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[Scottish football has bottomed out and I believe will improve over the next decade.]

I have been saying that for a few years, the EPL is not as good as people think it is. The MOTD on a Sat night makes it look good (as does all highlights) but watch a live game and it's not good. I also agree that money has ruined the EPL, young players have got it too easy and earn stupid money which does take the edge of them. I agree Scottish football is of a lesser level but at least you get 100% commitment and hunger and desire from the players.

The day SKY or BT Sports pulls the pin on the TV money there will be some clubs going to the wall, bar Sevco the rest of Scottish clubs spent within their means and are surviving on a shoe string budget. English National team have regressed and so has the EPL clubs playing in the CL, Scottish football has bottomed out and I believe will improve over the next decade.

In my opinion it already has illdecide and the demise of Rangers was somewhat of a catalyst in this as well as clubs starting to run within their means and maximising potential.It gave clubs like the Aberdeen's Dundee's and Edinburgh clubs the chance to fill a void and compete with a traditional powerhouse and they have in spades in my opinion.
Even the crowds attending non old firm games are increasing year on year.
This might sound like after talk but if you had given me 100 hundred euro yesterday and put a gun to my head and said Motherwell or Rangers id have said Motherwell all day long and i guarantee you the motherwell management were very confident going into that game yesterday.

I agree 100% with Tony a sustained title challenge from Aberdeen or a Hibs,hearts etc is only healthy for the club.
I have been a follower of Scottish soccer for a long few years and bar the 80,s and early nineties Scottish soccer has taken a nose ward dive in terms of the quality of players that are playing with big clubs outside of Glasgow.
Clubs like Aberdeen,Dundee Utd,Motherwell,Hibs and Hearts from 1995 up until 2010 were basically just existing on scraps from the SFA table as the big two went hammer and tongs at sweeping up whatever money was available.
The best thing that ever happened these clubs especially Dundee Utd,Hibs and Hearts was the fact they got relegated and are now working towards blueprints of making the most of all assets they have and trying to maximise their potential.
Aberdeen are a club that are making small strides every year to becoming a dominant force in Scottish soccer in the next 10/15 year.
What i mean by dominant is not winning leagues and trebles although Im sure their hierarchy have definitely pencilled in winning one league over the the next few years dominance to them is winning a cup every year, being in a title race come April/May and trying to increase their support base and improve the quality of players at the club.
They have massive plans in the pipeline at the moment for a big new Stadium development.
Scottish soccer in my mind never lost its soul even in the barren years of 95-2012 when an odd cup was won here or there by a club outside the big two and bar Hearts one year making a fist of a title race which ultimately bankrupt them players playing for these clubs were willing to entertain their supporters week in week out and showed that on the pitch.
While the history books will show the dominance from Celtic and Rangers people don't realise that almost every decade of the last century clubs outside the big two had periods of dominance as well where they won leagues and cups.
I sat down yesterday and watched the cup semi final over the Everton Aresnal game and while the quality was possibly not top drawer the conviction and desire was evident.
i watched MOTD last night and bar the Everton goalie and a few of the younger lads there was no real desire shown in the game from either side granted the quality was good but some of these lads had multiples of tens of thousands in their back pocket they weren't going to burst a gut.
I find it very hard to watch some of the English premiership games over the last few years as its too manufactured anymore and its lost its edge in my opinion.
The current EPL will collapse in its current state that's a given in my opinion as something like that cant keep going without some form of implosion.
The simple economics of it alone will dictate that.

Decent performance on Saturday but didn't really need to get into top gear bar a ten minute spell in the first half when they had a couple of half chances that was all they could offer.Impressed with tierney,boyata and roberts.
Rangers will drop plenty of points this season and will be lucky to finish 4th in my opinion.Aberdeen and Hibs have better squads and will more than likely finish ahead of them and Hearts and St Johnstone,Motherwell (if they manage to keep moult) will be there as well fighting for top 6 positions so they are in a dogfight for 4th down.

A few on here looking for a draw on Wednesday and i think we have a great chance of a win if we can keep the high tempo pressing game from the star and put them under pressure.
They wont have much respect for us so might not be as up for it as much a they would for a top Spanish or Italian club.
If we get two wins against this lot and try and nick something from the two games against Munich you never know what might happen.

[Independence issues in places like Catalonia and Scotland will only be getting more frequent and if regions start to be granted independence where does that stop.Brittany and Corsica in France next?What about closer to home and the North?Bavaria in Germany maybe?]

Very interesting development on the horizon and how the Spanish government and the EU deal with any independence vote.
A yes vote isn't beyond the realms of possibility but what impact it will have on Spain's central government is the big question.
It will open a can of worms in relation to Basque if it is given any credence by the government.
We are entering a period of unstable governments across Europe in relation to many issues involving economics and reform including Brexit and the role of the EU in sovereign states.
Independence issues in places like Catalonia and Scotland will only be getting more frequent and if regions start to be granted independence where does that stop.
Brittany and Corsica in France next?What about closer to home and the North?Bavaria in Germany maybe?

Cork?

I actually thought about the Munster republic during the civil war when i was posting that.

Very interesting development on the horizon and how the Spanish government and the EU deal with any independence vote.
A yes vote isn't beyond the realms of possibility but what impact it will have on Spain's central government is the big question.
It will open a can of worms in relation to Basque if it is given any credence by the government.
We are entering a period of unstable governments across Europe in relation to many issues involving economics and reform including Brexit and the role of the EU in sovereign states.
Independence issues in places like Catalonia and Scotland will only be getting more frequent and if regions start to be granted independence where does that stop.
Brittany and Corsica in France next?What about closer to home and the North?Bavaria in Germany maybe?

was there even a free though outside the square is my point?
Contact was minimal until the mayo player was well  inside and then hauled down.
McQuillan gave no indication at that point of an advantage thus suggesting he initially thought there was no free.
It was only when it become blatant that he decided to give a free on the basis he thought the player was fouled outside the square which obviously didn't happen.

It doesn't matter what he caught him with he initially lead with his shoulder and didn't try to hide it.
He made contact with the neck/head area and that's a red card.

Ref was poor overall and made some calls which weren't just marginal.

Dublin's free before half time after kilkenny ran into his own man was an extremely harsh free and 9 out of ten refs wouldn't give it.
He bottled the penalty call no foul occurred outside the square it happened inside.he made no hand signal to say he was giving advantage thus suggesting no foul had been committed in the first place outside the square.
Free against fitzsimons was harsh IMO didn't matter in the end but i would find it hard to believe most refs would give it.
There was series of play where the ball was fouled four times (two a piece) in the second half within a forty second spell including a mayo player handling the ball clearly on the ground and a Dublin player throwing the ball and none were pulled.
Vaughan was red card all day long when you lead with the shoulder and you come within the region of a players head which he did its a red card.
Pure insanity on Vaughans part.

Excellent post theyellowbus.

Free speech has its downsides.

If that was Sligo would you not be in bits? or even your club?
People showing their emotions is human surely

I think you're taking me up incorrectly, perhaps I should have been clearer. I wholeheartedly agree with you.

One of the downsides of free speech is that you have to accept the drivel that that poster comes out with. I use the ignore function only when I'm sure there's absolutely nothing to be gained by interacting with a poster. At that point though it's good to avoid the extra noise.

Apologies i possibly was just trying to hammer home my point. i didn't take you up incorrectly i was just making the point would that not what you would do if Sligo or your club were unfortunately in that situation.
Anyway here's hoping we both have the opposite scenario in the not too distant future.

Anderlecht sacking their manager is a double edged sword could galvanise in time for when we play them or he could be a muppet.
Should have too much for Dundee their first win was at the weekend albeit against a decent st johnstone side plus Mccann will have an added bit of motivation to get a result.

Excellent post theyellowbus.

Free speech has its downsides.

If that was Sligo would you not be in bits? or even your club?
People showing their emotions is human surely

Pure frustration on keegans part but was he right to do it no.
If i was his teammate though and Rock missed the free and we went down and got a score would i care?
Possibly not.

Happened to be in the Citywest hotel today with work and it would have broke your heart to see those lads get on the bus to head home... fair play to the fans that stayed and tried to raise their spirits but it was like a morgue. They might make it back but you can only put your body and mind through the mill so many times

I honestly don't get this stuff.

I don't feel a bit sorry for the Mayo players, or their supporters. Lads in Ballagh I know were apparently in tears coming out, so was Rochford obviously. I've seen my county lose every single year, and 31 other counties besides Mayo fail every single championship as well. I had to watch for 60 plus minutes as my county played out a lost match in Croke Park against their biggest rivals, a week after nearly beating the same opponents. That was a much more crushing experience than losing to the best team in the sport by a single point. So what? This is the nature of support. You embrace both sides or you embrace none at all.

You suck it the fúck up and come back again next year. That's sport and getting lost in the emotion of Mayo's continual failure as if it isn't something nearly every other county experiences every year is the aspect of all this back-patting that gets lost. Whether you lose the AI by a point, or lose the first round of the Qualifiers by 20, you're still ending the year as a loser. Getting to a final qualifies you for no special treatment and Mayo would understand that better than most.

Last year, and this year, Mayo brought the losses on themselves. that's not me being hard-hearted, it's simply a fact. There's far more deserving counties than Mayo to break your heart over, because they have it better than all but a single county.

The above is possibly the biggest load of bull I've read in a while and actually proves to me that you know SFA about the game.Only someone who has never played the game at any level would come out with that rubbish.
To even compare the heartbreak Mayo fans suffered on Sunday to what we had to witness Bank Holiday Monday is like comparing a Audi R8 to a Nissan Micra.
Was i upset when we got tanked that day?Yes in the kind of way your six way accum is let down by a 92nd minute equaliser its par for the course but the hope of maybe it coming up the next day is why you don't think about it too much.
I'm no fan of Mayo and the amount of times i've had to walk out of Castlebar in the last 30 years after being hammered and the sneers and jibes is all par for the course but only a stone hearted non gael wouldn't feel for every Mayo person yesterday.
I cant even imagine the hurt that supporters felt never mind the whole squad and management.Stephen Rochford is a proud Mayo man and has possibly given every last bit of his life and his families life over the last two years to the cause of Mayo winning an All Ireland.If he wants to show his emotion as a man who actually cares about Mayo football then he has every right too.The sacrifices this group have put in over the last number of years is beyond anything me,you or any normal gael can comprehend.
You have done nothing but make jibes towards Rochford and numerous Mayo players safe in the knowledge that your little vendettas against anything Mayo are still burning brightly after Sunday.
If Mayo had won there wouldn't be one word from you on this thread only maybe complaining about how the ref favoured Mayo or some other concoction in your head that they were lucky to win.
You will come back with some other rubbish about playing the man and not the ball but guess what i did it in many's a match and i didn't blink so its not going to have much effect on me now.
The thing is you never played at any level id safely say to experience what its like to be part of a group and experience the highs and the lows of a championship winning/losing side.
To lose a final after so much commitment and sacrifice at any level whether junior or inter county is possibly the worst feeling you can imagine because its not the loss you feel personally but its the loss that your parish or club or county has to take and the sense of comradry that in some way you have all lost something that at that  moment in time you think you will never win.Its the pure rawness of sport and is felt more when you are involved its more than human in a sense its almost spiritual.

[Treating Donaghy as something special rather than a limited footballer is where most teams make their first error with regards marking him.]

I think most people will be able to admit that it's fairly cut and dry. 'Two penalties'! Mother of god 

You'd be a good man to ask , what do the Narries handle Donaghy when they are playing the Stacks.
He doesn't seem to do a lot of damage ?

Ah he does plenty a lot of the time. He's in and out from midfield with Stacks a lot which curtails him but at that level when he's fired up it's just damage limitation.

Our full back line wouldn't be the biggest so it's generally just a case of trying to get as many bodies around him as you can (and hoping the weather is bad).

Yeah, I think you know you are doing well when you see him drifting out the field .
He looks slow in the middle of the field.

Not really. He started doing it of his own accord after 20 hellish minutes against Galway.

Treating Donaghy as something special rather than a limited footballer is where most teams make their first error with regards marking him.

Heard it all now, you've some standards if you think Donaghy's limited.

If you don't think he's limited it's me that's heard it all.

Hes one limited forward whod walk into the roscommom team ahead of anyone on it

Unfortunately correct

Mayo I feel will win this.The Roscommon game the last day seem to have awoken the bear from its slumber and it was a more cohesive performance than we had seen all year.
Lads like Harrison Higgins and Boyle are really playing great stuff and driving the team forward with parsons hopefully to start he seems to be the rough diamond in mayo's set up at the moment and is sure to be very effective with his mobility and power and I also see a big game from cillian o Connor tomorrow.
Kerry on the other hand are very much under cooked this far into championship and if mayo can hit the ground running I can see them win by three or four.
Walsh is a huge loss to Kerry and JOD hasn't seem to reach the heights we thought he would so hard to know what to expect from him either very good or very bad
There is something more steely about this mayo team this year and I think this resolve will help them reach the final.
Anyway here's to a good game either way