No Old Firm? Life would be so sweet for the Jam Tarts
BLOGGER ON WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN Football blogger reassembles the statistics in Scotland’s top-flight league as if Glasgow rivals Celtic and Rangers never existed to find a big shift in power to the east coast and even a championship win for little Livings
Imagine there’s no heaven, so the song goes. Apparently it’s easy.
But imagining Scottish football without Celtic and d Rangers?
I decided to investigate how the balance of power in n our top division might have e developed without the Old Firm.
Through 121 seasons, the e Glasgow giants ruled the roost – claiming 103 league titles between them, with no other side having more than four to their name.
Incredibly, there are only five seasons where neither Rangers nor Celtic has finished in the top two and the only year they were kept out of the top three was in 1964- 65, when Kilmarnock were champions and Hearts second. But if all that hadn’t happened? Unsurprisingly, the Glasgow clubs would be replaced by another pair from Edinburgh – 26 titles for Hearts and 20 for Hibs – with Aberdeen in the middle with 23. Motherwell would also be in a notable fourth place with 13 titles, with an incredible eight in a row between 1926 and 1934.
But away from those larger trophy hauls, there would be a clutch of teams that have never lifted the title doing so, with Morton winning five league crowns, Airdrie picking up four and Partick Thistle triumphing three times.
In 1963 and 1967, two other Glasgow teams, Partick Thistle then Clyde, would have been champions instead of Rangers and Celtic respectively.
In season 1998-99, Kilmarnock would have again been champions instead of Rangers with St Johnstone second instead of Celtic.
At the moment, only three sides outside Rangers and Celtic have managed to defend their title, but with them out of contention, the feat would have been completed by nine teams, with Hibs and Aberdeen each notching four in a row, and Airdrie, Hearts and Kilmarnock netting three in a row.
All in all, 19 clubs would have won the league, either outright or shared with another side, compared with just 11 that can claim that now.
There are also someme other great stories for smaller clubs. Livingston would have won a league title in their first Premier League season in 2001- 02.
Inverness Caley Thistle would have been runners-up twice, in 2012-13 and 2014-15.
Dundee United might be one of the teams that would feel hard done by – finishing as runners-up 13 times and winning only six championships despite their golden era in the 70s and 80s.
Another team to lose out would be St Johnstone, who would finish second four our times without claiming ng the top gong.
This season, insteadd of Celtic going for eight titles tles in a row, Aberdeen would uld be trying for five in a row. ow.
We’ll never know what hat Scottish football would uld be l ike without the he presence of Rangers and Celtic, but as we watch what could be one of the more competitive races that we’ve had in years, it might give us a glimpse of a more dynamic history we could have had without them beingg so strong. g