Socrates MacSporran

Socrates MacSporran
No I am not Chick Young, but I can remember when Scottish football was good

Saturday 28 September 2013

Gaun Yersel Hen

SADDLED as I am with four daughters -and notwithstanding the phenomenon knows as "Synchronisation" - I am well aware of the perils and pit-falls of putting together a team of the gentler sex.

So, well done the girls of the Scottish Women's team, who have scored 14 goals in posting back-to-back wins in their first two World Cup qualifying games. Just imagine the media over-kill if our brave lads were to stick seven goals each on even the Faroes and Bosnia.

Of-course, that aint gonna happen, because, unlike our girls, our men have all those generations of learned behaviour to fall back on. The girls never had old hands telling them: "Naw, ye canna dae that, it's aye been done the ither wey".

Because, they don't pick-up bad habits playing in the street, and have come through a structured, coached background, the girls are, I warrant, technically better players than their male peers, and it shows in their results.

Sadly under-appreciated the girls are by the Scottish sporting media, or Mysoginists Are Us, as they are better-known, but, there was one wee vignette from the BBC's sparse coverage of the build-up to the Bosnia game which I enjoyed.

Hand-in-hand the girls backed across the pitch, keeping the ball in the air through headed passes to each other. I'd love to see WGS's squad try that - the holding hands bit would undo them even before the ball entered the equation, I bet.

I am reminded of something I read, in, of all places the Weekly News, when I was a boy. Bobby Flavell the former Airdrie and Scotland forward of the immediate post-war years, later a manager with several Scottish clubs, was recalling (this prior to the 1960 European Cup Final at Hampden), his first encounter with Alfredo di Stefano.

This happened when Flavell joined the short-lived exodus to Bogota in about 1950. He recalled, on his first day of training, watching di Stefano and another Argentinian take the ball the length of the park, volleying it between themselves and never allowing the ball to touch the ground.

Flavell reckoned you'd never see that done in Scotland. Over 50-year later, I bet that would still be the case.  OK, I accept Jinky and Bertie Auld could probably have done it, except, Bertie would probably have got fed-up at about half-way. Davie Cooper could have been one half of a potential Ibrox duo, but, who would he pass the ball to? Other than maybe Laudrup or Gascoigne, but, they weren't Scots.

About four years ago, covering a First Division match, I burst out laughing at the efforts of one of the players to control the ball with his left foot. Seeing as he was playing on the left-side of midfield, I would have thought the ability to do more than stand-up on his left foot might have been useful.

This player, one of the most-experienced men on the park, and a former Scotland Under-21 cap to boot, simply couldn't use his left foot. He was then 30 and had been with his club since leaving school.

The same player is still playing today, in the Premiership. But, I suppose he is still known as Wan Fittit.

Let's do the math (as our trans-Atlantic cousins say). He had been a full-time professional footballer for 14-years: our "professional" clubs usually train for four days per week, for 40 weeks of the year - that's 2240 days of "work" in his 14-year career. A footballer's "working" day generally lasts 90 minutes - that's 3360 hours of "work", preparing for the nearly 500 games said player had played up until I saw his failure to do his job properly.

That comes to a professional career which has lasted 4110 hours, less than half the 10,000 hours of practice which we understand are necessary to become proficient at a sporting endeavour.

Since our "professionals" are not getting anywhere near what is considered to be base-camp level in technical proficiency, is it any wonder we have fallen so-far down football's pecking order?

And still the Hampden blazers try to kid us the game is safe in their hands.

Thursday 26 September 2013

Let's Get Radical And Help Player Development

THERE are, apparently, no plans to lift the profile of the Scottish League Cup, even though it has now come under the control of the Premiership clubs, who, in case you haven't noticed, now run - God help us - Scottish football.
So, no European spot for whichever club wins it this season. Mind you, that will be no bad thing given the damage the under-performing diddy teams in Celtic's division, but not in their league, might do to Scotland's UEFA co-efficient.
Right, if the European carrot isn't going to be there in the short to medium term, how about the big stick. Our clubs keep paying lip service to "player development", and, for as long as the MSM in Scotland are going to refrain from saying: "Aye Right!!!" every time a club spokesman utters these meaningless words, this will continue.
We need to develop more and better young Scottish talent: so, why not bring back the "eight diddies" rule for the League Cup? This means, no club could have more than three non-Scots in each League Cup match-day squad. You never know, it might work.
And, while we are at it, why not restore the group stages, run the competition as a start of the season warm-up competition, which would further lift its profile.
Just a further thought, while I am being radical. Shouldn't we perhaps think of moving our season to perhaps the Scandinavian timetable; more summer games, a winter shut-down - it might get  us more television time and better deals, when we weren't trying to compete with the English game. It would also have our clubs in better shape for the European campaign, given we will, for the forseeable future, have to start early with the other diddy countries.



PETER Lawell is a real smoothie, he also, I think, scares those hard men of the Scottish Football Writers Association shitless. So, when he sat down to write Celtic's sort of end of season report, which has gone out to the shareholders, he probably knew he would get pretty-much away with murder.

Lawell praises his club's development programme, fair enough, the Celtic youngsters are the best in Scotland, but, the question is - how many will get even a sniff of a first team slot this season?

The answer is - barring some catastrophic injuries, nil, zilch, narry a one. This is pretty much a slap in the face to the countless janitors and teachers across Scotland, whose dream, as they plot the fortunes of their mainly Roman Catholic school teams - to have just one boy go on to don the Hoops.

We'll gladly take your money; we will happily coach your kids and play them in our age group teams - but - don't expect them to ever play for the first team, seems to be the current story out of Parkhead.

Which is unfair. I took the opportunity to look at how the Celtic kids, coached by John Kennedy, got on, in their opening Champions Youth League game, against AC Milan, in Italy.

They lost 3-1. I didn't see clips of the game, or even read a match report. However, I can read a statistical run-down and come to half-decent conclusions and, it appears to me that the Celtic kids weren't that far behind their Italian rivals.

It was 1-1 at half-time, the second-half Italian goals came from the penalty spot and late-on. The shot tried and shots-on-target stats were fairly similar, so, nothing to be upset about there.

I reckon, if the Celtic Under-19s can run AC so-close, they, and the slightly older home-grown Celtic kids, could make an impact in the lower divisions of the Scottish League.

It won't happen, of course. But, as I have long-maintained, we have two huge clubs in Scotland, they could well run two teams each in the Scottish leagues, on the basis that the "development" teams never got into the top-flight.

The big teams' fans would come out for the development teams' games, spreading the cash - it would be a win-win situation all round. 

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Squad Rotation Puts Your Team In A Spin

BIG Billy, the acceptable local face of bigotry - I know, there is no acceptable face of bigotry, but bear with me - was smiling last night, when the news came through from Parkhead. I dare say the orange-tinted internet bampots will be at full throttle today, bringing out the usual: "At least oor team is still alive, unlike yours" response from the hurting members of the Celtic Family - and life goes on as always in West-Central Scotland.
 
But, what exactly happened? Celtic lost a game in a competition which has, over the past could of decades, been marginalised inside Scottish football and badly needs an image make-over. Shit happens, in life as much as in football. So, no Treble for Celtic this season, but, let's face it - is the current Celtic squad really fit to stand alongside the iconic Stein and O'Neill squads which have won Trebles in the past? No, I don't think so either.
 
Football history tells us, if the Big Two, when we had a Big Two in Scotland, were going to fuck-up domestically, they were more-likely to do so in the League Cup than in the real Scottish Cup, or the League. Apparently this trend is continuing, even though we now have a Big One in Scotland.
 
But, defeat to Morton raises another point which I wish to discuss today. Is squad rotation all it is cracked-up to be?
 
When I was a wee boy in short trousers, I used to sneak-in through the fence to watch Lugar Boswell Thistle in the Ayrshire Juniors. Across five decades, the team always seemed to be: Jock Fraser; Davie Love and Charlie Cathie; Andy McEwan, Jim Baird and Jim Donnelly; Alex Bingham, Jimmy Collins, Alex Sharpe, Hughie Neil and Eric Wilkie.
 
Then, I moved on to Rugby Park, to watch a Kilmarnock team which was, week-in, week-out: Jimmy Brown; Jim Richmond, Matt Watson; Frank Beattie, Willie Toner and Bobby Kennedy; Vernon Wentzel, Jackie McInally, Andy Kerr, Bertie Black and Billy Muir.
 
A couple of seasons later, the Rangers XI never seemed to change: Ritchie, Shearer, Caldow; Greig, McKinnon, Baxter, Scott, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson. That team tripped off the tongue, as did - Simpson Craig and Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill and Clark, Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, Auld and Lennox.
 
In reality, my Lugar team didn't appear in that formation all the time. Eric Wilkie was doing his National Service and would sometimes get out of a truck at Rosebank Park, half an hour or so before kick-off, having hitch-hiked up from Catterick, leaving eternal reserve Davie Balfour to sit-out the game. Hughie Neil's wee brother Jim played a few games, while Charlie Cathie broke his leg, missed most of the season in which the team reached the Junior Cup Final and his reinstatement for the final didn't please Jock Stirling, who had played in practically every round until then.
 
Backing-up that iconic Killie team - a better one that the league-winning team of two or three seasons later, by the way, were the likes of Ian Davidson, Jim and Rab Stewart and former Scotland international Bobby Dougan; while George Niven, Johnny Little, Billy Stevenson and Harold Davis, Doug Baillie, the young Willie Henderson were still around Ibrox and such as John Fallon, Willie O'Neill, John Cushley, John Hughes, Joe McBride and Charlie Gallacher all had bit parts to play in Celtic's greatest years.
 
So, back then, clubs did have squads, only, they didn't rotate them for the sake of rotation. And, not rotating hardly stopped them from winning.
 
The sore point for Neil Lennon, in the wake of last night's shock loss, is surely that he must be doubting some of his fringe players. The current Celtic squad ought to be able to see-off the likes of Morton any night, even with two or three non-regulars in the team.
 
That they didn't reinforces the belief that this isn't a great Celtic squad. But, they should still be able to beat any other Scottish team, and when they don't, you have to ask - do some of these guys who are, in Scottish terms, extremely well-paid, have the mental strength necessary for wearing the Hoops?
 
Perhaps Neil should decide on his first team and play them, week-in, week-out, kicking squad rotation into touch.
 
And, Rangers fans, sure, enjoy the work-place banter this week, but, never forget, when you're going to Somerset Park, Station Park and whatever New Broomfield is called this week - Celtic are off to the San Siro, Nuo Camp and Amsterdam Arena.  Fiscal prudence also has its place in football - if only to keep Greenock's answer to Grant and Phil Mitchell out of the directors' box.

Friday 20 September 2013

Stop Moaning, Start Working As Hard As The Rugby Players

GLASGOW Warriors, the city's only professional rugby team has a hard furrow to plough. Leaving aside the perception, widespread (and wrong) amongst the general male population of West-Central Scotland: that rugby is a game for upper-middle class poofs, there is the small matter of rugby tribalism - genuine football-loving Old Firm fans are, I would suggest, more likely to trot along to watch "the other side" in action in a big game, than some rugger buggers would be to go along and support their "enemies".
 
If Celtic v Rangers, Partick Thistle v Clyde, Ayr United v Kilmarnock, St Mirren v Morton, Motherwell-Hamilton Academical-Airdrie v Airdrie-Hamilton Academical-Motherwell are remnants of clan warfare, while Auchinleck Talbot v Cumnock is the real thing, then, for the men who play with odd-shaped balls, GHK v Glasgow Accies, Ayr v Kilmarnock, Melrose-Gala-Hawick v Hawick-Gala-Melrose is every bit as important. Why, even in the capital, Heriot's v Watsonians v Stewart's-Melville v Edinburgh Academical causes as much winding-up in the New Club and the 19th at Muirfield as Hearts v Hibs does in less-salubrious Edinburgh watering-holes.
 
So, the fact that Warriors, whose marketing slogan is that they are the only professional sports team which represents ALL of West-Central Scotland, while probably true, doesn't put bums on seats. There are rugby men, doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants, dentists, teachers and chartered surveyors, who would rather watch their old school's Former Pupils club, which nowadays will contain narry an FP, play, than go to watch the Warriors.
 
However, the Warriors are winning the battle. Their crowd average is rising, they are getting more media exposure, and, they are doing this by playing entertaining rugby with some style. Indeed, while they are still a wee bit behind the level of their professional peers in the Southern Hemisphere, when I watch Warriors play, I am reminded of the freshness and zing which Jock Stein's Celtic brought to football during their climb to immortality in Lisbon and for their period at the peak of the European game in those years from 1966 to 1976.
 
Stein's immortal Lions weren't a stellar bunch of 1960s Galacticos. Perhaps only Jinky would have got into a World XI of the time, although Murdoch, Gemmell and maybe McNeill would have been mentioned in despatches. Bobby Lennox remains an under-appreciated talent for instance, but, under Stein, the total was worth more than the sum of the parts, while, I am certain, they worked a damned sight harder on their game than many of their contemporaries.
 
That is one of the present-day Warriors' assets. They are fitter, they work harder than some of their rivals, while they have a committed, well-balanced and knowledgable coaching staff.
 
Which brings me to today's sermon. In the wake of their heroes' failure to hurt AC Milan during the long spells on Wednesday night when Celtic were in the driving seat, some Celtic fans are calling for the board to loosen the purse strings and give Neil Lennon the cash to supplement the striking resources, depleted though they have been by the sale of Hooper.
 
Sorry guys, but, IF buying a new striker had been the answer, it ought to have been done during the summer transfer window. However, the reality is, Celtic, given their presence in the down-market SPFL, are not in a position to attract the sort of quality striker who will make a difference in the Champions League.
 
Remember, Rangers tried that sort of thing, and, to make it work, they were forced down the route of EBTs, and we all know where that led.
 
Celtic's best hope is to identify a striker who looks as if he could develop into a real threat in the CL, but who isn't yet able to command CL striker's wages. IF they can find such a young man, then the next thing is to get the whole team working a lot harder at providing him with the ammunition, while at the same time, closing the back door to the sort of teams who can afford to buy such strikers as the finished product.
 
Celtic cannot compete in the top-level of the transfer market, but, I am sure, if they are prepared to put-in the  hours of work which the Warriors players do, then they COULD and should be, like the Warriors in the Pro12, punching above their weight in the CL.
 
That said, the long-term future of Celtic, or any other top Scottish club in Europe, would best be served by some real politicking by the top men at the club and the Hampden blazers.
 
The Champions League is skewed in favour of the big leagues in Europe, those in England, Italy, Spain and Germany. These are just four out of 53. Now, if Celtic and the SFA were to forge alliances with similar-strength leagues, who all have one or two big teams, but are being frozen-out of the CL by the noveau riche of the Big Four; and to put some genuine pressure on UEFA, they just might be able to level the playing field.
 
Of course, for this to work effectively, Scotland would need to be further up the European pecking order. Celtic are doing a sterling single-handed job in bolstering Scotland's co-efficient, it really needs some of the other Premiership clubs to lift their standards and put together some decent results in the Europa League.
 
So, Celtic must work harder, while the rest MUST work harder still, to get-up alongside the Hoops in flying the flag for Scotland in Europe, then building alliances to get us a fairer break within UEFA.
 
 

Thursday 19 September 2013

Europa League For Celtic - Probably; But Better Things Can Be Achieved

MY first thought, when I heard Celtic's Champions League group draw was - Europa League at best. This, however, was a gut reaction, based on comparing present-day Celtic with the best of AC Milan, Ajax and Barcelona. The Lisbon Lions would not have been intimidated by this draw, indeed, they would have fancied their chances of topping the group. In today's more-pragmatic times, however,  where money doesn't so-much speak as shout, we are looking at the Italians and the Spaniards progressing to the last 16, with Celtic and Ajax fighting for the consolation prize of continuing in the lesser competition.
 
But, after the first couple of fixtures in the group, things are not as clear. The experts will still tend towards AC and Barca, with wins already posted, going through, leaving Celtic and Ajax gto squabble over the consolation prize. However, IF Celtic can lift their game, particularly in the Amsterdam Arena and the Nou Camp, and maintain their best home form - they just might sneak into the knock-out stages of the CL.
 
This will be, perhaps, the most-interesting of the CL groups, and, regardless of the disappointment Neil Lennon will be feeling this morning, all is not yet lost.
 
I only saw brief highlights last night, but, was not happy to see the players conducting an on-field blame game after those late Milan goals. This got me thinking - does big Johan Mjallby, no mean defender himself, spend time with the team trying to get them better-organised defensively?
 
Celtic might have the most-talented squad in Scotland; it is reasonable to assume they will not be fully-stretched by the opposition in Scotland; but, Europe is a different ball game. Does the team work hard enough? Are they genuinely trying to find, what British Cycling guru Sir Dave Brailsford has identified as those tiny, marginal improvements which, in the long run, turn final appearances into bronze medals, bronzes into silvers and silvers into golds?
 
I doubt it, football seems not to go in for such intense off-field work as other sporting disciplines. Maybe, if Celtic was to give a lead and turn, what I feel is a very good chance of grabbing the Europa League slot, into an only slightly-harder task of turning that into a last 16 spot; then training-on to turn that last-16 spot into a last-8 spot and so forth - they would maybe encourage les autres to follow-on and, in time, lead Scotland back to where we HTUWLU (Here's Tae Us, Wha's Like Us) shouters feel we should be.
 
 
 
MEANWHILE, back on the set of Edmiston Drive, Scottish football's very own everyday story of bigoted folk, Ra Peepul are celebrating reaching a cup semi-final.
 
There is something symbolic about Ally's Orange Army doing so-well in a competition sponsored by a pawn-broking company. It kind of fits in with so much of what has happened since Lloyd's Bank began to play hard ball with SDM all those years ago.
 
Just as Celtic's squad is too-strong for the Premiership, then the outfit across the city seems, on paper, to be too-strong for their League One opponents, too-strong even for most of the Championship sides, so, they SHOULD win the Ramsden's Cup and League One.
 
However, I feel that, should injury befall Lee McCulloch, Rangers will be in deep doo-dah. McCulloch is fast becoming a John Greig for the 21st century, carrying a few passengers, who are clearly not "Rangers Class" on his back; driving-on a team which is still in transition.
 
I fear Mr McCoist is too-wedded to the Walter Smith brand of management and, that brand is I don't think, what is required, if Rangers are to get back to turning the current monopoly at the top of Scottish football into the duopoly we have grown up with.
 
The young players who began to come through last season have been supplanted, by and large, by McCoist's close-season acquisitions. Sure, they will get Rangers out of the division they are in; but, the chances are - if the in-fighting and mis-management has not brought about another corporate collapse, some of this summer's acquisitions will be supplanted by more of the same during the summer 2014 transfer window.
 
They will then - all being well - be replaced by more new faces insummer 2015 and the pattern will continue until the whole edifice collapses again.
 
Organisations which continue to pursue failed policies always go under in the end - is there nobody around Edmiston Drive aware of this basic fact of life? 
 
 

Sunday 15 September 2013

Edmiston Drive Could Run Longer Than Coronation Street Or East Enders

IT says much about the collective mentality around Scottish Football, that, with the season now well underway, the continuing and seemingly eternal Soap Opera: Edmiston Drive, continues to set the media agenda.
 
We have Jack "Dirty Den" Irvine tweeting and spinning for all he is worth; we have the Easdales, a sort of Greenock version of the Mitchell Family by all accounts, finally getting their feet under the board room table, plus various other long-running characters - King, Murray, Smith, McColl and so forth, dipping in and out of the script to play cameos; not forgetting Ally McCoist, who has - like Bill Roach - seemingly gone seamlessly from Matinee Idol to Old Fart before our eyes. I draw no comparisons between Messrs McCoist and Roach as regards any still unproven accusations made against the veteran Mancunian actor, by the way.
 
Meanwhile, as they should with that squad, at that level - the Rangers' team simply keeps winning.
 
Then, we have Ian Black - a sort of Ian Beale character in his haplessness. As we all know, football has an ambivalent relationship with the betting industry; there has been a lot of rubbish spoken and written about the Black case, suffice to say - betting against your own side is, to me, a definite no-no. Black should have been fired by Rangers and dealt with more-severely with by the SFA, I feel.
 
I have no doubts about the genuine love and concern for Rangers being shown by the likes of Dave King, Paul Murray and so-forth. Mr Murray came across well on BBC Scotland last night. However, given the way NO Rangers Director had the cojones to stand-up to David Murray during his tenure and question his govenance of the club, then such former directors have, I feel, automatically disqualified themselves from having part of the decision-making in the club's recovery.
 
Then, there is the side-show of the Jim Spence case. I cannot see what Spence reportedly said as being in any way wrong or worthy of comment. To some people, the former club did die, that's taken as read. Only for "new" Rangers to rise, phoenix-like from the ashes.
 
For all the cries of "Youse is deid" and so on, coming out, mainly from The Celtic Family, the reality is, just as when Bill Struth called the shots, or John Lawrence, or Lawrence Marlborough, or David Holmes, or even Craig Whyte was in charge, there is a team called Rangers, playing in senior Scottish football, in blue shirts, at Ibrox Stadium. Some of the long-established "baggage" still surrounds the club.
 
And,for as long as that "baggage" and the counter baggage across the city continues to impact - Scottish football cannot progress towards a brave new world.
 
Mind you, for me, the Old Firm baggage is a side-show. The real problem about Scottish football is the way we cling to out-moded notions and do not put in place measures to properly reform and advance the Scottish football "brand" into this century.

Friday 13 September 2013

Get Real - Both England And Scotland Must Realise Where They Are In World Football

I HAVE been saying for years - Scotland is a small, far-off nation of which our English neighbours know nothing, and care even less. I am unashamedly and unapologeticly pro-independence. I have actually lived and worked in England, on a personal level they are lovely people, but, with the usual reservations about Civil Service and Political Minds, I firmly believe Scotland could survive and prosper as an independent nation.

One of the greatest variances between Scot and Englishman is in our attitude to the well-being of our international football team. Maybe it's the class system in England, I don't know, but, at the moment, when both nations are operating at a level some way below where the followers of both think they ought to be, there is such a difference in attitude to the respective midweek results?

We will not be going to Brazil next year - this we already know. England still harbour dreams of participating in the 2014 World Cup finals. Realistically, given the state of play in their qualifying group, I can see no reason why they will not be there. It will be tight in the group, but, with just two home ties to play and topping their group, England should qualify.

That, however, will not be good enough for their fans in the English media and their readers/listeners/viewers. England are being roundly castigated for only getting a draw - a turgid one at that - in Kiev in midweek. Don't the so-called "experts" realise, that was a bloody good result.

The days when England could simply turn-up in Europe and roll-over their hosts are long gone - they vanished somewhere between the two World Wars - the reality simply hasn't hit homeyet. Today, England are ranked 17th in the world and 11th in Europe, and I reckon, for all the pish we see about the English Premiership, that is about correct.

Our current rankings of 63rd in the world and 33rd in Europe, is, I feel, a false one. There are several teams above us in Europe, whom we should be beating - but, aren't being drawn against in qualifying groups, somehow, we always seem to end up in really tough groups. Similarly, in the FIFA world rankings, there are some countries ranked above us whom we should beat any day of the week - Uzebekistan, Burkino Faso, Iran, Honduras, Mali, Panama for instance.

We, England and Scotland, have singularly failed to address our diminished standing in the world and, until we do, we will continue to languish where we are. It is way past time we had a reality check, then did something about it.

We, at least, learned from Argentina 1978. There hasn't been as much: "Here's tae us, wha's like us" around Scottish football since then. England had bad days, both before and since 1978, but their attitude is still: "We are England, we invented this game don't you know, we are the masters". Aye right.

That said, we still have some remnants of HTUWLU in Scotland. I had to laugh at the weekend as I listened to the Saturday Night Radio Scotland football phone-in, to learn that: "We used to turn-over the Belgians regularly in the 1970s and 1980s. To hear a breathless account of a great Kenny Dalglish goal in Belgium - we lost that game, by the way, but, who's counting.

Our record against Belgium actually reads: p 17 : w 4 : d 3 : l 10. We have beaten the Belgians once in our last ten meetings with them, in 1987. This is the sixth time we have been in the same group as Belgium in either the World Cup or the European Championship qualifiers, they have out-qualified us every time. But, let's not allow facts to get in the way of our guid conceit o' oorsel's.

And, if we've got it bad - England has it, only ten times worse. I am no great fan of the FIFA rankings system. But, that said - I don't think our need for that is as great as it is for our southern neighbours.

Tuesday 10 September 2013

Hope Springs Eternal In Scottish Football

JINGS, crivvens, help ma Boab - we only went and won!!
 
I was all-set to watch last night's game from behind the settee, through the gaps between the fingers I had covering my eyes, but, WGS's men did rather more than pleasantly surprise me. They were magnificent and deserved to win.
 
The manner of the victory was also pleasant; and will perhaps still the old call for Scotland to start producing bigger, more-athletic players, considering it was Ikechi Anya and Shaun Maloney, the two closest things we had to the stereotypical Scottish player - ok, I concede that Anya's skin pigment doesn't fit.
 
The two goal-scorers were wee, tricky ball players, you know that quintessential Scottish product which allegedly has no place in today's more-athletic, power game. Two superb finishes too.
 
I was particularly happy for Anya.The Castlemilk Kid did good. But, we have been here before. He is not the first lad to come from nowhere, make an instant impact in the Scotland team and not kick-on to greatness. Let's hope he can build on his superb start.
 
I saw one cyber-warrior this morning bemoaning our back luck, insisting that but for a crap linesman and that cheating, diving, over-rated Welsh tart Bale, we would have finished at least third in the group.
 
Maybes aye, maybes naw. Had we had the rub of the green we deserved in Cardiff, maybe Craig Levein would have survived. Can we honestly say he's have got as much out of the squad as WGS and Co have? I think not.
 
The trick now is to build on this, get consistency of selection and performance and have a real go at things when the European Championship qualifiers kick-off in a year's time. Let's hope we can use the next 12 months to get stronger and prepared for these.
 
I am not in favour of raising the number of teams in the Euro finals to 24 - there simply are not that number of quality teams in Europe; but, that said, a well-managed, committed Scotland MUST be in the top 24 Europe in any season.
 
With our heritage, we should be permanent members of at least the top 16 countries in Europe. Getting us back there and keeping us there wil not be easy, but, WGS can surely do it - IF the Hampden Blazers can remove their digits from their arses and give him the basic structure.

Sunday 8 September 2013

We Are Shite - But, Nobody Who Matters Has Noticed

DRIVING home on Saturday evening, following my spell at the lap-top screen, I was listening to the talking heads on BBC Radio Scotland's football phone-in. These included my old mucker Graham "Britney" Spiers.
 
Before the programme was taken-over by Billy Paranoid of Larkhall and Sean Putupon of Croy, I had reached home, but, I was not impressed by the level of debate - hardly surprising, since Keith "Wealth of the radar" Jackson was another of the "experts".
 
Quite how Jackson has reached the exalted status he enjoys, and how he has managed to remain there, amazes me. But, hey, how the Daily Ranger/Rhebel works has always been a mystery to me.
 
Any way, nobody was prepared to admit to the single point which has long held back Scottish football and continues to do so - the dire level of intellectual ability in the board rooms and corridors of power in Scottish football.
 
Football has long been the People's Game in Scotland. Football lifted the likes of Busby, Shankly and Stein - not to mention the likes of Gallacher, James and McMullan out of the mines; it took George Young and Ale Ferguson out of the shipyards. It gave not-so-gifted miners, engineers and other common men a lift after a week of toil, it inspired.
 
However, there has never been a pattern to how football is governed in Scotland. Like government of the people, it has always been all about the interests of those in power, rather than the common good.
 
Right now, for as long as the fans turn their ire on the managers, the directors who preside over the decline in Scottish football, get an easy ride. This is helped by an over-romanticised vision of what Scottish football once was.
 
We haven't been "a great footballing nation" in my life time, and I am one of the Baby Boomer generation of post-war new-borns. Sure, we've had our good teams, more often our bad. Our best World Cup performance remains ninth place in 1974, that's fact.
 
On Saturday night, Britney was asserting that: "Scotland used to beat Belgium regularly, back in the 70s and 80s."
 
Pish. Keith Jackson waxed lyrical about Kenny Dalglish's goal against Belgium in Brussels. Aye, we lost that one too. Just as Belgium have always qualified for a big tournament when drawn with Scotland in a qualifying group.
 
We were better than the Belgians in the late 1940s - since when, they have overtaken us, as have the Dutch, whom we once beat fairly regularly; the Norwegians - ditto, also the Danes and the USA.
 
The three failing football teams in Europe are us, the Austrians and the Hungarians - this is fact. Of course, these three nations have a common problem, richer neighbours.
 
But, if the will is there, and the people with vision are in place at Hampden and at the clubs, we can rise again. But, that's the problem - they are not and, until we get rid of the self-servers and the half-wits - we really are doomed, doomed ah tell ye.
 
And, for as long as the likes of Britney and off the radar wealth ignore the problem, recovery will not happen.

Friday 6 September 2013

Must Do Better - But, Can We?

WHAT can I say about our loss to Belgium? I suppose we've had our frites. The better team won, at a canter and without playing as well as we feared they might - but, we're shite and we know we are.
 
When you see players in a Scotland shirt who cannot immediately control a ball coming to them, albeit one which is wet, you wonder what is happening at our clubs. Our lack of technical ability was (again) cruelly exposed by foreign visitors, yet, the High Heid yins in our game seem unable, nay, unwilling, to address a basic problem which has been evident in Scottish club and international teams for decades.
 
Until we get away from playing team games at a young age and really get down to developing individual skills - we will struggle at the top end. Some of us have been saying this for years, but, clearly our clubs are not listening.
 
I admire the way Strachan is allowing the Martin/Hanley central defensive pairing to grow together, but, we have defensive problems. Alan Hutton still cannot defend - he has 34 caps, the same number as Jim Baxter. OK, Baxter wasn't a defender, but, he was a better tackler than Hutton.
 
Steve Whittaker is playing left back for Scotland, right back for his club. Fair enough, Sammy Cox won all of his 25 caps at left back, a position he rarely filled for Rangers, but, we really need to find a settled left back - who plays there regularly.
 
Not convinced about Charlie Mulgrew as midfield anchor-man, but, who else is there? And Charlie is one of those players who, after a sticky start, has grown into the Scotland strip.
 
Finally, I know we're limited - this doesn't take away from criticism above, but, Scotland MUST play with two men up front. Put Griffiths and Rhodes together and, as with the two at the back, let them develop. I somehow don't see Steven Fletcher ever being anything than an occasional "luxury" selection, a guy we bring-in for the very occasional game against a diddier team than us.
 
So, now it is on to Macedonia - an forward tho ah canna see, ah guess and fear.

Lee McCulloch - Rangers Legend

MY principle watering hole in Ayr is James McSherry's wonderful Wee Windaes, the best pub in the town and the one, I am sure - were he alive today, in which Robert Burns would have supped. However, wonderful though the Wee Windaes steak pie is, when I seek slightly more-refined fare, I frequent another Ayr hotel, which is run by a former Ayr and Glasgow stand-off half and where the craic is of the oval rather than the round ball game.
 
Last week-end, mine host at the hotel told me: the previous evening a prominent Ayr business-man, who happens to travel to Ibrox for his sporting fix, had remarked that Lee McCulloch has now earned the right to be a Rangers' Legend - joining the ranks of such as Morton, Young, Waddell, Caldow, Greig, Jardine, Henderson, Wilson, Cooper, Laudrup and, of course, Jim Baxter.
 
Mine host conceded that, undoubtedly Lee Mac is Greig's equal as a footballer and effort-demanding captain, but, could not see the current Rangers skipper as being fit to lace the boots of some of the above. I have to agree with his assessment, however, it is equally true that, from his efforts as skipper and from his current core place within the re-birth of Rangers, McCulloch has indeed, surely earned Legend status.
 
It is indeed a funny old game.
 
 
 
SCOTLAND is, most-certainly, capable of getting at least a draw from tonight's Hampden meeting with the Belgians. After all, for all their good press and undoubted ability - the Belgians have, as yet, won nothing. One good European Championship campaign some 30-years ago, doth not a world power make.
 
The Tartan Army veterans know, Scotland might scrape a home draw against the Germans, or the Italians, they might get lucky if they catch-out the Spanish on a bad night for them, however, Belgium are not yet at that stage. So, let's not settle for a draw tonight - we can have a go at them; you never know, it might pay off.
 
 
 
I SEE Dundee United have spat the dummy with television, in the wake of Gavin Gunning's ban for his wee kick at the Celtic player. On one viewing, in real time, I realised Gunning had a case to answer, he's been found guilty, move on. I still say, the Celtic player's charge on him was also worth, at least a yellow card and the fact he got off Scot free , while Gunning has been done, shows that justice was maybe not fully-served.
 
But, that is no reason for United to go into a major sulk. In a fair world, the SFA and the SPFL would have an "official" camera recording each game, from the same position in each ground and this camera, and this camera alone, could be used in citing issues such as that involving Gunning.
 
That way, every club is treated fairly, there will be no "trial by television" lottery such as that which United are moaning about.
 
The way TV runs the game these days simply proves how wise Sir Robert Kelly was all those years ago when he warned about the dangers of too-close co-operation between football and the box in the corner.
 
Television could be a great advertising tool for football - these days, it seems, football is a tool of television.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

Celtic Up - Rangers Down: Time We Balanced The See-Saw

IT SEEMS to me that, with the Lawless man's promotion to the full SFA Board, Celtic's take-over of Scottish football is nearly complete. Mind you, the Celtic Family will still be playing the victim card and claiming they are being conspired against, even when Scotland's new strip is unveiled as green and white hoops!!
Be careful, however, once they sort out all the in-fighting and get back to the top-flight - which given the fact the club is in thrall to gangsters and spivs these days isn't certain - expect Rangers to seek and gain revenge, which will not, in the long-term, help Scottish football.
The way Celtic are pandering to the Green Brigade and Rangers are in thrall to Ra Peepul these days, is not a good thing. How I long for a new Third Force to rise and beat the pair of them.

NO COMPLAINTS from this quarter on Gavin Gunning of Dundee United getting a citing letter from "Cousin Vinnie" after his coming together with Virgil Van Dijk. I think he definitely has a case to answer.

However, I reckon the Celtic player should have had a wee missive from Cousin Vinnie as well. I have long felt the football authorities are too-quick to cite or penalise the retaliator, while allowing the perpertrator of the nasty stuff to escape without possible punishment.

It seemed to me, and I have only seen the incident in real time, that both players should be up before the beaks.

I LIKE the look of Scotland squad new boy Ikechi Anya - what aninspiring story his is: son of a Nigerian father and a Romanian mother, brought-up in Chateau Du Lait and now on the verge of his first cap.

Gaun yersel son, and, awra best.

WHAT a great boost for Hamilton Accies, with their share of the sell-on fee of £13 million which Wigan picked up at the close of the transfer window by selling James McCarthy to Everton.

James came through a very entertaining young Accies team, which was a joy to watch. Sadly, the club lost their bottle and have gone away from a youth development programme which, at one time, made them a model for the rest of Scottish football.

Maybe, with the McCarthy money, they can reinstate that programme - we certainly need to see our clubs bringing through more young Scots, if we are ever to get back to where we think we belong internationally.

 

Tuesday 3 September 2013

Time To Re-invent Ourselves

BACK in the early 1960s my elder brother, now sadly gone, and I both found ourselves studying in Glasgow. He was up there in the elevated surroundings of Gilmourhill, en route to his BSc in electrical engineering, I was across the city in a less-celebrated seat of learning, grappling with the complexities of Pitman's shorthand and qwerty keyboards.
 
But, this Saturday, enthused by a massive 48pt Daily Express headline - King Football Is Back
we took ourselves off to Cathkin to watch Third Lanark do battle with Rangers. Some 50,000 others had the same idea, probably, like us, they had missed the action during the long summer close-season and were desperate for the real thing.
 
This doesn't happen in these days of 24/7 football on television, so, there isn't the same call for a big start to the new season. Instead, football sort of, almost apologetically, creeps back into our lives after what seems like an indecently short break. Now, we have European games being played during the Glasgow Fair and three different opening days - one for the Ramsden's Cup, another for the League Cup and a third for the League. Wrong, wrong, wrong - but, here again, can we expect the Hampden Blazers to ever admit they got something wrong?
 
Let's get back to having one big start day; let's ignore the over-blinged neighbours in the English Premiership. If we have to accept that Scotland is now down among the diddy countries in Europe, condemned to play summer football just to get into Europe - then let's embrace summer football.
 
Rugby League re-invented itself as a summer game, to escape the all-encompasing cloak of 24/7 Premiership football on TV. Why shouldn't the Scottish football authorities do likewise and re-align the season to get away from the English game and probably, in the process, get a better TV deal.
 
Who knows, playing on decent pitches, in good weather, might improve our players and bring back the fans in numbers. Doing nothing isn't an option, even if it is the favoured one of the Blazers.
 
THIS week sees the centenary of Wullie Shankly's birth. He will always be Wullie rather than Bill to we fundamentalists from East Ayrshire.
 
This occasion was marked by a wee ceremony at what remains of Glenbuck, in particular the Shankly Memorial Stone, a roadside shrine to the great man. There is talk of a Shankly Memorial Scheme to have Glenbuck re-born: won't happen - one of the reasons so many sons of Glenbuck did so well out of football was, they grafted to make bloody sure they didn't have to go back there other than to visit.
 
Glenbuck is gone, past, the best that can be hoped for is that the damage done to the village by opencasting can be properly undone and the site returned to fields - with a monument to Shankly as a centrepiece. But, rebuild Glenbuck, no. Site a Shankly Memorial Football Academy there - never, won't happen, not least because the SFA and the clubs will never allow it.
 
It's a romantic notion, but, totally unworkable.
 
IT'S Scotland v Belgium, then Macedonia this week. Am I bothered? Frankly no. I got worked-up for the England game, we blew it, losing two such crap set piece goals; I'm temporarily - out.