Connor1874

The journey continues. Well done man. Thought that was going to be a real slog. Look forward to the next one.

Wait. Are you telling me, contrary to what I'm led to believe, that the people of England don't tune in to watch Celtic vs Rangers 6 times a year?!

That's nothing to do with the football club. The Edinburgh City Social Club and the football club are 2 completely different entities. The whole FC Edinburgh debacle cast a light on that.

Is the Colin Campbell involved, the same one who ran a sports shop down Inverleith?

Who sings that?

I only pointed out as I was pulled up for my wording of the term 'consistently' successful. Their glasses.

I never said anybody was.

Hence the quotation marks. Neither of the 3 of us have probably been as successful as we perhaps should be, but in the context of Scottish football, there's no mistaking that we are historically the biggest 3 clubs outwith the Old Firm.

Dundee clubs thread for this pish.

Not really relevant is it?

Not what I said at all. Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs have won a fair bit more than any other club in Scotland outside the OF, so have perhaps earned the right to be known as a big 5 with them. But my wording of 'consistently' being successful requires context as was pointed out earlier. Wasn't a knock at Aberdeen as the amount of trophies they've won in a more condensed period is impressive. But Aberdeen's honours list at present, ranges from 1947-2014, of which majority of them all came in the 70's and 80's. Hearts' ranges from 1891-2012, and Hibs' from 1887-2016. There aren't many clubs in Scottish football with such a broad date range, from their oldest to their most recent successes, therefore have consistently been successful throughout Scottish football history. You are correct about the majority, but the 3 Scottish Cups between 1998-2012 was a particularly impressive feat for its time. We also won 2 league titles and 4 Scottish Cups before the Titanic sank, so throughout the ages, we've been consistently a strong team. That's just of course silverware, which in Scottish football is generally rare. If we look at league placings, Hearts have never gone more than a few years without a top 3 finish save for a barren period between 1965 and 1986. As I said above, Aberdeen's trophy haul is impressive though considering the shorter time frame between successes.

Just ignoring the 3 Scottish Cups between 1998-2012? In fact, only 1 of our 8 Scottish Cup wins came in the 1950's.

Yeah that's true. I'd say consistently Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen are the most successful outwith the OF, but then one might argue that the vast majority of Aberdeen's successes came in one golden era.

Yeah it is a joke that our own broadcasters are totally downplaying the league. Sky aren't much better either. Outsiders (and many natives) look at our league as wildly boring because only 2 teams can win the title every year, but scratch beneath the title race and there's one of the most competitive leagues in Europe there. It was only 3 years ago that Hearts were relegated and only the season before last where both Hibs and Aberdeen finished in the bottom 6. It's a notoriously difficult league to predict aside from the big 2. And for me, there's always been a big 2, and the rest. I agree there's a 'big 5' in historical terms, but it's a bit of a nonsense term. Just like when the EPL went from having a 'big 4' to a 'big 6' because City got money and Spurs became quite decent.

Yeah exactly. Prospective players to Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen probably drive a hard bargain. Also the aforementioned clubs are often gazumped by English League clubs when it comes to salary. We definitely have more cash in the bank, higher income, more valuable assets etc. and our wage bills are bigger, but doesn't necessarily mean we've got rakes of surplus cash to spend on players. We've got a bit more leverage to 'get things wrong' than the smaller clubs in the league I'd say, but we're probably a lot closer to these clubs than we'd like to imagine.