WITH THE start of each new season of Scottish Football, I find myself hoping: “This year will be different, and we will get it right.” But, each year comes and goes and nothing changes. Sure, the stumblebums who stalk the sixth-floor corridor of power at Hampden periodically shuffle the deck-chairs but the RMS Titanic, which Scottish Football has become, steams on regardless, towards that head-on with the iceberg that will sink it.
Already, before August is out, we have seen the Daily Record and Sun subs dust-off those well-used Celtic cracked crest graphics; however, a couple of wins on the bounce and they are filed away for future use and, because The Other Lot are having their own mini-crisis, a loss to Dundee United book-ended by defeats in Europe to Malmö – so, best get the other cracked crest graphics out boys.
We remain, 54 years post-Lisbon and 49 years post-Barcelona, stubbornly clinging onto the myth that Rangers and Celtic are 'BIG' clubs. Sure, in normal times, they attract crowds, the size of which the other Scottish clubs can only dream about – they enjoy, in our own small minority area of a small island off the north-west coast of Europe, a media presence which other, bigger clubs, in bigger nations, can only envy, but, the fact has to be faced, in pan-European terms, they are mince.
Celtic are currently ranked at number 46 in UEFA's Clubs Co-efficient table, with Rangers at 52. Midtjylland and Malmö, the two teams who knocked them out of the Champions League, are respectively ranked 113 and 88.
In international football, Denmark are ranked at 10 in the FIFA rankings – the number 7 European nation; Sweden are ranked 18 – the number 13 European nation. Scotland are ranked internationally at 44 in the world and 25 in Europe.
Scottish club football is ranked as the number 11 league in Europe, the Danish League is ranked at 14 and Sweden at 23.
From these facts we can perhaps deduce:
Currently, Denmark and Sweden have better players than Scotland, better-organised for international football.
But, The Scottish domestic league is stronger than the Danish and Swedish leagues
Celtic and Rangers are assumed to be better teams than the Scandinavian sides who beat them.
So – how did they manage to lose?
In professional sport – money talks. It has been obvious for years, the best-chance these two clubs have of making anywhere near the same money as the really big European clubs, is to have lengthy runs in Europe. It is also a lot better for their finances if that run is in the big-money competition – the Champions League.
However, qualification in that particular competition is slanted in favour of clubs from the supposed bigger leagues in Europe: The English Premiership, the Bundesleague, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 in France; so, to get even a sniff of participation in the money-making Group stage of the Champions League, far-less gain access to the mind-boggling rewards on offer in the knock-out stages, our domestic heroes must first of all qualify.
Qualification started in July, before the domestic season kicked off. Did the two clubs adjust their preparations properly, to be ready for European qualification matches? I would question if they got this right, and they paid the price.
Certainly, Celtic made an absolute pig's breakfast of getting themselves ready, between the timing of recruiting Dominic McKay in to replace Peter Longwwell and Ange Postecoglou in for the departed Neil Lennon.
But, after such a great domestic season, one might have thought, Rangers merely had to do some fine-tuning to be ready for Europe.
Did the two clubs do the proper due diligence on the clubs they were liable to be facing? Were they as well-prepared as they might have been for Europe in 2021? Did they disrespect their opponents? Or, perhaps, their players are not as good as they and a tame and somewhat submissive press would have us believe.
OK, it's not quite the same thing but, Olympic Champions know, well in advance, the date of their particular final. They know the dates of their preliminary rounds, so, all their preparations are geared towards peaking on the right date.
The likes of Andy Murray or Rory McIlroy know that, for most of the weeks of any year they will be competing in tournaments. But, to these guys – in Murray's case The Australian, French, Wimbledon and USA Championships are the ones that matter. To McIlroy it's the Masters, the US and The Opens and the PGA Championship which define each season – and their preparations are geared around being right for these challenges.
The Champions League qualifying rounds are, I would suggest, every bit as important for Celtic and Rangers. Sure, if they can survive the rush to qualify for the group stage in the Europa League, they will still make good money, but, not nearly as much as they would have made by staying in the Champions League until the group stages there.
To put it bluntly in an amended form to one of these posters which right-on coaches love to put up in dressing rooms:
They failed to prepare and were prepared to fail – which they did.
But hey, that's Scottish fitba for you. “Aye Beenism” has long been a facet of Scottish Rugby. This is supposedly expressed by veteran former players and administrators in the Borders railing against change by saying: “But it's aye been done this way – and aye will be.”
There is a degree of Aye Beenism in Scottish football too, and the sooner it is swept away the better.
The two biggest clubs could set the ball rolling, by getting their European act together.
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