Socrates MacSporran

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

Saturday 30 April 2016

Players- They Couldnae Pick Their Noses - Or Could They?

RECEIVED wisdom in horse racing circles has it that punters should never listen to the advice of jockeys; apparently the guys who actually ride the horses haven't a clue about their animals' chances in a race.

Extrapolating this information across to football, we ought not perhaps pay attention to the thoughts of the players, when it comes to selecting the PFA Teams of the Year for the four divisions in the SPFL. Any way, for what it is worth, these selections, announced during the week were:

Premiership Team of the Year

Scott Bain (Dundee); Shay Logan (Aberdeen), Alim Ozturk (Heart of Midlothian), Andrew Davies (Ross County), Kieran Tierney (Celtic); Jonny Hayes, Kenny McLean, Graeme Shinnie (all Aberdeen), Kane Hemmings (Dundee); Leigh Griffiths (Celtic), Greg Stewart (Dundee).

Championship Team of the Year

Danny Rogers (Falkirk); James Tavernier (Rangers), Darren McGregor (Hibernian), Peter Grant (Falkirk), Lee Wallace; Jason Holt ( both Rangers), John McGinn (Hibernian), Barrie McKay (Rangers), John Baird (Falkirk); Martyn Waghorn (Rangers), Jason Cummings (Hibernian).

League 1 Team of the Year

Graeme Smith (Peterhead); Nicky Devlin (Ayr United), Michael Dunlop (Albion Rovers), Ben Richards-Everton (Dunfermline Athletic), Paddy Boyle (Ayr United); Liam Watt (Airdrieonians), Andy Geggan, Joe Cardle (both Dunfermline Athletic), Greig Spence (Cowdenbeath); Rory McAllister (Peterhead), Faissal el Bakhtaoui (Dunfermline Athletic).

League 2 Team of the Year

Chris Smith (Stirling Albion); Ricky Little (Arbroath), Jonathan Page, Gary Naysmith (both East Fife), Scott Linton (Clyde); Matty Flynn (Annan Athletic), Kyle Wilkie (East Fife), Bobby Linn (Arbroath), Peter Weatherson (Annan Athletic); Nathan Austin (East Fife), Craig Gunn (Elgin City).

As with most selections, not made by one single all-powerful manager, these teams have since, in particular the Premiership XI, been ripped apart, with those "experts" in the Scottish Football Writers Association leading the charge.

Much of their criticism stemmed from the fact Celtic, the runaway Champions, have only managed to get two players into the team. Now, remember, this team was chosen by their peers - the guys who go head-to-head with the chosen XI week-in, week-out.

My cautionary opening paragraph notwithstanding, surely these guys KNOW who is giving them a hard time on the park, who is playing well. It says a lot about the paucity of the competition in Scotland that just about the worst Celtic team I can recall, although there were some honking combinations wearing the Hoops during Rangers' nine-in-a-row seasons, has been leading the pack all season.

Nobody can dispute the right of Griffiths and Tierney, (pictured below), to be in the team, I honestly cannot make a case for anyone else in the Celtic squad to be there as well.




The Championship XI was less-contentious. I understand one or two members of the Lap Top Loyal were upset that the chosen team was not an all-Rangers XI, but, what's new there? Actually, looking at the two selections, I fancy the Championship XI just might be capable of beating the Premiership one -now that might be a game worth seeing.

As regards the League 1 and 2 selections, good to see former Under-21 caps Graeme and Chris Smith and Rory McAllister chosen - I really feel, McAllister ought to be playing at a higher level. I feel too, there is a great case study for a competent sports psychologist there. Good also, to see Gary Naysmith still showing his class at the age of 37. He has had a terrific season with East Fife.

The apparently ageless Gary Naysmith in his Scotland days


The (English) FA fields an England C team, which is drawn from the ranks of the non-league players from the English Conference. I have long felt, a game between that England side and one drawn from the part-time ranks in our two lowest divisions, plus the best of our Highland and Lowland League players would be a game worth seeing.

Some years back - I am talking 30 or so, there was a multi-nation Non-League tournament at the end of the season, in which these sides met.With the correct format, this might well be a goer. Or, how about a mini-tournament: League 1 Select, League 2 Select, Highland League Select and Lowland League Select?

Or, we could restore the old Scottish League XI, but limit it to players from the bottom three divisions, to play the two Irish Leagues and the Welsh League - which are also mainly part-time, each season.

An England C squad of non-league players, why not a Scotland one?

 


Friday 29 April 2016

I Aint Got A Clue, Far Less An 'Orse In This Race

I fear, I am rapidly losing the will to live when it comes to following the ante-post market on the Celtic Manager Handicap. At this rate, there will soon be as many runners as you get for the Grand National, with most of those entered having as much chance as Foinavon.

That's my way of saying, the winner ought to come from the small band of favoured "horses", but, you never know.

The problem for we punters is – do we know what the Celtic High Heid Yins: Lawwell, Desmond & Co are looking for? Of course some attributes are obvious – Ronnie Deila's successor has to have a proven record of success at a big club, only, that would eliminate three of the current ante-post favourites: Davie Moyes, Paul Lambert and Roy Keane.

 Eeny

 Meeny

Miney
 
But, I don't see Mo getting the job

Mind you, these three all tick another box – they have played for the club, although, of that trio, only Keane perhaps meets the Phil Mac Giolla Bhain and Friends definition of: "Celtic-minded".

Neil Lennon and Martin O'Neill both tick the boxes as Celtic-minded and proven track record – with Celtic, however. Is it such a great idea to bring back a former boss? Also, with Lenny, would he really want to put himself back into the Glasgow cess pit of potential off-field trouble, now he has smelled the roses elsewhere?

When O'Neill was at Parkhead before, he was dealing with a club prepared to spend big; Celtic are no longer such a club. Could he cope with a reduced budget? Maybe he is enjoying the less-stresssful life as an international manager.

Michael O'Neil, the Northern Ireland manager has been mentioned in despatches, while, again, there have been calls to bring the Magnificent Seven back, even though he is currently fire-fighting a crisis of form with his Swedish club.

Celtic have, in recent years, made a habit of what you might call "left field" appointments – Wim Jansen, Dr Jo, John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish – might we see another this time?

Wim Jansen - a left field appointment that worked

How about a pairing of Paul Lambert and Stevie Clarke – who is much-happier and more-effective as a Number Two than as a Number One. The troube with this would be, should Bill Leckie's Euromillions numbers come up, he will want to take Lambert and Clarke to St Mirren Park as his making Saints great dream team.

Time is not on Celtic's side. Their European qualifying campaign kicks-off in nine weeks' time. Three of these weeks will be taken-up by completing this season's league fixtures, leaving six weeks to get the new guy in-situ and familiarising himself with his squad, and scouting their European opponents – while the European Championships are going on.

If I was Peter Lawwell, I would be thinking along the old Jock Stein lines of boosting the fans' at the expense of Rangers. Once the final Premiership games are played, the Scottish media will go into Rangers mode, in the build-up to the Scottish Cup Final on 21 May.

Peter Lawwell - not much time in which to make an appointment

Friday, 20 May, would be a good day to announce Ronnie's replacement, knocking Rangers off the back page in the process.

Thursday 28 April 2016

Buying-In Young Scots Has Always Been Good For Rangers (And Celtic)

SOME of the papers are becoming agitated at the prospect of 16-year-old Livingston starlet Matthew Knox becoming a Rangers' "target". This is a development I welcome, I would far-rather see the Bigot Brothers, as our two top clubs, the most-likely clubs to be Scotland's standard-bearers in Europe, fielding teams choc-a-bloc with home-grown talent, than by badge-kissing European mercenaries.

When "old" Rangers were a power in Europe, before the failed Murray/Souness etc switch to bought-in talent, the club regularly kept top Scottish talent in Scotland, rather than seeing these players taking the High Road south.

Jim Baxter, one bought-in talent from the 1961 team

For Example: Rangers team v Fiorentina (1961 European Cup-Winners Cup Final): Billy Ritchie; Bobby Shearer, Eric Caldow; Harold Davis, Bill Paterson, Jim Baxter; Davie Wilson, Ian McMillan, Alex Scott, Ralph Brand, Bobby Hume. That was the team in the first leg, for the second leg, Jimmy Millar came in for Bobby Hume, with the forward line reverting to the familiar: Scott, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson.


 Dave Smith - joined Rangers from Aberdeen to play in the 1967 and 1972 European finals

Rangers team v Bayenr Munich (1967 European Cup-Winners Cup Final): Norrie Martin; Kai Johansen, Davie Provan, Sandy Jardine, Ronnie McKinnon, John Greig; Willie Henderson, Davie Smith, Roger Hynd, Alex Smith and Willie Johnston.

Alex MacDonald - signed from St Johnstone

Rangers team v Moscow Dynamo (1972 European Cup-Winners Cup Final): Peter McCloy; Sandy Jardine, Willie Mathieson; John Greig, Derek Johnstone, Davie Smith; Tommy McLean, Alfie Conn, Colin Stein, Alex MacDonald, Willie Johnston. Substitutes: Gerry Neef, Jim Denny, Graham Fyfe, Andy Penman, Derek Parlane.

Rangers team v Ajax Amsterdam (1972-73 European Super Cup Final): Peter McCloy; Sandy Jardine, Willie Mathieson; John Greig, Derek Johnstone, Davie Smith; Alfie Conn, Tam Forsyth, Derek Parlane, Alex MacDonald, Quinton Young. Substitutes: Tommy McLean, Graham Fyfe. That was the team for the first leg, for the second leg: McLean replaced Conn; no subs came on in the second leg.

Rangers v Zenit St Petersborg (2008 UEFA Cup Final): Neil Alexander; Kirk Broadfoot, Carlos Cuellar, Davie Weir, Sasa Papac; Bramin Hemdani; Steven Whittaker, Barry Ferguson, Kevin Thomson, Steven Davis; Jean-Claude Darcheville. Substitues used: Kris Boyd, Nacho Novo, Lee McCulloch. Not used: Graeme Smith, Christian Dailly, Charlie Adam, Amdy Faye.

Five European competition finals, 53 Rangers players stripped. Of these, 23 players – Ritchie, Caldow, Wilson, Scott, Brand and Hume from the 1961 team; Martin, Provan, Jardine, McKinnon, Greig, Henderson, Hynd and Johnston from the 1967 team; Mathieson, Johnstone, Conn, Denny, Fyfe and Parlane from the 1972 team and Ferguson, Smith and Adam from the 2008 team were home-grown, joining the club as boys and progressing through the ranks.

Kirk Broadfoot in his St Mirren days

Of the 30 bought-in players, 17, Shearer, Davis, Baxter, McMillan and Millar of the 1961 team, both Smiths from the 1967 team, McCloy, McLean, Stein MacDonald, Penman and Forsyth from the 1972-73 teams and Broadfoot, Whittaker Thomson and Boyd from the 2008 team were recruited from other Scottish clubs – while Paterson from the 1961 squad, Young from the 1973 squad, Alexander, Weir, McCulloch and Dailly were Scots, recruited from English clubs.

The best Rangers' teams of the European Club Football era in Scottish football have, therefore, been teams which had a distinct Scottish- basis or spine; indeed, most were home-grown. Not every player Rangers recruit from another Scottish club manages to cope with the extra pressures involved in playing for that club – indeed, the same might well be said about Celtic, but, the best Rangers' teams have been a mixture of home-grown players and bought-in Scots. I hope for Rangers' sake Mark Warburton is aware of this and acts accordingly.

Knox might find his head turned by the higher wages he would encounter in England; indeed, while I do not know who his agent is, that person might see personal gain in advising the kid to go south. However, if he does move to Rangers, he might find it a rewarding move.

Matthew Knox in action against Rangers

Time will tell, however, he is not, I warrant, the only potentially-good young Scottish player out there; and it would be good to see Rangers, and Celtic for that matter (although they already have done this well in recent years): offering opportunity to young, indigenous Scottish talent.


Leigh Griffiths - would be a worthy POY

SPEAKING of indigenous Scottish talent, Leigh Griffiths would be a worthy winner of the Player of the Year award for which he was nominated this week. I can think of no other player in Scotland who has lit-up the season now ending as brightly and as consistently. He has grown-up a lot too. For a time, I feared he might burn-out in the Old Firm media spotlight, but, he has matured, settled-down and this award would, should he get, have been worthily-won. (Now, cue a Scott Brown-type shitting in his own nest front-page story).



SOME football hacks are trying to work-up "Rangers crisis" headlines on the back of the Tribute Act's poor results, since, in the space of a week, they won the Championship, then knocked Celtic out of the Scottish Cup.

I must say, I am not surprised at their recent poor results. They have nothing left to play for, they are, I am sure, sub-consciously "saving" themselves for the Cup Final, because, the team for that game will almost pick itself.

Mr MacLeod - the original and greatest "Super Ally"

I remember Ally MacLeod once telling me, the easiest way a manager can ensure a poor result from his team is by telling them: "There's nothing at stake today, just go out there, play and enjoy yourselves". Since winning the league and beating Celtic, the RTA has been able to just go out there, play and enjoy themselves. It's not rocket science that they should under-perform.


Tuesday 26 April 2016

Professional Football - Amateurs When it Comes To Nurturing Young Scottish Talent

FOOTBALL has been professional for around 130 years, Rugby Union has only been professional for 21 years, but, when it comes to player welfare, it might be argued, the oval ball game has got it closer to being right, in a smaller time scale.
 
In Scotland, effectively, most of our international-class players are centrally-contracted to the governing body, the Scottish Rugby Union. In football, the Scottish Football Association is very much dependent on the good grace of the clubs, when it comes to gaining access to our top players.
 
Of course, both the SFA and the SRU are at the mercy of "foreign" clubs when it comes to players who have left Scotland to ply their profession. However, even the top French clubs, who clearly have no need or even desire to help Scotland by not over-playing their players appreciate the demands of modern, professional rugby necessitates player rotation.
 
English Rugby, like the game in France, is not as centralised as the game is in the three Celtic nations of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. However, the English Rugby Football Union has negotiated a deal with the top English clubs, whereby England squad players can only play in a certain number of games per season.
 
I doubt if such an agreement could be negotiated between the SFA and the top SPFL clubs, far less between the FA and the English Premiership clubs, but, with or without it, surely the time is ripe for the Scottish clubs to become that bit smarter when it comes to rotating players, to reduce potential burn-out.
 
This topic is current, following Scott Brown's admission yesterday, he is torn between the need to rest his tired body, and his desire, as Scotland captain, to be involved in the two end of season friendlies which are coming up - against Italy, in Malta on 29 May and France, in Metz, on 4 June.
 
Scotland captain Scott Brown
 
In these two games, Scotland is very much cast in the role of cannon fodder. These games are of little use to us; we are not preparing to play in the upcoming European Championships, we do not need these games as warm-ups. But, under different circumstances, these would be big games for Scotland, also, with FIFA ranking points to be considered, Gordon Strachan has to field a representative team.
 
He might well want his captain playing in both games, but, against that, Brown is now 30, he still has a "good engine", which is so-much part of his game, but, this engine now needs a bit more TLC. It would probably be a good thing, for Celtic as much as for Scotland, if Brown was told, once the Scottish title has been secured, to go away and have a lengthy break from the game, ready for action when the new season kicks-off.
 
Of course, it would help if Scottish Football's High Heid Yins, both on the sixth floor at Hampden and in the corridors of power at the top clubs thought long term, and came up with a workable strategy for improving our clubs' performances in Europe and ending the national team's too-long absence from the big tournament finals.
 
Celtic's season will end on Sunday, 15 May. They will play their opening European match, in the second qualifying round of the 2016-17 Champions League, on 12 or 13 July - a mere nine weeks later.
 
For Aberdeen and Hearts, whose European campaigns will kick-off with the Europa League first qualifying round games, on 30 June and 7 July, their close season is even shorter, a mere six and a half weeks.
 
This short turn-round will continue for as long as it takes the Scottish clubs to climb from Scotland's current 23rd place seeding in Europe, into the top 16 nations. On recent historical form, this rise isn't going to happen overnight.
 
So, the SPFL and the SFA need to re-arrange the season better, to aid the top teams and boost Scottish football. But, will they? I do not see it.
 
To return to a hoary old subject on this blog, we also need too, perhaps more-so than league/club re-organisation, to come up with a workable development system for our national team.
 
I had a look at the development process, such as it was, for the 29 players who pulled on the Scotland shirt in our two most-recent friendlies, against the Czech Republic and Denmark. I have placed them in ascending order of their first Under-21 cap, then again in ascending order from their first full cap. The results, I think, are interesting.
 
First Under-21 cap: (2002): Shaun Maloney; (2003): Darren Fletcher, Craig Gordon, Allan McGregor; (2004): Chris Burke, Alan Hutton; (2005): Christophe Berra, Scott Brown, Stephen Whittaker; (2006): Ross McCormack, Charlie Mulgrew; (2007): Steven Fletcher; (2008): Paul Caddis, Russell Snodgrass; (2009): Barry Bannan; (2010): Leigh Griffiths; (2011): Grant Hanley; (2012): Kenny McLean, Anthony Watt; (2013): Alex Robertson; (2014): John McGinn.
 
Never played for the Under-21 team: Ikecha Anya, Liam Bridcutt, Gordon Greer, Chris Martin, Russell Martin, Matt Phillips, Matt Ritchie, Kieran Tierney.
 
First full cap: (2004): D Fletcher, Gordon; (2006): Burke, Brown, Maloney; (2007): Hutton, McGregor; (2008): Berra, S Fletcher, McCormack; (2010): Whittaker; (2011): Bannan, Hanley, R Martin, Snodgrass; (2012): Mulgrew, Phillips; (2013): Anya, Bridcutt, Greer, Griffiths; (2014): C Martin, Robertson; (2015): Ritchie; (2016): Caddis, McGinn, McLean, Tierney, Watt.
 
One quarter of these players 7/29 NEVER went through the SFA's international development system (such as it is). They were missed as young players, or were, perhaps, late developers. Of the 29 players, there is a roughly 50/50 split between those who have been in the full Scotland system for more than five seasons (ie before 2011-2012): Darren Fletcher, Gordon, Burke, Brown, Maloney, Hutton, McGregor, Berra, Steven Fletcher, McCormack, Whittaker, Bannan, Hanley, Russell Martin and Snodgrass, and after 2011-2012: Mulgrew, Phillips, Anya, Bridcutt, Greer, Griffiths, Chris Martin, Robertson, Ritchie, Caddis, McGinn, McLean, Tierney and Watt.
 
Of the players first capped in the last five seasons (2011-12 to 2015-16) more than half were given full Scotland caps without going through the Under-21 team. This includes young Kieran Tierney, who, at only 18, is still eligible for the Under-21s.
 
The longest gap between a player's first Under-21 cap, and his first full cap was the eight seasons it took Paul Caddis to bridge the gap. The shortest gap was bridged by Grant Hanley, who won his first full cap in the same season as he won his first Under-21 honour. On average, with the current squad, it has taken just under three seasons to go from an Under-21 player, and therefore a potential full cap, to the actual status of full internationalist.
 
This seems a fairly acceptable gap. The worrying thing is the way in which, over the last five seasons, it has become easier to win a full Scotland cap through performances in the English Championship than via the SFA's development system of Under-21 honours, leading to a full cap.
 
These "late developers" "Championship wild card" players- call them what you may, have another thing in common: very little experience of facing European opponents. They have to learn in the hardest school of all - international play. This is a risky business for the future of the national team.
 
For as long as the Scottish clubs are going to stumble around in the lower reaches of Europe, we will struggle to qualify for the European Championships or World Cup finals. Even more-worryingly, we no longer appear to be a country in which the best English clubs search for young, raw talent. When last did Manchester United recruit a young player straight out of school in Scotland, as they did with Darren Fletcher or Michael Stewart. Have Chelsea been back since they recruited Craig Burley and Billy Dodds from Cumnock Academy?
 
Are there potential Billy Bremners or Peter Lorimers at Leeds, or a 21st century Graeme Souness at Tottenham - successors to George Burley and John Wark at Ipswich? I don't think so, but, remember, these were the ones who made it - a lot of promising young Scots went down the road, straight from school, and returned almost as quickly as they left.
 
We have stopped exporting top-quality raw talent, either at 16 on leaving school, or from our domestic leagues. This talent dry-up has to be addressed by the SFA. Again, I don't see the will to do this being there.
 
Dave Mackay has a full and frank exchange of views with Billy Brmner
 
I know Dave Mackay hated the above picture. But, it does remind us of what we lost. When it was taken back in 1966, Scots such as Mackay and Bremner were just two of the many Scottish turbines who drove the top sides in England. If we can get back to those days, we will have a chance of again taking our place at football's top table.
 
But, for this to happen, we need to overhaul our development strategies as they effect our clubs and our national sides. Sadly, I do not see the will to do this being present around Hampden.  

Monday 25 April 2016

OK, Wheel Greig Oot For The Presentation, But, They Are Still A Tribute Act To Me


LET'S be honest - if you were picking the Best 11 Rangers players, even in positions: best goalkeeper and so on, John Greig (above) would not get a game. He might, from his ability to fill-in in so many different positions, get a place on the bench, but, for all this, I have never heard too many people, even dyed-in-the-wool "Bears" argue with his right to the title: "Greatest Ever Ranger".
 
So, I would not quibble with his right to be at the heart of Saturday's post-match celebrations, when Rangers were presented with the SPFL Chamionship trophy. It was, after all, a reunion for big Greigie with a trophy he got to know well during his paying career, when it went to the Scottish League Champions.
 
It also suits the current regime to have the blessing of and be associated with such an icon of the old club, he has the status the Glib and Shameless Liar and his associates seek for their Rangers Tribute Act. 
 
I continue to harbour grave doubts about the club's management, but, since Scottish Football - a considerable sept of the Celtic Family apart - seems to wish a "Rangers" presence in the game, as on one hand a comfort blanket, and on the other, perhaps some one or thing to hate - we seem to be stuck with them.
 
Certainly our press seems to have bought into the continuing Rangers line. The new club, like the old, is always a couple of poor performances away from the Record's sports pages designer summoning-up the cracked crest.
 
The League is won, the players have nothing to play for except a cup final place, and I reckon Mark Warburton already knows more or less what (injuries permitting) his cup final squad will be. Under such circumstances, it may be difficult to maintain the intensity shown when there was still a title to be won. Have the scribes not noticed, Dunfermline Athletic, the first Scottish club to win their division this season, has also dropped a few unexpected points in the weeks since they clinched the League One crown and promotion?
 
The RTA will be alright for the Cup Final - I still have a nagging suspicion, however, the long Hibernian wait for cup success might be over come late May.
 
  
KIM LITTLE, pictured above, has been short-listed for the BBC's Women's Footballer of the Year award - the only British player to be nominated.
 
IF Kim had been English, I'd have said she was a shoo-in, but, I just wonder if, with a view to world-wide exposure etc, she will be overlooked. The short list is full of worthy conteners, and it is a real demonstration of where Kim stands in the pantheon of current women footballers that she is on it.
 
I hope she wins it, but, can you honestly seeing the English Broadcasting Corporation picking a Scot - even if, like Andy Murray, she has done great things in a GB strip.
 
Ah hae ma doots.
 
 
 
 
 
A WEE mention for "real" fitba, of the Junior variety. The 2016 ETHX Energy Scottish Junior Cup Final, on 29 May, will feature Beith and Pollok, who claimed their place by winning a nervous penalty shoot-out, 4-3 against Hurlford United, at Newlandsfield, on Saturday.
 
There is not a lot between the two clubs, if league form is anything to go by, so the final, which looks set to go to St Mirren Park, promises to be a tight affair.  

Saturday 23 April 2016

This Need For Success Now Is Not Good For Football

THERE is probably justification for believing, we live in an instant gratification society. This affliction has even affected football, where today's fans demand Success – NOW.

Who would wish to be a modern-day manager? You might be given a four or five year contract when appointed by a big club, but, the chances are, if you haven't delivered a trophy by the mid-point in your contract, you are very likely to be binned and replaced.

Alex Ferguson was perhaps lucky in that the Manchester United board of the time resisted hysterical calls to replace this upstart Jock, as his first few seasons at Old Trafford failed to yield trophies. But, the board stood firm in the face of these demands and, the result was a tsunami of trophies.

Louis Van Gaal has yet to deliver silverware to the club; he may do so this season in the FA Cup, but, already there are calls for him to be replaced. Yes, you might feel his team is not delivering the champagne football which the prawn sandwich brigade at the Theatre of Dreams seem to feel is their birth-right, but, United are not doing too-badly in the Premiership.

And, if those shouting for the appointment of “The Chosen One”, as a means of bringing whizz-bang football back to Old Trafford, would care to have a look at his past record, if they can find a whizz-bang winning team in his past – they're a better man than I am Gunga in.

No, teams which are successful over a prolonged period are built slowly; they evolve over a season or two.

The legendary Class of '92

Take the legendary United “Class of '92”. Maybe Beckham, Butt, Giggs, the Nevilles and Scholes came together in that year of 1992 – when they helped United win the FA Youth Cup, but, it would be seven more years before real immortality with the European Cup win.

Then there is the other legendary home-grown United team: “The Busby Babes”, tragically decimated in the Munich Air Crash of 1958. Of that 1958 squad – Ray Wood, the goalkeeper who had lost his place to World Record Signing Harry Gregg, just two months before the crash, had joined United in 1949, as had sipper Roger Byrne and striker Dennis Viollet. Centre half Mark Jones was already there, having signed in 1948.

Bill Foulkes and David Pegg arrived at Old Trafford in 1950, Jackie Blanchflower crossed the Irish Sea for Manchester in 1951 – the same year as Johnny Berry was signed from Birmingham City. The year 1952 saw the arrival of Duncan Edwards and Eddie Coleman, with Liam Whelan, Bobby Charlton and £29,999 signing from Barnsley Tommy Taylor in 1953.

Duncan Edwards playing for England against Scotland in 1957

They joined a successful club, but, Matt Busby gradually fed them into his side as he replaced ageing stars, the rest is history. The “Babes” evolved over time, they wer not an instant-fix team – the pattern so-many of today's club directors seem to demand.

The same scenario holds for the Lisbon Lions. Bertie Auld first joined Celtic in 1955. OK, he was allowed to leave, before being brought back. Billy McNeill was in his tenth season with Celtic when he lifted that giant trophy in May, 1967, while John Clark and reserves Charlie Gallacher and John Fallon had only been at Parkhead for a year less.

In 1959, Bobby Murdoch, Stevie Chalmers and John Hughes arrived, to be followed in 1961 by Tommy Gemmell, Jimmy Johnstone and Bobby Lennox, and, while he wasn't signed until he had completed his dentistry studies, Jim Craig was training with Celtic from that year.

All these legends were playing for Celtic before that wonderful season, all that was needed to make them great an successful was the managerial magic of Jock Stein.

What Celtic needs in replacing Ronnie Deila, is a manager who can oversee a home-development team-building project. I feel the programme of the recent past, of identifying and improving imported players is too hit and miss. For every Larsson, they have got one or two comparative flops, and, as a result, native Scottish talent has not had a real chance at the club.

As I posted recently, Celtic has, over the period since they decided, however reluctantly, to follow the Souness pattern and buy ready-made talent, rather than, as had for so long been the Celtic Way, mostly grown an developed their own players, seen more than two full teams of home-grown Scotland Under-21 internationalists fail to “train-on” to become established first team players.

I firmly believe, it would not be too-difficult for the present board to convince the wider Celtic Family, this is the way to go, an take them with them. Or, will finishing ahead of the Rangers Tribute Act be the be-all and end-all of next season?

Souness mainly recruited top-quality English players at a time when English clubs ere out of Europe, following the Brussells riot. Once the English clubs got back into Europe, Rangers began to buy mainly players looking for a good late-career pay day or two, or lower class English players, and the other Scottish clubs followed them down-market.

I reckon a well-coached and organised Celtic team, with a real Celtic fan on the park as captain, could successfully see-off the RTA domestically, and have a good Europa League season. Such a squad would be cheaper to run than one dependant on foreign imports.

Is the will there within the club to go down this route, and, could the club take their fans with them? If Celtic was prepared to answer Yes to these two questions, things would get a great deal more interesting in Scottish football, I believe.