Results Meant Cathro Had To Go - Sadly

FOOTBALL is, as we all know, a results-driven business, and Ian Cathro's results simply did not meet the aspirations of the Hearts' board or their fans – so, under Scottish football's age-old strictures, this “bright, inventive and much sought-after young coach” is now toast.

Ian Cathro - sacked

I so wanted Cathro to succeed at Tynecastle. He was and still is a shining light of inventiveness – a breath of fresh air into the dull, aye beenism of Scottish football and Scottish sport. His out of the box thinking first got him noticed, but, at the end of the day, he was no-different from the countless dull, old-fashioned coaches who had gone before him.

His team didn't seem to know how to win, so, easier to ditch the coach than the players, good night and thank you.

Mind you, appointing one so young and inexperienced was always a gamble. This was his first taste of being a Head Coach, so, maybe his failure ought not to be so surprising. I had my doubts when he was appointed, but, as I have said, I so wanted him to succeed.

Maybe Ian Cathro was meant to be a youth coach, a man who works best with young players, who can teach them the right ways, before passing them onto a more-mainstream Scottish coach, who will ruin them, just as generations have been ruined.

Perhaps it was the internal systems within Hearts that beat him, plus the grandiose expectations of a fan base, desperate for success – now. After all, the Gorgie faithful are used to success – 47-years since their last league win; five years since their last Scottish Cup win, and 44-years since their last League Cup win.

Of course, Cathro's wins percentage, at 23%, was not good. It compares very well, however, with Hearts' overall winning record in Scottish football – 15 national trophies from 318 competitions entered – 5% in real money.

If Cathro was meant to turn perennial also-rans into contenders, against at least two clubs with far larger budgets and fan bases, then he maybe wasn't the right guy – and he certainly was not given enough time.

If his remit was to bring in new ideas, fresh ways of working – then he probably was the right guy, but, again he was not given enough time. For all that, it is sad to see a young man who offered so much, discarded in typical Scottish football style. And there was me thinking Ann Budge was maybe a bit different.

Ann Budge, has a big decision to make now

Who's next?

TRONDHEIM on Wednesday night is Celtic's latest stop in Europe, with them seeking the goal or goals which will take them into the Play-Off round of the Champions League. Defeat will not be the end of the European road for the Hoops, they will drop into the play-off round of the Europa League, but, surely this is not one of the season goals which Scott Brown touched on at the SPFL press day at Hampden on Monday.

It would be interesting to learn exactly what are Brendan Rodgers' goals which he has set his men for this season. If we accept that winning all three domestic trophies, again, is a given for any Celtic team at the start of the season, we can speculate on what else.

Failure to reach the Group stages of the Champions League – well, that's got to be a failure; I suspect the goal this season is the Knock-Out stages – anything less is regression. Replicating the feat of the Lisbon Lions and winning every competition they enter, well, that has to be the dream – but, Rodgers is a realist, I do not see that as a target for this season.

Celtic, as a club, has this reputation for playing attractive, attacking football – might their boss this season want to see his team scoring more goals, and conceding fewer. Let's score at least three goals per game, at least in the domestic events, that might be a good target to put up, especially if covered by a good bonus scheme. Aye, it would be lovely to know just what Celtic's targets are.

I WILL have my AB tee-shirt on again tonight. I hold no ill-will towards England's Women's team. There are some very good players in the ranks of “the Lionesses”, even if, like every England team since 1872, they are probably not as good as their media cheerleaders think they are. And, that yet again is the problem with an England team in a big event – the way their fans with microphones and lap tops go on – you just want them to fail.

I HAVE, as regular readers of this blog will know, a healthy disdain for some of today's football writers, in particular their willingness to be stenographers, and to faithfully reproduce any old mince spouted by the talking heads before them.

One or two of today's crop show promise, there may be a latter-day “Dan” Archer in there somewhere I admit. But, while doing some online research this morning, I was shocked to the core, when I spotted a boob by one of the greats.

 

Willie Woodburn - obstructed

 

I was reading a report on a Queen of the South v Rangers match from 1947, during which the reporter, one of the giants of the genre of football-writing vented his spleen at the referee's failure to award a penalty against Rangers' Willie Woodburn, for what the reporter saw as clear obstruction on Billy Houliston the legendary Doonhamer's centre-forward.

Billy Houliston

Just one thing wrong – obstructing an opponent is not punishable by a penalty, but, by the award of an indirect free-kick. So, the incident at Palmerston was not a case of a referee who might or might not be in the right “ludge” doing Rangers a favour. It was never a penalty in any case.