Out with the Old Firm (Scottish Football 2012-?, SFL rejects Rangers)

As a Celtic fan I'm in two minds of this the immediate idea is laughing my ass off but the more serious side is Scottish Football is doomed. The major attraction to Scottish Football is Celtic and Rangers regardless of what any die hard Celtic fan thinks, No Rangers means less TV viewers, less TV viewers means less TV money and less TV money screws up Celtic and other Scottish teams ability to compete in Europe more so than in OTL sure Celtic will probably win the league and go onto get however many in a row but it's meaningless without the competition. Rangers problem throughout this entire saga was like Celtic in 1994 they spent money they didn't have and didn't plan for the future unlike Celtic in 1994 however they didn't have someone who had a concrete vision for the future and the money to keep the wolves from the door, My personal belief was that if Walter Smith had got his bid accepted then Rangers and Scottish football in general is much better off I can't wait to see how this goes subscribed.
 
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Didn’t he sign Efe Ambrose?
Yes, but Kelvin Wilson, Victor Wanyama, Fraser Forster and Beram Kayal all helped make the Bhoys' defensive phase look way, way better than it is today. Even Mulgrew was good 85% of the time.

One important thing to note is that the board never gave Lennon the funds to replace Wanyama, Wilson or Hooper, as they left. They tried to force Deila on him, as the Assistant Manager. And Samaras was sold against Lennon's wishes. I blame the board for the Deila era.
 

TruthfulPanda

Gone Fishin'
Oh, the deja vu I'm getting :)
As I see it your view - HesitaedEye - that without the Celtic/Rangers duopoly Scottish football is doomed - is one of two main opinions on Scottish football.
The other - held by so-called "diddy club" supporters - is that it is the said duopoly which is killing Scottish football. Some even see Celtic/Rangers "finally fucking off to the Sassenach league" as benefitial for Scottish football. They see it as producing a scramble by 3-5 teams for the title each year, much more exiting. European Cups? Nice, but the bread and butter is the league.
The years with newco "in the wilderness" were not a disaster of any sort for Scottish football. I admit that these years might had been less exciting for Celtic supporters as they cantered to yet another title.
No Celtic/Rangers simply is bad for Celtic and Rangers, as these two feed off one another, but it is not the end all of Scottish football in general. European runs by Celtic/Rangers do not benefit Scottish football as such, but those clubs only.
I follow the results of Cowdenbeath, BTW :D
During my Football Manager playing days I adopted them as my Scottish side. I'm looking towards their "2nd in a row" playout against the winner of the Highland-Lowland League promotion playoff :)
 
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Oh, the deja vu I'm getting :)
As I see it your view - HesitaedEye - that without the Celtic/Rangers duopoly Scottish football is doomed - is one of two main opinions on Scottish football.
The other - held by so-called "diddy club" supporters - is that it is the said duopoly which is killing Scottish football. Some even see Celtic/Rangers "finally fucking off to the Sassenach league" as benefitial for Scottish football. They see it as producing a scramble by 3-5 teams for the title each year, much more exiting. European Cups? Nice, but the bread and butter is the league.
The years with newco "in the wilderness" were not a disaster of any sort for Scottish football. I admit that these years might had been less exciting for Celtic supporters as they cantered to yet another title.
No Celtic/Rangers simply is bad for Celtic and Rangers, as these two feed off one another, but it is not the end all of Scottish football in general. European runs by Celtic/Rangers do not benefit Scottish football as such, but those clubs only.
I follow the results of Cowdenbeath, BTW :D
During my Football Manager playing days I adopted them as my Scottish side. I'm looking towards their "2nd in a row" playout against the winner of the Highland-Lowland League promotion playoff :)

It was a fact that when rangers where in the fourth division they were getting over 45,000 fans at their stadium, where as noone else apart from celtic was getting more than 15,000.

A league without rangers has lost a lot of live supporters. That hurts it financially regardless of it's more even etc.

The argument could be made that those fans will go and watch other clubs, but well look around europe for the alternative. There are plenty of league around europe which get less than 5,000 a week while their fans watch england/spain/germany on tv instead (ireland would be a good example).

It's an interesting idea for a timeline but I simply don't buy that scottish football would not be scrambling to find a way to not lose those 45 thousand fans. The big plausibility problem here is that noone seems to care about their loss, when they really should (and in otl did).

They would receive some kind of offer from someone. At the very least they'd be given assurance that they could apply again in 2 years time.
 
I fully expected a cop out and was quite surprised when the Scottish FA didn't go down that route.

The succulent lamb crowd tried to present it as an inevitability that Sevco would either be allowed immediately into the SPL or at least the first division of the SFL, because it was what they wanted to happen. Ironically I think it might have turned more people against the idea.
 
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TruthfulPanda

Gone Fishin'
The succulent lamb crowd tried to present it as an inevitability that Sevco would either be allowed immediately into the SPL or at least the first division of the SFL, because it was what they wanted to happen. Ironically I think it might have turned more people against the idea.
I love this expression :)
 
July-August 2012: European Tours Begin
31st July, 2012

Of all the teams that have entered the Champions League qualifying phase, Motherwell can count themselves among the biggest surprises. "Earning" themselves a third round qualifying berth in the place of Rangers, they have found themselves drawn against Greek giants Panathinaikos, in a match to be played this evening. This could be an opportunity for the formerly considered also-rans in Scotland to assert themselves and show that every season from now on won't be a Celtic procession.

Motherwell earn famous draw in Champions League
Motherwell 1-1 Panathinaikos
Scorers: Lasley; Christodopoulos

A late goal by Keith Lasley finally rewarded a long period of Well pressure in the second half. Panathinaikos looked happy to sit on their away goal and take the lead back to Greece, and they were rightly punished.

1st August, 2012

Celtic find themselves tested by strong Finnish side
Celtic 2-1 HJK
Scorers: Hooper, Mulgrew; Schüller

After failing to take the lead in the first half, Celtic found themselves behind by an away goal in the 48th minute; however, two goals from their talents gave them the narrowest of advantage to take to Helsinki.

8th August, 2012

Second-half Hoops rally averts shock
HJK 1-4 Celtic (2-6 agg.)
Scorers: Pohjanpalo; Ledley, Samaras x2, Hooper

Celtic found themselves behind at half-time due to a goal from highly fancied youngster Joel Pohjanpalo. With the side 45 minutes from going out on away goals, it's believed Neil Lennon had some choice words during the break. These were clearly highly effective, as Celtic's attackers showed no mercy in the second half, putting a Finnish defense to the sword. Victor Wanyama put in a different kind of "merciless", however, earning a sending-off for his trouble.

Valiant Motherwell performance ultimately ends in defeat
Panathinaikos 2-0 Motherwell (3-1 agg.)
Scorers: Mavrias, Sissoko

Well gave it their best as the completely unfancied side, but it is Panathinaikos who pass to the play-off round as expected.

Meanwhile in the Europa League:

Eskisehirspor 2-0 St Johnstone
Scorers: Potuk, Sari
St Johnstone 1-0 Eskisehirspor (1-2 agg.)
Scorers: Tadé

In this second qualifying round clash, St Johnstone performed strongly, but couldn't quite pull out a second goal at either venue.

Dundee Utd 0-3 Dynamo Moscow
Scorers: Kokorin x2, Semshov
Dynamo Moscow 6-0 Dundee Utd (9-0 agg.)
Scorers: Semshov, Kokorin, Yusupov x2, Sapeta, Watson o.g.

In the third qualifying round, Dundee United were thoroughly thrashed over two legs by a superior Dynamo side. They did not even appear to have fight in them by the end of the first leg, let alone the second. "Houston, we have a problem - serious questions for gaffer to answer ahead of SPL kickoff" read one local paper after the 3-0 at Tannadice.

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I'm finally back here. Next up: SPL season Day 1. Will probably omit the scorers for most "less important" league + cup matches.
 
Glad to see this back. I was at that Panathinaikos first leg when it actually happened, although it wasn't quite the match you described here I'd also never expected to see Champions League football at Fir Park so I still count it as a win of sorts. At least Keith got a goal somewhere in the multiverse.
 
August 4-5, 2012: It Begins
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August 4-5, 2012

The Clydesdale Bank Premier League season is set to start off strongly, with a Celtic home game on the first day likely to boost the average attendance.

Goalkeeping howler hands Celtic win vs Aberdeen
Celtic 1-0 Aberdeen
Scorers: Commons

Aberdeen put in a strong performance against the defending champions, with new signing Jonny Hayes proving a particular threat, and veteran captain Russell Anderson containing Celtic's attacks. However, the only goal of the game came from a trundling shot from Kris Commons which Jamie Langfield allowed to slip past him.

Hearts 1-1 St Johnstone
Scorers: Templeton; Tadé [1]

Kilmarnock 0-0 Dundee

Ross County 0-2 Motherwell
Scorers: Higdon x2 [2]

St Mirren 1-2 Inverness CT
Scorers: Guy; Ross, McKay [3]

Dundee Utd 1-2 Hibernian
Scorers: Gardyne; Griffiths x2 [4]

[1] Saints are more confident after doing slightly better in Europe. TTL, penalty isn't scored, and Tadé gets an early goal.
[2] OTL, the biggest chances went to Higdon, but he missed.
[3] TTL, McGregor's 92nd minute shot misses
[4] United don't have the momentum they had after the Dynamo game, given that they played so horribly.

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Next update will probably be the CL/EL playoffs. Could someone please recommend me a site/file where I can create a league table and save it to edit again later? It'll be good for keeping track of all these fixtures.
 
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