THE DOGS on the street know this current Rangers' squad is “a poor team”; they know few if any of the players are “Rangers Class”; no Scottish commentators – and fewer normal fitba fans - were at all surprised that they slumped to defeat against Club Brugge. Even so, the team and manager were rightly vilified for what was a rank rotten show on Tuesday night.
But, in the final analysis, nobody was in the least surprised that a poor Rangers side should lose to a little more than competent Belgian outfit. So, how come Celtic are not getting more pelters for failing to defeat their opponents from Kazakhstan on Wednesday night?
I mean, on-paper, this was a “good” Celtic team, at Fortress Parkhead, facing unknown make-weights, this game was generally seen as an easy home win for The Hoops – so why no disgust in the press afterwards?
OK, Celtic's defending was nowhere near as bad as Rangers' had been the previous night, but, at least, Rangers, poor as they were, managed to score in their game. Now, I admit, for all their defensive excellence on Wednesday, Kairat Almaty will have to show a bit more in attack in their home leg, which might open-up some chances for Celtic to hit them on the break, but, at this stage, Celtic progressing is not a done deal, far from it.
Much of the post-match comment swirled around Brendan Rogers' somewhat cryptic comment around: “chants of sack the board generally mean – sack the manager”. The current crop of Scottish Fitba writers seemed to have difficulty working out what this meant – allow this old fossil to explain.
I recall, some decades ago, the late, great Alistair MacLeod, reacting to a particularly voluble rant from perennial Ayr United critic - “Enclosure George Reid” by saying: “as long as George and his ilk are calling for the Manager's head, that manager is safe; but, once they start directing their ire at the board, the manager's jacket is on a shoogly nail, because, directors do not like criticism”. Rogers, on Wednesday night, was merely underlining the perennial wisdom of Ally's remarks.
There was a lot of post-match chatter too around Celtic's need to purchase full back cover, should Alastair Johnson's injury prove long term – this merely shows how bad Scottish football has become.
I first got interested in fitba in the mid-1950s, not a particularly fruitful time for Celtic. Their right back was Mike Haughney, who had won his only Scotland cap, against England in 1954. When Mike retired, he was succeeded by the young Billy McNeill, gaining experience at right back, while the great Bobby Evans had taken over from Jock Stein at centre-half.
Then, when McNeill finally inherited the number five shorts, in came Dunky McKay, who went on to win 14 Scotland caps. He in turn was replaced by Ian Young, a Scotland Under-23 cap, who in turn gave way to Willie O'Neill, before the order of succession went Jim Craig, David Hay, Danny McGrain. The Celtic management of the time had no need to enter the transfer market for a replacement, should a first-team member be injured or transferred, the replacement was already in-situ, learning the ropes in the Reserves.
Mind you, the Celtic Reserve team of those days - “The Quality Street Gang” as they were known, were a wee bit better than fourth – behind Linlithgow Rose, Clydebank and Bo'ness United in the Lowland League; so calling up a reserve might not be an option. However, Anthony Ralston, who will slot-in for Johnson is, with 21 Scotland caps and over 120 first-team games for the club, hardly a novice.
You might think by now, the business model of recruiting third or fourth-rate non-Scots into the Scottish game, a model which has never worked, might by now have been confined to the archives – but still, every Scottish club, from Celtic down, stands by it. The very definition of madness.
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