The drum is beating. Scottish football is back on the rise again.
The arrival of a name like Steven Gerrard to Rangers will hopefully expose our game to a worldwide audience.
It remains to be seen how he does on the park but off the park it is fantastic for the game in this country that Gerrard has pitched up in Scotland. Eyes from all over the world will be peering into our game to see how Stevie G manages in his first management gig.
With the SPFL currently in negotiations about a new TV deal, surely the timing couldn’t have been better?
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We can now go into those talks with a strong hand and get the deal our game deserves. Yes we can never compete with the money that is paid out in the Premier League in England but in my opinion our game is grossly underrated and we have a product to be proud of.
But we constantly talk our game down and it’s totally the opposite down the road. The Premier League is hyped beyond belief. Some of the worst games I have ever seen have been in that league. But they market it well. We need to do the same.
It also really annoys me and probably a lot of people in Scotland when you get guys like Craig Bellamy down the road proclaiming that Steven Gerrard should get his boots back on and if he did so he would instantly be the best player in Scotland.
Absolute nonsense.
I was a massive fan of Gerrard as a player in his pomp at Liverpool, he was a world class operator, but his legs had gone by the time he left LA Galaxy and he retired at the right time.
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It was that type of ignorance that the bold Joey Barton swanned on up north with and that didn’t quite work out as he anticipated. He swiftly found out the Scottish Premiership is of a better standard than he thought. We will never change opinion in England but if we get the money our game deserves maybe, just maybe, we can keep some of our top talent a little bit longer in Scotland.
It’s not only Rangers and their supporters who should be delighted that a massive name like Gerrard has pitched up in Scotland, but chairmen in boardrooms all over the country will be rubbing their hands with a bigger slice of a TV deal surely in the offing.
But it’s not just the Gerrard deal which will elevate our product to potential bidders and sponsors. The overall health of the Scottish Premiership is fantastic.
There have been so many success stories in the league. The return of Hibernian under Neil Lennon playing to packed houses at Easter Road. Hearts building and filling a new stand every home game. Both teams have already sold 10,000 season tickets for next season.
Read more: Sean Goss expects new Rangers manager Steven Gerrard to lure top English talent to Ibrox next season
The renaissance of Kilmarnock under Steve Clarke. He has dragged a club on its knees on and off the park up the table to such an extent that the long suffering Killie punters have flocked back to watch their team in their thousands.
Aberdeen have a superb new stadium and training centre to look forward to while the juggernaut that is Celtic continue to rack up record profits and points under Brendan Rodgers.
Even a club like St Mirren who will enter the Premiership again next season have been rejuvenated under Jack Ross and the fans in Paisley are back in love with the club. It’s still possible that Dundee United could be back too and that give us another derby game to look forward to and sell.
All in all it’s a really positive period for our game, with the arrival of Gerrard the icing on the cake. We will never have a better opportunity to secure the TV deal that reflects that. Let’s hope the powers that be come out of those negotiations with the money our clubs and game deserve.
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