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 Are Celtic trying to gain an advantage and stranglehold over the SPL by snapping up all the young talent and lower teams best players ?

 over the past couple of seasons these are just a few of the names i cn think of.

 Mark Brown - Inverness
 Mark Wilson - Dundee Utd
 Gary Caldwell - Hibs
 Steven Pressley - Hearts
 Scott Brown - Hibs
 Paul Hartley - Hearts
 Derek Riordan - Hibs
 Chris Killen - Hibs
 Scott McDonald - Motherwell

 now targeting Steven Naismith

 im a Celtic fan and its becoming apparent to me that this is probably a strategy to ensure they are the strongest team in the SPL , am i right ? could this be their plan ?

i hope its a plan to use more scottish players and get rid of the cheap imports that ruined the national team

without scottish players in the old firm getting CL experiance the national team will slip down the pole again

Those in bold are muppets and should be shipped on during the summer along with the likes of Gravesen, Jarosik, Magic, Miller,  Beattie and Balde.

I'd love to see young Naismith at Celtic, but only if he is going to get a game.  Strachan has a nack of buying players and then not actually playing them.

I think Naismith could be the answer to our left wing problems because sadly McGeady just doesn't deliver on a regular basis.  If available I'd like us to take a chance on Damien Duff, I think we could get him for around 5-6 million we'd make the money back in revenue from many of the Irish nationals who love to see one of their stars playing at Celtic.

Good post and definately agree.

Rangers have been guilty of similar stuff.

I remember when they took Kenny Miller from Hibs and he hardly played. McLeish, at the time still the Hibs manager, commented how dissappointing it was he had not been given much of a chance. Then one of the first things he done on taking over at Ibrox was to sell Miller to Wolves!

We have seen many a possible young talent be ruined in this way by both Old Firm teams.

Geo

The deal to sell Miller was already in place when McLeish took over, it would have taken a lot to cancel the deal by the time McLeish got in (probably a guarantee of 1st team football on a regular basis)

Although there are a couple of frees in that list Celtic have paid good money for most of those & probably way to much for a couple of them. That at least keeps the money in the Scottish game unlike when Rangers just bullied clubs a few years back particularly Dundee.

I'm not even sure Celtic want Naismith I think they might just be trying to push the price up as Rangers are skinto.

well celtic have signed chris killen (old kent road)and scott macdonald (whitechapel road), which is a good foundation for celtic in the future (build a hotel).


is this what you mean by monopolise?

 yeah ,  we should be going for the likes of  Alan Gow ( Mayfair ) and Kirk Broadfoot ( Park Lane )

riorden (go to jail) and scott brown (just visiting)

At the end of the day though the players themsleves have to take some responsibilty.

Kenny Miller made 44 appearances for Celtic last year and managed 8 goals.

No-one can say he was not given a chance last season. So I think Dick Advocaat was correct not to give him a loat of games and it looks like McCleish was right to punt him.

Rather than moaning about foreign players ruining the game why don't the Scots up their game a bit?

To be fair it wasnt the foreign imports brought in by Celtic or Rangers which caused the standards to fall in scotland - it was the absolute foreign dross which was bought by the wee teams, including aberdeen.

the problem was that scottish players were not getting european football and at present wont unless they get into the old firm first team
the good news is teams like hibs and aberdeen are bring through scotish youngsters again (maybe not too great in the aberdeen set up but they are trying) and the old firm are buying up young scottish talent hopefully these players will get european football making the setup to the national team easier

who can remember macnaughtons performance in paris
he never got experiance above SPL and when he was ready to move on to the old firm they were still using forgien players so he got a cap and froze now playing his football in the championship and will never get another chance at a level he should of been able to handle due to stepping up from a medicore SPL side to the national side missing a couple of steps in lelvel out

The issue with the Scottish game is thelack of ambition of the smaller clubs.  I am no fan of Gordon Smith, but I hope and prey that he has some sort of radical ideas that will reshape our game from top to bottom.

Some things I would like to see:

** 16 team Premier League
** 16 team 2nd tier
** 3 relegation places in each league, when demoted from the 2nd tier teams should play in a Conference style set up.
** A move towards summer football
** Scrap the European Place for runners up in National Cup Competitions
** Voluntarty introduction of the 3 foreigner room.  Players from the home nations would not count as foreign for this purpose.
** Scrap the need to have 2 players under 21 on the bench.
** Option for bigger clubs to have their U21's or a B-Team in 2nd tier, these clubs would include Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen.


These are all suggestions I think are achievable, the only issue I can see if the stubborn self preservation attitude of some of the peripheral clubs getting in the way.

Yesterday I noted a comment from a football forum from Eddie Thompson, Chairman at Dundee United "We earn around a 150k per match from the old firm and as little as 15k per match against clubs like Dunfermline and Kilmarnock" Suggesting that he is clearly not interested in modernising or moving the game forward.

Now is this due to financial interests or is it lack of ambition or perhaps a combination of both?

16 team top filght is something i have posted about on blonde before its a must
2nd tier of 16 would work well allowing some of the smaller clubs (like elgin) to drop down a level
to then be able to move forward in the future
2 up 2 down from 2nd tier would be enough with 8 teams coming from the main non league compertitions (including the juniors)
competing in a play off system (2 play offs of 4 teams)
summer football is harm to get round
1 it produces a more skillfull game
2 it makes for a more enjoyable enviorment to watch the game

but
1 the fans have other intrests and family stuff going on during the good weather
2 the way scottish teams play the players would be dead on there feet when the temp got over 26 or 27
3 lose the christmas tradtion (although to some extend thats gone since the abolition of the boxing day derby games)

scrap any place in europe for cup comertitions IMHO since there is no ECWC anymore it should be based over a season and not a run of 3 or 4 games

3 foreigners rule wouldnt matter with a 16 team league for reasons i gave in my  post on the that format limiting teams to 3 forgieners would hinder the top teams in europe though and therefore weaken our chances of getting a 3rd UEFA spot in the future

there is no rule of 2 under 21s on the bench its 3 in the match day squad i like this rule as it means teams are more likely to blood young scottish talent

not keen on b team or under 21 teams in 2nd tier but think using feeder clubs would be a good idea


short sightedness is whats keeping scotish football down and why we have the dreadfull split after 33 games as clubs need the 4 home games vrs the oldfirm to balance the books
rather than looking at ways to get gets up for the rest of the games

Wasn't MacNaughton left out in Paris by Vogts after being told he would play?

your right

he was told he was going to play

was sent out to warm up

froze and got taken off before match started allthough classed as an unused sub

I remain very sceptical about a 16 team league.  The SPL is already laden with dross and I fail to see how adding another 4 sides who are worse than those already there will improve things.  We had a 10team league and increased it to 12 and it hasn't made the slightest bit of difference. 

Good post.

I think trying to campact the good talent that there is would make for a more competitive league.

When the EPL was chopped from 24 teams to 20 the standard went up noticably within a couple of years.

If all the best talent from the top 2 tiers of Scottish football was combined into an elite package (of 1 tier of say 16/18 teams) and the dross was shunted into a conference the standard would be better.

the problem with the 10 team league was that managers couldnt take the risk of losing out on a SPL space and therefore didnt give young talent a chance instead paying out good money on more experianced but often worse forgein imports
the problem with the 12 team SPL is that its now a case of a team cant afford to be in the bottom 6 of the SPL during the split sue to losing out on a home gate against the old firm
by making it 16 teams the top to middle teams can invest in youth instead of cheap forgien imports improving the scottish team and giving the fan more variety (not watching the same teams playing each other 4-6 times a year) also give us a 30 game league instead of a 38 game league allowing players a chance to rest

They are doing that now (with the exception of Hearts).   Going down the foreign route was the "in thing" a few years back, and definetley wasn't a cheap option, there was the odd success story (Latapy and Sauzee spring to mind) but in the main they disappointed.  I can't see how the 10team league can be blamed for this (chairmen and managers should be shouldering the responsibility imo), the fear factor of relegation is always there whether you have a 10/12/16/20 team league.  As for the variety aspect, I agree with you that playing each other 4-6 times a season is far from ideal.

with a 16 team league relagation is only a fear for about 6  out of the 16 teams rather than 7 or 8 out of 12

meaning there are more team not looking over there shoulder and willing to try out new young talent rather than the trusted work horses

I don't understand why he clamour for a 16 team league?

How would it be worked?

If we play each other twice then that means a 30 game season.

15 home league games as opposed to 19 at the moment (are season ticket prices going to be reduced?)

Are Setanta going to continue to invest in the SPL with only two Glasgow Derby's each season?

To me the 16 team league has not been thought out properly.

15 home games with bigger crowds better than 18-20 games (yes not all teams get 19 games) with the reduced crowds at present as the fare being put up week in week out is poor due to the 38 games

The number of games can't be blamed for the lack of quality.  They play 38 games in virtually every main league in Europe.  No evidence to suggest crowds will increase with a 16 team league.  I'd rather they focused efforts on things like improving the standard of coaching and providing better facilities.  Things that will definetly improve the quality rather than meddling around with size of the league in the hope it provides a miracle cure.

You're an Aberdeen fan yeah?

If Aberdeen lost a home game against Celtic, rangers, Hearts & Hibs

to be replaced by a home game against St Johnstone, Livingston, Dundee & Partick Thistle

How exactly would this increase attendances at Pittodrie?

The SPL had it's best attendances in years last season a 16 team league would destroy Scottish football.

WRONG uefa are desperate to get all leagues in europe playing in 16 team leagues the EPL is trying hard to avoid this



because at the moment all teams are playing all other teams 4-6 times a year which is making all the teams understanding teh other teams very well nothing is a surprise
the fans are bored of wathing the same matches week in week out

playing teams once rather than twice at home means fans cant say i'll miss this game we will be playing them again in 2 months times

all structures have good and bad points, depending on the team you support. until the spl board is truly independent it will be done to suit individuals team rather than the good of the league.

10 teams play each other 4 times  or 18 teams play each other twice??? i dont care just get rid of the split, its embarassing!!!

it doesnt really matter celtic will win anyway.

Yes but WHY are they trying to get 16 team leagues?

They are trying to compact the good talent in every league to make them all highly competitive and create more uncertainty of outcome.

This wont work in Scotland as it is not going to compact the talent, it'll just expose how little there is.

Nail on head. 

Having 40 teams in Scotland is just daft, some of these teams literally play in front of a man and his dug. At least a quarter of them should be put out to pasture. We should have 2 divisions instead of 4 and the rest replaced by a decent amateur league and SPL supported nationwide schools league. I don't agree that it was cheap foreigners caused it, I think the teachers strikes in the 80's murdered the game here, football is built on the pyramid structure and a pyramids height is determined by the size of it's base (I'm sure I'm that contravenes the Geneva Convention on torturing analogies). As for the OP, this puzzles me, I'm convinced I read a couple of years ago that UEFA rules where changing and that you had to have X amount of home-grown players and X amount of players that had come through your yoof system, I'm sure it was to kick in in a few years time (ie this season or next) which would make snapping up the best young players important, but I've never heard of it again can anybody confirm or deny?

PS Football manager already had it in place in the 2006 version.

So for 07/08 - Brown, Brown, Wilson, McManus, Caldwell, McGeady, Bjarnason, Kennedy, O'Dea, Sheridan etc all qualify as home grown.