9 games played and already Celtic are 5 points are ahead of Rangers who are 4 points ahead of Aberdeen. I don't expect anyone outside the old firm to challenge for the title this year, but it looks as though it may be several years before it happens again. Will the rumoured injection of cash into Hearts by Romanov be sufficient to break the duopoly?
― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 18 October 2004 13:44 (twenty-one years ago)
Hibernian won the SPL last weekend on my Fifa2005 career. scottish cup, too. i expect their form to dip though cos i've taken over millwall for the up and coming season.
― ken c (ken c), Monday, 18 October 2004 14:51 (twenty-one years ago)
When it was last being won by Aberdeen and Dundee Utd I doubt anyone could see the extent to which the Old Firm would not only re-establish their monopoly but make the gulf between themselves and the rest massively bigger than it had ever been before. It's hard to imagine any non-OF team winning it in the foreseeable future. But things may look very different in a few years time.
One possibility I can see - lets say Celtic end up bottom of their Champions League group. And again next year. ie, continued European failure. I think that there is a possibility that the OF will decide that there's no point in buying players like Camara, Prso, Juninho, Boumsong etc (and paying their, by SPL standards, huge wages) if they don't make you any more successful in Europe and they are above and beyond what's needed to do well in the SPL. This would be, more or less, a return to the pre-Souness philosophy where, for example, Rangers spent much less on players than much smaller clubs (like, Notts Forest) because, although they were rich they didn't think they should need million pound goalkeepers to do well in Scotland.
If that were to happen OF dominance would continue, but the gulf could narrow to the point that a good provincial side might win the league occasionally (ie before the OF had had a chance to cream off their better players).
Other possibility of course is the OF leaving for England as Celtic in particular are desperately keen to do. I don't think this is as likely as some Celtic officials seem to think. They say customers will eventually get what they want, but Southampton fans and Newcastle fans are customers as well, and their clubs have a vote. Why would Southampton vote for a bigger risk of being in the First Division, and why would Newcastle fans want to dilute their chance of winning trophies?
Even though I don't think the OF going to England is probable, it is possible, in which case ONLY provincial clubs would win the SPL!!
― frankiemachine, Monday, 18 October 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)
Scotland has to start producing good footballers again, in similar quantities to those being produced up until the mid 80s, and I don't see that happening for 10 or 15 years - and that's me being optmistic
― Serghei Daduismus (Dada), Monday, 18 October 2004 15:36 (twenty-one years ago)