New Kilmarnock manager Lee Clark
A KILMARNOCK fan of over 50 years' standing, I wish Lee Clark well in his appointment as our new gaffer. But, his will be a difficult job to fill. I know he was, in a way trying to rally the terracing troops and sound positive in his post-appointment statement about getting into Europe and so-forth.
However, I wish this particular Englishman had taken his approach from the supposed greatest of Englishmen and offered us desperate Rugby Parkers nothing other than blood, toil, sweat and tears.
Killie are not in a desperate hole - no, Dundee United are in that situation, indeed, while I have sympathy with the travails of the Arabs as they contemplate at least a season in the Championship - I cannot see them making up the deficit twixt themselves and us. But, with Hibs in a rich vein of form and growing in confidence, I wouldn't fancy our chances against them (or the RTA should the wheels fall off their band-wagon) in the end-of-season promotion/relegation play-off.
So, rather than giving us currently impossible dreams of European football, I wish Clarkie had simply said something like: "My immediate priority is getting us out of the play-off place and further up the table; then, at the end of the season, we can re-assess where we go from here".
Such a statement of reality, I would buy into more-readily than into any talk of European football. That's for next season, at the earliest, let's start walking tall first, before we look to run.
It's not as if climbing the table isn't beyond the current squad. They went to Motherwell and won last week. If they can win, there, then why not at Partick or Hamilton, the clubs we should be looking to overhaul between now and the end of the season.
To date, Killie have accrued an average of 1.04 points per game; Hamilton and Motherwell have each garnered 1.12 ppg, while Thistle have been gathering points at the rate of 1.22 pr game. This means, the two Lanarkshire clubs are only 7% ahead of Killie. The "new boss bounce" is surely going to be enough to help Killie overtake Accies and the Steelmen, while it ought to also get us upsides with the Jags.
Indeed, should Clark and Lee McCulloch - who has done well while in temporary charge, successfully mount a charge, Top Six is not yet beyond Killie this season. Or, am I getting ahead of myself there?
Zlatan Ibrahimovich - pure class
I WAS delighted to see PSG beating Chelsea in the Champions Cup this season, for one simple reason. In scoring the opener, my favourite current player, Zlatan Ibrahimovich flicked yet another "vicki" at the serried ranks of the English Premiership's media cheer-leaders.
He may have an ego the size of Jupiter, but, you cannot doubt, when the chips are down the Swedish Slav usually delivers. Yon back-heeler of his against for Sweden against the Lillywhites some years back, why it's right up there with the Joe Jordan header against the Czechs and wee Archie's goal in Argentina among my favourite international goals.
Zlatan gets pelters from the English media, mainly because he has never deigned to honour his career with a spell in "the Greatest League in the World" - I don't think he rates the Premiership too-highly; but, to deny he has been one of the outstanding players of his generation, as so-many English commentators do, is to merely demonstrate the depths of their xenophobia.
He is on the down slope of a great career, but, the big man remains a class act.
HERE in God's County of Ayrshire, we enjoy Killie's occasional triumphs. We all would like to see the Honest Men of Ayr United playing at a higher level, but, what really floats out footballing boats is success for our separate village teams in the Juniors.
And, right now, things are going rather well for the Ayrshire Junior teams, not least in this season's Scottish Junior Cup. Six of the last eight teams are already known, and four of those six clubs are from Ayrshire, with Beith, Hurlford United, Kilbirnie Ladeside and Kilwinning Rangers already in the quarter-final draw, along with Arthurlie, from just over the County line in Barrhead and Pollok.
There will surely be a fifth Ayrshire team in the last eight. it is well-nigh impossible to see Carnoustie Panmure, even with home advantage, beating cup-holders Auchinleck Talbot in their much-delayed Fifth Round clash, due to be played on Saturday. I say well-nigh impossible, because, well, difficult though it might be to comprehend - Talbot are in something of a crisis - they have LOST their last two matches, to Kilbirnie and Pollok.
To add to Tucker Sloan's problems, they haven't had too-many games lately, so are perhaps rusty and in danger up on Tayside. But, from long experience, I reckon a wee bit of adversary usually brings the best out of the Beechwood Boys, and I still think they will claim their expected place in the last eight.
If they do, it will leave the winners of the other undecided Firth Round tie, between Camelon and Kelty Hearts as the only quarter-finalists from outwith the West of Scotland Superleague.
Talbot Boss Tucker Sloan
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