How do you solve a problem like the Scottish Premiership?

[Dons_1988]

Celtic making 9 changes to go away to a top flight club and winning 4-1 in 2nd gear is absolutely wonderful stuff. 

Nothing to see here. 

[Drew Brees]

41 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

Celtic making 9 changes to go away to a top flight club and winning 4-1 in 2nd gear is absolutely wonderful stuff. 

Nothing to see here. 

County made 5 changes. 

[gannonball]

1 hour ago, accies1874 said:

 

 

Last season you could afford to spend about £1m on nobodies that are just water off a duck's back, as well as whatever McCarthy is on.

Season before about £10m on a couple of flops plus whatever Duffy's loan fee was.

19/20 you're looking at around £15m on players who had very little lasting impact. Jullien a bit iffy as he was mostly good but you'd want more than a season out of one of the biggest transfers in Scottish football history.

So at least £18m on duds in two years, plus £7m on a player who had one good season before being binned. That's an insane amount of money wasted in Scottish football terms - more wasted in couple of years than the total spend of the other 10 in however long.

 

I think you casually forgetting the only reason we have spent on those duds is because of the huge amount of cash from previous transfers coming in otherwise that money is not being spent. If we were running a huge deficit year I would get people angst but we aren’t we just profiting from the fruits of our development. I appreciate most clubs in the rest of the league generally aren’t selling to the same inflated market as us though.

[gannonball]

1 hour ago, VincentGuerin said:

Ah, but you see the other clubs just need to be 'well-run', like Celtic are.

You are a fan of arguably the 3rd biggest club in Scotland yet managed to get relegated not so long ago, this would show that the bigger clubs out-with the big two in Scotland do need to be ran way better. The likes of St.Johnstone and Livingston with way smaller budgets have put the bigger clubs to shame at times. I may add though Hearts really appear to have turned a corner now though.

Edited September 1, 2022 by gannonball

[Dons_1988]

12 minutes ago, gannonball said:

You are a fan of arguably the 3rd biggest club in Scotland yet managed to get relegated not so long ago, this would show that the bigger clubs out-with the big two in Scotland do need to be ran way better. The likes of St.Johnstone and Livingston with way smaller budgets have put the bigger clubs to shame at times. I may add though Hearts really appear to have turned a corner now though.

Nobody is saying any club in any league couldn’t be run better. 

[gannonball]

1 minute ago, Dons_1988 said:

Nobody is saying any club in any league couldn’t be run better. 

Obviously, no club is perfect but the likes of Hibs,Hearts Aberdeen and Dundee United as a whole have been ran pretty badly past decade or two. These are the ones you would hope to have any chance of at least breaking the two but they all have managed to be relegated in that time*, some even twice. 

 

 

*I know Aberdeen were further out and weren’t relegated because of league reform but my point is much the same.

[Dons_1988]

1 minute ago, gannonball said:

Obviously, no club is perfect but the likes of Hibs,Hearts Aberdeen and Dundee United as a whole have been ran pretty badly past decade or two. These are the ones you would hope to have any chance of at least breaking the two but they all have managed to be relegated in that time*, some even twice. 

 

 

*I know Aberdeen were further out and weren’t relegated because of league reform but my point is much the same.

That’s still missing the point. 

All of these clubs could be run perfectly and the gap would still not be bridged. That’s what people are saying. 

[Trackdaybob]

old firm fans in 'not really getting it' shocker

 

[VincentGuerin]

34 minutes ago, gannonball said:

You are a fan of arguably the 3rd biggest club in Scotland yet managed to get relegated not so long ago, this would show that the bigger clubs out-with the big two in Scotland do need to be ran way better. The likes of St.Johnstone and Livingston with way smaller budgets have put the bigger clubs to shame at times. I may add though Hearts really appear to have turned a corner now though.

I don't disagree that Hearts could have been run better in the past.

It's completely irrelevant, though.

And you actually make my point for me. When clubs like Hearts are poorly-run, they can get relegated. When Celtic are poorly-run, they finish second and still win a cup.

Edited September 1, 2022 by VincentGuerin

[gannonball]

5 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

That’s still missing the point. 

All of these clubs could be run perfectly and the gap would still not be bridged. That’s what people are saying. 

And that could very well be the case,  but just pointing your finger at the gap whilst kindly ignoring why Saint Johnstone are winning 3 times as many trophy’s as yourselves in the past decade on what would be a quarter of your budget. This shows what can be done if you utilise your resources properly.

[hk blues]

12 minutes ago, gannonball said:

Obviously, no club is perfect but the likes of Hibs,Hearts Aberdeen and Dundee United as a whole have been ran pretty badly past decade or two. These are the ones you would hope to have any chance of at least breaking the two but they all have managed to be relegated in that time*, some even twice. 

 

 

*I know Aberdeen were further out and weren’t relegated because of league reform but my point is much the same.

But the 4 clubs you mention have absolutely zero chance of breaking the two of you, that's the problem.  And they are, supposedly, the best of the rest although 3 of them have been relegated (more than once) as you say so that may be open to debate.  

[Dons_1988]

5 minutes ago, gannonball said:

And that could very well be the case,  but just pointing your finger at the gap whilst kindly ignoring why Saint Johnstone are winning 3 times as many trophy’s as yourselves in the past decade on what would be a quarter of your budget. This shows what can be done if you utilise your resources properly.

Believe it or not, me posting shite on P&B doesn’t represent the objectives and actions of Aberdeen FC, albeit they would benefit greatly from doing so. 

Aberdeen have invested hugely in recruitment, training ground etc in recent years, all in the knowledge we won’t be bridging the gap to the OF. Why do you seem to think that criticism of the structure of the game is a complete denial of responsibility for our own performance? 

[gannonball]

29 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

Believe it or not, me posting shite on P&B doesn’t represent the objectives and actions of Aberdeen FC, albeit they would benefit greatly from doing so. 

Aberdeen have invested hugely in recruitment, training ground etc in recent years, all in the knowledge we won’t be bridging the gap to the OF. Why do you seem to think that criticism of the structure of the game is a complete denial of responsibility for our own performance? 

Tbh I don’t see the structure of Scottish football as the main issue.  They payments out aren’t really any different to other leagues. The gap started to become insurmountable (ignoring EBT’s/heavy year on year losses) when we started getting the European money from the better TV deals at the turn of the millennium . Its  just got bigger  and bigger since then whilst our tv money stagnated. If Hearts can get a few seasons of European money then you never know. On the subject of Europe Scottish clubs getting embarrassed every season in the qualifiers year on year shows how crap we really run our clubs though.

ETA- tbh I didn’t really answer your question but a lot of your posts these days I see are purely about the gap and little else so all I see is moaning and blaming of others.

Edited September 1, 2022 by gannonball

[DA Baracus]

2 hours ago, gannonball said:

If Hearts can get a few seasons of European money then you never know.

Yes we do. We know Hearts won't win the league. You surely aren't suggesting they'd have a chance should they get a bit more cash behind them are you?

[EpicMike]

3 hours ago, gannonball said:

Obviously, no club is perfect but the likes of Hibs,Hearts Aberdeen and Dundee United as a whole have been ran pretty badly past decade or two. These are the ones you would hope to have any chance of at least breaking the two but they all have managed to be relegated in that time*, some even twice. 

The clubs you mentioned are far closer in financial terms to Hamilton, Livingston etc than they are to Rangers and Celtic. Getting relegated is a terrible performance, but still much more likely to happen than them "breaking in to the top two".

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

I'll be disgusted if Hearts aren't challenging for the league after mixing it up with the likes of RFS Riga for a couple of seasons.

[Dave Barton]

There have been three 9-0 scorelines in three years in the 'best league in the world' (English Premiership.)

 

With a population more than ten times the size and astronomical budgets, there are only about four clubs with a realistic chance of winning the league.

 

Throughout the world, there are leagues consistently dominated by two or three teams (with the Scandinavian countries an honourable exception.)

 

The harsh financial realities that mean most Scottish teams have little chance of (Premier) league success are echoed throughout football and also ensure that Scotland's Big Two have zero chance of Champions League success.

 

We are too self-critical and introspective at times.

 

 

[Swello]

9 minutes ago, Dave Barton said:

We are too self-critical and introspective at times.

I don't think being introspective has much to do with it - the entrenched financial disparity (and the resultant grinding tedium of having Rangers and Celtic in our league) is more pronounced here than almost anywhere else. 

I fully accept that the Champions League has done what it was specifically designed to do and concentrated wealth amongst a select group of clubs and Big 5 TV deals have distorted things to a grotesque level - but I don't understand why that should be met with a shrug as if it's just one of those things.

If money fatally breaks sporting competition, put measures in place to stop that happening. US Sport - for all that I couldn't give a f**k about any of it - seems to have (to some extent) balanced rampant commercialism with measures to stop boring domination of the type that we see. Why can't we take measures to reduce the OF's chance of winning every league title for eternity?

[Hoose Rice]

1 hour ago, BoJack said:

Loving this thread, the hate is so strong, the absolute rage in some posts is funny.

Just wait until your mob get smashed next week then greet about Scottish football holding you back as an excuse  

[gannonball]

1 hour ago, DA Baracus said:

Yes we do. We know Hearts won't win the league. You surely aren't suggesting they'd have a chance should they get a bit more cash behind them are you?

The cash in the Europa league isn’t massively different to the Europa but given the trajectory we are on with champions league cash no. However we could easily crash and burn when Ange leaves.

1 hour ago, EpicMike said:

The clubs you mentioned are far closer in financial terms to Hamilton, Livingston etc than they are to Rangers and Celtic. Getting relegated is a terrible performance, but still much more likely to happen than them "breaking in to the top two".

Hearts are currently 80/1 to win the league and 500/1 to be relegated.

Edited September 1, 2022 by gannonball