I believe that your friends from Bramall Lane have signed GMS for 400K. Sorry to see him go but he wanted to leave and try his luck again in England. Certainly one to watch when he comes visiting.
400k aswell. thats probably their budget gone. would have loved if we'd signed him. I hope he is ***** now anyway
Judging by what I've seen from this league this year (from other teams, I should add ) and what I've seen of the SPL, I actually think League 1 might be a step up. I'm not sure if that's the English leagues getting better, or the Scottish leagues getting worse. This isn't a dig at Scotland particularly, Ian, I just find it interesting. The SPL was talked about as being at the same level as the BPL a few years back, not SPL stars are getting sold to League 1 for, in football terms, peanuts. Have English clubs just taken all the talent from the league, or is there something else? Or am I completely wrong?
BR you are right in your comments mate. Yes the English leagues are better obviously because of the money circulating in your game and our league is poorer financially. The life blood has been sucked out of our league by Celtic and Rangers greed and the lack of real TV money. Talent wise there are still some good footballers going about but they do not remain in our game for too long. I'm wondering what games in Scotland you have actually seen or are you basing you opinions on the small amount of highlights you may have seen on the telly? I'm no having a dig at you mate but my 2nd Scottish team is Arbroath and I sometimes go down and watch them in Div2. OK no big stars and they play in front of crows under 1000 but the standard and quality of football is possibly much higher than you might think. Our Prem is possibly the weakest it has been for many years. No Hibs, Hearts or Rangers. So only Celtic, Aberdeen and United being top sides. And yet it is still competitive and still producing talent such as GMS. But the problem remains that just as they start to get noticed English teams come in with low offers which are accepted by our cash starved clubs. So it is back to square 1 to find new talent to sell on.
I've seen a few games online, but not much I admit. I can remember talk of Celtic and Rangers joining the BPL, and I remember comments from a mate of mine saying "at least it'll give the big 4 some competition". Makes me laugh now when I think of the way the SPL has gone.
BPL? I take it you mean EPL. Should we ever be lucky enough for the arse cheeks to join the English leagues I'm sure the Big 4 will not be in the least bit threatened. Easy to look good in a league you dominate both financially and talent wise and have the sympathy of weak referees who are scared to make big calls against them for fear of intimidation to themselves and their families. Would be a different story down south. BTW looks like The Rangers might be having another year down below, this is if they survive a another possible administration. LOL
It's a shame that we can't have the British league system that was talked about years ago. Why should rangers and celtic just be talked about coming down? Filter the lot of them into the rightful standard of leagues, well, the first two divisions in Scotland. I imagine funding for travel and other expenses would kill a lot of the 3rd and 4th division clubs. Then in a few year tv rights would go through the roof again then the other two divisions could be filtered into our non leagues. I know I sound crazy but I'd love to have a British league. It would benefit British football as a whole massively.
Where would you put the Scottish teams, though? IMO right now the SPL is around lower League 1 standard, with a few at mid championship standard. Below the SPL, I don't think you can put them anywhere higher than lower League 2. It wouldn't be worth it IMO.
That would be the challenging part admittedly... but for how much those mongs at the FA get paid I'm sure they could sort this out.
If they put them where they should be, there'll be hell to pay, though. It'll never happen, but I'd love to see some form of tournament to see where each Scottish team should go. I can't see Celtic wanting to give up the champions league and join the championship, so they'd put pressure on to put them in premiership, where they would most definately get relegated.
I'd fancy Celtic to finish above the likes of Leicester, Burnley, QPR, West Brom etc and with the extra money generated from Sky would be able to outbuy most clubs in the PL bar the top 4.
Bramall Lane in front of 20k or Oakwell in front of 9k? Top 6 or bottom 8? Possible 8k a week or 4k maximum a week? I'd love us to pinch him but, cards on the table, it's not going to happen is it? Bloody dee dahs.......