Sluuuuuuurp: That’s Scotland Done, Norway?
Smith has been drinking Hibernian's milkshake but he's still thirsty.
Now that Celtic and Rangers have pillaged Scottish football of all their resources and still failed to make an impact in Europe, Walter Smith is pulling a Phil Gartside. Rangers manager Smith says that if Celtic and Rangers stay in the SPL, Scottish football will die. Really? Hmm, surely Scottish football will die if Rangers and Celtic leave?
Yeah, the SPL is crap, Rangers and Celtic are Colaship at best and the rest are League One at best, but the league can be fixed at Rangers and Celtic’s expense. Of course THAT would not be good enough for Glasgow’s big two. They want out now that FIFA have realized how poor the league is and are considering cutting a Champions League spot.
For years Celtic and Rangers have pinched all of the best Scottish talent, signing the best players in the country and as a result, the SPL is an uncompetitive two-horse race. Now the big two have both slurped all of the milkshake to be had from their neighbors they want out, to another league where the money will still flow and the European nights will still keep the bored fans coming through the turnstiles.
Smith has realized that Phil Gartside’s greedy attempt at self-preservation and profiteering has become a laughing stock south of the border so he has now set his sights on Scandinavia. Bolton Chairman Gartside’s plan was to include Rangers and Celtic in a two-tiered Premier League with no relegation, allowing Gartside to cash in on the TV money every year without any pressure to put a competitive team on the field. THAT would be the death of English football. What’s really laughable about Gartside’s plan is this: if the top 18 sides in the country were to be in his new leagues? Bolton would likely not be. There are much bigger clubs than Bolton currently outside the EPL.
So, Gartside is outed as a clown, what should Rangers and Celtic do now? How about push for a “North Atlantic League” featuring teams from Denmark, Holland, Norway and Sweden? That’s what Smith is proposing, using the death of Scottish football as his fuel. While Smith wants a North Atlantic League, Celtic want to join the EPL.
‘We’re looking for an opportunity to participate in an environment that gives us that global exposure. And hopefully, through time, that will come”. – Celtic Chief Exec Peter Lawwell
Really? So are every single English team in the Colaship and League One. Maybe Rangers and Celtic would like to consider leaving Scotland for Walsall or maybe Cheltenham?
“Both Rangers and Celtic need owners to subsidise the team and, in any business, that’s not healthy.” – Walter Smith.
Smith clearly has no grasp on football economy. Maybe he should go and chat to Liverpool, Man City, Aston Villa, West Ham, Birmingham, hell, all of em. There is NO money to be made in the EPL, just glory for big egos and survival and hope for the rest.
Without Celtic and Rangers, Scottish football’s standard will slip further behind what it currently is. But with the current set-up, Rangers and Celtic have been outed for what they are…Preston and Cardiff with larger gates. They see the writing on the wall and the there is no longer any whitewash left at the hardware store.
Nacho Novo. Rangers pinched Dundee's Nacho's
How about Rangers and Celtic stop playing Daniel Plainview and stealing all the talent? How about they share the resources and agree to a salary cap, transfer limit (at least for a few seasons) for the good of the league? How about they man up and save Scottish football by leveling the playing field? But that would mean sacrificing an early exit from the Champions League every year and all the cash that goes with it, wouldn’t it? Scottish football is a mess right now. Teams in administration and others with no cash to compete. The best players head to Glasgow or to the Colaship in England.
If you you look at the team sheet for the last Scottish World Cup qualifier against Holland, NOT ONE of the 18 players in the squad came from the SPL outside of Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers. In fact, 8 were made up from Rangers and Celtic players, 3 from the Premier League and 7 from the Coca-Cola Championship, a league where Rangers and Celtic seem to nab most of their players from once the SPL is drained dry of its best footballers.
If you have a look at Celtic’s squad, 8 players came from other SPL teams, 7 from the Colaship or League 1 and just 3 from the Premier League, Sean Maloney (Villa), Georgios Samaras (Man City) and Marc-Antione Fortune (West Brom).
Rangers? Looking at their squad picture, 7 came from other SPL teams, 4 from the Colaship, 3 from the EPL, Mendez (Pompey), Beasley (Man City) and McCulloch (Wigan) 4 from other places in Europe and just THREE are home grown.
Both sides are delusional that they belong with better sides in other leagues, rubbing shoulders with Premier League giants and big spending European teams. The truth is that both of these teams would be destroyed if they played in the EPL week in week out. The squads they have would struggle in the Colaship even. They have spent peanuts on Championship and SPL players along with freebies from other leagues.
Large crowds do not give you a right to top European football. Also, large gates do not bring the funds to pay Arsenal or even Bolton style wages. They may be giants in Scotland, but when it comes to the rest of Europe they are minnows.
In England there are many teams who have been fighting, struggling, creating youth set-ups and competing in playoffs to reach the EPL for years and years. They have earned the right to it. Rangers and Celtic have no right to be a part of English football and I’ll bet Swedish and Dutch fans will feel the same way.
In Scotland, football fans know a league without Rangers and Celtic would mean an even worse standard of football and eventually no one would be watching. The TV money is gone and football will be back where it started. Amateur. The SPL needs to either spread the TV cash more efficiently and impose some rules. That or Rangers and Celtic need to shut up and continue as they are. After all, last time I checked a map, Glasgow was indeed in Scotland. What’s next? Tottenham to La Liga? Portsmouth to Seria A?
Rangers and Celtic should help fix the mess that they created and take some ownership. They also need a serious dose of reality, they are owed nothing but a place in the Scottish Premier League. Its where they belong and where they should stay.
They made their bed and now they must lie in it.
Comments
They’re FINISHED!!!!!
/hammy
//still awesome
///No, really, Celtic and Gers are finished as “big clubs”
DRAAAAAAAAIIIIINNNNNAAAGGGGGEEE (of all the league’s resources, TV money and players)
Let them in but they have to start at the bottom. Okay, maybe League Two. Who gets to the EPL faster, Notts County or either Celtic or Rangers?
Luton Town disagree Hadley. No soup for you Rangers.
This may open up a can of worms, but here goes: if Scotland can somehow maintain ‘border integrity’ for the NT (i.e., FIFA permission), why not roll all Scottish teams into the League?
Is the English/Scottish animosity still that strong? I mean on a day to day hatred level. Are we talking about happy Defcon 5 or evil Defcon 1? Do Scots stand at Hadrian’s Wall and taunt their southern neighbors of smelling of elderberries?
Realizing that logic may not enter the picture, north to south, the entire island is about 360 miles long (roughly the distance from NYC to Pittsburgh or NYC to Buffalo in a straight line). The smaller clubs may require a solution to play locally (in divisions – i.e., Blue Square North/South), as their budgets may not permit frequent travel to the south coast of England, but the bigger clubs should be able to travel the longer distances. I do realize a detrimental effect on fans, but really, who worries about them anymore?
Let ‘em start at the bottom (or even some negotiated higher level, other than the Prem) and find out where they truly belong.
@Wedel. No thanks. Rangers and Celtic created the problem, let them make their little part of the world work again.
I agree with the diagnosis, but I think it is more of a self-fulfilling prophecy rather than the necessary result of malicious action by Rangers and Celtic. There is no money because the teams suck, and the teams suck because there is no money. Yes, they took the best talent from the rest of the SPL to compete in Europe, and still can’t, but that’s what English (and all) clubs do, too.
There isn’t any money in the SPL, but that’s not their fault, it’s merely the result of a very small market. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh have had to reinvent themselves as viable cities because of a changing economic climate, and to be fair, not a lot of talented European players want to live in Aberdeen or Dundee. Should Hibs and Hearts be better teams? Definitely, but they don’t have the money to invest. Somewhere the cycle has to broken, something has to change. But waiting around for homegrown talent to develop in Scotland is like trying to find a trophy wife at a liberal arts college when Arizona State is next door. Just ain’t smart business.
Could Rangers and Celtic better run clubs? Probably, but so could Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U, and Tottenham (I’ll exempt Arsenal here because they are actually pretty well run as clubs go). I don’t think it’s all their fault they can’t compete.
@Steve, Rangers and Celtic took all the talent and other teams best assets, they also dominated the TV money. That is why the league is uncompetitive. The last TV deal was a mess and was the lowest ever because of this. If the league was competitive, the TV money would be greater and there would be more fans at games and a lot more interest. The fact it isn’t competitive is down to the big two. Rangers haven’t bothered to find home grown talent. There are 3 in their entire squad. They have just raped other teams. Celtic have ten in a squad of 40, but none of them play.
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