Is the Hearts bank broken?
Five in a row for Hearts. If they can keep this running as long as one of Csaba Laszlo's answers during interviews, they could well win the Champions' League, as once outrageously promised by owner Vladimir Romanov.
Laszlo speaks like he has swallowed a box of Scrabble, but there is no doubt he is the inspiration behind this great spell.
If only they were equally adept at spelling PR.
Just as everything in the garden seems to be coming up lovely, a right shower of bankers let Hearts down by failing to pay the wages on time.
The club claim it wasn't an issue, but try telling that to your building society when they, in turn, try to take the funds out of your account.
And just before Christmas too. Bah humbug.
Still, it would be crass not to give the club a thunderous round of applause for their soaring to third spot in the championship race and the underlining that Tynecastle is again a scary place for even the Old Firm to visit.
Their in-their-faces approach to Rangers was refreshing for Hearts fans who have watched too often as their team rolled over and purred as Glasgow's big two fired the three points on to the coach going back along the M8.
Laszlo ordered a Corporal Jones approach and, right enough, Walter Smith's side didn't like it up 'em.
The game passed Smith's midfield by and it is a long time since I saw Barry Ferguson so out of touch with everything that was happening around him. Of course, cock-up defending, where Rangers defenders couldn't have won a game of tig in their own six yard box, didn't help them, but analysis of Ibrox deficiencies is for another day.
This is a wee acknowledgement that, hopefully, at long last, Hearts might have found the straight and narrow again.
Christophe Berra was sensational against Rangers and it is, of course, only a matter of time before he is installed as Scotland's centre-half. Or flogged in the January market place.
News of his progress is being whispered in the boardrooms of England and no doubt Stuart Pearce, who was at the weekend game to monitor Andrew Driver's chances of being included in an England Under-21 squad, will be telling a few pals in the south about the defending abilities of the Hearts captain.
But, just this once, it would be awful nice if they could close the one player or more check-out and keep Berra around the place for at least another season or two.
If he goes then, hand-in-hand with Hibs, Edinburgh's Premier League clubs will have flogged off the best part of £25m worth of talent in the last few seasons.
Can you imagine what might have happened had Craig Gordon, Paul Hartley, Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Garry O'Connor and a few others still been reporting for work in the capital?
Meanwhile, back in the real world.
So why the difference? What has made it all go right with Heart of Midlothian?
I noticed one factor at the weekend. Only Marius Zaliukas in the starting line-up was of Lithuanian extraction, which is not at all a racist observation but one which suggests that the influence of Romanov may be diluting by the day, at least in terms of team selection.
Steve Frail, among others, might ruefully reflect on what he might have achieved had he too been freed of the owners' grasp on the team sheet.
Wee Vlad has either been persuaded to stop playing with his train set and watch it go better or his mind is elsewhere, like at Kaunas, for whom he has threatened to register himself as a player at the age of a mere 61.
Go on yourself, wee man, I say to that. If I owned a club, I'd make myself captain.
Of course, the testing time comes right now. Their revival doesn't seem strong enough to prise themselves between Celtic and Rangers, but they will face other challenges - from Dundee United and Aberdeen in particular - which must be matched if they are to be allowed to take a bow at the season's end.
That, and a consistent ability to fill wage packets on time, will mark progress.
For sure, Laszlo can talk the talk. I need to fire my ears into a bucket of cold water at the end of interviews.
But you know something? I suspect he might be able to walk the walk too.
"Tell them who you are and what you are about," they said. To be honest, there are days when I struggle to remember myself. Forty years toiling at the coalface of football journalism does that to you. But I have reason to believe that I have reached the heady heights of the title of Football Correspondent of BBC Scotland which gives me a renown, in Scottish terms, of somewhere between Alex Salmond and the deep fried Mars Bar.
© MMX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~03~RS~)
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Limit your columns to something you care about - Rangers.
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His writing gets worse every week - and he's never one to let the facts get in the way of a poorly-written story, is he?
FYI Chick, it wasn't "just before xmas", it was NOVEMBER. Stevie Frail has already come out and said that Romanov did NOT interfere with team selection.
The only piece of media coverage that has been worse this week was Chick's cringeworthy attempt at interviewing Walter Smith after the match on Saturday.
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Chick, not a bad article but please don't go off at tangents halfway through!
Everybody knows that the problems at Hearts are Romanov's fault, yet Hearts fans seem lax in making their voices heard to oust 'Mad Vlad'. Had he taken control of a Premiership/Championship club south of the border, he would have been hung, drawn and quartered for the way he has (mis)managed Hearts.
Numptee Vlad talks about (Jam?)tarting up Tynecastle and Hearts becoming the dominant force (farce?) in Scottish football. Well, with a credit crunch firmly upon us and the fact that Celtic are flying and have been the best team in Scotland since the 2005/06 season, it seems that Vlad has become the King of Wishful Thinking (and maybe him and the Hearts board should 'Go West' - or rather East!)
Seriously now, if I were a Hearts fan the following would definately be on my Christmas list:
A one way ticket back to Lithuania for the Numptee Hearts board.
The brother/cousin/best mate of the Man City owner to take over at Tynecastle.
Stability and the team to focus on the field rather than on events off it.
Seems now that I'm the King of Wishful Thinking.... 'we'll get over Vlad, we know we will...'
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Reply to 2 - yeah and the Severn Bridge tolls.
Infact, just scrap Labour!
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I think it can only be a good thing to have some competition in the scottish game to push up standards however i have serious concerns for Hearts financial stability in the current financial climate.The silence of mr Vlad should ring some serious alarm bells in my opinion.
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some people seem to only post comments which seem to me to be aimed as personal insults to Mr young, please grow up and move on in life,you do yourself no credit and just show why scottish football will never move on while we have such a negative attitude.Chick loves the game and is entitled to his opinions! You dont have to agree I dont always!! but please lets use this forum to be positive
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Yet again another bit of sterling journalism from the king of the awful metaphor. It still baffles me that someone actually pays for this nonsense. Oh wait, thats us the licence fee payer. Scottish football journalism needs to be brought into modern times and I would absolutely love a young, non old firm tainted writer who could actually write to take up a column.
Wishful thinking...
Ah well great results from Hearts, long may it continue.
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I'm actually feeling a wee bit sorry for Chick - just a wee bit though.
Whatever we think of the reasons behind him writing this piece, it is - as others have pointed out - good that he's writing about something outside of Glasgow.
Goan yersel Chick - spread the love/hate etc.
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Reply to #8
I POSITIVELY despise Mr Young and feel that he and his like minded cronies are a big reason why Scottish football will never move on.
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8# Not personal insults, just sick to death of the west coast media bias. Come on Chick take up the challenge. Investigate Rangers' finance and write a peice about the debt of Murry International Metals. Just how much are the owe? Investagative journalism isn't that hard. If I can do it so can you. Give us your "take" on what will happen when Mr Murray can't support them any more, it will be sooner than you think.
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Yawn Yawn
The Jambos stuffed your team!! wages or no wages.I am sure the hearts players can still pay their mortgages Mr Young.
I applaud your enthusiasm when you talk up scotland and even talking up the useless darren fletcher, but this item just sounds like sour grapes and the usual "PUNDITS BIG SPOON"
I think that the same guys have been pundits so long on the beeb that they believe that us listeners/viewers believe their inane drivel.
News just in "WE DON'T!!!!"
WELL DONE HEARTS!!
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Here Chick, Just a taster for you.
Rangers parent company, Murray International Holdings, have seen debts rise to an eye-watering £759m to the year ending January 2008 (2007: £677m), over £730m of which is payable to the companies bankers.
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"If only they were equally adapt at spelling PR."
If only Chick was equally ADEPT at journalism...
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Chick Young has a go at Csaba Laszlo for being verbose?!?!?
Thousands of pots breathe a sigh of relief that, at long last, the attention can be shifted from them.
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Normally, I don't comment on the stewed metaphors and corned witticisms rife throughout Chick's columns - there seems precious little point seeing as he never replies to any comments which would imply he doesn't read them - but I really can't get my head around this one.
'...where Rangers defenders couldn't have won a game of tig in their own six yard box...'
Honestly; how would that actually work?
Despite my dislike of Hearts, it's good to see anybody challenge the Old Firm but at the end of the day it's a home victory. These should happen more often against Celtic and Rangers and should not be seen as an aberration from the norm. Other than Saturday's result, Rangers' only other defeat this season was away to Saint Mirren, meaning that Rangers have lost twice this season and Celtic only once - to Rangers!
Unrealistic though it is, the fact that Hearts beating Rangers at Tynecastle is such massive news itself reflects a total lack of ambition in the smaller clubs, for years manifest in the desire of their desire to become the 'third force in Scottish football'. And there's really no good reason for this yawning diffidence; in simple terms, football is eleven versus eleven. Yes, there are many factors that can affect a football match, but players at all twelve clubs are professionals in their field. If they don't believe that they deserve to compete at the top then they should really look for another job.
Chick; in the unlikely event that you actually read the comments or give even the remotest damn about what they say, how's about doing a profile on any one of the other three professional leagues in our great nation? Not only are the non-OF teams under-represented in your blogs - recent columns on Hearts and Dundee United notwithstanding - there are other things going on in Scottish football as a whole. Your BBC colleagues such as Tim Vickery, Paul Fletcher and Gavin Strachan often take a lateral view - be it either by initiative or remit - and their work is far more rewarding to the reader as a result. Your introduction at the top of your page - to 'tell them who you are, and what you're about' - seems to be more of a theme for your writing than just a simple instruction from your boss as how to fill that space in the blog.
Not that I want to do your work for you, but here's an idea you may want to follow up: Livi have just sacked their manager (again). Their early-season form has slumped, Pearse Flynn is trying to sue them (having impressively side-stepped his own creditors by making the club liable) and the whole thing looks set to implode.
Meanwhile, fourteen points separate top from bottom in the Scottish First; the top five by six points. Dunfermline, St Johnstone, Dundee, Morton and Partick Thistle - comparatively large clubs with substantial support and proud history - play in this division but it's as if they don't exist at all. In terms of a league worth watching the quality is hardly European standard, but plainly neither is that of Celtic and Rangers. The only downside to the Scottish First is that the winners are punished by having to play in the dullest competition that I am aware of.
Alternatively, just persist in regurgitating the same old agenda promoted by the Scottish red-tops and watch interest in your blog - and repute as any sort of journalist - continue to choke and dwindle.
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Lyrical and articulate put down of the much maligned Chick from Pele Duarte there. I agree entirely with your sentiments regarding the lack of belief rife in all the teams outwith the old firm. You just need to look at the Aalborg results to see how easy it is to beat the best in Scotland. The first division has had all the excitement available in Scotland for years now, simply because it is a genuine competition.
How to shake it up? My suggestions for how to improve the league are fairly obvious:
1) One team relegated? So boring. Should be 2 down automatic with a play off between 2nd and 3rd from the first division.
2) 10 teams? Beyond boring. Make it 12 at least. If I had my way it'd be 14 or 16. Shake it up. Remove the complacency.
3) We cannot sustain 40 proffesional clubs. Restructure the entire league to be just 3 divisions. Premier, first and second with teams coming in and out of the league from the Highlands or Juniors or wherever...we try to match Englands size of league when they have 10 times the population. It's insane. We don't have 40 decent players let alone 40 decent teams.
I love Scottish football...well...I loved Scottish football when we ally resilience with flair like we used to...I can't stand the dull, overpriced, vacuous, predictable, skill less sub-product served up these days. It's got to the point where I actually like Mad Vlad as he at least makes it interesting!
So, in conclusion, well done the Jambos ; )
If only all teams were run by a nuclear meltdown surviving, financially dubious, tap dancing ego centric.
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I totally agree with your proposals DDB - enlargement of the top flight to fourteen or sixteen clubs, with a greater risk of relegation would liven the SPL up enormously.
Before others volunteer them, the central arguments against this are provisionally valid. The non-OF teams lose the revenue from two OF games a season, and there's no way a franchise like the SPL will vote for a league system where there's a greater chance of member clubs being relegated.
Regardless of these, the league, and the game as a whole in Scotland, is dying. While the Old Firm, with the constant buoy of domestic success beneath them, retain their season-ticket holders and thusly their revenue. In the meantime, the other sides - and especially those languishing in the bottom six - see their average crowd numbers dwindle and become ever more reliant on the terrible twosome to bring their supports to the ground. It's an absolute embarrassment, and it's disenfranchising the next generation who should be going to watch the fitba of a Saturday afternoon as opposed to sitting casually switching between Soccer Saturday on Sky and the Playstation. If club governances are wondering why kids aren't going to the football, they would do well to ask themselves if they would, given the number of cheaper alternatives and the fact that nobody wants to shell out twelve sheets to watch their team get stuffed while four times as many away supporters gloat and sing (at best) seriously suspect songs in what should be the home stands.
An overall restructuring of the game in Scotland to three top leagues (with promotion and relegation to the Juniors) could also be of benefit. It's as though we're ashamed to admit that the English structure - albeit with their elitist faults in the Premiership - is far more conducive to ambition and the long-term health of the sport in Scotland. There is not only the competition to get into the Premiership Rich Club, but a genuine level of competition in Leagues One and Two in England. That, at least, they have absolutely nailed. It maintains passion in the support, and interest in the game.
On a club-by-club level, there should be significant investment in youth systems where none already exists. Nobody seems to be interested in taking a ten- or fifteen-year view of things. It has been abundantly proven that there is absolutely no quick fix to Scottish football and without a concerted and wide-ranging review on how the sport is operated - from the very top, to the very bottom - we'll never escape the peaks and troughs of the national side, and the domestic game will be of little to no interest to those outside the Old Firm.
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Pele Duarte.
I take your point but my only concern in increasing the league to 14-16 teams would lead to even more meaningless games. What would get the bigger crowd St.Johnstone vs Dunfermline challenging for SD1 or the same clubs battling for say 9th, 10th place in the SPL?
Sometimes the split produces some very interesting games with clubs still battling it out for the league, 3rd place and relegation however this has rarely happened, but in principal its a good idea.
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17#Quote:
And there's really no good reason for this yawning diffidence; in simple terms, football is eleven versus eleven.
This is true but when you have two teams able to spend Millions on players there will always be a gulf.
If you had studied football you would see that as far back as the first world war Rangers and Celtic have dominated. Why? Because they used underhand methods even then. While players from other clubs joined up,the OF ilegally paid so called amature players and started to build for the future,You then have glory hunting fans that, never go to games but watch on TV and spend their money on replical tops, instead of supporting their local team. The west coast media and officials of the GFA have perpetuated this system to the result no other team are allowed to win the league as Refs have been instructed to make sure this never happens.
The OF are against the 16 team league, as they know it would help the other clubs mount a serious challenge to the OF ,and they and the GFA don't want that to happen.
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'... but analysis of Ibrox deficiencies is for another day.'
Any chance of that day arriving in my lifetime, Chick?
In the week that Rangers fall 7 points behind Celtic in the league, you concentrate on the same old mad-vlad nonsense? How about congratulating Hearts on a 5 game unbeaten run that has propelled them up the league? or picking out the reasoned analysis from the Hearts coach that pinpointed Rangers long ball game as being a factor in their defeat? It seems to be that you're quite keen to make fun of his grasp of English, yet not so keen to actually dwell on his words?
As for the number of teams arguement as given in post #21, it'll never happen, and it's not down to the Old Firm not wanting competition - It's precisely the opposite. The other teams don't want to lose the revenue that extra games against the Old Firm generate. I think you'll also ignoring the reason why the Premier League came about. The competition in a 16 team league just wasn't there. Rangers and Celtic were regularly winning 5 and 6-0 against other teams in the league, and cutting the number was an attempt to strengthen competition. Whilst I'm sure that Morton, St Johnstone, Partick Thistle etc. are fine teams, I still don't think that they would really add that much because of their relatively small size. The only way to make things better would be, as you suggest, locals actually supporting their local teams. Killie could quite easily be getting crowds of over 10,000 every week if it wasn't for the buses leaving for Ibrox and Parkhead every week. If a way was found to give youngsters some sort of identity with their home town teams, then the trickle down effect would be more money for the local team, more money for wages/transfers, and more competition. But it's the million dollar question - How do you get youngsters allied to their local side in the first place?
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What a pointless little man you really are chick! Have you ever written a positive blog about Hearts? How about a blog about how Hearts managed to overcome the mighty Rangers? Wait that would be a silly idea! You are a bigot and until we are rid of 'journalists' like yourself, Scottish Football will never move forward. One good thing is that when Murray International Metals goes t1ts up we will all have a right good laugh at you!! We will also laugh when st mirren get relegated at the end of the season!
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PeleDuarte, since I was clear that I disagreed with some of your points last week I think it is only fair to tell you that I agree with most of what you and DoubleDragBack say this week.
Oh, for similar long-term thinking from the people who run the clubs and game in this country!
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That was a really poorly written article, whether or not it was pro or anti hearts. Chick you go off on tangents in the middle of this article, just proving the point you're not exactly a Scottish football expert when you resort to cheap digs and silly remarks about Barry Ferguson and Laszlo...get some facts or something in dude, otherwise it's just plain poor reading:P
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a brilliant piece; insightful, courageous and certainly not lacking in substance.
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The Edinburgh clubs have no choice but to flog talent escpecially with Petrie/Romanov at the reigns, then they go off to the old firm and are left to rot.
Im a hibby and i can honestly Berras a great player and will move but i find it comical you say he will soon be in Scotlands central defence, If he was at the old firm or down south he woulda been seasons ago, Scott Brown in awesome form b4 his move hardly got a look in then moved to celtic within a few weeks he's a regular, same with kevin thompson, Maloney doesnt kick a ball for Villa or scotland moves back to celtic and hes a regular its not how they play its who they play for hence why we're pants.
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ITHINK CELTIC WILL MAKE IT 4 IN AROW
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27# You are correct. Playing for the old squirm gets you a place in the national team. On a side point how can Burley refuse to play Boyd because he doesn't get games for Rangers, yet gets sidepassbarrypassback into the team when he was out injured for weeks?
Note to Chick: It's been stated on here you don't read these posts. Prove them wrong and include some of these messages in your next blog. I know you won't ,because that would mean you have to do some work.
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CapitalGer; I agree that the split is a good idea in principle, but it's a half-cooked response to previous bad planning. The SPL members decided that yes, the league was dull from third place downwards but as a result of their dependency on four - or at least three - fixtures against the Old Firm, they tried to spice the season up for the ten other teams from the point in the season beyond which it had traditionally become terminally pointless. By placing the carrot of the top six finish in front of four teams - the real prize being that fourth fixture against the Old Firm - they exposed themselves for being interested in (and compelled by) the gate money and not the prestige or ambition that should be motivating them.
I do also accept that there are always going to be pointless ties towards the end of the season, irrespective of what division teams play in. However, DDB did suggest that additional teams should get relegated and promoted in conjunction with league enlargement, so it's not as though the danger of demotion would simply disappear if the SPL was extended to a fourteen- or sixteen-team competition. This is further supported by how tight the margins can be between the bottom clubs. For example, last season Gretna were miles behind the pack but the three teams that finished above them were separated by only three points. The season before, Dunfermline went down but the three teams above them only had six points to divide them.
In my opinion, the SPL smacks of self preservation at present, and the member clubs and umbrella administrators are conveniently ignoring what it's doing to the game.
NeonJames52; I did say that there are many other factors that affect a football match. I hold similar views to you in the main about the core and fringe support of the Old Firm, albeit without the conspiracy theory regarding the GFA and the referees. However, as a 'student of football' (Lucky you! I wish I could have gone on a course like that!), you will also know that only Celtic or Rangers have won the top league in Scotland for the past twenty-three years. In the twenty-three years prior to that, Aberdeen, Dundee United and Killie all achieved honours (six between them). In the twenty-three years prior to that, Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen and Dundee were all champions (seven league titles between them). This does indeed reflect that the Old Firm has dominated the league, but it also demonstrates that the stranglehold can be broken. It's that first statistic that is of the greatest concern; a twenty-three year-long duopoly is never, ever, going to be good for the game in Scotland.
#22; I've got a good friend who's a Killie fan, and it broke my heart when I went to Rugby Park a few years back to see a good ground, with fine facilities and a team that was playing decent football, not being supported locally. There was about three-thousand fans sitting in the home enclosure, the two other home stands being empty and closed. As many before me have said however, great pies but.
How to get people to support their local team is indeed a conundrum, especially in these globalised days where people in India or Japan now feel a greater affiliation with Arsenal or Manchester United than their own local side. In the face of this, what chance do we have?! Again, however, I feel that a part of the solution is again dependent on the clubs themselves. If they were more proactive in getting into local schools, handing out free jerseys to local sides, involving these sides in the local setup, streaming talent through an organised and stratified youth academy, not to mention dropping admission prices for primary-age children altogether, I am confident most teams would see a real difference in their support within five to ten years. This may only be a small piece of the puzzle, but it's not being done to an acceptable degree just now.
MarkRP; thanks for that. Irrespective of whichever club we support (and let's face it, whichever side of the OF divide we stand), I sense that Scottish football fans feel that they are being short-changed by the administrators and individual boards, more so than ever before. We all moan and bump our gums about the state of things from time to time, but there seems to be total dissatisfaction in the way in which the Scottish game is being run. I believe that most Old Firm fans would welcome an increase in competition as it could translate to better experience for their players to take into Europe, and the opportunity of honours to the non-Old Firm fans is surely the Holy Grail. But to complain yet suggest no solution is as criminal as the present apathy of the powers that be. The SFA need to wake up and realise that our teams - domestic and national - are on the periphery of the international game and support for the sport is suffering as a result. Just as I said about players earlier, if they're not interested in being the best they can be, and promoting and developing the sport in their native country, they should seriously consider their positions and consider working elsewhere.
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Here we go again with the Chico bashing. The usual band of Celtic fans who still honestly believe he is a Rangers fan in disguise and the disgruntled Jambos and their imaginary west coast media bias. Heres a bit of advice for you. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Good article Chic, awful metaphors aside, you tell it how it is. Obviously a bit much for some people.
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32 - If only life were so simple. Unfortunately my licence fee helps pay Mr.Youngs's wages. The fact that he continues to produce these ramblings every week should therefore be a concern for everyone who contributes to the BBC coffers.
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PeleDuarte, I would probably go further than you on these points:
* I think a top flight of 18 (yes, 18) sides, second of 22 (the vast majority of which would, by necessity, be part-time), and proper promotion, three up and down between them - and this is one of the keys - proper promotion and relegation between the 22-team division and the local leagues directly below them: for how many years did the Inverness sides look at East Stirling, Cowdenbeath, etc and think "if only"? I know, turkeys, Christmas, all that, but I'm thinking purely of what would be for the best of the game.
* The bigger top flight would give - for example - Hibs more breathing space to develop their youth academy and take a long-term view of how to challenge the Old Firm on their own terms without the fear of being relegated (as they were recently: a genuine fear even for clubs of their - relatively big in Scotland - size) while trying to sort out their new way of running the club.
* For a few years recently there was practically no relegation from the Prem because of the summer-long legal battles to keep the first division winners out because their grounds were too small (or, in Falkirk's case, admittedly about to fall down - but there was no attempt from the SPL to help them find a solution, rather to keep the mince who deserved to be relegated in the top flight). What a terrible effect this has on competition and quality.
* Does anyone honestly think "oh, I really hope we finish in the top six this season" As you say, it's all about that fourth Old Firm fixture.
* Yes, yes, yes, the clubs outside the Old Firm can and must do more to attract local fans. It's not easy, but it's so, so important. Rather than blaming the Old Firm for essentially being popular (I know not everyone will agree with the simplistic way I put that).
Of course, we all know the financial reasons against all this, but I am convinced it would all contribute to improving the Scotland team (if Hibs and others could develop a long-term plan to help them hang onto their talent and to have a chance of competing for the top honours in Scotland, qualifying for Europe, doing better in Europe...), and surely financial results are just the means to these ends?
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I must have read a different article to most of the posters on here. As far as I can tell, Chick seems to have spent most of the article praising Hearts' performance, with a few asides to comment on related matters. Seems quite reasonable to me.
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Markrp, I agree 100% with everything you wrote there - the old two-division system last seen in 1975 I believe (before my time) was converted into three smaller divisions so that - guess what - the top teams could play each other more often thereby gaining more revenue. Returning to two divisions is an interesting concept, and I concur that it is vital that the juniors become a subdivision in the style of the conference down south.
I absolutely believe that this would be best for the game, not least because it would make away-game travel more interesting again and increase goodwill between supports of the larger and smaller sides. Utopian, I know, but we can dream!
Those seasons where there was no relegation exposed the SPL for what it was, and largely remains; a poorly organised sham. The 12,000 all-seater stadium rule was a joke from the beginning as only the twelve founding clubs along with Hibs (who were in the First Division at the SPL's inception), Airdrie, Clyde and Livingston (all of whom were in the second, I think) could satisfy that requirement. Irrespective of the fact that very few clubs were regularly getting much more than half their seats filled for a game, it demonstrated the overt protectionism that has persisted and ruined competition in that division.
I think only Aberdeen fans are happy when they finish in the 'top six'; after all, beating the split is the only thing that a manager who isn't Alex Ferguson can do that he didn't.
If it's a case of finance being a major obstacle to change, then this argument is simply not good enough as it's blatantly clear that all teams in Scotland are fully capable of making a loss, even the Old Firm. I mentioned a salary cap on a previous blog, and such possibilities exist in other sports. I particularly like the existence of the draught system in Basketball, Gridiron and AFL, but I think that would be a paradigm shift too far for the piped blazers of the governing boards. A long-term view is needed, as has been mentioned by several of the posters above. Only the SFA and the SPL (that we have two organisations 'running' the game is a joke in itself) are capable of providing the change we sorely need, but season after season we see things deteriorating without any intervention whatsoever. It's depressing, and it's absolutely murdering the game and much of the enjoyment that people still get out of watching it.
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Mr. Young,
It is possible that some coverage of Scottish football will take a neutral point of view.
It is even possible that some of it, although probably a smaller percentage, will describe the matches being played at the weekends in clear and scientifically accurate terms.
It is, however, absolutely certain that much of the coverage of the matches will present garbled information, sensationalized to sell the story and, far too often, emphasize the storyline that Scottish football is controversial and the people who run it are immoral.
My younger brother (12) finds your appalling display of cheap, irresponsible journalism amusing; I find your horrendous lack of journalistic integrity unsettling, sad and frustrating all at once.
In my opinion Mr. Young, you are, without a doubt, one of the poorest journalists currently writing for the BBC.
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If only Chick was equally adept at spelling Kaunas.
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Pele, you touched on another point that I realised I should have made in my last post: in our ideal world the SPL, the SFL and the SFA would be rolled back into one organisation.
But then there's fewer jobs for the blazers. And so it goes on...
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#22, the way to engender local support is to scrap Scottish football as we know it, and start all over again from scratch. This means that all Scottish football fans must make genuine sacrifices and put the game before all our clubs.
Scottish football is too small a pond to support the number of clubs we have - that much is true and we all know it. Scottish football lacks competition and this mainly is because it is dominated by Rangers and Celtic who take the greatest share of TV revenue and thrive on a fan base that grew out of cultural differences rather than local rivalry.
The answer is to regionalise our league. One side from Edinburgh, North Glasgow and South Glasgow (as opposed to East and West). One from Fife, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire, Aberdeen, and Dundee. Ayrshire, Borders, Highlands, and Central, making 12 sides. These sides must share all revenue that is generated and, like the MSL in the US, the leagues 'own' the players, not the clubs.
That is the answer if all of us out there wish to see genuine competition, and it would rid our society of a much larger problem in a stroke. But I suspect that we would rather keep the status quo and continue to moan about our lot into the next millenium.
You see, great change means making great sacrifices and I doubt if non old firm fans would have the stomach for it, far less the old firm fans. It's easier just to blame the old firm, moan about lack of competition and excitement, and then trot down to Tynecastle, Easter Road, Dens, Tannadice, and Rugby Park to watch the game with 5000-14000 other hardy souls.
The other downside is that it would finish our league as having any attraction outside of Scotland and the overall standard of product would be comparable to the Irish or Welsh leagues, so you can forget seeing North Glasgow or Edinburgh competing in the Champions League. In addition, it's all well and good having a North Glasgow and a Central football team: but would fans of Partick Thistle and Alloa, Falkirk, and The Shire continue to watch their 'local' club? Would Hearts and Hibs fans follow an 'Edinburgh United'? I doubt it. My guess is that, like the Welsh and Irish, we'd be jumping on trains and buses to watch sides in Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, or Manchester, rather than watch our smaller regionalised sides.
Let's face it: most of us aren't really football fans. We may like football but we prefer the local and cultural rivalries that come with it. That is why we will continue to mump and moan about lack of competiton. Because when push comes to shove what we all want is for someone else's club to make the changes needed. It's not so easy when we all have to make them. Hearts and Hibs fans may argue (correctly) that Fife cannot support four clubs; but are not prepared to admit that neither is Edinburgh capable of supporting two.
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#12, 14 - Highly unlikely given Chick's previous blog celebrating Sir David's glorious 20 years at Rangers, an exemplary piece in which not a mention of the staggering amount of debt is made!
The man has an invite for the bash at Chateaux Murray this weekend to think about!
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Is Chick ever going to write anything without my head spinning weaver's wheel?
Why can't we have articles written on the fine football being played at St. Johnstone; the emerging talent of young James McCarthy; the enigma of the undoubtedly talented but consistently inconsistent Aberdeen; of the fierce competition of the lower leagues; and even why Rangers, with all of their signings (i.e Edu, Aaron and Velika), still play dross like Charlie Adam and Lee McCulloch?
Come on Chick, address the relevant and pertinent issues, not just the money-grabbing (or in this case, money-grubbing) headlines.
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#40 IRN: Let's go even further. Let's have one club in Glasgow. We can take the first word from Glasgow Rangers' name and the second word from Glasgow Celtic's name, creating a brand new club: Glasgow Celtic. And they could play in Rangers' white shorts and Celtic's green and white hooped shirts.
I'd be willing to agree to all your crazy proposals if that happened.
One small point: you ask if fans of Partick Thistle would continue to support their local club under your proposals. Probably not, because you've decided to abolish them.
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CELTIC HAVE HAD A LOT OF INJURIES BUT ARE STILL GETTING THE RESULTS .SOME OF THE MEDIA AFTER THE LAST OLD FIRM GAME HAD MENDES AS THE NEXT PLAYER OF THE YEAR.WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE GREAT MENDES?.
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Yeah, you're obviously not too bright, #43, since you seem incapable of interpreting that I wasn't actually advocating the change I merely 'suggested' would increase competition and get local people supporting local clubs. Of course it wouldn't work in the way that would be hoped because as I explained, too many people aren't really all that bothered about the football, they go to identify with their religious, political, and cultural backgrounds. So thousands of people who currently find themselves at Celtic Park, Ibrox, Easter Road, Tynecastle, and heck, even Firhill, would not go. Hence our league would become a backwater like Wales or Ireland.
Partick's 'local' team, (and again I use a single inverted comma which you must have missed first time around' would be North Glasgow, since Partick and Maryhill are both North of the River Clyde.
Got that??
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IRN; your first post, despite its acknowledged unworkability, is inspired in its originality. You're correct that fans of the smaller teams wouldn't have the stomach for it and that local rivalries wouldn't survive amalgamation. Caley Thistle seems to have survived their merger but then the rivalry between Caledonian and Inverness Thistle, though substantial, was not as fierce as that between the Edinburgh, Dundee, and needless to say, Glasgow clubs. It would also be ridding the nation of one of very few things that typifies our game, a unique selling point if you will; history. To regionalise it would be to perversely disenfranchise supporters and as you correctly acknowledge the vast majority would fall out of love with the game altogether. Football in Australia provides an interesting comparison; it lacks history, quality and frankly authenticity, but it has enormous support. Indeed, 'soccer' is now the most widely played sport in Australia, because it is played across all states where instead AFL is focussed mainly in Victoria, Rugby League in New South Wales and so on. The fundamental distinction between 'soccer' in Australia and 'fitba' in Scotland is that the league in Australia is competitive. It really is as simple as that.
Still, it is pretty radical thinking that is required to get us out of this dilemma. I think MarkRP's comment is as tongue in cheek as they come - reminiscent as it is of the creation of the Liberal Democrats and a Spitting Image sketch of David Steel and David Owen - as he has already advocated great change, just not as radical as that which you put forward. I totally agree that the game should be governed by one singular body as the conflicts of interest are now multiplied by three.
Still no word back from the almichty Chico; I can only think that he can't work out how to use the system or he sees himself as some benevolent deity who once a week throws a controversial morsel into the bear pit over which for us to petulantly and selfishly squabble. It couldn't possibly be that he's so insulated and arrogant that he regards our feedback as uninformed, unreasoned drivel. Perhaps we should use more cliches? Then it could maybe become a blog of two halves, or something equally ridiculous.
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IRN, if it's a serious, bright answer you want, how about this?
Is Scottish football so sick that we should be suggesting a solution that would put us on a par with Flexsys Cefn Druids?
Are Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen's five-figure home attendances really so calamitous?
If I understand you correctly you suggest the Old Firm dominance is due to them taking a bigger share of TV revenue than other clubs. But what percentage of clubs' income comes from TV revenue? Much less than before "the other ten" ripped up Sky's ridiculously generous, never-to-be-repeated contract. The Old Firm's dominance is based on gate receipts and European income.
How would getting rid of Rangers and Celtic "rid our society of a much larger problem at a stroke"? Does no religious tension exist in Scotland outside of Rangers and Celtic? Was there no Irish-Scottish tension in Scotland before 1888? Do Rangers organise Orange Order marches through the streets of Glasgow, Airdrie, etc? Was the Battle of the Boyne fought between Celtic and Rangers?
There's not enough support for the current clubs but you want to create one for the rugby-playing Borders, which have no representation in the current 40-team league?
Why is 40 teams too many? Most of the smaller, part-time ones seem to be getting on with their thing without too much trouble. Downgrading the name of the league they play in or abolishing the clubs won't make them better.
Why isn't Edinburgh capable of supporting two sides? Nottingham is. Bristol is. Verona is. They're all smaller than Edinburgh.
Sorry, I'd assumed that your North Glasgow would be one of the big clubs, but if you think even Partick fans wouldn't be interested then your wonderfully bonkers suggestion "to engender local support" is even more delightfully crazy than I thought.
PS. I like your freestyle punctuation in the paragraph having a go at me for not understanding the subtle nuances of your previous punctuation.
Peace.
PPS. Slight (but not absolute) tangent here, but does this constant castigation of Celtic and Rangers fans for the political, religious and cultural elements that constitute part of their clubs' identity really help?
Do we vilify Barcelona and Real Madrid fans for their political and cultural identity? Or do we admire them for their glamorous competition?
If we continue the positive first steps made in the last decade towards eradicating the terrible violence that has historically sprung from the Old Firm's particular rivarly to its eventual peaceful conclusion could we then stop criticising Old Firm fans for following the same team as their fathers?
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... sorry to go on...
Is Scottish football really so rubbish anyway?
There's 27 countries in Europe with a bigger population than us.
Only seven (including us) have had teams in the knockout stage of the last three European Cups. Apart from Portugal (twice as big as us), they're all at least FIVE TIMES as big as Scotland (population).
And only four (including us) have had finalists in two of the last six UEFA Cups.
I'm obviously cherry-picking, but you get the point. And Aberdeen did not bad in the UEFA Cup last season.
Attendances are decent for several clubs and huge for two.
I think Glasgow is the only city in Europe with three 50,000-seater footie stadia.
The national team did great in the Euro 2008 Qualifying group of death and we've got a decent chance of making the play-offs for the World Cup.
Of course, I acknowledge our two big problems: sectarianism (small inroads have been made into this huge problem recently) and a lack of competition (although Hearts finished above Rangers just two and a half years ago).
Of course we've done rubbish in Europe this season and our game's not perfect, but let's give ourselves some credit where it's due, and not panic, eh?
Belgium, Austria and other countries bigger than us would probably love our recent records.
That's it from me.
I think.
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MarkRP; seeing as IRN seems to have lost interest, I'll try and provide some more perspective from the non-OF camp.
I can understand that you probably don't feel that the league is not so sick at the moment; this is probably because you're a fan of a team that wins a great deal more than it loses. There is, of course, nothing wrong with this at all, but it does distract your focus from the rest of the teams in the league that, season after season, struggle on and off the park. It must be lovely that the most alarming/rewarding thing that you have to consider is whether Strachan's going to stay or go, as opposed to whether your team will be in existence next week. I know that not so long ago - Pre-Fergus, in other words - this was something that was of concern, and similarly for Rangers fans in recent years (and still to come if Murray International are in as much trouble as it sounds they are), but there was always capital or the potential thereof in the background.
The SPL TV debacle was a situation in which there was equal fault on all sides. The non-OF teams wanted a more equal distribution of the TV money and the only way they felt they could achieve this was with a totally half-baked plan (certainly at that time) to put their games on pay-per-view. This was because the then-present deal - by proportional nature and leveraged by the strength, power and resources of those negotiators belonging to the Old Firm - was heavily weighted towards Celtic and Rangers. They backed out as they thought they were being railroaded (which they were, but perhaps if they had been more egalitarian and broad-viewed in the distribution it might not have happened) and the other ten clubs quit. I think it's also disingenuous to claim that the OF are dominant because of gate receipts and European income. Their 'serendipitously' low local running costs (certainly in terms of staffing provision) and curious practice of joint self-preservation are the true core of their dominance, but we chewed this out on another of Chick's blogs so we'll not go too far into this territory again. Talking of Chick, I notice he's still not been in touch. Could someone check for milk bottles and Dixons catalogues piling up outside his close?
I thought your comments about the Battle of the Boyne being fought by Rangers and Celtic was pretty funny, in honesty, but it does deflect what the rest of us consider to be a real problem in the domestic game. You're absolutely correct that sectarian bigotry is not restricted to Old Firm football, but it is concentrated around it. Nobody who has ever been to a game where a large collection of followers of either of the Old Firm is present seems to come away with a positive view of their supports. It's arguable whether the problem is being handled at Parkhead and Ibrox; agreed, it's better than it used to be, but it's at the other grounds around Scotland and beyond (Rangers against Osasuna and in Manchester and Celtic in Barcelona by several first-hand accounts from Celtic-supporting friends of mine) where the real trouble lies. And I'm not saying that other clubs don't have their problems with this, isolated or otherwise (Airdries KKK element and Hearts' racist section, both of which I've encountered personally), the problem is magnified wherever the Old Firm go. A good friend of mine, a long-term Rangers supporter, and nothing approaching a shrinking violet, went to his first and last Glasgow derby a few years back. He was so utterly disgusted by the behaviour of his fellow fans, quite apart from that of the Celtic support which he also considered atrocious, that he vowed never to go back again. Having lived in Glasgow and walked through the Beirut-esque wastes of Sauchiehall Street the night of an Old Firm derby, I think I understood how he felt.
And no we don't villify Barcelona and Real Madrid (you can add Espagnol to that list, as they have a pretty diabolical Basque-fuelled ETA-loving element) for their political and cultural identity, but we don't come across them that often. I don't imagine that Chievo, Villareal, Hapoel Tel Aviv or Brann Bergan give a flying stuff about Rangers or Celtic either.
Your last post paints a prettier picture, and there's salient points amongst the cherry-picking. However, other nations (perhaps England aside) often see a greater variety of their clubs in the latter stages of European competitions (Deportivo and Valencia a few years ago from Spain; Italy is not all about the two Milans and Juve as Roma are starting to show once more) but with us it's always Celtic or Rangers. It's been a long time since any other Scottish team did anything substantial in Europe (and some might argue that the same can be said for clubs with the support and resources of the Old Firm themselves). And yes, the regular participants of late stages at European level do feature countries from nations far larger than ours, but again there is a greater distribution of clubs from these countries.
What IRN suggested was deliberately naive in the extreme, but his eventual aim was what the nation's domestic league desperately needs; greater distribution of income and competition. It would make the domestic game more interesting again, at least.
That's it from me as well, I reckon.
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Apparently it's the sub-editor who's responsible for this drivvel.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
#50 - I heard this on BBC Radio Scotland on Saturday too. Chick doesn't even know he has a blog.
I can only imagine its a pre-school imposter with little grasp of the English language who has come up with this!
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Then again, if you were Chick, would you own up to this weekly dross?
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Football fans want to see the best players on the park. Maybe they want the best ones on their own team but they don't want the best of the rest playing for Rangers or Celtic reserves.
Here's a way of improving Scottish football. Make all clubs register a limited number of players - say 18 or 20 - for each competition - and if they run out then they have to play under-18-year-olds. That would maybe improve on-field discipline as well. There would be no point having lots of good reserves - you wouldn't be able to use them.
And Chick's St. Mirren might end up with a couple of guys who could play the game as well.
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Re: #55
Not a bad idea in principle, but surely it means that the Old Firm would just invest in a fewer number of even higher quality players with their inevitable savings on wages? The overall result would be the same; the Rangers/Celtic first 11 would be extremely strong, and the other teams would have to rely on a Glasgow "off-day", an Old Firm injury crisis or tactical gambit to take them down. I doubt whether it would increase the chances of Hearts, Hibs, Dundee Utd or Aberdeen catching the Old Firm.
The only answer to make our game more competitive is to increase investment at grass roots level, bring through the best kids we have and nurture their talent, rather than lose them to drinking, drugs, girls and playstations at 14/15.
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Hear hear, Houstonslydog. We need more carrot, like this - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/7771801.stm - and less stick.
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