Even The Old Bears Are Despairing

I HAD a lengthy conversation this week with one of the grandees of Scottish football management. A Baby Boomer like me, this man has managed successfully on both sides of the Solway, in Europe and at international level. He had some solid good sense to speak, on a no names, basis.

 

He has a connection to Ibrox and is as perplexed and puzzled as any ordinary Bear with what is happening down Edmiston Drive way. His message is blunt.

 

"The guys making the running there now are not Rangers fans, they are not Scottish football fans - they are in there because, they know a successful winning Rangers is a means of making money. They got the club for next to nothing, but, it will take a lot of money to get rid of them. Until they are got rid of, Rangers will struggle."

 

I suggested, Scottish football being what it is, and, the current Celtic squad being some way off being a great group of Celtic players, the Rangers Tribute Act just might shock them in the upcoming League Cup semi-final.

 

"Don't be daft, the RTA back four is so slow, so lacking in solidarity, they will be torn apart by Celtic, who, in guys like Kris Commons, Scott Brown and Leight Griffiths have players who can exploit the defensive weaknesses.

 

"Further forward, the RTA midfield is poor - Celtic will win, easily".

 

That's me telt!!!

 

 

 

MY subject is, however, more-excited by the current battle at the top of the Premiership.

 

"Celtic will still win the league, but, it will not be a runaway success, Aberdeen and Dundee United will chase them all the way," he opines.

 

"Celtic are not that much better than the rest, but, whereas, in the past the Old Firm were markedly better, because of their greater budgets, today, things are tighter. We are maybe a bit unfair to the other clubs, we still tend to believe, if Celtic doesn't win well, they had an off-day, when the reality is, the non-Glasgow challenge is stronger than it has been for a while.

 

 

 

THERE was a meeting in Glasgow this week, which kind of slipped under the radar. The leading Junior clubs met at Hampden to discuss the possibility of amalgamating the East and West Super Leagues into a national Junior Superleague.

 

Nobody is saying too-much about what happened, but, I don't see this as a goer, the distances involved are just too-great.

 

Also, not every Junior club is interested in getting involved in a genuine English-style pyramid, whereby (and I don't know how they feel about this at Beechwood Park), Auchinleck Talbot might some day be a Premiership club.

 

In Junior football, beating the mob from the next village still carries more kudos than perhaps being a (senior) Division One or Two, or even a Championship club. It's all about Scottish tribalism, or clannishness.

 

Also, there is the problem of the Lowland League. In all honesty, the likes of Talbot, Irvine Meadow, Bo'ness United or Linlithgow Rose could slot fairly-easily into the Lowland League. They might not win it immediately, but, they would be among the top clubs in that league.

 

We need a pyramid, but, we need the SFA, the SJFA and the Lowland and Highland Leagues to get together and make it work.

 

I would like to see, a 16-club Premiership, a 16-club Championship, with ALL Scottish football below that regionalised. I would prefer four Regional Leagues - North, Midlands, South-West, South-East.

 

This one will run.