Jump to content

Competing with English Football


Recommended Posts

Obviously, examples like Salford City and Gretna are just rich folk dabbling in a bit of real-life Championship Manager, but it surprises me that we haven't had a proper Abramovich-style billionaire egotist buy one of the Scottish clubs and try to scoosh into the Champions League regularly; you'd think it'd be an easier route for a man of means than going through English football these days. There's basically only Celtic to outspend here now, which must be like having to overthrow Stoke City by comparison. We've basically only had Romanov, who didn't/couldn't put enough money into Hearts to blow the Old Firm away - everything else has been very small-time.

I'm not saying it would be a good thing, BTW, just that I'm surprised it hasn't been properly tried yet. It's not like the SFA's fit and proper test is any kind of obstacle to anyone, even convicted fraudsters. I wonder how much it would cost to buy a middling Scottish club with a reasonable support (one of the Dundee clubs, for example) and outspend Celtic on wages.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 172
  • Created
  • Last Reply
12 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Obviously, examples like Salford City and Gretna are just rich folk dabbling in a bit of real-life Championship Manager, but it surprises me that we haven't had a proper Abramovich-style billionaire egotist buy one of the Scottish clubs and try to scoosh into the Champions League regularly; you'd think it'd be an easier route for a man of means than going through English football these days. There's basically only Celtic to outspend here now, which must be like having to overthrow Stoke City by comparison. We've basically only had Romanov, who didn't/couldn't put enough money into Hearts to blow the Old Firm away - everything else has been very small-time.

I'm not saying it would be a good thing, BTW, just that I'm surprised it hasn't been properly tried yet. It's not like the SFA's fit and proper test is any kind of obstacle to anyone, even convicted fraudsters. I wonder how much it would cost to buy a middling Scottish club with a reasonable support (one of the Dundee clubs, for example) and outspend Celtic on wages.

The one trend I have noticed in these wealthy types tend to spend money in glamorous cities, think Paris, London, Milan, Monaco, etc... where they can show off their playthings to wealthy and glamorous friends so I am not convinced that bringing Dundee to the Champions League would have the same sort of appeal as bringing Monaco, AC Milan, Chelsea or whoever to the same place

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The one trend I have noticed in these wealthy types tend to spend money in glamorous cities, think Paris, London, Milan, Monaco, etc... where they can show off their playthings to wealthy and glamorous friends so I am not convinced that bringing Dundee to the Champions League would have the same sort of appeal as bringing Monaco, AC Milan, Chelsea or whoever to the same place
Pretty much this.

Only in the past week have you seen Jorginho pick Chelsea over Man City because it means he'll stay in London rather than Manchester.

Just having money in Scotland wouldn't guarantee high quality players would be willing to move.

Scottish football is fine, definitely room for improvement, especially in marketing. As has been said above we need to stop comparing and mimicking English football.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, senorsoupe said:

The one trend I have noticed in these wealthy types tend to spend money in glamorous cities, think Paris, London, Milan, Monaco, etc... where they can show off their playthings to wealthy and glamorous friends so I am not convinced that bringing Dundee to the Champions League would have the same sort of appeal as bringing Monaco, AC Milan, Chelsea or whoever to the same place

Mmm, fair point. I suppose you can add that to the long list of reasons why The Rangers can't find a sugar daddy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Obviously, examples like Salford City and Gretna are just rich folk dabbling in a bit of real-life Championship Manager, but it surprises me that we haven't had a proper Abramovich-style billionaire egotist buy one of the Scottish clubs and try to scoosh into the Champions League regularly; you'd think it'd be an easier route for a man of means than going through English football these days. There's basically only Celtic to outspend here now, which must be like having to overthrow Stoke City by comparison. We've basically only had Romanov, who didn't/couldn't put enough money into Hearts to blow the Old Firm away - everything else has been very small-time.

I'm not saying it would be a good thing, BTW, just that I'm surprised it hasn't been properly tried yet. It's not like the SFA's fit and proper test is any kind of obstacle to anyone, even convicted fraudsters. I wonder how much it would cost to buy a middling Scottish club with a reasonable support (one of the Dundee clubs, for example) and outspend Celtic on wages.

I think it would be fucking outstanding if some billionaire took over a diddy club like the dundees or Falkirk, and bought Celtic's best players and stuck them on their bench. The complaints from Celtic would be absolutely tremendous as they were forced into Europa league qualifiers each season.

If the backed club eventually went bust, no harm done. And it would mean Celtic had gone without champions league subsidy for a few seasons, bringing them back a little bit closer to the pack financially.

The problem with Dundee, hearts, Motherwell, Gretna and Livingston previously was that they spent a fortune with the end goal being third, where there's very little financial return.  We need someone to do it properly and overtake the OF in spending.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, senorsoupe said:

The one trend I have noticed in these wealthy types tend to spend money in glamorous cities, think Paris, London, Milan, Monaco, etc... where they can show off their playthings to wealthy and glamorous friends so I am not convinced that bringing Dundee to the Champions League would have the same sort of appeal as bringing Monaco, AC Milan, Chelsea or whoever to the same place

Manchester City, Liverpool, swansea etc etc 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From my point of view, while our spineless governing bodies fail to get a decent deal in comparison to other leagues (time and time again) and while the rest of non-Scotland tends to see us as just a pointless duopoly, then the financial impotence within Scottish football will continue for the foreseeable future.

Sadly, it all comes down to money and there is a shit ton of it sloshing about down South and f**k all of it up here other than to one club.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Obviously, examples like Salford City and Gretna are just rich folk dabbling in a bit of real-life Championship Manager, but it surprises me that we haven't had a proper Abramovich-style billionaire egotist buy one of the Scottish clubs and try to scoosh into the Champions League regularly; you'd think it'd be an easier route for a man of means than going through English football these days. There's basically only Celtic to outspend here now, which must be like having to overthrow Stoke City by comparison. We've basically only had Romanov, who didn't/couldn't put enough money into Hearts to blow the Old Firm away - everything else has been very small-time.
I'm not saying it would be a good thing, BTW, just that I'm surprised it hasn't been properly tried yet. It's not like the SFA's fit and proper test is any kind of obstacle to anyone, even convicted fraudsters. I wonder how much it would cost to buy a middling Scottish club with a reasonable support (one of the Dundee clubs, for example) and outspend Celtic on wages.

You can’t buy the football knowledge Celtic have, so why bother trying?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it would be fucking outstanding if some billionaire took over a diddy club like the dundees or Falkirk, and bought Celtic's best players and stuck them on their bench. The complaints from Celtic would be absolutely tremendous as they were forced into Europa league qualifiers each season.
If the backed club eventually went bust, no harm done. And it would mean Celtic had gone without champions league subsidy for a few seasons, bringing them back a little bit closer to the pack financially.
The problem with Dundee, hearts, Motherwell, Gretna and Livingston previously was that they spent a fortune with the end goal being third, where there's very little financial return.  We need someone to do it properly and overtake the OF in spending.
Dundee's current owners could afford to spend silly money but chose not to - and, thankfully, I am glad of that.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:
2 hours ago, PauloPerth said:
I think it would be fucking outstanding if some billionaire took over a diddy club like the dundees or Falkirk, and bought Celtic's best players and stuck them on their bench. The complaints from Celtic would be absolutely tremendous as they were forced into Europa league qualifiers each season.
If the backed club eventually went bust, no harm done. And it would mean Celtic had gone without champions league subsidy for a few seasons, bringing them back a little bit closer to the pack financially.
The problem with Dundee, hearts, Motherwell, Gretna and Livingston previously was that they spent a fortune with the end goal being third, where there's very little financial return.  We need someone to do it properly and overtake the OF in spending.

Dundee's current owners could afford to spend silly money but chose not to - and, thankfully, I am glad of that.

We know, realistically you'd only jump a couple of places anyway. I know you'd obviously enjoy being Taysides top team(If you did the unthinkable) but considering the last time you spunked 23MILLION  and only got 5th it's not worth it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Obviously, examples like Salford City and Gretna are just rich folk dabbling in a bit of real-life Championship Manager, but it surprises me that we haven't had a proper Abramovich-style billionaire egotist buy one of the Scottish clubs and try to scoosh into the Champions League regularly; you'd think it'd be an easier route for a man of means than going through English football these days. There's basically only Celtic to outspend here now, which must be like having to overthrow Stoke City by comparison. We've basically only had Romanov, who didn't/couldn't put enough money into Hearts to blow the Old Firm away - everything else has been very small-time.

I'm not saying it would be a good thing, BTW, just that I'm surprised it hasn't been properly tried yet. It's not like the SFA's fit and proper test is any kind of obstacle to anyone, even convicted fraudsters. I wonder how much it would cost to buy a middling Scottish club with a reasonable support (one of the Dundee clubs, for example) and outspend Celtic on wages.

That's why they go to England though. My money is better than your money.

We need Nelms to say Elon Musk is a shithead and that his submarine won't work and because of that he could never own a football team.

Musk would throw his toys out of the pram and punt billions into Dundee and cloning software to engineer a starting 11 of himself genetically spliced with the best footballers of all time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing I absolutely despise is the arrogance from English football fans saying things like “he’s moving to a higher standard of football!” And “oh he’ll struggle at that level!”

These utter c***s ignore the fact that the only reason the standard of their game is better is because of the money they have. If Scottish football had that much investment we’d be at a similar level, no doubt about it.

I hope English football falls on its arse completely. Clubs going bust all over the shot. It would be utterly glorious and just desserts to these total fannys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Neville G having a MUST REPLY TO EVERYTHING day on twitter yesterday.
I don't think what Robinson said was in any way out of order or disrespectful.


Very odd wasn’t it. Robinson didn’t seem to say anything wrong. Would be different maybe if he’d actually quoted figures but outside of that really don’t see the problem.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robinson's most interesting point (and it's not a new one) is that there is a significant number of clubs in England's 5th tier who pay more than the Bottom Six in SPFL Premiership. That's why we see players going to and from it each close season. There's a direct corrolation beween a club's wage bill and its onfield performance and teams that can pay more will attract the better players. When clubs pay over the odds - I'd assume £4k p/w was more akin to L1 - it will have a temporary effect on the market until the big spender moves up and out of that division. It's  a bigger issue if they're already top of the tree - in the Juniors for example a relative big spender can inflate wages as players can fall into the "club X have offered me this so I want Y from you" ploy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Realistically the sooner we get the notion that we are trying to compete with English football out of our heads, the better. This stems from the very top though. Even our marketing and branding of the league is copying our neighbours down South. 

Why would you market yourself after a league system that has hundreds of millions more money than you? What will that achieve other than to highlight the fact that we are inferior?

John Nelms, when he first took over at Dens said he couldn't believe the way we market our game. We will never compete with the English leagues, the financial disparity is just too much. If we focused on marketing our game properly, we could increase the investment. In typical cheesy American style, Nelms suggested that we should become the 'hardest' league in the world as only the 'toughest' can cope with our rough and ready style and climate. Despite the cheesiness, it's much preferable to what we currently do and would allow us to get away from the idea that we need to compare ourselves to English football. 

Tldr: We shouldn't be trying to compete with English football, we should be marketing ourselves as an alternative. Might even lead to less of the English 'pub league' comments. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...