Back in 2011-12 when we were being told the SPL “needed a strong Rangers” a few of us insisted what it really needed was a strong Aberdeen, Dundee United, Hibs and Hearts. When the city clubs get their act together, they are more than capable of creating drama and competition. Unfortunately, despite regular reboots, each of these clubs have underachieved for decades.
Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts have been inconsistent this season, but at least occupy slots in the top six. After three successive wins, Dundee United looked to have secured their place in the Premiership, but defeat to St Johnstone and Ross County leaves them two points adrift in the automatic relegation spot with three to play. A season that started with a promising first leg win over AZ Alkmaar, could end seeing United pass Dundee on the way up.
This week Aberdeen declined an invitation to enter a B team into the proposed new fifth tier in the pyramid – the Conference League. They cite the cost of supporting what would be 55 players across both A and B teams, which I can see. Whatever the problems that inhibit our city clubs from dominating the likes of Ross County and Motherwell, diluting money on a wider pool of players doesn’t seem a likely fix.
Solutions exist. Alkmaar face West Ham tomorrow night in a European Conference League semi-final. They exist on an average attendance of 10,000, miles below what inconsistent Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen are achieving right now, and within the reach of a competent Dundee United. Like Aberdeen and United did 40 years ago, AZ understand scouting and player development on an elite level.
Competition that permits elite youth development to take place is lacking in our game, the Conference League is an attempt to fix this. But at first team level, our (other) city clubs are caught in short-termism, without learning or stability. 40 years on from Aberdeen in Gothenburg and United’s title win, too many of the clubs that should be competitive with Celtic have lost the knowledge of how to develop elite players and teams. So much comes down to ownership and the executive function. Football boardrooms are so hardy to learning and self-analysis, flooding the game with inefficiencies. Learn from Alkmaar, or as Celtic did, Manchester City.
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Well that was a quiet morning shift.
how do you like them aipples
Morning Saint STIVS from the runway at Atlanta airport.
11:59 am ?
False start and red card disqualification surely Mr B ?
😉
Good afternoon all from Tennents Bar.
Aipple
Get aff the runway, ya eejit. 😂
BRRB
Ok then. Back in a bit. Men in yellow vests running at me!
Aipple
White coats surely. 😂
Rumours that Souness is at Murray Park. Five blacked out vehicles. Training cancelled and all Board members present. Talk that he is leading takeover.
Yip.
Agree with this.
Too often we hear the lazy refrain
“We just can’t compete with the big clubs”
Alkmaar, Bodo Glimt, Brentford, Lorient.
Pick up the phone and ask them.
THEORIGINALSADIESBHOY on 17TH MAY 2023 12:15 PM
Rumours that Souness is at Murray Park. Five blacked out vehicles. Training cancelled and all Board members present. Talk that he is leading takeover.
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How much would you need to have to “buy out” Rangers.
THEORIGINALSADIESBHOY @ 2023 12:15 PM
Rumours that Souness is at Murray Park. Five blacked out vehicles. Training cancelled and all Board members present. Talk that he is leading takeover.
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Cheers TOSB.
Very interesting.
Don’t know whether to tremble or chuckle at the prospect.
If Souness is involved I’ve no doubt this will be a strategically sound, well thought out proposition ….
…. with not an ounce of vanity, self importance, OPM or lack of self awareness in sight.
🤦🤔
Paul 67,
Imo, you have omitted one mega factor regarding the decline of Aberdeen and Dundee Utd.
They both had exceptional visionary managers :-
Alex Ferguson
Jim McLean
HH.
ST STIVS
£2? It’s rumoured that they’ve been managed better than the previous club so I reckon a 100% profit is reasonable.
Player trading is the only game in town. Us, them and everyone else in Scotland need to sell to the EPL clubs who overpay for young talent. After Brexit and with our proximity, similar climate and language Scotland is the perfect testing ground and the best place for young players to acclimatize.
Everton paid 12m for Patterson, Liverpool up to 6.5m for Ramsay. Every club in the SPL should look at those two transfers and trying to do their own business
Ange gets it, but then he’s more intelligent than most of the football administrators in Scotland
BRRB
It’s due to running away from the white coats that I am now being chased by the yellow vests.
The most unexpected building in Port Glasgow is a castle – Newark Castle, inherited in the 17th century by the Maxwell family, who turned it from an austere tower house into what the guidebook calls a Renaissance mansion. The Clyde rises and falls only a few yards from the castle’s back door, and in 1668 Sir George Maxwell sold eighteen acres of riparian land to the city of Glasgow, which thought it was a useful site for a harbour. Shoals and shallows above that point in the river made Glasgow inaccessible to sea-going ships; they usually transferred their cargoes at Greenock, three or four miles further west, to smaller vessels, barges and wherries that were rowed or poled the final twenty-odd miles to the Glasgow warehouses. Greenock’s near monopoly in the transhipment business irritated Glasgow’s merchants and civic officials, and disputes over taxes and tariffs frequently broke out. The New Port of Glasgow cut out the vexatious Greenock middleman.
From: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n18/ian-jack/chasing-steel
Souness would be perfect for us. A bitter, small-minded man who lets his ego get in the way of measured decision-making. Let’s hope it’s true
TBB,
that is a good read, and with the history of the town.
I was in the castle couple of years ago, it was a regular playground for us toon kids back in the 70s, hidden away behind the ferguson yard.
The story of the man who turned it from tower to mansion is something terrible, Patrick Maxwell, a monster to his wife , mother of his 16 children, he was a murderer and a friend of James IV.
Back to the ladies games at the weekend.
That “old firmism” ugliness is captured in threads on FF and Rangers Media, in which their support is urged to get along to the game , to SUPPORT THE BLUEBELLS, because Celtic are claiming a record attendance last week of 9,000 which turned into a republican song book fest hosted by Adidas,
In turn the Celtic ladies are called THE BERNADETTES
i dont know whether to laugh or cry.
A bit off topic here, but does anyone know Ralph from Etims? He mentioned a few posts ago that he had started on antidepressants and hasn’t posted anything for over a week, which is not like him.
Really enjoy his articles and his sense of humour. Hope he’s ok and if anyone on here knows him, let him know his writing is missed and everyone hopes he’s doing ok.
Thanks.
Souness to huns story didn’t last long, Sun just destroyed it 🤣🤣😂
SAINT STIVS on 17TH MAY 2023 12:50 PM
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Suppose you just have to laugh at them SS.
A bigot is a bigot is a bigot.
Although, I don’t condone singing rebel songs at Celtic games. Be that at any level. Plenty of cracking Celtic songs to sing.
The Huns will never change and their small minded views will see their second club fold to come back as The The Rangers or start cutting its cloth accordingly to comply with UEFA’s new FSR rules. The ball is firmly in their court, which is why I think half their executives have jumped ship.
Sounness facilitating a take-over. 😂
The good times just keep coming for us Tim’s.
😃👍🏆🏆🏆🍀🇮🇪
Souness story seems to have been debunked.
Much easier to just sit back and pick up the crumbs off the old firm.
Of course it’s not just the small/medium clubs who think they can’t get by without the old firm…….
Season ticket holders get free entry to the ladies games …
Will the ladies season ticket holders get free entry to the men’s games…?
Equality and all that …
Asking for a friend ( not a lady ) 😂😜
Another visit to Oran Mor for a beer then a leisurely stroll down Byres Road. Quite a few lads and lassies wearing the Hoops.
Bognorbhoy
😂😂
Re women’s football…
Agree with sentiments last night re Glasgow City.
If Celtic and Sevco finish above them in the league I think it will be a watershed moment.
Hibs and City bossed it for years.
Hibs’ drop off has been stark.
Ideal scenario for me this weekend is a Celtic win and the other game drawn.
We win league, City qualify for CL.
If though, we win and City also win to claim title with us second and into CL ?
I wouldn’t be too disappointed. Still progress.
Couple of PS if I may.
Hearts played three teenage defenders in their 0-6 trouncing last week. I’ll be interested in their team news for the weekend.
Sevco ladies were a formidable outfit last season.
This season, with Champions League participation and rigorous drug testing, they appear to lack … er … stimulation.
Big performance drop off but, in last four weeks? They’ve looked far more …. er .. stimulated again.
Crowds this weekend. Typical Sevco … let’s beat Celtic’s crowd.
Oneupmanship is the prevailing culture in that failing organisation.
BTW – I think we’ll get 15,000 at the Hearts game.
Does anyone know if the Cup Final will have tickets on sale to season book holders ain addition to the home cup scheme?
Bampton
Possible if ICT can’t sell their lot, they are selling theirs in batches
Currants being currants are charging 1 pound for season ticket hoĺders to watch the ladies game against City ( I believe)
C’mon the CITYEEEEE
Prestonpans
Put your specks on when typing ffs 😂
Wee Celtic related tangent
A good day to see a true pro get reward for his work
Henrik at EC final
https://twitter.com/planetfutebol/status/1658798307991330816?t=mCy1_vEC6hJaSL45Kuyhmg&s=19
HH
BRRB
I’m going to knock off this preemptive pish on my phone 🤦
AT,
I watched Barcelona beat Arsenal in the Dubliner bar in Bratislava.
Surrounded by English, they didnt like that I told them when Henrik came on that Barca would win.
The set up play for the two goals, Henrik does it in such a perfect way, the passes perfectly weighted, the right speed on the ball, the angles all precise so that the forward meets the ball in their stride.
Henrik made it look simple but it was world-class, truelly only a forward that good could do it so well
My favourite football moment outside of Celtic.
Or it might be all the Celtic influnces when Hibs skelped the 2nd rangers.
cheers.
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 17TH MAY 2023 1:31 PM
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Agree with your ideal results in to e women’s games.
Although, no one seems to have mentioned that the Huns women’s team get nearly as help from the officials as the men’s team and there is no way they will be allowed to draw this weekend. We should pump Hearts regardless and hopefully that’s enough to win the tittle.
Mon the ghirls! 😃🍀🇮🇪🏆👍
Prestonpans
You could get arrested for that. 😳