Walter Might Be A Wally In This Job

SO, apparently, "Sir" Walter Smith is to be the next Rangers' chairman. I suppose, with 'Dignity FC' being better-known for undignified family feuding this past wee while, it makes sense to appoint Walter, a man who still, apparently, has some dignity about him.

I hae ma doots, however. I don't think in any of his previous connections with the club, be it as supporter, assistant-manager, manager, or "yes-man" director during the dying days of the Murray regime, he has shown the qualities which will be required of a Rangers' chairman.

The principal imperative of the men at the top at Rangers these days is to get control of the budget. This is a club which has made a virtue of over-spending. Rangers are the Labour Party of football - give them the money, they'll spend it all and more; but, when it comes to implementing a sustainable financial model.....? Walter Smith - aye right.

Also, as chairman, he will be required to have the diplomatic skills to chart a safe course through football politics and the world of business, in search of sponsorship; I doubt he has the necessary people skills for this crucial role.

And finally, he has links to the "old" Rangers ways,which, while the bigoted bears will lap this up, the imperative for new Rangers is to put distance between their way and the bad old ways.

However, that said, as Souness's "enforcer", he was, apparently the man who took misbehaving players into the gym and gave them a sound kicking - if he can still do it, he should start by sorting out some of the spivs who have wangled their way into the Blue Room.

MIND you, if Rangers have their problems - and it may take them some time yet to shake-off all the "ambulance chasers" who are looking to make a killing from the club, what of Dundee?

Three directors gone, the three who are left apparently under-fire from the supporters, who by and large put them on the board; the club relegated; players leaving. It all adds up to yet more turmoil on Tayside.

Across the road at Tannadice, budgets are being cut - again - players are jumping ship, yet still the insistence is that the city of jute, jam and journalim can sustain two "senior" clubs - aye right.

Dundee is a one-club city and the quicker the denizens of the City of Discovery waken-up to this fact and amalgamate the 'Dee and United, the better for football in that part of Scotland.

I ENJOY reading the posts on SCOTTISH LEAGUE, the excellent website hosted by Barcelona-based Kilmarnock fanatic David Ross. This is the Scottish football anorak's website of choice, particularly if you are into football history.

David is currently passing the time of day by trawling through online editions of past Sunday Posts and this week he posted a cracker, from the Sunday Post of 1946. The great Jack Harkness was having his say in an idea being floated at the time, for a breakaway 16-club top league in Scotland, a sort of SPL for the post-war golden age.

The 16 clubs who would form what was to be called: "The Scottish National League", were Celtic, Rangers, Queen's Park, Third Lanark, Partick Thistle, Clyde, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Dundee, Aberdeen, Morton, Motherwell, Ayr United, Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Falkirk. These clubs were involved, because they were considered to be the ones with the greatest drawing power.

Theirs was to be a "closed shop" league, with no promotion or relegation. However, the plans came to nothing.

Fast-forward 67 years and we find, 11 of these 16 clubs were ranked in the top 16 in Scotland at the end of the 2012-13 season; and surely, had they been allowed to remain in the SPL, Rangers would have made that 12 clubs.

In Robert Burns's time, the Church of Scotland held great sway on pre-destination, as espoused by 'Holy Wullie': "an wha it pleases best thysel, sends ane tae heaven and nine tae hell, aw fur thy glory". You sort of get the impression pre-destination is still at work, in Scottish football.

Well Done Neil Lennon - Two Out Of Three Aint Bad

WILL Hibs ever beat their Scottish Cup Jinx? You have to wonder after Sunday's loss to Celtic.

But, that's an aside - well done Celtic on their Double; really, it should have been a Treble, but, to quote Meatloaf: "Two out of three aint bad".

In particular, wee done Neil Lennon. After losing the League Cup Final to St Mirren, perhaps even Neil was beginning to wonder about his team's mental toughness; their habit of switching-off in some domestic games. This was one of Hibs' big hopes for Sunday - that the real Celtic would fail to turn-up, so well done Neil for getting his team onto the park with the correct mental attitude to see the job through.

Now he can relax for maybe a couple of days, before he has to start planning for the new season. He could lose one or two players to the English Premiership; he will have to overcome the inadequacies in his squad and the Celtic Family will, at the very least, demand two trophies and a last 16 Champions League place as the bottom line for next season. I suspect NL will be looking for a domestic treble and a quarter-final Champions League place as evidence of progress.

At that level, you're only as good as your last campaign.

IT WILL be interesting to see how the political situation plays out over the summer. I have no great faith in the SFA blazers giving us the lead we need in Scotland; I see more posturing, posing and pish being our lot.

Meanwhile - our game will continue to go down hill.

John Daly is a very brave big boy.

There's nothing else to say really.

I SEE one or two of the Rangers-obsessed blogs are calling for Dave King to be immediately co-opted onto the Rangers board, and maybe even drafted-in as chairman in place of the troubled Malcolm Murray.

I wonder, given his much-publicised travails with the South African tax authorities, would Mr King pass a "fit and proper person test"; indeed, given the way the likes of Craig Whyte, and one or two others, have been able to take charge of Scottish teams - is there a "fit and proper person test" at Hampden.

Or does the correct hand-shake still count for more in the corridors of football power in this fair land?

Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush - Again

WHEN I was a boy, most train sets were clockwork - you wound them up, they went round in a circle for a wee while, gradually getting slower, before grinding to a halt, whereupon you had to wind them up and start again.

How we longed for, and hopefully eventually got shiny new electrically-powered Hornby train sets, which ran until they jumped the rails and came off the tracks.

If you had rich parents and grew up to go into a sad, lonely and boring occupation such as accountancy, you might end up with your own super-duper layout, in your converted loft, to which you retired, to get away from your wife - who perhaps then took herself out to find a younger, brighter, more-interesting diversion, if you get my meaning.

Kinda like Scottish football isn't it.

The clockwork lay-out which was the old, pre-1998 Scottish Football League wasn't working, so the richer boys ran off to form the then shiny new Scottish Premier League; now, 15-years down the line, the wheels have come off both train sets.

The big rich kid at the top is struggling a wee bit, because his twin brother went completely off the rails, had to sell-out and is starting again with the old clockwork set; but, the twin with the money still has some pals, whom he will let play with bits of his train set. Now, he wants to attract more of the poor kids with the old clockwork set; the bigger boys in this group would like to come, only some of them don't want to come and see his train set - they don't like the quality of the ginger and sweeties, mixed with threats, he's using to entice them across the road.

The disgraced rich kid, who lost all his money and power, hasn't noticed yet, but, he's not allowed to speak and is reduced to whispering "don't go" to what pals he has left.

I predict tears at play time.

At the first come and join us nod and wink from the even richer kids on the next estate, the two biggest kids will amalgamate their train sets into that lay-out, the guys with the old clockwork set will carry-on winding it up regularly, going round in the same circle until it rusts and totally falls apart and the guys in the middle, who want an electric lay-out to play with but don't have the money to pay the leccy bill will still be looking for somebody to bail them out and preserve the lifestyle to which they think they are entitled.

Let's be honest here:

Scottish football has too-many "Senior" clubs

Scottish football has too-many governing bodies

Scottish football has too-much in-fighting

Scottish football has too-many "blazers"

Scottish football has too-much self-interest

Scottish football, with the exception of two clubs, couldn't attract flies to a picnic

SCOTTISH FOOTBALL ISN'T WORKING

SCOTTISH FOOTBALL IS DYING

Ten clubs exchanging SFL1 for SPL2 will not change things

Even if they make extra money out of this change - they will still blow-it

They will have no more influence than they currently have

These ten clubs are largely irrelevant now - they will be just as irrelevant in any new set-up

ONLY SFA ACTION CAN CLEAR THE LOG JAM, KNOCK HEADS TOGETHER AND BRING ABOUT THE SINGLE FOOTBALL BODY, SPEAKING FOR ALL OF SCOTTISH FOOTBALL AND WITH A CLEAR VISION FOR THE FUTURE.

CAN ANYONE SEE THIS HAPPENING, CAN THEY SEE ANYONE INSIDE HAMPDEN WITH THE VISION, POWER AND ABILITY AS A DIPLOMAT, SALESMAN AND ORGANISER TO BRING IT ABOUT?

NO - NEITHER CAN I.

SFA - Stupid F***ing A***holes.

Janitor Required - Urgently

'BRITNEY' (Graham Spiers) and I go back a long way - right back to his early days as a young gun on Scotland on Sunday; so, I never miss his insightful 'Spiers on Sport' columns on the Herald website.

He was particularly good this week in article number 1690 which he has written on a certain Scottish Football League club based on Edmiston Drive in south west Glasgow.

Yes, said club, once known as 'Dignity FC' has shown precious little dignity these past few years, since falling into the clutches of a noveau riche entrepreneur based in Edinburgh, from there into the even worse clutches of a "billionaire with off the radar wealth" from Motherwell via Monaco.

Today, that club is owned by - who knows, but I somehow sense the influence, somewhere in the snake pit of paperwork of Beelzebub Enterprises. Just a thought here - while the forces of Darkness and Mammon tear their club apart, why cannot these staunch, upright, bowler-hatted "Christians" who form the club's traditional support seek the assistance of the footballing arm of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland in battling evil - and why cannot the footballing arm of RC Church Scotland reach out a brotherly arm to their colleagues in sport?

I know, naive or what?

But, I digress. Britney bemoans the lack of class and dignity surrounding the club which he grew up supporting these days. He asks: "Is there nobody who can bring the warring directors, former directors and would-be directors squabbling over the soul (soul??) of the club together"?

Actually Britney, there is. You have perhaps heard of the Scottish Football Association, you know, the body supposedly running the game here. Surely the on-going, seemingly unfixable and very thorny issue of this particular club is a bare-faced example of "Bringing football into disrepute".

Come on Cousin Vinny, slap a sanction on them, suspend the club until the matter of ownership, management, a few fit and proper person tests are resolved and get it sorted.

The longer this mess goes on, the more damage is done to Scottish football. If the SFA cannot, or will not, sort things out - they might as well shut up shop.

The Easdale brothers are keen to have greater influence over affairs at the club - but, their past record in business raises eyebrows and questions. The South Africa-based Dave King is probably the ordinary Bears in the cheaper seats' choice as Saviour of the Club, but, again, there are questions surrounding his business record and probity.

The ownership has been a mess; the last two owners have been less than diligent. When you look at the options, it could well be out of the frying pan onto the hob - further clean-ups might be necessary.

The longer you wait before cleaning-up, the harder that clean-up becomes. So come on SFA, fingers out of arses and - ACTION!!

A Good Day To Bury A Story You Don't Want Told

..THE mainstream media in Scotland, football department, has been losing readers and credibility with a rapidity which Jenson Button can only crave, since things began to unravel at Rangers in the dying days of the Murray management.

The lap top loyalists, Celtic-minded and SPL sycophants of our main newspapers were consistently behind the amateurs in the blogsphere from Day One. OK, what might yet be seen as a sort of rogue jury on the First Tier Tax Tribunal which adjudicated on the legendary Big Tax Case, did fatally undermine the previous credibility of Rangerstaxcase, but, for all they couldn't score the goal which mattered and get Rangers found 100 per cent guilty in the BTC, RTC totally out-played the MSM from start to finish.

As a semi-retired old hack, I hoped the hammering the MSM took over that affair might lead to a change in attitudes, a more rigorous and thorough calling to account of the men who are running Scottish football into the ground, but, alas, as I found out at first hand today - lessons have not been learned and, in fact, the stumblebums who inhabit the Sixth Floor at Hampden are still making fools of a weak and subservient press.

It all began late last night, when I got a call from one of our more-credible national daily newspapers. Could I, the Sports Editor wondered, nip along to Rugby Park this morning and cover the launch of the new One National Plan, which the lesser lights in Scottish football, those organisations - the Scottish Junior, Amateur, Schools,  Youth, Welfare and Women's FAs, plus the East of Scotland and South of Scotland Leagues - the bodies who provide the membership of the Non-Professional Game Board, had agreed.

This new plan was a six-point strategy designed to ensure fitba, the only game in Scotland by and large, would continue to develop.

Here was a plan, agreed to by a bunch of organisations who don't get much publicity and attention, but which are highly important to Scottish football. The SPL and the SFL only look after 42 clubs and they plus the Highland League clubs are looked after by the high rollers of the Professional Game Board - big players such as Peter Lawwell, Rod Petrie and Campbell Ogilvie.

The Non-Professional Game Board is manned by real grass roots grafters such as Tom Johnston, Dick Shaw and Alex McMenemy from the Schools and looks after some 2000 wee clubs, from Spartans and Auchinleck Talbot down to your local seven-a-side Under-8 team.

These people don't get a great deal from Hampden and that state of affairs will continue irrespective of this new PLan.

You see, the problem is, and it's a typically Scottish problem - these wee FAs are kind of like old-fashioned clans. Just as the Macdonalds and the Campbells didn't get on (mind you, did anyone get on with the Campbells?) the Juniors are not exactly bosum buddies with the Amateurs, who don't see eye-to-eye with the Welfare FA, while the Schools and the Youths are permanently at daggers drawn; and as for the Women, I'm afraid, as far as Scottish Football as a whole is concerned: Lassies shouldnae be playin fitba.

Any way, along I trotted to Rugby Park, where my suspicions that this new Plan was yet another paper exercise from the Blazers - sure, they've developed a bit of the SFA website to tell us all about it - but, to me it reads like a wish list, put together to look good but mean nothing.

This feeling was enhanced when I realised there would be nobody present from Hampden, not even two of the Good Guys: Messrs Johnston and Shaw, to enlighten us on the Plan, instead, we were told that Kris Boyd would be promoting the Plan.

Kris just happened to be there on a nice wee earner from Tesco Bank, who were sponsoring a Football Challenge Festival, featuring around 250 kids from East Ayrshire Primary Schools.

Now Kris is a handy man to have around if a half-chance falls within the penalty box in an SPL game, but, promote a new plan from the lesser Hampden affiliates - come off it.

Anyway, Kris wearing a nice Tesco top (maybe he'll be moonlighting on the night shift at Tesco Extra in Ayr), posed for the pictures with the weans, then came up to be interviewed by the hacks.

You will not be surprised to learn, the National Plan wasn't mentioned; and, if you read between the lines of the pieces in Wednesday's papers, the subliminal message is: "OK Ally, I'm ready to come back to Rangers - come and get me".

Which proves, the real SFA power-brokers, Lawwell, Regan & Co have no interest in developing grass roots football in Scotland. It will not happen - this new plan will join the other couple of hundred failed plans in what must now be a huge filing cabinet somewhere in the depths of Hampden: and we will continue to crawl along in the slow lane of football, losing ever more touch from the nations which count.

But, you have to admire the way the SFA did it, slipping this Plan out on a day when the top football writers were all safely inside Hampden, throwing their easy questions at WGS as he announced his squad for the trip to Croatia next month.

My piece on Kris Boyd made the paper - my piece on the new plan didn't, at least, my Sports Editor, for all his faults, still knows which story was likely to be more important and more read by his readership.

But, in the real world - the plan would have been properly presented and properly examined and criticised or praised by a mainstream football media who know what is important in the game and to its future.

RUGBY'S British and Irish Lions will soon fly out for their summer tour of Australia and in their ranks there will be three Scots, Glasgow's Sean Maitland and Chris Hogg and former Glasgow man Richie Gray. There should have been more Scots, but, the coach, Warren Gatland and his assistants disgracefully played favourites and left at least three, in my opinion worthy Scots free to head for South Africa with the national side.

Football in the UK, unlike rugby and cricket, has not done summer tours for a number of years, mainly because the club game has been allowed to expand to an obscene degree, squeezing end of season internationals down to essential qualifying games only, where, up until the 1970s, end-of-season jollies to Europe or further afield were nice working holidays for the lads - but, no longer.

Football has also, never had an equivalent to the Lions; sure, the amateurs of Middlesex Wanderers used to have great tours to Africa, the Far East and the Carribean, but, no more. And, while the likes of Celtic and Manchester United can still globe-trot for prestige pre-season tournaments, the good old-fashioned summer tours which once saw Rangers arrogantly tell the SFA: "Stuff your World Cup, we're taking our players to North America", are, like brown Manfield Hotspur boots and Tomlinson T-balls, museum pieces.

Maybe just as well - for I venture, if there was a football equivalent of the British and Irish Lions heading overseas this summer, there would be no Scottish players going; that's how far we have fallen.

HAVE you had a close look at WGS's 28-strong squad for Croatia? Not very inspiring is it?

To be fair, the wee man has introduced some young players, such as Stuart Armstrong of Dundee United, Ryan Jack of Aberdeen and Tony Watt of Celtic, but, I presume they will be along for the experience. He has also brought back Craig Conway of Cardiff and called-up Brighton's Gordon Greer, so he is giving new faces a chance.

But, for me the main demonstration of where we are now is - only two of the squad, West Brom's James Morrison and Everton's Steven Naismith are playing for teams which are in the top half of the English Premiership; only the Celtic trio of Scott Brown, Watt and James Forrest will be playing in the Champions League next season - if Celtic qualify.

We are a long way down from the days when Scotland bosses could pick from a host of players starring with England's top clubs.

There are eight SPL players in the squad, split 5/3 between Top Six and Bottom Six clubs. The nine EPL players split 2/7 between top and bottom halves, while there is an equal 4/4 split between top and bottom half clubs in the eight Football League Championship players called-up.

We have a lot of lost ground to make up.

Nice Kit - Shame About What's Inside It

OH dear! Our Saxon neighbours are becoming somewhat aerated today, following the introduction of the latest England strip. The 2013 effort, unfortunately for the sensibilities of some Little Englanders, bears a strong relationship to the West German kit of the 1960s and 1970s.

That classic Teutonic kit, as worn by Der Kaiser, Der Bomber and der rest was produced by those awfully nice chaps at Adidas, the new England kit is produced by those whizz-kids at Nike in Oregon.

Of course, the new kit will make the FA a lot of money, which is what is it is all about - where it comes to football, and more-importantly English football, money is all that matters.

I've got news for my English friends -it doesn't matter how many over-priced replica kits - all produced as inexpensively as possible in sweat shops in the far east - the FA sells; what really matters is the quality of the player inside the kit, and in this instance, England lacks quality.

After next year in Brazil, and I presume England will somehow scrape into the World Cup Finals, Baddeil and Skinner will have to do another re-write: ther will still be sea lions on the shirt, but, it will then be 48 years of hurt.

England has, since 1966, had some real horrors of strips, not least that British Airways inspired 1982 number, with its nod to "England's flag" - you know, the Union one with that huge splash of dark blue from the saltire.

Mind you, the SFA have had their moments of inspiration from the Stevie Wonder School of Design - suspender belts anyone? Or that purple number which was akin to an explosion in a paint factory.

Me, I'm old-fashioned: I just loved the Umbro number from 1956 to 1964 - the short-sleeved dark blue shirts with the broad white v-neck and the white cuffs, the white shorts and the dark blue stockings with the red tops.

That was a classic kit, it is timeless. We were a good team then, might not bringing back that kit help get us back there?

IT seems Hearts are safe; for the moment. Mind you, I sense the present dark days in Gorgie will get darker before they see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I fear the club will start the season with a points deduction - in which case, and given the way they are trying to off-load the big earners to further cut costs, what will, next season, be a very young Hearts squad, might have been better-off with the points deducted now and a start in SFL1.

JIM Jefferies has always been seen as something of a grumpy old git; but he really didn't have to go and prove it by his petulant outburst after Alloa condemned the Pars to life in SFL2 next season.

The SFL didn't relegate Dunfermline Jim; your board - by living beyond their means for years and bringing the club to administration and the loss of your better players, managed that.

Cheer-up Jim; this is a division you can win, even allowing for Rangers' presence in the same level of football. I feel, if JJ stays around, his motivational skills just might cancel out Rangers' expected higher level of player; after all, he's a much-better manager than Ally.

SFL2, with Rangers and the Pars going neck and neck all season, just might be the most-exciting of the four in senior Scottish football next term.

Change - Yes: Hurriedly-Introduced Change - No

WE MAY well see the new Scottish Professional Football League inaugurated in time for the 2013-2014 season kicking-off in August - the demand is there from the clubs, apparently. Mind you, with the uncertainty hanging over the futures of Hearts, Dunfermline and the team which won SFL3 in 2012-13, I fear to rush towards the new set-up might hasten Scottish football's progress towards  towards Armageddon.

Certainly, if I was the Chairman of a current SFL1 club, I wouldn't be hurrying towards the apparent riches being offered by the SPL - 2014-15 would seem to me a better season in which to kick-off the great new future for the game up here - which will almost certainly turn out to be the same-old same-old.

For a strart, there will seemingly be, within the new SPFL a place for all 42 of the existing SPL and SFL clubs - bad move: we already have too-many league clubs in Scotland, not to mention too-many divisions.

I would ask this question, in reality, are the 19 bottom full-member clubs in the SFL, clubs ultimately administered by the SFA's Professional Game Board, any more professional than the top Highland, East of Scotland and Junior clubs ultimately administered by the SFA's Community Game Board? I think not.

Clubs such as Auchinleck Talbot and Linlithgow Rose - who will contest next month's Emirates Scottish Junior Cup Final have, I would suggest, just as big budgets, just as good players and are just as well-run as the lesser SFL3 clubs, and some in SFL2.

I cannot speak for the Highland League clubs, but, given the manner in which Inverness CT and Ross County rose through the ranks to SPL status, I will not be surprised if others from that league, or the likes of Spartans and Preston Athletic from the East of Scotland League, do not emulate their success, once the long-awaited pyramid system, which we understand will be a part of the new look, is established.

I would like to think some junior clubs will also rise through the ranks, but, the mind-set in the juniors is slightly different. When the SJFA re-organised into the current three regions set-up, there was, particularly in my own county of Ayrshire, some initial resistance - Ardrossan Winton Rovers beating Saltcoats Victoria (and vice versa) mattered - Ardrossan beating Thorniewood United, naw, not the same interest. (I use these clubs for example only, no direct knowledge or opinion should be read into the last sentence).

But, in spite of the doubts and doubters, the amalgamation between the Ayrshire and Central Leagues in the West and the Lothians, Fife and Stirlingshire and Angus Leagues in the East went ahead. The smaller teams have pretty much carried on as before, but, if you ask those fanatics who run the bigger, more-successful clubs, you will find converts to the regional leagues.

One near-neighbour of mine, who is Glenafton Athletic to the core, admits: "I had my doubts about it, I wasn't in favour, but, I'm converted, it's the best thing which has happened to Junior football in my lifetime."

Hopefully, opening-up a way to the top for the ambitious junior clubs will be good for Scottish Football as a whole as regionalisation has been for the junior clubs.

EXCEPT - will the junior clubs buy-in? Just as there are those senior clubs which have formed Scottish football's wagging tail for so-many years, content to exist on 250 hardy enthusiasts, plus the odd good home Cup draw with a "big" club and the occasional "lottery win" of either of the Old Firm clubs, there are junior clubs happy to be the biggest fish in their local goldfish bowl and not at all interested in scaling the heights.

However, if some of the bigger, better-run junior sides do decide to attack the higher levels of the pyramid, then the face of Scottish football will change, and quickly too.

To make the new look better, fairer and more-interesting, I would suggest:

The SPFL should at first contain no more than 20-24 clubs: all should be full-time, have SPL-compliant stadia and instead of two divisions with promotion and relegation, we look at some sort of North American-style 'conference' set-up.

Below the SPFL, Scottish football should be: part-time, organised in regional groupings and, to encourage youth development, there should be a limit on the nuimber of players in each squad who are over-23 (or maybe over-25).

Let's face it, if a player hasn't made it into a truly professional club and league by that age - he's never going to - let him play for fun in the amateur leagues, to give some other youngster a chance.

The SPFL should operate a salary cap and have a cap on the number  of players any club can have in its squad. I would suggest that players too-old for the Under-20 league but still under-23 should be loaned out to Regional League clubs, but could be brought back when needed - rather as happens in Scottish rugby.

The salary cap and the cap on squad sizes would make it a fairer league; it would encourage home-bred players - I simply refuse to believe we don't have Scottish players who, given the right encouragement, couldn't be as good as the imports in the current SPL.

simply making SFL1 into SPLF2 isn't the answer; staying with SPL and SFL isn't the answer. We need radical change if Scottish football is to survive and prosper.

Is the will there?

Over-paid, Over-hyped and hugely Over-rated, but, I liked Beckham

APOLOGIES to my Scottish readers, but, today we have to concentrate on one of THEM, a member of that race which God, in his infinite wisdom, designated be our neighbours as a counter-weight to the many riches which he bestowed  on Scotland during his six days of labour at the dawn of time.

I refer to the soon-to-be, if some English newspapers still have influence in the corridors of power, Lord Sir David Beckham of Leytonstone, aka Goldenballs, Becks, the biggest player in the world, etc, etc.

Beckham has always been a divisive player. Let me nail my colours to the mast here - he was wondrously over-rated by my friends in the English media. To use what we hacks refer to as the McIlvanney Test: Would he have got into even an average Brazilian side? Answer: No.

Beckham was a leading light in what Fleet Street's leading members of their Lap Top Loyal dubbed: 'The Golden Generation' - Beckham, Scholes, Ferdenand, Terry, Lampard, Gerrard etc. Fools Gold more like; sure they did well at club level, particularly when under Govan Rule, but, for England, they were more brass than gold.

To be sure, Beckham did one thing well - he hit a mean dead ball. He was a good crosser; but for all his supposed ability with the 18 to 30-yard free-kick, in all honesty, he was simply not in the same class as Pierre van Hooijdonk. I would also say, he cared more about playing for England than did his "golden" contemporaries - other than Scholes.

Once upon a time, playing international football was the pinnacle; today, with the television-driven riches of the English Premiership, playing for England is seen as an irrelevance (at least by the English press in non-World Cup seasons), and by more fans. I reckon the average Englishman struggles to work-out how, since the EPL is "the Greatest League in the World", England doesn't romp the World Cup every four years.

But, to his credit - Beckham cared; he loved having, in Bill Leckie's great take on Baddeil and Skinner's finest: "sea lions on the shirt". He, unlike so-many, would have gladly bled for England.

He didn't ask for the media adoration and the riches, but, he embraced his fame. He also used his global fame to play a part in getting the 2012 Olympics to "my manor". I like the bloke, and wish him well in retirement. But would caution him to get out of the house as much as possible, particularly with his wife.

I just wish one or two of our "stars" would care as much about playing for Scotland.

WHAT are the SFA and SPL going to do about Hearts? The cold day, which many of saw arriving some day through the Romanov connection has finally arrived. The club might already be dead; but, if it's still only on life-support, the plug will be pulled fairly soon.

I can see the club avoiding administration and the automatic 18-point deduction which will spell relegation, because, that will only kick in if the plug is pulled before Sunday, which is unlikely. However, they could well kick-off season 2013-14 with that deduction in place, a youthful, largely untried squad and no hope of bringing in experienced new faces.

That the club of Conn, Bauld and Wardhaugh, Cumming and Mackay, Alex Young, Bobby and Tommy Walker, Jack Harkness and Craig Gordon should come to this.

But, of course, we never saw Rangers folding either.

To lose one big beast has been damaging to the SPL, to lose a second so-soon afterwards is perhaps the sign that evolution is moving on and if Scottish football does not adapt, it will die. However, I don't think the dinosaurs on the sixth floor at Hampden have the wit to notice.

The lesson here is maybe - don't let Campbell Ogilvie near your football organisation. Now, what is his current job in football? Should I be worried if I were involved in that organisation?

Sort-Out This Continuing Shambles - NOW

HERE we are, in the final, dog days of a fairly desperate season and, as has been the case for much of the past ten months, the excitement isn't coming from on the field, but from inside Ibrox. It's pathetic.

Is there nobody in Scottish football, or even in Scotland, capable of sorting out the on-going embarrassment which is the interminable fight for the black soul of "The Establishment Club"?

Has football now reached the stage where it is the plaything of dodgy businessmen, foreigners seeking a profile in this country and the frankly deluded?

I am none-too-bothered about the machinations of the power brokers in the EPL - I long for the day that over-inflated house of cards crumbles; but, I do care when I see the damage which the Ibrox in-fighting, the Hampden hatreds and the posturing between SPL, SFL and SFA is doing to the People's Game here in Scotland.

Way back, just after the radar set which couldn't detect Craig Whyte's wealth was first found to be faulty; when the Sheriff's Officers, the Lawyers and the Accountants were queuing-up to get into Ibrox, I said that the SFA should not allow any club named "Rangers" or claiming any rights to the 140-years of history associated with that name to participate in Scottish football, until the ownership of the club and all the other nonsense accruing from the Craig Whyte months had been sorted-out.

I stand by that assertion. Charles Green has come and (almost) gone; but, still the battle rages. The Chairman has lost the confidence of the board, but clings on. And still the dodgy dealers circle.

I have, through the good offices of the excellent Scottish Government Bus Pas scheme, made use of the Easdale brothers' bus company; I have no complaints about the service offered. But, does the fact they can run a competent bus service based around Inverclyde automatically mean they could run, or help run, a winning football team out of Ibrox?

The fact that one of the Easdales has previously enjoyed the hospitality of Her Majesty the Queen in one of her secure B&Bs is being held against them - hardly surprising given the Whyte year or so.

Having just got rid (if indeed they really have) of one dishonest owner, does Rangers really want another person with a criminal record for dishonesty in business influencing matters from around the boardroom table?

Better to have "a real Rangers Man" such as the oft-touted David King in charge. Yet, surely the lingering doubts concerning King's travails with the South African authorities must make him a dubious candidate for the post of Saviour of the Club and Defender of the Old Rangers Values.

Can nobody sort out the Ibrox mess? Will nobody put that club right? Is the desire really there to put it right?

For a start, Rangers' Associate Membership of the SFL must not be upgraded to full membership, until the remaining doubts and questions are properly sorted out.

I ENJOYED the Chelsea v Benfica Europa League final last night and was particularly pleased for two of the winners, caretaker manager Rafa Benitez, who has been dignity personifed during his short tenure at Stamford Bridge. His successor, if the rumours are indeed true and "The Chosen One" has chosen to return, will never be as classy.

I was delighted too for Fernando Torres, who emphatically proved that old football saw to be true: form is indeed transient, class is permanent; the way he took the opening goal was real class.

But, what about that John Terry - nae class right enough; pushing his way to the front of yet another set of post-final pictures, having taken no part in the actual game. Truly, that guy has no shame, and no class.

Mind you, that makes him the ideal man to be Club Captain at Chelsea, I suppose.

SO NOW, it's the SFL's turn to have their say about re-organisation. Or will this week's Hampden meeting turn into yet another meeting about having a meeting?

Let's be honest, there is now no-way they can properly sort-out and introduce re-organisation before next season kicks off. If they do, it will be badly worked-out, inadequately thought-through and will lead to disaster.

That said, whatever the blazers decide, will be wrong. Forty-two clubs in four divisions is over 20 clubs and two divisions too-many. But, will they listen to reason? Of course not.

Again I say: We're awe doomed, doomed ah tell ye!

Next Season Lads - Why Not Have A Go

I HAVE long held that if more Scottish managers were prepared to have a go at the Old Firm, we'd have a better domestic game. Now I realise that we no longer have an Old Firm, indeed, unless there is an outbreak of common sense and intelligence, doubtful though that might be, at Ibrox, we may never have an Old Firm again, other than in the tiny minds of the bigots on both sides - so maybe it will never happen.

But, the fact is, in 2012-2013, without the rivalry from across the city, Celtic, while still winning the SPL at a canter, allowed their standards to drop. The gap has narrowed, perhaps, with a bit more effort from the players and managers in the supposedly chasing pack, that gap can be closed further, or maybe even bridged.

It really has to be, if Scottish football is to have a future. At least, the gap between Celtic and the rest has been closed when it comes to the SPL awards - with Stuart McCall getting Manager of the Year and Leigh Griffiths the Player of the Year.

The good old reliable Scottish Football Writers have shown their normal lack of creative thought, by naming Neil Lennon as their M-O-Y. Yes, he led Celtic to victory in the league, he got them into the top 16 in Europe, fair enough - but, I think even Neil would admit, Celtic in 2012-13 haven't really moved up a notch from where they were in 2011-12, but, they were still, by a mile the best in Scotland.

I cannot dispute Neil's right to win the SFWA award, or McCall's right, as "best of the rest" to win the SPL one, but, for me, I'd have looked at either of the two Highland team bosses, Terry Butcher at Inverness or Derek Adams at Ross County.

The task which these two gentlemen, Stuart McCall and the others now face, is to keep chipping away at that Celtic veneer of superiority and making Scottish football more-competitive and more-attractive. They will find they will lose one or two players, but, by application and hard work, the gap can be bridged.

I FIRST saw Leigh Griffiths, as a 17-year-old, doing great things with Livingston. It was obvious then, the kid had that elusive X-factor. It was also evident that he might not be the easiest kid to handle, but, I saw in him the makings of a second Denis Law.

He has come-on a ton since then, but, maybe he hasn't yet achieved his potential. He has had his off-field problems, I dare say he can be hard-going for manager Pat Fenlon. He certainly did himself no favours by going to Wolves.

But, I still believe, if he is handled properly and if he finally buckles down, Leigh Griffiths could be a great Scottish player. Let us hope the two awards he has collected this season might be the making of him. It's time to grow-up and seize your destiny with Scotland Leigh son.

By the way: I have seen the old stuff about role models being trotted out in respect of Griffiths and Michael Higdon, who was arrested after his P-O-Y celebrations went wrong.

Time I think to trot out the old Denis Rodman retort, when that highly-colourful but no less gifted basketball great was berated by an angry fan/father after one of Rodman's periodic drugs-fuelled run-ins with the Law.

"What kind or role model are you to my kid"? screamed the fan.

"Why don't you let me shoot hoops and YOU be a role model to your kid?" was the Rodman retort - I commend this to Messrs Griffiths and Higdon.

SO, Mr Mancini has departed, the latest victim of the short-termism and lack of rational thinking in not just the Man City one, but most English boardrooms.

Can I offer some advice to the sheiks who run the club. Why don't you offer the job to Sir Alex Ferguson?

There is previous. After he was levered-out of Auchinleck Talbot, the great Willie Knox, a manager who won more trophies than even Fergie, in even less time, was persuaded to move to arch-rivals Cumnock. He immediately got them relegated, prompting suggestions that this feat, and not his five Scottish Junior Cups and various other successes at Talbot, was justification for erecting a statue of him in Auchinleck.

Fergie already has his statue outside Old Trafford - if he could get the Noisy Neighbours relegated, might it be worth a second?

In fact, with a failure pay-off from City, Fergie could pay for it himself.

Scottish Clubs Please Note - Money Isn't Everything

WELL DONE Wigan, a terrific result, beating the oil billionaires of Manchester City to win the FA Cup.

Now, is it too-much to hope for that the lesson is taken on-board by the other 11 SPL clubs. On paper, there was no way Wigan should have beaten City. And let's be honest here, did anyone in Scotland really think that Caldwell v Tevez was a fair fight? But, the Latics won.

On paper, there is no way any of the SPL should get close to Celtic, but..... See what I mean, a wee bit of belief, a lot more work on basic ball skills, fitness, team-work and everything else and Celtic might have to fight for the 2013-14 SPL title.

The future of Scottish football demands that the rest put up more of a fight than they have of late. Maybe if the men at the top of the game up here lifted their noses out of the feeding trough and demanded that their managers and players worked a bit harder, we wouldn't so denigrate the game here.

Well done Celtic, they deserved to lift that trophy yesterday. Poor show everyone else for not making it harder for them.

ONCE Neil Lennon's future is sorted-out, which I trust will be done swiftly; I presume it will be business as usual. I claim no great wisdom in the matter; I am no MYstic Meg or Russell Grant - but, I predict that Scottish football's longest-running comedy soap opera will continue to run throughout the summer, at Ibrox.

It has gone too-far, but, presumably for those people scrambling for power and influence inside the Blue Room, not far enough. And, at the end of it all, even if we get an early cessation to shareholder hostilities - Ally McCoist will still be recruiting bad players, on too-high salaries.

WELL Done Neil Lennon on his SFWA Manager of the Year award - but, he was always going to get that one.

League Champions, last 16 in Europe, Cup finalists -hard to argue against that CV. I just wonder, however, if there wasn't a case for someone else, doing well with a lot worse in terms of the basic ingredients, such as quality of players at his disposal, money at his disposal, etc.

I felt Allan Johnston lived up to his "Magic" nickname at Queen of the South, with the way they stormed through the league and won the Ramsden's Cup; while the way Ian Murray, in his first managerial role, turned Dumbarton around was also worthy of recognition.

Some years ago, whilst covering Ayrshire Junior football, I was involved in the discussions as to who should be the Ayrshire Junior Manager of the Year. The legend that is Willie Knox had had aother multi-trophy haul with Auchinleck Talbot, including the almost inevitable Scottish Junior Cup triumph, so, he won it. But, in-vain I made a case for th young manager of Irvine Victoria, who had taken a team which had barely won a corner the previous season to the top of the Ayrshire Second Division.

Knox had the well-oiled Talbot machine behind him, go sponsors, a 20-strong committee, a separate hard-working fund-raising committee, and a few players who would not have looked out of place in the senior game.

The guy at Vics had a committee of about five guys, no fund-raising to speak of, a virtual all-amateur squad of about 16 players, and the mighty (albeit under-performing at the time) Irvine Meadow half a mile up the road.

I feel, too-often the Manager of the Year isn't the guy at the top - more likely the over-achieving guy further down the food chain.