Time For The Scottish Inquisition

AS every Monty Python fan can tell you: "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition".

OK, in the wake of last week's European disasters, lots of people are looking, but still. Maybe it is time for a Scottish Inquisition - certainly nobody expects questions to be asked about the state and future for the national game, even at this time of deep depression and distress after last week's triple knock-out blow in the play-off round of the Europa League.

Sure, the fans' forums have been red-hot, the big-name sports writers have pontificated and postured, but, even allowing for the fact that knee-jerk reactions don't often amount to a hill of beans, a wee bit of reaction, of: "We feel your pain" from the "blazers" within the Hampden corridors of powers might have been expected.

Of course the managers, particularly Neil Lennon and Alistair McCoist, have been slap bang in the cross-hairs of the snipers' "rifles". That comes with the territory, it's one of the prices they pay for the kudos and big-money which comes the way of the two Old Firm bosses.

However, the guys who should be in the firing line will not be seen - these guys are the REAL power brokers: Craig Whyte at Rangers, Dermot Desmond at Celtic and Vladimir Romanov at Hearts. Romanov may speak in riddles, on the rare occasions he does communicate with the common herd. In any case, as a Russian oligarch, he doesn't do interviews, he issues proclomations.

Desmond also rarely comments on Celtic matters, he leaves that to Chief Executive Peter Lawwell, who is now also, of course, an SFA "blazer". Whyte, will maybe be allowed this season to bed himself in, as the very new owner of Rangers. There is already some unease about his ownership of Rangers - does he have the money it will take to freshen up the squad? What are his true motives? Even - is he a true Rangers supporter? These questions are being asked on the forums - but not in the press conferences.

Is there nobody among the serried ranks of the main Scottish football writers who is prepared to face-up to the real power brokers, the guys who actually own and run the clubs, rather than the front men who are installed as "team manager" or "first team coach" and ask them the hard questions?

Sure, we get sound bites from Messrs Regan and Doncaster, but what the fans, and I sometimes think some of my fellow journos, conveniently forget, these men (Regan and Doncaster) run the secretariats - the bodies which administer their leagues, the key decisions are taken by the club directors: Rod Petrie, Michael Johnston, Stewart Gilmour, Stephen Thompson, Stewart Milne, Geoff Brown and Co. We don't hear too-much on the big issues from these guys, unless it directly affects their club.

It's not so much: why are we so bad? Don't give them the opportunity to fob-off the interrogator with platitudes and evasions - be specific, be insistent, don't be put-off, go for the jugular.

Why do we have to put-up with third-rate imports? Why do so few of our better young players fail to make the grade? Are you happy with your club's youth development department? If so, what are your goals for these kids?

Why have so many of the Celtic Under-19 team which won the SPL U-19 League been freed as "not good enough"? Even the fact that they have been allowed to leave - what does that say about the rest, the U-19 teams from the other 11 clubs?

Why was Ally McCoist allowed to recruit his ready-made American and Australian imports, when his home-grown kids had already this season shown themselves capable of playing a big part in beating the then league leaders? I mean, it's not as if Rangers are going to be involved in Europe this season.

Why have imports, who made no contribution last season been kept-on, rather than moved-on to create a vacancy in the squad which could have gone to a young, talented and hungry Scots boy?

When will someone ask that question of the men who run the clubs, rather than the managers they employ to handle the daily grind?

What is the strategic goal and plan for reaching that goal for our big clubs, our big league and our international side?

Why, when we have such a highly-regarded coaching course, is the standard of coaching within Scotland so poor?

It is time somebody asked these questions, and kept asking them until he or she got a credible answer?

It's time for the Scottish Inquisition.

When Will We Ever Learn

"It matters not who won nor lost - so-long as you beat the English". Max Boyce, Welsh "entertainer".

"Never mind, they'll forget this result once we beat England". Unnamed SFA council member following Uruguay's 7-0 defeat of Scotland in the 1954 World Cup Finals.

"The Scottish football public will not pay to watch that sort of stuff on a weekly basis". Unnamed Scottish football writer, walking away from Hampden after seeing Real Madrid beat Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 in 1960.

"Youse is shite and ye'r oot o' Europe, ha-ha, ha-ha". Various "cyber-warriors" from both sides of the Old Firm divide, on various web sites last night after the final whistle in the Europa League games.

Yes, that's the level to which we have fallen - that's the way we clutch at failiar old straws, the comfort blankets to which we have always clung. So long as Scotland beats England, Celtic beats Rangers, Hearts beats Hibs, Auchinleck Talbot beats Cumnock - all is well with the world.

Rewind 500 years: so long as Campbell beats Macdonald, McLeod beats McNab, McGlumpher beats McRassler - it matters not that we live in grass-roofed hovels, which we share with our cattle, without running water, adequate sanitation, windows and that we are scraping a living from poor, rocky ground - so long as we perceive ourselves as better than the clan next door - we're fine.

Scotland - here's tae us, wha's like us.....and we all know the answer to that.

"Maribor - they're the equivalent of Hibs". Celtic fan posting on a Scottish newspaper website this morning.

Maribor 6 Hibernian 2 - result from the third qualifying round of the Europa League competition, season 2010-2011.

See, our capacity for self-delusion, for refusing to face the obvious si quite wonderful; we forgot all about that result from exactly a year ago and dubbed the Slovenians "a pub team". Can I drink in that pub, it's clearly better than the one I frequent here.

"FC Sion - they're Swiss, easy for Celtic". Received wisdom in Scotland when the draw was made.

2011-2012 Europa League, play-off round: FC Sion 3 Celtic 1

2002-2003 Champions League, third qualifying round: FC Basel 3 Celtic 3 (Basel win on away goals)

1993-1994 UEFA Cup, first round: Celtic 1 Young Boys Berne 0 (Celtic through via an own goal)

1991-1992 UEFA Cup, second round: Celtic 2 Neuchatel Xamax 6

1973-1974 European Cup, quarter-final: Celtic 6 FC Basel 5

1969-1970 European Cup, first round: Celtic 2 FC Basel 0

1966-1967 European Cup, first round: Celtic 5 FC Zurich 0

1963-1964 European Cup-Winners Cup, first round: Celtic 10 FC Basel 1.

So, you have to go back to the days of Jock Stein, the Lisbon Lions and the Quality Street Kids to find days when Swiss teams really were easy for Celtic. In the last 20 years, Celtic have met Swiss opposition four times, winning just once - via an own goal. Easy, aye right.

And the lessons of history are equally harsh across the city. Rangers beat Maribor 6-1, over two legs in the Champions League, second qualifying round, in 2001-2002. Tor Andre Flo got three of the goals, Caludio Cannagia bagged a brace and Klaus Nerlinger got the other goal. Rangers promptly lost to Fenebrache in the next round, dropped into the UEFA Cup and had a good run all the way to the last 16.

But that was the Rangers of the big-money buys the de Boers, Lovenkrands, Amoruso, Konterman, Ricksen. Would any Rangers fan like to tell me they'd have today's bought-in "stars" before even "bomb scare Bert" or Flo?

Some Celtic fans on fans' forums since last night have been (rightly) laughing at the "wearrapeepel" attitude which still afflicts the cheap, and expensive seats at Ibrox.

OK, Rangers are no longer "rapeepel", haven't been for ages - but, they are still the reigning Scottish Champions, have been for the last three successive seasons; they are still rated above Celtic in Europe - they might be bad, but, reality says: you're worse.

So, we're at our lowest ebb. What do we do?

Short of ripping the whole thing (Scottish football) up and starting again, there's nothing we can do which will bring long-term improvement. We've got to face facts, come late June, early July of 2012, our best teams will be setting-off to try to qualify for Europe alongside the representatives of the wee countries we have long laughed-at.

Maybe they should start preparing now - after all, one of the great sporting aphorisms is: "Fail to prepare - prepare to fail"; we haven't been paying much attention to that recently, have we?

At least Rangers thanks to Sir David Murray's management incompetence, have some young players coming through  - Celtic simply jettison most of their young talent as soon as they become too-old for the Under-19 League.

If I was Ally, I'd be looking NOW to have a settled European squad of mainly young players, following a strict preparation schedule - geared to having them hit the ground running for the 2012-2013 European qualifiers.

Yes, he's bought-in some experienced players for this season, now, thanks to the European elimination - these are what he's left with. There will be no new cavalry riding to the rescue in the next week.

Split his squad, keep his best for the bigger games, get the kids into the match-day XI for the games against the SPL's diddier teams; field all the kids, plus the experienced pros such as Neil Alexander, Dave Weir, Lee McCulloch, David Healy and James Beattie in the League Cup. Rangers' optimum XI should still be good enough to win the SPL, but get the rest ready for the qualifiers.

Same with Celtic - they've just jettisoned their future. Neil Lennon has, I feel, th ruthlessly prune his squad and rebuild. Some of his buys have shown, time and again, they lack the bottle for the battle. He too has to start preparing for next season. If he doesn't, we'll be here in 12 months time writing the same old, same old, about further embarrassing defeats at the hands of European "pub teams".

Isn't it time we stopped repeating past mistakes and moved on?



What Will It Take For Reality To Strike

YOU take a week off and what happens - you return to find the world, if not turned upside down, has perhaps moved slightly on its axis.

Looking at the Europa League first leg results - what can one say. Hearts losing to Tottenham was hardly a surprise, even if the 5-0 score line was a real kick up the back-side to everyone around Gorgie.

Rangers' loss in Maribor was perhaps something of a self-inflicted wound, losing a last-minute goal undid what was, up until the ball hit Allan McGregor's net, a good result. One would hope that Rangers can make home advantage pay in the second leg, but home advantage in Europe is perhaps not what it once was for Scottish clubs, given Celtic's travails against Sion at Celtic Park.

That 0-0 draw was seen as a "one-off" disappointment for Celtic; such results happen. Then, on Sunday, St Johnstone travelled to Kerrydale Street, took an absolute hammering, but still won 1-0. Another one-off? Maybe, but, two bad results in a row for Celtic have the doom mongers in full song.

Of course, Sion might still be thrown-out of the Europa League, Celtic could still turn the tie around and win in Switzerland on Thursday, while Rangers, after sweeping previously table-topping Motherwell aside with what was hardly Ally McCoist's first-choice line-up, will surely be expected to beat Maribor at Ibrox - or could we maybe see another bad night in Europe?

If I was a Celtic fan, I wouldn't be putting too-much faith in UEFA giving Celtic the equivalent of a Junior football "protest" ticket to the Europa League group stages, should Sion beat them on Thursday. I would, similarly, not be too-confident of the squad's ability to put away the chances which they have hitherto been squandering.

Let's just say, if we have more than one club still in Europe on Friday morning, I for one will be surprised. And if we have none and are set for life among the minnows for a year or so, I will not be surprised either. We live in interesting times.

Rangers' comfortable win over Motherwell was achieved on the back of the club being denied, through injuries and visa/work permit problems, a considerable number of what we should consider first and second picks. This worked-out well for the likes of Jordan McMillan - who was, until Sunday, probably most armchair selector's fourth-choice right back. Ross Perry would similarly be ranked behind four or five players for one of the centre back slots - while young Gordon Wylde was at the heart of some: "Coisty doesn't rate him, He's fallen out with the gaffer, He's going to be moved-on" headlines and innuendo.

McCoist is perhaps on the way to re-considering his previous ideas as to his optimum XI; he has another three new boys to ease into his squad, but, top of the league and unbeaten since Malmo's win at Ibrox last month, he is in the fortunate position of being able to tinker on the back of a run of form.

Neil Lennon is now the man under pressure. His comments after the St Johnstone debacle have, naturally, been spun to just short of the graphics crew slotting the cracked club crest into the page plan; it will be interesting to see how some of his squad react to being publically grabbed by the goolies by an upset manager. The next two games are crucial to Celtic's season.

As to Hearts - they are already out of Europe. It will be interesting to see what sort of squad Paulo Sergio fields at White Hart Lane and what he does to quickly get his club into the top six and challenging the big two - the very least his club owner will demand.

The early weeks of the season have shown that there are some coaches in the SPL - Danny Lennon, Kenny Shiels and Stuart McColl being in the van, who are prepared to put their faith in football in an effort to get close to the perennial big two.

I am disappointed at how things have gone in Europe, but not overly concerned. I feel better days are around the corner. Now, if other clubs would follow the McCoist lead and let young Scottish players show what they can do - I'd be even-more confident about the future.

Things were bad last week - this need not be our usual state. I asked at the top, what it would take for reality to strike; hopefully, last week's poor results were the wake-up call.

Sort Out The Set Pieces And You're Half Way There

THERE are several types of football: American, Association, Australian Rules, Canadian, Gaelic, Harrow, Rugby Union and Rugby League being the most-popular. Of these, Association Football, or the real game, stands out - because it is the most-continuous and flowing. Play only becomes static after a foul, a goal or a corner kick - otherwise play is continuous over the 45 minutes of each half.

In Rugby League, teams re-group following the fifth tackle in each phase of play, in Rugby Union they can re-set themselves after each scrum, line out or breakdown (ruck and maul). In American and Canadian football, there are a set number of plays (downs) to move the ball a set distance, while in Australian Rules the players re-group after each clean catch or thereabouts.

So, in these games, teams consciously practice set pieces; they have control of the ball - they know what they are going to try next, the opposition might hazard a guess, but they have to react quickly to counter whichever more the team in possession comes up with. Everything stems from controlled possession at a set piece, with the intention either to control the next attack or to gain field position from which to launch an attack from the next set piece.

Watching the highlights of the SPL games on Saturday and Sunday, I was struck by how little control our teams appear to have over set pieces - free kicks, corners and so forth, also, how little attention they appear to pay to defending such moments in games. Peter Houston, for instance, was not happy as Rob McLean's studio guess on Sunday night's highlights programme, with his Dundee United side's efforts at set pieces during Saturday's defeat at Celtic Park.

Yet, it stands to reason, if a corner kick is seen as a good attacking opportunity for the team winning one - surely the defending side should put more effort into organising their efforts to prevent goals from corners - I don't think they do, from some of the shambolic defending I saw over the weekend.

I have said before and will doubtless say again - we are not professional enough in Scotland; we do not work hard enough at the basics of team play or indeed at the technical aspects of football. Until we do, our game will struggle.

I DO not pay a great deal of attention to the English Premiership: over-paid, over-rated and over-hyped, that's my take. Certainly, when Manchester United are on-song, they play some wonderful football and although they weren't operating at peak efficiency, there were some wonderful moments in the highlights slot from their meeting with West Brom, on MOTD2 on Sunday.

There has been a lot of comment about their new Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea. He is very young for a goalkeeper, only 21, but, he looks the part, he will mature and get better and if he made a slight error in conceding Albion's goal - no keeper is ever faultless.

The big question around him is: how will he react to the in-depth analysis of his every move? Glad though I am to see him still playing in Scotland, I still feel SAF may regret not going for Allan McGregor - there is a top-class keeper, made for the Old Trafford cauldron. And, he's one o oor ain.

HOWZAT For The Way To Win

I CAN make this confession today, a couple of decades ago it would have been well-nigh possible for a Scotsman to say: "I like and enjoy cricket". Even then, Scotland had one of the highest players-per-head-of-population figures in the world when it came to England's game - those Jocks who enjoyed the thwack of leather on willow simply tended to keep quiet about it though.

Cricket was an effete English pastime, a rather meaningless way of filling-in the weeks while real sportsmen - full backs, wing halves and inside forwards rather than batsmen, bowlers or wicket-keepers - reinvigorated themselves for the new season.

But, these days are past and as someone who has had as much fun and entertainment on the huge West Terrace at Headingley as on the blessed slopes of Hampden, I can say not before time. Be he from a mining town like Barnsley, a mill town such as Accrington, a farming town such as Taunton or a stockbroker living in the commuter belt of Surrey, Middlesex, Essex of Kent, an English cricket fan can be every bit as passionate, knowledgeable or commited to his team as any Old Firm, Hearts or Auchinleck Talbot fan.

So, I am delighted to see England become, officially the Number One Test Match-playing nation. It's not like winning the World Cup: let's face it, a World Cup of test match cricket would last longer than the 100 Years War, so, it's never going to happen - but to be THE best, at the purest form of the game - will surely swell the chest of every Englishman.

There are many reasons why England got there, and there are few lessons which Scottish football can learn from their success - but, there are some.

The main lesson is - the way the English do not over-play their top talent. County Cricket, for so long the mainstay of English cricket is, to be honest, about as gripping as your average SFL Second Division game, and is watched by a similar fan base of the old, the indolent and the very, very few who still care.

One-day cricket is true knock-out, knock-about stuff, with a guaranteed outcome, even if Duckworth-Lewis (don't ask) is hardly a penalty shoot-out, but does give a winner.

Twenty-20 is the cricket equivalent of three-and-in and has about as much relevance to the real game. No, Test Cricket is the real deal.

And England are best, because, as far as possible, they keep their main men fresh for the real game. After the mental high of Edgbaston, Strauss, Cook, Broad, Anderson & Co will not be asked to turn up tomorrow to play county cricket at the English equivalent of Station Park, Forfar, Bayview, or Ochilview. Instead, they will rest, recuperate and prepare to twist the knife in the next test.

If, as happened to captain Strauss earlier in the summer, they are out of form and need a quiet run-out somewhere, telephone calls are made, arrangements put in place and it happens. Someone, somewhere within the England and Wales Cricket Board, oils the wheels to make England the best.

Now, look at the SFA, where you often get the impression someone, somewhere, is moving the goalposts to try to derial Scotland. 'Twas ever thus. In 1950, we scored a spectacular own goal, when we knocked-back a guaranteed place in the World Cup finals in Brazil. Four years later, we allowed Rangers to go off on a club tour to North America, which coincided with the World Cup finals in Switerland.

In 1962 and 1966 we went into crucial "must win" World Cup qualifiers without players, injured in meaningless league games which ought to have been postponed. Things have improved since then, thanks mainly to FIFA initiatives, but, today still, what our clubs want takes precedence over what the national team needs - and with most of the TV money going to the clubs, this will not change shortly.

Also, all of the English cricketers play for English clubs. Just think back over the 130 years since the first Scottish amateur accepted a job down south, provided he played for Darwen, or Accrington Stanley, or Preston North End. The English clubs have never been keen to let their "Scotch professors" return north on international duty. Of course the afore-mentioned FIFA rules mean they have little option today. But, unless we have our top men, playing in Scotland and in a culture where Scotland, rather than the Old Firm, Aberdeen, Hearts of Hibs, is the priority - we will never again be woprld-beaters.

Of course, introducing a football version of cricket's centrally-contracted core of the international side will never be easy. The Rugby Football Union in England has tried it, but has yet to reach the sort of agreement the ECB has with the Counties. But, I am sure it could be done; and if it was - perhaps we would see Scotland back in at least the second pot in World Cup or European Championship draws, and perhaps, in time, in the first pot.

Mind you, for that to happen, as well as the internal organisation, we would need one other thing which we don't have at the moment - a squad of talented players. England beat India at cricket because they had the bowlers - the strikers of that game.

Anderson, Bresnan, Broad and Tremlett were better than what India had. English football is in a bad way because they lack quality strikers - in cricket parlance Rooney is an all-rounder rather than a specialist striker.

How much worse off are we? A new Denis Law and proper organisation and what might we achieve?

Let's Become Borrowers

THE news that Hibernian were signing young Airley from Newcastle United on a six-month loan deal set me thinking this morning. Might this be the way ahead for Scottish football and a means of making the SPL better?

By common consent, our top-flight league is considered fairly mediocre by European standards. OK, we are still within the top 20 of the 50-odd national leagues within UEFA, but we are a long way off the overall standards in the big leagues.

Increasingly these big leagues are recruiting their new blood from the poorer European nations, Africa, the traditional South American recruiting grounds of the Italian, Spanish and Portugese Leagues and now, in greater numbers, Asia. They bring in callow youths, feed them up, school them, then the bigger clubs send them to lesser teams to have the rough edges polished off, before re-calling them if they think they'll make it and selling them on if they think not.

The top English Premiership clubs have bought into this, the squad lists in the Premiership Academies reads like a League of Nations, with French, Spanish, Italian and Eastern European names are frequent, if not more obvious than Smiths, Jones and Macdonalds. Once through the Under-19 age group, these kids are either loaned-out or moved-on. So why shouldn't we up here get more of these kids on loan?

OK Airley is at Hibs, Kyle Bartley is at Rangers, Fraser Forster was at Celtic last season; but why don't we have more on-show up here? We are proud of our super seven Scottish-born Premiership managers, so why don't we approach King Kenny, Sir Alex and the five commoners, Messrs Coyle, Kean, Lambert, McLeish and Moyes to send us some of their youngsters for a year or two's tempering in the fire of the SPL?

Might they tell us, what some English critics have been telling us for years: "Your league's shite Jock"? I would not doubt their lack of patriotism - so maybe it's time we asked them to help-out the folks back home by sending us their youth, that we may teach them the right way, the Scottish way, to play football.

I watched a youthful Manchester United squad rip Ayr United apart in a pre-season friendly. None of these kids is anywhere near a first team shirt at Old Trafford; but I see no reason why Sir Alex might block-out a season at his beloved Pittodrie, under the tutelage of two men he surely trusts as being able to look after the kids and bring them on - Craig Brown and Archie Knox. It makes sense to me. And if Jack and Victor could bring them through, why not other Scottish managers?

STILL on the subject of player development, I was researching a historical piece this week, one which is due to be published in about two months, and I had a Eureka moment - let's use the juniors more.

Once upon a time would-be footballers followed a well-trod path. You started playing at school. If you were presumed to be any good and were lucky enough to get a Schoolboy cap - you had every chance of being whisked off to England, aged 14 or 15, for a ground staff job at a big club there. Then, it was up to you - if you made the grade, in time you'd get into the first team and perhaps win Scottish caps.

If you failed, you came back up the road and joined your local junior team. Getting into the juniors was also a stepping stone for your less-talented friends, who might leave school, play secondary juvenile or juvenile football, even churches league football, and in time get the call to a junior side.

The juniors was the ultimate finishing school; it made a man or an exhibit for medical students out of you and if you survived, there was every chance you could step-up to the senior ranks - but, in getting there you had survived a hard and at times lengthy apprenticeship.

Then, in the mid-sixties, it began to change, boys clubs began to become more important than schools in teaching the basics, schools football withered and all but died when the teachers went on strike in the early 1980s. Ground staff jobs gave way to apprenticeships, and somehow, we began to lose more talent than we developed.

The English clubs grew rich on the back of TV money and suddenly Scottish recruits were dull, over-familiar, buying continental became the thing.

Some boys still went down the boys club route into the junior ranks, where they were increasingly competing with one-time boy wonders who hadn't made the senior grade and been dumped - while all but the lesser Scottish senior clubs stopped scouting in the juniors, prefering to recruit drop-outs from the bigger clubs's disjointed youth development ranks.

But, I feel, in today's fiscally-challenged Scottish game - it is time to look anew at the juniors.

The SPL no longer runs a Reserve League and increasingly all but the very best youngsters are released once they are too-old for the U-19 team. Some of these players might be "late developers" - look at Steven Dobie, released by Rangers at 20, eight years later, after a peripatetic career in the lower leagues here and in England, is in the Premiership with Swansea; others simply not good enough; still more needing more time.

How might it work if an SPL club, say Kilmarnock, had half a dozen players coming out of their U-19 team, whom they couldn't immediately put into their small SPL squad, but whom they wished to keep tabs on. They could surely find a way of keeping them within the club's sphere of influence, by perhaps loaning them out to a local junior club, let's say Irvine Meadow.

These players could perhaps train two or three days per week with Killie - on reduced wages; train the other two with the Meadow, for whom they would play on a Saturday - but could be re-called to Killie if needed.

I'd call that win, win all round. That's just a sketched outline of what could happen; making it happen would need more thought. But, I could see such a scenario benefitting both the junior and the senior club - not to mention the player, who would be getting regular games. I feel we ought to be looking at such schemes more.

One of the things which got me thinking about the desirability of a spell in the juniors was reading 'The Ghost of White Hart Lane' Robert White's book, co-written by Julie Welch, about his late, brilliant father John White.

"The Ghost" - John White - was never more than nine and a half stone, wringing wet, but he and the equally slight "Slim" Jim Baxter formed the best Scottish central midfield pairing I have ever seen. Together they destroyed teams, while the Spurs midfield trio of the wonderful 1961 double-winning side: White, skipper Danny Blanchflower and Dave Mackay was sensational.

White's career included a spell with Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic, Mackay played for Newtongrange Star, as did the almost as celebrated Alex Young, Baxter played for Crossgates Primrose, Kenny Dalglish played for Cumbernauld United, Jimmy Johnstone for Blantyre Celtic, Billy McNeill, like Jock Stein before him, served Blantyre Victoria.

A spell in the juniors didn't hurt these icons - let's bring it back.

Scotland Flowering

OH Flower o Scotland, when will we see yer like again? I'm not that bothered about the return of King Robert the Bruce and his coterie of mainly Norman barons, who master-minded Bannockburn and sent Proud Edward's army homeward tae think again. I'm looking more for the likes of Baxter, Bremner, Dalglish, Johnstone, Law, Mackay, Souness and Co - the footballing legends we grew up with.

To be fair, they, wonderful talents though they were, never exactly put the world to rights and put Scotland back to where it hasn't been for well-nigh a century: the best team in the world. Indeed, realistically, we may never take-on Brazil or Italy or Germany in a World Cup final - but we can dream.

And that dream maybe came a wee bit closer last night, when we beat Denmark, at Hampden. OK, it was "only" Denmark, it was "only" a friendly, it was the sort of night which could even define "dreich" to an Englishman - but: WE WON.

Friendly wins have been rare for Scots fans to celebrate lately, ditto competitive wins, although, our record when a game actually matters has long been better than when it doesn't. But, for purely morale reasons, going into the sharp end of the Euro' 2012 qualifying process, this one was a good one.

It, of course, wasn't perfect, Allan McGregor made what might well be his only mistake of the season in conceding the Danish goal; a vote among the members of the Tartan Army would probably find a majority agin playing 4-5-1, but, we are maybe starting to get back to where we want to be.

We won without skipper Darren Fletcher, Scott Brown was forced off early - a couple of years ago without these two, we'd really have struggled. Today, guys such as James Morrison and winning goal scorer Robert Snodgrass are looking as if they belong in the international arena, ditto Stevie Naysmith. We still need a viable alternative to the ageing Kenny Miller, but Phil Bardsley might well have made the number two jersey his own last night, Stephen Crainey looked assured on the other flank while Danny Wilson and the much-maligned Gary Caldwell looked the part in the middle - we have a defence.

Craig Levein has little room for manouevre in the remaining qualifiers, one bad night at the office could still derail us en route to the play-offs; but Private Fraser and Victor Meldrew are now talking to themselves.

And, looking ahead to the World Cup 2014 qualifiers, buoyed-up by the good showing of the Under-21s - we can look forward confidently.

SPL honcho Doncaster was trying to be chipper this week in the wake of the publication of the latest PWC report on the finances of the SPL clubs, which I blogged on yesterday.

He used statistics wonderfully, when he pointed-out that Scotland has the highest "per-head of population" football attendances in the world - because 1 in every 63 persons living in Scotland attends an SPL game each week.

Aye Right. Take away those who attend games involving Celtic and Rangers and the figures don't look so good. Stop trying to kid people Mr Doncaster, without the Bigot Brothers, we'd be a lot lower down the order.

Until the other clubs get their acts together and begin to really challenge the big two, in a manner we have not seen - the all-too-brief flowering of the "New Firm" between 1978 and the Souness Revolution apart - for half a century, we are going nowhere other than down the drain.

The paucity of ideas and ambition in the 40 senior clubs other than the Old Firm is the biggest stumbling block to Scotland getting back among the top football countries in Europe and the world. Until this is addressed, we will struggle.

Forgive Us Our Debts

WE should all know where this post's headline comes from; and if the newly-published PriceWaterhouseCooper report on the finances of the SPL clubs is any guide, prayer may well be a major strategy in the management of our top football clubs.

An overall profit of £1 million by the 12 clubs isn't all-that-impressive; things get worse when you consider that only Rangers - on the back of a good European run - and Dundee United actually turned a profit by their own endeavours, while the figures were somewhat massaged by the largesse of  "Mad Vlad" at Hearts and Jamie Moffat at Kilmarnock in writing-off £8 million and £1 million in debt to them as individuals. Remove Rangers' European run from the picture, which the abject, indisciplined performance against Malmo has already done and things are looking so bleak that Private Fraser and Victor Meldrew look like optimists.

And it isn't going to get any better - soon.

Let's look at how things have gone since the end of last season. Rangers changed hands just before the title was secured, a brave new dawn was breaking - or so we were told. A "tired, threadbare, average" squad had just completed a hat-trick of SPL wins and added the League Cup for good measure. Celtic, under Neil Lennon, had re-grouped, battled Rangers every inch of the way in the league race, but still managed - by imploding at Inverness and by Giorgio Samaras's penalty miss at Ibrox - to lose a title which seemed theirs for the taking, albeit they had the consolation of a Scottish Cup win. Hearts, having at one time looking like the potential meat in an Old Firm sandwich at the top of the table, fell away to be the best-best-of-the-rest, but in horse racing terms "a distance" adrift of the two in the photo-finish up front.

Hearts have (again) changed managers, with Mr Romanov's insistence in actually implementing some of the tried and tested business management techn iques I've been discussing these past two days concluding that Jim Jefferies maybe wasn't doing that great a job. The great and good in Scottish football's chattering classes were initially aghast at this suggestion, before realising, maybe the so-called mad one had a point.

Rangers' new management has shown remarkable naivety in their transfer dealings to the extent: "Let's all laugh at Rangers" has become the most-popular game on the Scottish football websites; and when they have managed to recruit, "I'm not impressed" has been the general reaction of fans and others at their efforts. They have also lost the near-mythical "Walter" as manager and it is fair to say successor Alistair McCoist's early efforts have to some extent mirrored his early days as a Rangers player some 30-years ago. That said, if he goes on to have the success as a manager he enjoyed as a player, his statute will eventually go up alongside that of John Greig outside Ibrox Stadium.

Across the city Neil Lennon, emerged stronger and wiser from an at times horrible and amazingly stressful and trying season, with his first trophy landed and high hopes for this season. He has continued his policy of building slowly and steadily - recruiting mainly young players who should improve. But, as ever with the Old Firm, questions remain. These mainly concern the mental fortitude of his squad, the lack of a top-class goalkeeper and the belief that, for all he has a bigger squad than Rangers at his disposal - the quality isn't there. The fear among some Celtic fans is that, when the going gets tough, he doesn't have the same number of hard yards grinders-out that McCoist has. But, time will tell.

Hearts should again lead the resistance from outwith Glasgow. Like Celtic, they have a big squad, which lacks depth. The absence of the talismanic Kevin Kyle was keenly felt at the end of last season; he has yet to kick a ball this. Also, they are having to try to give new manager Sergio a crash course in Scottish football's ways. Things will be tough down Gorgie way until Christmas I expect.

Dundee United - minus David Goodwillie and last season's midfield, will struggle; likewise Kilmarnock - because they will toil for goals, so don't be surprised if Stuart McColl's Motherwell emerge as the provincial standard-bearers. The rest, who knows what will happen?

One thing we do know is - the fans will increasingly ration their attendances. Going to football today is an expensive business, and the punters have long ago decided they will not pay out good and harder-to-earn money to watch rubbish.

Gates were down last season, they will likely drop again - unless the clubs can come up with a better product, at a better price - and there is little chance of that.

In times of acute financial peril, as now, you cut your costs, pull-in your horns and live frugally. Slashing squad sizes, giving youth its chance, coming up with new marketing and pricing strategies, offering greater value for money and added-value: these are the things successful businesses such as Tesco are doing to ride-out these hard times. I do not see Scottish football following this successful business model, so maybe, indeed - prayer is the only answer.

TONIGHT, Scotland take on Denmark at Hampden in a friendly international, aimed at helping Craig Levein prepare his squad for next month's crucial European Championship qualifiers. The build-up has been good; few call-offs, good harmony within the squad, players keen to don navy blue.

But, this is a friendly. Scotland doesn't DO friendlies that well, so it could and probably will all go pear-shaped early doors tonight. Not that I am all that worried by this. Come next month and the Czech Republic - when it matters, the bagpipes will strike up and we will get tore right intae them - with much more ardour and belief than we showed in the first match, last season.

It is good to see so-many English Premiership players in our team, although we still lack genuine quality in key areas, but, this is Scotland - come oan lads: Gerrintaerum.

What Would A Business Doctor Make of Scottish Football?

WHERE is the old fart going with this one? You might well ask; but bear with me please as I carry-on from where I left-off yesterday, with my piece about businessmen not taking care of business when that business is football.

I got the idea for this post from reading a copy of Des McKeown's excellent book, ghosted by my old mate Bill Leckie: 'Don't Give Up The Day Job'. This tome is a diary of a year in the life of office equipment sales director and part-time footballer McKeown. It was written a decade agom but is still relevant today, by which time McKeown, still flogging the stationery, is a valued member of the BBC Sportsound team.

One of the questions Des asked in his excellent book was: "When will football adopt good business practices, such as the annual review"? Of course, not all businesses go in for "the annual review" - certainly journalism doesn't. I well recall, again some ten years ago, when the big newspaper group which then paid me my pittance decided editors would have to conduct a twice-yearly review of the performances of their journalists.

The man to whom I then answered was decidedly old school, definitely not in favour of this, but, he had to go through with it. I should say here, had it been done properly, at least 20% of the editorial staff would have been out of the door, but, no chance of that. In my case, the interview consisted of him asking me how I thought I had done: me pointing-out how much more work I, as a one-man-band sports department did in comparison to the general news staff and how much-easier my job would be if he told the News Editor, who shared his bed, to keep her nose out of stuff she knew hee-haw about. I then added that I was being grossly under-paid and over-worked.

The review was then abruptly terminated as I was given a two word instruction, the second word was "Off". The review was never repeated.

Now, supposing reviews became common-place in football. Just what might be said between say a Scotland Under-21 internationalist, whose season had been spent warming the bench for an SPL side, whose squad comprised mainly cheap foreign imports, taking the money, kissing the badge but making it quite clear Scotland and the SPL was a convenient staging-post en route to the riches of a bigger league such as the EPL, and his manager; a man with no genuine man-management training, a coaching certificate, obtained more than a decade before and never updated by a refresher course since?

"Well Shuggie son - your warm-ups are impressive; you're out there quickly, your stretches seem deep and full. You're never late for training, you come on all the nights out, you put up with the wind-ups and awe that other pish - but, you're too-young and I cannot justify putting you on - maybe next season, keep it up son. Anything you want to ask?"

"Aye gaffer - how come that big Greek tit, who couldnae hit a coo oan the erse wi a banjo and scores aboot wance every five gemmes gets tae stert every week an ah'm stuck oan the bench, in spite o haen scored fower late equalisers and twa last-meenit winners aff the bench?"

"Well son, that's Scottish fitba - ye hae tae serve yer time."

"Right boss, OK."

Not that long ago Scotland was the destination of choice for English managers seeking to augment their squads - today, while admittedly the number of Scots in the EPL is growing by the season, this is far from the case. Where once the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton and Manchester United raided each year's Scottish Schoolboys Under-15 or Under-16 team for their future stars, today, zilch - they shop for future talent in Spain, France or Africa.

The English sides would have Scottish scouts, scouring the provincial clubs for: "the next big thing" - if a Dundee United or Hibs player got into the Scotland squad, it was only a matter of time before the big money move to England. Today, their successors have to arrange their own move South via a Bosman.

Look at the British motor industry. When we had an Empire, or a Commonwealth we were commited to: Austins, Rovers, MGs, Rileys, Hillmans and Sunbeam cars were commonplace on the city streets of Africa and Asia, while AEC and Leyland buses carried the poor into these cities, where the nation's goods were delivered on AEC, Leyland, Guy or Bedfor trucks and vans.

At home, a Leyland or Foden or ERF or Atkinson truck, powered by a Manchester-built Gardner engine hauled the goods up and down the A1 or A6. In Scotland, our own, Glasgow-built Albions had a strong local customer base: while the smaller Perkins-engined Bedfords or Morris Commercials, or the Slough-built Fordson trucks and vans plied our city streets. Hell, we even sent Ford Transit vans around the world.

But, the British manufacturers refused to move with the times: Volvo, Scania, MAN, Iveco, Renault and Mercedes trucks are everywhere today; sure, Alexanders of Falkirk still make bus bodies, but for chassis built by these foreign firms, no longer for British-manufactured AEC, Bedford or Leyland chassis.

These firms stopped investing in technical development, the British worker would not move with the times and our manufacturing industry foundered. Our bankers, who had supported British expansion, settled for American-style "casino banking", betting millions on currency movements and ignoring their British clientele.

Well, I would suggest - the Scottish clubs stopped investing in their raw materials, the kids. We ignored the traditional wee, red-headed Scottish wing half, who could play a 60-yard pass onto a sixpence, but could also, when required, tame a much-bigger, more physically-imposing opponent with the ferocity of his tackling. We stopped playing pass and move, we settled for a couple of generations of "players" who could run all day through a ploughed field, but couldn't trap a bag of cement, guys whose second touch was a frantic slide tackle to try to recover the ball which they could easily mis-kick off either shin.

We settled for mediocrity and that's what we've got.

The SFA boasts of the quality of its coaching courses. Well it sure doesn't boast of the quality of the management - and I don't mean the managers - of its clubs. I don't blame the team managers: the Scots bosses up here grew up in the era of only putting-in four, two-hour training sessions per week. Few if any of them came through the school which said: "Fail here and you're back down the pit or into the ship yard or the foundry on Monday". They had an easy life as players and they are happy to continue that easy life as managers.

If they fail, and most do, there is always the old pal's act of a gig on BBC Sportsound, where the rules are: "Don't criticise, don't be too-opinionated and remember, never criticise the Old Firm". Obey these and you've got an easy wee gig for years.

Just, don't demand too-big an improvement, don't ask for more from your players, don't question the status quo - get through it. The mugs on the terraces will put up with it.

Except, times are hard, the mugs are not putting up with it, they are voting with their feet, to find ways of watching better football on TV or on the internet.

Scottish football is dying and unless we get business doctors in to sort out the way the clubs and the game are run - in a few years we will not have a Scottish Football to worry about.

I can hardly wait to read the first prognosis from the first business doctor to properly analyse the management of a top Scottish club - it will, I bet, make fascinating reading.

The Football Business Is Like No Other Business - Aye Right

THE headline above is: "received wisdom" in the world of Scottish, indeed British football. The last two words are my retort.

Football clubs, at least at the "professional" level (the quote marks are my jaundiced view of the majority of our SPL and SFL clubs, are almost all limited liability companies - subject to the same company laws as haulage contractors, hotels, retail shops, engineering companies - any business you care to name.

They are owned by their shareholders. In the world of commerce, shareholders invest in companies in the hope of receiving a monetary return on their investment, through the company's management's ability to make profits. In football, by and large being a shareholder invests through a desire to belong, perhaps out of loyalty to the team. They do not seek monetary reward, the occasional cup success, a high position in the SPL, promotion through the three SFL divisions to that top-flight is enough reward.

These general rules do not, however, apply to the Old Firm - where nothing less than non-stop, continuous success - and above all finishing above the other half of the OF, is all that is required of the club management.

Look at the players, the work force of the football "business". No five-day, 40-hour weeks for these guys; two hours of "training", four days a week, plus 90 minutes of "work" once or twice per week, for which, even in Scotland, those considered to be the best receive a weekly salary far in excess of that earned by the spectaors on the terraces and in the stands who fund their life-styles.

These men are by and large "full-time professionals"; except, this is a profession which doesn't require a minimum nationally-accepted standard of knowledge of the chosen subject. You don't have to pass examinations to be admitted to this "profession"; there is no requirement to keep abreast of current developments, no refresher courses, or requirement to upgrade your qualifications periodically. Once you are in, you are there until somebody called "a manager" decides to kick you out.

These managers can obtain professional qualifications, which are universally recognised - but there is no requirement to obtain these qualifications prior to taking up a managerial position.

These football clubs do not even have to make money. They are apparently not subject to market forces. Football teams are supposedly part of the entertainment industry, but are allowed to continue operating even when their seat occupancy rates are so low that, were that club a cinema or a theatre, they would be closed down, their premises closed and perhaps knocked-down and re-developed.

So, given these apparent paradoxes, it is no surprise that the likes of John Boyle, who made millions from the holiday business, Sir David Murray, who made billions from steel, hotels, property and service industries, should flop in the world of football.

It has been suggested that businessmen park their business brains in the cap park the moment they take over a football team. I would go further, I could give you examples of otherwise successful businessmen who came a cropper once they crossed the line from sports fans to sports club owner.

Given the masses of proven examples of this, the fact that billionaire venture capitalist Craig Whyte has hardly set the world on fire in the early months of his time as owner of Rangers FC, should surprise nobody. The fact that, already, less than six months into his ownership of this club/Scottish institution, Mr Whyte is under fire is simply further proof of the truth of my heading to this post.

Now, the question is - can Mr Whyte change this seemingly eternal truth? If he can, he might usher-in a new age of better management, of more success and of untold riches for him and Rangers. But already, it looks like being the same old, same old. Rangers and Celtic will continue to rule in Scotland, while being very small fry in Europe and beyond.

Can We Do The Three Card Trick?

SO that's the Europa League play-off round draw then - not too bad and we just might pull-off the three card trick of having three Scottish clubs through to the group stages.

No, I haven't finally misplaced the few remaining marbles I have; I can see Celtic, Hearts and Rangers all qualifying for the group stages. But, what about Hearts - facing a side from the English Premiership? you ask.

So what, it's only Spurs, a team with a flaky defence, no idea about consistency and, we understand, Mr Redknapp has already said he will be using his fringe players in Europe. Such are the riches to be had from the Premiership, unless their teams are in the Champions League, which brings even-greater riches, they're not too bothered. 'Arry will approach Europe from the viewpoint of blooding kids for the Premiership, that's his main focus.

His season kicks off with a home match with Everton, then they go to Hearts, then Manchester United, then entertain Hearts, before entertaining Man City. I reckon I know which of those games 'Arry rates as the least-important and they don't involve teams from the North-West of England. 'Arry also knows the two matches against Hearts will be played like cup ties, so he will not want his men to risk injury prior to the bigger matches against the Manc sides - Hearts could win this one.

Rangers' trip to Mirabor will be no awayday janut. But, having had their horror shows against Malmo, I fancy Rangers will be able to see-off the Slovenians and advance to the group stages; but here again, only if they are focussed and ready.

Same thing goes for Celtic. We Scots tend to under-rate Swiss sides, but, having been shocked by Neuchetal Xamax and Basle in the past, you can bet Neil Lennon will have Celtic geared-up to winning this one.

LOOKING at this week-end's SPL fixtures, the big game for me will be Sunday's Fir Park clash between Motherwell and Hearts. After Thursday night's terrific win in Europe, Hearts will be buzzing when they visit the league leaders - who will in turn fancy, with home advantage, they can remain top of the table. This one promises much.

Dundee United did well to beat Hearts last weekend, but, that will mean nothing if they cannot make home advantage count against a St Mirren team equally buoyed-up by their home win over Aberdeen. United to win and remain in the mix at the top.

Hibs have had to take a lot of flak in recent months, but, Garry O'Connor started to repay the club's faith in him at Inverness last week, so surely the long-suffering Easter Road punters will have something to celebrate come the final whistle. While for St Johnstone, there is the memory of previous good wins in Leith, but not, I fear, this time.

Dunfermline have to make home advantage count against bottom of the table Inverness - who will arrive on the back of a week of ear-bashing and pain from an angry Terry Butcher. This one, to me, has draw written all over it.

Celtic will be clear, odds-on favourites to beat Aberdeen at Pittodrie - and why not? Can Aberdeen beat them. Doubt it - Celtic to win comfortably.

Finally, the two big friendlies. A narrow defet to Chelsea might be acceptable to the Rangers faithful, but, for the home side - this one is all about putting on a show which persuades the hordes that better times are just around the corner after that CL exit.

While, at Rugby Park, the big question is - will Goodwillie make his Blackburn debut? This should be a football feast, with Rovers edging it narrowly.

IN THE Irn-Bru Scottish League, the most-interesting match for me is the Somerset Park meeting of Ayr United and Hamilton Academical. Last season these teams were two leagues apart. Now they are in the same division.

Part-time Ayr will shock a few sides this season, Accies could be first. Billy Reid's men need to show relegation has barely affected them. If they can win, they should be in what will be a season-long multi-team promotion race. If they cannot, they could struggle.

The other intriguing match for me is at Firhill, where Thistle, dumped out of the League Cup by lowly Berwick last Saturday, face Dundee - the team which would have been promoted last season, but for that swinging 25 points deduction.

This pair should be in the Premier League, and good win for either could be the first step towards getting back there. But, defeat will perhaps signal the start of a long, hard season.

Get out there and enjoy the football, somewhere in Scotland.

The Quicksands Are Sucking Us Down

REMEMBER the heart-rending tale of the Chinese immigrant cockle pickers who were caught in the quicksands and rushing inward tides of Morecambe Bay a few years ago. There deaths were both tragic and unnecessary.

I appreciate some might call me insensitive for likening that real human tragedy with a defeat in a football match, but I cannot help but think our Scottish clubs go into Europe each year with about the same state of readiness as those poor Chinese workers had as they walked onto those treacherous sands to their deaths.

Scottish clubs have been competing in Europe since 1955. Since that date we have been aware that our European mainland neighbours have better technique than us - but that knowledge hasn't narrowed the technique gap in any way. We have also been aware that the Europeans have a better diet, tend to be physically more-impressive and while, in the early years of European competition, a wee bit of Scottish "dig" and the knowledge that, in the immortal words of the battling butcher Corporal Jones: "They don't like it up em", helped offset the technique advantage the European sides enjoyed over the Scottish.

But, as the song says: "These days are past and in the past they must remain". Today's European player has added British stamina and competitiveness to continental technical ability and as a result, Scotland is sinking to the level of the semi-junior European Leagues.

Not that you will ever find the "blazers" within Hampden's corridors of power, whether that power arises from the SFA, SPL or SFL, admitting how rank we are. Scottish football needs to change, it must change; some of us have known that for years - but, the familiar Scottish refrain of: "But it's aye been done this way" has held us back.

Our background doesn't help us. The late Bill Shankly once said that the secret of winning in England was simple - you recruited enough Scots players to make a difference, but not too-many, in which case they would start fighting with each other.

We do love our "bonnie fechters"; we grow up with the need to debate and dispute and we love to get involved in battles. Too many of us have a hair-trigger temper and how many Scottish players talk themselves into the referee's wee black book? Far too many for my liking.

Look at Steven Whittaker last night. Rangers had been given a free kick - so he thinks it a good idea to throw the ball at his Malmo opponent - red card for Whittaker. How stupid was that?

Rangers are or should be the richest club in Scotland. They ought to have the pick of Scotland's young players - but, how many make the grade there? Of those who do make the grade (by having a first team squad number), how many actually get onto the park?

Rangers have, in the past ten years, spent an absolute fortune in recruiting foreign players who were either - over the hill (the de Boers); over-priced (Tore Andfre Flo) or over-rated (Jerome Rotten). Meanwhile they have seen young Scots players become Scotland Under-21 caps and never train on to be first team players (too many to name); or be jettisoned to go on to perform well in England's Championship or Premiership and to become internationalists (Charlie Adam, Ross McCormack, Stephen Dobbie).

They have signed players who if not unfit when they arrived, quickly became so - the latest being Daniel Goian last night. But, have heads rolled on their medical staff - no, thought not.

Don't get the impression, this is a rant against Rangers. For all their failings both on and off the field - they are still Scotland's top club; reigning champions, highest-ranked side in the UEFA co-efficients. But, in European terms, they are rank rotten, a big club in a small league and with small ambitions.

But, Rangers are the best we've got. What does that say about the rest?

Unless things change, radically and soon - we truly are all doomed.



Vlad The Impaler Strikes Again

ONE thing you can say about Hearts' owner "Mad Vlad" Romanov - life is seldom dull on his watch. His latest jolt to Scottish football's measured lurch into the new season came yesterday afternoon, when he binned Jim Jefferies. Surprise, surprise - no, the surprise with Vlad will come when he no longer surprises us.

I have a certain sympathy for JJ, he has been a good manager of a provincial club; he has kept Hearts clinging to the coat tails of the Old Firm, he encourages good football, but, at the end of the day his team has had a poor 2011 by the standards his boss expects and if he was handicapped to an extent by injuries, under JJ Hearts no more than flirted with a genuine challenge to the Old Firm.

This is the problem with Scottish football as I see it. Celtic and Rangers, with their massive home supports, have a fiscal advantage which now makes it almost inevitable that they will finish first and second in the league. But, there can be little doubt - they have, over recent seasons, paid top dollar for second-rate players and I honestly believe that a good technical coach, able to properly harness the Scots Presbyterian work ethic to sophisticated tactics, COULD mount a serious challenge to the status quo of Old Firm domination.

Mind you, such a coach would perhaps have just three seasons in which to perform this trick, before either the Old Firm or, more likely any one of some 40 English clubs came in and cherry-picked his squad with better financial packages. Something like: first season - mount a season-long league challenge, reach one of the cup finals; season two - split the Old Firm, win one of the cups; season three - win the league.

Somewhere around the January transfer window in season two, the laptoployal would start print the stories linking one or t'other with the challenging side's top two players and, if they were held on to, by the end of the third season or the players entering the final year of their contracts, whichever came first, the pressure to sell to one of the Old Firm or an English predator would all but impossible.

For all that, for the good of Scottish football, we need somebody to rise to the challenge and become the real third force. Vlad just might be the man to fund such a challenge, but nothing in his past behaviour leads me to believe he will put-up, then shut-up and allow his chosen coach/manager to show what he can do.

But, good luck to Paulo Sergio - you'll need it.

THE on-going David Goodwillie saga intrigues me. By all accounts, Goodwillie ought to have been paraded as a Blackburn Rovers by now. (That's not to say this announcement will not be long delayed).

The fact he still hasn't been unveiled at Ewood Park makes me believe he could still end up at Ibrox. He's clearly a Rangers fan; it is equally clear, for all the riches being spread before him in terms of a reported £1 million-per-year pay deal, he's not entirely happy with the thought of moving to Blackburn. And, having visited that town a few times, I cannot say I blame him; nice enough place I suppose, but rows and rows of red brick back-to-backs and the ever-pervading smell of Asian spices would make me long for the open spaces and clear air of Raploch.

One thing this long-drawn-out transfer story has shown is, Craig Whyte has a lot to learn about running a football club. As I have posted before, he's a venture capitalist and thus, by nature more used to buying cheap than splashing-out top dollar. But, if his manager has identified a player as a "must-have" as Ally McCoist apparently has with Goodwillie - then not to back his manager and get him, immediately raises doubts about Whyte.

Does he rate McCoist? Did he even want him as manager? Are manager and owner on the same wave-length as regards how to take Rangers forward? These are interesting times.

Then there is the third man in any Rangers transfer dealings - Gordon Smith. What has been his input to the Goodwillie saga? How is he getting on with Whyte and McCoist?

If, as currently appears likely, Goodwillie does join Blackburn and Rangers are left with egg on their faces after their succession of raised but rejected bids - does the fact Rangers didn't get him become a resignation issue with McCoist? Only time will tell.

By the way, fair play to Stephen Thomson for the way he has played hard ball with Rangers. We have become too-used to the Old Firm raiding the competing Scottish clubs to augment their own failing youth development programmes. Too often the other clubs have simply rolled-over and allowed the young talent they developed go to Glasgow for buttons.

We're a long way from the stupid fees the bigger English clubs pay for potential, but, if Dundee United get what they want for Goodwillie - they'll have struck a blow against the big two.

Barnum and Bailey It Aint

RATHER like your kids in the back seat while you drive down the M6 on holiday, a lot of Scottish football fans have been asking: "Is it here yet?" as season 2011-2012 ever-so-slowly cranks up. Once upon a time, when we had an indiginous newspaper industry, rather than being a northern enclave of 'Fleet Street', the likes of the Daily Record had a couple of special pre-set fonts. The first, only used occasionally proclaimed in black 72 point: "THE KING/QUEEN IS DEAD"; the other, used once annually roared: "KING FOOTBALL IS BACK".

Today, football resumes after an ever-shortening summer break with, rather than a fanfare and a blaze of publicity - but by almost shame-facedly creeping in. Mind you, with the state Scottish football is in these days, can we blame it?

Scottish football has been on the downward slope for at least the last 25-years. In that time, the powers-that-be have made a lot of noise, come up with a lot of promises of better days around the corner, but done hee-haw about actually changing things. In increasing numbers the fans have voted with their feet. Aye, the Bigot Brothers still pull-in the fans, but, let's be honest, a lot of their combined following are signed-up for reasons which have little, if anything, to do with a love of football.

When, in the second round of  matches, unbeaten Kilmarnock and table-topping Motherwell can only one-quarter-fill Rugby Park - a Rugby Park which, remember, only holds around half the number of fans it once did - why do we bother?

I've seen Killie pre-season; Kenny Shiels's team is far from the finished article, but, they are trying to play good football, albeit without a genuine striker familiar with the expected juxtaposition of a cow's rear end and a banjo. Motherwell's thumping of Inverness CT in their opening fixture even forced a smile onto Tam Cowan's coupon, Saturday was a fine, sunny day - yet - poor crowd, no goals -yawn.

It goes without saying: playing competitive football during the Glasgow Fair is wrong - but, that's the price we must pay for our long, slow, decline into genteel poverty - or ought that rather be paucity of talent, expectation and ambition.

We seriously and urgently need to re-structure out leagues, re-structure our season and re-state our ambition. But, don't hold your breath; we will surely guddle along for a good wee while yet before, if ever, things turn.

Not even the great WG Barnum could drum up interest in Scottish Football as it is today.

SO, WE now know that the Road to Rio will be via: Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Macedonia and Wales. We might have had it tougher, again, we could have had it easier, but, when it comes to World Cups and Scotland, it was ever thus.

Croatia, who will start the group as favourites to qualify, we have faced thrice since that country re-emerged from the break-up of the old Yugoslavia: all three games, in 2001, 2002 and 2008 have been drawn - 1-1, 0-0, 1-1. So, tight games, probably decided by the odd goal would seem to be the order of the day, but, we need not fear them.

Serbia we have never met before, but in eight matches against Yugoslavia, including World Cup Final meetings in Sweden in 1958 and West Germany in 1974, we only lost once, going down 3-1 in Zagreb in a WC qualifying group match in Zagreb in 1989. Since then, the down-sizing of the once-powerful Yugoslavs to their Serbian rump has weakened them badly. Another two tight games beckon, but two we should win.

Belgium - now the two meetings with them could well be THE crucial games in our group.  We've met the Belgians 15 times since the end of World War II and our record reads: won 4, drawn 3, lost 8. We have been drawn with them three times in World Cup or European Championship qualifiers and have barely registered a drawn against them, while we've won just two of eleven games against them in the last 40 years. You might say: "We are due a change of luck against them", but, these will be probably our two toughest games.

Macedonia, provided we heed the lessons of history and avoid the stifling heat of Skopje between May and October, should not overly concern us - but the lesson of that 0-1 2008 loss in the Macedonian capital must be heeded.

Then there is the clash of the Scotia Nostra and the Taffia. First the good news - we've never failed to qualify when we've been in a World Cup group with the Welsh; we can reinforce that with the glad tidings of our win over them last time out, in the Carling Cup, in Dublin  in May.

But, that was achieved against a very young, inexperienced and experimental Welsh XI and it was our first win over the Red Dragons in six outings. Also, our record in Cardiff is terrible -  two wins in ten visits over the past 50 years.

They will hope to field the likes of Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey against us, but: to modify a famous Shanklyism - if you canny beat two men, ye shouldnae be playin fur Scotland.

The eternal optimist in me believes we can win the group, far less merely qualify for the lay-offs, but, the observer, cowed with repeated under-performance by our brave lads, can equally-easily see us finish fourth in the group.

But, such are the joys of being in the Tartan Army.