Is amazing how the landscape of football has changed so much since the 1980s. I really don't understand it because there are a myriad of reasons for it all. The world has changed in a lot of ways and football is a reflection of that. But it is an interesting topic and I can only try to guess what has happened. 30 or 40 years ago clubs that did not have really large support in big population centres didn't seem so to be so much at a disadvantage. You could be a provincial club in a smaller league and still be able to compete with clubs like Bayern Munich, Real Madrid or Barcelona? It was both the big and smaller provincial clubs that had the power back then, not the players (or agents who maybe just served the clubs?). Bosman in '95 changed a lot with often unintended consequences. Jean Marc Bosman probably never intended for a lot of the things that resulted in the ruling as all he wanted was simply not to be controlled by a club about where he moved to at the end of his contract. But football was already starting to revolutionise itself even before then. Commercialism and large TV revenue money gave clubs in big leagues with large population bases a significant advantage (e.g. English Premier League and Sky deal in the early '92). When TV and commercial money started coming in to the 'big' clubs and 'big' leagues in the early 90s then they could start to snap up the best young talent and most talented players with their large agent and scouting networks from other clubs and leagues across different countries. Player salaries have also since dramatically increased. It is good for footballers that they now generally get paid what they often deserve but hasn't been good for provincial clubs who used to be able to have successful players on low salaries and large win bonuses. The level playing field since the '80s has gone. Nowadays you maybe think Celtic and possible Rangers can only realistically hope to make any kind of impact in the second/third tier Europa league / Conference league competitions, but is very difficult or maybe even impossible (?) for any provincial Scottish football team outside the Glasgow two to ever again hope to replicate the '80s. Also maybe Scottish players are as good as they were 40 or 50 years ago? Or am I wrong and it is just that other countries have caught up and overtaken us?
