Scottish Premier League: Rumours of death greatly exaggerated

SPL table after first month

After the hue and cry of the close season, the slow torturous death of the football club once known as Glasgow Rangers FC, the hand-wringing and SFA  stitch ups … the SPL league table this Monday morning suggests something quite different.  After 4 weeks of football action Celtic and Hibs are locked together at the top, with just two points separating the top 9 SPL teams.

Have the doom merchants gotten it wrong?  Are we better off without Rangers?  It is entirely possible/probable that Celtic will soon show a clean pair of heels to the rest at the top.  Even so, right now it feels like the SPL has unexpectedly become competitive and exciting. Im loving it. How do other fans feel?

 

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  1. steven luby says:

    Scotland has a ‘Premier League’?Since when? 😉

    1. lupusincomitatus says:

      Since before the English one

      1. bellacaledonia says:

        Correct. Apart from the top 3 or 4 teams the EPL is tedious viewing as 22 millionaires try not to get their hairbraids tangled or their fingernails broken.

      2. AlbaRo says:

        SPL was formed in 98, pretty sure the English one was earlier than that, early 90’s?

    2. LUBLY CHUBBLY!! YOUR HYSTERICAL.

  2. Peter Morgan says:

    Have to agree, it’s looking like we’ll get a more competitive season while the 3rd division looks to be benefitting from some increased gate receipts.
    As a Celtic supporter I welcome the challenge from our peer teams, but then we get that every season, it’s the competitiveness between the others that looks more exciting as the race for 2nd – or even 1st – place is achievable for all. HH

  3. dombhoy67 says:

    Apart from exciting football and a more competitive SPL there is definitely an air of optimism and a lack of bigotry and sectarian singing around the grounds and that must be a welcome change. Meanwhile, the one and only real gers (Berwick Rangers) were robbed of all three points against the new sevco team who seemed to lack the standards and quality to play in such a Scottish league as Division Three. Still maybe within a few years they may show promise and challenge the better sides like Peterhead and Elgin for a top five place. They may need a real manager to do that theough.

  4. Doug Daniel says:

    For a Dons fan, it’s shaping up to be a great season. We may not have stormed to the top of the league, but the new additions have turned us into a nice little team. If it hadn’t been for that howler from Clangers against Celtic, the league would look quite different just now…

    Interesting to look at the Division 3 table and watching The Rangers storming into, erm, 4th place. All those internationals are clearly proving to be value for money. Wouldn’t it be awful if players such as Lee Wallace and Ian Black come to regret putting money ahead of ambition and find themselves languishing in the lower leagues for longer than they anticipated?

    I’m pretty annoyed at the way the media have acted as if nothing has happened though. Rangers and Celtic still the big two stories in all the papers. No offence to the other teams in the third division, but it makes an absolute mockery of Scottish football that our media think a game in the 4th tier of football is the second most important story of the day.

    1. bellacaledonia says:

      Good to see the Dons back with a strong team Doug. I’m hoping Hibs are at least credible, and we know that Dundee Utd are a very good team. Ross County are a great addition to the league and if Celtic do well our co-efficient will be be up.

  5. James McLaren says:

    Doug the Dug
    They need to print so many stories to get the “Bears” to buy the print run. That is all, it has heehaw to do with what is otherwise logic.

  6. lupusincomitatus says:

    Sorry Doug Daniel not Doug the Dug.

    Easy mistake at this time of day, temperature and Rosé at £2 a litre

    1. Doug Daniel says:

      Yes, I’ll be the first to admit there are too many Dougs floating about in the Scottish blogosphere. Perhaps Doug the Dug, Douglas Clark and I should start using more unique names!

  7. Dave McEwan Hill says:

    I picked up a funny today. Apparently Ally McCoist has said Rangers don’t do winning away!

    Actually what we are seeing is teams playing football they way we used to play it – ie getting the ball up the park, tackling furiously, running hard, taking men on – completely flumoxing Rangers who have been deceived, like the rest of Scottish soccer top tier, into fannying about the middle of the park a la continental stuff . We can’t do this , our weather, our pitchess and our temperament militate against it and we come out second best against those who can and who sell us their second raters so we can try to copy them as they beat us

  8. Dave McEwan Hill says:

    I meant to add tha the best thing that could happento Scottish football would be a restriction on foreign players and a reversal to using the hard scholl of the juniors as recruiting grounds

  9. bellacaledonia says:

    Just need to go on the offensive for summer football now… anything’s possible.
    KW

    1. Doug Daniel says:

      And a bigger league, although we all know that won’t happen. I was reading Gordon Smith’s column in the Sunday Post at the weekend, and he displayed perfectly the inability of those in the Scottish football establishment to see past their “we must give Sky all the Old Firm games they desire” obsession. He thinks moving to 14 teams would satisfy people, except he’s clearly still intending this to somehow shoe-horn in four OF games in the mix (so there’ll be a split, then.) He refuses to accept that a 16 or 18 team league, playing each other just twice, is anything but a non-starter. The “need” for 4 OF games isn’t just a consideration for him, it’s the main starting point for any restructuring plans.

      Never mind if Scottish football stays in the doldrums – as long as Sky get their 4 OF games per season, that’s all that matters. Well, it’s not good enough.

  10. lupusincomitatus says:

    Doug Daniel (more apos)

    “Never mind if Scottish football stays in the doldrums – as long as Sky get their 4 OF games per season, that’s all that matters. Well, it’s not good enough.”

    Sports writers in the Scottish dead tree press, are doing what is quite simply in their title’s interest (to sell more inky copies) or even their own personal one, in order to keep their career options open.

    It is quite simple.

    On a more intellectual level, has anyone noticed that, whoever writes the headlines for all the newspapers npw, braodsheet and tabloids, have adopted the old back page Daily Ranger/Rectum standard of football headline, Ally McCoist remains stauch against SFA / Johann Lamont vows to challenge SNP over / Celtic’s Lennon vows to stand up for Celtic against SFA etc

    Dumbing down ex extremum but, look at the most read pages on the Heraldman’s websites?

    Are we all really sheep and, have the Unionist found our mark?

  11. megabreath2 says:

    so much for predictions of “armageddon:etc from fans of the sevco franchise.Things appear to be ticking along nicely and it appears we may have,at long last,a competitive league.Next thing you know people will be voting “yes” in referendums.

  12. Dave says:

    2 points between the top 9???
    Who needs RFC anyway?

  13. Ed Dunne says:

    Let me dust down my old ‘paranoia’ hat here. Whilst I have ranted on for months now about the laziness of our wonderful Sports Journalists it has never escaped me that their need to sell newspapers far outweighs the basic requirement for the truth. I can see what they are trying to achieve when it comes to peddling the myth of a dead team actually not really being dead. But yesterday I witnessed a local Glasgow radio station trying to push the importance of a 3rd division football match taking place in England and involving the Zombie team from Govan down their collective listeners throats.
    During the normal Sunday listeners request show the presenter of the programme felt it absolutely necessary to hand over to a match reporter for the latest update from Berwick. Why?. No one called in to request this as is the norm on request shows. This was not an important cup final or world cup qualifying match. It was a run of the mill division 3 game. No more No less. And certainly of little significance. So here is the paranoia bit. Is there a campaign within ALL of the Scottish Media, not just the sports programme, to ensure The Zombie club from Govan are kept in the limelight at all times. Is there an Agenda out there. Has money changed hands here? Maybe it is just me but I wonder.

  14. Alex Montrose says:

    Been to the first 2 league games at Pittodrie, Vs Ross Co and Hearts, both games very similar, even for 30 mins then the Dons getting the upper hand nearing half time, going on to dominate the second half, unfortunately not managing to score. St Mirren on Saturday I’m looking forward to the game already, miss Rangers? not in the slightest.

    Dons fans should have a look at http://www.donssupporterstogether.com , sign up and have your voice heard at boardroom level.

    u
    unfortunatly unfortu

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