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.
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