SORRY – a wee bit late in getting there, but, having got Friday night's rugby epic in Paris, and Number Two Grandson's mega-epic birthday party on Saturday out of the way, I can reflect on Thursday night's draw with Austria and look forward to tonight's game in Tel Aviv.
The big talking point from Thursday night was the penalty we were not given. That was a stonewaller every day of the week – I think even the members of the Refereeing Loyal would have given Celtic a penalty at Ibrox were such an incident to happen in an Old Firm game. That it wasn't given is a permanent black mark on the escutcheon of the match officials.
Stevie Clarke's current squad is not yet a great Scotland one. However, under a very-good manager, they have a unity of purpose and a will-to-win which has not always been evident in Scotland squads. I fancy they can win tonight, but, would settle for us not losing.
Last week a I watched, on Netflix, a “docu-drama” - 'The Summer of '92,' about Denmark winning that year's UEFA European Championships. You might recall, after falling short in the qualifying campaign, the Danes, under the far from popular Richard Møller Neilsen, were, some cases literally, rounded-up off the beach to replace the suspended Yugoslavs. Unfancied and un-rated, they got over a slow start to win the tournament.
I commend this Danish film to the House, it's a great watch, but, the underlying message is – nil desperandum, miracles do happen. It would be nice if a minor miracle overtook the Scotland team over this summer.
YOUTH development doesn't get a lot of discussion when it comes to Scottish Fitba – more's the pity. In fact, I often feel a good Scottish player comes through in spite of, rather than because of our development system, such as we have one.
Right now, there is a wee bit of talk about development, principally around the suggestion that the Old Firm pairing should be allowed to field reserve teams in the lower leagues of Scottish senior football.
This makes sense, on just one level, and it is this. Rangers and Celtic have more fans than every other Scottish club – each has upwards of 40,000 season ticket holders. The next-biggest Premier Division ground only holds at best some 20,000 fans, so, even if the bulk of the Old Firm's core support wanted to follow their team to an away fixture – they couldn't, because they would not get in.
But, supposing the Rangers or Celtic first team was up at Aberdeen or Ross county on league duty, and only able to take a limited number of fans with them – there would be a lot of fans willing to turn-up at Ibrox or Celtic Park, to see their Colts team take on a lower division club, such as Queen's Park or Partick Thistle.
Even if the OF first team was away from home, an away Colts fixture closer to home than the first team one might attract a good few OF fans, boosting the gate income of the lower league club hosting them.
Say the OF club had a young player who was starting to make waves, and being touted as; “the next big thing,” you would surely expect the fans to turn out to check-out his progress.
I have to admit, that is the only reason I can think of for allowing OF Colts teams to play in the senior leagues. And, I honestly don't think any of the other full-time clubs could rightly claim they have enough fans to justify having their second team in the lower divisions.
What I think would be better would be a total overhaul of the Scottish League. Four divisions, with a total of 42 clubs is, for my money, two divisions and some 20 clubs too many; come down to two divisions, or better still, American-style conferences, with a maximum of 12 clubs in each. Below that, make it regionalised.
I could make a case for these regional leagues to be like the minor leagues in American baseball – with each club tied to one of the big teams and filling a player development role for that club.
JOCK STEIN'S job, up there in the Great Pavilion in the sky, managing Scotland's Heavenly XI, got harder in recent weeks, with the passing of first Ian St John, then Peter Lorimer. Lorimer, who lost his battle with Cancer, was possible the best player I played against. We were contemporaries in Schools football and, even then, it was clear he was going to be good.
He flourished under Don Revie's development system at Elland Road, where he was a key member of one of the best teams in British football history. Peter was revered for his fierce shot, one of the hardest in football history, but, he was more than just a superb striker of the ball.
He played some 800 games for Leeds in more than 20 years on their playing staff. Add another 100 games with lesser clubs, plus internationals, and his playing career, which lasted 23 years, was exceptional. He scored an average of 0.3 goals per game, which is good going for a player who was essentially a midfielder. There are international strikers playing today who cannot match that strike rate.
In retirement, he ran a pub, close to Elland Road, which was a must-visit for football fans to the city, while he was a star turn for the Leeds United Legends team. Later on he had a spell on the Leeds board and was a highly-popular Club Ambassador.
He also scored one of the iconic Scotland goals, our first against Zaire, during the unbeaten 1974 World Cup Finals campaign. He was always very-good with journalists, when asked to comment on Leeds or Scotland issues.
For Scotland, he was maybe under-capped, with just 21 appearances in the big team, however, he is not the only player of whom that could be said. He was, however, by any measure – a Scotland Great, and not merely as a member of that wonderful unbeaten 1974 squad.
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