WITH the January transfer window slamming shut in
midweek, those clubs still seeking to freshen-up their squads will be
beavering away on sealing deals. All the indications are that the
Premiership clubs will be casting their sights southwards, rather
than trying to bring-in unpolished diamonds from the Championship or
the lower Scottish Leagues.
I have long felt, the big clubs' penchant for buying
foreign players (and in this instance English, Irish or Welsh are
foreign) rather than trying to recruit and improve Scottish talent is
a self-defeating mistake. But, unless the SNP bring on Indyref2, and
soon, the days of recruiting foreign talent will soon be over.
This is the elephant in the dressing room which nobody
is prepared to speak of – but, when Brexit kicks-in, due at the end
of March, 2019, the days when the big English clubs, and the Scottish
Premiership clubs can recruit European talent willy-nilly will be
over, while it will be a lot harder to recruit players from elsewhere
in the world.
Free movement of labour, the means whereby the likes of
Paul Pogba, Moussa Dembele and several hundred other European players
can instantly join British clubs will be over. The clubs will have to
abide by the far-stricter FIFA rules on international transfers, it
will be an awful lot harder to recruit foreign players.
This should make Scottish players, once again, targets
for the big English clubs, since they will be able to move south
freely – unless of course, the SNP win Indyref2 and Scotland is in
the EU and England not. This might also impact on the ability of our
clubs to recruit English players.
I suppose we should hope that Project Brave is quickly
allowed to be set-up and we suddenly have more and better young
Scottish players coming through, however, I for one am not holding my
breath on this – or on the implementation of the single rule which
would do more than any other to help Project Brave and Scottish
football have a future.
Let's quickly, go back to the three foreigners rule and
make the Scottish clubs positively discriminate in favour of
home-grown talent.
THE Herald recently ran a series on the 100 Greatest
Scottish Sporting Icons. It was a load of mince, and reflected the
fact, on the full-time sports staff of the Herald at the moment, they
have nobody with a sense of history, the party line appears to be
that Scottish football started in 1967 – thereby largely ignoring
the previous 95-years.
No less than five Rangers managers were listed
individually, but, missing from the list was Bill Struth, the
greatest of them all. Similarly, Willie Maley, and Sir Robert Kelly,
such influential figures in Celtic's past and, in the case of Sir
Bob, within the SFA, didn't rate a mention.
George Young, arguably Scotland's greatest captain,
didn't appear, neither did Alan Morton. Hibs' Famous Five were in,
but, no mention of the Hearts' Terrible Trio, or Rangers' Iron
Curtain Defence. Sir George Graham, for so long the SFA Secretary
didn't rate a mention, neither did Jack Mowat or Tom Wharton, our
greatest referees.
Andy Goram was in, but, no sign of Alan Rough – a
more-universally loved keeper than “The Goalie” or of Celtic's
tragic John Thomson. And that's just the football omissions – don't
get me started on other sports.
TWO of Rangers' great players of the 1950s passed away
in the past week or so. First of all full-back Johnny Little died, to
be quickly followed by Northern Irish centre forward Billy Simpson.
Little capped once for Scotland in 1953, was, for most of his career
the third full-back at Ibrox, waiting for either Bobby Shearer or
Eric Caldow to miss a game, but, whenever called upon, he showed real
class. In retirement, he became a much-loved PE teacher in Greenock
and Paisley.
Simpson is seldom mentioned these days when great
Rangers' strikers are lauded, but, his strike rate was as good as
any. Indeed, his Rangers' strike rate is better than Ally McCoist's,
as is his overall strike rate. In addition, he was, apparently a
really lovely man, a true gentleman.
One story I did hear concerns the 1957 League Cup Final,
in which Celtic stuffed Rngers 7-1. Simpson headed home the Rangers
goal, and, ever after, he was quick to remind his team mates, should
their thoughts ever turn to that bad day of Hampden in the Sun, that,
he at least had scored.
South African winger Johnny Hubbard, however, would
apparently remind Simpson: “Yes Billy, and if you'd converted the
seven good chances you missed – we'd have won 8-7”.
Simpson's greatest goal, however, came in Northern
Ireland colours, when he headed home the winner when they beat
England 3-2 at Wembley in 1957, their first win under the twin
towers.
ANOTHER football giant who passed away last week was big
Sam McCulloch, sometimes dubbed the hardest man in junior football.
Yes, he was a typical junior centre-half, if it moved, he kicked it,
but the hardness came from the fact, he played most of his career
with several pieces of lead shot embedded in his leg, after an
accident with a shotgun. He was a great countryman, who loved his
shooting and fishing.
Sam was one of the mainstays of Willie Knox's wonderful
Auchinleck Talbot team of the 1980s, winning five Junior Cup-winner's
medals, and scoring the winning goal, at Brockville, when Talbot beat
Newtongrange Star 1-0 in 1991. He was a lovely big guy and, at 57, he
was taken far too soon.
FINALLY, was I the only guy in Scotland yesterday who
wondered how Kris Boyd managed to get from half-way into a
goal-scoring position to open Killie's account in 10.4 seconds,
against Ross County yesterday?
Has WADA been informed? Kris covering that distance,
that quickly, is definitely fishy to me.
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