I love these kinds of articles.
The kind that journalists ask people involved in the game with no agenda or bias towards one club what they think of players in the Scottish League.
For months now we have had to listen to the p*sh from the Scottish media that Ryan Kent is some sort of Superman and Calvin Bassey is better than Kieran Tierney.
The lack of objectivity is startling and shames our journalists in Scotland.
But in The Athletic, they interviewed scouts (anonymously) from the English Premier League and asked them their opinions on how the game down south views ours.
Two questions here answered by Premier League Scout 8 were very interesting:
Does the Old Firm being so dominant mean some scouts find it hard to know how players’ skills would translate in England?
“It’s all about appropriateness. I like David Turnbull as his tactical awareness of how to play against a low block is really good and that is what we need at our club, so doing that every week for Celtic is good for us to assess.
“Calvin Bassey wouldn’t suit us though, as we need to be better on the ball and his athleticism bails him out some of the time, but he’s developed brilliantly (since a summer 2020 move from Leicester City’s academy ranks).”
How much weight do you give to European performances compared to 38 Scottish Premiership games?
“It’s a flawed argument. You’re looking at a team, not a player.
“Ryan Kent doesn’t have the end-product or the unpredictability to be elite, in my opinion, and I don’t think that changes due to a good run in Europe.”
Well, that’s embarrassing! Who would have thought that both these players are not good enough for the EPL.
Well, everyone except those from Ibrox and the succulent lamb in the Scottish media of course.
