Sydneyger65
Well-Known Member
Another one questioning the money we spend.
Fantastic to see our sides do so well in Europe this week.
It’s the first time in 19 years all four have won in a single sitting.
Jim Jefferies, Martin O’Neill, Dick Advocaat and Ebbe Skovdahl were the managers in charge the last time it happened, to give you a bit of perspective on how long ago that was.
For us neutrals without a horse in the race? More power to them all.
It’s 11 years now since any of our teams outside of the Old Firm made it to the groups of the Europa League, when Aberdeen did it under Jimmy C.
That season - 2007/08 - Scottish teams played 39 games in European competition and finished fifth in the country co-efficient table, ahead of Italy, Portugal, France, Turkey, Netherlands, Belgium, Greece.
Kudos - and cash, obviously - to us.
What a boon it would be, for the whole game, if the Dons or Killie got there again to take some of the strain constantly held on the shoulders of the big two like twin Atlases.
Last season them both being in the groups, irrespective of Celtic missing out on the Champions League, was still the difference between our status being in the top 10 in the co-efficient rankings, compared to 23rd the previous year and 19th the year before that.
It’s a long road to get there, but that’s how significant it is.
For Rangers and Celtic fans? It’s like offering them a game of snap when there’s high stakes poker on the go.
Welcome to the phoney war.
Sure, they’ll make out they’re engaged in the process for a few weeks, that the prestige of achievement in the continent’s premier competitions matters to them.
It should do, as well as the cash. But let’s not kid ourselves that come August 3, anything else occupies the thoughts of either support or hierarchy except domestic superiority.
Celtic spending £7million on a centre-half? I said it a couple of weeks ago, impressive.
Rangers, eight men in, including, for them, a monumental £3.5m for Swedish defender Filip Helander?
These are statement signings - but what are they actually trying to say?
Like it or not, this season for both of them is a one-front war. If anyone actually believes this isn’t wheeling out the artillery to either win nine in a row or stop it, they’re dreaming.
Neil Lennon said on Friday he’s not getting involved in an arms race with Rangers. He doesn’t need to. He already has the best players. He’s in charge. He just has to stay there.
The pressure on him to do it is huge. Celtic fans can talk about Sevco and new clubs and no history but how big a humiliation would it be if a new club with no history denied them theirs?
Meanwhile Rangers fans can have their love affair with Stevie G, the great redeemer for them after half a decade of absolute mediocrity and worse.
Their board are backing him to the tune of millions from God knows what magical money pot but if Celtic get to nine this year and can see the hallowed 10 glowing on the horizon? Wholly unacceptable. He may not survive it. So while the rest of us yearn for a run of European engagement for Scottish clubs for the next five months at least, is it really what either of them need?
The difference domestically may well be one of them making the groups and one of them not. If they do, they’re either going Wednesday/Saturday or Thursday/Sunday half a dozen times.
Throw in two league cards at the end of October and the start of December and the quarters of the Betfred Cup, assuming they get there, and that’s nine midweeks out of 14 between the middle of September and Christmas.
If both make it, it becomes a test of endurance, resources, management. If only one of them does? The landscape changes immeasurably.
Neither of them will tank in Europe, they can’t afford to. The financial rewards of making the groups are a necessity for these clubs.
But both Lennon and Gerrard will be asking themselves what the ultimate cost of that success will be and whether they have the depth to cope with it.
They’ll also be acutely aware of what they’re actually being judged on.
All things being equal, if either of them put a run together that took them as far as, say, the quarter-finals of a European tournament, that would and should be their crowning glory in any given season.
Ask 50,000 at Ibrox or 60,000 at Celtic Park whether that would be worth trading the title for this year of all years and what do you think the answer would be?
Fantastic to see our sides do so well in Europe this week.
It’s the first time in 19 years all four have won in a single sitting.
Jim Jefferies, Martin O’Neill, Dick Advocaat and Ebbe Skovdahl were the managers in charge the last time it happened, to give you a bit of perspective on how long ago that was.
For us neutrals without a horse in the race? More power to them all.
It’s 11 years now since any of our teams outside of the Old Firm made it to the groups of the Europa League, when Aberdeen did it under Jimmy C.
That season - 2007/08 - Scottish teams played 39 games in European competition and finished fifth in the country co-efficient table, ahead of Italy, Portugal, France, Turkey, Netherlands, Belgium, Greece.
Kudos - and cash, obviously - to us.
What a boon it would be, for the whole game, if the Dons or Killie got there again to take some of the strain constantly held on the shoulders of the big two like twin Atlases.
Last season them both being in the groups, irrespective of Celtic missing out on the Champions League, was still the difference between our status being in the top 10 in the co-efficient rankings, compared to 23rd the previous year and 19th the year before that.
It’s a long road to get there, but that’s how significant it is.
For Rangers and Celtic fans? It’s like offering them a game of snap when there’s high stakes poker on the go.
Welcome to the phoney war.
Sure, they’ll make out they’re engaged in the process for a few weeks, that the prestige of achievement in the continent’s premier competitions matters to them.
It should do, as well as the cash. But let’s not kid ourselves that come August 3, anything else occupies the thoughts of either support or hierarchy except domestic superiority.
Celtic spending £7million on a centre-half? I said it a couple of weeks ago, impressive.
Rangers, eight men in, including, for them, a monumental £3.5m for Swedish defender Filip Helander?
These are statement signings - but what are they actually trying to say?
Like it or not, this season for both of them is a one-front war. If anyone actually believes this isn’t wheeling out the artillery to either win nine in a row or stop it, they’re dreaming.
Neil Lennon said on Friday he’s not getting involved in an arms race with Rangers. He doesn’t need to. He already has the best players. He’s in charge. He just has to stay there.
The pressure on him to do it is huge. Celtic fans can talk about Sevco and new clubs and no history but how big a humiliation would it be if a new club with no history denied them theirs?
Meanwhile Rangers fans can have their love affair with Stevie G, the great redeemer for them after half a decade of absolute mediocrity and worse.
Their board are backing him to the tune of millions from God knows what magical money pot but if Celtic get to nine this year and can see the hallowed 10 glowing on the horizon? Wholly unacceptable. He may not survive it. So while the rest of us yearn for a run of European engagement for Scottish clubs for the next five months at least, is it really what either of them need?
The difference domestically may well be one of them making the groups and one of them not. If they do, they’re either going Wednesday/Saturday or Thursday/Sunday half a dozen times.
Throw in two league cards at the end of October and the start of December and the quarters of the Betfred Cup, assuming they get there, and that’s nine midweeks out of 14 between the middle of September and Christmas.
If both make it, it becomes a test of endurance, resources, management. If only one of them does? The landscape changes immeasurably.
Neither of them will tank in Europe, they can’t afford to. The financial rewards of making the groups are a necessity for these clubs.
But both Lennon and Gerrard will be asking themselves what the ultimate cost of that success will be and whether they have the depth to cope with it.
They’ll also be acutely aware of what they’re actually being judged on.
All things being equal, if either of them put a run together that took them as far as, say, the quarter-finals of a European tournament, that would and should be their crowning glory in any given season.
Ask 50,000 at Ibrox or 60,000 at Celtic Park whether that would be worth trading the title for this year of all years and what do you think the answer would be?