Tag Archives: Sport

News, Sport

The 2022 World Cup has begun and called a halt to football in many leagues across the World.

By Zak Williamson

With this, there is no better time to look at the stats within the cinch Premiership to see what conclusions can be found.

When we look at the league table, it is currently led by Celtic, who sit 9 points clear of their Old Firm rivals Rangers in 2nd place.

This is partly due to Celtic’s impressive goal-scoring form in the league, netting an impressive 50 goals in only 15 games.

That’s an average of 3.33 goals per game for the Parkhead side. This a stark comparison to Rangers, who have only managed to score 34 in the same number of games.

The data shows that Celtic are essentially outscoring their rivals to maintain their position at the top of the table, with both sides only conceding 13 and 14 goals respectively.

The comparative lack of goals for the Ibrox side may come as a surprise as they have registered the most amounts of shots in the league so far at 297.

At the other end of the table, it can be seen that Dundee Utd, Kilmarnock and Ross County are all struggling to find their opposition’s net, as well as keep the ball out of their own.

Each team currently has a goal difference of over -10, meaning that they have conceded far more goals than they have been scoring.

Another interesting note is that Aberdeen, who currently sit in 3rd place, are only 5 goals off Rangers’ tally, despite having more than 100 fewer shots throughout the season. They are let down by their conceded goals, however, which is far higher than their rivals in 2nd.

There are also some interesting takeaways from looking at the disciplinary statistics from the league campaign so far.

While Heart of Midlothian has the lowest number of yellow cards shown in the league so far, they have also been shown the highest amount of red cards with 5.

This means that statistically, Hearts’ players have been shown a red card once every 3 games.

St Johnstone has the most yellow cards in the league with 47. When this data is coupled with their relatively low number of conceded goals, it could be inferred that this could be a part of their game plan with the use of tactical fouls to prevent opponents from scoring.

The vast amounts of bookings so far could also be attributed to the introduction of VAR (Video Assisted Refereeing) into the Scottish top flight, with there being a reported 3x increase in the number of penalties. In the first 20 games with VAR, 13 penalties were given. For comparison, only 56 spot kicks were issued throughout the entirety of last season.

All things considered, it has been an eventful start to the season and fans can expect more surprising stats when the cinch returns after Qatar.

Stats sourced from: https://spfl.co.uk/stats-centre

Features, Opinion, Sport

WHY OUR PROSPECTS ARE LEAVING – THE SAD STATE OF SCOTTISH FOOTBALL

By Zak Williamson

There has been an emerging trend in football over the last few years of young Scottish talent being wooed away from playing in the Scottish Premiership to play abroad.

Whenever a new, exciting prospect emerges, it is only a matter of time before they are linked with a move to what many would consider greener pastures.

A prime example would be former Hearts fullback Aaron Hickey, who burst onto the scene in 2019 at just 17 years old, playing 33 games and becoming the youngest-ever player to play in a Scottish Cup Final.

After an outstanding debut season, Hickey was linked with many different clubs throughout the continent, eventually settling on a move to Italian Serie A side Bologna for a relatively low £1.5 million.

This is even after Hickey was linked with a move to Celtic, who reportedly tried to sign the young Scot on ‘5 or 6 different occasions.’

Speaking to the BBC, Hickey stated that his decision was influenced by the opportunity to play against some of the biggest names in Italian football at the time such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala.

The move eventually paid off for the former Hearts man, as he was able to secure a dream £18 million move to Premier League side Brentford back in July.

This blueprint of Italian clubs signing young Scottish talent has continued in recent times with Aberdeen’s Lewis Ferguson and Hibernian’s Josh Doig securing moves to Bologna and Hellas Veronas respectively, costing the Italian sides £3 million each.

While it is undeniable that the Serie A is of a better standard than the Scottish Premiership in its current form, it still feels as if Scotland is getting the worse end of the deal.

Firstly, the prices commanded by the players are far too low. While the Scottish Premiership may not be among the richest in Europe, it still has players of considerable talent playing in it.

When Aaron Hickey’s fee to Brentford is compared to what Hearts received for him, there is a massive difference, almost 10 times less money than Bologna received for the player.

The current state of the Scottish game has led to clubs releasing their hottest young prospects for a fraction of what they are worth, accepting what is essentially pittance for players who could develop into real, world-class talent.

When questioned by Sky Sports about Serie A clubs’ sudden interest in Scottish talent, former  Bologna scout Francesco Strozzi stated his belief that “the Scottish Premiership is an incredibly, incredibly underrated league,” and “it doesn’t have quite enough attention in the eyes of many scouting departments around the world.”

This shows that there are those who recognise how much of a goldmine the Scottish Premiership can be when it comes to young talent. The problem is that clubs from the Serie A are essentially taking advantage of the poor financial state of the Scottish League to turn over a profit.

Teams in Scotland will often be incentivised to accept offers far below the value of their key players due to the lack of financial backing received from the league itself, among other things such as poor tv deals.

One high-profile example of this would be the ‘cinch’ deal, which saw online car retailer company cinch become the main sponsor of the Scottish Premiership for 5 years back in 2021. The deal saw £1.6 million in sponsorship money shared between all 42 clubs in Scotland’s top 4 leagues.

This amounted to just £38,000 for each club. While it may be useful money to teams in the smaller leagues, this is an absurdly small amount for teams in the top flight and shows why teams jump at any chance to make money from player sales, even if the sale is way below the player’s worth.

While the cinch deal has recently been renegotiated to allow more finances to go to clubs in Scotland, it is still unlikely to make a huge difference when it comes to clubs in the top flight.

When looking at Scottish football today, it is hard to imagine that Celtic won the European Cup in 1967 with every player born within 30 miles of Celtic Park. Or that Rangers and Aberdeen won European trophies of their own in the 70s and 80s.

Although times have changed and the game has moved on, there appears to be a lack of belief in young prospects in Scotland, whether it be at the club level or international. Take former Rangers full-back, Nathan Patterson, as an example.

When playing for the Ibrox side as backup to James Tavernier, he was playing regular first-team football and even scoring a goal in the Europa League. Yet it took him a £12 million move to Premier League side Everton for him to become a regular starter for Steve Clarke’s Scotland.

A similar situation would be Liverpool’s Calvin Ramsey, who made his first start in the Champions League before receiving a call-up to the National Team.

Perhaps this puts things into perspective for why so many young players are looking to play outside of Scotland. It is the only way to receive the attention and recognition they deserve.

If top-level sides in England and Italy can see the worth of these players, then why can’t our national set-up do the same?

Teams in other countries are taking a chance on Scottish players who may have been thought of as ‘not good enough’ or ‘too young’ and giving them a chance to break into the first team.

They see the value in Scottish football, so perhaps the teams and governing bodies within Scottish should start doing the same and stop selling ourselves short at every opportunity.

 

 

 

 

 

News, Sport

Gers sack Gio

By Zak Williamson

Rangers have sacked manager Giovanni Van Bronckhorst after just over a year in charge of the Ibrox club.

The news will not be a shock to most Rangers fans, after a string of bad results has seen them drop 9 points behind bitter rivals Celtic going into the winter break.

The decision came just under two weeks after Rangers drew 1-1 away to St Mirren, making it their second away game in a row without a win following their 2-1 defeat to St Johnstone the week prior.

Pressure had been mounting on the Dutchman, with calls for his sacking tracking back to Rangers’ humiliating 4-0 defeat in August’s Old Firm Derby.

An official statement from the club read:

‘RANGERS Football Club confirms today it has parted company with manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst. The board would like to put on record sincere thanks to Gio for all his efforts since his appointment as manager.’

Fan reactions to the sacking have been largely supportive, with fan organisation Heart & Hand tweeting:

‘The right decision to sack Gio. Results just weren’t there unfortunately in the league.’

Although the Ibrox side’s league form had undoubtedly faltered, it would not be a stretch to assume that Rangers’ disastrous UEFA Champions League run did not play a part, with Rangers becoming the joint-worst team in the competitions’ history with a -18-goal difference.

Despite such a poor start to the season, there are fans who believe that ‘sacking Gio’ was the wrong move, citing a lack of financial backing from the board as the main reason why results have been so bad.

Rangers have also been marred with injuries throughout the season, with key players such as Conor Goldson, Ianis Hagi and Tom Lawrence not due to return until after the World Cup.

It is hard to imagine that Van Bronckhorst led Rangers to a European final in May, with the club beating giant clubs like Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig on the way.

His Rangers side also won the Scottish Cup for the first time since 2008, delivering their second piece of silverware since returning from the lower leagues.

An argument could be made that given time and proper backing; Van Bronckhorst could have turned things around at Rangers after the successes of last season.

Van Bronckhorst commented on the sacking in an emotional social media post in which he stated:

‘Rangers FC will always be in my heart, and I wish the club all the success for the future. Once a Ranger, always a Ranger.’

Fans of the Ibrox side were given some form of good news, however, with the announcement of former QPR boss Michael Beale as the club’s 18th permanent manager.

Beale was a part of Steven Gerrard’s title-winning squad in the 2020/21 season, which saw Rangers win the league by a 25-point gap and remain unbeaten in the league.

Gers fans will be hoping that Beale is up to the mammoth task of getting their season back on track, however, at this time Rangers’ title hopes look to be dead in the water.