English football

[lucky]

Over £172m has been spent in this transfer window by EPL teams. Stoke have signed Imbula for £18.3m, can't say I've heard of him, but clearly the money in England has lead to the demise of Scottish football. We are all guilty by having Sky and BT. Surely it's time for Scottish football to try something new. We are going to end up with raw youngsters and journeymen senior pros. When the TV bubble bursts there's going to be a lot clubs that go to the wall

[Jonnyboy]

Over £172m has been spent in this transfer window by EPL teams. Stoke have signed Imbula for £18.3m, can't say I've heard of him, but clearly the money in England has lead to the demise of Scottish football. We are all guilty by having Sky and BT. Surely it's time for Scottish football to try something new. We are going to end up with raw youngsters and journeymen senior pros. When the TV bubble bursts there's going to be a lot clubs that go to the wall

Aye but they'll all be English :wink:

[ACLeith]

Over £172m has been spent in this transfer window by EPL teams. Stoke have signed Imbula for £18.3m, can't say I've heard of him, but clearly the money in England has lead to the demise of Scottish football. We are all guilty by having Sky and BT. Surely it's time for Scottish football to try something new. We are going to end up with raw youngsters and journeymen senior pros. When the TV bubble bursts there's going to be a lot clubs that go to the wall

How many deals involve players who are eligible for England? Yet more flooding of their clubs with foreign players. Still the most expensive and over-hyped league in the world, still a long way off being the best.

[Tricla]

English football.



Meh.

[Ryan69]

How many deals involve players who are eligible for England? Yet more flooding of their clubs with foreign players. Still the most expensive and over-hyped league in the world, still a long way off being the best.


I hate the English league...how the minnows have grown with money.
They seem to have this 250k offers everywhere for Scottish prospects and it's sickening.

Very boring league to watch! You generally find low scoring and big teams cancel eachother out every week.

Best league German League! Lots of goals and excitement.
2nd best Definately Spanish league!

[ACLeith]

Best league German League! Lots of goals and excitement.
2nd best Definately Spanish league!

Agreed. Serie A not too shabby either!

[Andy74]

Over £172m has been spent in this transfer window by EPL teams. Stoke have signed Imbula for £18.3m, can't say I've heard of him, but clearly the money in England has lead to the demise of Scottish football. We are all guilty by having Sky and BT. Surely it's time for Scottish football to try something new. We are going to end up with raw youngsters and journeymen senior pros. When the TV bubble bursts there's going to be a lot clubs that go to the wall

The demise of Scottish football? When was this?

[ScottB]

The two standard moans:

English money makes Scottish football rubbish.

The bubble will burst.


Funny how the other Home Nations seem to be having their best ever spells in the face of all this English cash. Scotland has far bigger issues as to why it seems incapable of producing 11 decent footballers than how much Stoke can spend on a player.

As for the bubble, folk have been saying that for 10 years already, I can't imagine the public will suddenly up and stop caring. The growth will eventually level off, but an implosion? Don't hold your breath.

[CentreLine]

The bubble will not burst. Big clubs just wash their hands of their debt when they get in to trouble.

[iwasthere1972]

Over £172m has been spent in this transfer window by EPL teams. Stoke have signed Imbula for £18.3m, can't say I've heard of him, but clearly the money in England has lead to the demise of Scottish football. We are all guilty by having Sky and BT. Surely it's time for Scottish football to try something new. We are going to end up with raw youngsters and journeymen senior pros. When the TV bubble bursts there's going to be a lot clubs that go to the wall

Good job we have Youtube as that's normally the first time some fans will have seen their new player kicking a ball.

The money being spent nowadays is obscene. A lot of it on average players as well.

[lucky]

The demise of Scottish football? When was this?

You serious? Our teams are never in Europe after Christmas our National team are serial losers. Our clubs are competing with League 1 or 2 for players. The overall standard of Scottish football is extremely poor compared to England.

[Michael]

I hate the English league...how the minnows have grown with money.
They seem to have this 250k offers everywhere for Scottish prospects and it's sickening.

Very boring league to watch! You generally find low scoring and big teams cancel eachother out every week.

Best league German League! Lots of goals and excitement.
2nd best Definately Spanish league!

Personally, I enjoy English football. This season at least there is very little separating the entire league (except Villa) ... HOWEVER ... there is a slight emptiness to it given that none of the clubs develop their own players.

The German league is dominated by one team...the Spanish league by two teams...as a neutral I don't see the appeal of these.

The Champions league is pretty dire. I still enjoy watching English / Scottish teams in it...but in general I have great distaste for the competition format.

Would be good if all of the TV money across Europe was shared fairly between all leagues & clubs...but oh well...

[IberianHibernian]

What I find annoying is reading managers of Scottish clubs saying how their players are almost ready for England etc as though playing in England is only measure of success . With English managers like Stubbs it`s maybe understandable but can`t understand why likes of Neilson keep going on about how the best of his young players might make it in England . Should he not be interested in keeping them at Hearts or selling them to a club in China / Spain / Italy etc ?

[wynnie1875]

I hate the English league...how the minnows have grown with money.
They seem to have this 250k offers everywhere for Scottish prospects and it's sickening.

Very boring league to watch! You generally find low scoring and big teams cancel eachother out every week.

Best league German League! Lots of goals and excitement.
2nd best Definately Spanish league!

Bayern win the league by around 30 points each season. I don't see that as entertainment. Same can be said for Barca and Real winning by 5 or 6 each week. There has also been quite a few competitive high scoring games in England this season

[lord bunberry]

I think the money that's being spent down there is obscene and makes me less likely to watch games. I still enjoy the big games, but I rarely watch English football anymore.

[MWHIBBIES]

Serie A is the league to watch this season, actually requires a brain to play football there as well unlike the hammer throwers most English teams have.

[ekhibee]

I enjoy watching a lot of English football even though I don't support any English team. Yes, the money is obscene, but a couple of decades ago it was Football Italia and regardless of what some people on here say, a lot of it was really awful to watch. Of course somewhere in the mix there would be some really cracking games, but there was an awful lot of dross too. To me, there's more exciting games in the premiership in England, on average, than there was in the 90's with Serie A.
Before he died, the great Brazilian player Socrates was at the forefront of an investigation into the corruption in Brazilian football. It was almost public knowledge that the owners of the bigger Brazilian clubs used to meet in hotels and agree to sell average quality players to European teams (predominantly Italian clubs) for exhorbitant transfer fees. He discovered that the committee that was formed to investigate this was chaired by the owner of one of the biggest clubs in Brazil. The corruption was widespread.
In Europe there was a lot of talk about wage-capping, and a limit on transfer fees, but along came the Russian oligarchs and rich Arab businessmen, with their almost unlimitless wealth, and that was soon forgotten about. Although nowadays television has to take most of the responsibility for the ridiculous fees paid for players, parachute payments etc, European football missed a trick by not acting fast enough and implementing these changes before the money men took over. That's where the bureacracy in football, under people like Blatter and Platini, has helped to make the most popular sport in the world one of the most corrupt.

[Danderhall Hibs]

I only really watch the first couple/few matches on MOTD now. Any live game I've attempted to watch over the last few months (usually the "big" games) has been murder - usually 0-0.

I think it's totally over rated.

Same goes for the champions league - I never watch a live game anymore, in fact I'm not even sure who got through or what the draw for the next round is. Although presumably Arsenal did and are about to get papped out by a really big team from Spain, Germany or France so they can fully concentrate on qualifying for next year's competition.

[Scouse Hibee]

The amount of folk in pubs watching every live English game would suggest it's still a big draw. I have watched the other leagues mentioned and seen as many dull games as I have from England.

[Pretty Boy]

I just can't get excited about any football I don't have an emotional attachment to now. That generally means I watch, or attend to be more accurate, Hibs games, watch games that effect Hibs in some way and the odd Newcastle game.

It's a daft thing to say on a football forum but the truth is I don't really like football all that much anymore. If it wasn't for Hibs I doubt I'd watch more than 3 or 4 games a season.

[Pete]

Bayern win the league by around 30 points each season. I don't see that as entertainment. Same can be said for Barca and Real winning by 5 or 6 each week. There has also been quite a few competitive high scoring games in England this season

:agree:

These three teams have pretty much spoiled the attraction of their leagues in my opinion.

People say the money is obscene in England but perhaps it's got to the stage where it's starting to level off because everyone has so much wealth. Traditional big teams are having their noses put out of joint by well managed teams that still spend enough to have an excellent squad. People get bored of processions and it's interesting this year because there is fresh competition, the element that is essential for any successful sport.
It's a shame it's happened by accident rather than design and Uefa might have a problem when the 20 richest clubs in the world come from the same country. They'll all want to compete against PSG, Munich, Madrid, Barcelona and...well that's about it.

[SeanWilson]

The demise of Scottish football? When was this?

BT have shown that no matter how ludacris they make the cost, we will pay for the monopoly (majority of fans). Bubble is not going to burst, level out possibly but the money isn't going anywhere.

Also, as much as I'm a raving hibs fan and it's really good to be watching some good football at ER again - Scottish football is, in general absolute torture.

[Brightside]

The state of Scottish football has nothing to do with the money in England and everything to do with the sport being run by amateurish cretins in blazers who are dining on succulent lamb. We had a good chance to change things with Mark Wotte, but his ideas were only half implemented and managed by more half arse amateurs. Anyone who goes along to watch the 20/20 youth sessions will see how bad it is, I wouldn't let half the coaches take pub teams.

[Thecat23]

The demise of Scottish football? When was this?

Since about 1998. No major tournament since, standard of players playing in our league has dropped big time.

Teams can't get past Christmas in Europe. Yeah Scottish football is thriving these days! 😂

I love Hibs and love going to games but the standard in this league and the league above is not very good.

Oh and add guys like Doncaster who's running the game into the ground.

[NAE NOOKIE]

English football is what it is. They have done a brilliant job of marketing the EPL product and that has lead to bigger and bigger TV deals and attracted folk who see owning a PL football club as a status symbol the same way as they would a multi million pound Yacht or a huge hotel chain .... folk with bottomless pockets it seems.

But in some ways if you look at English football as a whole it seems to me that under the surface the Premier League could end up being the death of it and the signs are already there. Clubs outwith the EPL are turning into basket cases chasing the dream, in recent years the likes of Forest and Bolton have suffered .... I read recently that Bolton employ 300 non football staff, a club little bigger than Hibs.

In spite of the TV millions and oligarchs the EPL's combined debt is astronomical and the question has to be asked as to how long that can be sustained in the long run. It looks like the oligarchs and Arabs could be drying up too, Aston Villa have been up for grabs for yonks with no real bites and yet they have huge potential.

The EPL is so all important that the League cup has become an offshoot of the reserve league, the FA cup is an afterthought to the likes of Chelsea and Man City ( no matter how much time the BBC spends trying to pretend it isn't ) and the Europa league is seen as an irritating distraction.

The English national team never punches its weight and I for one cant see that changing this summer. You look at the individual players and think there's a team there and then stand back as the Germans, Spanish or Italians sweep them aside at the business end of tournaments ..... that's after 25 years of "the best league in the world"

As for its impact on Scottish football. Of course it has one, we are losing players down south to clubs in the 2nd division before they have completed a season up here. Our kids know more about the EPL than they do about the SPFL as do many adults, including me, because its rammed down your throat morning noon & night and worse than that, folk who spend their weekends in front of the telly watching it all see Scottish games and make utterly unfair comparisons.

[Tricla]

English football is what it is. They have done a brilliant job of marketing the EPL product and that has lead to bigger and bigger TV deals and attracted folk who see owning a PL football club as a status symbol the same way as they would a multi million pound Yacht or a huge hotel chain .... folk with bottomless pockets it seems.

But in some ways if you look at English football as a whole it seems to me that under the surface the Premier League could end up being the death of it and the signs are already there. Clubs outwith the EPL are turning into basket cases chasing the dream, in recent years the likes of Forest and Bolton have suffered .... I read recently that Bolton employ 300 non football staff, a club little bigger than Hibs.

In spite of the TV millions and oligarchs the EPL's combined debt is astronomical and the question has to be asked as to how long that can be sustained in the long run. It looks like the oligarchs and Arabs could be drying up too, Aston Villa have been up for grabs for yonks with no real bites and yet they have huge potential.

The EPL is so all important that the League cup has become an offshoot of the reserve league, the FA cup is an afterthought to the likes of Chelsea and Man City ( no matter how much time the BBC spends trying to pretend it isn't ) and the Europa league is seen as an irritating distraction.

The English national team never punches its weight and I for one cant see that changing this summer. You look at the individual players and think there's a team there and then stand back as the Germans, Spanish or Italians sweep them aside at the business end of tournaments ..... that's after 25 years of "the best league in the world"

As for its impact on Scottish football. Of course it has one, we are losing players down south to clubs in the 2nd division before they have completed a season up here. Our kids know more about the EPL than they do about the SPFL as do many adults, including me, because its rammed down your throat morning noon & night and worse than that, folk who spend their weekends in front of the telly watching it all see Scottish games and make utterly unfair comparisons.

👏

[Craig_HFC]

England has a population of about 60,000,000.

Scotland has a population of around 5,000,000.

You cannot compare Scottish football to English football and the people who do make our game look a whole lot worse than it actually is.

We wouldn't compare our football to the Spanish or German leagues so why do we compare it to the English league? Purely because we're right next door to them geographically speaking. However, football-wise; they're literally and figuratively in a different league through no fault of our own.

If we must compare our game to another country's, then we'd be better comparing it to Norway, Sweden & Denmark as that's a fairer and more realistic comparison.

[Andy74]

Since about 1998. No major tournament since, standard of players playing in our league has dropped big time.

Teams can't get past Christmas in Europe. Yeah Scottish football is thriving these days! 😂

I love Hibs and love going to games but the standard in this league and the league above is not very good.

Oh and add guys like Doncaster who's running the game into the ground.

You could equally say that Celtic and the old Rangers, in relatively recent years have got further than teams from most comparable nations.

Scotland are ranked where now? Not sure but probably not the worst we've been.

We have players from Scotland at some pretty decent clubs in England and elsewhere.

The likes of Aberdeen and Hearts would tell you they are thriving. As would Inverness and Ross County. We even have a strong and exciting second tier.

It's not as bad as all that really.

[CallumLaidlaw]

I actually couldn't care less how scottish football compares to English Football. The rise of Sky sports meant that the 2 leagues are uncomparable now. I simply judge the hibs team compared to the teams they are playing against. We should be more concerned about blocking the Old Firm monopoly which will no doubt return within a few years. Already TheRangers are back to poaching the best players from other Scottish clubs with poor poor offers.

I actually enjoy watching English football too. I have a team I like to follow, and there can often be some great games (Chelsea v Everton, Everton v Stoke and Norwich v Liverpool in recent weeks). Yes I have Sky, but I also follow Hibs home and away. Theres nothing to say you can't do/have both. The ones that let us down are the ones that choose sky and English football over their local teams. Thats why its so important for clubs to keep on getting into local schools and getting as many kids to games as possible.

[Hibrandenburg]

I just can't get excited about any football I don't have an emotional attachment to now. That generally means I watch, or attend to be more accurate, Hibs games, watch games that effect Hibs in some way and the odd Newcastle game.

It's a daft thing to say on a football forum but the truth is I don't really like football all that much anymore. If it wasn't for Hibs I doubt I'd watch more than 3 or 4 games a season.

Same for me. I can't get excited about watching any game where I don't feel an involvement. That's obviously Hibs but extends to Werder Bremen, Scotland and any team playing Hearts.

Growing up in Scotland we were a nation that regularly got some amazing results in the European competitions, now like someone else mentioned we barely get past Christmas. It's Bosnan that's ruined the game here, it lets the oldfirm and smaller English clubs raid our squads before they get a chance to gel.

[--------]

Over £172m has been spent in this transfer window by EPL teams. Stoke have signed Imbula for £18.3m, can't say I've heard of him, but clearly the money in England has lead to the demise of Scottish football. We are all guilty by having Sky and BT. Surely it's time for Scottish football to try something new. We are going to end up with raw youngsters and journeymen senior pros. When the TV bubble bursts there's going to be a lot clubs that go to the wall

Aye but they'll all be English :wink:

:agree:

In July last year Aston Villa paid £9.5 million for Charles N'Zogbia from Wigan. Last report I read said they're paying him £63,000 p.w. - for which he's been used (I think) twice this season. The rest of the time he's been sitting on the bench or an ornament in the treatment rooms.

And when they offered him a move in the window, he bravely assured them that he "fully intends to see out the rest of his contract".

Wow, Charlie, you don't say .... :devil:

I wish someone would pay ME that sort of money to sit in a stadium dugout texting my mates or playing "Tetris".

[Lago]

Going to break cover here and admit that I like English football, and not just at EPL level. Some of the teams in the lower leagues have great tradition and history, but also some cracking football in the EPL.

[.Sean.]

Nothing more embarrassing than these mugs you here moaning in your local about football in Scotland being Tam Kite and trying to take the piss when you go in for a pint after the football, while rather than actually putting money into Scottish football they're sitting in the boozer with a hardon over Man City and the likes.

I don't give a **** about English football or the Champions League or La Liga etc and I couldn't tell you the last time I sat in the house and watched a full 90 minutes from any of them. I only care about Hibs.

[Danderhall Hibs]

Nothing more embarrassing than these mugs you here moaning in your local about football in Scotland being Tam Kite and trying to take the piss when you go in for a pint after the football, while rather than actually putting money into Scottish football they're sitting in the boozer with a hardon over Man City and the likes.

I don't give a **** about English football or the Champions League or La Liga etc and I couldn't tell you the last time I sat in the house and watched a full 90 minutes from any of them. I only care about Hibs.


:agree:

[NAE NOOKIE]

Nothing more embarrassing than these mugs you here moaning in your local about football in Scotland being Tam Kite and trying to take the piss when you go in for a pint after the football, while rather than actually putting money into Scottish football they're sitting in the boozer with a hardon over Man City and the likes.

I don't give a **** about English football or the Champions League or La Liga etc and I couldn't tell you the last time I sat in the house and watched a full 90 minutes from any of them. I only care about Hibs.

Me? ......I'll watch anybody play anybody in whatever league, including the EPL, but at the end of the day Hibs and Scottish football is all that matters because its my club and our football.

I like Everton and even go to see them now and again, but the truth is I'd burn down Goodison Park tomorrow if it would add 250 fans to the gates of every club in the SPFL.
Well .... nearly every club :greengrin

[seanshow]

Nothing more embarrassing than these mugs you here moaning in your local about football in Scotland being Tam Kite and trying to take the piss when you go in for a pint after the football, while rather than actually putting money into Scottish football they're sitting in the boozer with a hardon over Man City and the likes.

I don't give a **** about English football or the Champions League or La Liga etc and I couldn't tell you the last time I sat in the house and watched a full 90 minutes from any of them. I only care about Hibs.

Im old skool with a similar view, the last time I took any interest in english football was as a youngster, and at that time Man city,Chelsea were 2nd tier teams.


It was mentioned Scotland has 8% of the paying tv viewers, but the SPFL tv deal is 0.5 percent of the English premier league.....royally shafted on that one.

although i personally don't subscribe to Sky or BT, I wish more would do the same.

[givescotlandfreedom]

Nothing more embarrassing than these mugs you here moaning in your local about football in Scotland being Tam Kite and trying to take the piss when you go in for a pint after the football, while rather than actually putting money into Scottish football they're sitting in the boozer with a hardon over Man City and the likes.

I don't give a **** about English football or the Champions League or La Liga etc and I couldn't tell you the last time I sat in the house and watched a full 90 minutes from any of them. I only care about Hibs.

Agreed. I like to watch MoTD, particularly this season when an underdog is doing so well but I know a few people like you mentioned. One Man United 'fan' from Peebles who slags Scottish football constantly but chucks his money into the coffers of a club that wouldn't notice if he vanished from the face of the earth tomorrow. If I didn't renew my season ticket at ER my seat would be empty. I feel like we make a difference, they're just customers easily replaced by 'fans' from nearby or any far flung corner of the world.

[Just Jimmy]

Here's the thing;

You pay £25 for sky sports and £20 for BT, for that you get pretty much any game you want as many times as you want, including some Hibs games. You also get almost any sport you want across either. You can sit in the house in the warm with a cheap case of beer from the supermarket and enjoy (or not as it seems from this thread) a solid standard of football.

You can also go and watch Hibs home and away, watch a reasonable standard of football if you take it in relation to where Hibs are in world football. However it'll cost you around £80-£100 in gate prices alone each month and its baltic and actually in the grand scheme, not very good.

I love Hibs like everyone here but Scottish football is well over priced for the product on offer and what else is available. The whys and whatever have been done to death but really the people need to focus on making it competitive and making is friendly and value. Instead of competing with what's on sky etc we should be saying it's fine to watch Man City et al, but it's also fun to follow a club in person - and it's value for money and affordable.

[Baader]

[QUOTE=Jonnyboy;4569775]

:agree:

In July last year Aston Villa paid £9.5 million for Charles N'Zogbia from Wigan. Last report I read said they're paying him £63,000 p.w. - for which he's been used (I think) twice this season. The rest of the time he's been sitting on the bench or an ornament in the treatment rooms.

And when they offered him a move in the window, he bravely assured them that he "fully intends to see out the rest of his contract".

Wow, Charlie, you don't say .... :devil:

I wish someone would pay ME that sort of money to sit in a stadium dugout texting my mates or playing "Tetris".

Sorry JB but N'Zogbia has been a Villa player for 5 years.
An overinflated waste of money I agree!

With regard other takes on the two leagues we shouldn't compare. Scottish football should not be compared to the English variety.

Anyone that thinks the Bundesliga is comparable to the Premier League hasn't watched enough of either. Bayern made it non competitive after Dortmund had the front to win two titles, humiliate them in the cup final and face them in the Champions League final. Bundesliga competition these days is even less than Scottish football traditionally was and Bayern for the past four years have won it by a margin not incomparable to Celtic here. The excellent Bundesliga set up, club ownership, pricing and atmosphere is a different matter but let's not pretend the football or competition within the league is better than England. It just is not.