We were meant to lose last night

I agree with your sentiment, but if you honestly think we can compete and win at the highest level in Europe in this day and age i think you do need to get real, It aint gonna happen, when we got to the last 16 of the CL i honestly think that is an amazing achievment for Celtic, We do have the history, A history to be proud of, but money is now the thing bank rolling football, and it aint in Scotland, Take the United v Hearts game the other night, spot the * crowd, that is what we are up against trying to win TV rights money, apart from the old firm there is no draw to our league,
As far as Grass roots go, how many Englishmen were on the field for arsenal last night?, none. The big money clubs do have the occassional star come through the ranks, some more than others, but generally they buy the success. This is also what we are up against. Our youth system has been pretty * awesome of late, Celtic have boys clubs all over Scotland, with Ex proffesionals teaching kids (John Holt and Ralph Milne, both UEFA cup finalists) in Dundee, and filtering the best through to Glasgow when the time comes.
ALL i am saying is there are people on here who are pointing fingers at players, blaming TM etc etc when the bottom line is, Celtic do compete at a certain level which on paper is way above the standard we face every week, One player in these top teams we face could be worth our entire sqaud! That is why i'm saying be realistic.

We done well last night, just unlucky

 

Very well said, well done

 

celtic, rankers and aberdeen wanted to take skys deal last year cos they knew setanta wouldnt last, but it was the other teams that opted for setanta cos they were offering a little bit more money. atleast thats wot i read

 

To be honest, this sccenario for sport was on the cards ever since Sky was set up.

Sky started off using the Murdoch publishing empire's money to buy selected sporting events and tempt people in. But it was clear even then, that the more folk signed up, the more money Sky would have, the more events they would be able to buy. And the more events they bought, the less would be available to view for free. And the less was available to view for free, the higher they would be able to jack up their prices, since people would have no alternative.

Unfortunately, many people lacked the intelligence to link the cause to the eventual effect, and as a result, millions of poeple are now having to pay a large subscription every month for sporting events which were previously free to view on terrestrial. "There's a sucker born every minute."

The Americans - who understood the mechanics of a capitalist system - took steps right from the start to protect sport from the free market - because they knew that the free market would eventually kill traditional sporting competition, and perpetuate the success of an increasingly small number of teams, with everyone else nowhere.

In Europe we weren't so smart, and that's why football is going down the toilet.

Until we can introduce stringent salary caps, spending caps, and equalising measures (like the american draft pick system, where the weakest teams get to sign the best new players) - football will continue to slide deeper into the mire.

 

Oh right fair enough, I didnt know that! either way we were always going to get less off Sky after Setanta went burst.

 

europe are thinking about doin that with like the americans with salary caps and fixed budgets dnt think the college thing is good idea though

 

I know... I live in the same town

I've been trying to get involved with a younger team for a while now, Rancel/Lads Club, whatever. I want to do my coaching badges and it's much cheaper through a club.

Skill is a major part of football and it's one we don't concentrate on. We need to seriously go back to training and let the players get fit naturally and focus on skills. Fitness/strength comes later in life around 20+, skill is natural and can only be made to be part of the way someone plays if taught at a young age. You can't teach an old dog new tricks is true in this concept.. the old dogs are considered 12+ as far as teaching skill is concerned.

 

Yeah, it would be too complex to organise draft picks via a college system in other countries.

But they could introduce a rule where a player wanting to sign for his first club registered with FIFA, who put him in a pool for the league of his own country. Then at the start of the season all the clubs in that league got to pick the young players they wanted, starting with the poorest clubs.

 

salary caps sound like a very good idea. say for arguements sake it was set at £1 million a year max, can you imagine the outrage by players, it would be one of the funniest things to happen, your drogba's and such of this world on around £100,000 and week would have to take 1/5 of thier wages or stop playing football. the money saved by all clubs could be filters straight back into the grass roots producing better quaility of players and the big teams can stop demanding such high prices for season tickets
but like that will ebver happen

 

only bad thing about that though is you will see teams like dumbarton and east stirling rising up the leagues

 

clubs will find a way around it. bonuses and just giving them houses, cars whatever. i read somewhere that they tried the something in the 50's to do with wages but teams from england found a way around it. i think the way to go is to put a rule on debt and a rule on wages to turnover ratio say like 50% or summin like that

 

It's never gonna burst, sky has 8m viewers paying them atleast 20 quid a month, then you have to take into account the amount of advertising revenue they make just from showing the premieship. Manchester united are 1bn pounds in debt but can you really see them going out of buisness? i think not. We are a massive team from a small football country, we are never going to get that kind of revenue that will get us the players we want. There are the super powers of european football, Man Utd, arsenal, Real Madrid, chelsea, Barcelona, and liverpool. Basicly teams that can pay the mst money for wages and players, Italian clubs can't even compete with them anymore. Then there is the rest of us, who will have our ups and down over the years, but will never be able to get to the latter stages of the champions league on a consistent basis. At the end of the day we have been really unlucky with the draw for the qualifying rounds, we could not have had a harder team in the last round, and now we get one of the best teams in europe before we are even in the group stages.

 

even with all this pessimism surrounding the thread, i think that we could give any side in europe a run for their money at the park atleast. we dont have the budget of even hull city for that matter who finished 17 last season but still we would * them left right and center when we play them. * except the top four, i dont think that any team in england would get easily past us. the priniciples that the club stands on are still intact and i think its good that way. i feel kind of proud that in this age where clubs like arsenal may better feature in the french league, we are not commercialising the game. all we have to do is put a good youth project for the future in the place. it would take time but i would be happy that way.

 

* right quite proud are team is able to punch above its weight

 

lolol i like your reasoning mate

First british team to win the champs league and first to win the Eurpoa league.... sounds good to me lolol :icon_mrgreen::icon_mrgreen::icon_mrgreen:

 

first british team to win the european cup

 

I think the biggest point that annoys me is how the media always use this phrase 'The Battle of Britain', when really, once you compare the two respective leagues together you would think they are from different planets!
Watching that game last night just made me hate Sky TV and all the other causes of the modern game as we know it, EVEN more.

NO AL CALCIO MODERNO!!

 

Skills my fellow Lichtie, I was asking if anyone else here fae the big smoke!

Greetings buddy

 

i think the media hypes up the premiership sides too. i mean apart from the top 4 the other teams from england have been * in the uefa cup while even the scum went to the final not so long ago from our league . we need a decent youth project and some depth in our squad. the spirit is there, we just need the management

 

I would love to take this post and * ram it up Sky's *. Agree with every word. It's impossible for countries that Sky deem "inferior" to compete with the teams from the EPL.

I really hope Platini steps in and bursts all their bubbles in one foul swoop of a financial restraint scheme to see England and all their horrible overspending teams forced to pay players a reasonable ammount of money rather than £150, 000 anywhere up to £250, 000 which was rumoured to be what Man City offered Eto'o to sign for them.

It's ludicrous, how can they justify it? Brain surgeons don't even make £250, 000 in a year!

I've forgot where i was going with this so i'll just end it here. Everytime i think of the money that gets pumped into England i just get furious.
(not that i have a problem with English people, but the money their teams get is a joke.)