McGhee: SPL heading towards LoI level

[sligoman]

The Clydesdale Bank Premier League is in danger of sinking to the level of the League of Ireland, according to Aberdeen boss Mark McGhee.

McGhee believes the Scottish top flight bore comparison with its English counterpart prior to the formation of the Barclays Premier League.

But he insists the SPL is now on a par with the Coca-Cola Championship and warned it would continue to fall further behind the English leagues if something was not done to arrest the slide.

More.

[KianD]

He said "the Irish league" - does he actually mean us or the Nordies?

[sonofstan]

By 'heading towards' he means 'is at'

(assumng he means the LoI and not the IL)

[galwayjames]

I think we're at the same level as the SPL clubs (bar Rangers and Celtic obviously) already.

This year:

: Pats went further in Europe than Motherwell this year

: Made it to the same round as Hearts

: They knocked out a Russian team in the same round as Aberdeen were hammered 8-1 by a Czech Republic side who were thrashed by Everton in the next round

And Pats are nowhere near our best team in the league.

: Falkirk were knocked out by a team from Liechtenstein in the same round that both Pats and Derry qualified.

Last year:

: While Rangers were knocked out by a Lithuanian side who were knocked out in the next round by Aalborg, Drogheda were a leg (Adam Hughes' leg!) away from knocking out Dynamo Kiev, who went on to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League and made the UEFA Cup Semi Final in the same year.

: St Pats were unlucky to be knocked out in the UEFA Cup by Hertha Berlin, in the same round Nancy comfortably knocked out Motherwell.

And that's without even mentioning Derry's 5-1 hammering of Gretna in Scotland, or Bohs knocking out Aberdeen in the UEFA Cup in 2000..

The only things that separates us are the infrastructure, facilities and the Irish media's lack of interest.

[superfrank]

He said "the Irish league" - does he actually mean us or the Nordies?

That's what I was thinking too.

And that's without even mentioning Derry's 5-1 hammering of Gretna in Scotland

In fairness, Gretna were muck in their one season in the SPL.

Paddy McCourt and Niall McGinn are both getting a good run at Celtic at the mo and, afaik, have been praised for their performances. However, I don't know if they've improved greatly in their time over there (haven't seen enough of them.

[Dillonman]

Its been there for several years now, terrible league and some terrible teams! Rangers and Celtic should be pushing to get into our league...all their debts would be irradicated and yet still not gety punished!

[redarmyfaction]

I think we're at the same level as the SPL clubs (bar Rangers and Celtic obviously) already.

This year:

: Pats went further in Europe than Motherwell this year

: Made it to the same round as Hearts

: They knocked out a Russian team in the same round as Aberdeen were hammered 8-1 by a Czech Republic side who were thrashed by Everton in the next round

And Pats are nowhere near our best team in the league.

: Falkirk were knocked out by a team from Liechtenstein in the same round that both Pats and Derry qualified.

Last year:

: While Rangers were knocked out by a Lithuanian side who were knocked out in the next round by Aalborg, Drogheda were a leg (Adam Hughes' leg!) away from knocking out Dynamo Kiev, who went on to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League and made the UEFA Cup Semi Final in the same year.

: St Pats were unlucky to be knocked out in the UEFA Cup by Hertha Berlin, in the same round Nancy comfortably knocked out Motherwell.

And that's without even mentioning Derry's 5-1 hammering of Gretna in Scotland, or Bohs knocking out Aberdeen in the UEFA Cup in 2000..

The only things that separates us are the infrastructure, facilities and the Irish media's lack of interest.

One hell of a post James.

[Mark]

saw that earlier and i think he means the northern ireland league?

[galwayjames]

saw that earlier and i think he means the northern ireland league?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...en/8360394.stm

According to this he definitely meant the League of Ireland.

[A face]

I think we're at the same level as the SPL clubs (bar Rangers and Celtic obviously) already.

This year:

: Pats went further in Europe than Motherwell this year

: Made it to the same round as Hearts

: They knocked out a Russian team in the same round as Aberdeen were hammered 8-1 by a Czech Republic side who were thrashed by Everton in the next round

And Pats are nowhere near our best team in the league.

: Falkirk were knocked out by a team from Liechtenstein in the same round that both Pats and Derry qualified.

Last year:

: While Rangers were knocked out by a Lithuanian side who were knocked out in the next round by Aalborg, Drogheda were a leg (Adam Hughes' leg!) away from knocking out Dynamo Kiev, who went on to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League and made the UEFA Cup Semi Final in the same year.

: St Pats were unlucky to be knocked out in the UEFA Cup by Hertha Berlin, in the same round Nancy comfortably knocked out Motherwell.

And that's without even mentioning Derry's 5-1 hammering of Gretna in Scotland, or Bohs knocking out Aberdeen in the UEFA Cup in 2000..

The only things that separates us are the infrastructure, facilities and the Irish media's lack of interest.

If that is factually correct then it makes good reading. I think we all know that we were the same standard already but its just no Irish paper will ever tell you that.

[Éimear]

What about a Scotland-Ireland league if Celtic & Rangers move to the Premier League.

A 16 team Premier consisting of:

8 teams from Scotland:

Hibernian
Dundee Utd
Hearts
Aberdeen
Motherwell
Kilmarnock
Falkirk
St Mirren

6 teams from the Republic of Ireland:

Bohemians
Cork City
Sligo Rovers
Shamrock Rovers
Galway United
Dundalk

2 teams from Northern Ireland:

Glentoran
Linfield

It's a possibility if the Old Firm move to England.

[Mark]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...en/8360394.stm

According to this he definitely meant the League of Ireland.

Yes, sorry. just read that link. Thanks.

[Riddickcule]

Surely he means the irish league no? (NI)

I mean he did say those exact words, which means the north

Bohs, Rovers, Cork could take on hibs, hearts, falkirk any day imo

[TheBoss]

I do not see much difference in the transfers, apart from Steven Fletcher's way overpriced £3m

http://www.skysports.com/football/tr...,11780,00.html

[Nedser]

I agree the SPL is one of the least interesting leagues on the planet, and the standard really does appear to be deteriorating.

However, there is a lot of delusion on here about the standard of the LOI. If you accept the logic in the post from James, thenby the same token Pats are better than Bohs, since Pats got further in Europe. And this year there were 2 teams from the first division in the FAI Cup semis, plus one in the final, so does that mean there's no difference between the two LOI divisions? Championship teams regularly beat Premiership teams in the FA Cup ..... see where I'm going here?

I just can't see how LOI clubs who play in front of 2-3,000 people a week (or less) can expect to be on the same level as clubs such as Hearts and Hibs who get 15,000+. I don't know how much a ticket to an SPL game costs, but I would guess it's a fair bit more than an average LOI ticket, plus the SPL clubs get much more TV money, bigger sponsorship etc, so I wouldn't be surprised if their budgets were 10 times what the biggest LOI clubs have to work with.

[jebus]

The only things that separates us are the infrastructure, facilities and the Irish media's lack of interest.

Those are fairly massive things to put to one side though, particularly the facilities

[dcfcsteve]

Those are fairly massive things to put to one side though, particularly the facilities

And he neglected to mention the biggest thing that separates us - attendances.

I suspect this is just another screw-up from RTE.

McGhee mentions the 'Irish League' in his interview - and whilst many people use that term to mean any/either league on the island of Ireland, I rememebr this story being on Sky or BBC during the week, and he definitely appeared to be talking about the North when he referred to attendnaces and there being just two decent-sized clubs.

Also - he'd be ill-judged to suggest the LOI was some lowly level the SPL was in danger of falling to, given the relative Euro results of-late. Euro results aren't clear indicators of much, but as shown in a previous post they are still one level at which his comparison can be made to look foolish.

Mod edit - there's a multi-quote button!

[Ciaran W]

And dont forget that shamrock rovers 2nd string team beat hibs 1-0 in a friendly in july

[Buller]

And dont forget that shamrock rovers 2nd string team beat hibs 1-0 in a friendly in july

Yeah actually! That was pretty much our A-championship team playing Hibs fullteam. While it was pre-season, they still should have hammered them if they were any use!

Outside Ranger and Celtic, even though they do get bigger crowds, have better facilities,... you cant say there's the same gap in terms of quality of football between the two leagues.

[Riddickcule]

And he neglected to mention the biggest thing that separates us - attendances.

Yeah, well that would be very much linked to facilities