THE SPFLPL PREMIERSHIP LEAGUE

[CritchSmile]

Whatever it's called.

Time to talk it up. It's pretty dece.

Rodgers at Celtic, Steve Clarke at Killie, Owen Coyle at County, hopefully a couple of diddies get relegated so Dundee Utd/St Mirren/Dunfermline get promoted. A fairly strong Rangers back in the league making decent January signings.

Even Lennon at Hibs you wouldn't have thought he'd end up there when he was winning titles at Celtic. Aberdeen have serious money. Hearts have Berra and Naismith.

This is an interesting league, with lots of different recent cup winners from it. Any other positive things you can say about the top league? As an aside, it's time we start owning the split instead of being embarrassed/apologising for it. It's fucking decent and suits our league really well. Lots of mid-table teams of similar standard trying to get into the top 6. It's a good measure of success for teams like Saints/Killie/Dundee etc...

[PHOODLE-OUt]

Even Lennon at Hibs

Fuck off

[shaun.lawson]

A fairly strong Rangers

[Half Time Guest]

Fuck off

[CritchSmile]

Fuck off

Its good to have someone to hate.

[CritchSmile]

You can titter when Hearts arent below them.

[Felix]

Came back to post, read Scott's thread.

I'm off again.

[PHOODLE-OUt]

Its good to have someone to hate.  

I agree with the rest of the OP

Just need somebody in charge who will get the tv and sponsorship cash in that it deserves.

[Zizou]

It's as good as it has been for about a decade. The main reason for that is we have accepted our place in the grand scheme of things and tried to improve what we can. There is no point trying to compete with England.

Clubs generally more financially stable, youngsters getting a real chance, a better quality of player and manager willing to come here, BT doing a decent job covering it, cup competition that still matters to everyone, impressive attendances by any standards. I like that we are willing to try some different things now. The League Cup format has drastically improved.

It's a shame the fans aren't rewarded via the national team and we are failed on league sponsorship.

[CritchSmile]

Came back to post, read Scott's thread.

I'm off again.

Fuck off

[Array]

The weakening of rangerz has improved it, for me. More clubs see a cup win as really achievable, and it's let Aberdeen increase their profile (pity we haven't been in a position to take advantage of it too). Could be that's why managers with a decent pedigree have come here, it no longer being seen as a 2-horse race. I know that sounds perverse, but a closed shop of 2 makes the rest of us seem weaker and less relevant, whereas 1 club running away with things and a number of others wanting to chase them and go for second makes us potentially more attractive.

[PHOODLE-OUt]

Queen Ann has probably managed to market Hearts better and had more money thrown at it that than Doncaster has the whole league

[CritchSmile]

I agree with the rest of the OP

Just need somebody in charge who will get the tv and sponsorship cash in that it deserves.

Amazing that this improvement is due to individual clubs despite the incompetent authorities

[PHOODLE-OUt]

Amazing that this improvement is due to individual clubs despite the incompetent authorities

The neo liberal way they ran the league for the benifit of two big clubs is surely bust now that it's been proved Rangers dying was an overall improvement

[Chrambo]

It's the best it's been in a while but I just can't get excited when Celtic are going to win atleast 80% of silverware for the foreseeable future.

[CritchSmile]

It's the best it's been in a while but I just can't get excited when Celtic are going to win atleast 80% of silverware for the foreseeable future.

We need to be firing on all cylinders for when Rogers fucks off. Hopefully they bring in a flop and we can push them like Aberdeen and Ronny Deila

[Half Time Guest]

There's big potential for the league but they need to stop marketing it as something similar to the English Premiership.

We'll never get the same levels of sponsorship, money, viewing figures etc as down south.  Scottish football needs to be marketed as what I would call (for lack of a better term), "real football".  For me, it's real in the sense that it's not like down south when footballers and clubs are millions of miles apart from their fans.  Ticket prices are sky rocketing, wages are mental and transfer fees are astronomical.  The relationship between clubs/players and fans are pretty non-existent. 

If you follow one of the top flight sides down south for example you'll almost never bump into your heroes whenever you're out and about.  Scotland as a country and a football league is small enough whereby if you're up the town you can still see these guys.  You'll still see these guys in the same shops and bars as you frequent.  It makes you feel connected and close to the club that you support and love.  That wouldn't happen down south. 

Scottish football is real in the sense that, without being clichéd, it's gritty and honest.  We don't have the greatest players in the world in this league but we've got players who are committed and give it their all each week.  The attendance figures on average for a country our size are incredibly impressive percentage wise when compared to some of the bigger sized countries and leagues across Europe.

For Scottish football to improve there needs to be a join effort to rid the game of those currently at the top of it - Doncaster, Reagan et al.  Guys who have presided over some shambolic stuff in their time.  Two men who were more worried about Rangers not getting automatic entry back into the league than the integrity of it all.  They've failed to secure any decent sponsorship.  How long did the Scottish Cup go without a sponsor for?  That in itself is a disgrace.  Instead of talking up the league whenever they are pressed on their lack of success they seek to talk it down.  Renaming the leagues after the ones down South i.e League one, league two, etc was lazy at best.

We need to maximise revenue.  We should be playing Sky and BT off against each other.  BT's coverage has been decent as others have said but Sky are only interested in Scotland because of the Old Firm game and they have exclusive rights for it.  We should be telling BT they can have exclusive rights for the entire Scottish game if they are willing to stump up extra cash.  Play our hand and let's see what Sky say to that.  Sky are taking a hammering right now, BT have all the European coverage.  Sky have the standard English Premiership games, El Classico and the Old Firm game as their big draws.  If they lost Scottish football altogether including those Old Firm games then they might even see their subscription count drop quite a bit north of the border.  BT seem to give a fuck, give them a chance to provide exclusive coverage.

If people really are against modern football and all the money driven crap that goes on in other leagues in particular, you could do a lot worse than to look towards our league.  Market it as a niche product, a league that's about the football and not about extravagant costs and overhyped prima donnas.

[Hank Scorpio]

Great thread title mate

[Chrambo]

We need to be firing on all cylinders for when Rogers fucks off. Hopefully they bring in a flop and we can push them like Aberdeen and Ronny Deila

Tbh even I could win the league with the players they have. Plus he'd have £30m to sign players.

[Shteve]

It's great man, I've totally lost interest in the EPL and all that shit too, Scottish fitbaw is making a comeback, it means so much to people here whereas down south and that it all just seems so fake and diddy.