Nice One Gordon - We Can Enjoy Our Summer Now

STEADY-ON Gordon, many more performances like that against Nigeria last night, and we risk getting above ourselves again. Sure, we only got a draw from a match we probably should have won, but, considering the referee confirmed my long-held belief that English officials are over-rated - there was nothing wrong with the og we didn't get when the African keeper shit himself at being so close to Grant Hanley and flung the ball into his own net, for instance - the Scotland of Berti Vogts, George Burley or Craig Levein would have lost that game.

OK, the Nigerians were better technically than our boys, but, there is a team-spirit in the Scotland squad now whish had got lost for a time. Allan McGregor, Ikichi Anya and Charlie Mulgrew - how he has come on since returning to Celtic are now genuinely international class. Andrew Robertson was terrific, his partnership with Anya is exciting, while Scott Brown still picks-up stupid bookings and gets himself too-involved in the nigglig stuff, he is becoming a genuine Scotland captain.

I liked the look of the boy Martin from Derby and, while his lack of first-team action continues to tell against Alan Hutton at international level, he copes pretty well and, if he can sort out his differences with Paul Lambert and get into the Villa first team, it will be all the better for Scotland.

I WAS at BT Murrayfield yesterday for the big renaming launch. One of the other hacks present was a man whom I had always thought of an a Rangers obsessive - a definite fan with a lap top, and fully-paid-up scommittee member of the Lap Top Loyal.

They don't get it. This guy still insists the convicted fraudster, failed director of the now dead Rangers, is THE man to lead the current tribute act to the promised land - a return to dominance of Scottish football, If that is the mind-set of one of the university-educated, member of a profession Rangers fans - then I am afraid - the tribute act will surely go the way of the real Rangers. They have learned nothing from the club's downfall.

ONE name I haven't seen mentioned as a possible replacement for Neil Lennon at Celtic Park, is that of Paul Lambert. He has served a managerial apprenticeship, he has coped well in difficult circumstances at Villa Park, and, while his survival there perhaps owes as much to the common-sense ownership of Randy Lerner, who refused to join the English Premiership charge into sackig the manager when his team wasn't in the top eight of that division - I thik Paul has done ok.

He is used to working on a limited budget, he has a terrific European pedigree and was a past Celtic captain. For me, he ticks many-more boxes than some other names which have been bandied about.

Darkness On Leith

SOME weeks ago, I suggested Rod Petrie and Terry Butcher might be thinking along the lines of relegation from the Premiership being no bad thing for Hibs. I never for an instance thought they might take the suggestion seriously, but, thanks to the gross ineptitude of everyone at Easter Road, the unthinkable has happened.

 

Once Jason Scotland put Hamilton ahead on the day, it looked likelier that Accies would get the second goal they required to tie the play-off, then go on and win it. Hibs were in that dreadful place, the corridor of uncertainty from then one. Did they push up and go for an equaliser on the day, to restore their two-goal aggregate lead, or, did they tighten-up, hold what they had and hope for the best?

 

In the end, they couldn't quite decide which road to go down and finished up by - going down. Darkness on Leith right enough.

 

Mind you, I don't see relegation this season as being all together bad for Hibs, or Hearts for that matter. Sure, there will be uncertainty around Tynecastle about how the Levein/Neilson/Crawford management team will function; however, that there are a lot of talented young players, tempered by fire this season, at Hearts and IF the management team gels quickly, Hearts will be tough nuts to crack in what will surely be, even-more than usual THE competitive division in Scotland this season coming.

 

Anent Hibs, I see changes aplenty over the summmer. Many of the players who crumbled in 2014 will surely be out the door in the next week. Butcher will probably revert to type and import some cheap and cheerful journeymen from the lower leagues in England to replace them. They will, therefore, be competitive in the upper reaches of the Championship in the new season. But, will they be good enough to go up? Only time will tell.

 

The next question around Hibs is - for all he emerged form a system at Ipswich which relied heavily on home-grown talent; and given that Maurice Malpas has a good reputation as a coach, and also grew up in football at a club with a reputation for growing their own - can the Hibs management produce another golden generation, albeit one whose lustre lasts longer than the last golden generation of Hibbees did?

 

Then, there is the Ethiopian in the fuel supply. What will the new season bring at that long-running football soap opera, Edmiston Drive? I continue to insist, the biggestg advantages which the Rangers tribute act's rivals have in the new season are - this club is wedded to paying over the odds for under the necessary talent, and continuing with a manager who, as a coach is definitely a taxi.

 

But, for all these questions, the fact that three of the five biggest supports in Scotland will be asked, in season 2014-15, to pay to watch at best a third-rate product, is not good news for Scottish football.

 

I can only see the long decline continuing.

 

 

 

ALL the above said - well done to Alex Neil and his Accies. They will immediately be installed as relegation favourites for next season, but, they deserved to triumph today. They were the more-positive side, they never stopped going forward, they played the better football, and, they deserved to win.

 

I am delighted for everyone at New Douglas Park, and for some good friends of mine who are Accies' fans. Welcome back to the top flight.

 

 

 

AT least, the SPFL has the sense to properly "sell" these promotion-relegation play-offs, as second chances. Unlike the preposterous FA, who big-up their play-offs with a Wembley final and a trophy for the winners.

 

This is ridiculous. Enormous credit to QPR's ten men, who kept going, then took perhaps the only chance they got, to beat Derby yesterday, but, that they, who in reality finished third in the English Championship, should have a trophy to show-off, while Burnley, who finished above them in second, have nothing, well, it's daft.

 

But, that's English football for you - a clear case of never mind the quality, feel the width, as it were.

 

  

Lennon No More

SO - the Ginger Whinger is no more, Super Lenny/That wee Lurgan Lout (delete according to your religious prejudices) has departed Celtic Park.

 

We will miss him, there was always good copy to be had around Neil Lennon. I don't actually blame him for going - without the other lot to worry about, he has been almost sleep-walking through the past couple of years at least. It must be difficult to motivate yourself to appear interested in a competition you know, before the first ball has been kicked, you are going to win.

 

Now, we have to consider Neil Lennon's term as Celtic manager. Of course, this will best be done by some future football historians. Today, with his departure so recent, is not the time when rational analysis can be carried out.

 

Three titles in a row is good; his record in domestic cup competitions less-so; as is his European record, albeit at a time when European campaigns are becoming ever harder for Scottish clubs, or indeed clubs from outwith the mega-rich, English, German, Spanish and Italian leagues to mount.

 

But, since we have to give an instant reaction, here goes.

 

Neil Lennon was a Celtic Man, to an extent Gordon Strachan could never have hoped to be. He had to operate in a strange world where he was expected to prevail domestically, but, didn't prevail to the extent he probably should have.

 

He was expected to go far in Europe with a squad of, at best, in European terms - second or third-rank players. Again, he failed, but, here, failure was to a degree relative.

 

I don't think he has left a lasting legacy at the club. He hasn't put in place a system which will keep good, young players able to take themselves and the club to the "next level" - the knock-out stanges in Europe on a regular basis. But, there again, I sincerely doubt if, ever again, a Bob Kelly-like figure, prepared to accept a few barren seasons while the young boys mature to be ready to win the big prizes, can be allowed to emerge in Scotland. Nowadays, it is all about winning THIS SEASON.

 

He has certainly been good copy and has been a much-maligned person. for his own mental health, it is perhaps as well he has gone, before (if they ever do) the Rangers tribute act gets into the Premiership to muddy the waters.

 

In some ways, Neil Lennon was a Scottish Muhamad Ali. The American establishment and their reactionary Redneck cheer leaders truly were scared by that "Uppity Nigger" - I think their smaller, but no-less reactionary Scottish heirs, half a century on, were somewhat scared of that "Uppity Tim".

 

We will miss him. I wish him well in his future football career. 

Sore Heads In The Fair City - Enjoy Them Lads

BACK in 1993, our village football team returned from Glasgow bearing the Holy Grail - the Scottish Junior Cup: it sparked-off the biggest party this village has ever seen and, some upstanding members of the community were fairly well pissed for the next week.

 

Thus forewarned - I know well how some of the fair citizens of the Fair City of Perth will be feeling this morning. I hope this isn't their last victory party, but, this being Scotland, appreciate they might have a wee wait before they have the chance to let their hair down with abandon again. I can, however, assure them, nothing beats the first time your club wins a big trophy. Savour it, because, you never know when it might happen again.

 

I actually thought, for all the quality on the park at Wembley, for all the money in the English game, the Celtic Park affair was the better match. Yes, to lose it will be hard for Jackie McNamara and his men, but, they went down with their heads high and surely, they will not grudge their opponents from upstream on the Tay their moment of glory.

 

Now, all that waits to be settled is the final place in next season's Premiership - will it go to Hibs or Hamilton? I must admit, when I worked in Edinburgh as a youth, I would occasionally go along to Easter Road with some of the older guys at work, to watch Pat Stanton, Alex Edwards & Co. I enjoyed the experience. Then, as a football reporter, I always enjoyed my trips to New Douglas Park during that exciting period when the young McArthur, McCarthy and Brian Easton, a winner with St Johnstone on Saturday, were coming through and making waves.

 

It seemed, just a few short years ago, that, every time I was scheduled to cover a game at Hamilton, Ronnie McDonald and Billy Reid would unleash another terrific teenaged talent on to the scene. Then, there was big Mark McLaughlin. When he was coming through at Arthurlie, it seemed obvious to me - here was a local boy around whom St Mirren might build a team, but, he never got the call to Love Street, but, went on to have a longer and more-distinguished career at Hamilton than many who did get the Love Street call managed.

 

Sadly, Hamilton, when they last got into the Premier League as it was then, bottled the accent on youth. Still, it is nice to see them have the chance to get bck there. Hard luck too to Falkirk, where Gary Holt has carried-on where big "Elvis" left off. And, as an aside here, didn't Mr Pressley do well in difficult circumstances at Coventry in the season now ending. But for the pre-season points deduction, he'd have got the Sky Blues into the promotion play-offs.

 

Finally, well done the Blue Brazil - all but written-off pre-matches, they saw off the challenge of the Pars to remain in the Championship, which is a terrific testimony to the managerial skills of Jimmy Nicholl and a great boost to their Chairman, or, is he the RWM of the club?

 

Just the Hamilton v Hibs shoot-out and the Junior Cup Final punch-up to get out of the way and then, we can settle down and have some real fun, cheering-on ABE at the World Cup.

Just Give Us Two Great Games - Please

WE bloggers,being by nature somewhat arrogant individuals, who think our opinions might be of interest in the wider blogsphere, are almost duty-bound to have opinions on everything.

 

Therefore, I should put down my views on this afternoon's two big cup finals, in Glasgow and London - perhaps offer my predictions, make known my prejudices and so on. Today, all I can offer is my hope - that we get two cracking games and that, in that old cliche of the fence-sitter: The better team wins.

 

Having been trained these many years to be even-handed, to offer a straight-down-the-middle critique of a match - when working for a national newspaper; I found it a bit difficult when I was sports editor of a daily newspaper in a single football team town, when I had to reflect every game through that team. I can deliver a report slewed towards one of the teams, I just find it hard.

 

So, you will get no prediction of the likely victor in either final from me. Indeed, I could produce a lot of reasons why any one of the four competing clubs is deserving of lifting the trophy they are seeking.

 

In the case of St Johnstone - it would be a wonderfully romantic end to 130-years of not getting to the final, should they win, and a glorious justification of all the money the Brown family has injected into the old club.

 

For Dundee United - success would, as with the Perth club, justify the largesse of a single family, the Thompsons; while it would be a sign of success for a belief in youth development, both on the field and in the manager's office.

 

I could even personalise this. I've known big Chris Iwelumo since he was a schoolboy. I know he is a peripheral figure at Saints, but, wouldn't it be nice if he got on and maybe scored the winner - sadly he will not get the chance to do this at the same end at Hampden as he had that career-defining miss for Scotland.

 

For United, I barely know Simon Donnelly, but, ah kent his faither, Tommy, and it would be nice if young Simon tasted early success in his managerial career as number two to another second generation football man in Jackie McNamara.

 

At Wembley, it would be nice if Hull, like Saints tasting a cup final for the first time, should win, particularly as today's final comes 20-years after manager Steve Bruce lifted the trophy for Manchester United.

 

Also, Hull has the Scottish interest, with Allan McGregor and George Boyd in their ranks. English Cup Finals, without Scots, are rare and often drab beasts, so, we should perhaps all be Tigers fans for the day.

 

Against that, the dignity which Arsne Wenger has shown because he refuses, as  does the Arsenal board, to fully play the Greed is Good English Premiership game. With most other clubs in that league, Wenger's failure to win a trophy over the past few seasons would have cost him his job some time ago - he deserves to add another success to his escutcheon.

 

So, whichever clubs win today, I will have reasons to be cheerful - more-so if we get what we crave: two show piece, exciting games of vibrant football to reclaim the romance of the cup-tie from a game increasingly bogged down in the marathon slog for a league title.

 

Go out there and play lads.

Poor Gary Locke - Or Was He?

I THINK they will be beeling in Kerrydale Street and Edmiston Drive, today is the second successive day that Hearts have grabbed the Scottish football headlines - which is no bad thing.

 

Ruminating as I have been on yesterday's events at Tynecastle, I note, with regret, that my colleagues in the mainstream Scottish football media have gone to their default position - they have concentrated on the personalities rather than the facts.

 

Of course, it is always a personal tragedy when someone loses their job, as Gary Locke did yesterday. However, we are always being told: "Football is a results-driven industry". Let's hold that thought.

 

Hearts went into administration and were handed a 15-points deduction; at that moment, they became the odds-on favourites to go down. Administration also meant goodbye to the club's well-paid foreign imports and the situation whereby manager Locke would have to see-out the season with a more-or-less all-Scottish squad.

 

Locke has been lauded for managing to accrue 38 points from the difficult managerial situation he found himself in, fair enough.

 

But, even if those 15 points had not been deducted and everything else had remained the same - what would today's situation be?

 

Simples, Hibs would have taken the automatic relegation slot and Hearts would be preparing to face the winner of the Hamilton v Falkirk match in the promotion/relegation play-off.

 

OK, if we accept that being relegated on account of a 15-point deduction was a false position for Hearts, does the fact that the club's position, with those 15-points, would have been second-bottom rather than bottom make Locke a success as manager?

 

I think not. In fact, had Hearts still finished second-bottom, the calls for Locke's head would have been strident and, had Ms Budge then come in and sacked him, he'd have got precious little sympathy.

 

Ms Budge is, by all accounts a hard-nosed business-woman. There is no sentiment in business, and while we understand she likes Gary Locke as a person, well, her business head demanded that he depart.

 

The new Levein/Neilson team will be charged with getting Hearts back into the top flight ASAP. However, their longer-term programme is to put in place a system whereby Hearts attracts the creak of the young talent in the Lothians to the club and nurtures them properly.

 

This will be no easy task, particularly since, with the gap between player wages south of the Solway and here on the north shore widening every season - with the English clubs pulling away; it will become ever-harder to maintain a core of experienced Scottish players in any would-be top Scottish club.

 

Levein and Neilson, both having, however briefly, tasted football in England, just might be the guys to caution their young players against moving too-quickly and, by so doing, ensure some continuity and stability at the club.

 

 

 

ONE of the drawbacks to great age is, the old memory function declines. That is the excuse I am giving for my failure to comment on an interesting article which I saw in one of the Scottish Sundays a couple of weeks ago.

 

It dwelt on our ignominious first entry to the World Cup qualifying stages, back in season 1949-50. The gospel according to Scottish football has always been that, Scotland having qualified for the 1950 finals in Brazil, the SFA opted not to go, because we hadn't won the Home International Championship.

 

However, what I had never seen explained, prior to a couple of weeks ago, was the reason behind that refusal to travel. This was, when the four Home Nations rejoined FIFA in 1947, one of the many special deals they arranged was that the 1949-50 Home Internationals would be the UK qualifying group for Brazil. When that group was set-up, the deal from FIFA was that only the British Champions would travel. All four nations knew, before a ball was kicked, that to be sure of getting to Brazil, they had to win the Home Internationals.

 

But, as the tournament progressed and the finals hove to on the horizon, one or two countries in mainland Europe, where the infrastructure was still badly fractured by the ravaged of World War II, suddenly realised - they couldn't afford to send their international team on what was then a lengthy, protracted and tiring journey to South America, so, they pulled-out.

 

FIFA needed as many European nations as they could get in Brazil, they still remembered how poorly Europe had supported the inaugural World Cup, in Uruguay just 20-years before. So, they approached the Home Nations and offered a place in Brazil to the runners-up in the Home Internationals, as well as the winners.

 

The SFA, however, said, even if they finished second, they would not go, since they had entered under one set of rules and didn't believe these rules should have been changed mid-way through the qualifying.

 

For that decision to stand by the agreement they had made and their refusal to agree to a mid-match change of rules, the SFA has been taking flak ever since. Maybe now, with hindsight over many disappointing forays to the World Cup, we should compliment the late Sir George Graham and his committee for their decision.

 

I mean, England lost to the USA, just imagine what Scotland, with our glorious tradition of falling on our faces on the biggest stage, might have managed. No, on second thoughts - don't. 

A Woman's Touch - Will It Work For Hearts?

WE ARE frequently told that the ladies are different from us - apart from the obvious differences in the leisure and recreation department! In particular, we are told that the fairer sex thinks and acts differently when it comes to affairs of the wallet/purse.

 

In which case, given the way she has started her reign as Queen of Hearts, life in Gorgie with Ann Budge around, just might become very interesting. Clearly Ms Budge has a preference for Craig Levein's way of operating rather than the old-school management style as espoused by Gary Locke and Bill Brown. That is a club owner's prerogative, it will be interesting to see how things develop as big Craig attempts to resurrect a once shining escutcheon, which has been somewhat tarnished by his tenure as Scotland boss, and in particular by having the numbers 4-6-0 scrawled across it.

 

Good club bosses do not necessarily make good international managers, and vice versa; the history of football is littered with examples of this. Nearer home, I can think of one or two managers who enjoyed success as manager of a part-time club, operating on a shoe-string, then bombed badly when upgrading to a full-time club with money to spend.

 

Craig might not have taken Scotland to even the boundaries of the Promised Land, but, he still had a good record as a club manager, at least at Hearts and Dundee United. At the latter club, he showed an excellent command of what it takes to run a successful youth development operation. He also had some input to the Hearts operation at Riccarton when he was there before.

 

Clearly, Ms Budge wants Hearts to be a club which successfully grows its own. She has already shown she intends holding tightly to the purse strings, by showing the club's top earners the door. I would question the axing of goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald, who is, for me, one of the best Scottish 'keepers around at the moment. But, should the rumoured return of Craig Gordon to Tynecastle, and should big Craig be even three-quarters as good as he was before his lengthy lay-off with injury, Hearts will be quids-in.

 

Youth is ok, but, one thing the club will need is an experienced and capable back-stop.

 

I do not join the clamour for Ryan Stevenson to be retained. When you see the skill Stevie showed in his now legendary You Tube hit of a solo goal for Ayr United, all those years ago, it is clear - like so-many Scots footballers, he has failed to turn early promise into mature competence and consistency. He will not be missed.

 

I also hope, Ms Budge doesn't go down the road of cheap foreign imports. There is plenty of youthful promise at the club, Robbie Neilson has Levein to lean-on; IF they can get the right experienced Scots in to form a solid spine, and, IF the kids "train-on" in the less-choppy waters of the Championship, then, I would not be surprised to see Hearts' absence from the top-flight being a one season blip.

 

Finally, I would like to see Ms Budge, as she off-loads the club into the control of the fans, finding a way to keep it safe from the future advances of another Mad Vlad - that will be her hardest job, but, if she gets it right, what a legacy whe will leave Edinburgh.

 

 

 

THEN we come to the other big talking point from today, the parting of the ways between St Mirren and Danny Lennon. Having done my time in the old Love Street press box, where I became a life-long fan of "Basher" Lavety - what a front-row forward that boy would have made in rugby - I have a soft spot for the Buddies.

 

I also have a great respect for Chairman Stewart Gilmour, aka "The Fat Controller" and his board. Their quiet, under-stated stewardship of the club has kept afloat a Paisley institution which might well have failed lang syne.

 

Yes, Danny Lennon has done well to keep Saints in the top-flight, but, clearly the board hasn't been totally-impressed by his management, the League Cup success not withstanding.

 

I feel, Danny had taken Saints as far as he could; it is time for a new broom, to hopefully get the Buddies into the top six and playing the sort of vibrant football the Buddies would love to see on a weekly basis.

 

Saints have always thrived best when the team is packed with Buddies who have come through the ranks, a manager who can get them back to this, will thrive at the club.

 

 

 

I SEE, Roy Hodgson has named his World Cup Squad. I am not impressed. Sadly, we Scotsmay, this time, be denied our World Cup fun - laughing at the presumption of the English media, as they cheer-lead and boost a squad of over-paid, over-rated "Superstars", who will flop out at the quarter-final stage.

 

This time around, I don't see them getting even that far. At least, the more-sensible of the English football writers are already defusing aspirations. But, as we know, with England, it all ends in tears, regardless.

 

However, well done Fraser Forster, for getting into the squad - he deserves his place.

Lost - Severl Kilmarnock Bunnets, Thrown In The Air on Saturday Afternoon

WEARING my Kilmarnock bunnet, I can only give the following reaction to Saturday's result at Easter Road. DANCER!!!!

Betting on 1-0 Kilmarnock (Boyd), was always a reasonable wager with a chance of paying out and, the re-born charmer of a media personality duly delivered.

I wonder what the ante-post odds on K Boyd (Rangers) being leading scorer in the Championship next season are.

On the contrary, it's not so much "Sunshine on Leith" as black clouds over Easter Road, following the Hibbees' condemnation to the lottery of the play-offs.

Still, if Hibs cannot see-off either Hamilton or Falkirk, well, they have only themselves to blame. It's not as if several Hibs players are playing for their livelihoods - I dare say Terry Butcher already knows which ones he will keep, regardless of the outcome of the play-off match. He will also, I am sure, have identified the English-based journeymen he will lure north to replace those he is about to dump.

A season or two in the Championship might not be a bad deal for Hibs.

But, what of Kilmarnock? With the despised Chairman about to step down and Billy Bowie becoming the new supremo, what can we look forward to?

I would love to think we would have another period akin to the Fleeting Years of promise when Chairman Bobby and manager Jim got us out of the bottom tier and, eventually, back to the Premier League. God, that was an exciting time to be covering Killie.

But, let's be clear; so far, Allan Johnson has shown little Magic and isn't even a Bobby Williamson - far less a Willie Waddell. Some say: "He's lost the dressing room", but, he did well at Palmerston and just as you don't become a bad player overnight - you don't become a bad manager.

Michael Johnson was a lawyer, Bowie is a businessman - different breeds. Hopefully he (Bowie) will be able to guide Killie to the top as well as he has built-up his own business.



MEANWHILE, FA Chairman Greg Dyke has unveiled his plan to promote and bring through more young English players. Basically this is an English version of the old Division C in Scotland, which never flourished between 1946 and 1955 then sank without trace or sorrow.

All this will do will, perhaps, put some loose change into the coffers of the already over-greedy Premiership clubs. It will not make an iota of difference to England's slim chances of ever winning a major championships again.

It's a nonsense, but, as we know from recent events in Scotland - if you ask football to manage or re-arrange itself, nothing much will happen. Donkeys led by even thicker donkeys is my take on the management of football, be it in Scotland, the UK, Europe or the World.

As proof of this, I invite you to consider the news that Herr Blatter wants to continue as president of FIFA.

If This Is Failure - I'll Take It

SUCH has been the whipped-up "interest" in that on-going soap opera 'Edmiston Drive' that, in some ways, Celtic and Neil Lennon have had a fairly easy ride throughout this season.

Certainly, Celtic have confirmed their "favourites" tag by winning the Premiership at a canter, but, given the huge financial advantage they enjoy. over the other 11 clubs in that top division, the inevitable Celtic win has almost been greeted with a disdainful: "So what?"

Celtic winning the league is not news; however, it could be argued that Celtic NOT winning the Scottish and League Cups, or going further in Europe IS news. Celtic, like "Old" Rangers, are, for better or worse, judged by standards not used in connection with the other Scottish clubs.

Therefore, some might argue that not completing a Treble of league and both cups marks Neil Lennon down as a failure as Celtic manager. That his side's failure to extend their European campaign past Christmas is another failure. I don't susbscribe to these beliefs.

Lennon's Celtic could only beat what was put-up against them domestically. This they did in the main benchmark here, the League. However, it goes without saying, Celtic do not set a minimum standard for the SPFL. The 2013-14 Celtic squad comes nowhere near the quality of consistency of the Lisbon Lions, but, by the same measure, the opposition they are facing today is nowhere near as good as the opposition Jock Stein's immortals faced nearly half a century ago.

Scottish football has been on a downward spiral since the start of World War II. That spiral, the lack of ability across the whole area of football, has affected Celtic, perhaps to a lesser degree, as much as it has affected all the other clubs.

If the rest could up their game, challenge Celtic more domestically; then, just maybe, Celtic would up their game, both at home and, more-importantly inasmuch as they are Scotland's standard-bearers, abroad.

I don't suppose Neil Lennon sat his troops down on the first day of pre-season, nearly a year ago now and said: "OK lads, this is the plan: we win the league without losing a game, we win the Scottish Cup and the League Cup and we reach at least the last-16 in the Champions League - this is the minimum the management of this club will accept". Were he to have done that, I think even the players would have laughed.

Such achievements were probably the aspirations of everyone at Celtic, but, Neil Lennon and Peter Lawwell surely knew, even as they (if they did) discussed their  aspirations for 2013-14, that they would be unlikely to hit all their targets.

Yes, there will be disappointment within the Celtic club at not having won more trophies, or lasted longer in Europe, but, they are still the team which sets the benchmark, the one to beat - no way has 2013-14 been a bad season.

In 2014-15, it is up to the chasers to close the gap, to make the Premiership meaningful again. Celtic have not failed - the other 11 top-flight clubs have failed - to make Scottish football relevant.

 

Bring On The English - Not For Me Thanks

I HAVE, since it was announced last week, avoided commenting on the proposed Scotland v England match, due at Hampden, in November. But, having mulled it over, my response is: thanks but no thanks.

 

At this stage in Scotland's seeming recovery from the depths of FIFA rankings as low as 80, do we really need an old-fashioned British "Derby" game? Will such a cup-tie, even if we win it, really help us get up to the level whereby we are jostling with Italy, Germany and Spain at the top of the European tree, or giving Brazil or Argentine a game? I don't think so.

 

Football at European club level, or at international level is a different animal from the stuff we have to thole in the SPFL. Guy few Scottish players these days are regularly exposed to the additional demands of European football - we ought to be looking overseas rather than to England for games, in my opinion.

 

That said, I could see a use for regular games against England, in the context of a revamped British Championship, but at B, or Under-23 level, as a bridge between the Under-21 and A teams. Make such a tournament subject to the Olympic Games selection criteria, only three over-23s in a squad, that way we would be giving our fringe and young players a chance to play together at international level, a strata below the full team. I think such a tournament would work, but, a full-blooded Scotland v England game, with its attendant baggage, particularly in the aftermath of 18 September - naw, no fur me.

 

 

 

OUR illustrious First Minister has been getting pelters this past week or so, for making what I thought was nothing more than a fair comment about President Putin. The edition of GQ magazine in which he was quoted, during an interview with Alistair Campbell hadn't even hit the news stand than the FM's staff were calling: "Incoming fire" and retreating to the Bute House cellars.

 

Just as well then, Wee Eck didn't have anything to say about The Chosen One, who has again been demonstrating what a Grade One, diamond-encrusted, platinum-plated, solid-gold tosser he is.

 

Of course, we up here in Scotland have known for longer than the mainstream English media, that the man was a serious bell end. We clocked this immediately with the cynical manner in which his Porto side saw off Celtic in Seville all those years ago. Since then, he has got worse.

 

I feel it is a pity he only crossed swords with the sixty and seventy-something Fergie. I have a feeling the forty-something Fergie would have delivered a perfect Govan Kiss to him the first time he came across Jose's nonsense.

 

Somehow, I don't think Mourinho would have lasted too long in the Ayrshire Juniors, or the Glasgow Green pub league.

 

 

 

KENNY Miller for Ibrox, Kris Boyd ditto. Please, spare us from another summer of transfer speculation. Will not happen though, the red top rottweillers need their summers of writing fiction to clear their minds before the long, dull, winter of chronicling another Premiership title for Celtic.

 

I wonder, can Keith Jackson, in this close season, match or beat his record of 75 wrong predictions of big-name signings for the Old Firm?

 

Of course, Boydie back at Ibrox would score goals for fun, but, I think it is time for Kenny Miller to retire, he has covered enough miles to do so with honour. If I was him, I'd be looking for a nice wee job in Vancouver, lovely place to live.

 

After Sunday's 5-0 win for Hearts over Kilmarnock, I reckon Ryan Stevenson will never have to put his hand in his pocket again, should he fancy a drink in certain pubs in Ayr. I also feel, Killie could go down with the Jambos, in which case, I might just have a wee punt on Killie celebrating the 50th anniversary of their greatest achievement, by again beating Hearts, at Tynecastle, to bring the Championship trophy back to Rugby Park in April 2015, just as they did in April, 1965.

We Still Need Reorganisation In Scottish Football

THE excellent SCOTTISH LEAGUE website, set-up and run by David Ross is, I believe, THE receptical for considered thought on Scottish football - partly, I feel, because it is well-nigh an Old Firm free zone.

 

This week the topic of the Lowland League and community/grass-roots football in general has been getting an airing on the site, and, the consensus is that we are still some distance from having a system within the game in Scotland which works.

 

As I said at the time, the SPL's power-grab, driven as it was by their greedy members' need to keep some of the Rangers brand's financial muscle open to them, which forced through the integration of the SPL and the SFL, with the sop of the Lowland League being initiated, was a case of an ill-thought-out compromise, driven through too-quickly and with too-little cognisance of the potential drawbacks.

 

The fact is, we still have far-too-many "senior" clubs, taking more than they are giving, from Scottish football. We need a pyramid system which properly allows well-funded, ambitious clubs such as Spartans to rise.

 

We need the junior clubs to join the mainstream, instead of operating within their own parallel universe, and we need a system which will allow Scotland to once again become a nation which produces talented young players who can, in the best Scottish tradition, go out into the world and make a difference, while leaving enough at home to allow Scotland to return to the top table in world football.

 

We will, however, never get this while the game continues to be run by self-serving blazers whose only concern is living off the scraps from the Old Firm table.

 

We "anoraks" on SCOTTISH LEAGUE have seen this, and have put several alternative scenarios up for consideration. I would like to think the "blazers" could have a look at what is being put forward and act accordingly.

 

 

 

TODAY'S final regular season games in the Championship division of the SPFL is being, half-heartedly bigged-up as: "Helicopter Saturday", with a chopper and pilot on stand-by at Cumbernauld, ready to deliver the trophy to whichever one of three clubs, Dundee, Hamilton Academical and Falkirk, comes out on top.

 

Mind you, this season, with the Rangers tribute act coming up and Hearts and probably Hibs coming down, perhaps isn't the season to be promoted - better maybe to stay down and take the money next season.

 

The three teams will, lest we forget, be battling for the right to be considered the 13th best team in Scotland - which, no matter how you dress it up, doesn't amount to Humphrey Bogart's beloved hill of beans.