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Celtic and Rangers' dominance in the Scottish Premiership has been prevalent for years. A short period without Rangers in the Scottish Premiership due to financial elements, have since; once again been followed by dominance from the two Glaswegian clubs which is reflected in the number of supporters in Scottish football. In the 2018/19 season pre-covid, Kilmarnock recorded a record breaking season as they finished 3rd yet only averaged 6,500 fans, just over a third of their 18,000 capacity stadium being full. Fellow Premiership sides; Motherwell and Livingstone also averaged under 50% of their capacity in spectators. In contrast, Celtic and Rangers averaged 57,000 and 49,000 fans respectively.
The Celtic, Rangers dominance is also prevalent away from home. In Rangers game against Ross County in January, Rangers fans occupied 3 of the 4 stands at the Global Energy stadium. Meanwhile at St Mirren, the Rangers fans occupied 2 of the 4 stands.
In the league, third place Hearts and first place Celtic are separated by 25 points, with fourth place Dundee collecting just half of Celtic's 82 points. Celtic and Rangers have now completed the top two in the last four seasons, with the Glaswegian clubs also sharing the top spots in the final six years previous to Rangers eviction from the Premiership.
So what is the solution?
The idea of adding Celtic and Rangers to the English league system has been flirted with for a number of years. But where would they be placed? For such big clubs, the obvious answer would be the Premier League, but is that throwing them in at the deep end a bit to soon? Sure, both clubs have recently challenged in European competitions with Rangers excelling against German giants Dortmund, but I do question the calibre of players for the Scottish giants'.
Some of Rangers highly rated players such as Tavernier have previously struggled in the English leagues, as he loosely featured for Wigan, Rotherham and Bristol City among others. Rangers starlet Ryan Kent also struggled in England with stints at Barnsley and Coventry. Admittedly, the impressive Joe Aribo was a powerhouse at Charlton and was thwarted by Premier League and Championship clubs, but one does wonder how he may have fared in England's top leagues. They do possess Premier League and European pedigree with midfielders Ramsey and Lundstram who have previously impressed. Celtic fare better in defence, with Joe Hart in goal and the impressive Carter-Vickers at the back, but attackers such as Giakoumakis and Furuhashi possess no European experience. The lack of quality in the Scottish Premiership is shown by the fact that when players join the league, players tend to either stay, or move on then return. For example, players such as Jordan Jones who had a lively season for Kilmarnock before joining Rangers and then doing the rounds in league 1 and re-joining the Premiership on loan with St Mirren. Or even Scott Arfield who impressed for Falkirk before joining Huddersfield and then Burnley before joining Rangers at the age of 31. Therefore, It will be interesting to witness the future of young Scottish players such as Everton's Patterson.
There are of course successful Scot's and players with experience in the Scottish leagues such as McGinn and Van Dijk who have since impressed in the English leagues, but there are also others such as Steven Naismith or Steven Fletcher who, despite immediate impacts, have struggled in recent times. However, there is a clear disparity in the quality of teams in the Scottish leagues that needs sorting. The introduction of the Glasgow clubs into the English leagues would solve this but I fear it would spell trouble for both sides as I feel players would struggle to adapt to the English way, and find consistency in doing so.
With the post-split fixtures being announced, it will be interesting to see whether teams can snatch points away from Rangers or Celtic. I doubt it.
In no way am I saying English football is superior to football elsewhere, but there is no doubting it is different.
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