Scottish Football

[Ryan]

Great article...

Old Firm's decline signposts the end of Scotland's glorious heritage
The national team is a joke, the top two are nowhere and it is only going to get worse.

Lawrence Donegan, the Guardian.

Human nature being what it is, or at least the tribal tendencies of the average football fan being what they are, there were plenty of Glaswegians who watched gleefully on Tuesday as Sevilla dismantled Rangers 4-1 in a Champions League group match at Ibrox. Such are the (minor) joys of being fan; where the only thing that comes close to rivalling a victory for your own team is a defeat for the one across the city.

In this instance the celebrations of the green-and-white half of Glasgow were suffused with a little extra satisfaction given that they, too, were recently forced to endure a humiliation of their own. Only weeks ago in an earlier round of the same competition Celtic were stripped naked in similar fashion by an under-strength Arsenal.

So now the great divide is bridged – two halves of a once great football city brought together by meagre relief at the other team's mediocrity. Call it Dante's 10th circle of hell; the football one. Needless to say, sympathy for the Old Firm does not abound, especially in Scotland, where the big two have lorded it over everyone else for years, barely paying more than lip service to the needs of other clubs.

Further afield, the strongest emotion is ambivalence. No one in Glasgow cares about the fortunes of clubs in the Netherlands or Turkey or Portugal, so why would people in those countries care about Celtic and Rangers? Meanwhile in England, the Old Firm, and Scottish football in general, have in recent years come to be seen as an irrelevance. Those who care at all care only that their home town is never overrun by heathens from north of the border drunk on Buckfast and religious bigotry (as if English football is a bigotry-and-heathen-free zone).

As for those who actually run the game, they make no effort to hide their contempt – witness the dismissive attitude of the Premier League last year when the idea of a 'Premier League 2' involving Celtic and Rangers was floated. "I can see what is in it for them but not for us," was the gist of what Richard Scudamore, the league's chief executive, had to say.

The vote on the proposal was 20–0 against. Scudamore is no doubt used to his organisation being blamed for everything from rising ticket prices to global warming. But watching Sevilla dismantle their Scottish opposition the other night (and watching Arsenal do the same to Celtic) the impact the Premier League has had on the Scottish game was unmissable.

Why did the Old Firm look so out-classed on both occasions? Simple. Because the managers are forced to rely on mediocre players, or in the case of Walter Smith, who fielded a 39-year-old centre-half against Fredi Kanouté, on players well past their sell-by date.

And why would that be so? Because the market place has been so distorted by the Premier League that Celtic and Rangers can no longer compete with the likes of Burnley and Wigan when it comes to signing players or, as was the case with Roberto Martínez, promising young managers.

These days Celtic are reduced to taking cast-offs from Charlton and promising lads from Stockport. A near-bankrupt Rangers, meanwhile, signed one player on loan through the summer and that was it. Hanky? I thought not. Yet anyone who cares about football in general should care about the message wrapped up in Tuesday's outcome at Ibrox, which is that Scottish football is in terminal decline.

The national team is a joke, many of the league clubs are but a bank manager's letter from extinction and the two biggest are, in European terms, nowhere. What we are witnessing here is not long overdue humbling of the arrogant Old Firm but the demise of a grand football tradition.

This is not Cypriot or Irish football we are taking about here. This is Scottish football, which for decades was a global powerhouse, producing players and, especially, managers who were a match for any in the world.

Two years ago Rangers made it to a European final. Since then the decline has been so steep that it is impossible to imagine a Scottish club ever doing the same thing again.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Interesting article.

There has to be some young kids coming up in Scottish footy? What about McCarthy at WIgan?

 

[Mistadobalina]

They need to build the best schools of excellence in world to have a chance of producing a great scotish side the dutch must be a similar sized nation?

 

[Pesam]

For decades Scotland was a hotbed for young talent and one has to believe that the talent is still there but due to a lack of finance and appalling management by the SFA this talent is been wasted.

Scotland have just picked Daniel Fox of Coventry for their forthcoming international game - he has a Scottish Grandfather. This is symptomatic of the problem, they would never have capped an Englishman 20 years ago.

The Celtic/Rangers rivalry is vile and I hate the hatred that is endemic on both sides and for that reason alone I have no problem in seeing both teams demoted to also-rans in European terms.

I would love to see a strong Scottish national team however and the talent is there; McFadden, McCormack, Fletcher, Brown, Hutton, Gordon etc but Burley seems to be following a succession of managers who fail to pick the best players and/or fail to get the best out of them.

I will be watching the derby on Sunday and will be supporting Celtic (sorry Doc, it's my Irish heritage) but to be honest if Celtic lose it won't affect me in the slightest because this league is so marginalised now that it doesn't really matter.

 

[jexykrodic]

Something catastrophic appears to have happened in Scotland for the tap to be turned off in such spectacular fashion.

With all due respect to McFadden, McCormack, Fletcher, Brown, Hutton, Gordon et al they are a pale imitation of past Scottish Internationals.

Could it be that Scottish youth are uninterested or there are few facilities for them?

It makes no sense that Scottish clubs are underresourced as all that would mean is that Scots would simply gravitate to English League's.

In fact, there seem to be very few Scottish sporting heroes currently, maybe all sports North of the Border are suffering?

 

[Stulikesdrums]

[quote author=LeTallecWiz link=topic=36219.msg955774#msg955774 date=1254461193]
Interesting article.

There has to be some young kids coming up in Scottish footy? What about McCarthy at WIgan?
[/quote]

He has declared for Ireland, just like McGeady.

 

[Pesam]

It's true Jexy that the players I listed are not world beater (except McCormack who IMO could play at the highest level if given a chance) but with the right manager Scotland have enough potential to be competing on an equal footing with Ukraine, Sweden, Czech, Serbia etc instead of struggling to beat the likes of The Faroes.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

how good is Fleck from Rangers?

 

[Stulikesdrums]

[quote author=LeTallecWiz link=topic=36219.msg955825#msg955825 date=1254470876]
how good is Fleck from Rangers?
[/quote]

Awesome in FM. Meant to be a very talented lad, or so I read. Never seen him play though.

 

[Pesam]

[quote author=Stu link=topic=36219.msg955828#msg955828 date=1254470946]
[quote author=LeTallecWiz link=topic=36219.msg955825#msg955825 date=1254470876]
how good is Fleck from Rangers?
[/quote]

Awesome in FM. Meant to be a very talented lad, or so I read. Never seen him play though.
[/quote]

I haven't seen him either apart from the odd 2 or 3 minutes as a late sub. I've heard mixed reviews but even those who don't rate him too highly say he has potential.

 

[keniget]

They're not the only league to have been affected by the dominance of the Premiership in recent years. Perhaps none have been affected quite so much, but the fact still remains that it the responsiblity of looking after Scottish football falls on the shoulders of the SFA and no-one else.