Sub Standard Old Firm teams...or have the rest caught up?

[SMEE]

This season, both halves of the OF havent had things all their own way. Why do you think this is? In my opinion.....i think both are poor teams compared to days gone by, more than it being down to the rest of the teams closing the gap!

[Ronaldo]

This is a good question, I thought Rangers were very flat on Sunday and were there for the beating.

Two strikers would have done the job nicely, but then we would have only had four in midfield and perhaps then and ...... 

[SMEE]

This is a good question, I thought Rangers were very flat on Sunday and were there for the beating.  

Thats the very reason behind this question

[Guest TinCanFan]

I reckon that Celtic are a very good team this season but Rangers aren't.  I think that Rangers are one of the most boring teams I have seen all season and someone who watched the game on Sunday who had never seen an SPL game before could be forgiven to think that ICT were top of the league.

[caley100]

I dont think the old firm have the money to splash on top players anymore, either that or the gap betweeen Engerlund and us is growing ever wider and wider so even the old firm cant afford top players anymore.

[chris123]

I reckon that Celtic are a very good team this season but Rangers aren't.  I think that Rangers are one of the most boring teams I have seen all season and someone who watched the game on Sunday who had never seen an SPL game before could be forgiven to think that ICT were top of the league.

There is a differenece between boring and good. 4 points clear suggest otherwise.

[SMEE]

But......you can be boring AND effective!

[12th Man]

I think the quality of Scottish football is improving year on year and now SPL teams believe that they can beat the OF, instead of sitting in deep and hoping for a point after defending for 90 minutes.

On Sunday I thought it was Rangers who were happy to earn a point for most of the game.

From the old firms point of view,they have to play so many games,they only have to do enough to win the match.

[Kingsmills]

I disagree. My view is that the Old Firm are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with even lower ranking English Premiership teams for the services of average players due to the fact that the Premiiership is awash with television money.

The effect is that the Old Firm are being drawn back into the pack but only to a limited extent as their purchasing power is still far in excess of the rest of the SPL.

[CaleyD]

I think it's a bit of both and I think it has as much to do with money as it does with the evolved attitude of many players.

Money in the game up here is so tight right now that you really have to be something special to earn the big wages.  This drives players to be at their best in the hope of landing themselves such a move and it focuses managers into building a proper team instead of just a group of talented ego's who turn up on match days to collect a pay cheque they can barely afford to be giving them.

You also have the increased popularity of "Win bonuses" which now make up the bulk of a players annual wage at the smaller clubs which drives them on to perform.

I think Scottish Football has been going through a transitional face for the last 4 or 5 years and I also believe it is one that will be for the better in the long term.

I'll go out on a limb and predict that we will have a non-of league champion within the next 5 seasons.

[Heilandee]

I'll go out on a limb and predict that we will have a non-of league champion within the next 5 seasons.

Doubt if it will be in our lifetimes sadly or as long as the OF remain in the current set up,money is tight but still so disproportianately distributed the OF have a massive financial advantage over all others.Short of a generous philanthropist deciding to do a Miles on a massive scale i cant see it ,would love to be wrong though.

[Caley Stan]

Let's not get carried away here. While the filth might not knock 4 or 5 goals past teams on a regular basis anymore, a quick glance at the league table shows Rangers 15 points and Celtic 11 points ahead of 3rd place - and that's with a couple of games in hand over most of the chasing pack.

They've got less money to spend than in the past but the same goes for the rest of the SPL.

What has changed recently in Scottish football is that we've produced a good crop of young players - some of them too good for the old firm to get their filthy hands on (Craig Gordon and James McFadden) or keep their filthy hands on (Alan Hutton, maybe Scott Brown). But as we have witnessed, good young Scottish players usually want to go there and as soon as a team develops that might pose a threat to their dominance they succeed in breaking it up quickly.

Caley D's prediction is brave indeed. If a non-of team wins the league in the next 5 years it will because of a surprise investment in one of the Edinburgh teams or the new firm, rather than because of a gradual levelling out between the filth and the rest.

[Yngwie]

The OF certainly seem more beatable than 5 or 10 years ago when they had much higher calibre players.

However, they have been doing very well in Europe despite the deterioration in quality on the pitch. Could this be down to managers more attuned to the needs of European football?