The yearly examination of Scottish football

[Zizou]

No Champions League reps yet again. Aberdeen, St Johnstone and ICT failed to get past the diddy stages ... it's awful.  

Na. It's really not that bad is it?

OK, the standard of player isn't great, but the football is often more exciting that it gets credit for. The St Johnstone game was better than anything else I've watched across Europe so far this season.

For the laughable amount of TV money the clubs get to work with, we are doing OK. The emphasis has clearly shifted to developing the youth and we are beginning to see the fruits of that all across the country. Most of us have recovered from the madness of the 90's where we tried to compete with England and are on a sound financial footing. Our national team is punching above its weight and we have some quality players knocking on the door to genuinely improve the squad. We can almost taste our next major tournament.

The play-offs have really improved the end of season enormously and I can't wait for the next one. The Rangers/Hibs/Hearts sagas have been entertaining for everyone. Cups are as unpredictable as they have ever been and are being shared around everyone. Never a dull moment in Scottish football.

Some people are envious of our neighbours and the glamour of the EPL but fuck that. The game is an absolute joke down there. There is absolutely no connection between the fans and these incredibly wealthy young guys. Most clubs are toys for billionaires and their position is pre-determined by how much they've pissed away in the summer transfer window. I guarantee that deep down, most of them would swap it all for a 'real' football club in a minute. At least we feel like we are in it together with local guys like Dr Funk and the fans can actually make some sort of difference to things.

I quite like our wee game as it is tbh. Won't be losing any sleep about our performances in Europe. That boat sailed a long time ago and it's time to focus on making the domestic game the best it can be. We are on our way to doing a decent job of it.

[Edson Arantes 2Nascimento]

Scottish football doesn't become relatively more entertaining because our teams do well in Europe. 90% of the time success in Europe is the old firm's - so any failure doesn't affect the rest of us.

I'm more interested in and entertained by Scottish football since I was young and collected football stickers. And it's not just because we're the dog's bollocks. There's competition throughout the leagues and lots of clubs being well run.

5 years ago I'd have never sat through any part of sportscene that wasn't the hearts, now I'll happily watch Hamilton versus Aberdeen and can honestly say it's more appealing to me than most EPL games.

[PHOODLE-OUt]

I lost interest in the EPL years ago, wouldn't sit and watch a game if I was paid for it. It's just awful, the money kicking about for bang average players is sickening. 

Scottish football is on the up and I think the resurgent Heart of Midlothian FC can take full credit for it IMO  

[Roger H. Sterling]

I lost interest in the EPL years ago, wouldn't sit and watch a game if I was paid for it. It's just awful, the money kicking about for bang average players is sickening. 

Scottish football is on the up and I think the resurgent Heart of Midlothian FC can take full credit for it IMO  

[Mastermind]

I enjoy the English Premiership games, well some of them, but I also enjoy almost all of the SPFL games as well. I don't understand how the majority of EPL fans and media can give shit to the SPFL, we have not once claimed it was a better league than the Premiership, and Championship, yet they just seem so persistent on dragging our reputation down further. We get little to no money invested from the major TV companies who seem so comfortable throwing an endless amount of cash at other leagues.

It's an endless cycle of: not enough money to sign good players > not enough good players to earn a decent enough TV deal.

I also think some of the teams also need to have a look at themselves. Teams like inverness would much rather just send their scout down to a second division game in England and take a chance on any of the journeymen playing there, however, we've shown that if you get a coach with the right mentality, and some knowledge, then you can attract far better players to your club. The signing of Juwon and Juanma was a real positive moment for us, shows we're not just looking for players who see playing for Hearts as the peak of their career, and that's what more Scottish clubs need, good technical players who have desire to play in a higher league than the SPFL.

[Ray Winstone]

Was at Koln v Wolfsburg at the weekend - considering the hype the German league gets the standard was a lot lower than I was expecting. De Bruyne looked like an absolute huddy.

Don't think it was really any better than a decent SPL game to be honest. Obviously the stadium and the atmosphere were head and shoulders above most of what we see here but it goes to show you that a football league that is packaged well by the powers that be can make the most of what they have - unlike Doncaster et al who like to remind the world how shite are league is apart from the Old Firm.

[Cheeky Gnando’s]

My mate was at the Hamburg game on Saturday Ray, he said exactly the same thing - slaughtered the standard. He was saying that Johann Djourou was the star man, it was that mediocre

[Ray Winstone]

My mate was at the Hamburg game on Saturday Ray, he said exactly the same thing - slaughtered the standard. He was saying that Johann Djourou was the star man, it was that mediocre

Naldo at the back for Wolfsbug was the standout player. The Koln CDM Vogt was their main man.

Some of the build up play was decent but the final ball and some of the finishing was comical.

If that was a display of De Bruyne as a £50million player then Billy King must be worth the same

[Scott the Dick]

Sooner we change to "Summer" football the better. We're going to have to do it for the Qatar World Cup, so lets do it a few years early. I'm all in favour of it

[Konnichiwa You Cunt]

Tell you what, people go on about the money Celtic missed out on from the Champions League, but they've now received £35 million from Southampton alone since 2013. Absolutely no point in anyone else even trying to compete with them.