There has been plenty of news circulating Alfredo Morelos’ many suiters this January, with the likes of Crystal Palace and Aston Villa indicating their interest in the Colombian striker (The Scottish Sun). But according to The Scotsman, Kenny Dalglish insisted that the Old Firm is at just a high level as teams in England.
“I don’t know why, whenever anyone does well at those clubs, that the media wants to sell them,” said Dalglish on Celtic and Rangers (The Scotsman).
It is hard to find a direct comparison between the quality of the English and Scottish Premier League, as teams from the two leagues rarely play each other. However, you can begin to paint a better picture by looking at the current success of the Old Firm teams in Europe.
Lazio, who are currently third in the Serie A (Sky Sports), were just beaten twice by Celtic in the UEFA Europa League (UEFA). Rangers have just tied Porto at home and beaten them at Ibrox (UEFA). Porto, last season, made it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League before being knocked out by eventual winners Liverpool (UEFA).
Morelos has 22 goals this season (transfermarkt.co.uk) while Celtic’s Odsonne Edouard has 12 (transfermarkt.co.uk). Despite this, they aren’t compared with the most potent finishers in Europe. When determining the European Golden Boot winner each season, each league in the world is awarded a coefficient according to the difficulty of scoring in said league. For example, Robert Lewandowski is currently at the top of the leaderboard, scoring 16 league goals, but sits ahead of Erik Sorga who has 31 league goals. That is because the Bundesliga has a coefficient of two, while the Premium Liiga has a coefficient of one. This brings Lewandowski’s score to 32, while Sorga’s stays at 31. The Scottish Premiership is only awarded a coefficient of one as well (transfermarkt.co.uk).
This brings up an interesting twist in Dalglish’s point. While the quality of teams like Celtic and Rangers might be able to compete with the those in the English top-flight, the quality of the rest of the Scottish Premiership can’t. Therefore, the question remains, is the rest of the Scottish Premiership holding Rangers and Celtic back from keeping their top players? What do you think?
Are the rest of the Scottish Premiership teams holding Rangers and Celtic back?
Yes, we need them to pick up their game.
No, their level is fine.
Perhaps Dalglish is correct, and maybe the Old Firm are at an impressively high quality. But without sufficient competition, they will be held back from maintaining their top players. If the likes of Rangers and Celtic want to become heavy hitters in European football, the rest of the league need to pick up their game.