[0762]

The return of the duopoly and poisonous Old Firm matches? How good will that be for the reputation of Scottish football, which is already bad enough, mostly for football reasons!! IMO the longer that reunion is deferred, the better, and I'm sure there are thousands and thousands of genuine Scottish football fans who concur with that view!! Agreed they won't compete with the third tier of top Euro clubs anyway unless they are given a life line to join the English Premiership. However, that won't happen any time soon and who in their right mind would even consider introducing such a poisonous, vile fixture to their home football league!!

[St Charles Owl]

I always liked the Old Firm games and certainly looked out for that fixture, while never really caring about any other Scottish teams. Since I have had the chance to interact with Scottish football fans in general via a forum like this I have so much more interest in not only the two Glasgows but a healthy respect for what Hearts, Hibs, DU and Aberdeen are trying to do and what they are up against. All of this though comes down to money, and currently Celtic have a monopoly on that front. Until Rangers get back to the Prem and the powers that be have the balls to negotiate a proper and appropriately funded TV deal that is then shared equally among all the teams in the prem, there is really very little any team can do to stem the Celtic domination. Once more money is available then I think the teams with good scouting and coaching staff could go abroad to add to the young Scottish players they develop to bring the standard up across the league as a whole. It used to be the case that some foreign players were happy to play in the top flight of Scottish football if they couldn't do the same in England, but now even the Championship in England is a better, more lucrative and certainly provides more exposure for these players, these are the teams you need to try to compete with but currently as a league you are a long way behind the Championship imo.

[El Car]

Agreed Ritchie. Celtic and the old Glasgow Rangers cherry picked all the best Scottish players for years. ( look at Dundee United this season with 3 of their best players from last season in hoops ) Any that they didn't want / couldn't afford found a better living down South so its no wonder that Scottish sides in general cannot compete on a level playing field. OK it happens in the EPL also but the effect is spread round a number of top clubs so the effect is not as dramatic as in Scotland. All that happens then is that the rest of the Scottish clubs bring through more youngsters untill spotted and get their big move away. In the EPL the lower clubs are still able to  bring in good usually continental players.......look at Villa who lost Delph and Benteke but were then able to spend to bring in the French legions. The lack of money in Scotland means this scenario cannot happen especially as these best players are cherry picked at relatively cheap prices. The amounts Celtic paid for the Dundee United trio were peanuts for the quality of player when one considers now that 10 million etc doesn't buy much in the EPL. Benteke was good for Villa but over 30 million????   

You are therefore correct and Celtic will continue to be the most competitive side and that is no surprise and their challenge will only be met by Sevco if their renaissance continues over the next few years. The press and the media will then be happy as their beloved Celtic and Rangers will be back to where they want them. The effect is to keep the general standard and competition in Scottish football poor with them just creaming themselves over the Old Firm games and the mistaken belief that they can compete with the best teams in Europe   .

I don't remember Celtic buying any players from Aberdeen, St. Johnstone or Caley Thistle lately, but they all managed to get themselves knocked out early on just the same. Celtic have themselves to blame when they're poor in Europe, but so do all the other Scottish teams.

[0762]

English League1 participation is more lucrative than playing in Scottish football Saint Charles Owl! Also re the OF fixture, you need to sit down and enlighten yourself re the true nature of this type of match - read some critical literature that covers the casualties of this poisonous fixture and the real venom and hatred that is attached to it and is beyond the boundaries of the sport of football - when football is used as a platform of sectarian hatred and rival hatred that is already well chronicled in book publications, then the sport is no longer a sport any more esp when certain people become fatal victims of this unacceptable behaviour and there have been a lot of victims down the years!

[St Charles Owl]

English League1 participation is more lucrative than playing in Scottish football Saint Charles Owl! Also re the OF fixture, you need to sit down and enlighten yourself re the true nature of this type of match - read some critical literature that covers the casualties of this poisonous fixture and the real venom and hatred that is attached to it and is beyond the boundaries of the sport of football - when football is used as a platform of sectarian hatred and rival hatred that is already well chronicled in book publications, then the sport is no longer a sport any more esp when certain people become fatal victims of this unacceptable behaviour and there have been a lot of victims down the years!

0762, I don't doubt what you are saying, the "passion" around this fixture goes well beyond the sporting aspect at times and I have been critical of both clubs for not doing enough to tackle this head on more vigorously.  But the sectarian aspect is also an aspect of life in Scotland, to a lesser degree than you see in NI for sure, but its always just under the surface and the recent independence campaign showed that side quite a lot.  For me living over here though I have the  luxury of just being able to focus on the sporting side of the fixture rather than the extracurricular activities that go along with it, but I am not blind to it either.

From a football perspective, this fixture is a true classic local derby and the games down the years have been both feisty and exciting in equal measure.  Whether you or anyone else likes it, and wrongly I admit ignoring the issues above, this is the fixture that has the potential to put Scottish football on the map outside of Scotland, just like the Barca-RM one does for Spanish football, a fixture also surrounded by social issues, and that in turn will give the authorities the ability to properly negotiate a much better TV deal, which in turn has to be to the benefit of all the top Scottish teams.  

[0762]

I'm afraid to say you sound like a media man trying to present an acceptable image of this vile fixture Saint Charles Owl, a fixture that has been hijacked by anarchists, racists, sectarians and all sorts of low lifes that crawled out of the gutter. The Manchester riots, that occurred a few years ago, were merely a wake up call to anyone who tries to play down the real issues that surround OF rivalry and the misuse of this word PASSION!! I can remember walking out of the House of Fraser store (W End of Edinburgh) with my girlfriend a good few years ago and coming across a lad in his early twenties who was lying in a pool of blood on the footway, almost at the point of dying and we comforted him - he'd been razor slashed on the neck by a passing Rangers fan and the lad's only offence was that he was wearing a Hearts scarf!!!!!! His life was saved by a woman who had been passing by and she was a qualified nurse - a real professional at work, who blocked the blood flow, and how lucky was this young guy to be alive! That's only one horrible historical stat of thousands Saint Charles Owl!!!!!! The football side of this debate pales into insignificance when one looks closely at the ramifications on social life/human life and the poor victims who have been affected, directly and indirectly and I'm not just referring to recent times; the contentious issues go back a long, long time. Football, as an accountable sport, does not need this fixture and that's a fact!! It's regularity has disappeared from the Scottish football scene and IMO it has not been as greatly missed as many of it's protagonists insinuate.

[HerefordBull]

Agreed Ritchie. Celtic and the old Glasgow Rangers cherry picked all the best Scottish players for years. ( look at Dundee United this season with 3 of their best players from last season in hoops ) Any that they didn't want / couldn't afford found a better living down South so its no wonder that Scottish sides in general cannot compete on a level playing field. OK it happens in the EPL also but the effect is spread round a number of top clubs so the effect is not as dramatic as in Scotland. All that happens then is that the rest of the Scottish clubs bring through more youngsters untill spotted and get their big move away. In the EPL the lower clubs are still able to  bring in good usually continental players.......look at Villa who lost Delph and Benteke but were then able to spend to bring in the French legions. The lack of money in Scotland means this scenario cannot happen especially as these best players are cherry picked at relatively cheap prices. The amounts Celtic paid for the Dundee United trio were peanuts for the quality of player when one considers now that 10 million etc doesn't buy much in the EPL. Benteke was good for Villa but over 30 million????   

You are therefore correct and Celtic will continue to be the most competitive side and that is no surprise and their challenge will only be met by Sevco if their renaissance continues over the next few years. The press and the media will then be happy as their beloved Celtic and Rangers will be back to where they want them. The effect is to keep the general standard and competition in Scottish football poor with them just creaming themselves over the Old Firm games and the mistaken belief that they can compete with the best teams in Europe   .

I don't remember Celtic buying any players from Aberdeen, St. Johnstone or Caley Thistle lately, but they all managed to get themselves knocked out early on just the same. Celtic have themselves to blame when they're poor in Europe, but so do all the other Scottish teams.

I did say that they lose players to English Leagues and it wasn't just about Celtic. When ICT played where were Shinnie and McKay .....in England getting paid more money. Aberdeen and St J have both lost players the same way. Celtic lose players to better clubs but then have the finances to replace them including cherry picking the best from the rest of the Scottish clubs.....usually for peanuts in comparison to other leagues. Celtic can therefore stay strong in comparison to the rest who have to rely on youngsters or bring in lesser players on frees etc.

[0762]

Scottish football is riddled with journeymen players, Bosmans, free agents, loan players, players who couldn't cut it in English football (or Euro football) and younger players who manage to get a game with their employing football clubs but will not go anywhere significant because they are not good enough - the give away is the fact that no football clubs from England have any interest in these players whatsoever! Of course there are exceptions where certain players are slightly better than the rest and these guys will generally head south at the drop of a hat or Celtic will occasionally pick up the odd gem at a decent price! The main point to note is that the general standard of the game is not that good and Celtic FC are clearly top dogs with lots of money, a huge support and a regular intake of decent players to strengthen a quality playing squad that is far superior to that of any other football club in Scotland and guarantees annual success of some sort. IMO they may well win the treble this year and they should have won it last year. I hope they don't attain a treble winning season for the good of the game but it wouldn't surprise me if they pull it off. Most of the so called competing clubs below Celtic could easily experience an injury crisis to key players and IMO their season would be over. And as for sustainability, that's a pipedream for all these clubs - adverse unlucky circumstances could easily bring down these clubs to the depths of the football league and bad times! That's the way it is in Scottish football and it has been that way for a long time! Re the recent Euro failing of ICT, St Johnstone and the Dons, they were not good enough v opposition that most of us have never heard of but the consistent Euro failure down the years just reveals a few home truths about the game in Scotland and where it's heading!! By all accounts, we'll be seeing the latest league reconstruction in 2016 anyway and most of the football clubs below Celtic could well be seeing the threat of a play-off situation sooner rather than later if the favoured Austrian football model is adopted!! Will that improve the quality of our game? No - you need more quality players and healthy competition in order to do that and we certainly don't need football monopolies or future duopolies either!!!!

[Fredstersafool]

Take that Collins ya prick,challenge duly served

[hibeejim21]

If it takes Collins comments to get killie playing maybe they should consider hiring him as coach.