The Saints Are On The March - But Don't Blow It Now

HAVING spent the best part of a decade on Paisley's own wee daily paper, I have a soft spot for St Mirren. The daily walk from the office down to Love Street and back kept me relatively fit, Cathy and the administrative staff were never less than welcoming and helpful, big Campbell Kennedy, their commercial manager is a true fan,  and, for all our occasional fall outs, I have huge respect for what "The Fat Controller" - Chairman Stewart Gilmour has done during his term in office.

So, yes, I enjoyed watching the Buddies beat Celtic yesterday. This defeat proves, yet again that, while Neil Lennon has put together a good Celtic squad, they are not yet a great team, far less a great Celtic team. Sure, Celtic might yet achieve a domestic double, if they believe, they are capable of beating Juventus, but, failing to beat the side 11th in the SPL, in a one-off game, is a serious blot on the current Celtic squad's escutcheon.

What most struck me in watching the League Cup semi-final was, after Saints went in front from the penalty spot, and even more-so after Stevie Thompson's superb third St Mirren goal, where was Scott Brown?

At times like that, 2-1, then 3-1down, that's when Old Firm captains earn their place in the pantheon. I never saw Jock Stein actually play, so cannot comment on him; but, the likes of Bertie Peacock, Billy McNeill, Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain, Roy Aitken and Paul Lambert, when the going got tough - they got going. Across Glasgow, the same reaction was obvious from George Young, Eric Caldow, John Greig, Baxter, Sandy Jardine, Terry Butcher and Richard Gough; and is seen today, albeit in reduced circumstances, from Lee McCulloch.

Yesterday, at Hampden, Brown was a peripheral figure, when he ought to have been centre stage, the main man, in a Celtic fight-back. In an interview this week, Craig Levein intimated that he had had to "talk-up" the talent and attributes of several of his Scotland squad - methinks Brown was one such player.

But, enough about Celtic, back to St Mirren. I now fancy a small wager on Hearts to win the League Cup; after all, how often have we seen the side which wins a semi-final after being written-off, then fail to see it through in the final. Mind you, this time I wouldn't mind being wrong, should the Saints march in at Hampden next month.

Finally, on this subject, as a former goalkeeper I was delighted when big Craig Samson saved that penalty. Craig has had a chequered career since emerging from the Kilmarnock goalkeeper factory over a decade ago. He's done the rounds of wee clubs and now, an SPL regular, he was back in Scotland contention and could yet be capped - well done son.

PROBABLY the most-explosive article to appear on any Scottish sports page this century was in Saturday's Scotsman - so it passed most people bye.

Get onto scotsman.com and have a read, it's in the sports section and was penned by advocate Eoghainn Maclean, a specialist in commercial law who operates out of Edinburgh's Ampersand Stable of advocates.

Now I have a basic mistrust of people who adopt Gaelic names - what's wrong with Iain Maclean ffs? But, I welcome Mr Maclean's opinion that - should Charles Green sue the SFA and FA on the grounds that denying Rangers a place in the English Premiership is a breach of t6he EU's anti-competiton laws - he would win.

I have been saying this for years, to much abuse from that highly-respected "brains trust' the mainstream football media in Scotland. So, it's good to have some backing from a guy who is an expert in the field of competition law.

As Mr Maclean suggests, were Charles Green to go down the legal route, it would be a Bosman for clubs.

That said, I feel for this to happen, Charlie boy would have to make peace with Peter Lawwell and Celtic, which might be difficult. Then there would be the fall-out from Switzerland, after all, when it comes to saying "No" to earth-shattering change, Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini and Co make Ian "Dr No" Paisley seem like an enlightened advocate for modernisation and the sweeping away of the old order.

t Blow It N

Better by far for the Old Firm to get together, along with clubs such as Ajax and PSV in Holland, Anderlecht in Belgium, Porto and Benfica in Portugal, Red Star Belgrade, Rapid Vienna, the big Russian and Ukranian clubs and, through the Suropean Clubs Association, introduce a European NFL. 

The various conferences in North American sport are nothing more than cross-border leagues; it would work and with far-less fall-out than would happen if they went down the legal challenge route.

I bet if the "big clubs in little leagues" got together and presented a united front, the "small clubs in big leagues" would fall into line and we would have change.

And, with Celtic's and Rangers' first teams fully-occupied in a European League, they just might give young Scots a chance in the possibly Under-23 teams they would keep in the Scottish League, win-win all round I think.

FINALLY, finally - this will be the last fresh post on here for a month. 'Management' and I are off to see the world and escape the Scottish winter. Be good till I get back at the start of March. 

Neilly and Ally - Living In Interesting Times

THESE are interesting times for Neil Lennon and Ally McCoist, the managers of Scotland's two highest-profile clubs - so, what's new, you might ask; because, is not voyeuristic interest in the doings, sayings and opinions of the managers of the Old Firm clubs not embedded in the culture of Scottish football?

Let's be honest here, with the lead they have built-up, should Celtic not go on and win the SPL title, the biggest stewards' inquiry of all time will examine in forensic detail just how Lennon and his squad managed to blow such a strong position. Celtic, right now, are hotter favourites to win  and in a stronger position than Devon Loch was all those years ago - and that was a once in a couple of centuries failure to win.

Ditto, if not more so, for Rangers, the street by which they lead the SFL Third Division is the length of London Road, Argyle Street and Dumbarton Road - if you consider that to be a single, continuous thoroughfare. The Third Division trophy is surely heading for Ibrox.

But, that's where the similarity ends for Glasgow and Scotland's two biggest clubs. The immediate problems facing the bosses could not be much further apart. Lennon now has to turn his mind to the twin targets of extending the club's Champions League run - I, for one, do not believe Juventus in the last 16 need necessarily be the end of the line, whilst keeping his squad fresh-enough and focussed-enough to see out the domestic campaign.

Then, there is the nagging worry that, just maybe, he could lose top-scorer Hooper and midfeild powerhouse Wanyama to the riches of the English Premiership. These two players are prime examples of Celtic's current management model of buy young and cheap, improve and sell-on to England. I don't think this plan sits too-comfortably with what I would call the genuine Celtic support - as opposed to the Plastic Paddies and glory-hunters. They would, I feel, rather see a return to the Stein model of local boys, mainly Celtic fans anyway, brought-up to play  the Celtic Way. 

Quite honestly, I do not feel the Lisbon Lions cannot be replicated - there is still plenty of raw talent out there in Scotland, it simply needs the right nurturing and it will come good.

But, I digress, losing Hooper and Wanyama might be a minor irritant en route to the SPL title, and probably a domestic "Treble"; the loss of one, might make it harder to stay in Europe: the loss of both would be a fatal blow I fear.

So, does Lennon allow Peter Lawwell to take the money, or does he caution rejection of any bids and  go for broke. Decisions, decisions.

For McCoist, the question is, since he cannot strengthen his squad during this transfer window, and, in any case, canny Yorkshireman that he is - and, given his track record at Sheffield United, I don't see Charles Green sanctioning wholesale biggish-money recruiting - how does he keep things fresh once the divisional title is won?

I, and many Rangers fans of my acquaintance, would like to see McCoist giving the kids a whirl, once the league is tied-up. I know Lee McCulloch is not a well-liked individual outwith "Ra Peepul", but, in the way he has led Rangers, and from his personal performances, he has retrieved the Rangers captaincy from its recent history of neds, poseurs, badge-kissers and fly-men and taken it back to somewhere near the standards of such giants as John Greig, Eric Caldow and George Young.

There are still enough of the Lap-Top Loyal in the Scottish Football Writers Association to make big Mac a credible contender for Footballer of the Year, by the way. Although, I don't see how they could give it to someone playing in Level Four.

Fielding a team of, say: Lee Wallace, David Templeton, Ian Black and eight kids just might pay bigger future dividends for McCoist and the club than continuing to grind out wins then bringing in more over-paid recruits when able to.

He has a chance, in the closing weeks of the season, to find out if young Gallacher can replace Neil Alexander; how a back four of Hegarty, Perry, Cole and Wallace performs and to give the youngsters further up the park a chance to gel and grow together.

But, will be have the cojones to try this? Will "Ra Peepul", who, let's face it, don't have the Celtic support's fine past record in encouraging youth to flourish, stand for it, if they lost a couple of games they ought to have won, or have to grind-out wins?

Again, decisions, decisions.

I HAVE just finished reading a couple of books, one written-by, one written-about, Sir Clive Woodward, the architect of England's Rugby World Cup win in 2003.

Woodward is, for my money, one of those maverick geniuses occasionally thrown-up in sport. The books, his biography, written by one of my old bosses, the delightful Alison Kervin, and his self-penned "Winning", should be compulsory reading for any would-be coach or manager.

What does come through is the readiness of Rugby Union's leaders, even the RFU's 57 "Old Farts" and the SRU's "Alickadoos" (it means: all he can do is talk) to embrace change and to try things - to a far greater degree than football.

Of course, while Woodward was fighting his corner to win extra funding and support for the England team from the club men who ran the RFU, he was lucky in that there were important figures within the organisation such as former England captains Fran Cotton and Bill Beaumont who, having played with him for England and the British Lions, were ready to support even the most-outlandish of Woodward's demands.

Gordon Strachan will not have that kind of support at Hampden and, I believe, until we get some former top players into the decision-making processes within the Hampden corridors of power, Scotland will always struggle.

The way the SFA is structured, Stewart Regan, whose main job is to run the administration of the game, has, under him the paid employees. But, when it comes to decision-making, either through the Professional Game Board or the SFA Council, he is hugely-outnumbered by the club officials, who serve unpaid on these bodies - not a single board member or councillor that I can identify is a former Scotland player - this is a disgrace and, to my mind is unacceptable.

The Sky Football Yearbook does not list the full board of each of the 42 senior clubs, but, reading through the details of the leading officials at each club, the single ex-Scotland player named is John Collins, in his capacity as Director of Football at Livingston.

In contrast, look at the SRU, where the president is former Scotland scrum-half Alan Lawson; former "caps" Ian "Mighty Mouse" McLauchlan and Jock Millican are on the main board and "The White Shark", John Jeffery is on the SRU Council - as incidentally is former Glasgow Herald rugby correspondent Bill McMurtrie - can you imagine the SFA allowing Jim Traynor or Chick Young onto their Council? Me neither.

Since "the blazers" have got us, and continue to keep us, in a hole; why not ask them to stop digging and bring in one or two players to kick us out of it?

And, a maverick such as Woodward might help too.

Midwinter Malaise is Striking

I MUST admit to finding it difficult to post o this blog at the moment, for various reasons. Next week "Management" and I depart on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday: a 28-day South Pacific Cruise, taking-in such football hot beds as French Polynesia, the Bay of Islands in New Zealand and Hobart, Tasmania - where "football" is of the Australian variety, or "ballet with blood" as it is sometimes known.

So, between rifling through the sales rails, not to mention the charity shops - where I got an absolutely perfect-fit, barely-worn tuxedo for £10, a magnificent tribute to Madam's eye for a bargain, the last thing I've been thinking about on Saturday afternoons has been the cauld kale on offer in the SPL.

This morning, as I with trepidation, drew back the curtains to look out on a snow-shrouded panorama, up here in the wilds of Orange County, even the roads remain white when the snow comes, but, we manage, I once again ruminated on why we insist on playing football in the winter in Scotland.

Of course, it's "aye been" played during the winter in auld Scotia. Dear old "aye beenism" the curse of so much that is wrong with "the Greatest Wee Country in the World". Am I alone in seeing the irony of how Scotland, just about the most conservatice country in earth, where each change in life has to be dragged through a screaming and kicking population which doesn't seem to want it, will have nothing to do with Middle England's favourite Conservative Party?

I accept that, whilst we know we will be heavily rained on and snowed upon at some point in any calendar year, we never know exactly when this annual bout of seriously-inclement weather will strike - which makes planning for it very much a seat of the pants job. At least, when it does happen, we appear to react faster and better than they do in the aforementioned Middle England, where a dusting of the white stuff can cause panic and the breakdown of law and order, particularly at Heathrow Airport.

But, I digress. Why do we still play football in the winter, whilst doing less than the minimum necessary to make watching winter football a pleasure for the most-important people - the fans?

Why don't we make football more of a summer sport? At least, with better pitches and playing in better weather, we might, in time, end up with a generation of Scottish footballers who could trap a bag of cement, pass to a team-mate more than five yards away and who looked as if they were enjoying the game.

We wouldn't be competing directly with the Sky-supported English game, indeed, even the muppets currently running our game just might be able to get a half-decent TV contract organised, given we'd be playing at a time when the English weren't?

As I have said before, and will go on saying, probably, doing nothing isn't an option, let's see some radical thought and action brought into Scottish football, while it is still with us.

ON Monday, Management had me run her out to an animal feedstuffs place in the Ayrshire countryside, to get her some feed for her hens. On arrival we were laughing at the business owner's Hungarian Vizla, playing with a large plastic ball in the warehouse.

I kicked the ball down the warehouse, the dog went after it and was having great fun dribbling it back to me. I remarked to the owner that the dog had better ball control than most of the Kilmarnock first team.

He replied: "Aye, he's certainly more-comfortable on the ball then big Boydie" - Kris of that ilk, who lives quite close to the feedstuffs place, when, as now, he is in Scotland. Sometimes, we are cruel to our sporting "superstars", but, there again - "Him, ah kent his faither" is one bit of aye beenism which helps keep our feet on the ground.

and finally:

Am I becoming even more cynical in my old age, for I cannot decide if the current mainstream media obsession with Mark McGhee is down to the inherent laziness of the members of the Scottish Football Writers Association - "Ay ok, McGhee's been pit up in front o' us fur interview, so, we micht as weel write about him" - or, are we being softened-up ready for an early Strachan departure back to England, with McGhee seamlessly taking over? Just asking like.

Sean Fallon - A Genuine Fan On The Park

FAREWELL then Sean Fallon - with a departing: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant". Not a great Celtic player, but truly a Celtic great and a sterling example of what was for so long an Old Firm staple: "the fan on the park".

The relationship between Fallon and Jock Stein must have seemed at first an unlikely one - the Catholic boy from Sligo and the Blantyre boy from a staunchly protestant family - but, they hit it off from the start, found common ground and mutual respect and, particularly once injury ended both of their careers, their coaching and management partnership was just about the best thing which ever happened to Celtic.

Stein could be prickly, but the laid-back Oirish charm which Fallon exuded calmed stormy waters and made for some great craic. Methinks the Celtic squad in the Heavenly Champions League just got a wee bit stronger - provided God accepts being demoted from his position as Stein's assistant to make way for Fallon.

SO, Danny Wilson has joined Hearts. I cannot help feeling, the way his career has stalled at Anfield, that: a) - he was badly-advised in opting to leave Rangers so early-on in his career, a wee bit longer at Ibrox, then a swift exit when the wheels came off Craig Whyte's bogie might have served him better; and b) - The old Liverpool system whereby promising young players such as Ray Clemence, Kevin Keegan and Stevie Nicol had to serve an apprenticeship in the Liverpool reserves, but were encouraged to learn and improve before promotion isn't so-much broken as expired, bereft of life and gone to meet its maker.

A central defensive pairing of Webster and Wilson - just might interest WGS methinks.

INTERESTING piece on the Scotsman website today, written by young Barry Anderson of the Edinburgh Evening News, about Livingston's youth development boss, Rickie Burke. In my view this should be required reading for every club chairman in Scotland.

Barry's excellent feature outlines how the American-trained Scouser (Burke), with the active encouragement of the much-maligned John Collins, is trying to change generations of learned behaviour when it comes to rearing the next generations of Scottish footballers.

The key phrases are: "ball retention" and "ball recovery", two facets of football where Scottish players have been distinctly poor these past two generations, at least. It will not happen overnight, but, at Livingston they seem, to me, to be on the right lines for a bright future, I wish them well.

PETER Houston on the way out - apparently Derek McInnes on the way in. Well, that's the paper talk anyway.

Del Boy, being something of a flash Paisley boy, will obviously fancy his chances of succeeding at Tannadice, should the call come - mind you, he'll maybe feel like changing his name to Tom Cruise, because with the cost-cutting Master Thompson is putting in place, keeping United competitive does sound to me like Mission Impossible.

The glaringly obvious only way to have a competitive team in Dundee is to amalgamate Dundee and Dundee United to form something like Dundee City - but, this is Scotland, it will never happen.

McGhee - Strachan's Keep The Fans Off My Back Card

I AM not a pub regular, never have been, however, on the rate occasion when I feel it necessary to nip in for a pint somewhere, I favour a small pub, just off Ayr High Street, run by a somewhat controversial ex-footballer.

Jim McSherry's 'Wee Windaes' pub in Newmarket Street is a haven of peace and good taste in a frequently hassled world; the avuncular James is a different animal to the often greetin'-faced wee nyaff who raged around the midfield for Kilmarnock and Ayr United, dispensing drink and good-humour in equal measures; his bar staff are all charming ladies, while the food and in particular the steak pie, is to die for.

Wee Windaes draws-in a number of ex-footballers and it is always a pleasure to listen to Scotland's undisputed "Penalty King", the wee South African wing wizard Johnny Hubbard speak of times past, of Bill Struth, George Young and of the way the Old Firm players were great friends, in spite of the mass mutual hatred all around them.

The pub is also a good place for picking-up racing gossip if you're into the sport of Kings, which I'm not, but, when I popped in this week, the conversation was mainly about how WGS might do as Scotland boss. However, Gordon's appointment of Mark McGhee as his assistant was not at all warmly welcomed by the members of the Ayr Company, Tartan Army.

Naturally, WGS will have a honeymoon period, he is a TA legend, so, it could be, when, as they surely will given the paucity of talent WGS has at his disposal, a paucity made worse by the sad news of Darren Fletcher's impending bowel surgery, the TA turns on the management, it may be that it is McGhee who cops the bulk of the flak.

Let's face it, McGhee aint liked in the world of football. Mind you, if it's him and not the gaffer who gets the abuse, he'll have proved an inspired choice by the Wee Man.

However, I'd rather have seen WGS pick Billy Stark as his Number Two; just think back to how the combination of Andy Roxburgh as manager, with Craig Brown as assistant got us to Italia'90 then Sweden in 1992 and meant a seamless transition from Under-21s to full squad for a good few players - it could have worked again with Strachan and Stark, two noted graduates of the Sir Alex Ferguson school for managers. Of course, McGhee is also one, but, for my money one with a poorer "degree" than Strachan and Stark.

THE "Scribblerati" in the English media are still tying themselves in knots about Manchester City's Vincent Kompany's travails with the FA's disciplinary system. First of all referee Mike Dean decides his in my view magnificent tackle on Arsenal's Jack Wilshire was worthy of a red card, then City appealed and the red was rescinded - which gave lazy English hacks something to write about all week.

I have long called for changes to the disciplinary system, and cited how much-more sensible is rugby's handling of contentious matters as regards red cards and missed incidents.

It is right that referees' mistakes be sorted out, but, we should not forget Law V (i): "The referee is the sole judge of fact" - Mr Dean (mistakenly) decided the tackle was worthy of a red card, and from his position and point of view, perhaps it seemed thus, so, Dean's view has to be upheld.

In rugby, the video evidence would have been looked at, the red card would have been rescinded and a statement would have been issued saying something along the lines of: "In this case the disciplinary committee decided the red card issued was sufficient punishment".

The referee's stance is upheld, but, no further action is taken and Kompany plays on - honour on all sides is satisfied. Now, because of football's way of doing things, every subsequent Dean decision will be analysed in minute detail, with extra pressure heaped on the official.

Referees are human, of course they make mistakes. However, as I have said before, in any game, if you totted-up the mistakes a referee made and totted-up the mistakes the players made, I think you would find that the three most-efficient people on the park, the ones who made least errors would by the referee and his two assistants. On the whole, referees do the hardest jobs better than the players do the easy job - simply playing.

We should never forget this.

The Fat Controller Has Opened Up The Cracks

THE cracks are already starting to show; no sooner have Messrs Doncaster, Longmuir and Regan stood on the top step at Hampden, brandishing a wee slip of paper and proclaiming: "Peace in our time", than one of the "blazers" breaks ranks.

And well said Stewart Gilmour, the "Fat Controller" of St Mirren Park, for having the good sense and bottle to say: "Me no likee" to the absurd 12-12-18 plans.

Admittedly wee Stewart - a guy I know quite well and like, also, the one chairman in Scottish senior football with experience of top-flight European competition, as a member of a legendary Kelburne Hockey Club squad which won hockey's equivalent of the old European Cup-Winners' Cup, then over-celebrated and caused an international incident between Spain and Gibraltar, but, that's another story - hasn't spoken out for the common good, but on a basis of what's best for the Buddies.

Still, given the way things usually work in the SPL, one dissenting voice will surely become three, then five and so on and Peter Lawwell will have to resort to arm-twisting to get his way. Meanwhile, across time, Chuckie will also be indulging in the time-honoured Ibrox tradition of threats and intimidation to get his way, which also isn't 12-12-18 and the chances are, we'll end up with a right pig's breakfast.

If only we could get back to the time when the Old Firm spoke with a single voice and the rest jumped, but, we may have to wait a while for this to happen again - if ever.

Laws changed in haste are seldom good laws, made better by the change. Better perhaps by far for the clubs to go in for some genuine cost-cutting: do they really need such large squads? Might not they do just as well with a small squad of key men who are full-time, and who perhaps work at their game to the same extent as golfers, tennis players, even professional rugby players, augmented by  some part-timers, within a capped quota of players, say 23 or 25?

Might it not be a good idea to genuinely invest in youth? Why not, in the SFL, go for something akin to the Olympic Games selection criteria, and insist on mainly Under-23 squads, thus giving youth its chance to develop? 

If the TV companies are unwilling to pay a decent figure for coverage of Scottish football, why not tell them to go stuff themselves, go back to 3pm Saturday kick-offs and really SELL the benefits of actually going to games?

Why not look again at starting a dedicated Scottish Football TV Channel, round-ups, news etc on Freeview - the top game each week on Pay Per View. Production costs in TV are, so we are told, coming down year-on-year thanks to cheaper and newer technology, it could work?

Why not play around with the laws? OK as far as the actual playing of the game is concerned, there's not a lot they can do in terms of things such as changing the offside law or introducing rugby/cricket/tennis style television intervention in terms of contentious decisions. But, why not try things such as doing away with draws - and here I understand a draw at 90 minutes would still be a draw for football pools purposes; but, the teams could then go into what American sport terms "overtime" to get a decision: one 15-minute period seeking a "silver goal", ie score in that period, the score at the end of the 15-minutes is the match score. Still level, we have a second 15-minute period seeking a "golden goal", which ends the match. Still level, we go to penalty kicks.

There is a case too for bonus points, as happens in rugby. Why not one bonus point for every three goals scored, with losing sides getting a bonus point if they only lose by a single goal? Here, I would only allow this provided the losing side scored at least two goals, which might encourage more-attacking play.

I would also think of upping the number of points awarded per match. Why not try:

• seven points being awarded to a team winning in 90 minutes
• a six-one points division if the game was won on a "silver goal"
• a five-two points division if the game was won on a "golden goal"
• a four-three points division if the game was won on penalties

And remember losing sides could still gain extra points if they had a go. If a match finished say 5-4 in 90 minutes, the winning side would get eight points, the losing side two. A willingness to keep going forward rather than shutting-up shop to try to achieve a narrow loss in a low-scoring game would be rewarded. Fans want goals, try to give them to them.

Standing still isn't an option, but, if genuine efforts are made to make Scottish football more competitive, more attractive, with more goals scored and with more Scottish players scoring them, who knows, we might get back to somewhere akin to where we think we once were in European and World terms.

With goodwill and a bit of thought, we could do it.

For Once - Sepp Blatter Got It Right

HERR Sepp Blatter might not be the epitome of probity, fair-mindedness, good governance and altruism, however, just occasionally, fat Swiss speak truth rather than with forked tongue.

He did just this this week, after being wined, dined and having his back side well-licked by those other fine examples of the virtues expressed in paragraph one, above, the (English) Football Association.

Sepp told it to them straight - England will never win the World Cup so long as they allow their Premier League to be dominated by foreigners. In this instance, I think Herr Blatter has a point, although, it should be pointed out that, on the single occasion thus far that England has won the World Cup, there top league teams' line-ups were dominated by "foreigners", if you accept that Scotsmen are "foreigners" in English football. For, back in 1966, Scotsmen such as Billy Bremner, Denis Law, Jim Baxter, Dave Mackay and the rest were, in Old Red Nose's great phrase: "the Master Race" in British football.

Of course, it goes without saying, the men who run the English Premiership are so far up their own arses, Blatter's message will be ignored; for as long as the Murdoch Media Empire bank-rolls English football at the top end, the English "blazers" will continue to prefer a sleek, foreign-trained import to a home-grown one, and to Hell with England winning the World Cup.

This is not, by the way, a "let's all laugh at England" point of view. At least, the foreign imports into the English leagues are by and large better quality than the cheap knock-offs which we tend to import into Scotland. It is in our favour that, financial reality has bitten into Scottish football and we can no longer afford to buy exotica and will increasingly have to breed and groom our own players - getting them to work harder and learn better technical skills will be our biggest problem.

Building a successful club or international side is fairly simple. You start by building a strong spine: reliable goalkeeper, dominating central defender, one midfield general and a reliable goal-scorer. You then augment this central spine, add a soupcon of good coaching and, hopefully, it works.

The trouble with the English Premiership and to a lesser extent, the SPL is, too-many of the four key positions are filled with foreigners. Until we get English or Scottish-born and raised players into the key roles at club level and able to transfer their prowess to the international arena, we will struggle.

This problem has been understood for years, everywhere except in the boardrooms, where the final yea or nay to the recruiting decisions are made. Add the in-built laziness of the majority of our coaches, who would rather recruit the foreign-trained players who are comfortable on the ball and have a good work ethic, than the lazy British-bred players who, in many cases, cannot comfortably trap a bag of cement.

MANCHESTER City skipper Vincent Kompany had the red card he received at the Emirates on Sunday rescinded on Tuesday - and quite rightly too. I appreciate that proper tackling has become an endangered art over the past decade or so, so it was good to see a cracker of a cruncher, in my view wrongly punished by a red card, recognised for what it was when the incident was reviewed.

The waning of the tackle has become an unwanted aspect of the influx of foreign players in recent years. As Corporal Jones might observe: "they never liked it up 'em" and the rolling-around and playing mortally wounded which was so-many of the big money imports' answer to a good old-fashioned British tackle has, gradually, seen that element of our game fall into disrepute.

I fully accept that with some referees seemingly intent on making football a non-contact sport, and yes, there has been a gradual erosion in the acceptance of tackles, as a result of the brutal "anything goes" days of the 1970s and 1980s, but, if you do away with the tackle, you kill football.

I might observe here, rugby is now paying the price for the absurd decision to outlaw "real rucking", whereby, if a fallen player lay on his opponents' side of a ruck, he was given a good kicking, but seldom complained.

So, it was good to see Kompany's tackle pass muster in the video room, if not on the park.

Sorry Wee Man - You're Not The Answer

SO, it seems we are to get the "Ginger Whinger" as the new Scotland boss - once again, the Tartan Army gets the man it wants, the Hampden "blazers" buy themselves a few months of respite from "friendly fire" and we trundle along in the rut we have struggled along for this entire century.

Nothing against wee Gordon, he was a terrific player with Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Scotland. He was a very good manager with Celtic, lacking only the Celtic family DNA (being a "Ginger" was seemingly insufficient) or he would have been canonised as a Celtic Great ere now; however, all those trophies weren't enough to make him "one of us" - shame.

However, managing Scotland, where you have to pish with the small cock you've been given, in terms of native-born talent, is not the same as managing a club as big as Celtic. When things went slightly awry at Parkhead he only had the lunatic fringe of the Celtic Family to worry about. When, as they surely will, things go awry with Scotland, the wee man will have the entire country on his back.

Given his reputation as a wee bit of a nippy sweety - perhaps learned at the feet of Scottish football's ultimate nippy sweety - might not Gordon, as he has done before, say: "Sod this for a game of soldiers" and return to the bosom of his buddies in the meja darn sarf?

We can, at least, expect him to enjoy a good working relationship with Billy Stark, which can only be good. However, one area where neither Strachan, Stark, Mark Woete or anyone else with any input into the Mission Impossible of getting Scotland back (even below the salt) at football's top table has any discernible input is in changing the mindsets within Scotland's board rooms.

And, until we clear-out the intelluctually-challenged directors whose lack of vision, common sense or more-importantly, intelligence, to see that Scottish football overall is in a mess, then not even a combination of Sir Alex Ferguson with Jose Mourinho as assistant could get Scotland to a World Cup or European Championship final tournament.

We still produce kids as good as any - but - the system will not let them flourish, and no manager can change the failed system. Only the directors can and the will is not there.

MICHAEL Grant wrote a very good piece in Monday's Herald about the current undeclared war between Celtic and Rangers, then, right on cue, in Tuesday's papers, Charles "Motormouth" Green came out in favour of a 14-14-14 split, as against the seemingly preferred 12-12-18 suggestion of the SPL and SFL for the new-look to Scottish league football.

Yawn, yawn, yawn - talk about weans, prams and toys.

I ALSO note that Richard Scudamore of the English Premiership has come out this week and said there is no chance of Celtic and Rangers, either together or separately, being admitted to the Premiership.

As I have repeatedly said: the two clubs, if they must leave Scotland to fully cash-in on their earning potential, would best be served by lobbying within the ECA, the European Clubs Association, for the speedy formation of a full-scale, NFL-style European League, rather than giving themselves a sore head battering at the closed door in England.

Look at the set-up in the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, MLB and MLS - the big North American professional leagues in American Football, basketball, ice hockey, baseball and "real" football.

The clubs start off playing local conference games, playing down to a big show-down, this can be a seven-game series (basketball, ice hockey and baseball) or a one-off game such as "Superbowl) or the MLS Championship Game.

Extrapolate the American system into Europe - instead of having "conferences" such as the AFL or NFL ones, we have cross-border regional leagues; we then have the knock-out stages of the Champions and Europa Leagues, where in North America they have conference play-offs, leading to the likes of baseball's World Series. It's not that big a leap of the imagination.

Celtic, Rangers - forget England, Europe is the future.

However, if they must get into England, persuade the SFA to give up their independence and rejoin the (English) FA - let's go back to where we were in 1872. At least that's a bit closer to the present day than 1690 - the date a large proportion of the fan base seem to want to be. Although I don't see Alex Salmond, for one Tartan Army member, being too happy.

Old Dogs - Old Tricks

IT IS as the old cliche has long reminded us, impossible to teach an old dog new tricks; thus, Charles Green, a blunt Yorkshireman who seemingly cannot help but continue the ages-old caricature of all men from the broad acres being plain-spoken men, not afraid to speak their mind.

He is also, the more he opens his mind, seeming living proof that a well-balanced Yorkshireman is thus, because he has a chip on both shoulders.

Another gentleman apparently having difficulty learning new tricks is Mr Green's Communications Director, wee James Traynor. Now were James still "Chiefy" Traynor, sports supremo of the Daily Ranger/Daily Rhebel (delete according to whether you are of the Orange or [Irish rather than Yorkshire] Green persuasion), Charlie boy's latest utterances, including his ludicrous threat to take UEFA to the Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg, would be a cracking story.

Cue Traynor, wearing the hat he hung-up in December as Chief Sports Writer at Anderston Quay, blasting Mr Green all over his tabloid pages for coming up with such pish.

But, Traynor is now supposed to be Green's mouthpiece to the world, ensuring that Rangers get the most-sympathetic hearing from the world at large. In that position, why didn't James gag his boss, or, at least tell him, before he went public: "Charlie, this is pish, shut-up or you'll be laughed at by everyone.

In any case, even if he believes he has a case, doesn't Mr Green remember the can of worms the late and unlamented Duff & Duffer opened when they went to court, ignoring in the process SFA protocols.

The body of the Scottish football "kirk" wanted Rangers punished for the excesses of the Murray years and the shambles of the Craig Whyte months. That punishment took the form of banishment to the basement, from which the club must emerge on merit and having served their punishment. Bleating about the unfairness of winning a division then having to win it again is rubbish.

Rangers should win the fourth tier of Scottish football this season. This will take them into the third tier next season. If the 12-12-18 proposals are ratified in time to be implemented come August, they will start off season 2013-14 in the third tier - exactly the same place as they will start if nothing happens.

Rangers, should they win SFL3 and find re-organisation places them in the new unified league set-up's third tier will have moved-up. Mr Green should shut-up and get on with it.

If he truly believes that he has a case for taking his club out of Scottish football, presumably into the English pyramid, then let him fight for that perceived "right" through the proper channels - via UEFA and the Court of Arbitration in Sport in Switzerland. Such a move would be costly and, I believe, in the end futile.

Mr Green missed the boat for moving Rangers to England. He just might have been able to do it had he applied to join Division Two of the Northern League last summer, at the time when he had acquired Rangers from Duff & Duffer, but didn't have SPL or SFL membership.

Back then, as a club with no league to play in, he MIGHT have been able to pull it off; more especially had he perhaps at the same time bought a struggling English club such as Portsmouth then were, moved that club lock, stock and barrel to Glasgow, called it Portsmouth Rangers and put it in the Football League, Division One - the moment he secured SFL membership for his club, that door closed on him.

Mr Green's best plan, as I see it, is to build bridges with the other SFL clubs, demonstrate the folly of these unworkable 12-12-18 plans and push for something better.

Got Any Spare Change Guv? - For This Latest One Beggars Belief

I HAVE maintained, from my very first post in this blog, that only radical thinking and solutions can ever prevent Scottish football from vanishing down the tubes. And this radical thinking MUST come from the top, the "blazerati" within Hampden's corridors of power.

Sadly, I do not detect enough men of vision and radical thought within the ranks of the power brokers; mind you, that said, I never saw the agreement which produced the junior football superleagues and revitalised the true home of football in Scotland - but, it happened, so maybe I am being unduly pessimistic.

It is for the reasons outlined above, that I fear our brave new world of three leagues of 12-12-18 clubs will, like the Scottish Football League's Premier Division, First Division, Second Division plan of 1975 or the Scottish Premier League's breakaway of 1998 failed. Every time Scottish senior football re-organises, it is on the basis of maintaining the same number of clubs as there were when the re-organisation happened.

And the brutal truth, which nobody dare speak, is - WE'VE GOT TOO-MANY SENIOR CLUBS IN SCOTLAND.

We don't need three leagues, to accommodate 42 teams. When the SFL introduced the ten-club Premier Division in 1975, we had 38 clubs, playing in an 18-club First Division and a 20-club Second - and that was seen as a case of too-many clubs.

Fast-forward to 1998-99 and the start of the SPL and their top-ten broke away and rather than fewer clubs, Scottish senior football had more clubs, 40 in all, all seeking a greater share of a shrinking "cake" in terms of gate income.

The only two clubs to have benefitted from these cosmetic changes in numbers of divisions, numbers of clubs per divisions and gate money are Celtic and Rangers, yet, the rest somehow, seduced by the glamour of the Big Two, seem incapable of realising this, so we stumble on.

Thankfully, unless the News International/ESPN management send round the 21st century equivalent of Messrs Kray & Co, Enforcers, tooled-up and ready to use their tools, to a future meeting of the FA Premiership executive; Celtic and Rangers are stuck in Scotland until that day in the future when, totally pissed-off with UEFA and FIFA the European Clubs Organisation breaks away to form a European NFL. Then, maybe, since they are, regardless of Celtic's protests to the contrary as a two-club job lot, we will be rid of their imbalancing act and Scottish football can re-form and maybe move forward.

I still see no alternative other than a 24-club Scottish National League; the 24-clubs playing in two, 12-club American-style conferences, with wild-card games and play-downs leading to the top-eight clubs - the top four in each conference, playing -down via European-style two-legged games to an eventual "Superbowl" game to determine the champions, while those clubs which didn't make the top eight or who lost out in the quarter and semi-finals play each other until we have a 1-24 pecking order.

Below that, we should have Regional Leagues, atop a pyramid to include the junior clubs, the Highland, East of Scotland and South of Scotland Leagues. These clubs would, as in England, have entry to the national cup competition, but, again, as in England, would have to play through qualifying rounds.

I would have a cap on the number of players each of the SNL clubs could employ - what's wrong with a Champion's League-style cap at a 25-man pool of players? I would allow them, in fact I would insist, they have an Under-21 player development/academy coaching set-up in place; but, I would insist that, at aged 21, the players be farmed-out to regional league clubs and given until at least the age of 23 to show they might make it, before they could come back into the SNL in an American-style "draft" system - with the team ranked 24th having first pick and so-forth.

I don't say we should abandon the long tail of clubs in the lower reaches of the senior ranks, rather, let them find their own level, sink or swim.

In 1975, when the first attempt at genuine post-war re-organisation was made, the Division Two final table read, in descending order: Falkirk, Queen of the South, Montrose, Hamilton Academical, East Fife, St Mirren, Clydebank, Stirling Albion, Berwick Rangers, East Stirlingshire, Stenhousemuir, Albion Rovers, Raith Rovers, Stranraer, Alloa Athletic, Queen's Park, Brechin City, Meadowbank Thistle, Cowdenbeath, Forfar Athletic.

In 1998, as the Top Ten broke away to form the SPL, the clubs in the bottom half of the senior games were (again in descending order): Division Two: Stranraer, Clydebank, Livingston (formerly Meadowbank), Queen of the South, Inverness CT, East Fife, Forfar Athletic, Clyde, Stenhousemuir, Brechin City.

Division Three: Alloa Athletic, Arbroath, Ross County, East Stirlingshire, Albion Rovers, Berwick Rangers, Queen's Park, Cowdenbeath, Montrose, Dumbarton.

As I write this, the pecking order in the bottom two divisions of the SFL reads (again in descending order) - Second Division: Queen of the South, Alloa Athletic, Brechin City, Forfar Athletic, Arbroath, East Fife, Stenhousemuir, Ayr United, Stranraer, Albion Rovers.

Third Division: Rangers, Queen's Park, Montrose, Peterhead, Elgin City, Berwick Rangers, Annan Athletic, Clyde, East Stirlingshire, Stirling Albion.

There are 30 clubs in the above three lists; 12 clubs - Queen of the South, Montrose, East Fife, Berwick Rangers, East Stirlingshire, Stenhousemuir, Albion Rovers, Stranraer, Alloa Athletic, Queen's Park, Brechin City and Forfar Athletic have featured in all three bottom-half listings. A further five clubs: Clydebank (now Airdrie United following the take-over), Stirling Albion, Meadowbank Thistle (now Livingston), Cowdenbeath and Arbroath featured in two of the three lists; so we can safely say that there is a hard-core of "bottom feeders" in the senior game who are making little or no contribution to Scottish senior football other than by filling a spot in the membership - do they deserve to be allowed to survive in perpetuity whilst the lack of a pyramid system prevents ambitious clubs such as Spartans from coming in to replace them?

Are these "bottom feeders" producing a stream of talented, ambitious young players for clubs higher-up the food chain? So why should they be allowed to continue as "Senior" clubs - to my mind, they do not merit that status.

However, as regional clubs, fostering young talent from their own communities, plus a sprinkling of farmed-out young talent, from a higher status club - they would, I suggest, have a brighter future.

Under 12-12-18, they will simply bumble along as they have for the last 40-years, as will Scottish football, and we've declined as a football nation in that time.

Yes, it is time for change - but the changes have to far-more radical and far-reaching than has been suggested this week.

Ranting Ranging Raging Charlie

THERE has been a void in my life since wee Davie Leggat's blog 'Leggoland 2" was forced off-line recently, I miss his pro-Rangers, anti-Celtic rants, they were ill-informed, but entertaining. But, yesterday, I think I found where wee Davie, the Bluenose's Bluenose, had taken himself off to. I feel he has a new - and I hope well-paid gig as Charlie Green's speech writer.

Charlie Boy's latest rant - about possibly taking Rangers elsewhere if they are not immediately placed in the new 12-club "Championship" league when the re-drawn senior game kicks off, perhaps in August - is probably his worst example yet of playing to the gallery; or to be precise the claque/rump of that time-dishonoured group the Wee Arra Peepul. This group, the worst examples of Ibrox imperialism are incapable of accepting the reality of their club's present situation, and that reality is, they don't deserve to be in the new 'Championship' on their club's playing record.

If, as we now expect, Rangers win SFL Division III at the end of this season - if there was to be no change in the leagues set-up and the status quo was maintained, when season 2013-2014 kicks off, Rangers will be - on paper - the 32nd-ranked team in Scotland. Now old Charlie Sturrock, my long-dead mathematics teacher at school would quite rightly line me up for four of the best, were I to try to argue that 32nd is one of the top 24 places in any pecking order.

There might be a case for putting Rangers into the 'Championship' IF as with the Greed is Good SPL, ground capacity and facilities become part of the consideration for a place in the two top leagues, the 'Premiership' and 'Championship'; but, as yet we don't know if this will happen. And if having what we might call SPL compliance, then Airdrie, whose New Broomfield (or whatever it is called this week) ground is also SPL-compliant and who are ranked above Rangers in the current pecking order, have greater call on one of the top 24 places. Also, I don't see those hadnful of non-SPL-compliant clubs who are ranked above Rangers being too-happy if they are demoted below them and miss-out on the perceived riches to be had from entertaining the Ibrox hordes in league games.

No, in this instance, my advice is: shut up Charlie, work your way up through the ranks with the perceived "dignity" which Rangers have always shown.

That said - the whole 12-12-18 plan is a joke and a non-starter. It will make not a jot of difference to Scotland's slipping place in world football. We are still heading down the stank at a great rate.  

The Lunnys Are Running The Asylum

I SEE Vincent Lunny, the unqualified, unelected SFA Compliance Officer has decided that Heart's Ryan Stevenson's tackle on Hibs captain James McPake during the recent Edinburgh "Derby" is worthy of a two-game suspension. This is yet another example of my contention that the "lunatics" have well and truly taken over the Hampden "asylum".

 

To go to basics: football doesn't have "rules", it has "laws" (not that that makes much difference); these laws are enforced by the match referee, who, as Law V (i) grandly proclaims: "is the sole judge of fact".

 

Down the 150 years since the Football Association was formed to organise and govern the game in England, through the start of international football in 1872, via the formation of FIFA, there have been literally thousands of instances whereby referees apparently got things wrong - England's third goal in the 1966 World Cup Final; the over-the-line cross and goal in the 1932 FA Cup Final; Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" goal (come on England, the ball "played" him); the unawarded Frank Lampard "goal" in the England v Germany World Cup clash in 2010, (pay-back for 1966 perhaps). All these decisions have stood - in no case has any governing body ruled that because of an apparent refereeing error, the game should be replayed.

 

The view has grown over the years: "Yes, referees, being human, make mistakes, get over it and move on". Now, here we have Mr Lunny, a man with no refereeing qualifications of experience, a man who has never played a single game as a professional footballer, acting as judge and jury in over-ruling referees, in this case Willie Collum, one of Scotland's indeed Europe's, senior officials.

 

I accept, by the way, that Mr Collum has some "form" with regard to controversy. That said, he remains for my money a top official. He may well have had an "off" day in the Edinburgh Derby; perhaps he got this call wrong, but, when he decided to take no action on Stevenson's tackle, that should have been the end of it.

 

In appointing Mr Lunny the SFA, I believe, exceeded their authority. If we accept that there is need for a compliance officer to mentor contentious refereeing decisions and perhaps review decisions made post-match, then hand-down bans, then the appointment of such officers ought to be done through FIFA and IFAB, the International Football Associations Board - the game's supreme law-making body.

 

Here, Scotland does still have clout, with its own place on IFAB. If the SFA is so keen to see compliance officers installed and given real clout, then they ought to table motions at IFAB, to alter the wording of Law V (i), I would suggest they follow Rugby Union's lead and change the wording to: "The referee is the sole judge of fact, as regards events during the duration of the game". This would allow for proper review post-match, again provided the duties and scope of authority of any FA's compliance officer was agreed and set down on paper.

 

Any compliance officer appointed then had to have refereeing qualifications or considerable experience of top-flight football. I am sure, human nature being what it is, we would still have argument and dispute, but, at least the "judges" we were criticising would be experienced men who had earned their right to sit in judgement, not jumped-up articled clerks like Mr Lunny.

 

 

 

IT'S crunch time this week for Terry Butcher, arguably the most-popular Englishman in Scotland. Does he stick with Inverness Caledonian Thistle or return to England to manage Barnsley?

 

Now, in terms of: "where would I rather live, Inverness or Barnsley?" it's a no-brainer, he stays put. There is the small question of a possible crack at European football, should ICT pick-up where they left off when the SPL returns from it's winter shut-down. Add the intrigue of whether, after three "failures", at Coventry, Sunderland and Brentford, Butcher still feels he has to prove himself in his native land; sprinkle-in the bigger budget he will enjoy in the Championship, a far-richer league than the SPL, and Big Tel has some serious thinking to do.

 

Also, he just might feel that, should Ally McCoist fall or be pushed off the platform at Copeland Road subway station, he might have a chance of becoming boss of Rangers - decisions, decisions.

 

I hope he stays in Inverness for the time being. See the romantic story through to the end Tel.

 

 

 

WELL done to the magical Lionel Messi, on winning his fourth straight Balon d'Or. And while you're enjoying your triumph wee man, think how lucky you were not to have been born in Scotland, where you'd have been telt at 12: "Sorry son, you're too wee tae ever be a fitba player".