stu2910

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?

We are essentially making the same points here but from opposite viewpoints. You’re saying bad football has lead to a lack of coverage. I’m saying a lack of coverage has lead to bad football. You say English media doesn’t care about Scottish football, I say that’s exactly our biggest problem.

This is missing the point entirely though. Why do people in Scotland care about English football? The very top teams fine, but why are people watching Blackburn v Sheff We’d earlier today? Is it because it’s so much better than Motherwell v Aberdeen?

Not at all, the third tier in England is better than the third tier in Scotland, only an idiot would dispute that. The point is that the third tier in England is not better than the best clubs in this country. There also comes a point where quality is far less important than relevance. Why someone sitting in a house in Falkirk would rather watch a conference league match between West Ham and Ferencvaros than their local team is completely lost on me.

Didn’t say it was a conspiracy. I don’t think the BBC and others are actively trying to suppress Scottish football. Just that it’s a symptom of where we’ve found ourselves. The same goes for the rest of what you say. The only reason people in Scotland would care more about that English game is because they’ve been conditioned to believe they should. It’s certainly not for the quality or the relevance to their life.

I don’t necessarily mind that Scottish cup games are only covered on BBC Scotland while FA cup games are covered across the board as there is absolutely more interest in English football in Scotland than vice versa. The bit that annoys me is that an FA cup first round match between Chesterfield and Havant & Waterlooville will be shown in all BBC regions while a semi final between 2 of our top 5 clubs is exclusively shown in Scotland. English football didn’t become “the best in the world” because England is supposedly the home of football or because they play particularly exciting football. It happened because England learned very early on in the modern era that the best form of marketing was to ram it down our throats relentlessly until we can imagine no world where everyone isn’t utterly obsessed with English football. It’s another area where Scottish football continually shoots itself in the foot trying to make sure 100 people don’t watch a match from home instead of going, when we should be ensuring Scottish games are shown live as much as physically possible. Why would anybody new become interested in Dundee for example when we’ve been on the tv twice this season and in most seasons that would have resulted in 2 batterings rather than just 1.

There’s a logic in that and I’m sure 100+ years ago there were issues, but for whatever reason it just doesn’t exist any more. I was raised Protestant and went to a Catholic school and no one cared in the slightest - I’ve since rebelled against both in equal measure. I can’t think of a single occasion though where I saw any kind of animosity between the 2 except when certain football teams are in town.

I hope somebody has had a word with the folks over the road as they'll get a nasty surprise when the invoice from Sky arrives. Or perhaps when there's something in it for them they might actually give a toss which club is which.

Always find stuff like this incredible. Without remotely being an anorak I reckon I could identify all 42 Scottish team badges by the age of about 10. How is it possible that a football "journalist" can make this kind of mistake once, never mind so regularly?!

Exactly, facing a further fine if there is a single postponement is a joke. So we could have the best record for avoiding postponements next year with only 1 when others have 2 or 3 and yet we'd be fined for it? Makes sense.

I think the key difference between McCowan and Stewart is that Stewart was regularly scoring 25 yard worldies and making defenders look silly. McCowan maybe actually has more overall influence on the games, but Stewart caught the eye more and goals drive up the value. It's all irrelevant though as he's said he wants to stay and I can't imagine anyone is going to offer enough to replace his value to the team. Cameron is the only player I can see us selling at the moment. I would hope not, but if he did go we'd surely have to be looking at our record sale, i.e., over £1.5m. Not actually sure who'd pay that as I'm not sure he'd interest the OF and he'd get bullied in England - maybe a similar career to Gauld in Portugal or something would suit him.

Would be interesting to see whether Tiffoney was offside. He should have scored, although it is a good save, and it looked very tight.

That’s incredible, you’d think this game of all games they’d get our stadium right.

No idea when the league was last won at Dens, not in the last 20 years anyway. One of the few advantages of being a yo-yo team. Now that I’ve opened that can of worms I’m dreading that the answers might be 41 years so if anyone could prove me wrong that’d be great.