When certain managers talk they have an aura about them which demands all ears in the room to listen. Sir Alex Ferguson, Brian Clough, Jose Mourinho to name a few.
When Craig Levein talks, you certainly listen also. You listen for the utter carnage and chaos that he is going to cause with some of the innate ramblings falling from his mouth.
On this occasion however he has managed to once again spark the age old debate of the glaring lack of competitiveness towards the top of Scottish Football.
As of March, Hearts currently sit on 45 points having had a decent league season by their clubs standard. If the gap stretches by any further than ten points however, this season will represent the biggest gap between Celtic, Rangers and the rest of Scottish Football in history.
Whatever your thoughts on the Old Firm, that cannot be good for the league. The most glaringly obvious reason for the gap is the huge disparity between the finances available to Glasgow's big two and the rest of the league. The current director of Hearts Joe Savage is on record as stating his ambition to either win the league or split the Old Firm.
Craig Leveins suggestion to resolve the issue is unfortunately slightly on the side of bat s**t mental.
He says. “Joe Savage wants to split the Old Firm and that’s great. It’s a good ambition to have. But having that and making it happen are two completely different things.
“My views are very straight forward - when the next financial crisis happens in the Premier League in England and they are looking for something different then I would absolutely drive the Old Firm down there myself.
“I would love the two of them to play in England and represent Scotland, get the money that’s associated with that which would allow them to grow and be competitive in that league.
“And at the same time if they both gave the teams in Scotland £50m a year, so a combined £100m, for allowing them to move down there then that would allow the Scottish game to grow immeasurably.
“It’s a bit of a pipe dream maybe. But I can’t see any other way of Scottish football being as competitive as everyone wants it to be.
“If the Old Firm were playing in England and paying for the privilege - and they wouldn’t miss £50m each - then all the other teams up here could raise their levels significantly.
“Then you have a level in Scotland where you could have seven or eight clubs challenging for the title.
“Scottish football would thrive.”
You said it Craig, a bit of a pipe dream. Undoubtedly the sheer relentlessness of Celtic and Rangers finishing in the top two positions is something of an anomaly in European football. You would need to go back to 1984–85 for the last time Aberdeen won the league, since then it has been total domination from either or of the Old Firm in terms of who claims the top honours.
In regards to the expectancy however that one or two teams will be challenging for the top honours in a country, Scotland is not too dissimilar to other nations. England had a traditional top four for a sustained period of time and now Manchester City are typically tipped as favourites before a ball has been kicked. Dortmund and Bayern Munich dominate the standings in the Bundesliga and Madrid and Barcelona are the obvious choices in Spain.
In these leagues however the dominant sides are celebrated in order to hopefully drag the rest of the league up with them. In Scotland, the strength of the Old Firm is heralded as a negative. Maybe the best thing Scotland can do as a country with a population of just over 5 million people is stop comparing themselves to leagues completely alien to theirs in terms of resources and standing.
Scotland has the highest attendance per capita of any league in Europe. To put it bluntly, maybe it is just good for what it is? It is never going to be one of the major leagues in Europe and the fact that it has two of the biggest clubs on the planet in its league is more down to a freak of geography than anything else.
Of course, the fact a lot of teams in the league can never realistically dream of winning the league can be demoralising however there are teams with realities such as that located all over the globe. A small portion of Celtic's Champions League money goes to the rest of the league, and the regular take over from Old Firm fans of other clubs stadiums generates much needed income for the lesser clubs. This should surely be celebrated instead of lamented.
When teams such as Aberdeen decry the gulf in finances between them and Celtic, and then get defeated by teams such as Darvel from the 6th tier, their complaints lose a lot of substance.
The idea that Celtic and Rangers should be supplementing the rest of their league substantially out of their own pocket is simply fanciful. Instead, the league should be marketing the big two, and indeed the rest of the league much better. With higher interest in the league inevitably comes higher levels of potential investment. With the introduction of a third European tournament now, Scottish clubs also have potential access to a new financial stream given how difficult they previously found it to qualify for the Europa League group stages.
One day, the Old Firm may end up moving to the Premier League, especially given the recent super league murmurings. When you see the ease in which Celtic win the league but struggle against Europe's elite, a massive case can be made that they have outgrown their current surroundings. Whilst Celtic and Rangers are in Scotland however, their financial pull needs to be encouraged, not discouraged.
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