Rangers In Crisis

[barca72 440]

They have tried, and are trying, to find a way to maximise their potential. They know, as we do, that life in Scottish football has certain advantages but also serious disadvantages.

 

The consequences of Celtic getting out would affect Rangers badly. We've seen how miserable one-team divisions are and that's what we'd be left with if Celtic got out and we didn't.

 

Celtic being a vile club is your opinion and it isn't necessarily shared in England or in Europe. The sooner we put personal animosity on this issue to one side the sooner we'll be able to contemplate this issue seriously.

 

People say that there are no exits from Scottish football, but the same kind of people said that Rangers would never go bust.

 

Do you think Celtic will be playing in Scottish football in a hundred years? At some point, with or without us, there will be change. Maybe it will take fifty years, but it could be twenty or ten or five.

 

Celtic are preparing the ground and pulling as many strings as they can to find a more lucrative football environment in which to compete.

 

At some point, a door will open for them, and when it does, if the option to move is an attractive one, they will be gone.

 

We could be left high and very, very dry. Let's not get fooled again into thinking that seemingly unlikely scenarios will never ever happen.

 

Before you contemplate Celtic's lofty disappearance, one of the `unlikely scenarios` you speak of may happen.

Them having to face the real possibility of setbacks from dodgy land deals and dodgy mortgages, etc.

If they do have to face a punishment for any of these scenarios, who would be interested in having them then?

Sporting Integrity indeed.

[Hildy 0]

Excellent piece Hildy. Better writing than anything in paid media.

 

Irvine Welsh recently said a term - 'the sectarian doped old firm,' in a disparaging answer as to why the old firm win in Scotland all the time. Traditions, loyalty, yada yada. Ultimately it will hold both clubs back though. The EPL in it's earlier days will have certainly discussed the old firm in response to approaches, but I feel justified in speculating that the nutter element of both clubs,and policing, will ultimately have been the discouraging factor in rejecting overtures. The nutters may have held the club back from being a truly global powerhouse. Idle chatter I know.

 

Both the old firm are hostage to a very sizeable element who believe in dragging fairly extreme politics into their club, projecting an image of Rangers as beholden to a right wing, and celtic as a hotbed of terrorist sympathisers and activists to everyone else.

 

Right wing politics are generally unpalatable to the modern middle class, (everything is wishy washy these days- it's not the early 20th century) and you'll lose some of a demographic by being associated with it. A club which operates and is perceived as being inclusive will commercially prosper easier in normal market conditions than a non inclusive one. Barca learned this over the years. The fact that you are debating it is however fantastic. But hey, both clubs have massive supports, and as William Burroughs said 'Earth is a war planet. War and games."

 

Cheer up Hildy. I notice you have a dark view this now, but I'm sure rangers will come good again soon. You'll wipe the floor with the hibbies - the players will literally be on £500 a week, and the jambos were actually building a team under Locke, but levein will mess it up. If you went to easter road this season (and it is the coldest ground in Scotland I swear) and didn't see a win in over a dozen home games you'd know about misery. It's been like Ripping Yarns.

If, as expected, there is a NO vote in the referendum, it won't kill the SNP. The argument for an independent Scotland won't go away just because it loses the popular vote.

 

In a generation or so, there could be another referendum that threatens to take Scotland out of the UK. From a British perspective, it makes sense to strengthen the bonds between England and Scotland now to make future separation less likely.

 

Having a major Scottish club, or perhaps two, playing in the lucrative English set-up might actually be positively encouraged by the political left, right and centre after the referendum.

 

The time could be near when the prospect of the Old Firm playing in England becomes not just possible, but probable.

[Scott7 5,156]

The encouragement of politicans will count for nothing if Sky don't fancy it.

[Rangersitis 0]

Before you contemplate Celtic's lofty disappearance, one of the `unlikely scenarios` you speak of may happen.

Them having to face the real possibility of setbacks from dodgy land deals and dodgy mortgages, etc.

If they do have to face a punishment for any of these scenarios, who would be interested in having them then?

Sporting Integrity indeed.

 

The guy banging his gums most about all of that used residential values to price up commercial land at the old hospital/Lennoxtown site.

 

He must have improved a hell of a lot since then to garner such support.

[Rangersitis 0]

The encouragement of politicans will count for nothing if Sky don't fancy it.

 

I agree about political intervention, but Sky are there at the behest of the teams, not the other way round. If there is a more lucrative deal to be had elsewhere, Murdoch and his empire will be jettisoned. The bottom line is that the EPL do not need either of the Glasgow clubs, as has been shown by the two votes on the matter.

[forlanssister 3,050]

The encouragement of politicans will count for nothing if Sky don't fancy it.

 

Or BT formerly ran by Celtic board member Lord Livingston of Parkhead.

[barca72 440]

The guy banging his gums most about all of that used residential values to price up commercial land at the old hospital/Lennoxtown site.

 

He must have improved a hell of a lot since then to garner such support.

 

Not quite sure to whom you are referring here.

[Rangersitis 0]

Not quite sure to whom you are referring here.

 

Football Tax Havens I believe it was called.

[Stimpy 0]

Football Tax Havens I believe it was called.

 

That's still on the go mate. He spends his days having it out with tims on Twitter.

[barca72 440]

Football Tax Havens I believe it was called.

 

You don't believe that he has produced enough real evidence to cause Celtic harm?