What's the point/what can change?

[lugz]

As the title says, what's the point? Celtic now one game away from a another treble.
They have won 13 of the last 14 league seasons.
A win against Aberdeen would mean they've won 7 of the last 9 scottish cups.
Same again for league cup winning 7 of the last 9.

With the massive gulf in squad quality and financial resources it doesn't look like these stats will improve any time soon.

[greenlex]

For days like in feb at Easter Road. Very very sweet.

[GreenCastle]

6 games against Celtic like this season is far from ideal.

[lugz]

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6 games them this season is far from ideal.

And truth be told it's probably only us (at home) or possibly rangers that could have stopped another treble.

[DH1875]

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And truth be told it's probably only us (at home) or possibly rangers that could have stopped another treble.

Us being that team gives me a fuzzy feeling. Been going to ER for 30 years now. Other then the championship years I've never expected or expect us to win the league.

[GreenNWhiteArmy]

Them beating Aberdeen hopefully helps us. It is what it is. We have our days, or weeks like in feb/Mar where supporting a club like Hibs trumps beating every other team at a Canter

[Alfred E Newman]

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As the title says, what's the point? Celtic now one game away from a another treble.
They have won 13 of the last 14 league seasons.
A win against Aberdeen would mean they've won 7 of the last 9 scottish cups.
Same again for league cup winning 7 of the last 9.

With the massive gulf in squad quality and financial resources it doesn't look like these stats will improve any time soon.

For all that, who on here hasn't enjoyed the last 5 months?

[Jones28]

Christ sakes, the last 4 months are literally what we follow football for.

Your rivals are *****, you love the team and there’s an awesome connection.

Its never about trophies or success for us and the majority of football fans, its about the micro moments of fun and winning games that make worthwhile.

If that’s not for you then I suggest you change allegiance or lower expectations.

[lugz]

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Christ sakes, the last 4 months are literally what we follow football for.

Your rivals are *****, you love the team and there’s an awesome connection.

Its never about trophies or success for us and the majority of football fans, its about the micro moments of fun and winning games that make worthwhile.

If that’s not for you then I suggest you change allegiance or lower expectations.

Oh I'm well aware of the expectations and how things work just stating its a real shame that the product as a whole is very predictable.

Like other have said we have to enjoy the good times and live in hope of winning the occasional trophy.

[worcesterhibby]

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As the title says, what's the point? Celtic now one game away from a another treble.
They have won 13 of the last 14 league seasons.
A win against Aberdeen would mean they've won 7 of the last 9 scottish cups.
Same again for league cup winning 7 of the last 9.

With the massive gulf in squad quality and financial resources it doesn't look like these stats will improve any time soon.

such a weird question when the teams on a 17 match unbeaten run.. have beaten Hearts twice beaten Rangers at ibrox, beaten Celtic at ER…

The point is you love your team, you celebrate the victories and take the defeats on the chin… but when the once a decade cup win..does come along… it feels better than any Celtic fan will ever experience.

[hibsbollah]

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Oh I'm well aware of the expectations and how things work just stating its a real shame that the product as a whole is very predictable.

Like other have said we have to enjoy the good times and live in hope of winning the occasional trophy.

Salary cap and allocated draft for free agents.
I somehow doubt that the uglies would go for it.

[lugz]

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such a weird question when the teams on a 17 match unbeaten run.. have beaten Hearts twice beaten Rangers at ibrox, beaten Celtic at ER…

The point is you love your team, you celebrate the victories and take the defeats on the chin… but when the once a decade cup win..does come along… it feels better than any Celtic fan will ever experience.

It's more just a reaction to todays result and my hatred of celtic shining through haha.

You're absolutely right, the trophies we have won in my life time will all be more special than the annual double/treble that their fans experience.

[Dashing Bob S]

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Christ sakes, the last 4 months are literally what we follow football for.

Your rivals are *****, you love the team and there’s an awesome connection.

Its never about trophies or success for us and the majority of football fans, its about the micro moments of fun and winning games that make worthwhile.

If that’s not for you then I suggest you change allegiance or lower expectations.

I think we do strive for success, we just still measure it in footballing rather financial terms.

Celtic no longer win trophies, they buy them. They just have to remember to show up to collect them. They've already bought the league next season and possibly both cups unless they slip up and fall asleep at the wheel. As a consequence, the only real excitement in Scotland are the 3-6 European positions, and for the smaller clubs like Hearts, the 7-12 battle for the relegation slots.

For Celtic fans the domestic season is an empty and meaningless experience for all but the most brain-dead and child-like professional celebrators.

The only real prospect of genuine glory for them is in Europe where they are inevitably humped on a level playing field.

In the domestic cups we're all hoping for them to basically slip up, or be euro fatigued while facing an away tie at ER, Ibrox or Pittodrie.

But the domestic trophy haul is a joyless procession, only a v-sign to the Huns. When anyone (bar the huns) lifts one of the cups, it will be a truly momentous occasion.

[B.H.F.C]

We need to consistently punch our weight. We’re doing it this season, we often don’t. Do that consistently over a period of years and we’ll get some form of success along the line. Even with little prospect of winning a trophy the last few months has been brilliant and I can’t wait for a European trip.

[Keith_M]

I want to assure everybody that the following is not how I want things to pan out, but...


The only way I can see this ending is for Celtc (and possibly The Rangers) to either move to the English Leagues, or for the larger European clubs to form their own league structure and one or both to be invited.

TBH, from my PoV, the latter is the most likely outcome.

[lugz]

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I want to assure everybody that the following is now how I want things to pan out, but...


The only way I can see this ending is for Celtc (and possibly The Rangers) to either move to the English Leagues, or for the larger European clubs to form their own league structure and one or both to be invited.

TBH, from my PoV, the latter is the most likely outcome.

I've been of the opinion that this would be for the best for a while now. Yes the league may look like Welsh league or league of Ireland but at least year on year it would be extremely competitive.
Suppose the counter argument to that would be that ourselves, hearts, Aberdeen could then gain investment and become the new old firm dominating the game.

[NAE NOOKIE]

What needs to change is the financial playing field, but we all know it isn't going to. Even if a club did source a sugar daddy willing to pump in the millions it would take to compete with the Uglies on anything like a regular basis, as soon as that club sets foot into Europe their FFP rules would get it banned. And there is simply no chance that either the SFA, or on the bigger stage UEFA, are ever going to introduce a salary cap that would bring the likes of us closer to Celtic in Scotland, or Celtic closer to Liverpool in Europe.

The point is simply supporting your club and that already happens in some parts of Europe, particularly Germany. IMO that has become more of a thing here than it ever was, as witness the willingness of folk to turn out in big numbers to support Hibs. Hearts and Aberdeen even though they know, and have known for years, that their club has absolutely no chance of winning the league.

There's a load of things that could happen, like a breakaway league that excludes the Uglies. But we all know that if that happened two things would happen:

A) UEFA would exclude us from their competitions, because the clubs who dominate their leagues around Europe would pressure them to do it fearing similar happening in their own leagues.

B) Celtic and Sevco would worm their way into the English system, eventually leading to them dominating all of the football coverage in this country the way Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham do in Wales, making the domestic league a byline 5 pages into the back pages of all the papers and in the fullness of time every kid in the country supporting them as they work their way up the leagues.

[Speedy]

For the next month or so. I hope nothing changes. Celtic do their bit by winning the cup and group stage European football at ER.

[Since90+2]

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What needs to change is the financial playing field, but we all know it isn't going to. Even if a club did source a sugar daddy willing to pump in the millions it would take to compete with the Uglies on anything like a regular basis, as soon as that club sets foot into Europe their FFP rules would get it banned. And there is simply no chance that either the SFA, or on the bigger stage UEFA, are ever going to introduce a salary cap that would bring the likes of us closer to Celtic in Scotland, or Celtic closer to Liverpool in Europe.

The point is simply supporting your club and that already happens in some parts of Europe, particularly Germany. IMO that has become more of a thing here than it ever was, as witness the willingness of folk to turn out in big numbers to support Hibs. Hearts and Aberdeen even though they know, and have known for years, that their club has absolutely no chance of winning the league.

There's a load of things that could happen, like a breakaway league that excludes the Uglies. But we all know that if that happened two things would happen:

A) UEFA would exclude us from their competitions, because the clubs who dominate their leagues around Europe would pressure them to do it fearing similar happening in their own leagues.

B) Celtic and Sevco would worm their way into the English system, eventually leading to them dominating all of the football coverage in this country the way Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham do in Wales, making the domestic league a byline 5 pages into the back pages of all the papers and in the fullness of time every kid in the country supporting them as they work their way up the leagues.

On your last paragraph, I'd say that's somewhat but not totally true.

The Welsh League doesn't have any clubs close to the size of Hibs, Hearts or Aberdeen.

Even the Dundee clubs, Motherwell, St Mirren ect are far bigger and have much larger supports than any club in that league.

The League of Wales is probably similar to Scottish League 1 in terms of attendance.

Without checking id imagine that Hibs alone have a bigger average attendance than the entire Welsh league combined.

[one day maybe...]

A 20 team league, no live games on tv. 🙂

[Viva_Palmeiras]

Cue Americans entering stage left…

But…

i was coincidentally thinking about this earlier. What can teams do given they don’t have the financial clout and with that in mind what about Hibs?

John Collins was ahead of his time and got it. Although the wheels came off the cart.

One thing you can compete on is fitness. Lack of fitness should NEVER be an excuse at Hibs with the embarrassment of riches we have in terms of facilities and sports scientists.

Be organised and execute game plans

Develops the right culture. Feed off and create an expectation and a “winning culture” easy to say difficult to achieve cos everyone can say that

Hire and develop players with the right character.

Develop the technical attributes of players.

Speed up the execution of patterns of play against the opposition. I’ve watched Arsenal and Newcastle at points this season and they are almost unplayable when they speed up their execution. That needs players of a certain calibre.

Just my logical conclusions in the absence of dosh

And if you look at what SDG has built you can see quite a few if not all of these elements are in place.

[Itsnoteasy]

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As the title says, what's the point? Celtic now one game away from a another treble.
They have won 13 of the last 14 league seasons.
A win against Aberdeen would mean they've won 7 of the last 9 scottish cups.
Same again for league cup winning 7 of the last 9.

With the massive gulf in squad quality and financial resources it doesn't look like these stats will improve any time soon.

Just the same as Huns winning 9 in a row in 90's.
Like most other leagues around the world same teams win everything.

[InvertedFullBak]

Nothing will change until we get rid of the Glasgow pair. We had the chance years ago but Aberdeen bottled it. We’d need all the clubs to stay strong and attempt to go it alone but they won’t.

[lugz]

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Just the same as Huns winning 9 in a row in 90's.
Like most other leagues around the world same teams win everything.

I was very young in the 90s and will happily stand corrected but this feels like the biggest gap certainly as far as I can remember. Not only are celtic winning the league almost every single year they're now financially much better off than Rangers.

[Viva_Palmeiras]

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Nothing will change until we get rid of the Glasgow pair. We had the chance years ago but Aberdeen bottled it. We’d need all the clubs to stay strong and attempt to go it alone but they won’t.

Which begs the question - what deal did Aberdeen cut to ensure the status quo remained?

[hibsbollah]

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I was very young in the 90s and will happily stand corrected but this feels like the biggest gap certainly as far as I can remember. Not only are celtic winning the league almost every single year they're now financially much better off than Rangers.

In the early part of their 9 in a row, Rangers main competition came from Aberdeen; Celtic were 3rd, 4th 5th over that time, and Aberdeen came close a few times. The Celtic dominance is a lot wider now than Rangers’ was then, and also The Rangers are now also clearer ahead in 2nd from the chasing pack.

[ancient hibee]

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Cue Americans entering stage left…

But…

i was coincidentally thinking about this earlier. What can teams do given they don’t have the financial clout and with that in mind what about Hibs?

John Collins was ahead of his time and got it. Although the wheels came off the cart.

One thing you can compete on is fitness. Lack of fitness should NEVER be an excuse at Hibs with the embarrassment of riches we have in terms of facilities and sports scientists.

Be organised and execute game plans

Develops the right culture. Feed off and create an expectation and a “winning culture” easy to say difficult to achieve cos everyone can say that

Hire and develop players with the right character.

Develop the technical attributes of players.

Speed up the execution of patterns of play against the opposition. I’ve watched Arsenal and Newcastle at points this season and they are almost unplayable when they speed up their execution. That needs players of a certain calibre.

Just my logical conclusions in the absence of dosh

And if you look at what SDG has built you can see quite a few if not all of these elements are in place.

Very good post and in an aside -if this was an 8 game league we would have walked it(while doing plenty of running of course.)

[snedzuk]

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Christ sakes, the last 4 months are literally what we follow football for.

Your rivals are *****, you love the team and there’s an awesome connection.

Its never about trophies or success for us and the majority of football fans, its about the micro moments of fun and winning games that make worthwhile.

If that’s not for you then I suggest you change allegiance or lower expectations.

In fairness he didn't say it was about trophies or success for us. It's about one club winning pretty much everything.

[Frazerbob]

There’s a photo doing the rounds of Celtic fans streaming out of Hampden at half time. 4-0 up in a semi and the pub is more appealing. I remember their fans leaving before the trophy presentation when they beat us in the LC final a few years ago. Must be pish being a Celtic fan.

[hibsbollah]

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There’s a photo doing the rounds of Celtic fans streaming out of Hampden at half time. 4-0 up in a semi and the pub is more appealing. I remember their fans leaving before the trophy presentation when they beat us in the LC final a few years ago. Must be pish being a Celtic fan.

Must also be confusing to be the self-styled ‘rebel’ club and the establishment at the same tome.