A Gordon For Me

CRAIG Levein dodged a potential bullet this week, when he finally managed to get Matt Gilks onto the park during the Easter Road meeting with Australia. I would hate to think we might have had to hand him his first cap against Serbia in a competitive game.

Of course, some 70 minutes in a meaningless friendly is hardly ideal preparation for a World Cup qualifier, but, over the years we have had so many goalkeeping disasters it is always good to have had your back stop blooded before a big game.

That said, maybe Allan McGregor wouldn't have got hurt, if he'd stayed in Turkey rather than coming home for the Australian match, but, you never know. For added security, I just hope Craig Gordon gets a new club soon and is quickly back in top-flight action.

The transfer window slams shut in less than two weeks, we don't have that many top-class 'keepers in Scotland, so I am confident that if some SPL team was to make him an offer, they would be quids in. A fit Gordon is by far the best current Scottish 'keeper, it is madness to have him out of the game.

I SEE the English papers were this week running a story that Team GB would not be seeking to enter football teams at the Rio Olympics in 2016; the London effort was indeed, a one-off.

In which case, what was it all about? The BOA were told, as soon as they first considered running football teams, that this would be more bother than it was worth. In the end, while the women, essentially "England" augmented by the excellent Kim Little and Ifoema Dieke, did very well, the Anglo-Welsh men's team less-so; it was all a great deal of sound a fury for very little.

The whole organisation was wrong, it stunk, mainly due to English arrogance and if they had been serious about playing Olympic football, they should have organised it properly, prepared better and thought about legacy.

I didn't want an English-dominated compromise, I felt and still feel the FA took a gamble, which had it back-fired would have had dire consequences for British (including English) football at international level.

But, that said, I see a place for Olympic football as a staging post between Under-21 and full international football. However, it needs to be thought about and organised properly. But now, it will almsot-certainly, never happen.