Champions League, Europa League & Europa Conference League 22/23

[Winston Biscuit]

just looked back at the early seasons of the champions league. first 2 looked rubbish! Third season had Gothenburg topping their group ahead of Man Utd, Barcelona & Galatasaray!

Was the three foreigner rule in place? This really fcuked over English teams where it was fairly normal to recruit from the whole of the British Isles

yeah the 3 overseas player rule was scrapped in 96

[Conservative_dad]

just looked back at the early seasons of the champions league. first 2 looked rubbish! Third season had Gothenburg topping their group ahead of Man Utd, Barcelona & Galatasaray!

Was the three foreigner rule in place? This really fcuked over English teams where it was fairly normal to recruit from the whole of the British Isles

yeah the 3 overseas player rule was scrapped in 96

8 of United's 94/95 first team was a foreign

Schmeichel
Irwin
Keane
Kanchelskis
Giggs
Hughes
McClair
Cantona

[Winston Biscuit]

Was the three foreigner rule in place? This really fcuked over English teams where it was fairly normal to recruit from the whole of the British Isles

yeah the 3 overseas player rule was scrapped in 96

8 of United's 94/95 first team was a foreign

Schmeichel
Irwin
Keane
Kanchelskis
Giggs
Hughes
McClair
Cantona

I think (but could be wrong) that foreign for English teams meant non British, and there was also a rule about 2 forign players coming through your academy not counting as official overseas players in UEFA competitions

[Winston Biscuit]

Man Utd vs Galatasaray in 94/95:

Walsh
Nevile
Irwin
Bruce
Keane
Pallister
Cantona
Butt
McClair
Beckham
Davies

[Ascotexgunner]

Was the three foreigner rule in place? This really fcuked over English teams where it was fairly normal to recruit from the whole of the British Isles

yeah the 3 overseas player rule was scrapped in 96

8 of United's 94/95 first team was a foreign

Schmeichel
Irwin
Keane
Kanchelskis
Giggs
Hughes
McClair
Cantona

Technically Giggs was English and only Welsh now and again when he could be arsed to turn up for us.

[Winston Biscuit]

Harry Maguire is playing up front for Man Utd?!

[Conservative_dad]

Harry Maguire is playing up front for Man Utd?!

We don't have the squad!

[Conservative_dad]

Guaranteed Utd will fall of a cliff after the WC

[From Despair To Where?]

Celtic and Rangers have both been absolutely dog shit in the champions league this year.

Maybe because they are shit teams from a shit league

Yeah but to amass a measly 2 points between them with a combined -31 GD is some going, even for them.

I've taken to watching the SPL highlights on Sportscene and standard wise you've basically got.

Rangers & Celtic - Premiership strugglers

Hearts, Hibs,,Aberdeen - top half championship

St Mirren, Livi, St Johnstone Motherwell - plucky fighters. Think Rotherham.

Ross, Kilmarnock,,Dundee Utd - League 1.

Livingston manager David Martindale when asked about Celtic moaning that the likes of Portuguese and German teams,have 7 times the budget they do, observed that Celtic have 40 times the budget he has.

Of the Old Firm, the only player I've seen that could make waves in the Premiership is Jota at Celtic. Celtic are at least entertaining to watch, Rangers are just dire, they just sling the ball into the box hoping Colak will get on the end of it.

[Sutekh]

Maybe because they are shit teams from a shit league

Yeah but to amass a measly 2 points between them with a combined -31 GD is some going, even for them.

I've taken to watching the SPL highlights on Sportscene and standard wise you've basically got.

Rangers & Celtic - Premiership strugglers

Hearts, Hibs,,Aberdeen - top half championship

St Mirren, Livi, St Johnstone Motherwell - plucky fighters. Think Rotherham.

Ross, Kilmarnock,,Dundee Utd - League 1.

Livingston manager David Martindale when asked about Celtic moaning that the likes of Portuguese and German teams,have 7 times the budget they do, observed that Celtic have 40 times the budget he has.

Of the Old Firm, the only player I've seen that could make waves in the Premiership is Jota at Celtic. Celtic are at least entertaining to watch, Rangers are just dire, they just sling the ball into the box hoping Colak will get on the end of it.

Rangers and Celtic wouldn’t remain PL strugglers though if they did move over, the stupid amount of money in the PL and the massive fan bases those clubs have would mean they’d eventually challenge the bigger sides.

Feel sorry for them in some ways though as they’re stuck in a badly structured league playing same old dross week in and week out and until all the other clubs in Scotland get a more equal share of what little money there is around they won’t develop further after all.

While we may all want season after season of your team winning everything, what actual merit or fun is there in seasons coming down to guessing which game you’ll not win. I mean how utterly pointless was Scottish football when Rangers were down in the lower dovisions?

[Stranded]

Yeah but to amass a measly 2 points between them with a combined -31 GD is some going, even for them.

I've taken to watching the SPL highlights on Sportscene and standard wise you've basically got.

Rangers & Celtic - Premiership strugglers

Hearts, Hibs,,Aberdeen - top half championship

St Mirren, Livi, St Johnstone Motherwell - plucky fighters. Think Rotherham.

Ross, Kilmarnock,,Dundee Utd - League 1.

Livingston manager David Martindale when asked about Celtic moaning that the likes of Portuguese and German teams,have 7 times the budget they do, observed that Celtic have 40 times the budget he has.

Of the Old Firm, the only player I've seen that could make waves in the Premiership is Jota at Celtic. Celtic are at least entertaining to watch, Rangers are just dire, they just sling the ball into the box hoping Colak will get on the end of it.

Rangers and Celtic wouldn’t remain PL strugglers though if they did move over, the stupid amount of money in the PL and the massive fan bases those clubs have would mean they’d eventually challenge the bigger sides.

Feel sorry for them in some ways though as they’re stuck in a badly structured league playing same old dross week in and week out and until all the other clubs in Scotland get a more equal share of what little money there is around they won’t develop further after all.

While we may all want season after season of your team winning everything, what actual merit or fun is there in seasons coming down to guessing which game you’ll not win. I mean how utterly pointless was Scottish football when Rangers were down in the lower dovisions?

That's your problem - Rangers and Celtic could give themselves a more competitive league to play in if they distributed the money fairly but as those 2 clubs will need to vote for that to happen it won't. Similarly, unless the PL constitution changes, clubs outside of the big 6 or 7 clubs aren't going to vote in 2 clubs who will likely push them closer to relegation. If they did move to the PL as well though, they would also be unlikely to make Europe again for 3 or 4 years - certainly not the CL - as they aclimatise.

So whilst they may have the money, they would struggle to attract the level of player needed to compete at that level - so they would likely be trading almost guaranteed silverware plus the odd decent season in Europe - remember Rangers were in the Europa League final last season - for a lot more defeats, less change of silverware and possibly less chance of competing in Europe.

[Silver Fox]

Feel sorry for them in some ways though as they’re stuck in a badly structured league playing same old dross week in and week out and until all the other clubs in Scotland get a more equal share of what little money there is around they won’t develop further after all.

You feel sorry for them because they hoover up all the money?

[From Despair To Where?]

Yeah but to amass a measly 2 points between them with a combined -31 GD is some going, even for them.

I've taken to watching the SPL highlights on Sportscene and standard wise you've basically got.

Rangers & Celtic - Premiership strugglers

Hearts, Hibs,,Aberdeen - top half championship

St Mirren, Livi, St Johnstone Motherwell - plucky fighters. Think Rotherham.

Ross, Kilmarnock,,Dundee Utd - League 1.

Livingston manager David Martindale when asked about Celtic moaning that the likes of Portuguese and German teams,have 7 times the budget they do, observed that Celtic have 40 times the budget he has.

Of the Old Firm, the only player I've seen that could make waves in the Premiership is Jota at Celtic. Celtic are at least entertaining to watch, Rangers are just dire, they just sling the ball into the box hoping Colak will get on the end of it.

Rangers and Celtic wouldn’t remain PL strugglers though if they did move over, the stupid amount of money in the PL and the massive fan bases those clubs have would mean they’d eventually challenge the bigger sides.

Feel sorry for them in some ways though as they’re stuck in a badly structured league playing same old dross week in and week out and until all the other clubs in Scotland get a more equal share of what little money there is around they won’t develop further after all.

While we may all want season after season of your team winning everything, what actual merit or fun is there in seasons coming down to guessing which game you’ll not win. I mean how utterly pointless was Scottish football when Rangers were down in the lower dovisions?

My point was that that is the level they are playing at now. It was a comment on why they struggle in Europe. The answer isn't jumping ship to a league they deem more suited to their ambitions. In not sure you hear similar arguments in countries like Portugal or Greece where the league is similarly dominated by 2 or 3 big teams.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

If Rangers and Celtic were to ever move to the PL, in a hypothetical sense, I'm not sure they would do that well even with the money backing them. They'd have the glamour, history, fanbase etc, but clubs like Leeds and Forest have that, who are current PL teams, and they've not attracted the players that have been able to push them into European positions (taking a view on Forest as they were promoted last season), with Leeds losing their better players as they are part of the "food chain", whereas there is an argument to say Leeds are bigger historically than the likes of Man City. If Celtic and Rangers weren't mega wealthy, they'd just be, at best, another Leicester, Wolves or West Ham in the league for me, potential European candidates but could finish anywhere between 7th and 15th realistically.

At the level they are at, it's all about incremental improvements and trying to improve their squad, regular qualification for the CL is important for both now as that can propel them to the levels or some of the other clubs in Europe that are in leagues that are regularly dominated by a couple of teams. Think Shakhtar, for example. That's where Celtic and Rangers should be aiming for in the next few years.

[paultheroyal]

Rangers and Celtic current squads would do well to survive in the Championship.

If they ever did get into PL - of course they would hold their own based on money that will be available to them and attendances - but now as a squad - poor, very poor.

[Franchise FC]

If Rangers and Celtic were to ever move to the PL, in a hypothetical sense, I'm not sure they would do that well even with the money backing them. They'd have the glamour, history, fanbase etc, but clubs like Leeds and Forest have that, who are current PL teams, and they've not attracted the players that have been able to push them into European positions (taking a view on Forest as they were promoted last season), with Leeds losing their better players as they are part of the "food chain", whereas there is an argument to say Leeds are bigger historically than the likes of Man City. If Celtic and Rangers weren't mega wealthy, they'd just be, at best, another Leicester, Wolves or West Ham in the league for me, potential European candidates but could finish anywhere between 7th and 15th realistically.

At the level they are at, it's all about incremental improvements and trying to improve their squad, regular qualification for the CL is important for both now as that can propel them to the levels or some of the other clubs in Europe that are in leagues that are regularly dominated by a couple of teams. Think Shakhtar, for example. That's where Celtic and Rangers should be aiming for in the next few years.

Rangers have no history.
They are a completely new organisation to the one that won a lot of trophies
As far as I can work out, they’ve only ever won two major domestic trophies

Otherwise, MK Dons won the FA Cup and I’m not having that

[South Coast Royal]

Maybe because they are shit teams from a shit league

Yeah but to amass a measly 2 points between them with a combined -31 GD is some going, even for them.

I've taken to watching the SPL highlights on Sportscene and standard wise you've basically got.

Rangers & Celtic - Premiership strugglers

Hearts, Hibs,,Aberdeen - top half championship

St Mirren, Livi, St Johnstone Motherwell - plucky fighters. Think Rotherham.

Ross, Kilmarnock,,Dundee Utd - League 1.

Livingston manager David Martindale when asked about Celtic moaning that the likes of Portuguese and German teams,have 7 times the budget they do, observed that Celtic have 40 times the budget he has.

Of the Old Firm, the only player I've seen that could make waves in the Premiership is Jota at Celtic. Celtic are at least entertaining to watch, Rangers are just dire, they just sling the ball into the box hoping Colak will get on the end of it.

I have seen quite a bit of Rangers and I think Tavernier, Kent and Tilman would do ok at the lower end of the Premier League just as Jo Aribo has this season at Southampton.
Calvin Bassey is also doing well this season at Ajax.

Generally though both Celtic and Rangers are made up of Championship level players and the clubs below them are more akin to Div 1 in England.

[From Despair To Where?]

Shame Tilman's on loan and not actually one of their players. I don't really see any home grown players in their team (Maybe 40 y/o Allan McGregor) and only a couple in Celtic's. You look at players like Hickey and Robertson who've done ok in Serie A and they were both released by the Old Firm as youngsters before joining Hearts.

Rangers play really one dimentional football under Van Bronkhoorst.

[Hendo]

Rangers play really one domentional football under Van Bronkhoorst.

When did Ibrox get a roof?

[Sanguine]

CL R16 draw coming up. Liverpool have played Porto in three of the last four seasons, so fully expect them to draw the Portugese again. Along with Liverpool, Inter and PSG are the group runners-up that will want to avoid.

We could get City vs PSG and Liverpool vs Madrid in R16, which would really open the competition up.

Second time in three years that we have had four German sides in the last 16 - they had five teams in this season's competition after Eintracht Frankfurt's Europe League win in 21/22, with only Leverkusen going out in the Group Stage.