20 Apr 2025 19:59:31
Someone said to me at the football earlier that in the Napoli Vs Empoli game last week there were more Scottish players in the starting lineup than the St Mirren Vs Ross County game - which blew my mind.
20 Apr 2025 20:20:57
Heard the exact same EHL. Another indication that we have far too many over rated foreign players instead of having faith in our own. Ferguson a prime example. We could have had Ferguson for the money we spent on Dio.
20 Apr 2025 20:23:13
And all the Scottish lads in Italy seem to be flourishing getting rave reviews. Not that long ago i'm sure we fielded a team with 11 different nationalities.
20 Apr 2025 20:25:03
Sure mcoist came out with it on thursday. m8.
20 Apr 2025 20:40:28
EHL, not one of them were Rangers class.
20 Apr 2025 20:45:48
However, Napoli had 3 Italians in their starting lineup and Empoli had 4 so they don't do it much differently, it seems. so do they also have too many overrated foreign players?
20 Apr 2025 21:27:52
Scottish clubs couldn't afford them, that's the main issue.
Scottish clubs need to go for cheaper, lower English league or foreign players.
McTominay and Gilmour are out of any of the SPFLs price range and as for Henderson, sure Celtic didn't want him but was probably on too much for the likes of Hibs etc.
I do agree that we don't look at a lot of the players in our league but think NK is changing that. Barron, Cameron and maybe Miller and the st Mirren lad?
20 Apr 2025 21:33:37
@Parlane "Not Rangers Class" what is Rangers class these days?
20 Apr 2025 22:21:42
Dgers Dio is a better player than Ferguson imo.
20 Apr 2025 22:23:02
Oh dear - the "not Rangers class" line. What exactly is that now? Scott McTominay, Lewis Ferguson, and, Billy Gilmour would walk into our first team.
20 Apr 2025 22:34:51
SS, we couldn't afford any of them, as soon as any young lad got a sniff of playing in Italy we had no chance. especially as we would probably put them on the bench or worse the b team.
20 Apr 2025 22:35:20
We can't afford the players that play for Napoli so the point is pretty irrelevant.
20 Apr 2025 23:35:28
The general point is that the number of players coming through academies in Scotland is in the decline - and scouting and analytics is such that a huge chunk of the talent pool tend to leave for England well before first team level.
In one hand it's amazing that we have 3 (all be it SM isn't Scottish born) Scots playing in one Seria A game - on the other it's quite disappointing that we have so few representing clubs in our own top league.
21 Apr 2025 07:27:51
What an unbelievable statement, saying Diomande is better than Ferguson. Ridiculous! Diomande is not even close to being as good as Ferguson, who we let go for peanuts and missed out on when he left the sheep. He is one of the best midfielders this country has produced and is wanted by the biggest clubs in Europe. Diomande by comparison will never playbatva higher level than he currently is.
21 Apr 2025 08:07:33
Apologies Angus didn't read your post correctly. Noticed you said Italians after the fact. Jumped the gun.
21 Apr 2025 08:02:49
EHL, I agree on the poor academy situation but is the issue not be similar in Italy as there were only 7 Italians in the teams. why do they not have sufficient Italian players coming through to get starts? is it a throw back to 80/ 90s where both Scottish and Italian teams were successful with foreign players and everyone tags along perhaps at the expense of the academy system. it is sad though when you look at our match day squad and see only a few with perhaps just one starting if Souttar is fit.
21 Apr 2025 08:06:25
Napoli had 2 - gilmour and mcrominay
And empoli had Henderson. Don't know where your getting 7 in total angus.
21 Apr 2025 10:02:25
I was thinking the same DTB.
21 Apr 2025 10:06:26
Sorry Angus, I can't follow your thread on this one.
Keeping in mind it was one game from each league - so not a great day point.
However the Italian league having 7 Italian starters (30%) and the Scottish league having 2 (10%) would show we're behind the curve.
Without looking at it, I'd imagine if you analysed % players in the national squad playing in the national league, Italy would also have a considerably higher percentage.
21 Apr 2025 10:18:43
He was talking about Italian players OT?.
21 Apr 2025 11:09:48
Yeah I noticed that straight away after I posted fork and wrote an apology post to him for jumping the gun. However Ed posted the apology up before the initial post so not my fault unfortunately. If you look further up in the thread you will see.
21 Apr 2025 11:47:04
No worries bud think it was a crossover with mine too bud??.
21 Apr 2025 19:26:14
No worries mate.