toon_don

Got a couple of mates from up there and they said the place was completely empty when they made it to the Scottish Cup final a few years ago. Even some of the local firemen got in trouble for skiving off to watch the game.

Yasss! Now just someone who can defend.

Did you google Ross County population? Because the place that comes up is in America. Ross County play in the town of Dingwall, which has a population of about 5,000.

I couldn't say because I don't watch enough of smaller leagues, but Scotland should be comparing themselves to the Scandanavian countries, Austria and Switzerland. Basically the tier below the Dutch and Portuguese leagues, of countries with comparable populations. Scotland certainly does well in terms of attendances relatively speaking, and I think I'm right in saying that per-head of population Ross County are comfortably the best supported club in Britain. In terms of European competition, obviously the wee teams struggle a lot, but Hearts did well against Liverpool this year, and it wasn't that long ago that Aberdeen made it past Christmas in the UEFA Cup.

They probably will, I don't dispute that (apart from maybe Griffiths, despite being the most talented player outside the Old Firm). Aberdeen lost players to Fulham and Wigan in the summer, and Swansea are taking a keen interest in our star winger. I'm just trying to point out that there are talented players up here, and there is good football. Inverness and Kilmarnock (stop laughing) are really good teams to watch, and until our entire midfield got injured at the same time, Aberdeen played some great pass and move football as we play a front 3 of dwarves.

An educated guess would be me seeing Loic Remy play twice, and then saying he'd be a great/terrible signing based on that. Saying playing in the SPL=shit isn't an educated guess, it's condescending and arrogant. Of course there are shite players, but there are also some very good players who I'd be happy to see us take a chance on.

How do you know they're shite though? There are players on that list I rate, and some I don't, but those are opinions formed on watching them play. Michael Higdon I think is a limited but reasonably effective target man, and is a player who would struggle to make an impact at a higher level. Leigh Griffiths on the other hand comfortably has the ability to play in the Premier League, and the only thing stopping him is the fact that he's a total fucknugget.

It is ignorance though. I'm English and I'm not an Old Firm supporter, so I don't really have an agenda, and I'm not even trying to argue that the SPL is really good, because it's not, but it's certainly not as bad as people like to make out. English people and pundits by and large have no interest in the SPL and don't watch it. That's fair enough, I've got no problem with that. But I do take issue with people who by there own admission don't watch the SPL telling everyone how crap it is. The fact that you don't know who any of the top scorers are doesn't prove anything except that you aren't interested in Scottish football.

Sounds about right. There's definitely been one game this season where the crowd given was lower than the number of season ticket holders, which at least shows we don't make attendances up like Arsenal I guess. I've been to league games where there can't have been more than 5,000 in the ground, but then when we're going well we can pack the place out, like against Celtic earlier this season:

Hearts are much better supported than us to be fair. Aberdeen is one of those places where everyone 'follows' the team (or at leasts despises all things Glasgow), but no-one actually bothers to go to games. I've lived here for 4 years, and I'm one of the only people I know that goes every week.

I don't know any non-Old Firm fan who cares who wins the league, it's irrelevant really. It would have been nice to get a chance to thrash a bankrupt Rangers team full of journeymen and children though.

I think he means that Celtic have found players on a budget that are wanted by EPL clubs.

You really would. Norwich's defending was laughable at times today, we just didn't pose any threat.

If todays game had been in the SPL you'd all be pissing yourselves laughing at the 'quality' of it.

Use your right foot Marveaux!

Could be the first ever game where the possession stats don't add up to 100.

Jesus this is awful.

If it is a serious personal/family matter he's under no obligation to tell anyone other than the club what it is. If I had issues so serious they made me want to relocate my family halfway round the world on a much lower salary, then I wouldn't take kindly to loads of people demanding I give all the details to the press.

Celtic have lost more times than Man Utd in the league this season, and the gap between 1st and 2nd in both leagues is virtually the same. I know it must seem like I only comment on Scottish stuff on here, but as you all see much more of Newcastle than me I prefer to just lurk on the other threads. The SPL is a topic I do know about though.

I'd still rather have Krul, although he does seem to have gone backwards slightly this season.

You can because in his first season at Celtic he looked a bit dodgy and even their own fans were split on him. I've said before, just because it's the SPL doesn't mean you can't see who's a good player and who isn't. I could have told you that Conor Sammon and Kenny Miller were shit even when they were banging in the goals, and that Jelavic was going to be a success. Didn't expect Naismith to be a hit at Everton though.

To be fair, Forster has really improved since he's been at Celtic. Even their fans weren't sure about him after his first season. Both Norwich and Celtic fans absolutely raved about him.

So how much have we saved and how does it compare to the prize money we'd get if we had a proper team at the start of the season?

I distinctly remember him calling Benitez arrogant when he said something like "it's difficult when small clubs come here just to defend" after a Merseyside derby. I really wish they still had to visit SJP as well.

Got tickets for this, first game I've been able to get to since August. The defence are really going to have to be alert if we want to get anything tonight.