NoBlog Number 9 - Jim Lovetoy Considers the Old Firm Joining our Fair League...
12th November 2009
NoBlog
Media personality Jim Lovetoy writes exclusively for The Football Ramble. “This is no blog, it’s a column. It’s credible. Proper journalism that has an influence...”
Today a group of Premier League chairmen rejected a proposal by Bolton´s Phil Gartside for Celtic and Rangers to join the Premier League. The debate over whether they should be invited into our league, which let’s not forget is the best league in the world, let alone the country, has gone on since football began. It predates Sky, David Beckham and every other iconic thing about football, though until now the debate has mostly taken place in pubs.
Why Gartside was the person proposing this I don’t know. He surely has enough to worry about. Perhaps he takes his mind off of being in charge of Bolton by distracting himself with nonsense like this. He’s probably really into the global warming fad too. Let’s be honest, it can’t be easy. He must have terrifying moments of clarity where he remembers that his manager is mange-ridden orangutan Gary Megson and that defensive striker Kevin Davies is his best player, especially after a couple of hidings from the Chelsea!
To be honest I’ve never really given this much thought. I’m of the opinion that anything north of Watford is “up north”, and that anything north of the border is essentially Norway. I just don’t care, and yet if I had a vote I’d think carefully about how I used it. Here’s why:
Pros:
The inclusion of The Old Firms would guarantee 12 points a season for Chelsea. We’ve already seen Arsenal outplay both of them and Arsenal couldn’t beat West Ham. With that in mind West Ham would beat them, and they themselves are perilously close to what I call the administration zone, meaning that both Celtic and Rangers would be relegated. Football works like this and it’d be entertaining to watch them struggle.
If two extra teams suddenly rocked up in the Premier League it figures that two extra rubbish teams would be relegated. Hopefully Bolton would be one of them! The fewer small teams the better and Celtic and Rangers certainly have big reputations. Barcelona and Manchester United legend Henry Larsson even played for one of them at some point. The other way of including them would involve just having an extra two teams, which means more football, and I love football me.
If the only two notable clubs from Scottish football suddenly left it then it might collapse entirely. This would be good because when they show the tables on the side of the screen on Sky Sports News it wouldn’t take as long to get back round to the Premier League.
Cons:
Scottish people. They’re fine when they’re gibbering rubbish and hiding from the sunlight at 12 o’clock in the afternoon in a Wetherspoons because you can just ignore them. However, can you imagine what it’d be like with hoards of them coming down to London on a Saturday afternoon? I’ve seen Trainspotting and it’d be like that, though to their smack-addled brains it’d be more like Braveheart.
Where do you draw the line? Do we let Welsh teams play in England? Do The Harlequin Wasps get in? If so how do we accommodate them? They wouldn’t be able to use their hands and they’d probably want to use their egg-shaped ball, which isn’t round, so is therefore not a ball. It would involve lots of rule changes and the offside rule is hard enough to understand as it is.
What if they actually get good? Years down the line one of them could play well enough to earn a billionaire owner. Then they might actually win it! It doesn’t bear thinking about. How would the rest of the Premier League feel about that? It’s competitive enough as it is thank you!
On the strength of each argument, I’d abstain from voting. It’s meaningless and wouldn’t change anything. I don’t vote in elections and I wouldn’t vote for this. The decision has been made and though it must be rubbish for them to only have a petty rivalry to play for, Celtic and Rangers will just have to continue to argue amongst themselves. Chelsea, Chelsea!
Jim Lovetoy
What do you think about the decision? Would The Old Firm joining the Premier League be a good thing or a bad thing, and what th bloody hell does it have to do with Phil Gartside?
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Samantha J Fox
:::2009-11-12 15:53:41
Celtic may have been outplayed in recent times by English opposition, but that is because they are built with the constrictions of Scottish Football and the general lack of interest from media companies that have flooded the EPL with so many Billions over the last 10 years.
To even think that Celtic (and the Huns for that matter) would stay at the same level for more than a season or two is fantastically naive to say the least.
Celtic and Rangers are both massive clubs, much bigger than your beloved Chelsea, who in recent times, and by Joe Coles comments last week, seem to equate financial power with the size of the club.
The interest that would surround Celtic and Rangers in the immediate term, should they ever be invited would rival Manchester Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool and both would be seen as exciting prospects for some of the worlds best players.
Celtic are of course owned by one of the Richest men in football, whose lack of investment only really highlights the obvious fact that there is no money in the SPL. If they were to make the switch then you would quickly realise just how big an attraction both clubs would be, even if at first it would be circus like.
WIthin 4-5 seasons Celtic would break the top 4, and the Huns would always be around the top 6.
scott
:::2009-11-12 16:22:42
Terrible idea....maybe if they cld show us something in the championship league it´d b something to consider but otherwise the 39th game is a better idea!! Maybe someone should propose to Gartside that the PL shd cut away some of the dead fat that is shite northern clubs, ie Blackburn, Hull, Bolton, Wigan, teams that are generally very turn off-able when on sky, to lessen the number of teams in the PL so that our international team players aren´t so knackered come big tournament time, or so that our champions league teams have more rest between games!!! Just a thought.
scotj94
:::2009-11-13 08:17:13
Well in my opinion its the EPL who are missing out on the
GREAT 2 clubs that the whole of Scotland have to offer. However the real crime here is that there isnt going to be an EPL 2 which there should be because it would provide another league for Accrington Stanley to win on their Amazing unpredictable rise to premier league and ultimately the champions glory.
Tsunami_steve
:::2009-11-19 19:26:30
Shite northern teams...bollocks. As we´ve seen over the last few years the smaller teams decide the league. Picking up points against the top four etc is important but consistancy wins the league. I´d be happy to see the Old Firm in England, let them put their money where their mouth is. Top half finish at best in my opinion for both. Up the Millers.
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