively in Scotland every other week or so. Is it really of lower quality and interest than a National League game in England that's on Sky/BT every week?