Leighton Clarkson

[RabidGiraffe]

It was interesting to see Napoli win their first Serie A in 30+ years this week.  I had a look at all the European leagues and mostly it's all the usual suspects who are on top.  Every league has 2/3/4 teams who dominate then every 20 - 30 years a Napoli or Leicester comes along.  In all leagues those dominant teams usually have significantly bigger support, but nowhere is the gap between the dominant clubs and the rest anything like Scottish football.  The closest I could find was Portugal.  Makes you wonder why the gap here is so big.  Is it simply because you average Scottish football fan is a religious bigot and/or glory hunter, or is there something else in play?

[RabidGiraffe]

4 minutes ago, DD1903 said:

Sky offered Scottish football money when they started the whole football thing in the early 90s. But, Ernie walker and Jim farry said ‘no, thanks’, and the rest is history. We might not have been getting the same money as the epl does at the moment, but we wouldn’t be so far behind if we’d taken the deal then. Backward thinking Scottish football at its best

Rejecting the Sky deal to renew with Setana was another big mistake.  After the Setana collapse the Sky/ESPN deal was half what they offered previously.

[DD1903]

13 minutes ago, RabidGiraffe said:

Rejecting the Sky deal to renew with Setana was another big mistake.  After the Setana collapse the Sky/ESPN deal was half what they offered previously.

Ah yeah! I forgot about that as well. 
 

Scottish football is backwards as fuck

[pocrawred]

4 hours ago, DD1903 said:

Ah yeah! I forgot about that as well. 
 

Scottish football is backwards as fuck

Run by huns and tims looking for tge best for themselves!! Aye they fairly fucked that up..

[fine-n-dandy]

4 hours ago, RabidGiraffe said:

It was interesting to see Napoli win their first Serie A in 30+ years this week.  I had a look at all the European leagues and mostly it's all the usual suspects who are on top.  Every league has 2/3/4 teams who dominate then every 20 - 30 years a Napoli or Leicester comes along.  In all leagues those dominant teams usually have significantly bigger support, but nowhere is the gap between the dominant clubs and the rest anything like Scottish football.  The closest I could find was Portugal.  Makes you wonder why the gap here is so big.  Is it simply because you average Scottish football fan is a religious bigot and/or glory hunter, or is there something else in play?

I think over the past 30 years there has been anywhere between 6-10 different teams have won most leagues except in Scotland where it’s only been 2 teams 🤔 

I can’t think of any league that has a similar stat to Scotland over last 3 decades let alone since we last win the league

[RabidGiraffe]

37 minutes ago, fine-n-dandy said:

I think over the past 30 years there has been anywhere between 6-10 different teams have won most leagues except in Scotland where it’s only been 2 teams 🤔 

I can’t think of any league that has a similar stat to Scotland over last 3 decades let alone since we last win the league

Portugal: Benfica, Porto, Sporting Lisbon

Spain: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletico Madrid

Italy: Juve, Inter, AC Milan,

Netherlands: Ajax, PSV, Feynoord

Belgium: Anderlecht, Brugge, Standard Liege

Germany: Bayern Munich about 20 out of the last 25 years

The point is every league has a small number of teams that dominate, and occasionally an outsider wins.  It's the gap between the dominant teams in Scotland that stands out more than the domination itself.  Hence the question, why?

[fine-n-dandy]

1 hour ago, RabidGiraffe said:

Portugal: Benfica, Porto, Sporting Lisbon

Spain: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletico Madrid

Italy: Juve, Inter, AC Milan,

Netherlands: Ajax, PSV, Feynoord

Belgium: Anderlecht, Brugge, Standard Liege

Germany: Bayern Munich about 20 out of the last 25 years

The point is every league has a small number of teams that dominate, and occasionally an outsider wins.  It's the gap between the dominant teams in Scotland that stands out more than the domination itself.  Hence the question, why?

Over the past three decades more teams have won those leagues you mentioned other than those ‘dominant’ teams though compared to Scotlands two. Over past three decades.

Portugal. You missed out Boavista, 4 different champions 

 

Spain. You missed out Deportivo & Valencia 5 different champions 

 

Italy. You missed Lazio, Roma & Napoli, 6 different champions 

Netherlands. AZ & Twente, 5 different champions

Belgium, Lierse, Genk, Standard Liege & Gent, 7 diff champions 

Germany. 6 different champions & Bayern have won it 19 times in this period 

Scottish football is the only real embarrassment as far as two teams only ever winning it. If we go back as far as when a team other than the arse cheeks have won the league (not just the 30 years as above) it’s even more ridiculous 

There is no other league in European football that is so embarrassingly lopsided in favour of so few (as in just two) teams

[JojoJuan]

What makes it worse is that it has been a clear and steady move towards this dominance, openly supported by the governing bodies in Scottish football. The clubs are no better, all have stood by and watched it happen and thanked them for the crumbs off the table.

In general money has ruined the game, but in Scotland it has had a lot of help 

[Millertime]

6 hours ago, RabidGiraffe said:

It was interesting to see Napoli win their first Serie A in 30+ years this week.  I had a look at all the European leagues and mostly it's all the usual suspects who are on top.  Every league has 2/3/4 teams who dominate then every 20 - 30 years a Napoli or Leicester comes along.  In all leagues those dominant teams usually have significantly bigger support, but nowhere is the gap between the dominant clubs and the rest anything like Scottish football.  The closest I could find was Portugal.  Makes you wonder why the gap here is so big.  Is it simply because you average Scottish football fan is a religious bigot and/or glory hunter, or is there something else in play?

It's not difficult to understand though is it?

The Glasgow 2s fanbase is infinitely bigger, so more revenue 

How many were coming to Pittodrie during the glory days?

It wasn't even selling out then was it?

They have what, conservatively 10 times the fanbase we have,  so they have 10 times the money coming in

[fine-n-dandy]

Just now, Millertime said:

It's not difficult to understand though is it?

The Glasgow 2s fanbase is infinitely bigger, so more revenue 

How many were coming to Pittodrie during the glory days?

It wasn't even selling out then was it?

They have what, conservatively 10 times the fanbase we have,  so they have 10 times the money coming in

So how does this argument work when we dominated in the 80’s (& the Jutes were strong also). Did we have more fans/revenue  than them then?

[Millertime]

14 minutes ago, fine-n-dandy said:

So how does this argument work when we dominated in the 80’s (& the Jutes were strong also). Did we have more fans/revenue  than them then?

We had an absolutely brilliant, once in a lifetime manager?

Fans generally weren't as affluent as they are now either

The world in general has changed a lot since the 80s

[RabidGiraffe]

27 minutes ago, fine-n-dandy said:

Over the past three decades more teams have won those leagues you mentioned other than those ‘dominant’ teams though compared to Scotlands two. Over past three decades.

Portugal. You missed out Boavista, 4 different champions 

 

Spain. You missed out Deportivo & Valencia 5 different champions 

 

Italy. You missed Lazio, Roma & Napoli, 6 different champions 

Netherlands. AZ & Twente, 5 different champions

Belgium, Lierse, Genk, Standard Liege & Gent, 7 diff champions 

Germany. 6 different champions & Bayern have won it 19 times in this period 

Scottish football is the only real embarrassment as far as two teams only ever winning it. If we go back as far as when a team other than the arse cheeks have won the league (not just the 30 years as above) it’s even more ridiculous 

There is no other league in European football that is so embarrassingly lopsided in favour of so few (as in just two) teams

I didn't say only the dominant teams win their leagues, I said "every league has a small number of teams that dominate, and occasionally an outsider wins."  

The point I was making was about the scale of the dominance of the ugly cunts, particularly about the relevant size of their fanbase.  The question posed was is it all about religious bigotry and glory hunting or is there something else about Scotland that makes it so?

[fine-n-dandy]

14 minutes ago, Millertime said:

We had an absolutely brilliant, once in a lifetime manager?

Fans generally weren't as affluent as they are now either

The world in general has changed a lot since the 80s

But we had Calderwood as well since Fergie 🤔

[fine-n-dandy]

11 minutes ago, RabidGiraffe said:

I didn't say only the dominant teams win their leagues, I said "every league has a small number of teams that dominate, and occasionally an outsider wins."  

The point I was making was about the scale of the dominance of the ugly cunts, particularly about the relevant size of their fanbase.  The question posed was is it all about religious bigotry and glory hunting or is there something else about Scotland that makes it so?

Corruption 

Even though Italy have had their fair share of corruption over the years, even they have had numerous other champions selection 

[Helmet]

8 hours ago, RabidGiraffe said:

It was interesting to see Napoli win their first Serie A in 30+ years this week.  I had a look at all the European leagues and mostly it's all the usual suspects who are on top.  Every league has 2/3/4 teams who dominate then every 20 - 30 years a Napoli or Leicester comes along.  In all leagues those dominant teams usually have significantly bigger support, but nowhere is the gap between the dominant clubs and the rest anything like Scottish football.  The closest I could find was Portugal.  Makes you wonder why the gap here is so big.  Is it simply because you average Scottish football fan is a religious bigot and/or glory hunter, or is there something else in play?

Do any of the others have such a small division where they play each other 4 times?

[RabidGiraffe]

13 minutes ago, Helmet said:

Do any of the others have such a small division where they play each other 4 times?

Most of the bigger countries in Europe have at least 16 teams in the top division

For similar sized leagues to ours:

Switzerland and Croatia have 10

Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Slovakia, Hungary have 12

Most of those twelve team leagues seen to split after 22 games (one home and one away for each team) then the groups of six play each other twice.

 

[Roger Ramjet 62]

I don't think any other country of a similar size has the problem we do. Two clubs who frankly encourage the republican / loyalist side of their supports. It is that which makes them "mas qué un clube" or whatever the Barcelona motto is and has helped them build massive supporter bases far beyond glasgow. 

We're basically fucked until such a time as someone else is daft enough to let them join their league. 

[Footballs coming Rome]

World class. Should be signed up pronto but with this home grown player rule has inflated prices on English players as they all need half decent ones on the bench to abide by the rule. 

[Sheep Shagger]

It's always been as much about religion as it has been for football for Glasgows two ugly sisters.

Their behaviour from a large section of their fans will always be abhorrent.

The only hope is that football in England is consumed about money, money, money. It's not inconceivable that they will be drafted into the English leagues one day.

Good riddance to them. The Scottish league can thrive without them.

 

[Itsagoal]

A few differences in Scottish football between now and the 80’s, especially the early 80’s.

- the crowds that the gruesome twosome attracted wasn’t that much bigger than Aberdeen’s. If I’m right, pre-Souness, Rangers had been champions only 3 times in the previous 25 years, so their crowds were poor. In comes the money, in comes the success and hey-ho, the crowds come flooding back.

- No ridiculous UEFA prize money to make the league uncompetitive (pretty much the same as a lot of other leagues in Europe

- No ridiculous TV money. This meant Scottish football could pay decent wages and compete with other leagues and the teams and the league could keep its best players. The likes of Miller and McLeish at Aberdeen and Narey and Sturrock at the Jutes, played their whole careers with these clubs. If these players were coming through the ranks now, they would be off to English or European clubs probably before they were out of their teens and probably earning 10 times as much as they could with Aberdeen or the Jutes.

- no mega bucks sugar daddies. I know the Scottish League pales badly in comparison with the English league for this, but nevertheless the owners of Rangers/SEVCO and Celtic have pumped in fortunes to their clubs, starting with Murray in 1986. 

Back in the 80’s being the third best club wasn’t good enough for the likes of Fergie and Willie and even McLean at the Jutes. Then as the money started getting pumped into the gruesome twosome, being the third best at least meant you were very close to these two. Now third best just means that you’re 30 odd points behind them in the league (although I know that third best this year is something to strive for because of the European qualification)

Anyway apologies for wittering on but the missus has been obsessed with fucking all that Charlie bollocks and I’m bored shitless and can’t bear to watch any of it.

[Helmet]

1 hour ago, RabidGiraffe said:

Most of the bigger countries in Europe have at least 16 teams in the top division

For similar sized leagues to ours:

Switzerland and Croatia have 10

Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Slovakia, Hungary have 12

Most of those twelve team leagues seen to split after 22 games (one home and one away for each team) then the groups of six play each other twice.

 

Cheers.

I'm sure that the change to a smaller league has fucked our game- the final straw when you already have 2 behemoth teams and then you make any challenger play them twice as many times as before.

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

5 minutes ago, Helmet said:

Cheers.

I'm sure that the change to a smaller league has fucked our game- the final straw when you already have 2 behemoth teams and then you make any challenger play them twice as many times as before.

100%
 

if you only had to play them home and away once we’d see a few title challenges. 
 

that the thing that’s even more shit and embarrassing about Scottish football. It not just the fact no other team has won it in 38 years…. It’s the fact there hasn’t even been a real title challenge from another team that went close since 1991

[Zeus]

Worth shelling out 2 million on.

3rd behind Jess and Duk on the greatest players 1990- 

[Ramandu]

1 hour ago, Sheep Shagger said:

It's always been as much about religion as it has been for football for Glasgows two ugly sisters.

Their behaviour from a large section of their fans will always be abhorrent.

The only hope is that football in England is consumed about money, money, money. It's not inconceivable that they will be drafted into the English leagues one day.

Good riddance to them. The Scottish league can thrive without them.

 

It's not about religion for them. Doubt many of them will be in church tomorrow morning, they just wear the 'proddy' & 'cafflick' labels as a badge to pretend they're different from each other.

Agree with the rest though, especially the last bit. 

[alscotoz]

Give or take, essentially the results of 4 games decide who wins the league. So shite 

[a don in oz]

9 hours ago, Zeus said:

Worth shelling out 2 million on.

3rd behind Jess and Duk on the greatest players 1990- 

If we have a spare 2mill on a player I agree. This kid looks like - if he can strengthen up - he's going to be better than Maddison easily imo.  That said, no matter how much he enjoys it here even if we do get a bid accepted the gulf in finances between what we can offer for a contract and others... I'd be amazed if he chose us over the uglies. Delighted but amazed. It's probably entirely moot though, coz if you've still got a contract with Liverpool and hope to get a chance there and believe in yourself enough you'd stay there right? 

Whatever, enjoying him while we have him for another 5 games.

[Ten Caat]

We aren't paying £2m for any player

As I said before they'd want a commensurate salary that would blow our current pay structure out the water...with £10k/week a likely starting point as a basis for negotiation. Whilst we could probably stretch to that on an individual basis, you'd then get current squad members in a contract year demanding whacking great new contracts on the back of it. 

I think he has another year left on his Liverpool contract and I'm sure both the club and the player himself know that he's not quite of the desired standard that would get him an extension, so I expect Liverpool to try to sell him in the summer. And I think they'll reckon they can get a least a million more off an English Championship club for him than the £2m figure suggested here anyway. 

[aberdeen1970]

I wouldn't be hugely surprised if we've already had the odd player or two getting paid around £10k per week the last few years. 

I agree we aren't in the £2m transfer market. If he was available for 6 figures then we might be willing. 

[ericblack4boss]

21 hours ago, DD1903 said:

Sky offered Scottish football money when they started the whole football thing in the early 90s. But, Ernie walker and Jim farry said ‘no, thanks’, and the rest is history. We might not have been getting the same money as the epl does at the moment, but we wouldn’t be so far behind if we’d taken the deal then. Backward thinking Scottish football at its best

There was an occasion I recall I thnk the late 90s early 2000s when sky offered around 40 million for I think a 4 or 5 yr broadcasting deal, the SPL rejected that calling it derisory and eventually were forced into accepting a deal from the BBC for around 15 million over the same period.

[Zeus]

Dave's opening the warchest.

We can afford 2 million