SCOTTISH FOOTBALL-WRITING is in a right moger at the moment. How The Beautiful Game is covered up here has always been governed by a code, which is not written-down anywhere, but, which everyone involved knows by heart.
It's hierarchical; the apex predators are the Chief Football Writers of the various newspapers and broadcast outlets. These suited and booted aristocrats of the printed word – known to the rest of us hacks as: “The A Team” follow a strict schedule: their territory encompasses Hampden, Celtic Park, Ibrox; they mainly report on three teams: The Scotland Men's National Team, Celtic and Rangers. As far as they are concerned, no other teams matter.
As I write this, they are all in Charlotte, North Carolina, covering Scotland's World Cup campaign. This is where they should be, after all, right now, the World Cup is the only show going on – EXCEPT – back home, the speculation around who will be managing Rangers in the new season is off the scale.
Old cynic that I am, I have long held that the close season is when some of the A team, and a lot of the wannabees lower down the food chain, do their best work, speculating about new signings for The Bigot Brothers. Right now, they are moving at peak revs, around the big question – when will Derek McInnes be revealed as the new Rangers' Manager?
Apparently, current incumbent Danny Rohl is heading for Red Bull Salzburg, McInnes has already been recruited as his replacement, all we await are the official announcements. Indeed, some media outlets are already putting it out that this is a done deal.
I've got a long memory – I can remember Maurice Johnston being photographed, holding up a Celtic jersey and saying he was coming home to the only team he had ever wanted to play for. Only, Graeme Souness had other ideas.
The Sun's exclusive, that Mo-Jo was signing for Rangers remains arguably the best EXCLUSIVE in the history of Scottish Journalism. We all know the story of Alex “Chiefy” Cameron, Chief Sports Writer of the Daily Record, being telephoned in the early hours of the morning by the night shift worked on the Record Sports Desk, and told of The Sun's “Johnston to Rangers” “Splash”.
The great Chiefy apparently dismissed the story as absolute nonsense, only to be at Ibrox for the signing less than 12 hours later.
You might think, after that, the papers would be treading carefully around the Mcinnes to Rangers story.
OK, it says much about the relationship Rangers, Hearts, McInnes and Rohl have with out media that the story has been allowed to grow legs and run as it has. “Facts are chiels that wanna ding” and the facts are:
There is no indication on the official Rangers' website that Danny Rohl has left the club
There is no indication on the Red Bull website that he is joining them
There is no indication on the Hearts' website that Derek McInnes has left the club
There is no indication on the Rangers' website that he has joined the club
It's all pure speculation – it's gossip, and as such should only be being discussed in a paper's gossip column.
OK, perhaps the three clubs involved, Rangers, RB Salzburg and Hearts are all being economical with the truth over the machinations, maybe their pr departments are not fit for purpose, it might be that the three clubs all relish the idea of keeping the media guessing, but, it seems to me, it's indicative of how the Scottish media has dumbed down in recent years, that the story has been allowed to gain the traction it has.
Up there, in the great press box in the sky, I wonder what the likes of Waverley, Chiefy, Dan, Big Doug and the other titans of the past are making of the current nonsense; or what the now retired “Mad Geordie of Kinning Park” might have made of this story.
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