How big are Rangers?

Nottsbear

Member
I live down in England and most of my pals honestly believe teams like forest and Derby are bigger than Rangers. I'm bringing some of them up the road this season to show them the error of their ways. What other ignorant nonsense do others hear from English fans?
 
That their Championship is miles better than our top division. It’s not.

That Scottish players aren’t good enough to play in the EPL. Plenty are. And most players in each squad there aren’t English anyway.

That Rangers and the filth would get relegated if they were in the EPL even with TV cash. Wrong. Right now we’d be top half with even £100m in fees to spend despite playing massive catch up.

English football is mediocrity outside of about half a dozen teams right now, of whom three aren’t even that great.
 
I go on an international sports forum a lot and the non-Brits talk about Celtic and Rangers in the same way that they do the EPL teams. I commonly see Yanks refer to us in the same frame as Man United, Liverpool, etc. I think externally we are viewed as a successful, historical, club with an admirable fanbase, manager, and stadium.
 
That’s the arrogance of tin pot English clubs because of sky and bt’s Money.
The reality is there’s maybe 6 “big clubs” in England. 2 huge ones in Utd and Liverpool

As for us, we are bigger than most in England by a long long distance.
Not sure how many derby county bars there are the world over, or villa or any other provincial club. We are an institution
 
I don't think there's many more deluded fans in the world than English lower league fans.

There is a difference between 'lots of money' and genuine quality.

Guys like Ross McCormack getting £12m moves in their leagues seems to make them think they have a massive amount of quality.

The idea that any current Championship teams are bigger than us is laughable. We'd also beat almost all of them with our current team imo.
 
In my more optimistic moments I think that we'd give 50% of the Premiership a tough time in a one off match and would be able to beat most if not all of the Championship at home.
 
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To gauge how big we are compared to EPL sides, turn it around.

How many EPL sides would be as big as they are if they played in the SPFL on an SPFL budget?

Most of them aren't 'big' clubs, they're rich clubs, that's all. If your next door neighbour wins the lottery, it doesn't suddenly make them a better person than you.

We are huge, despite the fact we play in a small league in a small country whose finances are dwarfed compared to the top 40-50 English clubs (i.e. EPL and Championship sides).

Put us in the EPL and I think a lot of English football supporters would be stunned.

We used to get a lot more respect from the Souness era right up until around the late 90s because we were a CL side, something that was only matched by one English per season - the league champions. And we even pumped them when we met in 1992. Historically English fans have always looked down their noses at the Scottish league, but most of them agreed we were probably the best team in the UK around that time. The ban on English sides from Europe helped, as did the fact that there was much less money in the English game back then compared to today. The financial disparity between the English and Scottish leagues was tiny compared to the gulf that exists now.

Nowadays you have the top four EPL sides into the CL automatically whilst it becomes harder and harder for the Scottish champions to get in at all. We might laugh because that's Celtic in that position right now, but next season - God willing - that'll be us. UEFA have a lot to answer for. Even this season, you have Ajax - last season's CL semi finalists - having to negotiate qualifying rounds. It's a joke.
 
That’s the arrogance of tin pot English clubs because of sky and bt’s Money.
The reality is there’s maybe 6 “big clubs” in England. 2 huge ones in Utd and Liverpool

As for us, we are bigger than most in England by a long long distance.
Not sure how many derby county bars there are the world over, or villa or any other provincial club. We are an institution
There s probably more Rangers pubs in Spain and the Spanish islands than there is Derby pubs in Derby!
 
I think it's mostly just delusional English kids on social media. Doesn't stop it being annoying though.

I've a few English pals and they laugh at the people who say that. Most of them agree Rangers and Celtic would be comfortably top 6 EPL within a few years.
 
I think it's mostly just delusional English kids on social media. Doesn't stop it being annoying though.

I've a few English pals and they laugh at the people who say that. Most of them agree Rangers and Celtic would be comfortably top 6 EPL within a few years.
I'm not so sure it's kids. Anyone under the age of 35 can't really remember and most people believe the media crap about English football. I pray to Brian Laudrup every year that we get forest in a pre season game, it would be delicious. Be good to have more gers in Notts for day compared to the manky bhastards that have decided to reside here.
 
I live down in England and most of my pals honestly believe teams like forest and Derby are bigger than Rangers. I'm bringing some of them up the road this season to show them the error of their ways. What other ignorant nonsense do others hear from English fans?
What game are you bringing them up to?
 
Nephew and his son were up at weekend and were talking about spl and championship both big Chelsea fans and season ticket holders, were saying we would struggle and that if you go down to championship it is better league now and no guarantee tee that you will come straight up again .
Was telling me that even 4th division players are on 20k to 30k a week now what a difference money makes
WATP
 
That the Scottish league is shit
Only it is.
That's why our teams with 2 and only 2 exceptions have been humiliated year in and year out for decades by part time teams in the early stages of European competition. Are you seriously telling me that the Welsh University team (can't even remember their name) would have a chance against the 4th best team in England? Make that the 40th best team in England.
 
We’re held back by such a shit, uncompetitive league.

Until the day comes when we play can play in the same league, this tiresome debate will go on and on.
 
if they ever pull the TV money out down there,they're all fucked lol

Hard to see how that would ever happen.

The UK and world population is getting bigger all the time. Football is at least as popular now as it's ever been, perhaps more popular. That means every year there are more and more football fans wanting to watch games. The demand is always growing which means there's more people watching, more companies wanting to advertise during televised games and ultimately more money for the TV companies to play with when bidding for the rights.

With the rise of online betting, you have millions of people worldwide who want to watch EPL games not because they support any particular club, but because they have a financial interest in the match. It's absolutely huge in Asia.

If Sky went bust, you would still have BT, Amazon, Netflix and others waiting in the wings to buy the rights. These are huge, cash rich companies. They aren't making the mistakes that ITV Digital or Setanta made.

If Rangers are ever to get back on something approaching a level playing field with the biggest clubs in Europe, to the point where we're reaching the latter stages of the CL on a regular basis, then it isn't going to come about as a result of some kind of financial armageddon in the EPL. It will only come about as a result of some kind of re-organisation of the national leagues within UEFA.
 
I climbed Kilimanjaro in 2010 and one of the lads there was a massive Arsenal fan. Naturally got talking to him about football and he asked is it not boring as only two teams can actually win the league.

I pointed out that, at the time (pre-Man City transformation), only three English teams could realistically win the EPL - Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea. Two from twelve or three from twenty isn't a huge difference.

They paint that league (and the championship) out to be the be all and end all and it's just down to money.
 
Only two teams in England have more season ticket holders than us. First being West Ham who's tickets are cheap as chips, secondly Man United who have 52k while we have over 45k with a near 15k waiting list despite playing in a worse league.
 
I climbed Kilimanjaro in 2010 and one of the lads there was a massive Arsenal fan. Naturally got talking to him about football and he asked is it not boring as only two teams can actually win the league.

I pointed out that, at the time (pre-Man City transformation), only three English teams could realistically win the EPL - Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea. Two from twelve or three from twenty isn't a huge difference.

They paint that league (and the championship) out to be the be all and end all and it's just down to money.

The EPL is marketed extremely well.

Most people in Scotland watch English games even if we don't support an English club. We have Sky Sports and BT Sports. EPL football is wall to wall on those channels. You end up just putting an EPL game on, even if to watch in the background. But that still counts towards the viewing figures, which pulls in the advertising money.

MOTD which shows highlights of the EPL is broadcast on the BBC to the whole of the UK, not just England. Sportscene, which shows highlights of the SPFL, is only shown in Scotland.

How many English fans would tune in to an SPFL game? You'll have neutrals who might watch an Old Firm match, but even then it's probably just because there's an EPL game on after it.

Don't get me wrong, I would absolutely love Rangers to be in the EPL. I would love us to be signing players for £50m - £100m in each transfer window. I would love us to qualify for the CL automatically every season and actually have a genuine chance of winning it.

But we are where we are.
 
We’re held back by such a shit, uncompetitive league.

Until the day comes when we play can play in the same league, this tiresome debate will go on and on.

Balls.

We move to the EPL and the Euro League I prefer men start up.

Only way there would be space for us.

And then, same shit. Stuck in a crap league whilst others earn the dosh.
 
Easiest way to make it clear that we're one of the biggest clubs in the UK - 47,000 season ticket holders. That's more than double most EPL's fanbases. Just tell them that stat.
 
I live down in England and most of my pals honestly believe teams like forest and Derby are bigger than Rangers. I'm bringing some of them up the road this season to show them the error of their ways. What other ignorant nonsense do others hear from English fans?
They will see how massive our club is and be in awe! But their league are so big and competitive that everything outside of it is ignored. A bubble if you like, which is fine I suppose if you’re one of them.
 
We're absolutely massive. The fanbase, history, success. Every football fan in the world has heard of us.

We're only held back due to the financial constraints we face.
 
I climbed Kilimanjaro in 2010 and one of the lads there was a massive Arsenal fan. Naturally got talking to him about football and he asked is it not boring as only two teams can actually win the league.

I pointed out that, at the time (pre-Man City transformation), only three English teams could realistically win the EPL - Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea. Two from twelve or three from twenty isn't a huge difference.

They paint that league (and the championship) out to be the be all and end all and it's just down to money.

Excellent point
 
I live down in England and most of my pals honestly believe teams like forest and Derby are bigger than Rangers. I'm bringing some of them up the road this season to show them the error of their ways. What other ignorant nonsense do others hear from English fans?
They can say what they want but the fact is most English clubs could only dream.of the following that we get.
 
The easy answer is to ask them is if they have visited a supporters club when they were last on holiday.

I genuinely think there has been a Rangers club or pub on every holiday I've ever been on. Less so Burnely, Leicester, delete and enter other irrelevant club here before they received a cache of cash.

I can't imagine a Burnley fan asking if there is somewhere to watch the game in Afghanistan and getting a verified answer.
 
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