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.
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