Gordon Parks - You've Played A Blinder

GORDON PARKS, (pictured below) was starting off in football writing, just as I was switching back from general sports-writing to mostly covering rugby, so, while we shared a few press boxes, I didn't get to know him too-closely, plus, he's from a younger generation than I, so we didn't have much in common.

 One advantage the bold Gordon has over most of the other sports hacks who are active today is – he's been there, done it, got the tee-shirts and DVDs. Anyone who, like him, survived Jim McLean and Dundee United, well, he's worth listening- to or reading. Gordon has also served his time down among the “diddy clubs” - he's done the hard yards.

On Sunday, I was pointed towards Gordon's page in the Sunday Mail, a paper I haven't even looked at for years, by one of my rugby buddies. He admitted, he's not a Parks fan, I hope he reconsiders, because Gordon's latest column ought to be required reading for the High Heid Yins along the sixth-floor corridor at Hampden Park, as he points-out the absolute moger they have made of Scottish football.

It's actually a very-good piece of journalism by Gordon, one for which he deserves praise. What he has done is picked-up on a series of tweets from Brown Ferguson, a former team mate/opponent from Gordon's playing days. Brown (pictured below) is now an Elite Performance Practitioner with sportscotland's Scottish Institute of Sport, at Stirling University; that's the day job, he is also Gary Naysmith's Assistant Manager with Edinburgh City.

 Brown's day job involves working with elite athletes, helping them cope with the stresses of juggling work or studying with the demands of top-line sport. He's been having a look at some figures around player numbers in the Scottish Premiership, where he found:

• With the January window now open, there have been 12 players signed by Premiership Clubs, only 1 has been Scottish.

• In this season (2021/22) there have been 125 signings in the Premiership, 30 of them have been Scottish (24%).

• Out of the 125 players signed in the SPFL, 30 of them have been loans and of the loans 7 have been Scottish.

• Game week 20 in the SPFL (The last one before the winter break) saw the lowest number of Scottish Players start a game week this season with 56 out of 132 (42%) Scottish. Our highest week was game week 1 (Before the window shut) with 72 starting Scots (55%). Our average is 47%

• Scotland currently has 150 Scottish players in 1st team squads across the SPFL. Scotland currently sit 38 in World Rankings, there is only one country above us (Switzerland - ranked 13th) who have fewer home based players

• Countries of similar size, or less, have the following number of home nation players in their top flight squads:

• Iceland (0.3m) – 317

• Uruguay (3.4m) – 450

• Croatia (4.1m) – 183

• Norway (5.4m) – 304

• Scotland (5.5m) – 150

• Finland (5.5m) – 191

• Denmark (5.8m) - 183

Brown also produced this graphic, to illustrate how much Scottish clubs have become wedded to buying in non-Scottish players:

I find that graphic particularly-interesting. There have always been non-Scots in Scottish football, the Old Firm has long had their share of Irish players: Sean Fallon, Charlie Tully, Bertie Peacock or later, Packy Bonnar at Celtic: Bert Manderson and later Billy Simpson, John McClelland or Jimmy Nicholl at Rangers, where there were the likes of the South Africans – Johnny Hubbard and Don Kitchenbrand.

County Durham man Jackie Hather was a key player in the 1955 Aberdeen team which won the Scottish League, while, Welshman Ben Ellis and Englishman Bob Ferrier played key roles in the great league-winning Motherwell team of the 1930s. Yes, we sent thousands of “Scotch Professors” out to teach the world to play football, but, we accepted the odd foreign player back.

Brown Ferguson's graphic shows, that trickle gradually became a flood, after Graeme Souness arrived at Rangers in 1986 – until today, Scots are almost in the minority in Scottish football.

This cannot be healthy for the Scottish game, but, sadly, I honestly cannot see the High Heid Yins at Hampden having the wit to notice, or the wisdom to change things. I do not say we should not import foreign players – Scottish football has benefitted from having the likes of Paul Gascoigne, Brian Laudrup, Henrik Larssen, Lubomir Moravcik, Frank Sauzee, Zoltan Varga, Istvan Kozma, Alexei Eremenko, Marko Rajamaki or Gunni Torfasson, to name but a few, playing here. But, that said, our primary aim should be to provide opportunities for young, native talent to thrive and perhaps go on to bigger things in bigger leagues – that is not helped by importing second, third or fourth-rate foreign players and ignoring the development of young Scots.

For me, however, the real kicker in the Gordon Parks piece comes at the end, where he points out that 11 of the 12 Premiership clubs (Celtic are the odd ones out) have accepted over £25 million in interest-free Scottish Government loans on the back of the Covid pandemic.

Gordon wonders how much of that cash will be earmarked for “player development” and how much will go towards “player recruitment.” That's a very-good question. I would (if I was a tax payer – but, being retired I'm not), not be best pleased to think my contributions to running Scotland were being spent on fringing in another second or third-rate foreign player, but, I could live with it going on helping young Scottish players make it.

Gordon Parks wrote: “Handouts shouldn't go to clubs spending on recruitment.” If he's still writing when he's 100 years of age, Gordon will never write a truer sentence.

Socrates Sings Paper Roses

 

DEREK McINNES as the new Kilmarnock manager – maybes aye, maybes naw; we'll wait and see. He certainly has a good track record in Scotland, but, as a long-time Killie fan, I feel the current board, like so many Rugby Park boards before them, hasn't thought this one through properly.

Take the length of Derek's contract – 18 months. What can he achieve in that time? Promotion, either by winning the Championship, or via the end-of-season play-offs, well, that has to be the first priority.

Assuming he does that, part two has to be getting Kilmarnock back to where we fans think the club should be, top six in the Premiership. That's going to be the hard part. If he can do these two things, which are the minimum I am looking for, ok, maybe he can get a new contract, or, and this might suit him better, he could maybe get a bigger job on the back of his success at Kilmarnock.

Derek's managerial record is interesting. He has been in-charge at three clubs: St Johnstone, Bristol City and Aberdeen. According to Wikipedia, he has managed 618 games, winning 290, drawing 142 and losing 186.

This gives him an overall winning percentage of 46.93% of the games managed. This is a good record for a man who has not had charge of a major club – one with presumptions of winning a league championship or national trophy regularly. In all he has onlywon two trophies as a manager, the First Division title with St Johnstone in 2008-09 and the League Cup, with Aberdeen in 2013-14.

However, winning trophies with Kilmarnock would definitely count as a welcome bonus, given our club's past record. What the fans will want, as a starting point, is for Killie to get back into the Premiership, then become hard to beat.

Given McInnes' record, we can harbour such expectations. His “not losing games' record as a manager stands at 69.79% - he has won or drawn 432 of the 618 games he has managed. Even when he “failed” at Bristol City, he won or drew 31 games, only losing 32.

So, if he can galvanise the team, get us promoted, we can look forward to better times ahead. From where the club currently is, I think that's all we are asking.

However, as a fan, I am greedy for more. Difficult though it might be to achieve this, I would love to see Kilmarnock back to where they were when I first began to attend Rugby Park, in 1959.

Back then, Kilmarnock had, under Malcolm MacDonald, been runners-up in the 1957 Scottish Cup. Willie Waddell then took over and his record as manager was:

• Managed 389 – won 215 – drew 76 – lost 98 – wins percentage 55.27% - did not lose percentage 76.6%.

Under Waddell, the club's finishing positions in the old First Division were: Fifth – eighth – second – second – fifth – second – second – first.

In the Scottish Cup, under Waddell, Kilmarnock reached: Last 16 – quarter-finals – Runners-up – last 32 – quarter-finals – last 32 – semi-finals – quarter-finals.

In the League Cup, under Waddell, Kilmarnock reached: Quarter-finals – semi-finals – third in section, dnq for knock-out stages – runners-up – second in section, dnq – runners-up – second in section dnq – second in section, dnq.

Championees!!!

 

The Waddell Years showed what Kilmarnock could do, I would like to see the club back there.

Waddell was at Rugby Park for eight seasons. In the eight seasons prior to his arrival the club's finishing league positions were: Eighth in Division 2 (24^th) - twelfth in D2 (28^th) – fifth in D2 (20^th) – fourth in D2 (20^th) – second in D2 – promoted - (18^th) – tenth – eighth – third. So, he joined a team which had generally been on the up – Killie had enjoyed a better league finish in each of the six seasons prior to his arrival.

In the eight seasons following his departure, the club's final league positions were: Third – seventh – seventh – fourth – seventh - 13^th - 11^th - 17^th (relegated). That relegation, in season 1972-73, along with Airdrie, was followed by the same two teams bouncing straight back up in 1973-74. They finished 12^th in 1974-75, so didn't make it into the inaugural top ten, when the Premier Division started in 1975-76.

So, the Waddell Effect didn't last long at Rugby Park. Under Waddell, they had been a full-time club, offering, with Hearts, the most-consistent challenge to Scot Symon's all-conquering Rangers. But, by the time Jock Stein's Celtic ruled the roost, Killie were struggling – they have never really looked like getting back to where they were during the Waddell Years.

Perhaps, if Stevie Clarke had stayed longer, Killie could have remained one of the leading clubs, but, Scotland's need was greater than Kilmarnock's. For me, Derek McInnes' biggest challenge will be to – once he gets us back into the top flight, seeing if he can bring about a 21^st century version of the Waddell Years in the first half of that decade – the 1960s.

If I can offer some advice to Derek McInnes, take a leaf from the Waddell play-book, who always had a good number of Ayrshiremen in his first team. The Kilmarnock team which I first followed was: Jimmy Brown (Buckhaven); Jim Richmond (Blantyre), Matt Watson (Paisley), Frank Beattie ( Bannockburn) Willie Toner (Shettleston), Bobby Kennedy (Motherwell), Rab Stewart (Kilmarnock), Jackie McInally (Ayr), Andy Kerr (Lugar), Bertie Black (Lugar), Billy Muir (Kilwinning).

An all-Ayrshire forward line, and having locals in the side was a feature of the Waddell Years – look at the league-winning squad: Bobby Ferguson, Andy King, Jim McFadzean, Davie Sneddon, Ronnie Hamilton, Eric Murray, all Ayrshiremen. The best Kilmarnock teams have always been loaded with locals – let's get back to this, there has never been a lack of talent in God's County – find it, nurture it and watch Kilmarnock flourish.

More Old Firm Pish - And An Award For A Good Guy

I REALLY worry at the thought processes of some fans – (always assuming they are capable of rational thought). I managed a wry smile on Ne'erday, when I chanced upon a Celtic group page on Facebook. Those members of the Family who read the page were absolutely wetting themselves at the news, “Sevcovians are raging at their club's lack of activity during the January transfer window.”

This follows speculation that Rangers will not be doing much business this month, because they don't have the money. Celtic meanwhile, ended 2021 by signing three new Japanese players – I suppose this could be deigned a “Tora, Tora, Tora” moment down Parkhead way.

However, let's throw a bucket of ice-cold water on the celebrations. I pen these words on 1 January, 2022.

• The window has just opened, it does not close until one minute to midnight, on Monday, 31 January

• Most significant deals are done towards the end of the window

• A lot can therefore happen over the next 30 days.

As things stand, Rangers are six points clear of Celtic at the top of the table, after 20 of the requisite 38 games. Rangers have won 16, drawn 3 and lost just 1 of their games thus far, for 51 points. Celtic have won 14 games, drawn 3 and lost 3, for 45 points.

Rangers have collected points at the rate of 2.55 per game, scoring goals at a rate of 2.15 goals per game, while con=ceding 0.7 goals per game.

Celtic have collected points at the rate of 2.25 gpg, scoring at a rate of 2.10 gpg and conceding 0.6 gpg. In every measurement, except goals conceded, Rangers are ahead of their rivals.

Therefore, in spite of changing managers mid-season so far, Rangers have the better record.

If they continue to accrue points at this rate, Rangers will end the season with 97 points, overtake them and lift the league title, Celtic will need to win 2.79 points per game, or, to put it another way, they will have to win 53 of the 57 points which are available to them between now and the final game. Or, to put it yet another way, their performances will have to improve by a smidgen other 30% EVERY game.

Rangers don't really have to change anything, merely continue to be as-efficient as they have been thus far. The pressure is firmly on Celtic, to up their game and overtake them.

There will be three further Old Firm games this season. Should Celtic win all three, the chances are, they will go on to win the league. If they cannot win all three, then they will need Rangers to drop more points against “the diddy teams” than they themselves do.

Things will get interesting when hostilities resume, but, there is definitely more pressure on Celtic, to hit the ground running and claw back Rangers' current advantage.

And, of course, if the rumoured Nathan Patterson to Everton transfer does happen, this will add something between £10 million and £16 million to the Rangers' war chest.

Small beer in English Premiership terms, but, in Scottish terms, this does give Gio van Bronckhorst wriggle room, should be feel he needs to augment his squad.

Mind you, selling Patterson endorses the view, Rangers, like Celtic before them, have realised the reality of 21^st century football – since they play in what is, in commercial terms, a football backwater – the Old Firm, for all their great history, are no longer major European clubs.

Their future is in bringing through and selling-on young talent, such as Kieran Tierney and Patterson, whom they then sell-on to clubs, probably with less-distinguished histories, but playing in bigger leagues.

Yet, if/when, we finally get an NFL/NBA/NHL-style European football league, with their rivalry and fan bases, any such competition would want them on-board. Getting the two clubs into such a competition – provided it was properly organised and managed - could be the salvation of Scottish football.

ONE OF the true stalwarts of Scottish Fitba was recognised over the Ne'erday Holiday, when it was revealed that Henry Dumigan is Auchinleck's Citizen of the Year.

Henry Dumigan with a familiar trophy - the Scottish Junior Cup

This honour is richly-deserved, since Henry has, for most of the past 40 years, been Secretary of Auchinleck Talbot.

To those not from God's County, the significance of being the local junior team's secretary will be unknown. The fitba team secretary carries major prestige and with it massive pressure in Ayrshire. He's the man who has to liaise with the several different characters on the committee, keeping them more-or-less heading in the same direction.

He has to keep it real with the team manager, deal with the complaints of the supporters and generally keep the many plates spinning across a long season. It's a thankless job, even at Talbot, by common consent just about the best-run team in Scotland.

Henry learned from among the best, his mentors were Davie Loy, who was still involved with Talbot in his tenth decade and the late Malcolm Donnachie. He has been luciky too with the managers he has worked with, such as the legends that are Willie Knox and current incumbent Tucker Sloan.

He has had to sign for and look after over 70 trophies and deal with an increaisng work-load as Talbot has evolved from a successful Junior club, to a successful non-league senior one.

And, even before he receives his Citizen of the Year trophy, he's got the small matter of organising Talbot's Scottish Cup clash with Hearts, at Beechwood Park, later this month.

However, I have no doubts, Henry will tackle this task with the same quiet efficiency he has shown over the years in matters Talbot. Former SJFA Supremo Tom Johnston, and Henry's opposite number from Cumnock Juniors, past SJFA President George Morton tried for years to get Henry to become involved in the minefield of SJFA politics, he has always refused – for Henry, Talbot comes first and last.

Congratulations Henry.