The Old Firm: The Pauper Giants of Europe

Since the Advent of Sky TV money and millionaire playboy-owned franchises in England, France, and Russia, the source of income for the “big teams” of European football has shifted away from the traditional sources: i.e., ticket sales.  While the Glasgow Giants still manage the 12th and 22nd highest average attendances per match in the world, they have fallen considerably in terms of European success.

 Both have suffered comparatively lackluster European campaigns since the height of their recent success in 2007-2008 where Rangers reached the Uefa Cup final and Celtic went on to the group stages of the Champions League registering wins over AC Milan, Benfica, and Shaktar Donetsk in the group. 

However, despite this dip in club performance at the highest levels for quite some time, a certain renaissance has been under way, with Old Firm players beginning to again attract interest from their more affluent English neighbors, amongst others.  Today, Rangers sold Nikica Jelavic to Everton for a reported 8m pounds after the Croat scored .67 goals per appearance in his time at Ibrox.  The Ibrox club were able to double their investment in the 26 year old signed from Rapid Vienna last year. 

To an even greater extent, Celtic have seen interest and solid bids for a slew of players including Beram Kayal, Ki Sung Yeung, Gary Hooper, Scott Brown, Anthony Stokes, and Adam Matthews.  The Hoops have knocked back all interest in their squad thus far and repeatedly have reasserted their desire to hang on to these players.  It is yet to be seen if they can keep their talent from being drawn to the bright lights of the EPL and the mountains of money available in places like Russia.  Yet, the question remains of where these players who are now so attractive in the market have come from? Why, after several years of struggling, has the Old Firm market again become fashionable?

Neil Lennon has adopted a very interesting transfer policy that seems to mimic that employed by Arsene Wenger, albeit, of course, at lesser level.  There are obvious differences Mr. Wenger scoured the likes of the Dutch League, the top of the English Championship, and Barcelona’s youth system for his talent, and often paid multimillion pound fees.  Lennon has looked through the lower levels of the Championship, across Scotland to promising youthful starters and U19 players, to middling teams of middling leagues, and to the Bosman market in order to bring together a side that competed well against Atletico Madrid (7th in La Liga), Udinese (3rd in Serie A), and Rennes (6th in Ligue 1).

Below is a list of the transfer moves made by Lennon in which his strategy becomes clear: target younger talent from lower level clubs or leagues and offer them a chance to play in a big stadium and experience European football while shoring up their inexperience with veteran Bosman signings.

Lennon Signings to Date

Gary Hooper (23) – Scunthorpe, 2.4m

Anthony Stokes (21) – Hibernian, 1.2m

Cha Du Ri (29) – Bosman (formerly of Freiburg)

Daniel Majstorovic (33) – Bosman (formerly captain of AEK Athens)

Joe Ledley (23) – Bosman (formerly of Cardiff City)

Adam Matthews (19) – Bosman (formerly of Cardiff City)

Beram Kayal (22) – Maccabi Haifa, 1.5m

Kris Commons (28) – Derby County, 300,000

Charlie Mulgrew (24) – Bosman (formerly of Aberdeen)

Victor Wanyama (20) – Germinal Beerschot (Belgian League), 1m

Mohammad Bangura (22) – AIK Stokholm , 2.5m

Lennon has managed spend very little on his squad over the past two years while putting together a more successful side than Tony Mowbray, his predecessor managed to, with a larger budget.  He now relies on finding young players either out of contract or available for what has today become nominal fees

While Ranger’s transfer strategy is harder to analyze due to their ongoing financial crisis, it seems to be attempting to mirror this strategy for finding diamonds in the rough.  They have signed Bosman players who started for their former clubs such as Dorin Goian (Palermo), Carlos Bocanegra (St. Etienne) as well as young prospects from lower leagues like Sone Aluko and Alejandro Bedoya.

If this strategy is effective will depend largely on both the scouting networks’ respective eyes for talent and each team’s ability to develop those bargain buys into a European-class players.  Some early signs of success surface from time to time in newspaper reports valuing Old Firm players at 2-3 times what they were purchased them for.  The transfer of Nikica Jelavic saw Rangers double their investment.  Celtic reportedly knocked back a similar opportunity to double up on what they paid for Gary Hooper when high-flying Championship leaders Southampton offered 6m this past window.

It will be interesting to see where this strategy takes the Old Firm.  It could very well be that they become feeder teams for the EPL much as the Dutch have fed the rest of Europe.  However, if the Scottish giants can resume successful European campaigns, they may be better placed to hold onto talent  as they have in past days.  Whatever the future holds, things have begun to change in Scotland and commentators would do well to watch this space.

-Greg