The Scottish Football Segment

The SPFL is back in action after another drab international break (Thank god for that). Ross County V Celtic The SPFLs televised match this Saturday comes from Dingwall as Ross County look to be the first Scottish team to inflict defeat on the Hoops in Brendan Rodgers 62 game domestic tenure. Ross County have been in good if unspectacular form of late, having won their last 2 home matches and narrowly losing out to Aberdeen and earning a respectable point at McDairmid Park. Celtic are yet to hit the heights of last season domestically, but having said that, they have won every away game this season and with the minimum of fuss. Perhaps worryingly for the Staggies, Brendan Rodgers men have put 3 or more goals past teams 12 times already this season. Last time at Victoria Park, Celtic were held to a 2-2 draw courtesy of an outrageous dive from Alex Schalk. Since then, Celtic dished out a 4-0 drubbing at Celtic Park. Celtic will win, but I expect the scoreline to be much ti...

63 games undefeated. It will never be matched. Not in our lifetimes anyway. Brendan Rodgers has transformed Celtic from a side that would crawl over the finish line at the end of a season with little other to show than the premiership title and qualification for the Europa League; to a cohesive unit full of confidence, when on top form, they can mix it with Europe's best as evidenced by the performance against Bayern Munich and Manchester City. Yes, the detractors, of which there are many will point to the 7-0 drubbing at the Camp Nou or the 5-0 battering at home at the hands of PSG. They perhaps have a point about the consistency levels that The Bhoys have to show domestically are entirely different to the different gear they have to show in Europe's premier competition. But there is not one person in England or elsewhere who could ever convince me or anyone else that the quality isnt there to compete. Sixty-Three games undefeated at any level in an astonishing a...

Rangers' hunt for their new manager continues. But who is the right man for the job? McInnes wins Manager of the month for April Sure, McInnes is the obvious choice. He's done a very good job in turning aberdeen fortunes around while outperforming the 'Gers since their return to the top flight. Maybe, if Celtic still had Ronny Deila in charge, This would be the Dons year. Likelihood is, This is the glass ceiling domestically. McInnes seems impervious to the questions from the media, Though I'm sure, if McInnes is given the option, he will be holding a red, white and blue scarf outside of Ibrox park the very next morning. That will be giving Stewart Milne sleepless nights. Van Bronckhorst during 3 trophy laden years at Ibrox Then there's Giovanni van Bronckhorst. He already knows what Rangers are all about and the scale of the task at hand. He would also come with a substantial managerial pedigree, having led Feyenoord to their first Eredivisie...

You know what, I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. Yes, he got it wildly wrong on Sunday evening and his stubbornness in the early part of the campaign has ultimately cost us... but the signs of improvement were evident, even if those signs emanate from Brendan Rodgers' Celtic side. It's the hope that kills you. The somewhat knee-jerk reactions of 'Strachan must go' I thought. He deserves one more shot. One more go to get us out of this 20 year lull, if you can call it that. Not anymore. His comments in the press are the kind of thing youd have expected him to say at the start of the campaign. Leigh Griffiths wasn't tall enough, so he opted for the completely inept Steven Fletcher. Callum McGregor, even to this day has been inexplicably left out of the fold. Seems apparent that he doesnt have the required 'genetics' to play international football. He clearly hasnt learnt from the 1-1 draw at home against Lithuania, the humbling in T...

Last night, I watched the most Embarrassing result in Scottish football history. That takes some doing. Whether it be Malmo, Sigma Olomouc, Maribor, Vaduz or even the first leg against Gibraltans, Lincoln Red Imps; the whole thing paints a familiar picture for Scottish football as a whole. Again, We could be starting the season with only 1 team in Europe past July. Pat Fenlon can't bear to look as Hibs are hit for 7 at Easter Road  Pre season felt different this year, Rangers had brought in lots of players from overseas. They have been so highly praised by the media. The normal football fan could be forgiven for lapping it up and expecting rangers to cruise into the Europa League group stages. It almost felt like Scottish football might have turned a corner. With Aberdeen linked with some big names and, if the rumours are to be believed, Rangers have spent upwards of £10m - with the majority of that coming in the form of soft loans. Maybe the Rangers board were also bankin...

"My Nan could score 40 up there." "Not hard to win the league when youre playing pub teams every week" "I could manage Celtic and still win the league" Move over Adrian Durham. His hatefulness of the Scottish game when his pals in Light blue aren't on top of the pile has seemed to trickle down to those of you who seemingly dont care about Football north of the Boarder. Yet you care enough to write about how your Nan could sprint onto a long ball by Stephen McManus, whilst avoiding a crunching tackle by Ash Taylor. And better yet, has the wherewithal to guide a delicate chip over the head of Joe Lewis and into the back of the net. Easy. Perhaps you dont care. You are probably trapped in your own little bubble. I can only hazard a guess at what goes on with the Premier League PR meetings. "The best league in the world?" Nah, we cant use that anymore. "How about... the most exciting?" Nah, Maybe last year, but chelsea have had t...

DO Scotland have any chance of beating the Auld enemy? Our results have been anything but impressive in 2018 world cup qualification - so we could be forgiven for being very negative going into the game on June 10th. Personally, I'm cautiously optimistic. I'll explain why. Although we've been roundly pumped in our away games against Slovakia and Them, it wasn't all as bad as it seems: Now, at the time I was furious. The inability to finish and the powder-puff defending lead to a disastrous 3-0 defeat. Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing. If you can bare it, take a look at the highlights: Slovenia 3-0 Scotland Highlights Early chance missed by Fletcher was followed by  a highly contentious opener by Robert Mak.  We dominated from there - Well, at least until Mak grabbed his 2nd of the night on 56 minutes. Who really cares about what happened after that? The point is there were positives to take from this game... Wasn't there?  One month lat...

It's nearly that time again. The Europa League qualifiers start as early as the end of this month for Rangers and St. Johnstone. Celtic and Aberdeen will start their campaigns on the 11/12 and 13th of July respectively . So who could they face? Can St Johnstone,Aberdeen or Rangers get a much welcomed Europa League cash boost - and how much would they earn? Can Celtic stretch the financial disparity even further and make it into the Champions League again? Firstly, I'll focus on the Champions League and Celtic - The Champions League group stage beckons. Celtic will be seeded all they way through the qualification process and should make it that bit easier. 2nd Round Champions Route 5 winners from round 1 will join Celtic. Since the draw is regionalised, Celtic can only play teams from Northern Europe in rd. 2 - Assuming the seeded teams go through, Round 2 will look a little like this The teams underlined above would be my best guess Celtics Likely ...

So it begins. Dust off your 'going for 55' banners ready for the 2017/18 season Season ticket sales must have taken a battering after celtic romped to a domestic clean sweep. At least that would explain the hot air from new Rangers signing Bruno Alves.  He won't settle for 2nd best with the Ibrox club. Probably just as well, Bruno. You've just joined the 3rd best club in the country. Bruno Alves stoking the fire It's hard to imagine even the most dyed in the wool Rangers fan believing any of this, especially after all the banging of the drum and the propaganda from last season. In an interview, Alves states he wants to be a champion again. Since his Cagliari deal was cut short for a nominal fee, will the euro 2016 winner really be playing with rangers into his 50s so he can lift the Premiership title. That's how far they are behind Celtic.  Alves will improve the rangers back line. But not by much. Cagliari shipped 76 goals last season. Wh...

For a long time now, the English Premier league has been bankrolled by Bskyb's billions, and the influx of money seems to have no bounds.  Just recently, almost sickening figures have been released. Chelsea, the Premier League champions, received £152.8m. Even Sunderland, who finished dead last, were in receipt of £99.9m. So how is it concievable that the miniscule TV dealings of what has become a footballing backwater could greatly effect the richest league in the world? Well... actually, it's very possible. BSkyB posted profits of a little over £1bn. There are approximately 1 million scottish Sky subscribers. and 500000 with sky sports. Let's assume each of them are forking out £40 a month on their sky packages.  Now let's assume that BT have bought the entire SPFL package. Leaving only half of the 500000 with any sort of vested interest in English football. 250,000 Scottish football fans change provider. That's £10m a month. £120m a year. A shade und...