Various Mark Warburton comments about future of Scottish football

[der Berliner 3,249]

Eastern Europe has been the hunting ground for BL 1 to 3 sides for ages, plus the French. Quite a tradition there and these countries are closer to their respective players' homes. The Scandinavian market is an option, not least since Scotland is closer to Norway and Iceland than most others

Edited August 11, 2016 by der Berliner

[calscot 0]

I wouldn't bet too much against us doing an EEZ, and pretty much nullifying the main reason for leaving. So it might not be a problem.

[calscot 0]

I'm not sure Scandinavia is the best market as they generally don't do so well in Europe - all the best players are picked up by teams with more money than us.

 

Eastern block is more of a risk culturally wise, but to assess that, since 1972 we've had (including Turkey and Israel):

Vučkić, Žaliūkas, Jelavić, Goian, Velička, Šebo, Sionko, Pršo, Mladenović, Khizanishvili, Papac, Arveladze, Fetai, Adamczuk, Tugay, Kanchelskis, Prodan, Salenko, Petrić, Mikhailichenko, Kuznetsov, Cohen.

 

And now Kranjčar.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Very mixed bag there

[Germinal 27]

Don't want to come across as a doom monger but while Warburton is correct in much of what he says, it's too late, and far too late at that.

 

His arguments have been advanced by many observers for nigh on 20 years, if not longer, and each year that's passed without action has made it harder for the business that is the game here to deal with their market: better standard of competitors, better marketed competitors, larger competitors, better funded competitors, less socially divisive competitors, ease of transport, omnipotent TV coverage of far superior product.

 

It was always going to be a hard slog to get the game here in any condition to deal with the onslaught of the Sky TV football revolution, but a cold analysis says that we have consistently responded in ways which extract maximum damage to the game. I include our own team in that, us as fans as well, but more broadly pretty much everyone who goes to, coaches, plays, broadcasts or comments professionally on the game. It's been a landscape of the lowest common denominator, a putrid playground where short, medium or long term business models are ignored in favour of pandering to dimwits.

 

The ethos of the game has been blind, parochial self interest over any sensible approach which might yield a mildly profitable and sustainable future. Anyone who can point me to a mature strategy in which the meagre incomes of the game are distributed in such a way as to encourage participation and/or interest, I'd be very grateful. Even the new League Cup, hailed as quite good, is only a stumble in the right direction - the example of the Skol Cup is before us, but we ignore it in favour of the sectional fiasco it replaced. It (the Skol Cup) got binned because 'big' clubs wanted to focus on Europe - that's hardly an argument anyone can make nowadays. A straight knock out competition, result on the night and done with by the end of October was successful and there's no reason why it can't be again.

 

But here we tip toe reluctantly toward the model of the last successful product we had, because a few teams want to pretend they can compete with Europe's third or fourth tiers. Byes for teams in Europe? Leave it out. I can't believe teams don't realise how far down the order we are - granted, football is about emotion but at some point cold reality has to intervene.

 

Ironically enough for a game which spends untold hours and energy pointing fingers at Rangers and shouting 'zombies!' the game here has been dead for years. Unpopular in the wider society, of minor interest to the money men, a joke at national level: it's really only the defibrillator of poking Rangers which produces the odd spasm. At least we have a manager who plays a vibrant style, but in the context of Scottish football it can only remain a vibrant branch line and one which has extremely limited access to the junctions to better things.

 

People might have ideas to pep things up, but they would have to have been implemented decades ago. We're now like a local ironmonger trying to compete with B&Q and Amazon: the business model is fundamentally unsustainable and only a residual customer base, enticed in more through nostalgia than interest, keeps a few isolated outposts like Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen going.

 

Fair play to Warburton for his input. But, ach. It's not rocket science, but it is too late.

Edited August 11, 2016 by Germinal

[craig 5,199]

THE Light Blues has been operating north of the border for only a year but that’s been long enough for Warburton to form an opinion.

 

Wtf.....

 

I suspect they forgot the word "boss" between "Light Blues" and "has been"

[Germinal 27]

I suspect they forgot the word "boss" between "Light Blues" and "has been"

 

Alternatively, a missing comma makes it:

 

'The light Blues has been, operating north of the border for only a year, but that's been long enough for Warburton to form an opinion.'

 

Grammatically poor but that rarely bothers the printed press, and it bears the hallmark fury of the Celtic man sent to cover anything Rangers.

 

I am only joking, btw.

[colinstein 294]

That, and the fact that younger players may not fulfill all work permit requirements as is. Though I have to admit that I don't know the exact requirements, but think a certain amount of international games et al was amongst it.

 

I remember some rule that players from abroad had to have international appearances under their belt to get a work visa here. That didn't apply to EU footballers as a condition of our membership. but it will after Brexit........

[compo 6,145]

I don't think there will ever be decent money in the Scottish game now I fear wehave seen the best of it during our 9 in row ,maybe our manager is getting fed up with Scotland and the Scottish game .

[ian1964 10,416]

I don't think there will ever be decent money in the Scottish game now I fear wehave seen the best of it during our 9 in row ,maybe our manager is getting fed up with Scotland and the Scottish game .

 

I agree with the first part of your sentence, as for the second part I actually think he is loving it here,frustrating maybe but I also think he doesn't care too much for the high earners and is more interested in developing young talent.