The Scottish Football Thread

[Bjornebye]

Might end up being the only one posting in here but seeing as their is a Celtic and Gerrard thread thought I may as well start this seeing as the first Old Firm of the season is on Sunday at ibrox. 

 

Can see this being a very close title. Honestly think Celtic will lose on Sunday. Haven't been playing well (apart from last night) and Gerrard will have his lot right up for it. To be honest most Old Firms will be home wins now since they have reduced away allocations to 800. To be honest I think it was a mistake giving Lennon the job full time. he was perfect to come in after Rodgers fucked off so he could finish off the treble and I was happy when he was given it full-time but in hindsight it was a backwards step. I really wanted David Wagner and he was one of the favourites at one point but that didn't happen. My mate thinks that if Celtic aren't top still at Xmas then Lennon will be gone and Moyes will get the gig. Fuck. That. 

 

Cant wait for Turdseyes predictable shite attempt at sarcasm response. 

 

 

 

 

[VladimirIlyich]

Rodgers fucked off because Gerrard was ready to take over as top manager in Glasgow and show him up for the cunt he really is. Lennon is no more than a Championship manager and unbelievably lucky to be where he is.

[Bjornebye]

Gerrard biggest mistake was taking that job. His second was not taking the Newcastle job when Rafa left. 

[cloggypop]

Rangers v Feyenoord. Kinell. 

[Anubis]

Subbuteo > Scottish Football

[No2]

Watched highlights of an old firm game for 1999 and it occurred to me that we probably won't play either of them in the next 10 years.

[sir roger]

Think Rangers may get a result on Sunday but Celtic will still win the league comfortably.

 

Hope Stevie wins a cup and has a decent run in the No-Hoper.

[KMD7]

Hope they get beat

[Aventus]

Seems redundant, we already have Rangers and celtic threads, does anything interesting ever happen in Scotland that doesn't involve those two teams? 

[TheHowieLama]

Scottish football?? What , is that like ice hockey?

[Bjornebye]

4 hours ago, cloggypop said:

Rangers v Feyenoord. Kinell. 

I know. They have got some weird affiliation with Ajax so that will be a mental couple of games. 

[VladimirIlyich]

7 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

Gerrard biggest mistake was taking that job. His second was not taking the Newcastle job when Rafa left. 

I said in another thread that ex footballers without managerial experience walk into big jobs too easily. Much better for Gerrard to start small and work his way up.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Id let them join the Vauxhall conference and then work they way up to the year 2000. I honestly don't watch any other football apart from Liverpool and if a game is on sky and I'm doing fuck all else. I wish Gerrard well but I can't stand rangers.

[scudger99]

Old Firm derbies were a guarantee for pitched battles where I live back in the 70s and 80s.  Extra police were always drafted in for the weekend and they knew they would be kept busy.  Nowadays it's all low key, pretty much like the football north of the border.  Even the local Rangers club got bulldozed a couple of years ago.

Fucking amazing how guys who were really good mates 360 odd days of the year would be trying to stove each others heads in after a few scoops on  derby match day.  A proper demonstration of pack mentality, and most of the cunts were mental.

It's a crying shame how the game has ended up in Scotland, thank fuck we got one of the very few jewels.

[Captain Turdseye]

[Moctezuma]

5 hours ago, scudger99 said:

 

It's a crying shame how the game has ended up in Scotland, thank fuck we got one of the very few jewels.

 

I think what has happened to Scottish football is emblematic of what has happened in society in general with the aggregation of resources with the richest leagues and richest clubs. This means that Scottish teams can be cherry picked from easily which dilutes the quality of players playing in the league, this has happened to a sizeable chunk of other European leagues as well. Champions league money in particular seems to be distorting competition in the smaller leagues making them predictable and non-competitive, which is something UEFA need to look into doing something about and which has benefitted Celtic colossally. 

 

Scotland has also suffered from the globalisation of the game, in that the English leagues can bring in capable players from all over the world and not just north of the border, that and other national teams have improved considerably. In a European context the break up of Yugoslavia and Soviet Union has not helped Scotland in that it created large number of similar if not larger countries with more technically proficient footballers who have outcompeted the national team fairly regularly.

 

One other issue Scotland has had has of course been the decimation of heavy industry and the communities and environs associated with these. Some of this from an epidemiological perspective has been beneficial (outwith the wave of substance abuse that occurred when people needed an escape from hopelessness), but it has hampered the development of football players, most of Scotland's better players in years gone by learnt their skills in large scale street football games. Indicative of this change in playing environments is the fact that a lot of football pitches require a deposit to play on now, which is an immediate barrier to poorer kids.

 

 

 

The thing I've never quite understood with Scottish football is that football doesn't have to be good per se to be 'good' i.e. that the quality can poor to indifferent, but emotional investment and the time you are having with your friends can make this null and void. Ever since I can remember I have heard fans express that they want a bigger league so there is more variation in the teams that they play, yet the authorities adamantly hold onto the model of ensuring that Rangers and Celtic playing the smaller teams every 3/4 times a season for the financial returns. Only Celtic have a standing section, something that should be universal across all Scottish grounds. There is still a ban on consuming alcohol in site of the pitch in Scotland as well, which for some of the lower category games could be binned. 

 

Scotland's football set-up could easily ape that of the German leagues fan first feeling, but instead fans are treated poorly and often with outright hostility. I've had police officers stand in front of me recording the stand for an entire game because I was in an away section, which leaves you with a sense that they see you as the enemy not a fan/someone who enjoys the game. Prices have also crept up, when I used to frequent Pittodrie and Tynecastle a ticket on the gate was substantially cheaper than it is now.

 

 

[Moctezuma]

This documentary put together by Hugh McIlvanney on Busby, Shankly and Stein is excellent and I'd encourage all to watch

 

 

 

[scudger99]

I remember getting to Pittodrie one Saturday afternoon in the late 70s 10 minutes late for kick off.  The guy on the gate just sent me straight in without paying.  You wouldn't see that shit today.

Another aspect to it is there's less kids playing football these days.  When I was in my teens I could walk round my estate and I'd be almost guaranteed to see kids having a kickabout in nearly every street.  Most of them would have been Scottish too, funnily enough.  Now I rarely see kids kicking a ball around anywhere.  Too busy with their phones and shit, football is more of a spectator sport to many of them than a participation.

Your post is pretty well on the money.

[Moctezuma]

I was probably of a generation that was on the boundary of the activity to passivity change, when I was younger we would play football all day, towards the latter days of school the advent of Pro Evo/Fifa and Championship Manager had started to dilute that time. Scotland's climate I reckon plays into that, as does parenting that sees paedophiles and 'stranger danger' everywhere.

[Moctezuma]

It's a pity Scotland isn't producing the requisite talent (outwith our current left back) as Liverpool have seriously benefitted from it over the years

 

GK: Lawrence

RB: Nicol

LB: Robertson

CB: Hansen

CB: Yeats

RM: Cormack

LM: Liddell

CM: Souness

CM: McAllister

F: Dalglish

F: St. John

 

Manager: Shankly

 

Subs:

Raisbeck

Busby

Stevenson

McDougal

McQueen

Gillespie

[deiseach]

Hope St Mirren do well. Jim Goodwin is a Liverpool fan.

[Megadrive Man]

23 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

Gerrard biggest mistake was taking that job. His second was not taking the Newcastle job when Rafa left. 

 

I know you hate them but it's a great first job for him.

 

Gerrard was right to swerve the Newcastle job, there's a good reason that they ended up with Steve Bruce!

[Bjornebye]

3 hours ago, MegadriveMan said:

 

I know you hate them but it's a great first job for him.

 

Gerrard was right to swerve the Newcastle job, there's a good reason that they ended up with Steve Bruce!

He took a big risk. Hope it doesn't pay off but I suspect it might. 

 

Anyway for anyone who thinks Scottish footy is just Celtic and them lot. Get on this 

 

 

 

[Bjornebye]

 

 

 

[Bjornebye]

Football means as much to those who care about something so much. If it doesn't bother you then fine. But for all them teams in Scotland, Ireland, the Welsh League Bury, Bolton.... it means everything. If you love football then you appreciate football. If you don't then fuck off. 

 

 

(I translated that from Cantonas last instagram post)