EVEN
BEFORE the players had finished
drying themselves off from their post-game shower, and wee Neil
Lennon was ready to offer his excuses to the waiting Scottish press
corps, social media was awash with fans of Scotland's “diddy”
teams, plus of course the pbi of the other half of the Forces of
Darkness, revelling in the Hoops horror show on Tuesday night.
In
a rare moment of sanity, one Kilmarnock
fan, on a Killie social media chat room enquired as to why, Scotland,
seemingly alone of nations with an interest in football, had
followers of the Beautiful Game, who revelled in the misfortunes of
other clubs.
I
fear that Killie fan has a somewhat solitary and sheltered existence;
did he not hear the loud guffaws, emanating from the direction of
Ayr, of Honest Men relishing Killie's loss to Connah's
Quay Nomads,
in the qualifying round of the Europa
League?
Schadenfreude,
relishing
the misfortunes of others, is ingested like mother's milk by football
fans, in Scotland and elsewhere, and, when the club which shat in the
nest has a following so convinced of their own greatness and
entitlement to win every game as The
Celtic Family, and
their partners in crime, across the city – who loudly proclaim: “We
arra peepel,”
when
they fuck-up, which they seem to do in Europe each year – surely
the rest of us can be forgiven our mass outbreak of: “Get
it right fuckin' up ye, ya shower o' bastards.”
The
facts cannot be disputed, Celtic, the Champions of Scotland,
the richest club in that country, a club with a regular home
attendance of considerably over 50,000 fans for each home game; a
team ranked 47th in Europe, and
playing in the league ranked 20th in
Europe, were beaten at home and knocked-out of the Champions
League, at the qualifying stage, by the champions of the league which
is ranked 29th in Europe – a team
which is itself ranked 288th in Europe.
By
any standards, this was a terrible result for Celtic, and for
Scottish football. But, it is not the first time in recent years they
have been badly beaten in Europe. However, they will continue to be
the richest club in Scotland. They will continue to have the
highest-paid squad and they will probably still win all three
domestic trophies this season.
Two
days on, as Rangers – European Club Ranking, 206, co-efficient
4.425 – prepare to defend their two-goal advantage in the
second leg of their Europa League qualifier, against
Midtjylland – European Club Ranking, 102, co-efficient 206 –
the normal bravado of Ra Peepel on such nights has not been
as-pronounced as normal.
The
majority of the 50,000 Rangers fans inside Ibrox tonight will see
the Danes as just another “diddy” team, from a “diddy”
league, to be crushed under the Rangers tanks. However, some will
have noticed, Denmark is ranked 16th
in Europe, Scotland is ranked 20th.
The
Danes have more European experience than Rangers; they play in a
higher-ranked league; by these measurements – while Rangers, with
home advantage and two away goals banked in case of need, and the
backing of a partisan 50,000-plus crowd, should win – that
is no gimme.
Prior
to this season, Scottish clubs had embarked on 270 campaigns in
official European club competitions, since 1955-56. These 270
campaigns, by 22 different clubs, have yielded just three
victories. That's a 1.11% success rate. Or, to put it
another way, in 98.89% of the seasons, we are wasting our time
and money even entering – since we've nae chance.
Try
telling that to the pensioners, who, as teenagers and young men had
their taste of European glory in Lisbon in 1967; the slightly
younger guys who were in Barcelona in 1972, or Gothenburg
in 1983. They will tell you: “Aye it was worth, greatest day of
my life supporting the club,” etc. But, we have to face facts, the
last of these glorious days was in 1983 – when:
- Thatcher was Prime Minister
- Neil Kinnock was leader of the Opposition
- The SNP had a mere two seats in Parliament
- Lester Piggot won his ninth Derby on Teenoso
- The USA first put cruise missiles into Greenham Common, sparking off lengthy demonstrations
- The CD was the newest technological break through
- Actor and writer David Niven, actor John Le Mesurier (Sgt. Wilson in Dad's Army) and Violet Carson (Ena Sharples In Coronation Street) were among the prominent people who died that year.
We
don't even need to go that far back. Eight years ago, we were ranked,
as a league, 13th in Europe. As such,
we had TWO teams in the Champions League, Rangers, as
Scottish Champions, were straight through to the Group
stages, while Celtic, having finished second in the
league, entered at the third qualifying round stage, one
round later than as Champions, they had started this season.
In
the last decade – excluding this current season, we have seen 50
European campaigns by our clubs begin and end; in a mere 12 of
these campaigns, just 24%, have we seen the Scottish team even
reach the group stages.
On
only 4 of these 12 occasions – one campaign in three:
- Rangers in the Europa League in 2010-11 – round of 16
- Celtic in the Champions League in 2012-13 – round of 16
- Celtic in the Europa League in 2014-15 – round of 32
- Celtic in the Europa League last season – round of 32
has
one of our representatives got to the business end of the European
season, the knock-out stages.
We
are now a mediocre football nation, we have embraced mediocrity, but
still, inside our heads, we have this vision of Scotland,
the
nation which invented modern football – the beautiful passing game.
And,
until we banish: Here's
tae us – wha's like us, and
accept: We're
shite, and we know we are, but,
we are going to do something about this; then never again will we get
to savour nights like Lisbon,
Barcelona or Gothenburg.
Mind
you, if we need to have someone to blame for the decline in Scottish
football, I can think of an obvious candidate. Step forward Graeme
Souness.
Up
until Souness took over as Rangers manager in 1986, Scottish
football's record in Europe was:
played
287 – won 168 – drawn 0 – lost 119 – wins 58.54% of games –
3 outright trophy wins – 3 further final appearances
Since
1986
our
record is:
played
450 – won 185 – drawn 46 – lost 229 – wins 41.1% of games –
no trophy wins – two final appearances
(there
were no drawn games pre-1986, even if one leg of a two-legged tie
finished all-square. Draws only became possible with the introduction
of groups).
That
represents a 30% fall-off in performance across the board. And, what
dramatic change did Souness bring about? Well, prior to his arrival,
Scottish sides in Europe tended to be mainly all—Scottish sides.
Sure, we had the odd Scandinavian or English or Irish import, but,
generally, we relied on Scotsmen. After all, if the greatest of all
Scottish club sides could be comprised of 11 players, born within 40
miles of the club's ground, we had no need of foreigners.
Souness
changed that. That Celtic team which stumbled out of Europe on
Tuesday night had only 9
Scots in the 18-man match-day squad. What
they didn't have was something Celtic and indeed Rangers have
relied-on right from the start of Scottish involvement in European
club football – a
fan on the park; a Bertie Auld, Roy Aitken or Tommy Burns, somebody
who would happily die for the club, who knew what the fans expected,
and strove to deliver. A man who, if he hadn't been good enough to
don the hoops, would have been in the crowd roaring them on.
Maybe
we should get back to trusting Scottish talent, and making that
talent work it socks off, if we are to again be among the leading
nations in Europe.
But,
getting to the low point we are at today, had not been a sudden
decline, more a case of an accelerating downhill journey:
- 1950s – 50 of European matches won
- 1960s – 63.2% won
- 1970s – 53.8% won
- 1980s – 57.9% won
- 1990s – 40% won
- 2000s – 44.6% won
- 2010s – 34.8% won
It's
time to apply the brakes and start the climb back.
No comments:
Post a Comment