More Left-Field Thinking

I HAVE this week upgraded my television package and have finally got access to Sky. So now I can watch sport across all platforms. It doesn't help me much, because, the more I watch, the more I am becoming convinced: Football in 2024 is crap.

I can accept we have more-athletic players than we have ever had, but with all the money sloshing around in the game these days, we are seeing a lot of pretty-average journeymen being paid superstar wages for a low level of skill and application.

This is particularly true in the domestic Scottish game, about which I have a theory. In a past life I did a stint as a trade plater. Moving trucks old and new around the country on trade plates.

The company I worked for had contracts with several heavy truck manufacturers, who sold a lot of new trucks on leasing deals, at the end of which I, or one of the other platers would turn-up, collect the end-of-lease truck and deliver it to the manufacturers facility for handling such trucks.

There, they would be assessed, given whatever maintenance work was called for and either sent onto to the second-hand market, or, more-frequently, sent for export.

The end-of-lease facilities were usually along the M4 corridor and the trucks bound for export went out from either Harwich or Tilbury.

I think somebody, perhaps a mega football agency has the same sort of system going, collecting out of contract players from the lower levels of the Football League then exporting them to Scottish clubs, where, although they are not top of the line models, they are seen as better and more exotic than the local models, so, they get to play.

That's my take on how we come to see Scottish Football as, to use the local vernacular: “Pure Pish man.”

OK, I can already hear the advice: “If you think Scottish Fitba is so bad, you've got the TV Sports package, watch the English Premiership”.

Except, I cannot. OK, I admit to that morbid Scottish fascination for watching the not-so-good inaction – Sydney Devine, Fran and Anna, Joe Gordon and Sally Logan, The Alexander Brothers, 90% of the modern “comedians” on BBC Shortbread – there's a proud Scottish tradition of punters paying good money to watch mince in action. But, the truth is, while watching the current Manchester United squads passes the watching mince threshold, the likes of Manchester City, Arsernal and Liverpool are so-efficient, they are making football boring.

This current obsession with passing teams to death for instance. I suppose, in some ways, it dates back to Barcelona and “Tiki-Taka”. This style of football, short passing, at speed, was developed in Barcelona and Manchester City's Pep Guardiola, from his time with the Spanish club is considered the High Priest of the tactic. But, right from the start, in the early days of this century, Tiki-Taki had its critics; Atletico Bilbao manager Javier Clemente, back in 2006, is considered the first-person to have used the words “Tiki-Taka” in a derogatory way – he thought it was boring.

But, as demonstrated by the likes of the young Lionerl Messi, Xavi, Andreas Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas, it worked, so it spread. However, the Barcelona Boys wove their patterns in the final third of the park, today, too-often, lesser sides simply pass, for passing's sake, from their own 18 yard box.

Watching Rangers v Dundee on Saturday, four of the first five Rangers passes went backwards, indeed, I am convinced they played more square or back passes than forward ones over the 90 minutes. Yes, they played “Keepball” well, against limited opponents, but,the swathes of unoccupied seats in the Copland Road Stand is surely ample demonstration, they are playing a brand of football which not even the staunchest Bears can stomach.

My very first Old Firm game was in season 1963-64. I was lodging with my Uncle and Aunt in Springburn and Uncle Bobby was a Rangers fanatic, so off to Celtic Park we went with him and his work-mates.

It was, from memory a League Cup tie, Rangrers won at a canter with the young Jim Forrest making his name with a double. Rangers had the game won long before the end, so Jim Baxter decided to have a bit of fun as he, John Greig, Ronnie McKinnon and Davie Provan just passed the ball around among themselves for long periods inside the Rangers half.

OK, they were taking the piss out of a shell-schocked Celtic team, but, on Saturday I watched a Rangers back four, pale shadows of Greig, McKinnon and Baxter, passing the ball around among themselves, because it appears that is what they are expected to do nowadays.

If it was an attempt at Tiki-Taka it was a poor one; and, by the way, it way being played some 40 yards further from goal than Barcelona played it. I am also getting exasperated at the modern fashion for passing backwards.

When Rangers kicked-off on Saturday, they made four back passes, berfore they played one ball forward. There was one period, later-on on Saturday when, from a throw-in to Rangers, some 25 yards out from the Dundee goal, the ball was played all the way back to Jack Butland. To use a time-honoured Scottish Football expression: “That sort o' thing wid get Fitba stoaped.”

If we are going to insist on playing Keepball, in a congested midfield, which means passing back into our own half in an effort to open up space – here's a stream of thought:

• Why don't we cut the size of each team?

• Make Football a seven-a-side game

• Ban passing back into a side's own half, once they have taken the ball into their opponents' half

• We could even instead of having a half-way line, divide the field into three sections and limit the number of players who could be in any one section at a time

• That way, we would open-up space and make for a more-entertaining game

Football appears much-less willing than other games to tinker with the Laws. I have long believed the Law Book needs major reform. We are now 150 years into International Football, perhaps it is time for that reform.

Some Left-Field Thinking

IN HIS YOUTH Bill Struth was a “Pedestrian” - a middle distance runner of some note. He then moved across to Football, where he ran Rangers with an iron hand for many years, during which, he promoted, every year, the most-lucrative athletics meet in Scotland – the annual Rangers Sports.

In its glory years, under Struth, Rangers' Sports attracted huge crowds, to see Olympic Champions such as Eric Liddel or Jack Lovelock, and world record holders such as Sydney Wooderson or Derek Ibbotson compete on the Ibrox track. But, it wasn't those stellar athletics names who pulled-in the punters, no, it was the Five-a-side Football event, which brought together the six Glasgow clubs: Rangers, Celtic, Patrtick Thistle, Clyde, Queen's Park and Third Lanark – that was the big draw for most of the fans.

They had had no real football since the end of April, so, by the time the annual Sports came round, in early August, the punters were suffering withdrawal symptoms and desperate to see their heroes kicking a ball about – even if only half of the team was out there.

So, in the interests of seeing the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2026 be a financial as well as a sporting success – here's my free suggestion: make Fitba one of the sports.

Imagine the chance to be Commonwealth Football Champions, surely that would get the countries interested and bring-in the fans. What price a Final, at Hampden, between Scotland and England, gold medals on the line – tickets for that would be like the proverbial gold dust.

The Rugby Sevens tournament at the last Commonwealth Games had an entry of 16 countries. OK, running a Sevens tournament, in which each game only lasts 15 minutes or so is a lot easier than running a full-scale Football tournament, but, we could take a leaf out of the Rangers sports book and make it five-a-side, or even seven-a-side, I am sure it would still pull-in the fitba fans.

Just for interest, the top 16 Commonwealth nations, according to the latest FIFA World Mens Rankings are – in descending order: England (4), Australia (25), Wales (29), Canada (38), Nigeria (39), Scotland (52), Cameroon (53), South Africa (59), Jamaica (61), Ghana (70), Northern Ireland (73), Gabon (84), Uganda (90), Zambia (93), New Zealand (95), Mozambique (99).

In the FIFA Women's Rankings, the top 16 are: England (2), Canada (6), Australia (15), Scotland (23), Wales (29), New Zealand (31), Nigeria (36), Jamaica (42), Northern Ireland (45), South Africa (50), Papua New Guinea (56), Zambia (62), Ghana (66), India (68), Cameroon (69), Fiji (72), Trinidad and Tobago (77).

There is one minor problem, Football is not a Commonwealth Games member sport, but, that is surely a minor consideration. I reckon, even at five or seven-a-side, the punters would love it.

I MUST ADMIT, I was a wee bit fearful for Celtic, facing Slovan Bratislava on Wednesday night. Perhaps long experience of our Big Two tripping-up in Europe had made me unduly pessimistic, but, fair dos to Brendan Rodgers' men, they did a thoroughly-professional job on their Slovakian opponents.

Tougher tests are coming down the road, Borussia Dortmund (away) next up will be a whole lot harder, but, sticking five past their opponents first time out has to be a confidence-booster for the rest of the campaign.

Celtic scoring a nap hand of goals (the old football cliches are the best) was as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit to the club across the city – greater expectations now apply to them as they head for Sweden next week; it's just another week in the mad, mad world of Glesca Fitba.

I SAW A POST on Facebook last week – the Best Playmakers in British Football History. It was the usual shite for such lists, with very few players from more than 20 years ago mentioned.

What was surprising was, Jim Baxter, who retired more than 50 years ago, was listed at Number Three. Now, the Gallus Genius is seldom, if ever, mentioned in such all-time great listings, so, I was surprised to see him in there, and so high-up.

Since Bobby Charlton and George Best, neither of whom I would tag as a “Playmaker” were ranked one and two, I did feel Baxter was under-rated, even at three. Danny Blanchflower, was way down the list, but, in my view, he was almost as good as “Stanley” as a setter-up of chances. While there was no mention of the under-appreciated “White Ghost of White Hart Lane” - the late and much-lamented John White.

White was the common denominator in Spurs' fabulous midfield trio of himself, Blanchflower and Dave Mackay and in Scotland's finest-ever midfield pairing, with the afore-mentioned Baxter.

Also missing was the name of Johnny Giles and another couple of great Irish midfield providers – the Republic's Liam Brady and the North's Peter Doherty.

Few fans today will have heard of Middlesbrough's Wilf Mannion or the man many older fans considered our finest Number Ten, before Denis Law – Billy Steel, a man still reveered on Tayside – but they were the orchestrators of Great Britain's six-goal hammering of The Rest of Europe in 1947.

And, if Mannion is still a God on Tees-side, older 'Boro fans will tell you, Bobby Murdoch wasn't a bad operator in the same role when he ended up at Ayresome Park.

Mannion succeeded another great of North-East of England football, Sunderland's Raich Carter, as England's main playmaker, before that role was passed on to Johnny Haynes of Fulham.

Haynes, forever enshrined as the British game's first “£100 per week footballer” had a passing range today's so-called playmakers could only dream about, while another absolute artist as a provider for others from that era was Welshman Ivor Allchurch.

Football today is a different game. Today's top stars have to be athletes as much, if not more than footballers, but, I firmly believe, when it comes to using the ball, making those defence-splitting 50 and 60 yard crossfield passes, rather than the simple five yard one we see so-often today – the old timers were in a different class.

One of my uncles was a Rangers regular, seldom missing a game that club played. He had a tale of how, as was generally the case – he always took a week or two to warm-up and work his way into a new season, Baxter was taking some flak from the old Ibrox “Hayshed” in an early-season game in which Rangers were struggling to get going.

His case wasn't helped by two things, one, that week he had been photographed at a social event with one or two members of “The Celtic Family”. Two - this had sparked off a rumour that he was rather close to a Celtic player's sister – and the Slim One was being barracked to: “Awa an' f#ck Bridie”.

As my uncle tells it, the abuse of Baxter reached a crescendo as Rangers prepared to take a throw-in in front of the Hayshed. Eric Caldow threw the ball in to Baxter, who let it bounce, then swivelled and left-footed volleyed the ball some 40-yards across field to Alex Scott, who rounded his marker and crossed, for Ralph Brand to fire home at the back post.

One-nothing Rangers, no more jeering of Jim Baxter. As the saying goes, form is transient, class is permanent.

 

A Reality Check For Celtic?

THIS IS a big week for Celtic. The new season has been plain sailing so far, five straight wins in the Premeirship, including a very-comfortable spanking of the side from across the city. But, on Wednesday night, the campaign moves up a notch or two, when Slovan Bratislava come calling to Celtic Park on Champions League duty.

Naturally, given their club's impressive start to the season, five straight League wins, 14 goals scored, no goals conceded, the Celtic Family are feeling good about this game. But, Slovan Bratislava are no mugs. Like Celtic they have a UEFA star on their shirts, from beating Barcelona in the 1969 Cup-Winners Cup Final. Also, Slovakian sides have a habit of upsetting Scottish opponents, so a home win on Wednesday should not be taken as read.

Slovan are unbeaten away from home in the four two-legged European games they have already played this season, and while they did lose heavily, 0-5, at MSK Zilina at the start of the month, that is their only loss in the 17 games they have played this season.

Celtic will find their opponents on Wednesday a step up in class from what they have faced so far this season. All Scots must hope they can get their European campaign off to a winning start, but, should beware of over-confidence.

And another thing – Slovan are ranked 59^th in the latest UEFA Club Co-efficients, Celtic are ranked 70^th.

RANGERS have another week before they return to the European stage, with their trip to Malmö – but, after their win at Tannadice on Saturday, they will be feeling a wee bit better about themselves.

However, drama is never far away from Ibrox these days and I suppose the latest offerings from Dave King – a sort of poor man's Donald Trump around the club, who fancies he is the man to sort everything out if they make him Chairman, well that will keep the red top hacks in the city excited for a day or so.

MEANWHILE – down here in God's County, the nativers are restless following Kilmarnock's adventures is Paisley at the weekend.

Derek McInnes is of course a Paisley Buddie by birth and he certainly enjoyed some banter with the local fans, after what the locals thought was a late winner, was ruled out by a VAR check.

But this, on the day, was a rare case of Derek agreeing with the match officials – I don't see referee Matthew McDermid being on the McInnes Christmas Card list after a couple of his decisions. Young Master McDermid is one of those referees, much like his new boss, Willie Collum was in his younger days, who is forging a reputation for being involved in controversial incidents.

But, to be fair to young Matthew, on Saturday he was hung out to dry by a totally unsatisfactory performance in the TV truck by Andrew Dallas. Of course I am a Kilmarnock supporter, but, I did spend the best part of a decade covering St Mirren, so, I have a foot in both camps here.

In truth the game ought to have been nine St Mirren players v ten Kilmarnock. Mikael Mandron, who was clearly taken off before he got himself sent off, should have gone on a clear second yellow card, which the officials ignored. But, that was nothing compared dto the total lack of action after Shaun Rooney twice clearly kicked the grounded Kyle Vassell.

In fact, had Rooney, as he should have been, seen red then, then Joe Wright would probably have avoided the red card he got later for a punch to the Rooney cajones, which Dallas in the TV truck did spot – and it would have been 11 Killie men v 9 Buddies.

Still, if you like your Scottish Fitba red in tooth and claw, then Paisley was the place to be on Saturday.

IN TRUTH, Heart of Midlothian were not expected to win at Celtic Park on Saturday, but, foot of the table, winless and with just one draw to post so far in the league campaign, they really need a boost before their upcoming European Conference League campaign gets underway.

The Jam Tarts are at St Mirren on Saturday; they then visit Motherwell, before their opening Conference League game, in Minsk the following Wednesday. Stephen Naismith really needs good results from these two domestic games prior to that match. The vultures are hovering over Gorgie this early in the season, that's the way of Scottish Football.

MEA CULPA, but it is only this week that I have caught up with the South Challenge Cup, what a cracking competition, bringing together 163 clubs from the Lowland, East of Scotland, South of Scotland and West of Scotland Leagues.

This season sees the 18^th running of the tournament, and, for the first time, it features an all-in draw from the start, which means clubs who rarely ever cross swords get to meet. In Saturday's 64 second round ties, there were some rare meetings and I picked out one or two interesting results.

For instance, I can think of no other competition which might see Whitehill Welfare of the East League, paired with St Anthony's that pro-Celtic enclave in the shadow of Ibrox, but, their clash certainly produced goals – 23 to be exact; with Whitehill winning 10-9 on penalties after the tie finished 2-2 after extra time.

Contrasting fortunes for the town of Irvine: Irvine Meadow cruised to a 10-0 win over South League Wigtown and Bladnoch, while Irvine Victoria were thumped 7-0 by St Cadoc's. Another big win saw Broxburn Athletic travel to Sanquhar and beat Nithsdale Wanderers 10-2.

Just up the road, in New Cumnock, Glenafton Athletic's 0-2 loss to Dalry Thistle was the end of the road for manager Ryan Caddis and his background team. I have already upset one or two locals in the village where I hide from my critics, by suggesting they break the bank, or at least get Sir Tom Hunter to chip-in, to bring Billy Dodds home as Manager/Saviour.

Needless to say, my advice has been ignored, man of many clubs and lurid headlines, Paul Paton has got the gig.

 

Lisbon Wasn't That Bad - You Might Have Been In Auchinleck

I DISCOVERED, several years ago when compiling my Family Tree – which took me back as far as several martyrs during the Covenanting “Killing Times” that there is a bit of nero-divergence running through my ancestry -one or two ancestors were deemed: “a wee bit funny” - as in funny peculiar rather than funny ha-ha. And before the usual suspects from the massed ranks of Ayrshire Rugby point a finger: “guilty M'Lud”.

My latre elder brother William was always considered, even for a tight-head prop, a wee-bit touched. For instance, he was never a great believer in Murphy's Law – If it can go wrong it will. However, he did hold that O'Reilly's Corollary: Dat Murphy always was an optimist was of far-greater relevance to the modern world.

I commend this approach to those Tartan Army foot soldiers, currently in full Frankie Howard – woe, woe and thrice woe mode following last night's two-goal loss to Portugal in Lisbon.

It has long been one of the pillars of this blog, that Scottish Fitba has to be one of the most crazy-mixed-up areas of sport in the world. No nation has greater and more-glorious wins: Wembley Wizards 1928, Wembley Wizards 1967, Jimmy Cowan's Match 1949, Madrid 1963, or more-disastrous losses: Peru, Iran, Wembley 1955, Wembley 1961, Wembley 1975.

Following Scotland as a Tartan Army foot soldier sometimes looks like a civilian version of the great George Macdonald Fraser's take on the fighting Jocks of the 51^st Division: “They would follow their Anglo-Scottish officers anywhere, usually out of a morbid fascination as to what manner of trouble they would lead them into this time”.

So, while naturally upset at the results against Poland and Portugal, I am not weeping, wailing or renting my clothes asunder – I've seen this movie before.

One of the reasons behind the formation of the UEFA Nations League, the competition we are currently playing in was to better formulate the UEFA and FIFA rankings, by doing away with meaningless friendlies in favour of games which meant something.

On paper this should have played in Scotland's favour, since we have traditionally done better in meaningful games as opposed to “friendlies” or “challenge games”. The reality is, however, the better you do in lesser leagues, eventually you hit your ceiling and find yourself perhaps a wee bit out of your depth. That is where we are at the moment.

Some good results a few years back have got us into the European Nations A League, the international equivalent of the Champions League – we are now playing with the big boys.

{an explanatory paragraph is required here. I have, for the purposes of this post, ignored the overall FIFA Men's rankings; according to that grou0ping, Scotland is the 48^th best country in world football. However, until we qualify for another World Cup, we will not be facing, in a competitive game, some of the nations above us – the African, South American or Asian nations – but we will be facing other European nations. So, for the basis of comparison, I have used each country's UEFA ranking.}

Thus we find, in our Group A of the Nations League, we are in with Portugal (ranked 6 in Europe), Croatia (8) and Poland (15), Scotland is ranked 24 in Europe. There are 16 nations in the four groups in the Nations A League. The only countries ranked lower than us are Israel (37) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (36).

The following countries, all ranked above us, are in League B or lower: England (3), Austria, Ukraine, Turkiye, Sweden, Wales, Russia, Slovakia, Romania, Czechia. In a way, we've got lucky, but our luck has run out and we are swimming with sharks.

So, perhaps those keyboard warriors who are calling for the head of Manager Stevie Clarke, or demanding a cull of the squad, should shut-up and enjoy the ride. I repeat my oft-used words of warning, our game is in such a poor state, it would not matter who we had as manager, we don't have many diamonds, unpolished or polished, among the players the Scotland boss could call on.

If you measure Scotland's standing in European football via how our domestic league is viewed, the situation is slightly better. According to UEFA'S Association Co-efficient table, Scotland's SPFL is the 17^th best league in Europe, and we are competing in the Nations League against Portugal (7), Poland (18) and Croatia (19). Aside from Poland and Croatia, the only other domestic leagues among the Nations League A nations are Serbia (20), Hungary (22) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (39).

Our Associations Co-efficient is defined by the performances of our clubs in the three European club competitions – Champions League, Europa League and the Conference League. The ranking points we earn this season will be accrued by Celtic, Rangers and Hearts.

Each club is mandated to register a 25-man squad for whichever competition they are involved in. This season, Celtic, for the Champions League, have registered 25 players, only 8 of whom (32%) are Scottish. Rangers, in the Europa League, have registered 21 players, only 4 of whom (19%) are Scottish, while Hearts, for their Conference League campaign, have registered 19 players, of whom 9 (47%) are Scottish. So, out of the 65 SPFL-registered players due to play in the three major European competitions this season, only 21 (32%) are actually Scottish.

If Scottish clubs are so unwilling to feature Scottish talent, how can we expect to nurture the necessary quality of player to take the national team to where many of the Tartan Army think it should be?

I like to try to finish on an optimistic note. If you disgruntled Tartan Army foot soldiers, wearily coming back from Lisbon think you've had a hard few days, please spare a thought for those Talbot Bees down in God's County.

Auchinleck Talbot, going out of the Scottish Junior Cup in the second round, beaten 2-3 at Fortress Beechwood, by Lossiemouth United, now that is what you call a bad result.

 

Disaster For Scotland 79 - Yet Another Sequel

AT TIMES like this, I don't half miss dear old David Francey. Nobody ever quite verbalised the hope that kills with following Scotland like David, when he uttered those immortal words: “Oh Deaer! Oh Dear! Oh Dear! It's disaster for Scotland” - followed by an in-depth surmation of whichever rush of shite to their brain any given ancestor of Grant Hanley had just perpetrated to help us snatch defeat from the jaws of either victory or at least a morale-boosting draw.

One of my journalist friends, a stalwart of that vanishing segment, local newspaper journalism, contacted me on Friday morning, suggesting he was keen to read what old Socrates had to say about that shit show against Poland on Thursday night.

I had to tell him, he had mistaken me for someone who still gave a shit about the failings of our national team – until such time as some footballing anarchist blows-up Hampden during a meeting of the SFA Congress, those quarterly meetings when most if not all the High Heid Yins of the various strata of our game are together inside Hampden – I am firmly on the sidelines channeling my inner Private Frazer.

Of course, the usual suspects were spouting the usual pish which follows a Scotland defeat; the same-old, same-old excuses and potential cures. One of my Facebook friends, himself a former Scotland intrnational in another sport, a now-retired former PE teacher and, to be honest, not a bad footballer in his youth, came up with some pish which was typical of the reaction.

According to this seemingly educated man: six years at a good Scottish Senior Secondary, four years at the Scottish School of Physical Education to qualify, a further year of teacher training, then some 40 years at the chalk face – the problem was:”The Manager needs to take-off his green-tinted specs”. If that's one view from the educated, Officer's Mess end of the Tartan Army, what might I hear from the PBI of that august body.

That particular gentleman, however, does view the game through red white and blue glasses, supporting a Scottish Football Institution where curtrently they do not have many players who are Rangers Class, far-less Scotland Class.

The reality is, we could at the peak of their powers Sir Matt Busby, Sir Alex Ferguson, Bob or Willie Shankly, Jock Stein or Bill Struth managing Scotland at the moment, and we would still be mince. The talent just isn't there and that's a fact.

Received wisdom has it, the basis of a successful football team is its spine: a good goalkeeper, a dominant centre half, a midfield general and a prolific striker. Think one of the first Scotland squads I ever got behind, when we had Bill Brown in goal, Billy McNeill or Ian Ure at centre-half, Jim Baxter and John White running things in midfield and Denis Law up front. The current Scotland squad has journeymen down the spine – where we need artists, it's that obvious.

It would be easy to sack Stevie Clarke and hand the poisoned chalice of the Scotland managership to someone like Davie Moyes, the current bookies choice, apparently, to be the next taxi off the rank; but, in reality, nothing would change. Clarke, Moyes, anyone else you might care to name, could only use the present-day talent pool, and at the moment, that pool is barely a puddle.

Ok, thanks to the likes of dear old Jimmy Greaves, Scottish goalkeepers have never had a good press. But, taking the need for a quality back-stop as one of the building blocks for that spine of the team, the outlook is bleak.

In last Saturday's Scottish Premier League team line-ups, the 12 goalkeepers used were Englishmen: Ellery Balcombe (St Mirren), Josef Bursik (Hibernian), Jack Butland (Rangers), Kieran O'Hara (Kilmarnock), Aston Oxborough (Motherwell) and Jack Walton (Dundee United), Scotsmen Craig Gordon (Heart of Midlothian), Ross Laidlaw (Ross County), John McCracken (Dundee) and Ross Sinclair (St Johnstone), plus Denmark's Kasper Schmeichel (Celtic) and Dimitar Mitov (Aberdeen).

So, that gives Clarke the choice of a mere one-third of the goalkeepers in his domestic top-flight. Gordon has been a wonderful servant to the national team, but, he is now in his forties, while the other three are all unproven at this level. The English Premiership, as it has been for most of this century, is barren of Scot4tish goalkeepers and the man who was handed the gloves on Thursday night – Angus Gunn, plays for what is currently the 33rd-best team in England.

Mindful of Willie Shankly's dictum that the secret of winning in England was to have enough Scots to make a difference, but not so-many that they fell-out, this sage advice appears now to be heresy to the increasing number of foreign managers down South. They simply do not appear to rate Scottish players these days, and this has been the situation for a while now.

Mind you, we don't appear to rate Scottish talent up here. Celtic has just announced its 25-man squad for this season's Champions League. Only eight of them are Scottish, and only two of those – skipper Callum McGregor and Greg Taylor are likely to start; with only another three – Luke McCowan, James Forrest and Anthony Ralston likely to get close to the bench.

That the club which famously won the European Cup with the only entirely home-born squad, nine of whom came through the club's development system should be reduced to being another home for badge-kissing mercenaries is a betrayal of its rich heritage and the passion of its core support.

But we cannot blame Celtic, after all, that club is currently owned by a non-Scot. But, we can blame the stumblebums who infest Hampden's sixth-floor “Corridor of Power” for being unwilling and seemingly unable to lift their snouts from the trough of entitlement they sup in to put right the many wrongs of the management of the game up here. I've been shouting for change for years, but, nobody who could make a difference is interested in so-doing.

The words of Private James Frazer, of the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard still resonate across the ages of Scottish Football: We are all doomed, doomed I tell you.

 

This Is A Hard Week If You're A Red-Top Hack

I SELDOM have much sympathy for the staff football writers at the red-top tabloid end of the newspaper industry. OK, I can accept it might be difficult, by a Wednesday or Thursday, to find a new slant on whatever that week's big Old Firm story is, but, it's not as if they have to work too-hard to find stuff to write about. So long as their particular institution is mentioned more than the alternative one across the city, the poor saps who subsidise the duopoly via their unquestioning deference to the cause are happy.

Then you have weeks like this. The Rivals have clashed for the first time this season, with what those tongue-in-cheeks Tennent's TV adverts from some years back dubbed: The Green Team rather spanking The Blue Team's bahookies. One fears, Ra Peepul might be in for a long and painful season, from which the ripples will spread far and wide. For instance, what might a faltering Breengers' season do for Murdo Fraser's campaign to become Chief Blue Holyrood House Jock?

I honestly do not know – nor particularly care – who has the loudest shout on the Anderston Quay Sports Desk, but I know there is nobody there today with the stature of the likes of Hugh Taylor, Jack Adams, Alex Gordon, or even the star writers such as 'Waverley', Alex “Chiefy” Cameron or Janes Traynor. Whoever has the title Head of Sport these days, I suggest he might, if he has not already, be summoning-up the legendary cracked Rangers' club badge graphic for use in the paper.

And, whichever one of the deminishing band of scribblers still on the payroll, who has the joy of being on the paper's end of the Hotline this week, will earn his wage, as he fields the spittle-flecked abuse from the Blue corner and has to endure the crowing from the Green one.

Aye, it's a hard job, but someone has to do it.

Mind you, perhaps Rangers picked a good week to mess-up. With Scotland playing on Thursday there will be less-focus on the travails down Edmiston Drive way so they may well get off comparatively lightly this week.

I do not think this is a great Celtic team, I do not think Brendan Rodgers is a great Celtic manager, but, squad and gaffer are currently the length of London Road ahead of their opposition across the city.

When Graeme Souness took charge at Ibrox, his timing was spot-on, with the English clubs banned from Europe, he could easily recruit better players than he inherited and this gave Rangers a short-livved advantage. However, David Murray repeated the trick he had pulled in basketball, by recruiting better players to try to win in Europe, and when that failed to work in football, and the financial picture changed, disaster accrued.

Post-Murray and liquidation, his successors at the top of the club failed to adapt – Rangers overall club management over the past decade and more has been a textbook example of madness, doing the same-old, same-old in the vain hope of a different outcome.

Had they, as they ought to have done, kept a clutch of seasoned professionals and gone with the kids, under an experienced manager with a coaching background, when they were dumped in the bottom tier of the Scottish Leagues, by the time they got back to the top-flight they could have had a young, but tempered squad ready to compete.

But no, they went the recent Rangers way, and bought cheap foreign shite. They are still doing this and now they have an inferior squad of players, few of whom are Real Rangers Class. The pressure is now on Mr Clement to close the widening gap on Celtic – the question is, is he a good enough coach to achieve this? Are his players intelligent enough and good enough to learn?

After Saturday, it now appears to be a question of:

1. How big will the gap be between Celtic and the rest by the end of the campaign?

2. Who's going to be second? Because an Aberdeen resurgence just might be on the cards.

3. Ok, Celtic appear untouchable in Scotland, but, is this squad good enough for them to make an impact in the Champions League?

Truly we live in interesting times.

We are still of course in the early miles of what is a marathon campaign. Making predictions other than it will probably end-up with Celtic well-clear of the field could come back and bite one on the bum rather hard. But, looking at the current state of the table, with the New Firm as the meat in an Old Firm sandwich, wouldn't it be nice if that situation continued for a while yet?

Any way, this is probably the last day on which we can discuss domestic issues, as attention turns towards the Nations League, and the make-up of the team to face Poland.