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Young up and coming ball player gets an offer from Celtic and Porto................do I want to sun myself in Porto or freeze ma erchie aff in Glesga..............a perhaps more sucinct explanation but probably accurate nontheless.

Found it very interesting.

The above points that they would rather go to Porto than Celtic/Rangers is an obvious one. But you would assume that same player would rather go to Barca than Porto.

The point of the article is identifying players. While South American players would most definitley find it easier to adapt to Portuguese football, we have to be surely identifying players that can adapt to British players.

This is where the differences in Rangers/Celtics scouting differs. We seem to seek mainly English speaking players in recent years, likes of Edu, Bedoya, McKay.

While Celtic seem to be looking into more diverse markets, Honduras, Mexico etc. Hit and miss as the article shows.

Personally speaking I think Celtic's squad is the more valuable.

But in terms of whose squad do I think is better equiped for winning the SPL I think our squad is.

Although some of the figures also wont tell the whole story. While Celtic haven't had success in the resale market having bought players from England you can look at Hartson and say he was a good investment. Didn't get much in return of a sell on fee, but his return on the pitch was good.

Young south americans can't really come in work in the UK. remember Jardel many moons ago. They have a style of football that is appealing to the brazilians too.

(and how many young players have celtic or rangers reared of real quality)

Both Rangers & Celtic should be looking to stay away from England when looking for players it is by far the most over inflated in the world.

Look at Shinji Kagawa Borussia Dortmund got him for 300k from some Japanese mob he is now probably there best player and worth around the 30 Million mark. Celtic's best players last season were Izzaguire and Kayal both bough for relativley cheap money and both have a big sell on value, same with Ki although Celtic spent a bit on him. Jelavic also even though we spent 4 Million on him we could get a return of between 8 and 10 Million for him.

Both the Old Firm should be looking at the Eastern European & German markets most as we wont require work permits and it is great value for money, and add in a few Asian and South American players.

Interesting points, but perhaps a comparison with a German mid division club or even top Scandinavian would have been more relevant.

As the comparisons exclude the financial aspect of player trading (in some cases), but then concentrate on this point in the debate, it does get a little messy (or Messi).

We in the SPL are unfortunate given our being completely overshadowed by the money monster that is the EPL. Sir furious commented yesterday that TV is ruining football. Strange, given that he has benefited most from the Sky millions. IF that bubble were to burst, the playing field may even itself out slightly.

But teams in Germany, France, Scandinavia keep producing and turning over great players, and that is without including former East Bloc countries.

Yes, the SPL is a dead man walking, we all know this, no argument. And yes, it is only the Old Firm which has kept it alive financially. Now that Rangers, out of necessity, and Celtic perhaps out of choice, are not throwing silly money around, added to the recession, the SPL is sinking even faster.

How to fix it - well, a 10 team league ain't the answer. We ALL know that we need to move to playing each other twice per year, 16 or 18 team league, no midweek league games, merge lower clubs, pyramid structure, get rid of the split (!!!), summer football.

But our glorious leaders are only interested in where the next £ is coming from, and Thomson, Milne et al won't give up the Old Firm cash.

So, don't give it to them. Simple. Rangers & Celtic announce they will not take ANY away tickets for any league games next season, and see how quickly the negotiations restart.

I know I've gone a bit off topic, and the OP and the referred article is a good read and makes lots of salient points, but it comes down to this. What will we be watching in 5 years?

If it is the same tired old SPL, won't be many actually watching....

Seven

I am slightly surprised by the quality of your work here even though it is a link this is not your usual WUM rubbish you indulge in Joking aside I think this is an interesting point and would be interested in the response if a Celtic fan were to raise it at the next AGM.

I read this last night but waited until this morning to post to have a wee think about the article. I think one of the biggest problems is that the OF want to have a mindset of not being selling clubs. The point about Porto selling a left back after 20 or so games is the sort of thing that would drive OF fans crazy. Look at the speculation surrounding Jelavic, Kayal and Izaguirre over the summer. If Rangers or Celtic had sold those players for 9m, 6m+ and 10m+ respectively in the transfer window that would have represented excellent business. Instead most of the talk here and on similar sites was about how the OF should fight to keep such players.

I though have now for a number of years suspected that Rangers and Celtic are doing their business in the wrong way. It was two transfers that made me really think about the bigger picture. The first was Gio Van Bronkhurst. Rangers paid 4m for a developing talented Dutch youngster and got from him a couple of years wonderful service before doubling their money by selling him to Arsenal. Celtic did well in a similar type transfer for Stan Petrov. As far back as then (6-7) years ago I was saying that this was the approach the OF should be taking. I think the link backs up that type of policy. I think Rangers more so than Celtic have been willing to sell like with Boumsong, Hutton and Cuellar but not enough to make it successful.

I think the analogy of Brazilians is somewhat flawed as Portugal will always be easier for them to relocate too but the article gives a number of good examples like Suarez who went to Gronigen. I always despair that European clubs always seem to be able to discover these gems whilst we find players like Rozenthal and Scheidt!!!

I would be happy if Rangers were to combine their current youth devlopment programme with enhanced scouting in Eastern europe and South America with a clear business decision made that a proportion of players will be sold on within 12-18 months of signing using part of the funds to invest in experienced professionals who will complement the side and still deliver a competitive team.

Good article and some good posts.

I think there are some obvious reasons why South American players go to Spain or Portugal, climate, language and the knowledge that a big money move to EPL if they make it.
Coupled with the desire of agents to cash in is the fact that it appears these guys don't actually mind moving between clubs but I agree that the biggest factor is that clubs like Porto don't mind being labelled as selling clubs because they're confident that the next star is just around the corner.

As has been posted, OF fans do not think their clubs are selling clubs or should ever be seen in that light and would go ape if they adopted this approach which would be seen as as settling for second best.

Also meant to say, its a wee bit depressing that a decent article like this gets less than 10 comments but all it takes is Naismith is a thug and you get 40+ comments straight away.