Young Managers Recruiting Their Contemporaries Is A Slippery Slope

STRANGELY, considering his “day job” was as an accountant – allegedly the most-boring and predictable of the professions - “Enclosure George” Reid, veteran Ayr United supporter and scourge of managers, was one of the wittiest terracing critics going.

From his place behind the home dug out, he frequently goaded Ally MacLeod into wanting to wade into the crowd to sort him out. Davie Wells, Ally's former assistant reckons he lost count of the number of times he had to hold Ally back from going after George – and Ally was generally successful as United boss.

George Burley - his "youth policy" at Ayr was questioned by super fan"Enclosure George"

One of George's best verbal sallies was directed at then United Chairman retired Chief Constable Andrew Charters, during George Burley's spell as boss of the Honest Men. United had been awarded a free-kick, just in front of George's place and Burley, then 35, Arthur Albiston (36) and Gordon Mair (37) were grouped round the ball deciding what to do next.

Manna from Heaven to George, who piped-up: “Haw Mr Chairman, is that your new youth development programme working.” It brought the house down, in the press box, above George's head, we were in hysterics.

Now, this might be a leap of unparalleled imagination, but, imagine if Rangers had a fan with that degree of wit. I can see the same scenario, towards the end of this month, with Jermain Defoe, Charlie Adam and Steven Davis discussing what to do with a free-kick.

Naw, couldn't happen, Rangers fans are not that sharp.

I do worry about Steven Gerrard's transfer policy. OK, he's a young manager, in his first post, he has grown-up in the age of success being bought; of fans demanding success – yesterday. Not for Gerrard and his contemporaries the sense of it perhaps being better to breed talent from within – that's the job of lesser clubs, whose talent is to be picked-up by Rangers and similar “big clubs” once their promise can be measured.

Also, Rangers' fans and directors are not really interested in building something, they want success – now; or by the latest within two years, in time to prevent Celtic winning ten Scottish League titles in a row. Longer term planning can wait. Instant, or near-instant success to stymie Celtic, and deliver Title 55 is the name of the game.

Defoe, Davis and maybe even Adam are not the future – they are a short-term fix, which may, or may not work. They might tip the balance Rangers' way in the race for the title this season, but, they will not help them in Europe – which is where Rangers have to start making an impression.

“We Are The People” is an idle boast – more so when the fans making that claim are supporting the team officially ranked 205^th in Europe, according to UEFA; or the 185^th best team in the world, according to the American 538 sports statistic website.

STILL ON the subject of Rangers, was anyone surprised - well maybe the clearly apoplectic Chris Sutton - when the SFA decided to take no action over some of Alfredo Morelos' antics during their 1-0 win over Celtic. Some of the alleged fouls certainly, on looking at the photographs, seemed like bad ones.

One or two, it should be said, would have been forgiven by fans of every Scottish club except Celtic, on the grounds they were committed against Scott Brown – the Number Two pantomime villain in Scottish football – behind Neil Lennon.

Certainly, there is also a picture of Brown committing what looks like a clear red card, over the ball challenge on Morelos, so, a reasonable person with any knowledge of Scottish football might well decide – the pair were at it, and therefore, anything went.

I would reckon, any half-way competent rugby Television Match Official would have been advising the referee: “red card” for both the incident, when Morelos appears to boot Brown in the “haw maws”, and the Brown over the ball challenge.

The alleged Morelos stamp on Anthony Ralston was also, I would suggest, a red card offence. Any way, Morelos seems to have got away with it – which speaks volumes on the SFA's attitude to bringing the Bigot Brothers' players to heel. Clearly, in 21^st century Scottish football, all clubs are equal, but, two are more-equal than all the rest.

Of course, it could have been, John Beaton was following the sage advice often given to young referees, before their first Auchinleck Talbot v Cumnock game. This was: "Stop the game as little as possible." Senior referees always reckoned, when play stop the nonsense began, so, by waving play-on, and keeping things moving, it gave the dafties, on and off the field, on both sides, fewer opportunities for nonsense.

Ouch!!

 

Of course, strikers such as Morelos are always targets for unscrupulous defenders, and the best have to be able to look after themselves. For instance, Denis Law did have something of a reputation for being able to look after himself. He was famously dropped from the Scotland team for kicking Bobby Robson, right in front of the Queen, at Wembley in 1961 – although Denis's defence: “Bobby kicked me first,” was never contradicted by the future Sir Bobby.

Big Ian Ure also reckoned, he got his big-money transfer from Arsenal to Manchester United, because Sir Matt Busby, worried about the soft centre of his defence, decided to sign Ure, after the big Ayrshireman whacked the same Denis Law in a game at Old Trafford. Again Ure still insists: “Denis started it.” He is also adamant, the fracas which saw him break his jaw, while captaining the Scotland XI against Israel, in 1967, was sparked off by another future knight of the real,, one Alex Ferguson, sorting out an Israeli defender.

FREDDIE Glidden died on 1 January, aged 91. A sad start to 2019 for every Jambo, Freddie played 270 games for the Edinburgh team during the Golden Years under Tommy Walker in the 1950s and early 190s. He is in the club's Hall of Fame, and rightly so.

Glidden captained Hearts to victory in the 1956 Scottish Cup final, when they beat Celtic 3-1 to land the old trophy for the first time in 50 years. Let's be honest, he was a journeyman player, a part-timer throughout his 17-year senior career with Hearts and Dumbarton. But, for all the glorious talent of team mates such as Dave Mackay, John Cumming, Alex Young, Alfie Conn, Willie Bauld, Jimmy Wardhaugh – all of whom were capped, without the calm assurance and unfussy play of the likes of Glidden, they might not have won as much as they did.

The stand-in skippers, Celtic's Bobby Evans and Hearts' Freddie Glidden at the start of the 1956 Scottish Cup Final

That 1956 final was the Year of the Stand-in Captains. Glidden leading-out Hearts after club captain Bobby Parker was inured, while the more-celebrated Bobby Evans stood-in for the injured Jock Stein as Celtic captain.

Still, it does one good to remember that, just occasionally, the unsung players become heroes. Freddie Glidden was one of the good guys, he won one Scottish League, one Scottish Cup and two League Cup winner's medals with Hearts. He also played in the first Hearts team to play in the European Cup, in 1958. His passing deserves to be recognised beyond Tynecastle.