The Terrible Journalism & Tom English Thread

[Den Spark]

Connie McLaughlin's opening line to Steven Naismith was, "It couldn't have WENT any better this afternoon..."  Supposedly a well educated BBC journalist.

[Dr Koop]

Why do we never see teams described as 'overdogs'? Asking for a friend on the Record's spurts desk.

[Guest JTS98]

18 hours ago, Den Spark said:

Connie McLaughlin's opening line to Steven Naismith was, "It couldn't have WENT any better this afternoon..."  Supposedly a well educated BBC journalist.

All joking aside, any professional broadcaster should be fired for speaking like that.

[lanky_ffc]

On ‎29‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 09:14, drs said:

No, no they are not.

 

On ‎29‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 09:03, Monkey Tennis said:

I think that "trickle down", In the context of Scottish football, is largely mythical.

You described Burnley as a "nothing club" you couldn't find on a map.  The first bit isn't true and the second is to do with your own knowledge.

Burnley had a fanzone set up on Thursday to broadcast a R2 Europa League qualifier. They're tinpot AF.

[HaikuHibee]

On 29/07/2018 at 09:58, Monkey Tennis said:

but let's not pretend that getting an improved TV deal here would benefit our lower league clubs at all significantly

England highlights that. Twenty winding up orders, over four seasons.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41083617

 

[Monkey Tennis]

1 hour ago, lanky_ffc said:

 

Burnley had a fanzone set up on Thursday to broadcast a R2 Europa League qualifier. They're tinpot AF.

It was their first European outing in a long time, so was obviously a big deal for the club and its fans.

Transport a town and ground that size to Scotland though and you'd have a club that regularly qualifies for Europe.

 

As it is, Burnley is a side that's had spells of being a strongish top flight club before.

[sjc]

On 7/29/2018 at 18:28, Green Day said:

No worries.

IMO I dont think we have a chance of competing on anything like a level playing field - the TV / Oligarch / State funds in clubs in England / Spain / Germany / France is just too big a hurdle these days.

I think that ship has sailed and while we have a very good "product"many clubs are doing it all with one hand tied behind their back.

I cant speak for all, but Hibs are generally deemed to be well run got 13000 STs. However even we are scrabbling around the free transfer and "guys that cannae get in the Man City reserves" market. 

13000 ST sales look good, but dont really do much more than pay the bills or maybe get you slightly better players than teams around you - there is no chance at the moment of making a dent in Euro competition (would love to be proved wrong).

What Scotland needs is a half decent TV deal for size of country -

SPFL £18.75m pa, Belgium £60m pa, Denmark £46m pa, Holland £70m pa

We will get nowhere near England etc, but at least we might be able to attract players good enough for clubs (outside Celtic)  to get to the group stages where the real money is with an improved deal.

Thats the kind of commentary I would have liked Jim White to have said rather than the usual "how pish is Scottish fitba" lines.

 

On 7/29/2018 at 19:13, Monkey Tennis said:

Those other TV deals?  What are the terms?  Are all games covered at various kick-off times for instance?  Is that something we'd want?

I think our TV deal could be better, but given that it's dished out as prize money, therefore most benefiting we know who, it doesn't cost me sleep.

I was listening to Tim Vickery the other day, who mentioned that the Uruguay Football Federation concluded about 15 years ago that it was pointless for their league to even try and compete financially with the bigger and higher populated Countries leagues, so they turned their attention and available resources to developing young players technically suited to these bigger leagues in Europe and even South America.

Not sure how Independiente are doing but their National team certainly punches above their weight for a Nation of 3m.

[Monkey Tennis]

24 minutes ago, sjc said:

 

I was listening to Tim Vickery the other day, who mentioned that the Uruguay Football Federation concluded about 15 years ago that it was pointless for their league to even try and compete financially with the bigger and higher populated Countries leagues, so they turned their attention and available resources to developing young players technically suited to these bigger leagues in Europe and even South America.

Not sure how Independiente are doing but their National team certainly punches above their weight for a Nation of 3m.

That's interesting.

It would probably belong in the "unpopular opinions" thread on here, but my view of what we should prioritise would run along similar lines.

I'd rather that our club game was characterised by equality than quality.  I'd like things to be competitive, tight and unpredictable domestically and I'd obviously like Scotland to be a fairly frequent qualifier for tournaments.  It wouldn't bother me in the least if an upshot of that was our clubs getting nowhere in Europe, while all our best players, earned a living elsewhere.

[The DA]

4 hours ago, JTS98 said:

All joking aside, any professional broadcaster should be fired for speaking like that.

I think it's becoming almost accepted West Coast grammar these days - common usage evolving into accepted usage.

I still think anyone using it sounds thick as pigshit.

[ayrshire_nomad]

I was listening to Tim Vickery the other day, who mentioned that the Uruguay Football Federation concluded about 15 years ago that it was pointless for their league to even try and compete financially with the bigger and higher populated Countries leagues, so they turned their attention and available resources to developing young players technically suited to these bigger leagues in Europe and even South America.
Not sure how Independiente are doing but their National team certainly punches above their weight for a Nation of 3m.

Did they have a version of the ugly sisters holding them back ?

[7-2]

26 minutes ago, The DA said:

I think it's becoming almost accepted West Coast grammar these days - common usage evolving into accepted usage.

I still think anyone using it sounds thick as pigshit.

The one in football that gets me is 'them' replacing 'those'.  Can't remember the last time I heard anyone that's worn a football strip use it.

[DiegoDiego]

Did they have a version of the ugly sisters holding them back ?

Yup. 75 out of 86 championships in the professional era have gone to either Peñarol or Nacional.

[craigkillie]

4 hours ago, HaikuHibee said:

England highlights that. Twenty winding up orders, over four seasons.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41083617

 

 

One major difference would be that the English Premier League's TV deal is for 20 clubs only, while the SPFL's deal covers all 42 clubs.  The clubs lower down the leagues do only get a pretty small chunk of it all - it's 0.18% of the total prize money for finishing bottom of League 2 compared with 3.5% for finishing bottom of the Premiership - however if the SPFL's TV deal got 10 times bigger then every single team in Scotland would be 10 times better off in actual terms.  That's not to say that they'd be better off in relative terms, or that it would actually be a good thing for them, but it does highlight that England isn't really a fair comparison.

[Boghead ranter]

17 minutes ago, ayrshire_nomad said:

2 hours ago, sjc said:

 

Did they have 40 version of diddy clubs holding the Old Firm back ?

FTFY

[Dr Koop]

On 7/28/2018 at 18:24, craigkillie said:

The statement on Hamilton's website explicitly refers to criticism of the deal - it even incldues the line "so why all the fuss".

The BBC article does not explain this, Craig. Thanks.

[Arch Stanton]

6 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Transport a town...that size to Scotland though and you'd have a club that regularly qualifies for Europe.

70-odd thousand, same as East Kilbride.

When did they last qualify for Europe?

[Monkey Tennis]

2 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

70-odd thousand, same as East Kilbride.

When did they last qualify for Europe?

The borough is nearer 90,000 and the club has a long history of playing in the national League - often the top flight, something East Kilbride lacks.  That's why Burnley have a ground as big as belongs to any of our non-OF clubs, the part you artlessly omitted when quoting me.

[Arch Stanton]

4 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

The borough is nearer 90,000 and the club has a long history of playing in the national League - often the top flight, something East Kilbride lacks.  That's why Burnley have a ground as big as belongs to any of our non-OF clubs, the part you artlessly omitted when quoting me.

The size of the stadium is an irrelevance. Darlington's  was even bigger,  the town has a population of almost 100k and have never played in Europe.

[Monkey Tennis]

5 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

The size of the stadium is an irrelevance. Darlington's  was even bigger,  the town has a population of almost 100k and have never played in Europe.

It's not an irrelevance, because Turf Moor is appropriate in size for the club.  It's like the grounds of the Edinburgh clubs and Aberdeen. 

The Darlington one was famously an absurd white elephant. 

If you want, we can look at what Burnley have historically achieved as a club down the years, but that's surely unnecessary.  I'm not suggesting they're a giant because they're not.  Obviously, their current stature has much to do with the wealth they can call on as an EPL club. 

However, there seems to be a belief that they're a Bournemouth type minnow and they're not one of those either.  They're more like a Middlesborough or Ipswich.  Not actually massive, but in communities where they call on lots of support and sometimes enjoy periods of success as a result.

[Arch Stanton]

11 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

However, there seems to be a belief that they're a Bournemouth type minnow and they're not one of those either.

I agree, they've been English Champions the same number of times as Spurs and were the only the third English side to play in the  European Cup after Man Utd and Wolves (reaching the QF).

They do have an excellent stadium of which I have personal experience, having attended their 2-0 defeat to Spurs in April last year.

They play in a town with a similar population to Paisley but for all that to "Transport a town and ground that size to Scotland though and you'd have a club that regularly qualifies for Europe." is wild conjecture.