We Won The Battles But We Are Doomed To Lose The War

JUST what,exactly, are we to make of Tuesday night's international results? Scotland, in spite of by all accounts being second-best for most of the game, made it two wins in a row by beating Denmark, while the Dutch went to Wembley and burst England's post-Germany bubble. Discuss.

My snap judgement is, this proves that England, when shorn of most of their big names will struggle, while the result from Hampden confirms, we have a long way still to go, before we are back to being a significant international force.

As regards the England game, making such a play of honouring the late Johan Cruyff was always going to risk playing into Dutch hands. The men in orange (or to be exact blue on Tuesday) had a bad Euros qualifying campaign - shit happens. But, the Dutch belief in teaching core skills and technical excellence means, while results may vary, there is always the basis of a good team in there (form is transient - class is permanent as they say).

There is not the same demand for good core skills in these islands, although, experienced coaches assure me there is greater emphasis on this in England than up here. Thus, any British team, minus its very best players, will struggle against the technically-better continentals - this happened on Tuesday.

Perhaps, had Denmark had a Laudrup (Michael or Brian) on the park on Tuesday, they could have put away the chances they created, who knows.

One thing we do know - Scotland has three very good goalkeepers, with Craig Gordon, like Allan McGregor in Prague, making the big saves when they mattered. As yet, they are fighting for the Numbr Two goalkeeping spot behind the currently indisposed David Marshall.

Further forward, we are still struggling for quality, and I don't see what the SFA's management system, such as we have one, for the international team, will help.

I have long argued, we do not have a workable system for developing international players. There is no visible means of bringing our promising Under-21 players through, ready for the sterner demands of the full team. Just take Paul Caddis, a squad member on Tuesday. He won the first of his 13 Under-21 caps in 2008, as a Celtic fringe player, then all but vanished - to Swindon, then Birmingham City, before being capped, via a two minute-cameo, in Prague last Thursday. In the eight years since making his Under-20 bow, as a 20-year-old, his international career has all but stalled.

Paul Caddis

Is he really the answer, I fear he may go down as a "One-cap wonder", having had one of the shortest Scotland careers on record. It is not as if, since leaving Celtic as a youngster, he has picked-up lots of experience of international football at club level - he has simply not "trained-on" or been given the opportunity to transfer his youthful promise to becoming a Scotland regular.

I am not, by the way, having a go at Caddis - he is the victim of a flawed system at Scotland level. Back in the early 1950s, after the shambles of our no-go World Cup campaign on 1950, Sir George Graham, the SFA Secretary of the time, and a man who was a power in the world game in those admittedly very different times, persuaded his councillors to look to the future.

In 1951 we began to play B internationals, as a means of bringing-through more players. Then, in 1954-55, just as Graham looked to retire, we began to play Under-23 internationals. I get the impression, however, "the blazers" never really bought into this, because we have over the years, seen fewer and fewer of our age-group players go on to have good international careers.

Scotland's first B team, against France, in Toulouse, on 11 November, 1952 was: Tommy Ledgerwood (Partick Thistle), Bobby Parker (Hearts) Willie Cunningham, Tommy Docherty (both Preston North End), Jimmy Davidson (Partick Thistle), Hugh Kelly (Blackpool), Jimmy Buchanan (Clyde), Willie Moir (Bolton Wanderers), Willie Gardiner (East Fife), Tommy Gemmell (St Mirren) and Willie Ormond (Hibs).

Tommy Docherty in his Preston North End days

Docherty, Kelly and Moir had already been capped prior to that match, which finished 0-0. B international protocol allowed players who had won one, or two caps to play. Cunningham, Davidson, Gemmell and Ormond would all go on to be capped within the following three years.

Under-23 internationals began on 8 February, 1955, with a 6-0 Shawfield trouncing from England. That unfortunate Scotland team was: Willie Duff (Hearts), Alex Parker (Falkirk), Eric Caldow (Rngers), Dave Mackay (Hearts), Doug Baillie (Airdrie), Bobby Holmes (St Mirren), Graham Leggat (Aberdeen), Jim Walsh (Celtic), Alex Hill (Clyde), Bobby Wishart (Aberdeen), Davie McParland (Partick Thistle). \Parker, Caldow, Mackay and Leggat woud all go on to become full caps - Parker at the end of that season, Leggat the following year and Caldow and Mackay in 1957.

Rangers' Eric Caldow

In 1956 age group games changed again, with the age limit coming down to Under-21. The first Scotland Under-21 team was: Bobby Clark (Aberdeen), George Burley (Ipswich), Arthur Albiston (Manchester United), Pat Stanton (Hibs), Tommy Burns (Celtic), John Wark (Ipswich), David McNiven (Leeds United) sub Davie Provan (Kilmarnock), David Narey (Dundee United) sub Les Muir (Hibs), Paul Sturrock (Dundee United).

Tommy Burns of Celtic

Goalkeeper Bobby Clark and Pat Stanton were the two already capped over-age players who were allowed to play. Burley, Albiston, Burns, Wark, Provan, Narey and Sturrock all went on to win full caps, indeed, two of them, Burley and Burns would go on to manage Scotland. None of these players had, like Caddis, to wait eight years for their full caps.

I do not think we will see these numbers of players from the Under-21 team which beat Northern Ireland on going on to win full caps, while I would wager, those who do step up, will have a longer wait for the big cap than those players from the 1950s and 1970s.

Of course, the SFA has never, in spite of the efforts outlined above, really done development. Back in 1967 - THE annus mirabilis of Scottish football: Celtic - European Champions; Rangers - Cup-Winners Cup Finalists; Kilmarnock - Fairs-Cup semi-finalists; World Champions England cuffed at Wembley; Scotland - European Amateur Champions, lest we forget, the SFA sent a "Development Squad" around the world. Along the way, they beat Israel, Hong Kong, Australia - three times and Canada.

When he was plain Alex Ferguson - football player

A certain Alex Ferguson scored six goals in appearing in five of these "internationals", while Joe Harper, then of Huddersfield Town, scored five in a 7-2 demolition of Canada. Twelve of the 19 players used were already, or would become full Scotland caps.

Alex Ferguson, in spite of an goal-scoring record in "international" matches which puts him alongside Hughie Gallacher in terms of goals per game, was never capped. Therefore, Paul Caddis's international record, and no harm to him for it, is actually better than Alex Ferguson's.

  

 

Blank Saturdays Are Not Good For Scottish Football

MARCH 31, 1928 is one of the iconic dates in Scottish Football history - the day on which the Wembley Wizards beat England 5-1. Now, modern-day readers might be surprised to discover, that same day, there was a full programme of Scottish League, Division 1 games back in Scotland.

 

At Ibrox, Rangers, without Alan Morton, who was on-duty at Wembley, beat Clyde 3-1. Queen's Park, who had Jack Harkness back-stopping "the Wizards", were beating Dunfermline Athletic 4-0 at Hampden, while Celtic were beating Bo'ness 4-1 at Parkhead - to pick but three of the fixtures at random.

 

Indeed, up until the 1970s or thereabouts, international calls were seldom allowed to interfere with the bread and butter of league matches. Then, clubs with three players on international duty were allowed to postpone games (I wonder which two Scottish clubs in particular this helped?)

 

Now, we had the absurdity of yesterday when, with Scotland NOT playing an international - the entire SPFL Premiership programme was called-off. Why?

 

The only SPFL players who were involved in Thursday night's game against the Czech Republic in Prague were goalkeeper Scott Bain of Dundee, Aberdeen midfielder Kenny McLean and Celtic's Charlie Mulgrew. THREE players - yet an entire Saturday league programme is called-off.

 

 Kenny McLean

Scott Bain

 Charlie Mulgrew

 

On paper, eight home-Scots might be involved in Tuesday night's Hampden friendly against the Danes. Most of these eight players are with Celtic, but, is that any reason to have called-off last Saturday's fixtures?

The SFA and the SPFL have a duty to actively promote football in Scotland, which means putting games on at the time the majority of the fans have repeatedly shown they prefer - kicking-off at 3pm on a Saturday. I know the Hampden "blazers" lang syne sold-out to TV, but, calling-off an entire programme of games for no reason hardly comes into the category of promoting Scottish football.

Having no Premiership games on Saturday was just plain WRONG.

 

It stands to reason, clubs and coaches will have a favoured starting XI, but, they do not constrain themselves to the minimum 14-man squads (a starting XI plus the three substitutes allowed). They all have additional players; these days, squad rotation is a big thing, picking an XI to do a job on a given day.

Therefore, surely, if a player is good enough to be in a club's squad - he is good enough to be considered for first team duty. It follows then, if the preferred starting goalkeeper, for instance, or the first-choice striker, is called-up for international duty - then his understudy should get his place.

We keep hearing: "Football is now a branch of the entertainment business". Well, in the theatre for instance, if you have a play with a cast - an ensemble just like a football team - and the "star" cannot appear in his or her designated role on a given night, the understudy steps up.

It may be, that star has to go off and accept an award, theatre tradition has it: "the show must go on", in football, apparently, the show must stop if some of the "stars" (who let's face it, in Scottish domestic fitba don't twinkle that hard) are needed elsewhere.

OK, in the theatre, if the star is missing, it might be possible to get a refund - so lower the prices for football (which some say are too-high anyway) if a team has two or three players missing on international duty.

Scottish football might also like to have a look at how Scottish rugby does it. Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors didn't stop playing Pro12 League games - just because they had players - in Glasgow's case more than a full team of them - off on international duty. They put in the back-up boys and got on with things.

A week past on Friday, I was at Scotstoun to watch Glasgow take-on Leinster in the Pro12, less than 24-hours before Ireland entertained Scotland in Dublin. Both teams had 11 players in their respective national squads in Dublin, but, they played.

Glasgow had only one "first-choice" player among their seven starting backs. They finished with a back division of: a centre playing full-back, their usual third-choice scrum-half (a specialist position) playing on one wing, with their fourth-choice scrum-half in his usual role. Their third-choice stand-off (the main play-maker) filled that role, and they had to give a debut to a centre three-quarter who, when he came on as an injury replacement, was the 56th player Glasgow had used this season.

Up front, international hooker Fraser Brown, after a very hard hour in his specialist position, had to switch to open-side flanker, another specialist position, with very different skill-set from that needed at hooker.

This sort of facing up to reality and getting on with things, compares very favourably with the football approach, whereby Dundee being without their goalkeeper is, apparently, sufficient grounds to have their Saturday fixture called off.

AT LEAST, the absence of an entire Premiership programme allowed the Glasgow-based newspapers to indulge themselves, by giving pride of place in their Saturday match coverage to the Rangers Tribute Act, who moved closer to promotion to the top flight, with a 4-3 win over Queen of the South.

The reports I have read were the usual stuff, but, allow me to offer some praise to Christopher Jack of the Herald, whose report from Ibrox was an old-fashioned, facts-based, "run-of-play" report, of the kind we so-seldom see these days.

FINALLY, well done England, who came from behind to beat Germany 3-2 in Berlin. This excellent result offers  the opportunity for the belief to grow - that England might actually make a real impact in the forthcoming European Championships finals.

 

England boss Roy Hodgson

 

The Germans are never easy to beat, and they do not normally surrender the lead once they've got in front, so, by any measure, this was a superb win for England.

I congratulate them, but, I caution the players and back-room staff:

 

 Stop reading the papers and watching TV NOW. On the back of this one result, your mediocre media will have you winning the whole damned thing.

 

You may have beaten Germany, BUT, you have won NOTHING.

 

This result was, however, a great boost for Roy Hodgson, one of the nicest guys in football.

Typical Scotland - We're Great At Winning Meaningless Games

VICTORY in Prague, in a meaningless match, and, once again Scotland can walk a little bit taller across the surface of World Football. But, pardon me if I don't join in the celebrations; how typically Scottish, to win a friendly, to brighten-up the end of a disappointing season. This is something we are rather good at.

Let's look at some of the iconic Scottish victories:

1928 - The Wembley Wizards beat England 5-1 : this was a wooden spoon match in the Home Internationals.

The Wembley Wizards

1963 - We beat Spain 6-2 in the Bernabeu : a consolation prize, after losing to the amateurs of Norway and the Republic of Ireland.

1967 - We beat World Champions England at Wembley : only nine months too late, it didn't matter.

Jim Baxter plays keepie-uppie at Wembley in 1967

1978 - We beat Netherlands in Mendoza, Archie Gemmill scores that goal : it didn't matter, we were still going out of the World Cup and on our way home.

Archie Gemmill wheels away aftr scoring that goal in Mendoza

These are just four victories, plucked off the top of my head. It's a Scotland thing - we can be very good when it doesn't matter; too often we crap ourselves when the chips are down.

By all means, celebrate a win over a country which managed to do what we couldn't - qualify for this summer's European Championships. But, pardon me if, old fart that I am, I suggest this win only papers over the cracks. Sure, we beat the Czechs, but, our league is still third-rate, our players lack technical skills, we do not have a workable system in place to bring promising kids through from the age group national sides to the full team.

But, this is the Scottish way, it has aye been done this way. We have not qualified for a major finals for 18-years, and, as far as the 2018 World Cup qualifiers go, we are already, before a ball has been kicked, playing for second place and possible qualifying through the play-offs - much as I want to see us beating England, it isn't going to happen.

However, the Hampden blazers still got their wee jaunt to Prague, we still have our place on IFAB, "Rangers" will be back in the Premiership next season and all is well with the world of Scottish Fitba - Aye Right.

Berti Vogts is left flat-footed as Johan Cruyff does his Turn

FOOTBALL lost one of its greatest talents this week, when Johan Cruyff lost his long and courageous battle against Lung Cancer.

In the pantheon of football heroes - four men stand unchallenged on the topmost step - Alfredo di Stefano, Pele, Cruyff and Maradona. Sure, there are other greats one step down - John Charles, Bobby Moore, Kenny Dalglish, Zinadene Zidane, Franz Beckenbauer, Michel Platini, George Best for instance. But, when it comes to a lasting influence on the global game, perhaps only Beckenbauer, "Der Kaiser", comes close to matching Cruyff.

However, as with Ali against every other boxer who stepped into the ring, Cruyff in football gets top billing, because he entertained, he did things his way, and, of those greats named, only Beckenbauer had influence as a coach (and in his case an administrator) as well as as a player.

Rinus Michaels may have come up with the concept of "Total Football", but, as his on-field lieutenant, Cruyff made it work. Not only that, once he got into management, Cruyff persuaded other players, Pep Guardiola for one, to buy into the concept of Total Football and refine it.

You look at the other names on that list I gave: in order, an Argentinian, a Brazilian, a Dutchman, another Argentinian, a Welshman, an Englishman, a Scot, a Frenchman, a German, another Frenchman and an Irishman. Argentine, Brazil, Wales, England, Scotland, France, Germany and Northern Ireland all have long and distinguished football histories. Yes, they had been playing football there for almost a century, but, until Cruyff came along, nobody rated Dutch football - he changed attitudes.

Cruyff did things his way. The Netherlands had a strip contract with Adidas, but, Cruyff's number 14 kit only had two strips, rather than Adidas's three - because he had a personal contract with Puma and would not wear the rival's kit.

If things didn't suit him, he walked away - as he did from the 1978 World Cup. Ali did things his way, and to Hell with the consequences, Cruyff was the same. He fell out with Ajax in his second spell there, and walked out, to join hated rivals Feyenoord - imagine an Old Firm icon pulling that one if you can.

He smoked, as did di Stefano, and although he finally quit and became an anti-smoking camaigner, his youthful vice probably helped to kill him fat too soon.

Above all, he was a winner. Ajax were in the doldrums when he made his debut as a 17-year-old, 13th in the Dutch League, the following season, they had the first of three successive league wins. Barcelona were a very poor team, a long way behind Real Madrid, when Cruyff joined them, they have never looked back.

Gary Lineker, who played under him at Barca said in a tribute: "He was the best player there in training". Football is truly, this week, mourning a true icon of the game. 

Hutton - 50 Not Out, Is No Longer A Cricket Score

THIS being an International Week - hopefully the calls for Ronnie Deila's head and the speculation as to which of the usual suspects (well, I don't suppose Billy Davies's name will come up) will be being boosted as his immediate replacement.

 

Which reminds me - an awful lot of the churnalists on Scotland's sports desks will be left with egg all over their florid fizzogs - should Celtic kick-on and complete the Double of League and Scottish Cup this season. It would be strange, but, given the state of football today, not impossible, for Celtic to sack him after that.

 

So, with their new Celtic boss train of tittle-tattle closed off this week, just what will the poor wee lambs have to write about?

 

Well, they were thrown a tit-bit this morning, with the sports pages awash with the story of Alan Hutton's upcoming 50th cap. It is, in some ways, amazing that a defender who is not really good at his job has managed to accumulate sufficient caps to earn admission to the SFA's Hall of Fame - only they no longer call it this, indeed, I forget what they do call their list of those players who have been on the field for Scotland in 50 full internationals.

 

But, fair play to Hutton - he has turned-up when asked, never complained, given his all for Scotland and got his rewards. It might be worthwhile pointing-out here, had he remained at Rangers, his first club, he would almost-certainly not be celebrating the milestone. He'd have been withdrawn from around half the squads with mystery niggles, which cleared-up by the next club game, and might well, like others from Ibrox before him, decided, he didn't really want to play for Scotland.

 

He escaped all this nonsense, however. He has had spells when he has been out of favour at his club, but, he has always given his all for Scotland, and for that reason - I feel he has earned his gold medal and his place on the list of consistent cap winners. I also know, he's not the worst Rangers' right-back ever to have been capped for Scotland, and, lest we forget, the respected French sporting newspaper L'Equipe named him as the best right-back in Britain not that long ago.

Might we have been a bit unfair to Hutton -who has had a bad time since first breaking into the Rangers team as a teenager. Who, for instance, can forget that great story of him, as a young wannabe, giving it the: "Do you know who I am" treatment, when refused entry to a trendy Glasgow night-club.

The reply from the bouncer was classic: "Aye, you're the stupid c*** who cost us the game against Celtic the day - so, yer no gettin in - noo, Fuck Off".

Hutton left with his tail between his legs that night - not that he will be too-worried today. Enjoy your 50th cap Alan.

Alan Hutton - 50 not out

I HAVE an aquaintance, in fact we are related through a spot of hoohmagandy involving Victorian ancestors, who, although now retired to that section of God's Waiting Room situated on the Fylde Coast in Lancashire, remains very much a Garnock Valley man.

 

He takes special steps, each Saturday night, to find out how his beloved Kilbirnie Ladeside got on that afternoon, and right now, he is hurting. The Blasties lost to Pollok at the quarter-final stage of the Scottish Junior Cup this season, and, to add insult to injury, the hated Beith and the Buffs got through to join Hurlford as the three Ayrshire sides in the last four.

 

You might think having three teams still involved at this stage would be the subject of great rejoicing in God's County. But, to think this shows a lack of understanding of how we think here. it's OK to have three Ayrshire sides in the semi-finals, provided your particular side is one of them, and the club  you hate most isn't. So, for a Blasties fan, Kilbirnie being out before Beith and Kilwinning Rangers - that's a bitter pill to swallow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Telly At Home Or A Live Scottish Game - It's A No-Brainer

LAST night I settled down in my recliner, to watch the Barcelona v Arsenal game. For the next 90 minutes-plus, I was thoroughly entertained as two good sides went at it. At the final whistle, the very good side, with the three megastars of "The Trident" up front had won, and won well. But, I have to say, Arsenal had their moments and fully contributed to an excellent match.

Once again Messi, Suarez and Neymar were well-worth whatever hefty salary they pick up at the Camp Nuo; but, the Barca "Chorus Line" of supporting players isn't a bad ensemble either.

Alerted by the commentators to what was happening in Munich, I immediately turned over at the final whistle and caught the extra time in the Bayern v Juventus match. As an encore, this was again, terrific stuff - with Bayern's two young subs turning the game towards a German victory - and Mr Robben didn't even trap through injury.

And there, in three paragraphs, is what is wrong with Scottish football. How can we hope to drag punters through the doors of our village hall football stadia, when they can sit at home and have a front row stalls position for the London Palladium?

"Ach, ye dinnae get the atmosphere oan the telly". Aye Right, I am afraid, I can well do without the "atmosphere" of a Bigot Brothers bash fest. Standing oot in the cauld in January, watching lumpen journeymen struggle to trap a fallig bag of cement - when I could be at home, in the warm, watching genuinely good, talented players on the box - it's a no-brainer.

This is why, the likes of Sir Robert Kelly was so correct, back in the 1950s and 1960s, when he fought to keep football off the box - in all but the most-extreme of cases. For as long as tv exposure was limited to highlights packages, or the likes of the Scottish or English Cup finals, the Scotland v England match and the World Cup, it had an element of control.

Sir Robert Kelly - the Celtic Chairman warned against selling-out to television

Once greed drove the clubs to open the doors to wall-to-wall football, the game was on the slippery slope to oblivion. Also, with the advances in technology, the game became global. Thus, when replica strips first appeared, it was a local market, kids in Scotland were quite happy to display their liking for a particular Scottish team. Today, you are as-likely to see a Barca, or a Manchester United strip in Glasgow as one for either half of the Old Firm.

The clubs took the money and squandered it. Now, decades down the line, we are having to watch loanees from the Premiership, or guys who learned their trade with lower league English teams, or in lesser European leagues, filling jerseys once worn by global talents such as Danny McGrain and Sandy Jardine, Jimmy Johnstone and Willie Henderson or Jim Baxter and Bobby Murdoch.

Jim Baxter - what chance of unearthing such talent today in Scotland?

Scottish women players such as Kim Little and Jenny Beattie are seen to be as good as any in the women's world game, because our women chose to do things differently. The best of our male team are not even in the field when it comes to choosing the best in Britain, far less the best in the world.

Of course, they have come-up through the system of "Ayebeenism", which legislates against change and innovation in young player development in Scotland.



ON THIS same subject, albeit perhaps a wee-bit off-centre; I read in this week's Cumnock Chronicle that my own wee club what I love dearly - Lugar Boswell Thistle - is to end its current "feeder" agreement with Ayr United.

Under this deal, some of United's brightest young talents have been strutting their stuff in Boswell's maroon strips, in the Ayrshire Junior League, on Saturday afternoons. United also provided the "Jaggy Bunnets" with the management team, and, the deal seemed to be working well.

Now, for reasons which have not been fully-explained, the deal is to end, which, I think is a great shame.

I have always said, if I ever won the same sum on Euromillions as the Weirs did, I would try to show football the error of its ways - by taking over either Ayr United or Kilmarnock and tapping into the strong football grass-roots in my native county.

I envisage a youth development scheme, forging links between my senior club and youth and school football in Ayrshire. As part of my dream scheme, I would have my Academy players, once they were out of the Under-20 team, moving seamlessly to a local junior team - with Boswell being my favoured option - there to develop until, at aged 23, the best would be sent upstairs to my senior team, those not good enough, would be helped find their level elsewhere.

This is how things used to be, back when Scotland produced good players. There would always be "bolters", players who were, as teenagers, food enough for the big time, but, most players developed via schools football - through Churches League or Juvenile football - into the Juniors, then, if they were good enough - they went senior.

That system worked, then, somewhere around the late 1960s - early 1970s, things changed and we were on the slippery slope.

The Ayr United-Lugar tie-in was in a way a return to these days. I wish they ahd kept it going longer.

I now fear for Lugar's survival. Living as they do, in the shadow of Auchinleck Talbot, Glenafton and Cumnock, they will always struggle to attract good players. Now, where are those Euromillions numbers?     

Two Big Scotland Squads - But, One Strange Omission

WEE Gordon Strachan today summoned "the stenographers" to learn the identities of the players who will feature in this month's two "International Challenge Matches", these are friendlies to you and me.

The Wee Man has certainly cast his net widely in an effort to begin formulating a squad which just might be able to get us to the next World Cup finals.

The selected squads are:

Czech Republic vs Scotland

Thursday 24th March 2016, kick-off 7.45pm, Stadion Letnà, Prague

 
Goalkeepers
Scott Bain (Dundee)   
Allan McGregor (Hull City)   

Defenders
Christophe Berra (Ipswich Town)   
Gordon Greer (Brighton and Hove Albion)   
Alan Hutton (Aston Villa)   
Russell Martin (Norwich City)   
Charlie Mulgrew (Celtic)   
Andrew Robertson (Hull City)   
Steven Whittaker (Norwich City)   

Midfielders
Ikechi Anya (Watford)   
Barry Bannan (Sheffield Wednesday)   
Darren Fletcher (West Bromwich Albion)    
Kevin McDonald (Wolverhampton Wanderers)   
Kenny McLean (Aberdeen)
Matt Phillips (Queens Park Rangers)   
Robert Snodgrass (Hull City)   

Forwards   
Steven Fletcher (Olympique de Marseille)   
Steven Naismith (Norwich City)   
Tony Watt (Blackburn Rovers)
 

Scotland vs Denmark
Tuesday 29th March 2016, kick-off 8pm, Hampden Park, Glasgow

Goalkeepers
Craig Gordon (Celtic)   
David Marshall (Cardiff City)   
Defenders
Ikechi Anya (Watford)   
Liam Cooper (Leeds United)   
Gordon Greer (Brighton and Hove Albion)   
Grant Hanley (Blackburn Rovers)   
Charlie Mulgrew (Celtic)   
Kieran Tierney (Celtic)
Steven Whittaker (Norwich City)   
Midfielders
Liam Bridcutt (Leeds United)   
Scott Brown (Celtic)   
Oliver Burke (Nottingham Forest)   
James Forrest (Celtic)   
John McGinn (Hibernian)   
Jamie Murphy (Brighton and Hove Albion)   
Matt Ritchie (Bournemouth)   
Forwards   
Steven Fletcher (Olympique de Marseille)   
Leigh Griffiths (Celtic)   
Chris Martin (Derby County)

That's 31 players, across the two squads, pretty-much every fit, international-class, Scotland qualified player you can think of - IF you believe we still have 31 international-class players.

Me, with my over 50-years of being disappointed by Scotland teams. Sorry, I don't think we ever had, at least since World War II, over 30 international-class players. And I certainly KNOW, right now, some of those named simply are not up to the challenges of international football.

Which makes the absence of a single name from the squad, a puzzler to me. If Gordon Strachan is really trying to say Lee Wallace isn't good enough to get a game in either of these two matches, then, I am afraid, the Wee Man is having a laugh.   

Kieran Tierney of Celtic is indeed th future as far as the Scotland left-back slot is concerned. I have no qualms about Strachan blooding him against the Danes at Hampden. But, surely Wallace is worth his place on his form this season. I do not understand his absence.

Lee Wallace - his absence from the Scotland squad surprises me

 

WHEN you study the breadth and depth of Scottish football - from the national team and the Bigot Brothers down to the grass-roots, which run very deep indeed, there is a lot going on.

Which makes one wonder, why do the Scottish papers give so much room to the English Premiership - a competition which is pretty much a Scots-free zone?

Well, of course, it is far-easier for today's bone-idle Scottish production journalists, to simply copy and paste a lot of the acres of pish produced by the Press Association and kindred agencies, as pure propaganda for: "The Greatest League In The World". Aye right.

The English Premiership is about as English as Chicken Tikka Masala, but, hey, let's not allow the facts to get in the way. Mind you, even when, in the pre-Premiership days of the old Football League First Division, when Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and in particular Liverpool were genuine powers in European football - "English Football" had a distinctly tartan background. But, let's not labour the point, Better Together and all that. 

Thus, I was delighted last night when Chelsea, an "English" team, owned by a Russian oligarth, managed by a Dutchman, playing out of West London and with a mere one Englishman in their starting line-up was dumped out of Europe by a "French" team which also included a large sprinkling of non-French players in their line-up.

I have never been a great Chelsea fan, so, I was not unhappy when they failed to live-up to the Premiershp hype in Europe. However, I was delighted to see one of my favourite players, Zlatan Ibrahimovic deal the killer blow.

 Zlatan Ibrahimovic - He da man

Of course he has an ego the size of Jupiter, but, the Swedish Croat is a player. Once again, last night, he showed his genuine class, with the assist for PSG's first goal, before personally scoring the second.

The English footbal media has never taken to Zlatan, but, what do they know - they have history in over-hyping very ordinary players, simply because they were English.

  

A Toast - To The Lassies, On International Women's Day

TODAY is International Women's Day, so, my daughters would never forgive me, if I did not take the opportunity to praise the success of Scottish Women's Football.

The male blazer-wearers along Hampden's top-floor "corridors of power have had almost 150-years in which to bugger-up the game in Scotland, to the extent, they have become practiced in this particular art.

The women have not had nearly as long, also, having noticed how well/badly, the men running the SFA had done, they were free to do things differently - to the extent, Women's Football in Scotland, while still very much the gender poor relation, is doing an awful lot better than the male equivalent.

Also, over the last couple of generations of footballers, it might be argued that Scotland's women have out-performed the men. Let's face it, Scotland has not produced a genuinely "world-class" male footballer since Kenny Dalglish hung-up his boots 30-years ago.

Julie Fleeting - scored at better than a goal a game in over 100 internationals

In that same period Rose Reilly, Julie Fleeting and now Kim Little have all been rated as genuinely "world-class", while several other Scottish women have been or are ranked only slightly beneath the level of these three Superstars of the Women's game. Not since Dalgleish and Graeme Souness have we had male players ranked that highly.

 Rose Reilly - won a World Cup with Italy and in the Scottish Football Hall of Fame

 Kim Little - A world-class woman footballer of today, for Scotland and Team GB

Our Women's team is rated more-highly than our Men's. That elusive first appearance in a the final tournament in a major championships certainly seems close during their current European Championship qualifying campaign. I would not bet against our women strutting their stuff on the biggest stage before our men.

However, they do all this with the minimum of money, media attention and support. The Tartan Army largely ignores their achievements, and, our major papers devote more time to foreign minority sports than they do to our women footballers.

We bemoan the pathetic efforts of our men's teams in the Chamions League and Europa League qualifiers, and in the early stages of the latter tournament, and virtually ignore the fact Glasgow City FC, operating on a shoe string in comparison to the full-time English women's teams, are seeded above many of these well-funded English sides in Europe.

City regularly punch above their weight, but, any praise they get in the Scottish media is faint.

Scottish Women's Football is a success. Today, on International Women's Day, we should celebrate that success, and, take note. Now, they have a proven winner as their patron, in First Minister Nicol Sturgeon, I can see the Scottish Women's footballers going from strength to strength in the years ahead.  

 

The Only Game In Town

WELL, that's that then. We might as well all go off on holiday between now and 17 April, because there is only one item on the football agenda before then - the upcoming "Old Firm" William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final.

 

There will be an overpowering stench of ammonia around the Glasgow newspaper offices in the interim - between the hacks peeing themselves at what is in prospect, and the pish they will come up with to drum-up interest in a game which doesn't need drumming-up.

 

We will have all sorts of mischievous online posts from members of The Celtic Family, about "Rangers" or "Sevco" as they will no doubt be referred to, being a new team. These will be answered by Ra Peepul, pushing the continuation agenda, and going-on about Celtic's various changes of name and ownership over their history.

 

How I wish the website moderators would simply block such rubbish. If the Rangers Tribute Act had not been formed when it was, something else would have had to have been cobbled together, to maintain the religious/cultural/political differences which help keep the proletariat in their place in Scotland.

 

Bigotry and sectarianism sells, so, something would have had to be thought-up to keep it going.

 

You have to fancy Celtic to win this one - but, as the late James Sanderson used to say: "Only a fool tries to forecast what will happen when Celtic meets Rangers, I am sitting on the fence for this one - draw". Of course, this being a Scottish Cup tie - there has to be a winner.

 

Aye, old "Solly" was a master at winding-up both cheeks of the Bigot Brothers erses to get a reaction.

 

What stops me backing Celtic unequivicaly (good Solly word that) is, this is a dire Celtic team, they are vulnerable, mentally weak, I think, and for that reason, the RTA just might beat them.

 

But, what do I know. Best be guided by the combined intellectual capacity of the usual suspects, from among the ranks of the former players of both clubs. Aye right. None of them will ever come up with an unbiased view, but, for as long as the newspapers are prepared to sanction the expenses chits for the long lunches which produce their verdicts - the practice will continue.

 

I wonder, if the RTA can beat Celtic and go on to win the thing, to add to the Championship title, which they can now only lose, and add the Petrofac Cup - will Ra Peepul claim this as "A Treble"?

 

By the way - did anyone notice who is in the other semi-final?