The Terrible Journalism & Tom English Thread

[Kapowzer]

"4th Tier" would have been more correct BBC

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62635235

Also vital will be the minimum £25m windfall which will now come their way as the Ibrox side complete the turnaround from playing in Scotland's third division 10 years ago to the Champions League.

[Thenorthernlight]

We’ll all be subjected to this cliched nonsense that the h**s winning & qualifying for the group stages is “great for Scottish football”.

blah, blah, fucking blah.

The reality is it’s horrendous.

Two teams getting even further apart financially.
Two teams finishing 35-40 points ahead of the 3rd team. 

Yet the media don’t care.

How many “serious” leagues in Europe start off knowing only two teams can win it & two will finish so far ahead.

Approaching 40 years since someone else won it. It’ll be another 40 too, unless they GTF somewhere else like they’d do in a heartbeat given the chance. 

. 

[kingjoey]

6 hours ago, bennett said:

Cocks are useful things. 

Crowing again?

[Satoshi]

The qualification is good for Scottish football as it is two Scottish teams performing well in Europe - indeed well above expectations. Has a nation of 5 million people or less ever had two teams in the champions League group stage? Other Scottish teams even get a cash windfall from this.

As for making the financial gulf wider, if anything this applies far less to Scotland to other nations given the financial gulf is already unassailable as it is.

And who cares? Most leagues have a few teams who dominate. If you are a Motherwell or Kilmarnock fan your team will never win the top league but so what? That's not what football is about. Most teams in every country won't come close to winning the league either, it just is what it is.

And if it bothered you go and support Real Madrid.

[craigkillie]

"4th Tier" would have been more correct BBC
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62635235
Also vital will be the minimum £25m windfall which will now come their way as the Ibrox side complete the turnaround from playing in Scotland's third division 10 years ago to the Champions League.

I'm not sure why that would have been more correct? It would have been equally correct, they did play in the third division.

[Dons_1988]

57 minutes ago, Satoshi said:

That's not what football is about.

[AJF]

9 hours ago, craigkillie said:

And they did sell Nathan Patterson to balance the books last season, before going on to not win the league (ie being affected on the pitch compared to the previous season).

I think linking the sale of Nathan Patterson to us failing to retain the league title is quite a stretch in an attempt to try and prove Stewart correct. He barely featured for us until he was sold and was the second best player in his position at the club.

[Satoshi]

39 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

Well if it was, football would only apply for the tiny percentage of teams in any country who can feasibly win their top division?

Most fans globally will know their team will never win the top league, it's a far more common experience than supporting the exception who do.

And football is getting more centralised so this trend will only increase. St. Johnstone will never win the league, Celtic will never win the champions League.

If these revelations are enough to put you off football, where have you been for the last 50 years?

Edited August 25, 2022 by Satoshi

[Squonk]

29 minutes ago, Satoshi said:

Well if it was, football would only apply for the tiny percentage of teams in any country who can feasibly win their top division?

Most fans globally will know their team will never win the top league, it's a far more common experience than supporting the exception who do.

And football is getting more centralised so this trend will only increase. St. Johnstone will never win the league, Celtic will never win the champions League.

If these revelations are enough to put you off football, where have you been for the last 50 years?

You seem to be missing the point, whether deliberately or otherwise. We all realise that most leagues across the world will likely only be won by one of its elite clubs. However, we can all dream that one day our rank outsiders will 'perform a Leicester City.' The likelihood of this happening reduces significantly with each passing season as the big two hoover up ten times as much money as the third placed club, further widening an already colossal financial chasm between themselves and the rest.

[bennett]

 

 

[DiegoDiego]

Most fans globally will know their team will never win the top league

You're at it. Most fans globally are glory hunters who have already seen their team lift the league trophy.

[morrison]

5 hours ago, Thenorthernlight said:

How many “serious” leagues in Europe start off knowing only two teams can win it & two will finish so far ahead.

I agree with your general point and it's bizarre to see the lack of critical thinking around the financial gulf between the top clubs, however, it's not a uniquely Scottish problem (anymore).

You could argue France and Germany are even more lopsided than here, and that's two of the five 'big leagues'. Depressingly, it's almost rarer to have an open title race.

That certainly doesn't make it okay, mind you!

[craigkillie]

4 hours ago, AJF said:

I think linking the sale of Nathan Patterson to us failing to retain the league title is quite a stretch in an attempt to try and prove Stewart correct. He barely featured for us until he was sold and was the second best player in his position at the club.

Rangers did sell players to balance the books. This is a fact.

Rangers did perform more poorly on the pitch than the previous season. This is also a fact.

[Satoshi]

3 hours ago, Squonk said:

You seem to be missing the point, whether deliberately or otherwise. We all realise that most leagues across the world will likely only be won by one of its elite clubs. However, we can all dream that one day our rank outsiders will 'perform a Leicester City.' The likelihood of this happening reduces significantly with each passing season as the big two hoover up ten times as much money as the third placed club, further widening an already colossal financial chasm between themselves and the rest.

You can still dream now, if anything it's only marginally less realistic than it was before (and you're talking far less than 1% probability in terms of the difference it makes).

Rangers and Celtic comfortably financially outperformed every other team before, and continue to do so afterwards. It really doesn't matter.

And even the 'dream' really only applies to relatively elite clubs, of Scotlands 42 clubs only maybe 3 or 4 (excluding old firm) would even dream of this really. For most it would never happen. If someone like Ross County has a great first half of the season, their players would be gone in January.

The only way it would ever happen would be if extreme wealth was injected into a club for a sustained period. And that's not any better than it is now.

There is a (small) likelihood both old firm clubs capitulate for some reason, probably financially, but even that's hardly a win for anyone. 

And none of it matters - in almost all professional sports the top prizes only go to a small group of individuals / clubs. It's just how it is. That's life. It doesn't effect my enjoyment of football in the slightest - a club like Dundee winning the League Cup is far better than Rangers winning the league anyway (for their fans IMO).

1 hour ago, DiegoDiego said:

 

You're at it. Most fans globally are glory hunters who have already seen their team lift the league trophy.

Hmm, I don't know. Doesn't really matter anyway. Most clubs have pretty much zero chance of winning the league. Football isn't meaningless to all their supporters.

Also you can chose who you support, there's no barriers to entry, so being a glory hunter will bring you mocking derision - not glory.

[AJF]

8 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

Rangers did sell players to balance the books. This is a fact.

Rangers did perform more poorly on the pitch than the previous season. This is also a fact.

Neither of those statements I disagreed with. It's the insinuation that the first statement directly led to the second statement that I believe is pretty disingenuous considering the player in question made a grand total of 6 league appearances last season before he was sold.

Edited August 25, 2022 by AJF

[Hoose Rice]

6 hours ago, Thenorthernlight said:

We’ll all be subjected to this cliched nonsense that the h**s winning & qualifying for the group stages is “great for Scottish football”.

blah, blah, fucking blah.

The reality is it’s horrendous.

Two teams getting even further apart financially.
Two teams finishing 35-40 points ahead of the 3rd team. 

Yet the media don’t care.

How many “serious” leagues in Europe start off knowing only two teams can win it & two will finish so far ahead.

Approaching 40 years since someone else won it. It’ll be another 40 too, unless they GTF somewhere else like they’d do in a heartbeat given the chance. 

. 

Germany and France are worse.  Spain are similar as are Holland Portugal and Austria.

We are never going to get close to the other 2 regardless of the money they make.  They will just waste most it like previous times anyway and all the champions league placings and money didnt stop Rangers going bust. 

[Hoose Rice]

19 minutes ago, AJF said:

Neither of those statements I disagreed with. It's the insinuation that the first statement directly led to the second statement that I believe is pretty disingenuous considering the player in question made a grand total of 6 league appearances last season before he was sold.

Reckon Gerrard leaving massively contributed to losing the league last year.  He would have stayed if they had qualified for the Champions League and then theres also playing Sunday Thursday. 

[AJF]

7 minutes ago, Hoose Rice said:

Reckon Gerrard leaving massively contributed to losing the league last year.  He would have stayed if they had qualified for the Champions League and then theres also playing Sunday Thursday. 

Again, valid points. I'm not really trying to pinpoint the reason that we never won the league (of which there will be many), I'm simply saying it's foolish to state selling Nathan Patterson was the cause of it, all just to try and protect the image of Michael fucking Stewart 

[Dons_1988]

Why are the **** constantly raging about Michael Stewart? 

[Hoose Rice]

36 minutes ago, AJF said:

Again, valid points. I'm not really trying to pinpoint the reason that we never won the league (of which there will be many), I'm simply saying it's foolish to state selling Nathan Patterson was the cause of it, all just to try and protect the image of Michael fucking Stewart 

It wasn't the worst call to make and you did sell Aribo and Bassey this summer which was a massive gamble UCL terms.  Also I don't recall much big money bids for any of your players apart from Patterson.  All this and it was a year ago.  What's the purpose of bringing it up?