How To Fix A Problem Like Scottish Football? (and Rangers)

[ThatNaggerEduStoleMyBike 0]

Hi all, I've watched this forum for a while, but this is my first post, basically just want to point out how I think scottish football (and particularly Rangers) could be turned around.

In no particular order, these are some of the reasons for our failures handsome of the changes I would make.

Referees

I accept as much as anyone that referees make honest mistakes and I don't think anything can be done about that, nor do I ever blame them for our defeats. HOWEVER, the one thing that really annoys me is that whenever I watch a European game involving Rangers on tele it is almost certain that at some point in the match the commentator will say: "You won't get away with that in Europe". So why is it that referees from 50 or so other countries can consistently rule that tackles from behind and high studs are dangerous (as is stated in the rulebook), yet our referees have to be different. It is because our referees are wrong. Their mentality has to be changed, they should be sent to other European countries to learn how to referee proper football matches in my opinion. I don't think their leniency adds anything to the game as a spectacle, it just means that players like Ian Black can run around assaulting people and be hailed as heroes and get away with it far to often. Imagine Black in La Liga, he would probably be almost permanently banned. I just feel that if our referees were in line with the rest of Europe then it would take less adjustment from our teams when they play European ties.

Luck

Some people have argued that we were unlucky not to be in the Europa or Champions League this year. However, in my opinion, you must look and see that Rangers failed against Maribor and Malmo (4 games) and Celtic have recently failed against Sion, Braga and Utrecht (6 games), so it is very hard to say that we were unlucky as a nation in all 10 games. So I just want to rule this out basically.

Money

This is something else that cannot be used as an excuse. According to Transfermarkt.co.uk:

Rangers squad is worth: 61.275.000€

Celtic squad is worth: 57.400.000€

Malmo: 18.350.000€

Maribor: 9.825.000€

Sion: 20.350.000€

Braga: 60.500.000€

Utrecht: 23.450.000€

Now while I certainly believe that some of the player valuations for Rangers are on the high (very in some cases) side, I believe that this overvaluation would be consistent across the board. It is after all a German website so I don't see why they would particularly overvalue the SPL if not other leagues.

So this shows us that these are not teams that have vastly superior resources when compared to ourselves or Celtic, and are (minus Braga) teams that we should really not have any problem with. So money is absolutely not an excuse, and saying that it is the reason we cannot compete is just ignorant.

Pitches

Big problem. The pitches in Scotland are all too often simply awful, look atfir park last season. You could put Brazil and Spain against each other on that park and you'd still wouldn't get a good game, so why would you expect one with two SPL sides. I strongly believe that if the pitches are poor in our top league, then our football cannot progress. People can blame the weather or whatever they like, but we are not the only country with extreme weather. I believe that if a teams pitch is in an unreasonable condition, then the game should not be player, the other team awarded and 3 - 0 victory, and the offending club must pay compensation and a fine. If a team consistently cannot keep the pitch in order, then they have no place in the top league, and should be relegated.

Artificial pitches are another solution that should be considered, I remember watching Spartak Moscow against Ajax in the Europa League last year and it was a very fast and entertaining game, so it genuinely would improve quality, even if some people don't like it.

Personally, I think it must be difficult for a manager to have to sign a player who can technically compete with other European sides, but then have to ask him to consistently punt it long in the SPL because the pitches are sub-standard, you could genuinely see a player like Messi failing to make an impact in to many SPL games, which is criminal.

This leads me on to,

The players

In Scotland physical and mental attributes are generally valued too highly, and technical attributes are overlooked. Here are Rangers most significant recent signings:

Dorin Goian: £500,000. Good player in my opinion, but a tall, strong, unforgiving centre half, not someone who can really build from the back (although much less wasteful than Weir)

Juan Manuel Ortiz: £500,000. I don't like him, and don't think he will ever make, but that is besides the point. He was bought as a tough tackling combative midfielder, despite all the technical ability that exists within Spain.

Kyle Bartley: Loan. See Goian, also fast, athletic player.

Lee Wallace: £2,000,000. Good player, I like the idea of an attacking full back and does seem to be able to put in good crosses, that's a for me.

Maurice Edu: £2,000,000. This hasn't worked out, but even if it did, he was only ever an athletic and apparently tough tackling player.

Steven Davis: £3/4,000,000. , good technical player.

Steven Naismith: £1,000,000. Hard worker, fast, committed, good player. However, often doesn't strike the ball cleanly, and his passing can be very suspect at times.

Nikica Jelavić: £4,000,000. Very good player , but I must just ask, would we have bought him if he was 3" shorter?

Kyle Lafferty: £3/4,000,000. Well, he is committed, runs about a lot, puts in a lot of effort, strong, tall, fast. Technically? Very suspect I am afraid.

James Beattie: £2,200,000. Awful player for us, another strong (physically) player, and one who was never anything else.

So I realise I may have forgotten some players, but you can see the pattern that has developed, a signing policy which focuses on strength, and other physical attributes, while neglecting the all important technical side of the game. This is why I think we are so often outplayed by lesser European sides.

Poor coaching of youth

John Fleck. At 15 he was apparent phoned by Sir Alex Ferguson who wanted him to join Manchester United. At 16 he burst into our first team and for several games was our main attacking threat. So I find it hard to see this guy from the point of view of people who say he just is not talented. He is now 20, and his career has completely stagnated, if not been ruined already (hopefully not). If you look at his performances at 16, he should be worth £20 million or so by now, but he is not, and while I realise that not every wonder kid makes it to the big time, I do believe that the coaches have to take some of this blame. I mean, we often hear in the papers about how hard he works in training, so why is he not improving?

Look at other players, McMillan for example, he has only just made his first team debut at 23, and while we all agree that he looks very competent, I need to ask why he was not given game time earlier in his career. I would find it hard to believe he has suddenly improved tenfold in the last year alone, so why was he never brought on at the end of games when we were winning comfortably, so that he could show what he could do. It used to annoy me so much when we were winning by 3 or 4 goals and Walter would sub on Diouf and McCulloch and leave some of the young lads on the bench. What does that do to help the club in the long run. Nothing.

The managers

I respect Ally McCoist as much as almost any manager, he is undoubtably a Rangers legend, and I don't doubt that he can win us the league this year. However, as much as it pains me to say this, I don't think he is the man to take this football club forward. Nor is Neil Lennon for Celtic for that matter, but I don't care so much about that.

The problem is that I believe our club needs major changes in the way it is run, and Ally is so engrained in the fabric of the club that he cannot take that step back and change it, when all he knows is Rangers in it's current form. If you look at Scottish managers in general, they tend to be more of the motivational type (suited to doing a decent job with limited players), lacking in tactical nous, obviously exceptions exist, Owen Coyle, is one who I respect tactically. Even looking at the most successful modern Scottish manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, he has had his teams found out tactically in Europe on several occasions, and his major European success recently came when Carlos Quiroz was was his assistant, and I am told that he is credited with changing the whole tactical outlook of the club behind the scenes.

So, I believe that we must get in a TOP manager, I would look to Spain or the Netherlands, and we must give this man AT LEAST a 5-year contract and hour it. Give him the power to shape the club from top to bottom, and run it how he likes. Obviously I think it would be essential to go for someone who is proven at the top level, even if they would normally be out of our wage bracket, I think it is necessary for the future of the club. Maybe the challenge and power given with the job would help entice someone proven. An example of someone to try to hire would be Frank Rijkaard, currently manager of Saudi Arabia, it is clear he is open to challenges outside of the top european clubs, even if we can't offer him his current wage.

Finally, you may make the argument that Paul Le Guen tried to implement a european style of management and it failed, so it will fail again, but I think that his problem was that he needed time to change the club, and people like Boyd and Ferguson were getting in his way, he was never going to succeed in 6 months. The players' mentalities are as important as the managers, and the team needs to have this drilled into it from youth level, they need to become tactically aware and able to understand the systems. Basically, what I am trying to say is that, someone who saw Kris Boyd in our dressing room and told him to get on the treadmill and off the fried chicken and Buckfast was powerless, instead this is an idea that needs to be drilled into the 15 year old Kris Boyds so that they never let themselves become a fat bastard like him, and understand how to be professional, and although this philosophy would take time to succeed, I truly believe that if we can successfully become "European" as a team, then we could continually dominate the SPL and Celtic, and challenge at decent level in Europe.

I know this is a very long post, so I thank you for reading it all (if you actually have) and constructive criticism is welcome.

[Colonel Mustard 380]

With a username like that, I'm not even reading the post.

Is that supposed to be Southparkingly funny?

[wearethemighty 186]

What kinda username is that?

Never read your post its too fkn long

[Colonel Mustard 380]

What kinda username is that?

Never read your post its too fkn long

I ended up skim reading it, against my better judgement, because my curiosity got the better of me.

It appears to be the ramblings of someone who is a bit detached.

[THE_Ibrox_Preacher 2,812]

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[RangersMedia 35,961]

Your username is a disgrace, you should be asked to change it and if you dont want to you should be banned.

For that reason, i'm out of this thread.

[the goal machine 7,813]

Referencing a 50 Cent line and South Park in your username is quite an achievement.

[Chuck_Fickens 425]

You're bent.

[Carsons Dog 9,878]

What kind of bike was it?

[SkiBunny 441]

I enjoyed reading your post but you should change that user name mate.

[ThatNaggerEduStoleMyBike 0]

I enjoyed reading your post but you should change that user name mate.

How do you do this?

[sonofbear 398]

What kind of bike was it?

I would guess a trike or maybe even one with stabilisers !

[BlueSuedeSambas 54,429]

How to improve Scottish Football

Reduce the number of professional/semi-professional teams in Scotland, a team with a support of say a few hundred should become Junior.

Area's/"cities" like Dundee, the teams should be forced to merge. With two teams and a low population, the attendances are never going to be enough to allow decent investment and in turn they won't be able to compete again.

The divison set up should be a top league and B league of 16. Regardless of the numbers involved there should be 2 divisions and with a larger top league than is current.

The SFA should attempt to merge the League cup with the English to increase the interest, the finance and the excitement of the competition. If they reject (they no-doubt will) then a cup with Northen Ireland/Ireland and Wales should be considered. Failing that the league cup should be scrapped in favour of a harsher domestic season (you could market it as the most gruelling league schedule in football for example, a truer test of the team that wins it) *while asking Uefa to give the Euro place of the cup to a league place*.

As investment in our game is non-existant , living within our means should now be paramount - IMO this means the League should limit the signing of Foreign players to say 3, and by foreign I mean Non-Scots. You may think thats a crazy idea but the facts are England rules and dross of the game now command fee's and wages we can't compete with. The fear for Rangers and Celtic in not playing youth/signing scots is that the other of the two will buy "cheaper" better foreigners, the solution is merely limit the number each can sign to 3, all teams will then focus on youth and teams will only buy the best foreigners within their means.

The Junior League set up should perhaps have each team to become a feeder team to 1x top2-league teams where the "back up" or top youth players can showcase their skills - effectively the Junior set up features reserves and future stars. This would be better than having a reserve league and Junior Clubs would surely benefit in attendance/finance while players would get a chance to show what they could do in a more public format.

Professional clubs should have cachement area's where youth players of talent can only sign for the Professional club who's cachement they fall under - this prevents Rangers and Celtic snatching the best young players and them rotting. It also allows the other teams in scotland to have a good "crop" come through.

I have plenty more ideas all the way down to grass roots and frankly some of my thoughts or other peoples "crazy" idea's have to happen or our game will die, it's that simple!

Quite a few good ideas in there.

The number of professional/semi professional clubs in Scotland is defiantly a problem in my eyes. There are far too many clubs and although it's harsh to expect fans of clubs who are probably rivals to come together as one I think it needs to be done for the greater good. Infect two clubs in Holland proposed it a few years ago but I'm not sure if it ever happened.

I also like the idea of limiting to a certain number of foreign players, although I'm not sure if it's feesable due to EU right to work regulations.

People within the SFA need to be working closely with places like Holland, Germany & Croatia because all of them have found a blueprint for success.

[Leeds_Bear 8,145]

How do you do this?

Please enlighten me to what you mean, if Jelavic was 3" shorter we wouldn't have bothered buying him? What a stupid thing to say, what if he had four toes one foot and six on the other? Would that have changed things?

[delamonty 992]

That user name is a disgrace.

[BEE 4,880]

Hi I drive the offended bus, looks like I'm here right on time.

[messiah10 58]

good post mate, agree with most of it.

the referee bit a big part of me agrees with tht massivley but then again sum of the bookings in la liga especially are ridiculous or so called 'european matches'

last time i checked we were in europe!

one thing u didnt talk bout is our culture though which sadly will probabaly never change and therefore influence our football badly. gettin drunk if u lose a game, kris boyd verging on chubby cause of his diet. british but scots esp imo our diet being crap

loads of foreign players and top athletes in general dont drink at all or very rarely. andy murray doesnt drink, when hve u ever heard of the barce or real players drinking, smoking , being photoed outside a niteclub tht kind of thing.

also the top teams in the world spent a lot of time with the ball in training. long post i know

[SkiBunny 441]

It's nothing to do with the offended bus it's more about self awareness and user names like that give us a bad name!!!

[Raligt 2,541]

OP B7

[THE_Ibrox_Preacher 2,812]

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[TravelingWilBEARy 4,319]

Username is promoting bike stealing. I'm offended.

[sonofbear 398]

There really is plenty more where that came from. I also agree we should consult better run leagues or perhaps employ architects of those leagues.

Some other problems - at grass roots level good players fall out the game completely because their parents are skint or don't give a fuck, some of the best players I know stopped comming to games for that reason.

I know a guy who could have been something special - has a alky parents , gets drunk before his trial - end up a Junky. Talented kids should fall under some kind of talent spotting and training scheme.

Primary school football - barely taught because primary school is all P.C. now where boys and girls must play together and sports where there is no winner. We all know the best at the age of 7-8 it's visable in alot of them. P.E. teachers /whoever takes primary school football should have a boys and girls team and an S.F.A coaching badge - while as the national sport it should be the primary sport of every school bar none. At my primary school 15 years ago they banned boys club footballers from representing their school in the interest of giving everyone a chance regardless of ability, this in turn seen many good players quit as they were playing with people that had braces round their leg and the team was getting humped weekly.

The schools football set up should be the "second chance" for allowing talent to progress in say an American Football style system - Highschool football at the end of Senior year should have a draft system where clubs can choose 1 player each from all players to once again avoid all the talent being swept up by one team.

As a league - we should consider having an agreement between clubs as to who is brought here - several US, Mexican, and Canadian footballers would result in a large interest from North America - meaning higher TV bargaining power. Teams could say all agree to use their "3" foreign players to sign one of each - then in subsequent years it could be 1 each from South Korea, Japan, China. The idea being is that at any one time there will be enough players from 3 country's to increase interest dramatically in those countries and raise the TV value if our game.

The game kick off times should fit with our TV deal to maximise revenue and not the Police will - Scotland doesn't have riots or problems on the scale of other leagues for the current police standpoint while being safe is an overeaction and over costly in many cirumstances.

All youth systems should enforce the "weak foot" training system - how many of our pro's use one foot for everything?

Technical coaches from abroad should be asked to design training routines that are mandatory for all youth teams to encourage technical ability - what we have currently is piss poor having been in them myself.

The cost of going to month of games should be equal to or lower than watching it on tv - might sound a revenue killer but if all but a max of 3 are scots then really this shouldn't hurt while increasing attendances. People in Scotland are skint and family's of 4 are not paying hundreds a week to watch this shit bar the hardcore loyal!

the list of things which can be done is limitless in all honesty - and the SFA should have the authority to implement them - the current system will see Rangers and Celtic continue to dominate while the standard declines to a point where even we can't and won't watch it.

Time very much is of the essence!

Cunt of a post to read I know but the point is when you think about it - there's lots of things which can be implemented for the benefit of the game. Thanks and appoligies again for war and peace!

Very good post mate. The whole problem with fresh ideas though (and you would appear to have lots of them) is the various governing bodies will not pay any attention to them. SFA, SPL, SFL - WTF is this all about. We have too many teams in this country and too many governing bodies looking after ther own interests. Before anything can change, the rotten unprofessional core running the game has to be howked out. They have known for years where we have been heading - since Ernie Walkers day that I can remember - and done nothing with their various think tanks or reports - 'cept maybe ban a few songs of course !

[Ger for life 199]

You talk of bringing in a top foreign manager for a 5 year deal. Remember Dick Advocaat? He was brought in by SDM to "take us to the next level." He did that alright - bankruptcy level! The "moonbeam" that was Paul Le Guen failed to shine as he couldn't be bothered to do his homework properly and brought in players who did not have the physical or mental abilities to compete in the Scottish game.

The problem with the game at grass roots level is that football is no longer the preserve of the working man. Kids don't play in the streets any more and most football facilities come at a cost. Parents these days perceive the world to be a dangerous place and are quite happy to let their kids stay indoors and play their computer games.I am sure if there was a world cup for "football manager" Scotland would be well up there in terms of competing.

Diet is a problem for kids these days with large numbers existing on junk food which is hardly conducive to athleticism. There is also the issue with kids who DO go on to professional teams and that is their desire to earn as much money as they can as soon as possible. I cite the case of Danny Wilson who was persuaded - by his well meaning agent no doubt! - to pursue the big fee at the expense of playing competitively week in week out. David Goodwillie is another who will warm the bench more often than he will start a game.

There is also the problem that most clubs buying players will often look to the foreign market whilst overlooking what is available on their own doorstep. As a result our teams are choc full of average talent foreigners whilst home grown talent struggles to get a game.

We all need to pull together if we want to change things. Parents have to switch off the computers and get the kids round to the park and playing football. Clubs need to be more involved in the communities to provide proper coaching and football in general has to become more affordable and and we need to cap salaries to encourage desire in players to play for the game and not just for the big sums of money at the end of the contract.

Finally in terms of your original post, there are a lot of interesting points but the username does you no favours.

[Rangers Rob 29]

What do you want it changed to?

"Racist Fuckwad"

[robertkay 39]

Others have mentioned the username so no need for me to bark on about it, I will, though, respond to your points:

Referees - Simple Solution - Allow them to go full-time rather than part time.

Luck - Completely agree with your point.

Money - Way off the mark with your point here in my opinion. Using the English Premier League as an example they get around £30 million a year for playing top flight football (depending where they finish), we get just over £1 million for winning the league. We also charge too much for tickets (look into the Bundesliga), don't do enough extra money making activities (see F.C Porto as an example) and don't generate enough interest in Broadcasters to allow us to get good money. The squad valuation isn't a benchmark for squad quality in my opinion, and it certainly isn't a reason to be unrealistic.

Pitches - To a degree they are a problem however this is linked to money. Smaller clubs (and our own for a period of time) cannot afford to pay top dollar to protect their pitch against the abuse out climate dishes out 9 months out of 12. If we start relegating teams for this it will literally be a 2 horse race. Artificial pitches are used at youth level to great effect but can still get waterlogged.

Players - You are right in what you say here but the reason we focused on this is because our manager(s) at the time identified this as being how we can win the league. Our youth players are certainly more technically gifted than previous batches at the club and this is a promising sign.

Poor Coaching - Couldn't be further from the truth. Certainly not at our club. The youth of today play football in an attractive manner. John Fleck stood out when he was younger primarily because he was bigger and stronger than most of the other boys. To suggest a valuation of around £20 million is absurd. Danny Wilson made more of an impact than John Fleck has on our first team with half the time (ok perhaps more chances) but he was only valued at UPTO £5 million over a 2-3 year period.

Managers - I agree that we should have been more ambitious but when Ally was appointed we faced too tough a period to splash out. The next appointment (if there is one) will be bigger in my opinion.