It's All About Us

THE SPL clubs have, I see, re-written the McFly classic: for them it is not All About You, it is All About Us - hence their failure to come up with a re-shaping of a league which plainly isn't working: since between them the top 12 cannot put aside selfish interest for a league concept which will benefit Scottish football as a whole.

Of course, we shouldn't heap all our disapproval on the greed is good top band, the knuckle-dragging dinosaurs in the three SFL divisions are equally culpable - don't expect them to quietly roll over and give up the perks they have fought so long and so hard to maintain - in particular the eternal bribe they extorted from the top clubs when they toddled off to do their own thing at the fag end of the 20th century.

And, as I forecast at the time of publication, don't hold your breath for any of the very sensible suggestions hidden in the small print of Henry McLeish's Review recommendations. As we all know from experience, turkeys will not vote for Christmas.

Scottish football is in a mess, we all know this. What is becoming ever more evident however, is that there isn't the will within the game to sort the mess out. So, we get the Scottish government in to sort it out.

No way Jose, there is even less will there, not to mention less ability. I am already fed-up with the tit-or-tat petty squabbling we've seen in the early days of the election campaign. We all know that wee Eck Salmond is a giant surrounded by pygmies on the Scottish political landscape. But Eck cannot do it all himself and can we really expect Scottish politicians, who by and large treat sport as a good photo opportunity rather than a serious subject, to sort out the mess?

Let's just say, given a choice of being run by George Peat or Iain Gray, I'd go for big George. It is significant that, given he's no longer one of the power brokers in Westminster, Lord Reid prefers to preside over Celtic rather than, as he certainly could do if he got involved in purely Scottish politics, run the country.

So, it looks as if we're stuck with the same old, same old, for a few years yet.

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THERE WERE some interesting noises coming out of the Rangers' dressing room after Tuesday night's win at Perth. As a long-serving journalist, I lang syne stopped taking notes at post-match press conferences; you very seldom hear anything sensible from managers and you NEVER hear anything sensible from players - maybe because they are seldom asked a sensible question by journalists who, particularly on a midweek night are more concerned about getting to their favourite watering hole before last orders and don't really want to be hanging around waiting for some over-paid moron to complete his personal grooming regime and trot upstairs to deliver his shafts of erudition .

But the Rangers' party line - the pressure's on Celtic now, does have a ring of truth to it. Remember how, in the early part of the season, Celtic, while not losing too often, weren't exactly winning with style. Then, as Lennie's new faces began to gel with the older ones, the club hit a rich seam of form and surged to the top of the table.

Now, as injuries and suspensions will start to click in, they have to summon-up the strength to finish the job and deliver the title. Except, Rangers overtook them on Tuesday night and now Celtic and not the other lot, is the team playing catch-up.

This is a different type of pressure to what Celtic have been under hitherto. The run-in will be interesting. I do not by the way, buy into the line being peddled by our friends in the Lap Top Loyal about Rangers' lack of strength-in-depth. It is certainly true that, on paper, Celtic has more mature players than their rivals across the city. It is not true, however, that Rangers are down to just 13 men and I wouldn't read too-much into the fact they didn't have a full bench on Tuesday night.

The title race will in all likelihood go right to the wire. We might even see another Helicopter Sunday; there will be other Dundee Uniteds along the way - for both teams.

I still feel, on balance, Celtic are the side better-equipped to take the big prize, but, I wouldn't put money on it right now. We do indeed live in interesting times.