What's the point/what can change?

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Originally Posted by WhileTheChief..

If you really want to shake things up, introduce a handicap system to the league.

Win the league by 10 points, start next season on -10.

Start with that and take it from there!

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Applying that to the current season, Celtic are on the brink of winning the league and are 15 points ahead of Rangers. As soon as they have the title mathematically sewn up (probably this weekend), it would be in their interest to lose all of their remaining games to reduce their handicap.

Likewise if Rangers win at the weekend then they can't be caught in second, so their best bet would be to chuck their last four games as well, to try to maximise Celtic's handicap for next season.

Two ways any clubs other than Rantic could win the league. The first is massive investment in players from an owner who’s happy to lose tens of millions in pursuit of a title. The second is if Rantic leave for a Euro League.

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Originally Posted by Pretty Boy

I think that's a fundamental part of the issue though.

Ourselves, Hearts and Aberdeen just don't have the budget to compete on 2 fronts for a lengthy part of the season. Group stage football is great but with the size of squads we carry and the schedule demanded by those games qualifying one year seriously dents your chances of doing so again. To really reap the benefits you probably need to get those group stages 2, 3 or 4 years in a row to notice a transformative difference in your financial position. That was hard anyway, after this season it becomes significantly harder again.

I don't think it's lack of effort or ambition on the part of the next 3 biggest clubs. It's lack of adequate resources and the fact it's really, really difficult to build any sustainable (relative) success with those resources. How many times have we read Hibs fans all but discount European games because 'it's the league that matters'? We just aren't in a position to prioritise both and that's what would be required to build any prolonged advancement. Aberdeen probably came closest to achieving it under McInnes but didn't have the European rewards on offer since.

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See, whilst the evidence absolutely bears this out (Hearts X2 and Sheep X 1 - though would argue some nuances in a couple of instances) how come the English lower leagues go twice a week all season no worries?

Hearts had 8 extra games than us because of Europe this season, it's hardly an additional full season on top. In fact, if you take our league cup competitive games into account, they had an additional 4 games than us (appreciate that they fell at different times).

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Originally Posted by Alex Trager

See, whilst the evidence absolutely bears this out (Hearts X2 and Sheep X 1 - though would argue some nuances in a couple of instances) how come the English lower leagues go twice a week all season no worries?

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I think a key difference is that those clubs know they'll have that schedule every season and so they can build their squad appropriately. If we expand our squad to deal with European group stage games one season, but then don't qualify the following season (or only play a qualifier or too), then suddenly we have more players contracted than we need.

An English League One team might have to spread their budget a bit thinner to have more players to cope with the schedule, but they don't have the uncertainty of the schedule changing season to season.

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Originally Posted by Alex Trager

See, whilst the evidence absolutely bears this out (Hearts X2 and Sheep X 1 - though would argue some nuances in a couple of instances) how come the English lower leagues go twice a week all season no worries?

Hearts had 8 extra games than us because of Europe this season, it's hardly an additional full season on top. In fact, if you take our league cup competitive games into account, they had an additional 4 games than us (appreciate that they fell at different times).

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The lower leagues all have to do it. It's not like Portsmouth have a harder run than someone mid table they all will play their 46 league games and will play midweek fixtures at the same time as the rest of them so it evens itself out. Albeit the standard of play tends to suffer in the colder more hectic months. It's also not unusual to see some League 1/2 squads use just shy of 40 different players in a single season, even if 3/4 play 1 or 2 games or some guys turn up on loan for 2 months. Compare that to Hearts who are sitting about 30 players used this season.

Playing Group Stage football in Scotland is undoubtedly a 'hinderance' to your domestic run. Travelling to deepest darkest parts of former Iron Curtain nations or the arse ends of places where timezones are closer to resembling different dates in the calendar than matching your tea time in high stakes games will take it out of you before having to get back and have 2 days to prepare for a game against opponents that are already all quite close together in competitiveness fighting for every point they can get.

Going against the grain a little (based off the 1 or 2 people who have commentated directly) but I do actually think someone outside the OF will win the league in my lifetime.

Not even a large scale investment/Hibs fan winning the euro millions and giving it all to Hibs situation. Just a bit of a one off year where someone does exceedingly well and both halves of the OF do particularly badly.

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Originally Posted by danhibees1875

Going against the grain a little (based off the 1 or 2 people who have commentated directly) but I do actually think someone outside the OF will win the league in my lifetime.

Not even a large scale investment/Hibs fan winning the euro millions and giving it all to Hibs situation. Just a bit of a one off year where someone does exceedingly well and both halves of the OF do particularly badly.

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I admire your optimism, Methuselah.