A GUID New Year tae ane and awe, and moany may ye see.
Right, that's the season's greetings out of the way, time to get back to greetin about the state of Scottish football. To be honest, I had thought of stopping blogging on Scottish football, such is the sense of dread I get when I survey the current state of the game
Let's be honest, Scottish football, at the start of 2016, is in a bad way, and I , for one, cannot see salvation on the horizon. Just about the worst Celtic squad I can remember is stumbling towards another SPFL title, with apparently, none of the other top-flight teams capable of pulling themselves out of the general morass of sterility to mount any kind of challenge.
The Celtic Family, or a goodly-percentage thereof, are less than impressed with Manager Ronnie Deila's stewardship of the club, or with the performances, but, still, despite frequent stumbles, they head the table and it is well-nigh impossible to see any of the others coming through to beat them to the title, or even a possible Treble.
Across the city the spivs and mountebacks running the Rangers Tribute Act at Ibrox continue to offer gentle amusement at their management of the establishment institution they head; whilst Ra Peepul, who continue to turn-up in droves to watch the team in royal blue attempt to battle their way out of the second tier in Scottish football are, as ever, a constant embarrassment and occasional shame to Scottish football.
Plus ca change and all that, as our French allies say.
One subject which has been getting a lot of airing whilst I was enjoying the season of peace and goodwill was that hardy annual, league re-organisation. A lot of commentators have had their say, as have several managers. Various newspapers have done supposed in-depth analysis of the situation, but, and pardon me for saying this, we have heard nothing from the guys who will, if re-organisation is to come, have to drive the thing.
The consensus appears to be: league re-organisation is both necessary, and is coming, but, the following men have not yet, as far as I can see, made a meaningful, and in most cases, any, pubic contribution to the debate.
They are: Alan McRae, Rod Petrie, Stewart Regan, Peter Lawell, Sandy Stables and Andrew Waddell - the members of the Scottish Football Association's Professional Game Board and Neil Doncaster, Ralph Topping, Eric Riley, Steven Thomson, Duncan Fraser, Mike Mulraney and Ken Ferguson, the members of the SPFL board.
Messrs Regan and Doncaster, as the executive officers, will have to make any changes work, but it is the other 12 who will have to cajole and coerce the clubs into making the changes.
For a journalist, trying to write a story about change, it is easier to speak to the usual suspects - Gordon Strachan, Ronnie Deila, Mark Warburton, Robbie Neilson and so-forth, or the talking heads of radio and television - Billy Dodds, Pat Nevin, Willie Miller and so on, than to try to get any kind of information or response out of the real power brokers in Scottish football - the dozen men named above.
Celtic have two men in that dozen, Honcho Peter Lawell on the SFA body, and eternal apparatchick Eric Riley on the SPFL body. Dundee United have Stephen Thompson, Aberdeen have Duncan Fraser, but, notably, the Rangers Tribute Act is not represented.
Nothing will be decided without having Lawell, Thompson and Fraser on-board. Significantly too, any change will have to offer something which Messrs Drysdale, Mulraney and Ferguson can sell to the "diddy" clubs. And, having battled for so-long to have a meaningful say in how Scottish football is run, and having seen the doorway to senior football finally forced ajar, messrs McRae, Stables and Waddell will be needed to sell the changes to their Highland and Lowland league clubs.
If the changes proposed do not satisfy, in particular, Lawell, Thompson and Fraser, we can forget it.
Has any journalist asked these three men what they think?
I honestly do not see change coming any time soon. However, should the RTA collapse in the run-in, who knows, change might well be rushed through, since some of the lesser lights in the Premiership appear to believe it would be better to have Ra Peepul back amongst them than out of the big tent, and might well rush them back in.
If this happens, all I can forecast, it will be another case of change rushed through without proper thought and analysis, and, in the words of Craig Revell-Hailwood, that sarcastic Strictly Come Dancing judge with the double-barrelled name; "Disaster, absolute disaster Darling".
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