F OF

When watching the old firm play in Europe, you can guarantee that at least one the commentator will say a variation of the following:
"Of course it's difficult for Celtic/Rangers to compete because the Scottish league is so inferior"
They will then go on to talk about how big a step up it is to play in the Champions League whilst the opposition get hard games all the time so are more used to it.
I'm sick of hearing this as it is a complete crock of shit. It's just running down the Scottish League for no reason when we should be supporting it. Let's debunk this myth.
Firstly I would state that the Scottish league isn't as bad as people think. I will concede that a few years ago the OF were spending millions on buying foreign players whilst other clubs were almost going bust. This did lead to a big gap between the OF and the rest. However that is not the case now. Rangers are poor at the moment and have been for a couple of season. They are capable of getting beat by anyone as seen by the defeats at Inverness and Dunfermline this season whilst Hibs beat them 3-0 twice at Ibrox last season. This is not the form of a team who are in an inferior league.
Granted Celtic have won the league for the past couple of years by a fair distance but they aren't that good a team. They have consistency which helps them to edge games but they do not win games easily. Hibs, Hearts & Aberdeen can always give Celtic a good game and so can other teams on their day. Surely if the league was that inferior then the OF would be winning every game easily. A further reminder of this is the OF lack of success in recent cup competitions. This season's CIS cup and last season's Scottish Cup were noticeable for the early exit of both teams.
The OF don't really help the situation in Scotland either by buying up the best talent from the other teams (often with a derisory offer) and then complaining about a lack of competition!
Secondly other leagues aren't that different from the SPL. To listen to the commentators you would think that the big European teams play top class opposition week in week out. Do they really think that Chelsea putting 4 goals past Watford or Barcelona twonking Mallorca is good preparation for a Champion's League game? These team are in exactly the same situation as the OF, they are at the top of the tree in their own country and most of their games are against lower quality opposition. The whole point of the Champions League is that it is a step up from normal league duty.

It's time that the Scottish media realised that the reason for OF failure in Europe is due to the fact that they just aren't good enough. Despite Celtic holding on for a draw last night with AC Milan, the gulf in class between the teams was vast. Milan's ability to retain possession and stroke the ball around the pitch was top class. Celtic on the other hand seemed to resort to long balls up the pitch or into the box in the hope that their big man up front might get his head to them. The key to long term success in Europe is quality of possession which the OF just can't do. Their 100mph dogged style can bring short term success in the odd game but it also means they won't consistently be qualifying for the later stages.
The Scottish media needs to focus on this and stop running down the Scottish league. Of course that won't fit in with the OF sycophantic culture the media has but that is another story.........

One more point about the game last night. Hibs manager John Collins was one of the studio pundits and I was very impressed with his input. The problem with most pundits (Schmeichel, Wright etc) is that they just state the obvious for example "That was a good goal". JC on the other hand was telling the viewer about aspects of the game that they may not have been aware of. His tactical knowledge was spot on, similar actually to Gordon Strachan when he does media work. Surely the work of a pundit is educate the viewer about the game, not just offer a stream of banalities. Anyway, it made me glad that JC is the Hibs manager as he certainly knows his stuff when it comes to football.