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How Would you Fix Scotland?


CostaJambo

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19 hours ago, The Skip said:

 

This.

 

Setting aside social issues etc the biggest problem in Scottish football is that the OF are seen as bigger, better and more important than anything else. That is the case from the media, the SFA/SPFL, the OF fans and most importantly the vast majority of Scottish players.

 

Take Scott Brown as an example, personal feelings aside, we will never know how good a player he could have been or even is. He had the chance to join clubs in England but took the lazy and unambitious route and joined Celtic to play in a poor league and be the big fish in the small pond, rather than actually go out there and test himself against some of the best players in the world on a weekly basis. Our media lapped it up as a great move to a great club etc as they always do, no one raised the point that moving from Hibs to Celtic and carrying on playing in the same league wasn't going to improve him as a player. Thus he has stalled and he and we will never know how good a player he could have been. The same is going to happen to James Forrest, Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie, Mikey Johnston etc unless they wake up to the fact that, in this day and age, playing for Celtic for any great length of time is massively unambitious.

 

Compare that to Tierney, when Arsenal first made their move how many pundits were out saying it would be a great move for his career, to go and test yourself, and that for the benefit of his career he should move, none. It was all think of what he would be leaving behind, all the medals he will win, it's an honour to play for Celtic from the likes of Pat Bonnar and then the fans join in calling him a rat for moving on instead of staying for 10 in a row. Instead they should be asking what would he have been achieving by staying in Scotland and playing in a league that he has won (4 times? in a row) already. But no, Celtic are more important than the player's development. Also look at the end of last season when he needed an urgent operation that meant he couldn't play for Scotland as it needed done ASAP. That didn't stop him putting it off until he played in the cup final. Not a single question asked by the media, or to the player himself, as to why Celtic were more important than Scotland.

 

Also look at the players like Stuart Armstrong, you speak to any Celtic fan and it was like he committed treason leaving them. So much so that they all want him to fail down south so that they can all have a cheap dig at him, rather than actually acknowledge the fact he at least tried to better himself.

 

Add in the fact that Celtic and unfortunately Rangers have been, for at least the last 20 years, in the position to hoover up the best young players as relatively cheap gambles. Some work out, the likes of Ryan Christie but even he was sent out on loan for 2 years and still sits as having played his whole career in Scotland. But what about the likes of Lewis Morgan, Scott Allan etc, as soon as the OF are linked with these players every media outlet talks up the move as if its a great thing and can't even bring in the thought that it is highly probable to not work out. The latest in this list is Jake Hastie, signed by Rangers from Motherwell in the summer and loaned straight out to Rotherham. Will he ever get a proper run of games at Rangers or would it have been better for him to stay and play another season at Motherwell. Again the shouts from the media were about what a great move it was for him. See also David Turnbull, made out to be the panto villain and a money grabber when he turned down Celtic without a single member of the media acknowledging that it would have been better for his career to go to Norwich. You can make the same comparison with John McGinn, would he have improved as a player moving to Celtic instead of Villa and playing in the same league as he had done for the rest of his career to date?

 

As far as the players are concerned look at the list of guys that have their heads turned by the OF and go running some of them leaving their boyhood clubs on the belief that the OF are the be all and end all and without any ambition to try out another/better league. The likes of Andy Webster, Jamie Walker, Jason Holt, Ian Murray, Derek Riordan, Stephen Pearson and Ryan Jack. As soon as the OF are mentioned the media go in to fan boy mode and make them out to be at the top of the football ladder rather than acknowledge that young Scottish players should have more ambition than to play out their full careers in a poor league like Scotland. Look at the likes of De Ligt at Ajax, the club and the media know that they know they will only have him for a couple of years and then it is off to one of the big leagues and this it is better for the player and the national team. In Scotland it is played out in the media that the main ambition of any players career should be to play for one of the OF. Forget the bigger and better leagues. (By the way I'm not saying that all of or any of the listed players would have gone on to have a glittering career or comparing them in a ability capacity to De Ligt). (I also note that neither Andy Webster or Jamie Walker left us for Rangers but both had their heads turned and downed tools to try and force through a move).

 

Same for the fans, I find it very hard to find an OF fan that actually cares about the national team. This is because of years of their players pulling out for cheap reasons and putting club before country, again an example of this is Scott Brown who was welcomed back with open arms and given the captaincy on his return from "retirement".

 

Sorry for the long post but in short until at least the majority of the media wake up and realise that the OF are not the be all and end all and at best should be used as a stepping stone to bigger things in players careers and players should be being encouraged to go out and test themselves, then we will always struggle to get our best young players into the bigger and more challenging leagues in Europe and see them develop and mature in to anything resembling good footballers as they will inevitably get the OF pushed on them and then disappear like so many before them.

Spot on. Superb post. The baw's burst. And it will be until the above is changed.

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4 hours ago, Nookie Bear said:

 

Not sure she is adding much there tbh

 

 

 

Indeed , pretty much nothing in it thats either not been said or doesn’t sound arsey. 

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