Crùbag Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 Interesting piece by Gerry Hassan on the duopoly in Scottish football. Am in two minds regarding a potential exit by the Old/renewed Firm though a Scotland without the behemoths of Celtic and the Rangers would just put us on a par with other nations of a similar size. Sad to say also that he's spot on regarding the lack of serious competition from the other 'big' clubs inc Hearts, Hibs and the Dons. https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2022/04/06/can-we-ever-imagine-a-scotland-without-the-old-firm/ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Miguel Sanchez Posted April 7, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted April 7, 2022 I know I can! 88 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richey Edwards Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 The chance to kick one half of these cuntos out of Scottish football forever was had, but bottled. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewh Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 We can dream, can’t we? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leith Green Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 14 minutes ago, Crùbag said: Sad to say also that he's spot on regarding the lack of serious competition from the other 'big' clubs inc Hearts, Hibs and the Dons. Well, yes but we all know the reasons behind this. A fair bit of his article talks about the relative size of Glasgow, and a comparison of its two largest clubs successes alongside that. He briefly touches on the sectarian divide that allowed these clubs to become dominant, but while we have the situation where people are travelling from Northern Ireland and all over Scotland to watch them - simply because they identify as one or another brand of Christianity - then the other clubs simply cant compete. I have travelled all over Scotland to do walking / mountain biking / skiing etc, and whenever you are in one of these wee places up North you can guarantee a massive proportion of the population identifies as Celtic or (more likely imo) Rangers followers. I have watched matches in places like Pitlochry, Fort William, Aviemore and been gobsmacked by just how big the Rangers "support" is in these areas. Its no wonder that the other clubs struggle to get a representative support against that backdrop. That was a bit :tldr so to answer your original question - Launch them in a rocket to the moon or somewhere else their poison or patronising "you did quite well" shite wont offend us. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmain Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 answer to original question...every fucking day ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post VincentGuerin Posted April 7, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted April 7, 2022 (edited) "As well as this there has been a continual failure from anyone – Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen – to systematically believe they could challenge the status quo. All the non-Old Firm pack start off each season with the belief that the best they can do is finish third in the league and maybe win a cup: it is a philosophy which breeds being second-best and not trying to win." This part is complete bollocks. It's unfathomably simplistic. Come on Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen, we know you don't have anything like their budget, but TRY HARDER! BELIEVE HARDER! Maybe when Hearts were a goal up in the 2019 cup final, Hearts could just have BELIEVED HARDER to stop Celtic's eight million pound striker scoring the two goals that cost us the cup. f**k off, put this shite in the bin. Edited April 7, 2022 by VincentGuerin 32 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dons_1988 Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 I’ve never been an advocate of getting rid of them, but I think we’re way past the point that we can have a more competitive league with the two of them in it. The commercial environment is too far gone. so either they go or we continue ad infinitum. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lex Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 1 minute ago, VincentGuerin said: "As well as this there has been a continual failure from anyone – Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen – to systematically believe they could challenge the status quo. All the non-Old Firm pack start off each season with the belief that the best they can do is finish third in the league and maybe win a cup: it is a philosophy which breeds being second-best and not trying to win." This part is complete bollocks. It's unfathomably simplistic. Come on Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen, we know you don't have anything like their budget, but TRY HARDER! BELIEVE HARDER! Maybe when Hearts were a goal up in the 2019 cup final, Hearts could just have BELIEVED HARDER to stop Celtic's eight million pound striker scoring the two goals that cost us the cup. f**k off, put this shite in the bin. Well there's plenty of examples of team's not performing to their budget. Didn't Hearts finish bottom a couple of seasons ago with the third biggest budget in the league? Teams without the biggest budget regularly win the league in other countries. The fact that there hasn't been a realistic title challenge from anyone outside the OF in the last 30 years - never mind actually winning it - is certainly a failure by the other city clubs in the country. Regarding the OF leaving, it's a nice thought, but it will never happen. There's nowhere for them to go and them being in this league suits them. They wouldn't get away with all their sectarian nonsense anywhere else for a start. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VincentGuerin Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 2 minutes ago, Lex said: Well there's plenty of examples of team's not performing to their budget. Didn't Hearts finish bottom a couple of seasons ago with the third biggest budget in the league? Teams without the biggest budget regularly win the league in other countries. The fact that there hasn't been a realistic title challenge from anyone outside the OF in the last 30 years - never mind actually winning it - is certainly a failure by the other city clubs in the country. Regarding the OF leaving, it's a nice thought, but it will never happen. There's nowhere for them to go and them being in this league suits them. They wouldn't get away with all their sectarian nonsense anywhere else for a start. We hear stuff like this all the time, and it's nonsense peddled by our OF sycophant media. Hearts have a financial advantage over clubs like Ross County etc, but we also operate in a pack where there are a number of clubs with our budget or a lot closer to it than we are to the OF. It's much, much, much more likely in any season that Hearts, Hibs, or Aberdeen will be relegated than it is that anyone can compete with the Old Firm. It's not even close. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dons_1988 Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 2 minutes ago, Lex said: Well there's plenty of examples of team's not performing to their budget. Didn't Hearts finish bottom a couple of seasons ago with the third biggest budget in the league? Teams without the biggest budget regularly win the league in other countries. The fact that there hasn't been a realistic title challenge from anyone outside the OF in the last 30 years - never mind actually winning it - is certainly a failure by the other city clubs in the country. Regarding the OF leaving, it's a nice thought, but it will never happen. There's nowhere for them to go and them being in this league suits them. They wouldn't get away with all their sectarian nonsense anywhere else for a start. There’s having the biggest budget and having a budget that’s multiples of the rest of the league combined. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VincentGuerin Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leith Green Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 1 minute ago, Lex said: Well there's plenty of examples of team's not performing to their budget. Didn't Hearts finish bottom a couple of seasons ago with the third biggest budget in the league? Teams without the biggest budget regularly win the league in other countries. The fact that there hasn't been a realistic title challenge from anyone outside the OF in the last 30 years - never mind actually winning it - is certainly a failure by the other city clubs in the country. Regarding the OF leaving, it's a nice thought, but it will never happen. There's nowhere for them to go and them being in this league suits them. They wouldn't get away with all their sectarian nonsense anywhere else for a start. Sorry Lex, your stuff is normally fine but that middle para is nonsense. I cant think of examples of teams with one 5th of the budget regularly winning the league - in any other country. As pointed out above, in that Scottish Cup final, Celtic had one player who had a value larger than Hearts playing budget................. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paranoid android Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 Happy for them to join the English leagues as long as they start at the bottom, and take all their fans with them. They'd never play in Europe again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Stiles Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 We can imagine this utopian scenario all we like but anyone paying attention in 2012 will know it will never be allowed to happen by the football authorities and most damning of the lot, the other clubs. Even if they did 'leave' for some new league set up they'd still be in Glasgow and the media fawning would be turned up to 14 while their 'B Teams' competed in the Scottish leagues. There really is no point in fans torturing themselves imagining anything without them. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnydun Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 They won't leave, more chance of some Billionaire buying one of the other clubs as their play thing and buying the title. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dons_1988 Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 Would look forward to 90% of sportsound being dedicated to celtics trip to Sunderland and rangers hosting Burnley. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennie makevin Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 5 minutes ago, Charles Stiles said: We can imagine this utopian scenario all we like but anyone paying attention in 2012 will know it will never be allowed to happen by the football authorities and most damning of the lot, the other clubs. Even if they did 'leave' for some new league set up they'd still be in Glasgow and the media fawning would be turned up to 14 while their 'B Teams' competed in the Scottish leagues. There really is no point in fans torturing themselves imagining anything without them. Scottish football is dead as a serious competitive sport in that case. If that's what we're happy with, fine. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Aldo Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 They won't leave, more chance of some Billionaire buying one of the other clubs as their play thing and buying the title.At the risk of possibly sounding silly, I've always wondered why that hasn't happened up here.There's pretty much no money to be made in owning a football club. If I was a millionaire it would seem more appealing to put a few million into a Scottish club to have a go at winning a few titles rather than putting many millions into an English club with the aim to finish 17th or higher. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dundee Hibernian Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 It has to be held in mind that the reason ‘B sides’ are being encouraged by the football authorities is so that the pair of them maintain a presence in Scottish football if any other country or league is daft enough to take their ‘A sides’ along with the baggage that would bring to them. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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