Only Scots should ridicule our league
It is easy to criticise and dismiss things you do not know much about, which is one of the many reasons there is little point dwelling on Jamie O’hara’s claim this week that Bournemouth are a bigger deal than Rangers.
“I wouldn’t want to disrespect the Rangers people because they’re a huge football club,” the former footballer told Talksport, “but it’s a bigger job to potentially be the Bournemouth manager.”
Understandably, many took exception to O’hara’s views and it is not difficult to see why. The first hit on a Google search of “Rangers trophies” is
Top drawer: Celtic’s Odsonne Edouard, scoring the second of three goals against Hamilton last Sunday, is one of a number of high-quality players in the Scottish Premiership a Wikipedia entry which reads, “Rangers have won more domestic trophies and trebles than any other club in the world”, while a search for “Bournemouth trophies” returns the contact information for an “engraving and trophy centre”, which admittedly is rated five stars.
Nothing unites Scottish football fans more than an outsider slagging off Scottish football. It might not shimmer with the glamour and glitz of the Premier League, and it definitely lacks the sophistication and class of La Liga, but if anyone is going to make fun of it, it is us.
Last weekend marked the start of the 2020-21 season and, reader, this may shock you: the early signs are that Celtic and Rangers will probably pull away from the rest of the chasing pack and contest the league title, as economics and logic suggest.
The Old Firm are embroiled in a battle for 10 in a row, a fantasy achievement which has taken on such ridiculous levels of prestige and importance that it seems plausible the entire sport would be cancelled immediately afterwards in its honour. What actually happens when, or if, Celtic finally get their hands on this hallowed 10th title is anyone’s guess, but the epiphany felt by many after first crossing the threshold and leaving virginity behind probably is not far off the mark. Was that it?
The behind-the-curtain truth of it all is that outside the bubble of the Glasgow giants there are other teams to support, all with clearly defined styles of play, history, daft stories and huge fan bases. These are rounded characters in a thrilling and unpredictable drama which is making a good effort at hogging the headlines before the season starts.
After all, Aberdeen manager Derek Mcinnes said he did not enjoy watching his team play last season, but now none of us will be able to watch them after their game with St Johnstone was postponed after eight of their players had to go into isolation for breaking lockdown regulations.
It is a staggering start to a season where an expected third-placed finish would not be enough to satisfy many supporters spoilt by Sir Alex Ferguson’s Real Madridbeating side of the Eighties.
Finishing positions are clearly far less important than how we handle coronavirus, but Hibernian already look like they will be well placed to benefit from the inevitable Aberdeen fallout as they continue to improve under Jack
Ross, star of Sunderland’s Netflix documentary. Motherwell finished third last season playing some genuinely entertaining football, but have already lost to Ross County and may slip a little.
But one of the real joys of Scottish football is that, beyond that, we do not really know what will happen.
Dundee United are back in the big time, nobody can be sure if Kilmarnock are any good, St Mirren are surprisingly decent to watch, Ross County were excellent on Monday, Livingston have a knack for taking points off Celtic, St Johnstone always seem to avoid trouble, and ancient scriptures forged in stone dictate that Hamilton cannot be relegated. Someone has to be.
There are also great players in Odsonne Edouard, Kristoffer Ajer and Alfredo Morelos, who we know are stars in much the same way we recognised Virgil van Dijk, Andrew Robertson and Kieran Tierney long before their moves to England.
Yet despite unpredictable storylines and great players, many have pigeonholed the everentertaining world of Scottish football as a lesser product.
Yes, Celtic are probably going to win, but Rangers have a chance, and Scotland’s is far from the only league in the world where one side are dominant: Paris St-germain have won seven of the past eight Ligue 1 titles, Bayern Munich have won eight Bundesligas in a row, and Juventus can (and probably will) win their 10th consecutive Serie A title in 2020-21. Liverpool, meanwhile, won the Premier League by 18 points. Why would anyone pay attention to these Mickey Mouse competitions?
So, get past the title race and this is a competition to be savoured, not belittled. Give it a go. It is worth it.
Outside Glasgow, there are other teams to support, all with history, daft stories and huge fan bases