DOWN HERE, in “Orange County” - where real men wear bowler hats, white gloves, dark suits and brown brogues, there is a sombre air around this morning. 'The King's XI' had their bums handed to them on a plate, by a gang of genuine 'Oranjie Men' and in my own and the other former pit villages nearby, the natives are decidedly unhappy.
The glory-seeking hingers-oan are keeping quiet; those whose beliefs have been tested by off-field events over the past decade too. Meanwhile, the very-few members of the Dark Side Family whom we allow to live amongst us are chipper. As ever in the Land of the Two Warring Tribes, any defeat for one side has the other lot salivating, more-so when they can see the possibility of inflicting further pain at the weekend.
Still, look on the bright side – my Grandson – The Polis, might earn his overtime this weekend.
That own goal rather summed up the Blues in Eindhoven. Some might say the performance stank, I don't think it was that good. The team's form in Europe last season was unacceptable. The manager has tinkered with his team and got no return in the CL this season, but, perhaps in the calmer waters of the Europa League, results will improve. Mind you, I, for one, am not confident of that.
I still maintain – more than half of the current squad are simply, to use my late Hun Faither's expression: “Not Rangers' Class.” Of course, such is the paucity of talent and ambition in the domestic Scottish game, they could still win a Treble this season – simply because, the Other Lot do not appear to be as strong or as well-managed as they were last season while The Diddy Teams, having taken their lead from the Bigot Brothers, are recruiting even poorer non-Scottish mercenaries than their so-called betters.
It may well be cheaper, easier and less stressful all round to recruit on the second-hand market, rather than implement a working youth development programme. It doesn't help that even non-league clubs in England can offer players better wages than can be had in Scotland – and agents are only too willing to take their cut in sending talented young Scots south.
However, I still believe, having faith in Scottish talent could offer a better pay-off, domestically and in Europe, than buying-in badge-kissing mercenaries. But, the whole landscape of Scottish Fitba is now so skewed against home-grown talent, I think it will take years, and an as yet absent desire in the board rooms and managers' offices to turn back the clock and then turn things around.
It is now 40 years since a Scottish side last won a European trophy. It is now 37-years since Graeme Souness was repatriated and decided the local talent pool was insufficient for his and his Chairman's ambition. We've been slipping downhill ever since. It is surely time, the slippage was halted, then reversed. However, I do not see a desire to do this anywhere in the game up here. Truly, we are all doomed.
Looking at this week's European results makes dismal reading. I don't suppose it was much of a surprise that a poor Rangers team, still attempting to gel, should lose to PSV, but, the margin of defeat has to be an issue. At least, they have the consolation of a Europa League group place.
Aberdeen too are still in Europe, dropping into the Conference League following their hardly-surprising loss to the Swedish Champions BK Hacken. Again, however, the margin of defeat should, I would hope, get the great brains at the top of our game thinking: “What are our clubs doing wrong, and what can we do to correct things?”
As for the demise of Hearts and Hibs – it reminds me of a throwaway line I first heard from the late, great, Bobby Knutt, at Batley Variety Club back in the mid-1970s, when he mused: “What about football in Sheffield – you never know, it might catch-on.”
Sheffield native Knotty's disquiet at the state of The Blades and The Owls back then is today being mirrored in Auld Reekie.
To sum up – we appear to be doomed to wander in the wilderness for a while longer yet. Moses and the Israeilites' 40-year stravaig around the Sinai looks increasingly like a short sentence from where Scottish football now is – 40-years and counting since our last win in Europe. I don't see things changing any time soon.
Meanwhile, along the sixth-floor corridor at Hampden, our Footballing High Heid Yins are unlikely to lift their heads out of the gravy trough long enough to notice. So long as they get even one away freebie to Europe each season, it's a case of: “job done.”
FINALLY – I see from reading posts in Facebook, tickets are still available for our upcoming COMPETITIVE game against Cyprus, but, already, briefs for the CELEBRATION FRIENDLY against England cannot be obtained without selling a kidney (and throwing in as an added incentive – the deflowering of a youngest daughter). Maybe Mark Renton was onto something in his rant – we are obsessed by the wankers next door.
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