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The premier league is absolutely not dead competition wise. Its very competitive. So is the champions league, which had some of the best games ever this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by JeMeSouviens
Your romantic idea of football may be dying, but the quality of the product is very high.
Great post 👍Quote:
Originally Posted by DanishJohn
It's very competitive within the parameters of its closed shop but clubs are more and more fixed in their relative positions. A franchise model by stealth. Up to the 1980s a Hibs fan could realistically aspire to see their club among the best in Europe. If United could do it, why not us? Same went for hundreds of clubs across Europe. That dream is deader than the deadest dead thing for everyone outside a handful of elite franchise teams now. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching the games, but it's pretty dead as a sport.Quote:
Originally Posted by MWHIBBIES
Its not dead as a sport, why do you keep saying that.Quote:
Originally Posted by JeMeSouviens
Its dead as your romantic idea of football which is fine. I'd agree it would be amazing to see more unpredictability in things, but that is nothing to do with the game as a sport.
It is more about how much money there is available to build a squad than it was in the past, when innovative tactics or an inspirational manager/set of players could come from nowhere and make their mark.Quote:
Originally Posted by MWHIBBIES
If cash counts more than guile then the sport is a bit deader than it was in the past.
If football lacks romance what use is it?
Some of the Premier League is very high quality but that doesn't necessarily make it competitive. It's by far and away the least competitive of the 4 main English leagues. That's why most bookies only offer 2 each way places and why the current 3rd favourites are about 18/1.Quote:
Originally Posted by MWHIBBIES
The big difference is the growing disparity in income from TV deals - something that would be largely eliminated if Scottish and English clubs were playing in the same league.Quote:
Originally Posted by LancsHibs
Thats because currently Liverpool and City have 2 of the best sides English football has ever seen. Its not always a 2 horse race. There is significantly more to the league than just the title race as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by brog
The bookies have only given 2 places for many years now.Quote:
Originally Posted by MWHIBBIES
In the year before WW2 broke out,another "Royal" Cup tourney was organised.Quote:
Originally Posted by brog
This was to celebrate the Glorious Empire and all it represented !!
Much wave ruling and other stuff like that !!
1938 The Empire Exhibition Cup.
Similar format to Coronation Cup ,though Hibs not involved.
Anyway, it ended in the same way as the Coronation Cup.
Celtic beat Everton in the final 1-0
And to add insult to Royal injury.....
Celtic won it at Ibrox in front of 82.000,many who belted out the song "God save Ireland!"
All games played at Ibrox. Pitch must have taken a beating !
Crowd attendances from the Scotsman Publications.
1938-05-25 Celtic 0-0 Sunderland 1st 40.000
1938-05-26 Celtic 3-1 Sunderland replay 20.000
1938-05-27 Aberdeen 4-0 Chelsea 1st 20.000
1938-05-30 Rangers 0-2 Everton 1st 48.000
1938-06-01 Hearts 1-0 Brentford 1st 46.000
1938-06-03 Hearts 0-1 Celtic SF 48.000
1938-06-06 Everton 3-1 Aberdeen SF 20.000
1938-06-10
Empire Exhibition Cup Final
Celtic 1-0 Everton
Att: 82.000
Around about this time Hibs won an unofficial Champions of Britain match in 1949 against Spurs at White Hart Lane 5-2 and again in 1952 2-0 thanks to two goals from Gordon Smith
Hibs also beat a very good Manchester United side 7-3 in a competitive Gordon Smith Testimonial Match in September 1952 at Easter Road
The only English side we struggled against was Arsenal who thumped us 7-1 in the first floodlight football match to be televised live ( second half) by the BBC
We of course set the record straight last August 😀
A few years back London Hibs took Eddie Turnbull to Spurs. In the Legends lounge before the game Eddie was reintroduced to Bill Nicholson and also to Tommy Harmer, Spurs winger in 50s/60s. I remember you Jocks said wee Tommy to Eddie, you weren't a bad team. Not a bad team, said Eddie, we f****d you 5 2!! That was our Ned!Quote:
Originally Posted by BILLYHIBS
Similar story Jimmy O’Rourke went on a tour of old Maine Road he said to the Commissionaire after looking at pictures of Don Revie ‘ I don’t see your best player ? ‘ The Commissionaire on recognising the accent said ‘ Ah you’ll mean Nicker’ Took him into another area where there was a marble staircase and at the top was a statue of Bobby JohnstoneQuote:
Originally Posted by brog
Good post as usual danish john, you’ve some memory, where you at any of the coronation cup games . Asking for a friend 😜
Wish you had posted this yesterday Billy, I was on phone to Jimmy last night!Quote:
Originally Posted by BILLYHIBS
👍Quote:
Originally Posted by One Day Soon
You could say the same about the Scottish premiership but that doesn't stop folk who should know better queuing up to trash it.Quote:
Originally Posted by MWHIBBIES
No argument that City and Liverpool are indeed two of the best teams seen anywhere for a while, but that doesn't really change a few facts, the main one being that since the inception of the EPL 30 years ago it has been dominated by the same 4 big ( rich ) clubs, with the winning of it by any club outside of them being treated like a modern day miracle ... EG Leicester City, a club who anywhere else in Europe would hardly be seen as a minnow.
The biggest criticism of our league is that it's dominated by two clubs .... in a league of 20 clubs dominated by 4 clubs over a 30 year period you could say they are a lot more like us than they care to admit. Its simply a fact that on day one of any season, just like in Scotland, the main aim of two thirds of the EPL's clubs is to avoid relegation, with the only difference being that staying in the super rich EPL has become such an all consuming priority that doing so is celebrated as if a trophy had been won, in fact it's a wonder they don't have a trophy for 17th place.
The bottom line is money talks ... every league in Europe is dominated by the richest clubs and so is the Champions league and unless domestic associations and UEFA bring in stuff like wage caps and restrictions on what clubs can spend on players that situation will only get worse. The chances of a Benfica or Celtic or Feyenoord winning the top club trophy in Europe these days is about as likely as Hibs winning the SPL.
I watched the champions league final this year free on You Tube, but the truth is I wouldn't have been that bothered to miss it and I certainly wouldn't have paid to watch it, at the end of the day it was yet another game between the usual suspects and won by the most usual of suspects, how long before the lack of variety simply turns folk off altogether.
Had a quick look at the Maroon Goon Platoon’s message board, it’s hilarious how. they took offence to not being named as one of the top four and biggest clubs in your post. 😂 Kiwidug****** even goes on about when we did we last compete for the league, he forgot they can’t even win the league cup.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanishJohn
Not putting Hearts in the top 4 has them seething:not worth
I'd like to reassure them that they are currently one of the top 42 clubs in Scotland.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrimbetween
Currently.
My Late father used to wax lyrical about the Hibs Team from 1945 to 1953. Really think he a man crush on Gordon Smith. He was at the Coronation cup final v Celtic and as the reports of the match stated Hibs should have won but for a certain inspired Celtic keeper. When the white heather club was on in the late 50s they would play the song a Gordon for me which resonated to the great Gordon. Happy memory’s as a wee boy brought up around the days of the famous five, if only I had been older to witness leauge championships and 40,000 crowds at Easter road.
https://mobile.twitter.com/jburnmurd...23036545335296
Great thread with visuals on how the champions league has went from a European wide tournament, to a western Europe big league tournament