The Harsh Reality

Thursday the 18th of August: Another sad day for Scottish Football.

Celtic FC (Sco) 0 - 0 Sion (Sui)
Heart of Midlothian (Sco) 0 - 5 Tottenham Hotspur (Eng)
NK Maribor (Slo) 2- 1 Rangers FC (Sco)

and here we go again ...


So once again our nation makes a stuttering start in the nitty gritty qualifying stage of UEFA's minnow tournament that is the Europa League. Just a fortnight ago Rangers were targetting the Holy Grail, the money pot at the end of the qualifying rainbow, the saviour, The UEFA Champions League but right now those days appear to be over for the near and most likely distant future.

Romanov's promise for Hearts fans of challenging for the Champions League title has never ever looked like coming to fruition since he took over all those years ago from the shady character Chris Robinson. Tonight proved that even with an experienced European manager and a squad that has been strenghted this summer that Hearts will have a whole lot more work to do if they are ever going to achieve Romanov's dream.

The harsh reality for all clubs in Scotland is that they are not good enough. Yes the Old Firm are a step above the rest with regards to the SPL but in all honesty that is not saying anything these days. Long gone are the likes of Ronald De Boer and Henrik Larsson and here are the days of Maurice Edu and Giorgios Samaras and that sums up the backwards steps that this league has taken. How can we, the punters, expect our clubs to achieve great things in Europe when their tools just ain't right.

The problems are obvious. We don't have a product that attracts investors. Fans are staying away due to a poor product on the pitch. And the price of tickets are far to high. Yes social issues in the country are having an effect too but at the end of the day we should be worrying about getting our teams back in their and competing with Europe's elite ala Aberdeen and Dundee United in the old Cup Winner's Cup.