BBC 5Live got into a bit of bother yesterday for asking if Paris St Germain’s domestic domination is turning the French league into the SPFL. PSG (60) are 21 points ahead of second place Monaco (39) in Ligue Un and could win the title next month. Celtic, of course, are only 6 points clear in the Scottish Premiership and will not win the title until April.
The pertinent point that 5Live were a bit clumsy in making is that PSG, who will win four-in-a-row this year, and Celtic, won will win five-in-a-row, are competing in one horse races. Karl Heinz Rummenigge made a similar point about Bayern Munich earlier this month (an example 5Live could also have used). Bayern are 8 points clear and also on their way to four-in-a-row.
Then there’s Juventus, who, like Celtic, hope to win five-in-a-row this season. Juve had a horrible start to the season but 11 league wins on the bounce have seen them close to within 2 points of Napoli at the top of Serie A.
Basel are 10 clear and on their way to seven-in-a-row in Switzerland, while Red Bull’s money will collect a third consecutive Austrian title for Salzburg this year.
Ajax are not quite there, having only won four of the last five titles, but Dutch football has been shrinking in competitive terms for over 3 decades (Ajax and PSV between them have won all but 3 titles in 31 years). Anderlecht, who have won three in four in Belgium, are also a little short of complete domination.
England’s different, no one has retained the title since 2009 and it’s not going to happen this year. Spain have seen a change of winner in the last four years and, with the world’s two biggest clubs, are likely to remain competitive, while Benfica and Porto are still nip and tuck in Portugal. These three are the outliers of Western European football.
Reality is that three of the ‘big five’ European leagues, and many others, are no longer competitive. Successful clubs know how to stay ahead of their peers, there are several formulas to help them. Permanently breaking this domination has never been more difficult.
Scottish football is not an uncompetitive outlier, it’s the new norm. The same questions being asked about Celtic are also being asked about dominant teams across the Continent. What football does about it is another story. Keep your eye on Rummenigge. He’s ambitious and wants to change things.
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….PFAYR SUPPORTS WEEOSCAR on 27TH JANUARY 2016 9:23 PM
Macjay
Weir can replicate his performance with Sheffield United when he takes over sevco…id be delighted
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Fair point.
However I feel Weir and the huns are made for each other i.e.. He`s liable to up his game motivated by being where his heart lies.
Either way,I think we`ll get the chance to find out.
bankiebhoy1
I was n the company of a guy just last week, a fellow Tim, who I grabbed by the throat on a football park about 20 years ago. I am still ashamed by my actions, we laugh about it now.
Graham Spiers is not employed by the Herald, he works freelance. The Herald has a readership to appease, that will be the deal they are working tows awards.
Why buy any newspaper ? or trust any TV or radio station to educate and inform, they simply don’t have the stones for it. Newspapers today are just another form of sponsored content or infomercial.
Hail Hail.
When do you ever see a newspaper apologizing unless forced to do it by legal action
Herald apology? Circulation is only around 40k for a population c. 5.3m people. Not many gonna read that apology! :-)
If at the end of the day (whenever that is but it is fast approaching), our board refuses to stand up for our own fans and declare that Sevco is a brand new club and we do not recognise their claim to honours won/cheated by RIFC (1872) then my 50 years plus support will end. It is a simple as that. This will be a personal decision as it will be for many others. My support for the club once was unconditional but I now refuse to spend any more money on a rigged game that it is no more credible than World Wide Entertainment wrestling.
I understand the attitude of those to whom supporting the team is just too big a part of their lives to contemplate giving it up. That used to be me but of late I have changed my mind and I simply cannot support a club that condones cheating on an industrial scale, could stand up to it but wilfully refuses to do so.
I think the guardians of our club seriously under-estimate the strength of feeling that exists amongst a significant section of the support about this. It may not be a majority but right now the club simply cannot afford to lose many more active supporters. In fact, I think they took the stand we all want them to then it would actually encourage many supporters who have stopped going to matches to return to the fold. It is therefore in our interests to do this which makes me wonder why our board can’t see this or do but still refuse to tell the truth about Sevco.
THE LONG WAIT IS OVER on 27TH JANUARY 2016 9:52 PM
The Herald /Spiers fiasco is pretty much unfathomable except that , clearly, whatever “pressure” was brought to bear on the Herald has been sufficiently intense to cause them to sacrifice their journalistic integrity and professional obligation to publish and then stand by the truth.
What else is a newspaper for, if not that?
Convinces me , again , that my decision of a few years ago to stop buying that paper isn’t going to change anytime soon.
Pretty much sums it up
A Sevco director a few weeks ago withdrew around £40k ( claimed) from the Herald’s motor section due to a diary piece that commented on how appropriate it is that there will soon be strips with CROOKS on the back.
An apology was demanded.
The Herald of course were a creditor of the dead Rangers.
Today FF sent out around 35,000 emails to rally their troops against Spiers.
His days writing for the Herald are over.
I wonder which publication is winning the gradually declining circulation race, my bet is the Argos catalogue.
Hail Hail.
HRVATSKI JIM on 27TH JANUARY 2016 9:41 PM
Two main problems.
Giving responsibility of governance to members of sporting organisations from countries where corruption is endemic. Most countries?
In football, no video referrals. Thanks Sepp.
See Man. City game today.
Blatant offside goal yesterday.
Corruption is easier when one individual is the sole arbiter. Thanks,Sepp.
Viz.Tennis.
I went to a meeting with Police Scotland a few weeks back. Minutes are now available.
http://www.affiliationregisteredcelticsupporters.org/articles/2016/01/supporters-notes-minutes-of-meeting-with-police-scotland/
Don’t think Spiersy will get anymore gigs at The Herald. Shame, always thought he was honest. Is/was a Rangers supporter as well. The old Rangers, that is/was tis was :-)
The Spiers episode just highlights that any media puts advertising in front of integrity nowadays. I remember working for a click bait football blog who readily asked us to make up transfer rumours to gain newsnow views.
Once Mrs G got her new kitchen I stopped. I canny talk about integrity then….
JM – that’s interesting…………
I often find myself wondering how Davie feels about his thuggish actions.
Billybear.
I agree about Speirs .
Never hid his earlier ( current ? ) allegiance.
More than can be said about the plethora of huns in sheep`s clothing.
:-)
If you’re not happy with the reporting of sport in Scotland why not support this new venture ..
ScotSportsPaper @scotsportspaper
Launched! Be among the first to pledge:
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/scottish-sports-newspaper ….
Then tell everyone.
The more obvious their panic becomes, the greater their dirty secret is laid bare.
Huns in sheeps clothing? Chick Young supports St Mirren. Oh, and Gordon Waddell follow (follows) Falkirk.
Bobby Murdoch’s
I don’t remember what Month your sister is going to be in Kraków? I saw people advised togo and visit Auschwitz.
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, when we remember about 6 million Jewish. More than 1 million Jewish were exterminated in that Auschwitz, together with 150 000 Polish and with the other nations.
Why I say about this? There is place called Harmęże near Auschwitz, just one or one and a half miles distance from the Museum. It’s extraordinary place and if I had a chance to be there I would walk there.
Your sister will find Marian Kołodziej exhibition. Kołodziej was the man who was one of the first in the camp. He survived and did not talk about Auschwitz for fifty years until he suffered stroke. Then he told the story giving extraordinary drawings.
Here is a trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwetpeUb6s0
And the exhibition of Kolodziej’s works.
http://wystawa.powiat.oswiecim.pl/
Time for my 8 hours of beauty sleep, anyone who knows me understands it is very necessary.
Hail!Hail!
https://www.change.org/p/scottish-football-association-return-integrity-to-football-administration-in-scotland-673d2730-4863-4499-8b6d-b4c6e908318f
embramike-an online paper? HH
halliday, a promising youth with Ross County who was “acquired” by the deid team. After 3 years they dumped him.
Moves on tae Livi where he wins POY and YPOY awards plus nominated twice for goal of the season.
WGS takes him tae Middlesboro where he only scores 2 goals.
In 4 years he is loaned tae 3 different sides where he scores a total of 2 goals.
He then moves permanently tae Bradford where his claim tae fame is the 3rd goal in a 4-2 shock victory over Chelski.
After only 2 more goals he is released at the end of that season.
He then signs for his boyhood heroes aye the same club that dumped him as a boy.
5 months later he is receives a straight red card against Hibs by referee Madhun for violent conduct, this card was later appealed and reduced to a yellow where the offended player receives a two-match ban.
Mibbees, just mibbbes the worm has turned and the MITB are now targeting him, the player that is now considered one of the brightest young players in the game.
BILLYBEAR on 27TH JANUARY 2016 10:36 PM
Huns in sheeps clothing? Chick Young supports St Mirren. Oh, and Gordon Waddell follow (follows) Falkirk.
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And pigs can fly.
:-)
Tontine Tim
The same team?
Tontine Tim
The same team? Really?
Sorry for the double post. My laptop is going crazy.
vale bhoy on 27th January 2016 10:59 pm
Tontine Tim
The same team?
*I did say the same club, mibbees it should have been the same company. Too effin complicated.
Zbyszek
As you’ll remember I visited Auschwitz three years ago. The taxi driver- guide told us some stories you never read about or see on tv. He pointed to a mass grave site on the way back from Birkenau about a mile from the camp. When the Nazis got news of advancing Russian army, they raided a local liquor store and laced every bottle of Vodka with some kind of poison, Over 100 Russians died celebrating victory.
The taxi tour guide guy was excellent value and his stories were heartbreaking, most unrepeatable on here.
Krakow to Auschwitz return, £40 plus a good tip and few pints back in Krakow. Unforgettable experience and highly recommended.
Hahaha.
The party of the first party shall be known as the company of the club and the club…
Ah feck it!
Bada Bing @ 10:52
Follow the link for a full description – and this is part of their pitch ..
Let’s first be clear: this would be a paper different to what’s already out there: no match reports, not even news, per se; more a celebration of what’s ahead, not bound by any perceived heirarchy but how compelling the story.
It will showcase all sport, at all levels, and involve some of the country’s best-known writers plus several new ones that we will be seeking to nurture.
It would be a newspaper too that would pop through your letterbox – on a weekly, subscription basis – and include among its columnists names such as Judy Murray and Pat Nevin.
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/scottish-sports-newspaper ….
Judy Murray AND Pat Nevin??? Wow, wot a start!!
.
…………………and Pat Nevin
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It was looking good right up to that bit
Tontine Tim
the player that is now considered one of the brightest young players in the game.
Doncha know that every young player on Sevco’s books is one of the brightest young players in the game? (even the auld yins)
Same goes for the brightest young auld managers/assistant managers in the game-:)
Night night. HH
Caused a bit of a stir on twitter earlier when I stated that RFC board of directors were guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of the Ibrox disaster.
These 3 articles imo back up that claim but what it also tells us is that there is no way that civic Scotland will ever allow a narrative that says RFC died take shape in the media, or any other part of the establishment in this country
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/Rangers+-+Falling+Masonry
http://www.buteman.co.uk/news/local-headlines/ibrox-disaster-sheriff-dies-aged-89-1-4000127
http://m.heraldscotland.com/opinion/14210814.Irvine_Smith/
TET
GREENPINTA
You both may be right but Res12 has a direct link to the indictments and if Celtic were to come out before a final decision is reached( as in the ebts) by doing so they could scupper the best chance we have ever had of tackling the issue that you are both convinced will not be tackled.
Damned if they do, Damned if they don’t.
No excuses here, playing the game to win, not to get headlines.