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How do you solve a problem like the Scottish Premiership?


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27 minutes ago, coprolite said:

I didn’t see the cup final, but the standard of entertainment in the playoffs was fantastic.

It's possible that the standard of entertainment can be high but the standard of football low.... usually in Scotland, sadly, both are low

 

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7 hours ago, coprolite said:

I didn’t see the cup final, but the standard of entertainment in the playoffs was fantastic.

It generally is from what I've seen in Scottish and English playoffs. I want to be entertained when watching a game, not supposedly marvel at top level players taking 27 passes to move 3 yards forward. I never watch games the Old Firm are involved in and I didn't watch the English Cup Final as it was never going to be good with so much at stake for either team. I've watched as many playoffs as possible though. 

Edited by Charles Stiles
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Belgium at the weekend - now there's a way to finish a league title.

Three clubs with a chance of glory on the final day - and a 94th minute winner to clinch your first title in 68 years on the ground of the side who otherwise stood to win it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8HXKmebNJw 

We will never see anything like this again whilst two sides have 20 times plus the resources of everyone else.

None of the three protagonists would be regarded as the traditional 'big three' in that country either.

 

Edited by tarapoa
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8 hours ago, stu2910 said:

Having grown up following my dad in watching literally every game on TV, this is how I've been for a good 10 years now.  I think the last time I was genuinely excited at watching a top level game was during the prime Barcelona years where I would regularly burst out laughing watching Messi/Xavi/Iniesta make Real Madrid look like Dundee West u9s.  If there is a Scottish match on these days, it doesn't matter to me what else is on.

Our final day win against QP was the perfect example of something you just don't see down south any more.  An absolutely mental exhibition of randomness with QP out of the running after 4 minutes and league winners after 12.  Our star striker scoring the worst goal of the game with a double ricochet, while their centre half scores a 35 yard wonder-volley while facing the wrong direction.  Then the 8th goal of the game sparks bedlam in the terracing without a phone in sight.

You can keep your neat passing triangles, 99% possession and perfectly manicured pitches and shove them wherever Haaland keeps his hair clippers.  Give me chaos and a 50/50 chance of either Sunday League standard football or former plumbers turning into Ronaldo any day.

This is me, entirely. I switch on a ‘big’ game, after 5 mins I’m on P and B, after 10 it’s off. 

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8 hours ago, tarapoa said:

Belgium at the weekend - now there's a way to finish a league title.

Three clubs with a chance of glory on the final day - and a 94th minute winner to clinch your first title in 68 years on the ground of the side who otherwise stood to win it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8HXKmebNJw 

We will never see anything like this again whilst two sides have 20 times plus the resources of everyone else.

None of the three protagonists would be regarded as the traditional 'big three' in that country either.

 

Their league set up is not one for the purists, but it's certainly created some level of competition

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On 06/06/2023 at 12:52, stu2910 said:

Having grown up following my dad in watching literally every game on TV, this is how I've been for a good 10 years now.  I think the last time I was genuinely excited at watching a top level game was during the prime Barcelona years where I would regularly burst out laughing watching Messi/Xavi/Iniesta make Real Madrid look like Dundee West u9s.  If there is a Scottish match on these days, it doesn't matter to me what else is on.

Our final day win against QP was the perfect example of something you just don't see down south any more.  An absolutely mental exhibition of randomness with QP out of the running after 4 minutes and league winners after 12.  Our star striker scoring the worst goal of the game with a double ricochet, while their centre half scores a 35 yard wonder-volley while facing the wrong direction.  Then the 8th goal of the game sparks bedlam in the terracing without a phone in sight.

You can keep your neat passing triangles, 99% possession and perfectly manicured pitches and shove them wherever Haaland keeps his hair clippers.  Give me chaos and a 50/50 chance of either Sunday League standard football or former plumbers turning into Ronaldo any day.

There's room to enjoy and appreciate both. But constantly glorifying the mediocre and sneering like crazed inverted snobs at anything outwith our own wee world appears to be the default setting which is fair enough.

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2 minutes ago, kennie makevin said:

There's room to enjoy and appreciate both. But constantly glorifying the mediocre and sneering like crazed inverted snobs at anything outwith our own wee world appears to be the default setting which is fair enough.

There’s a difference between inverted snobbery and a growing apathy at watching media personalities play football, particularly in a league where being released from the team that got relegated just means you’ll have to wait a few more months to get another Ferrari.

I can absolutely appreciate football at the top level and watch every game that I can at international tournaments, but money has made top club football a bit sterile to me.  Inverness making the cup final and Partick narrowly missing out on promotion are events that will have a serious impact on the players and the clubs themselves if reports are to be believed and to me that’s far more exciting than however many millions Man City are spending on their next player.

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7 hours ago, kennie makevin said:

There's room to enjoy and appreciate both. But constantly glorifying the mediocre and sneering like crazed inverted snobs at anything outwith our own wee world appears to be the default setting which is fair enough.

I get what you're saying here, but I wouldn't really characterise the outlook you identify as one reliant on inverted snobbery.

Of course Man City are objectively many, many times better than Annan in every department, by every single conceivable measure.  Nobody, but nobody would suggest otherwise.   

It's about meaning though. 

Obviously it matters to only a tiny fraction of as many people, but Annan's promotion looked and felt earned.  We all absolutely know that while the brilliance of Man City's players and management means that if they win this weekend, they'll each have achieved something, in terms of the club it just looks hollow.  If they lose, they'll just be installed as favourites for the next one, and the one after that. 

I can still get excited about international tournaments because, although it's imbalanced, no team can just acquire who they like.  There's an honesty that the top end of the club game totally lacks.

It's maybe a bit knowingly perverse to enjoy crappy Scottish encounters over elite club football, but I don't think it's entirely contrived either.

Again, it's about meaning.  

 

Edited by Monkey Tennis
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But thats just you're perception of the meaning. 

City will probably win the CL in Saturday,  having spent billions. Fair enough. 

But there are probably 20k city fans alive that watched them in the 3rd tier and have had to live with being the 2nd team in a city for decades while man u win everything... tell them that win would have no meaning...

Is that less earned than Annans for them?

Edited by Dylangt7
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The Scottish League is objectively one of the strongest in the world, wildly overperforming its peers in European competition and boasting world leading proportional attendence figures. Even without the old firm our proportional attendance figures would be excellent.

So not so much a problem needing to be resolved, more how we stay on top.

If you want to make it more competitive, radical financial restructuring is the only way to do it (giving old firm money to non old firm clubs).

Cant see socialist Celtic going for that.

Although its incomplete to say our league isn't competitive, just because one team wins the title most years doesn't mean it isn't competitive for the 10/11 other clubs. Most clubs in most nations will never win the top league, it doesn't mean you just give up.

Wonder how a City group or red bull franchise league would do here...

Edited by Satoshi
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12 hours ago, Dylangt7 said:

Not to life long city fans its not, again perception. 

 

I think you're both right to an extent. It is about meaning and perception, but the meaning comes from the larger story. The drama unfolding on the pitch is merely an episode of a greater narrative. That is what we participate in as football fans and what gives us the meaning and the emotional payoff.

Winning back to back promotions in 2001 and 2002 is the best feeling I've ever had as a Jags fan. We were in the doldrums of the seaside leagues and were perilously close to liquidation, so to come back from that, with John Lambie and a few returning favourites (and some great characters) was a satisfying triumph. 

If we had won the First Division because of a group of faceless foreign investors, with no obvious connection with Partick Thistle then this story is less romantic and organic. I would probably do what Man City and Newcastle fans do (and also the OF up here) which is to construct a story that still makes it some sort of triumph to be celebrated. Perhaps a feeling that it is our turn (if Man City) after years of seeing your neighbours' successes, or a similar entitlement as a Newcastle fan (the story that we're a sleeping giant who have simply been unlucky or having to deal with corrupt owners). Up here the OF create stories around getting one over on their rivals, or the "authorities" or that there is an inherent uniqueness about their club to give meaning to their consecutive titles against vastly weaker opponents.

Man City will win the CL, but it's the result of a Faustian pact which has denuded the club of its soul. The long time City fans will know this, but will have constructed a narrative to mitigate the cognitive dissonance caused by said pact. This will provide some solace and will even allow for joy. It will, however, forever be a joy confined. 

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16 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Of course Man City are objectively many, many times better than Annan in every department, by every single conceivable measure.  Nobody, but nobody would suggest otherwise.   

I would. Annan are streets ahead of Manchester City in the legality of conducting their business department. Unless they're also under investigation for major corruption too of course.

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15 hours ago, Dylangt7 said:

Not to life long city fans its not, again perception. 

 

Well the answer is obviously lifelong city fans wouldn’t see it that way, but their credibility as an objective observer might be an issue. By the way, I bet there is a few who see it that way. 

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I completely understand why folk don't like English/elite level football - it's completely different to what a lot of people love about the sport (often not the sport itself). I really enjoy watching Man City, but I'd say I'm far more emotionally invested while watching a Friday night Championship game. 

I don't think there's a wrong answer* as football means a hell of a lot more than what happens on the park. 

*no matter what the "Ah'll never watch that English/Scottish/wummin's pish" crew try to say. 

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