Socrates MacSporran

Socrates MacSporran
No I am not Chick Young, but I can remember when Scottish football was good

Saturday 5 August 2017

New Season But, I Fear, It Will Be The Same-Old, Same-Old

WE ARE, as I write, in that period known as: “the calm before the storm”. In three hours' time, the 2017-18 Scottish league season will get underway at Celtic Park.

At the stadium, the unseen army of ancillary workers will already be setting-up the TV cameras, running the miles of electrical cable and getting everything into place. The club's ground staff will be making last-minute preparations, to ensure everything is right for the pre-game ceremonial, the unfurling of the league flag and so on.

Many of the furthest-travelled of the Celtic Family will already be en route to Paradise, while I dare say, those wee scamps who: “watch yer caur mister”? Will already be looking forward and anticipating how much their protection racket – sorry, freelance parking company – will make today.

 Look out for more of this in the new season

But, looking at the bigger picture of this new season, what can we expect? Pretty-much the same-old, same-old. Anything other than yet another league title for the defending Champions is well-nigh impossible to imagine. They are so-far ahead of the rest, the smart betting money is surely going on how wide is the gulf between Celtic and second place come the end of hostilities next May.

Can they complete another Treble, perhaps back-to-back “invincibles”? I leave the word on that to a Celtic immortal: who might well say: “Maybes aye, maybes naw”. But, nobody would be surprised if they did.

Where is the challenge to come from? I suspect places two to six in the end-of-season table will go to, and I make no particular forecast as to final order, so will list them alphabetically – Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, Kilmarnock and Rangers.

At the other end of the table, I fancy Hamilton's seemingly annual flirtation with relegation might prove fatal this year, but, as to who goes into the play-off place – pick any one from the other five.

As I said, I don't see many surprises this season. The big media speculation will centre around Rangers. That club is in a mess, but, being Rangers, they will still be top six. Mind you, how long will their manager last? And, can a dressing room, reportedly seriously split, ever come together to justify their (in Scottish terms) huge salaries?

 Will Pedro see-out the season?

In the Championship – can Dundee United hold it together for the entire season and get back to the top-flight, or, will Falkirk finally sustain their charge throughout the season and get the automatic promotion place.

I honestly hope Ayr United sustain their good early-season form throughout the First Division campaign, while, in the bottom league, it really is past time Clyde pulled themselves together and got out of there.

Finally, I just wonder in which of our remaining World Cup qualifiers we do the now traditional Scottish trick of pulling disaster from the cusp of victory and success.

As I said, Scottish football – same-old, same-old, and I don't see this new season being any different.



I SEE Brendan Rodgers was pontificating on matters Heart of Midlothian this morning. To be fair to the Celtic gaffer, he was merely, and politely, responding to questions put to him by the “stenographers” at yesterday's Celtic pre-match press conference.

Brendan Rodgers - polite when perhaps an "F-off was called for"

Oh how I wish some day, some manager would react to such questions by saying something like: “It's none of my fucking business, and, in any case you've mistaken me for someone who gives a fuck about what is happening outside my own club”.

That would tell them. I repeat the dismissive aside I got from one now-retired veteran of our sports-writing trade, who, when I told him I was off downstairs to hear what the managers had to say about the game, replied: “In my day, we told them what kind of game it had been”.

Time to get back to those days. Football writers are like theatre critics – they should not be afraid to criticise. For too-long, football managers and officials in Scotland have been allowed to set any old shite out before an increasingly-disinterested public.

I well recall, back in the early days of this century, covering a Kilmarnock v Dunde United game at Rugby Park which stank so much, you could have smelled it on the other side of Glasgow. The press corps were not happy with what they had just endured, as we convened in the Rugby Park media suite.

It so happened, then Killie boss Bobby Williamson was having one of his long-running battles with the media at the time, and, he had decided to arm himself with a small tape recorder, with which to record the press conference, intending, on the Monday to check the printed version of the post-match with what had actually been said.

We were thus instructed, when addressing Mr Williamson, to begin by saying our name and out paper. Having laid down the ground rules, Bobby asked: “First question”?

I had been primed to be the first Aunt Sally, so, I duly barked out name and paper, then asked: “How do you justify the 90-minutes of shite we just watched Bobby”?

Bobby Williamson - didn't like the question, but answered it well

Pausing only to inform me I was: “A big, useless, biased Ayr United-supporting C***”, Bobby shrugged his shoulders and agreed, the match had not been his club's finest hour and a half, before giving us a reasonable explanation as to why his carefully worked-out midweek plans had gone awry. We left happy with this.

Next up was Alex Smith of United. His approach was totally different. He went all defensive, virtually telling us we didn't know what we were talking about, before, in the face of a united and hostile press, agreeing, the game had been fairly dire.

Alex Smith, tried to justify the unjustifiable

So my pre-season advice to the stenographers is: be more critical, ask harder questions and do not be afraid to say: “Scottish fitba is shite”. If you don't and if you don't press for better – nobody else will.

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