Squad Rotation Puts Your Team In A Spin

BIG Billy, the acceptable local face of bigotry - I know, there is no acceptable face of bigotry, but bear with me - was smiling last night, when the news came through from Parkhead. I dare say the orange-tinted internet bampots will be at full throttle today, bringing out the usual: "At least oor team is still alive, unlike yours" response from the hurting members of the Celtic Family - and life goes on as always in West-Central Scotland.

 

But, what exactly happened? Celtic lost a game in a competition which has, over the past could of decades, been marginalised inside Scottish football and badly needs an image make-over. Shit happens, in life as much as in football. So, no Treble for Celtic this season, but, let's face it - is the current Celtic squad really fit to stand alongside the iconic Stein and O'Neill squads which have won Trebles in the past? No, I don't think so either.

 

Football history tells us, if the Big Two, when we had a Big Two in Scotland, were going to fuck-up domestically, they were more-likely to do so in the League Cup than in the real Scottish Cup, or the League. Apparently this trend is continuing, even though we now have a Big One in Scotland.

 

But, defeat to Morton raises another point which I wish to discuss today. Is squad rotation all it is cracked-up to be?

 

When I was a wee boy in short trousers, I used to sneak-in through the fence to watch Lugar Boswell Thistle in the Ayrshire Juniors. Across five decades, the team always seemed to be: Jock Fraser; Davie Love and Charlie Cathie; Andy McEwan, Jim Baird and Jim Donnelly; Alex Bingham, Jimmy Collins, Alex Sharpe, Hughie Neil and Eric Wilkie.

 

Then, I moved on to Rugby Park, to watch a Kilmarnock team which was, week-in, week-out: Jimmy Brown; Jim Richmond, Matt Watson; Frank Beattie, Willie Toner and Bobby Kennedy; Vernon Wentzel, Jackie McInally, Andy Kerr, Bertie Black and Billy Muir.

 

A couple of seasons later, the Rangers XI never seemed to change: Ritchie, Shearer, Caldow; Greig, McKinnon, Baxter, Scott, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson. That team tripped off the tongue, as did - Simpson Craig and Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill and Clark, Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, Auld and Lennox.

 

In reality, my Lugar team didn't appear in that formation all the time. Eric Wilkie was doing his National Service and would sometimes get out of a truck at Rosebank Park, half an hour or so before kick-off, having hitch-hiked up from Catterick, leaving eternal reserve Davie Balfour to sit-out the game. Hughie Neil's wee brother Jim played a few games, while Charlie Cathie broke his leg, missed most of the season in which the team reached the Junior Cup Final and his reinstatement for the final didn't please Jock Stirling, who had played in practically every round until then.

 

Backing-up that iconic Killie team - a better one that the league-winning team of two or three seasons later, by the way, were the likes of Ian Davidson, Jim and Rab Stewart and former Scotland international Bobby Dougan; while George Niven, Johnny Little, Billy Stevenson and Harold Davis, Doug Baillie, the young Willie Henderson were still around Ibrox and such as John Fallon, Willie O'Neill, John Cushley, John Hughes, Joe McBride and Charlie Gallacher all had bit parts to play in Celtic's greatest years.

 

So, back then, clubs did have squads, only, they didn't rotate them for the sake of rotation. And, not rotating hardly stopped them from winning.

 

The sore point for Neil Lennon, in the wake of last night's shock loss, is surely that he must be doubting some of his fringe players. The current Celtic squad ought to be able to see-off the likes of Morton any night, even with two or three non-regulars in the team.

 

That they didn't reinforces the belief that this isn't a great Celtic squad. But, they should still be able to beat any other Scottish team, and when they don't, you have to ask - do some of these guys who are, in Scottish terms, extremely well-paid, have the mental strength necessary for wearing the Hoops?

 

Perhaps Neil should decide on his first team and play them, week-in, week-out, kicking squad rotation into touch.

 

And, Rangers fans, sure, enjoy the work-place banter this week, but, never forget, when you're going to Somerset Park, Station Park and whatever New Broomfield is called this week - Celtic are off to the San Siro, Nuo Camp and Amsterdam Arena.  Fiscal prudence also has its place in football - if only to keep Greenock's answer to Grant and Phil Mitchell out of the directors' box.