Hating Rangers Won't Be Enough

[andy steel 0]

As we disappear over the horizon into an uncertain future, it's time to examine what the grassroots revolution 'led by the fans' will mean for the game in the country as a whole. Everyone knows there are a lot of unknowns, and even more of Rumsfeld's unknown unknown's, but there's little point waiting until the damage is done before complaining - as a Bluenose, I should know. Now that upstanding morality has been established, the key question for football fans must be: will standards improve?

 

Almost certainly not. The reason standards in the SPL are shite is not because of a lack of money, or facilities, or because big bad Rangers were causing it. It is because the coaches are crap - playing a style of football even England or Ireland, those relics of the past who briefly spoiled the mighty Euro2012 juggernaut of football, would reject. If the revolution comes with the dismissal of the old guard and the appointment of coaches who get teams playing real football it might improve; the last man to get a job in the SPL, John McGlynn, is unlikely to be mistaken for Joachim Loew. We (Rangers) have been bad enough in Europe; anyone who thinks St Johnstone are likely to record a better performance is either a Perth fan positive to point of delusion or needing to visit the doctor.

 

A Dundee United fan said the other day that the last time the old firm were in dire straits, Scottish football benefited from it in the form of the strong DUFC and Aberdeen teams of the early 1980s. This is true. But to suggest that such a scenario is likely to recur is overly optimistic. It ignores all the qualifiers one must take into account.

 

When Jim McLean was constructing his title winning side, he was able to tie players to long term deals for modest reward, and to decide when and for how much they would leave Tannadice. The days of the autocratic manager holding all the cards are long gone - should Dundee Utd assemble a team capable of reaching the European Cup semi final again, it would be scattered to the four footballing winds before it had a chance to play so much as a July qualifying round. Added to that, with only one side in Scotland worth moving to, the lure of England would increase. Any player who fancied a move would be off like a shot, contract or no contract, and, with all the cards in his hands, the club cannot be sure of a decent return on any players sold.

 

Motherwell recently revealed that their financial position was precarious owing mainly to their failure to secure a player trade either in January or the summer. This would be the default position of any Scots club - and English clubs would know it. While they may be cash rich, I fail to see why they'd willingly give a Scottish club £300,000 when they only need pay £50,000 for a player. Ironically, given the resentment other teams fans' felt about Rangers poaching their players, the lack of Rangers makes them even more vulnerable to the same thing happening - and for less.

 

The success of Aberdeen, too, is hardly likely to be repeated unless that club can unearth another manager of the class of Alex Ferguson. This is only a hunch, but my money is on them faililng to do so. We've seen their decline since Ferguson's days from Cup and title winners to perennial relegation candidates - I remain to be convinced that the loss of Rangers is going to reviltalise them to the degree that they will once again challenge for Scottish, let alone European, silverware.

 

Were Willie Miller playing now, he would not have been a career Aberdeen player, nor would Leighton, or McLeish, or the other greats from that period. The best players will either go to celtc or England. This may well lead to a better Scottish national side - all well and good - but it's not going to improve whatever the top division in Scotland is called.

 

Hibs fans have issued a statement suggesting an absence of Sky will see the return of 3 o'clock Saturday games, and with it a surge of support from hitherto stay at home fans. This ignores the point that Hibs have had plenty of such games without coming close to filling the newly built Easter Road; the same can be said for every club outwith the detested Glasgow duo.

 

True Believers, lovingly handling samizdat copies of the Collected Shreikings of Jim Spence while huddled in a dingy Dundee backstreet, may buy into this golden dawn which is, apparently, just around the corner. Anyone capable of actually analysing the situation - and there's precious few of those around - ought to be filled with foreboding at what this revolution is going to cause.

[Zappa 0]

That's your updated article published now Andy - http://t.co/9DHtvjIx

 

[alexscottislegend 2,429]

A really good well-written article which highlights just how stupid most of the clubs in Scotland have become. If we go to Div. 3 I fear part-time football beckons for the top tier in Scotland.

[Max Rebo's Big Blue Nose 0]

A very well written article. Take a bow

[amms 0]

Good stuff Andy.

 

There can be little doubt Scottish football quality will deteriorate in the next few seasons as budgets are slashed and clubs get into bother. However, I wonder if mid to long term that this might be beneficial for the sport up here. The harsh reality is very few clubs have been run well recently. Self interest and financial expediency have been at the cost of a more competitive league and if anyone needed reminded the last weeks events have surely shown that the game in this country is run be self serving egotists who have no concept of what the game actually needs.

 

It might be subconscious defence mechanism kicking in but I actually wonder if a period of relative poverty isn't exactly what the game here needs. Clubs forced to engage with their support, wider supports taking an interest in who runs their clubs and the decisions they make and a levelling of the financial imbalance between clubs might not be a bad thing.

 

But I agree we're miles away from provincial clubs making European finals again.

[pete 2,499]

If the new FIFA\UEFA fair play rules are real then most clubs are going to have to severely cut costs in the next few years. Hopefully big headed over paid football players realise that.

[andy steel 0]

I can't see how our clubs being even more vulnerable to the advances of English clubs can be anything but detrimental. The national side may improve if our players go south and actually learn how to play, but our leagues are going to struggle to achieve parity with even the Irish league.

 

It may have been different were we further away from England and culturally less similar; but with such a close and financially wealthy avenue open, any player with ability (no matter how big headed!) is going to be over Hadrian's Wall faster than you can say out of contract.

[Guest Dutchy]

Our game has been going down hill for years, not just lately and certainly not because of the predicament we find ourselves in.

 

In fact, I believe that Scottish football will improve as we have to depend on youth to get us out of the mess we're in.

 

Then maybe, we'll learn, and the other Scottsh teams will follow that self dependancy is the way forward. And let young players realise that if they want to scadaddle down south they'll not begoing unless they make an agreement with the club selling them that the club will get a profit from nurturing their successful careers.

[TheWeeBlueDevil 0]

Scottish football will never start to improve until the rhats that plague the corridors of power at Hampden park are flushed out.

 

It will take decades for football in this country to recover from the carnage of the SPL, and the disastrous incompetent, even at times malicious leadership of Doncaster Regan and the puppet master Liewell . They have done so much damage to the game here it might never recover.

 

Andy is spot on about being so close to England and the added problems that brings.

[54andcounting 0]

Football in Scotland has been dying a lingering death most like any other big nation around Europe. The Spanish, English, Germans & Italians will continue through television to enhance their game to the detriment of the rest, Holland, Portugal and France will as always push on and cling on.

But football is dying everywhere except Spain, Engerland, Germany and Italia.