BACK in the early 1960s my elder brother, now sadly gone, and I both found ourselves studying in Glasgow. He was up there in the elevated surroundings of Gilmourhill, en route to his BSc in electrical engineering, I was across the city in a less-celebrated seat of learning, grappling with the complexities of Pitman's shorthand and qwerty keyboards.
But, this Saturday, enthused by a massive 48pt Daily Express headline - King Football Is Back
we took ourselves off to Cathkin to watch Third Lanark do battle with Rangers. Some 50,000 others had the same idea, probably, like us, they had missed the action during the long summer close-season and were desperate for the real thing.
This doesn't happen in these days of 24/7 football on television, so, there isn't the same call for a big start to the new season. Instead, football sort of, almost apologetically, creeps back into our lives after what seems like an indecently short break. Now, we have European games being played during the Glasgow Fair and three different opening days - one for the Ramsden's Cup, another for the League Cup and a third for the League. Wrong, wrong, wrong - but, here again, can we expect the Hampden Blazers to ever admit they got something wrong?
Let's get back to having one big start day; let's ignore the over-blinged neighbours in the English Premiership. If we have to accept that Scotland is now down among the diddy countries in Europe, condemned to play summer football just to get into Europe - then let's embrace summer football.
Rugby League re-invented itself as a summer game, to escape the all-encompasing cloak of 24/7 Premiership football on TV. Why shouldn't the Scottish football authorities do likewise and re-align the season to get away from the English game and probably, in the process, get a better TV deal.
Who knows, playing on decent pitches, in good weather, might improve our players and bring back the fans in numbers. Doing nothing isn't an option, even if it is the favoured one of the Blazers.
THIS week sees the centenary of Wullie Shankly's birth. He will always be Wullie rather than Bill to we fundamentalists from East Ayrshire.
This occasion was marked by a wee ceremony at what remains of Glenbuck, in particular the Shankly Memorial Stone, a roadside shrine to the great man. There is talk of a Shankly Memorial Scheme to have Glenbuck re-born: won't happen - one of the reasons so many sons of Glenbuck did so well out of football was, they grafted to make bloody sure they didn't have to go back there other than to visit.
Glenbuck is gone, past, the best that can be hoped for is that the damage done to the village by opencasting can be properly undone and the site returned to fields - with a monument to Shankly as a centrepiece. But, rebuild Glenbuck, no. Site a Shankly Memorial Football Academy there - never, won't happen, not least because the SFA and the clubs will never allow it.
It's a romantic notion, but, totally unworkable.
IT'S Scotland v Belgium, then Macedonia this week. Am I bothered? Frankly no. I got worked-up for the England game, we blew it, losing two such crap set piece goals; I'm temporarily - out.
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