Rest cannot play cash-up with Old Firm
If it wasn’t to be Steven Gerrard who ultimately dethroned Celtic then it could just as easily have been Derek McInnes.
Truth be told, it could have been Davie Irons,
Dick Campbell, Dukla Pumpherston’s main man Gerry McCabe or any name in a hat for that matter.
Come to think of it, my MailSport colleague Scott McDermott would have had a crack at it.
Whether any of the above could have steered their side to such focused and clinical excellence as Gerrard did is open to question but the success was three years in the making and cost a fortune.
That’s the reality of the two party state we have in Scottish football.
It was only a matter of time and money. The law of averages, millions of pounds, waiting for one or the other to collapse.
The lack of equity across the game ensures the league trophy will reside at either Celtic Park or Ibrox.
The last time a non
Old Firm club broke the monopoly, Jock Stein was still in charge of Scotland.
Think about that, 1985 and Aberdeen, a lifetime ago for some who watch a league where the runners and riders are loaded against fair play.
Equity? Celtic and Rangers operate in a different stratosphere.
McInnes has just lost his job with the Dons and has barely spent a penny on a transfer fee while being handicapped by a budget which is a pittance compared to what’s in the kitty at Parkhead or Ibrox.
Whoever inherited the top job at Ibrox three years ago was going to require millions of pounds in wages and transfer funds to bridge the gap. Good fortune doesn’t come into the equation when you are manager of either of the big two involved in an arms race every summer.
A monotonous battle for supremacy which leaves the rest of Scottish football bored rigid.
Even former Gers chairman Dave King gets it.
He said: “I’d like every season to begin with uncertainty about who is going to win the league and I want Rangers to win 55 per cent of them.
“I’d like a very healthy Scottish football environment, with Rangers winning the league more often than not and having good runs in Europe.”
If he means what he says he’ll be behind the Dutch ‘Change Agenda’ with clubs in the Eredivisie deploying a change in the revenue distribution amongst its clubs.
Five per cent of all media revenues are distributed equally between the 18 top-flight clubs and five per cent of UEFA revenues which clubs receive for participation in the group stage of European club competitions are redistributed to Eredivisie clubs that do not play in any UEFA club competitions.
Greed and the need to face the Old Firm as often as possible guarantees our clubs will never go for a larger league when it should be a no-brainer.
Yet here’s the reality. Between 1980 and 1989, the average difference in points between the first and fourth-placed teams was just 13 points.
In the 1990s it was 23, 2000s, 37. Last season it was 35 points and this campaign looks as though it will surpass the 40 mark.
Rangers or Celtic will win the title next season and a manager will be hailed a hero and tactical genius.
As always it’ll be down to recruitment and who has the biggest wallet.