any rangers fans? (3 Viewers)

[Wheels]

A strong Celtic and Rangers means a strong Scotland, no? Yeah it totally smacks of self-preservation, but standards seem to be in a irreversible decline up there at the minute. Anways I don't know where the Old Firm will go, 'cos England doesn't want/need them at the minute.

I don't think that equation adds up at all to be honest. Celtic and Rangers playing in more competitive leagues will help the 5 or 6 players who combined are involved in the current first team squad, but it's not necessarily going to mean any development of fringe players within those clubs. A lot of young talent will be benched in favour of foreign players or farmed back into the SPL. I know this happens at Premier league clubs (Liverpool, Chelsea, United have plenty of 'potential' home growners who probably will never make it through) but at least Spurs, Villa and Everton can give a good platform for England's 2nd level of squad.

Aside from the likes of Fletcher or Hutton, the majority of Scotland's squad is made up of bottom third Premiership teams, Championship teams or the dregs of the SPL. Cutting loose the only teams that bring out the best in other national players in the Scottish league is only going to exacerbate the situation. Why not just send off the top 6 teams into a Euro set up and tell all the other clubs to turn amateur or just fold up if that's the thinking?

The SFA haven't been able to sort out raising the standard of their league, by getting the likes of Aberdeen, Dundee United and the Edinburgh clubs able to actually compete with the Glasgow clubs for over 20 years now. Only a grass roots levelling of the playing field will help overall, much like the recent resurgence of the Bundesliga. Now that's a healthy minor league, albeit with a much better infrastructure to begin with. The Scottish situation is chronic and maybe the big two should just bugger off if they actually believe they can acheive Champions League success AND benefit Scottish football. It's the blind leaving the blind.

 

[Cormcolash]

Total fucking nonsense, it's agreed. Celtic and Rangers joining England would simply mean two more mediocre teams that get to watch Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea compete for silverware every year.
Football is now driven by one thing: Money. If the Old Firm want to try and 'compete' then they actually need some billionaire to fire loads of money into them. Obviously Rangers have no hope of that right now as they are fucked for cash, Celtic however actually have 2 guys on the board of directors that are both billionaires in the football rich list. However I think the ethic at Celtic is about running the club sustainably from what they've got rather than pumping cash in (the opposite of Rangers basically), so they're not gonna be competitive in Europe anytime soon either.
I don't see any reason why this should mean the standard of football in Scotland declining though. Celtic won the European cup with an all-Scottish team. There are players in Scotland that can do a job well, and sometimes that's all you need in a game, what's actually hurting Scottish football the most right now is the greed of a lot of players that have no loyalty to their clubs and just want to go and play for big bucks in England or somewhere.

Edit: Like what wheels is getting at, if the SPL simply put the time and effort into having a proper grass-roots basis, the standard in the long term would start to improve. Problem is apart from Celtic all the clubs are broke and can't afford to improve their academies. This is just typically symptomatic of the business of football right now though. There is money there, it just goes to the wrong people. Money spent on people in suits and bullshit, instead of being spent on developing players to the highest level they can take them to, or trying to bring in more fans, two things which would actually help enforce each other.

 

[Franco]

I dunno, I still think a strong Old Firm is better for the country. Scotland regularly qualified for tourneys when the Old Firm were in rude health. Good Scottish players would stay in Scotland and only piss off to England or out foreign for bigger clubs. Now you have a situation where the talent drains away to middling/lower tier clubs in England, cos of the better standards/wages. And you also have sub-standard foreign talent going the other way to the Old Firm taking the place of potential new native blood.

Grass roots, Bundesliga are moot points routinely rotted out. Shur everywhere wants to get shit going at grass roots and participate in a egalitarian league like the Bundesliga. But Scotland's problems are unique. And no, I don't have a solution either.

 

[Hector Grey]

branding players "greedy" because they want to earn some extra lolly in what is a very short career? if some company came in and offered you more money to do the same job, what would you say? fuck the future, the kids, the wife, i'm loyal to this pisspot club. bah. don't blame the players.

 

[Cormcolash]

If I was already getting 10 grand a week I have a feeling I might okay without the extra money

 

[Wheels]

If I was already getting 10 grand a week I have a feeling I might okay without the extra money

How much are you getting paid here? I'll double it if you move to Boards.ie.

 

[Hector Grey]

If I was already getting 10 grand a week I have a feeling I might okay without the extra money

1. no one in scotland is on 10 g's a week. that's their problem.
2. if you were good enough to earn 10 grand a week, for how long? 3-6 seasons? and then what? after tax about 2 million? for a whole career? and then what, the next 50 years of life...etc etc. gary oconnor went to moscow and set himself and his family up for life. is that greedy, or just sensible. it fudges the issue, chairmen and other twats bang on about greedy footballers, but it wasn't the footballers who sold the league to sky sports. peter risdale isn't a footballer. peter kenyon, roman abramhovich, george gillett, the mormons at united, sepp blatter and his seedings. they're not footballers. it's not the footballers dragging the game down.

 

[nuke terrorist]

i'm glad this got dragged up again as there has only been 2 or 3 things i've said on thumped i regret but the celtic v rangers stuff i said a few pages back ( a few years back) was wrong. to make any kind of comparision between celtic fans and rangers (as i did) is totally inaccurate. rangers fans are many times worse than any other club in britain. manchester last year proved the point and i expected trouble that time.
i still think celtic are in the establishment of football but not in the league of real madrid by any standards.
i was going to to quote a favourite partick thistle anti old firm song to lighten things up but i reckon i've pushed my luck too far already. anyhow sorry.​

 

[Cormcolash]

Hec, when Bobo Balde was at Celtic (for 5 years or so) he was on 50 grand a week. It's the reason he didn't move anywhere until his contract ran out.

 

[Unicron]

How much was Larsson on? Had to be serious cash to keep him there for all that time.

 

[Cormcolash]

Not sure what Larsson was on. Celtic got an absolute steal on him at the start, so his wages probably weren't high then, but when he renegotiated his contract, I think he was around 2 million a year, so about 40k per week? Chris Sutton was on something similar, but they were one of the best striking teams in Europe at the time.
Apparently Loovens is currently on 15k per week, which is why Caldwell was looking to get the same amount. Caldwell is a spa though, he's already on 8k per week, about 400k per year, in 5 years he'd be a millionaire even with hefty taxes.

Edit: Plus he's only about 10% as good as he actually thinks he is

 

[Franco]

Hec, when Bobo Balde was at Celtic (for 5 years or so) he was on 50 grand a week. It's the reason he didn't move anywhere until his contract ran out.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-Celtic-Bobo-urges-Sunderland-boss-Keane.html

It is understood, however, that Balde is seeking a £27,000-per-week basic salary plus £5,000 appearance money to replicate his current Celtic deal.

 

[Cormcolash]

Strange, I definitely read somewhere that he was on 50k per week. I suspect I saw an article in the Daily Record at some point, they are that shit after all.

 

[washingcattle]

Strange, I definitely read somewhere that he was on 50k per week. I suspect I saw an article in the Daily Record at some point, they are that shit after all.

There was a time when 27k in pounds was spitting distance to 40k in euro

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

When Bellamy went on loan to Celtic he was made their highest paid player of 40k a week.

 

[Cormcolash]

Yeah but by that stage they had massively reduced their wage bill because it was unsustainable.

 

[Hector Grey]

Hec, when Bobo Balde was at Celtic (for 5 years or so) he was on 50 grand a week. It's the reason he didn't move anywhere until his contract ran out.

that doesn't sound right at all to me. the reason bobo didn't move is cos he was shit and no one wanted him. 50K??? a year maybe.

 

[Hector Grey]

Not sure what Larsson was on. Celtic got an absolute steal on him at the start, so his wages probably weren't high then, but when he renegotiated his contract, I think he was around 2 million a year, so about 40k per week? Chris Sutton was on something similar, but they were one of the best striking teams in Europe at the time.
Apparently Loovens is currently on 15k per week, which is why Caldwell was looking to get the same amount. Caldwell is a spa though, he's already on 8k per week, about 400k per year, in 5 years he'd be a millionaire even with hefty taxes.

Edit: Plus he's only about 10% as good as he actually thinks he is

in 5 years he'll be a millionaire, assuming he doesn't have to pay any outgoing on stuff like his mortagage and kids and food and petrol and all that other shit we mere mortals have to fork out for. caldwell is entitled to ask for as much as he thinks he'll get. celtic will say, get fucked, where are we supposed to get that kind of cash for a donkey like you and he'll pitch up at birmingham or wolves and be average for the rest of his career but on a nice 20k a week. who can blame him, eh? he's done all that champions league lark and he's shit at it, so getting to the semis of the carling cup with a load of clog wearers should be right up his street.

 

[Cormcolash]

Personally I'd be glad to see the back of players like that

 

[Hector Grey]

i'm sure you would. more tosh mackinlays and stephane mahes if you please.