I HAVE, thus far, avoided commenting on James Traynor's ranting departure from the Daily Record for pastures new at Rangers. For a start I never had James down as even a closet member of the Lap Top Loyal; certainly, public perception has it that Airdrie people are programmed from the womb to be Rangers' fans, but, that is not an absolute rule.
However, where I fear James has gone wrong is in embracing the cult of personality - it never suits a journalist to become "the story" - our role is to observe and comment, the idea of the journalist as a "personality" doesn't sit well with me - we should put our personality into our writing.
James I like, his early work at the Herald, particularly when he succeeded Brian Meek as the paper's man at Wimbledon every year, was uplifting and suggested that, here was (perhaps) the successor to the great Ian Archer at the paper. But, like "Dan" Archer, James went after the cash and the more money he accrued, the slacker became his columns.
However, it is good to see him, at a late stage in his career, getting off the treadmill for the supposedly smoother life of a Head of Media - mind you, with wheels within wheels still turning around the Big Tax Case, the administration of oldco Rangers, the subsequent liquidation, the machinations of the player exodus at the end of last season, the continuing fall-out from the EBTs, I fancy James might have a bit of fire-fighting to do in the short-term.
Good luck to him anyway - he'll need it.
OLD Red Nose was noticeably unmoved by the waves created from Sunday's Manchester Derby - after all, whether as a fan on the terraces, or a major player on the park, he's seen it all. After one or two of the Old Firm games in which he was involved, Sunday's stramash was like tea at the vicarage.
However, if you read some of the comment pieces in the papers since - it might seem Armageddon is upon us.
Football has (again) been kicked around for not setting a good example, for condoning lawlessness and so forth. PLEASE, I've got news for you - football is a whole lot cleaner than it once was. Think the Hampden Riot of 1909 for instance.
Football has ignored the excesses of the fans for generations. It seems to be OK for otherwise law-abiding citizens to turn up at a football match on a weekend, to shout, swear, jump about and generally behave in a manner which, if repeated in the street between Monday and Friday, would guarantee arrest.
Football clubs have, for generations, treated their fans like cattle, so the game shouldn't be surprised if these "cattle" shite all over it.
AS SOMETHING of a football historian, I simply love pieces such as that which appeared in the Scottish Daily Mail on Saturday. Written by Brian Marjoribanks, it highlighted the great uncapped of Scottish football; the "Greatest Uncapped XI" which Brian came up with was: Hamish McAlpine (Dundee United), Alex Miller (Rangers),Doug Smith (Dundee United), John Brown (Rangers), John McMaster (Aberdeen), Peter Marinello (Hibs/Arsenal), Billy Stark (Aberdeen/St Mirren), John McGovern (Notts Forest), Andy Ritchie (Morton), Joe Baker (Hibs), Harry Hood (Clyde/Celtic).
Since this was an opinion piece, Brian is welcome to his, but, for me, not by any stretch of the imagination Scotland's "Greatest Uncapped XI".
This is actually an exercise I carry-out myself fairly regularly - and when you see my team you will see my bias.
My team: Jimmy Brown (Hearts/Kilmarnock), Matt Watson (Kilmarnock), Danny Milloy (Dundee/Cardiff City), Neil Cooper (Aberdeen), "Spud" Murphy (Ayr United), Alex Edwards (Dunfermline/Hibs), Tommy Bryceland (St Mirren), Frank Beattie (Kilmarnock), Billy Stark, Andy Ritchie, Alex Ferguson.
Brown went as stand-in for Jimmy Cowan, on the 1949 close-season Scotland tour of North America, 12 years later, winding down his career with St Mirren, he sat on the bench for the World Cup qualifier against the Czechs, but no caps. And what about Rangers' George Niven - picked at least three times for Scotland, but injured every time and never capped?
I realise I have switched Matt Watson from left back to right back, simply because I am still unable to differentiate between him and Spud Murphy, so both get in. Danny Milloy will be a strange name to many. Danny, as a young Dundee player, was being groomed to take over from Willie Woodburn and George Young as the Scotland centre half. He was a regular pick for the Scottish League XI, for Scotland B and for "Scotland" in the trial games between "Scotland" and "The Scottish League" which were a feature of fifties football - but, he never won a full cap.
Beattie was a colossus for Killie for nearly two decades, but, against the likes of Baxter, Crerand and Mackay, again, no caps. Ditto Bryceland, permanent understudy to John White, but, no caps.
And, what about Sir Alex? Well, he unluckily missed out on the 1967 Wembley win, at a time when he was scoring for fun for Dunfermline. He then went off on the World Tour at the end of that season, scoring in non-cap internationals against Israel, Australia and Canada. I have long believed, when the great man finally retires, the least the SFA could do was retrospectively award caps for those internationals.
But, the above is just my team, almost everyone else's would be different.
