Football Season 2012/2013

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Nice to see some unbiased supporters right there

[Northern Goblin]

How reliable is Sky Sports? You English lads are lucky with them, they have amazing comentators. Gerry Armstrong and Kevin Keatings and a Madrid game is just a perfect night for me.

Pretty solid, that and the BBC tend to be quite on the ball. Sky Sports News is probably the best place to follow transfer news at all times.

And yeah, though people still have grudges against him from his playing days, we've probably the best football pundit/analyst in the world right now in Gary Neville.

[koodledrum]

there will always be teams that dominate, even in la liga or the bundesliga, not saying they are any different from the SPL in that regard, its just at least in those leagues other teams outside of the dominant forces will win those leagues from time to time (Wolfsburg, Stuttgart, Bremen, Deportivo, Valencia all since the turn of the century), unlike here in Scotland where its just not going to happen unless Celtic suddenly take the sevco route before Rangers are back in the top flight, the days of Aberdeen and Dundee united pulling off title wins are long gone, along with most of there fans.

To me anyway that one lone title Wolfsburg won a few years ago is infinitly more impressive than winning a 2 horse race every other year.

Yes, i do go every other week to Easter Road to feed my addiction to misery, i wouldnt know what to do with myself on a at the weekend if i didnt, having done so for almost 20 years almost without break.

Edit: this Celtic team, while still streets ahead of everyone else isnt good enough to go unbeaten for a full season, they arent that great, not compared to past old firm sides at least..........and i'm not just lying to myself about this because i have a cup final to attend in a weeks time...honest.

The current Celtic team is not that good, but if Lennon was not in a position where he knew the league was won, he could run out his ultimate 11 every week in the SPL and if they play to their strengths they will remain unbeaten, hell if they went the full season on full throttle I'd be willing to suggest it's entirely possible given the way the SPL is going that they could have a 100% record. Teams in the SPL are not skilled enough to put up with that, the quality has significantly declined in the last 5 years, should Celtic decide to prove a point & treat the SPL with any form of respect they'd destroy the field. The ONLY reason that this years league was even remotely in doubt was because of the fact Celtic earn more money from the Champions League than they earn from the SPL, thus the focus for Celtic is not in the SPL but it is in performances in Europe, they know they can run a squad with maybe 3-5 first team players in there and the rest of the side reserves and still have enough in the tank to avoid defeat most of the time.

Problem is that due to the decline of the Scottish game since the inception of the SPL, it's now hamstringing the Old Firm. You will not see players like Laudrup, Nakamura, Moravcic (which I still can't spell) etc. in Scotland again because simply put the ONLY reason to play in Scotland is if you're playing for Rangers or Celtic, primarily at this point in time, Celtic. The decline in quality means that players are reluctant to come to Celtic/Rangers, what's the point when you're playing teams which would in all honesty be crucified by the majority of League 1 sides, infront of stands which sit empty - sure you'll get Champions League experience, but that's between 6-10 games per season, the other 40, well, that's against teams which are so laughable it's painful. Honestly I cannot think of any more than 2 players currently playing in the SPL which would improve Celtic right now if their squad is 100% - even then one of them's a borderline case (Higdon) the other is a fuckin basket case (Griffiths) and he's heading back to Wolves next season!

Since the SPL started teams who are serving their own interests as opposed to the interests of the game have killed Scottish football - you can blame the Old Firm til the cows come home, but the ones who've killed Scottish football are the clubs who blame the Old Firm. Aberdeen, Dundee United, Hearts, Hibs - all guilty as charged, all decry the Old Firm as the evil in Scottish football, yet strangely they're the ones who when the Old Firm wanted to be visionary with the TV deals went "naw we want Setanta", that worked out brilliantly. They're all the ones bleating, but Aberdeen are charging £35 to watch a game against St. Johnstone in the main stand then wonder why they can't compete with the Old Firm and their attendance is lower than the customer count at the Odeon round the corner! They all screamed about "sporting integrity" last year, yet that same notion is not applied to Motherwell or Aberdeen when they finished at the bottom of the league and still stayed up. All the fans "we won't be back if Rangers aren't sent to purgatory" - yeah, so where are those "fans" now, oh yeah, sitting at home, because they're sure as hell not sitting in the stands. Now they wonder why they can't compete with the Old Firm - well, the reason they can't compete is because they're overcharging fans for a substandard product thus the fans are rightly staying away and who can they blame for that, unless you've got rose tinted specs on it's not the Old Firm!

There's too many people in Scottish football who think it's wrong that the Old Firm dominate, it's not wrong, it's natural - case in point, the Celtic figures were down this year, hell it was only last week when they eclipsed the Rangers attendance record for a domestic game (I still haven't seen pictures, it was listed as 57,000, a very round figure!). But even when they're down, they're still putting 40,000 arses on seats every second week, there have been games this season where the crowd was less than 3,000, we're not talking arse o'clock on Wednesday games here, we're talking 3pm Saturday games. Now I'm no economist (despite having been through the ringer last summer), but you don't need to be to see WHY the Old Firm dominate, but the rest of the SPL are killing themselves by not waking up and smelling the coffee!

Compared to "great" Old Firm sides you're right, would Samaras or Ambrose be anywhere near the Lisbon Lions, fuck no and well, I'll be honest, the only name from the Rangers squad this season who'd get close to being in the 9 in a row squad would be Lee Wallace, but that's purely because of the product up here. (and well, the minor detail of us playing sunday pub league football) But compared with the rest of the SPL, it's like sending Real Madrid's all time greatest 11 in their prime out to face Clark Drive U7's Celtic have been the worst performing Celtic side I've seen since before Fergus McCann's time and they still cruised to the league! Hibs in the Europa League qualifiers, well, good luck, but you need to draw some team from rural Albania to have any hope of doing anything!

BUT I guess you're loving the fun & games down Gorgie, the company behind Hearts is "technically insolvent" and the SPL are seeking answers as to their status, if Hearts enter an insolvency situation (which is looking unavoidable now) they lose 17 points and would be relegated from the SPL as a result of the deduction.

And for those who fell asleep perhaps you'll see the link, it's Chris Waddle's take on David Beckham - John Terry might be a #fullkitwanker but Chris Waddle's a #halfwitwanker!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22568870

[Valeron]

For English newspapers I rather like the Guardian. They have a decent weekly (twice a week a lot of times) podcast that I listen to from time to time as well.

[koodledrum]

with British papers just avoid anything red top and you'll likely find intelligent comment! That's the one thing which I wish would be more prevelant over here, with the Yankees there's maybe 6 or 7 blogs which are worth reading which are credible, with English football, you'd be lucky to find credible news sources, it's always "my mate was going to Homebase and saw..." stuff.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

http://aggbot.com/Headline-Football-News/feed/18

Aggregates news feeds from multiple sources (Sky Sports, Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, BBC and a few more).

[Skronk]

-Snip-

I certainly dont blame the old firm for the decline in the SPL, i dont really blame any of the other teams either. I think the problem ( and this is not exclusive to scotland) is the unfair distribution of wealth and the absurd 11-1 voting structure (which in a way can be attributed to the old firm, given it was designed to give the old firm power of veto).

I know the old firm are the biggest draw ect and some would argue deserve the bigger slice of the pie, but its high time we started treating the game as a sport again instead of the business that its become, with an even split of the proceeds you would see the smaller teams be able to afford and field better sides, and while the natural gap between the old firm and the rest would still exist, it would not be hyper inflated by absurd cuts of the TV pie, leading to a closer and less embarrassing league. IMO


Gate prices are a fucking joke imo (not so bad at ER, can still get in for £20, the day they ask £35 across the board is the day even i stop going), though unless we all jump together nothings gonna change, the financial constraints are tough enough atm outside the old firm without willfully consigning yourself to oblivion by lowering your income to levels which dont allow you to realistically stay up in our division, its a sad state of affairs but money makes our game go unfortunately.


I'd prefer it if the game saw wage caps and transfer fee caps worldwide to prevent teams buying success as well as preventing morons like mad vlad from ruining football teams and potentially screwing over their loyal fans in the process. Hell, this would allow gate prices to be lowered to more reasonable levels without endangering the the smaller clubs sporting survival. But alas thats a boat thats long since sailed and is not coming back anytime soon, so at the very least an even split of sponsorship and TV money is the least they can do to encourage better competition.

Samaras or Ambrose wouldn't even get into wim jansens or martin o'neils celtic team, nevermind the lisbon lions.


I wont lie about the hearts situation, it does put a wee smile on my face, though only because it was written on the wall the minute they all welcomed mad vlad with open arms and followed his every move with blind loyalty and faith. I dont want them to die or anything (granted every time i hear 5-1 that opinion slowly starts to change :P), the auld reekie derby's about all we have to look forward to with any certainty year in year out.

Griffiths is a basket case to be sure, but i dont honestly give a damn what he does or says off the pitch as long as he keeps banging them in for us lol. Its just a pity we couldnt secure him permanently before he showed how good he really is this season, there was no way we where gonna keep him after this years up. I just hope he doesnt end up at ibrox or celtic park as is usually the case when we unearth decent talent, no offense, but i dont like it when the big teams pick the wee teams dry then have the cheek to bemoan the lack of competition up here

[Viriel]

I can totally see why the SPL is not interesting anymore to you. I'm a dutchman myself(although a Norwich supporter after my study there), and our competition is a Mickey Mouse one aswell, but at least we have an exciting league, in which we know there are title candidates, but not who is gonna win. However, with financial fair play around the corner, I certainly hope clubs like Real get punished for their 400 million euro's of debt(like Malaga have been punished), for it is unfair in every way.

for a reliable source for news I use Voetbal International, but only in dutch. Biggest football magazine here.
http://www.vi.nl/home.html

And of course, as a Norwich fan I can only say I am relieved we're safe, it has been a mixed season for us canaries, although I would have signed for safety before the season, no questions asked. Wolfie comming in the summer, 1 or 2 new players in and it seems good to go. For advice, I certainly know some Dutch talent, you'd only have to look at our Euro-21 squad for next summer

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

I can totally see why the SPL is not interesting anymore to you. I'm a dutchman myself(although a Norwich supporter after my study there), and our competition is a Mickey Mouse one aswell, but at least we have an exciting league, in which we know there are title candidates, but not who is gonna win. However, with financial fair play around the corner, I certainly hope clubs like Real get punished for their 400 million euro's of debt(like Malaga have been punished), for it is unfair in every way.

for a reliable source for news I use Voetbal International, but only in dutch. Biggest football magazine here.
http://www.vi.nl/home.html

And of course, as a Norwich fan I can only say I am relieved we're safe, it has been a mixed season for us canaries, although I would have signed for safety before the season, no questions asked. Wolfie comming in the summer, 1 or 2 new players in and it seems good to go. For advice, I certainly know some Dutch talent, you'd only have to look at our Euro-21 squad for next summer

Hooray, another Canaries fan! BTW, we've got a 2+1 year contract with Javier Garrido (the defender on loan from Lazio).

Also, the new kit for next year:



They could have asked them to smile though...

[Norganon]

I certainly hope clubs like Real get punished for their 400 million euro's of debt(like Malaga have been punished), for it is unfair in every way.

It's Barcelona who has that debt, not Real. Come on man, at least come with facts. I know everyone thinks Real has massive debts in the Netherlands (I'm Dutch myself) but it's simply not true.

[Valeron]

Well Madrid has other issues than just debt. They are currently being investigated for "state aid" real estate dealings. Since you are dutch, there are 5 dutch clubs being investigated as well.

Also here is a nice blog about debt, which can be deceiving.

http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2012...-and-real.html

[Norganon]

Which ones? I know PSV is being investigated but what others?

[Viriel]

Norganon, their training facilities were worth 400 million euros when they sold it to their local government, it was barely enough to pay parts of their debts with for instance Bankia. Later on, they bought it back for the symbolic 1 euro. Sure, no debt now, but when the investigation is done I expect something to happen.

Well Madrid has other issues than just debt. They are currently being investigated for "state aid" real estate dealings. Since you are dutch, there are 5 dutch clubs being investigated as well.

And in the case of PSV I agree something should have been done. My local club Utrecht has been involved in some rather dubious things aswell, but seeing their latest policy(no salariy over 200k a year) they should be safe from such things in the future, simply because they wont have to use them to get out of trouble.

As for the Norwich kit, I can only say that Snoddy certainly looks excited! I knew about Garrido, made me happy to see and a positive thing for both the club and for him. Additions like Garrido and Bassong, aswell as a talent like Ryan Bennet add to the strength of our defence, while the offense could use a hand. Perhaps Siem de Jong or Adam Maher to supply them from midfield?

[Norganon]

Norganon, their training facilities were worth 400 million euros when they sold it to their local government, it was barely enough to pay parts of their debts with for instance Bankia. Later on, they bought it back for the symbolic 1 euro. Sure, no debt now, but when the investigation is done I expect something to happen.

I expect RM to be fine. You can't bring down an organization as big as that.

And in the case of PSV I agree something should have been done. My local club Utrecht has been involved in some rather dubious things aswell, but seeing their latest policy(no salariy over 200k a year) they should be safe from such things in the future, simply because they wont have to use them to get out of trouble.

If you can get into Europe that would certainly help. It's not like Twente is a great team.

[Viriel]

I expect RM to be fine. You can't bring down an organization as big as that.

In my opinion, size should not matter, foul play is foul play. Malaga got the end of the stick for the mess their owners left, and if a team, whatever size they are, are not good enough financially for financial fair play, they simply have to face the consequences, like Inter Milan did. Dutch clubs were forced to do that a few seasons back, it would be unfair to let big clubs in big competitions go.

If you can get into Europe that would certainly help. It's not like Twente is a great team.

I'll be in Galgenwaard hopefully(if I can get a ticket, 10 euro's for a ticket..yum!) on sunday, and we'll see what happens. I can only hope the form the team has had all season will be there!

[Norganon]

In my opinion, size should not matter, foul play is foul play. Malaga got the end of the stick for the mess their owners left, and if a team, whatever size they are, are not good enough financially for financial fair play, they simply have to face the consequences, like Inter Milan did. Dutch clubs were forced to do that a few seasons back, it would be unfair to let big clubs in big competitions go.

It's funny you mention Malaga, their penalty has been reduced to a year today and might even get removed completely. We'll see how that one goes. RM has a chairman that is worth $2 billion, that has to count for something, right? As long as the club pays off their debt every year it should be fine.

I'll be in Galgenwaard hopefully(if I can get a ticket, 10 euro's for a ticket..yum!) on sunday, and we'll see what happens. I can only hope the form the team has had all season will be there!

Considering Twente's poor run at the start of the year I think you guys certainly have a good chance. Everyone can beat PSV 3-1 anyway. That's an incredibly cheap ticket though, you don't wanna know what I pay for a good seat at the Bernabeu...

[draykorinee]

Thats pretty disgusting, how does that give any sense of fair play when you give so much to the top 2 clubs :S

[Valeron]

The articles I read didn't specify which clubs, just that 5 in the Netherlands were being investigated. PSG is also being looked at as well.

[Norganon]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m5SWzO_S4LE/T544sYD_ZpI/AAAAAAAAFoE/AiXzC6yVi3s/s640/20+Debt+La+Liga+TV+Distribution.jpg

Thats pretty disgusting, how does that give any sense of fair play when you give so much to the top 2 clubs :S

It's because clubs have to sell their own TV rights. Real and Barca are teams everyone wants to watch, and who cares about Racing Santander or Granada? This is getting fixed though, TV rights will all be sold by the LFP and the money will be distributed amongst all the clubs equally.

[draykorinee]

It's because clubs have to sell their own TV rights. Real and Barca are teams everyone wants to watch, and who cares about Racing Santander or Granada? This is getting fixed though, TV rights will all be sold by the LFP and the money will be distributed amongst all the clubs equally.

Whilst I will do my best to avoid a big club v little club debate again, the premiership has the fairest TV rights in Europe, unfortunately we also have 2 of the most average clubs made good by oil money, personally I's have ever more fair play rules to stop these oligarchs ruining football.