Battle of Britain - I've Seen Fiercer Fights In Lewis's Sale

AFTER Tuesday night's 'Battle of Britain' between Liverpool and Rangers, I am more than ever in the Henry Ford camp. Because, when it comes to Battles of Britain, real aerial warfare or media-hyped sporting, “History is more or less bunk”, as old Henry maintained.

We are told that in the near-mythical Battle of Britain, in 1940, “The Few” - a bunch of boys in their teens and early twenties, straight out of England's public schools and universities – with the odd Grammar School product – Sergeant Pilots – turned back the might of Hitler's Luftwaffe.

The reality was, RAF Fighter Command had a bit of help from Americans, Australians, Canadians, Czechs, Free French, Indians and Poles, to name but a few other nations – but, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

So, let's look at the line-ups for that little dog fight at Anfield. Liverpool began the game with a mere two Englishmen on the park: goal-scorer Trent Alexander-Arnold and skipper Jordan Henderson.

Rangers also began with two Scots in their line-up, veteran Allan McGregor and teenager Leon King. To be fair, in skipper James Tavernier, Conor Goldson, Ben Davies, John Lundstram and Ryan Kent, they actually had more English players than the side nominally representing England. Indeed, even after Jurgen Klopp sent on James Milner and Harvey Elliott, Rangers still had the greater number of English players involved, while they managed to get another Scot involved, when Ryan Jack entered the fray in the 67^th minute. Rangers also had a Northern Irishman in their squad in veteran Steven Davis.

So whereas the 1940 BoB – the real one, was fought by a mix of conscripts and volunteers, last night's sporting version was very-much fought-out by a multi-national collection of mercenaries.

I have nothing against football as sporting art. The likes of the Royal Opera Company, or Scottish Opera or Scottish Ballet may well recruit overseas talent, as principal performers or musical directors, but, the bulk of the company – the chorus singers, the corps de ballet, the sword bearers, the orchestra members – they tend to be locals.

So, I can live with top-flight football as the muscular equivalent of grand opera or classical ballet – by all means pay big bucks to attract world-class talent, but, you need your locals as well.

The added element in football's Battles of Britain over the years of potential European clashes is always the Anglo-Scottish element. Scotland skipper Andy Robertson was injured, otherwise he'd have been in the Liverpool team, indeed, this thought just popped into my head, how's this for an All-Time Liverpool team: Tommy Lawrence; Stevie Nicol Andy Robertson; Graeme Souness, Ron Yeats, Alan Hansen; Kenny Dalglish, John Wark, Ian St John, Gary McAllister and Billy Liddell. The Liverpool Scottish have always been an elite regiment.

Ryan Kent spent 14 years in the Liverpool system, in their Academy before getting a playing contract. However, he didn't meet the standards Herr Klopp expected, so, he was let go, ending up at Rangers. He showed nothing on Tuesday night to possibly persuade Klopp his judgement of Kent as a player was faulty.

Well, my argument is, if Kent wasn't Liverpool-class, then he could not possibly be Rangers' Class. Rangers' left wingers are judged against a very-high level of predecessors – in the 20^th century: Alex Smith, Alan Morton, Johnny Hubbard, Davie Wilson, Bud Johnston, Davie Cooper. In more-modern times, Brian Laudrup – Kent is a long way from being mentioned in the same sentence as these genuine classy wingers.

Rangers were totally out-classed on Tuesday night. It was Men beating Boys, but for Allan McGregor, it might have been an embarrassing thumping. And this, let's not forget, against a Liverpool team playing some way short of their best. Rangers dodged a bullet there, however, it is difficult to see them surviving into the knock-out stages of this season's European Cup – and highly-unlikely to even earn the consolation prize of a run at the Europa League.

THEN, on Wednesday night it was Celtic's turn. Like Rangers, struggling at the foot of their group, but, with the consolation of one point from their draw against Shakhtar Donetsk. They had high hopes against RB Leipzig, but, like their pals across the city, they would end up disappointed.

Now, straight away let's admit, fourth in the Bundesliga last season and currently lying 11^th in that league table, Leipzig don't have the history, prestige or European experience of the likes of Liverpool, Napoli, Real Madrid, Ajax, or even Donesk. At the very least, Celtic should have been aiming to get a draw in Germany.

They didn't get the showing-up Rangers had to endure the previous night, but, they still finished a poor second over the game. Once again, the Old Firm apologists in the Scottish media were reduced to making excuses and trying to put a brave face on another embarrassing night for one of our big two.

At least, Celtic managed to, thanks in part to a lengthy injury list, get three Scots into their starting line-up, one more than Rangers managed. But, the sad fact is, the teams representing one of the greatest football cities in the world are Scottish only in their name – even if that claim can be reasonably made about only one of them.

IF, as they perhaps should be, The Old Firm were playing in a North American-style, pan-European competition, only playing against clubs of similar size from across the continent and in a competition where the financial playing field is as level as it can be – then I could tolerate them putting-out teams almost free of Scottish players.

But, until this happens, and for as long as their principal area of playing is in the domestic Scottish League, then they ought to be putting-out sides in which the majority of the players are Scottish. The quicker the SFA cracks the whip and imposes Chick Young's “eight diddies rule”, whereby Scottish sides have to have eight Scots on the park at all times, the better for the game in the country which gave it form.

Buying-in and fielding, second and third rate non-Scots is not the way either of our two biggest clubs will ever get back to the top table of European football. And it is certainly not the way our other clubs will get away from being also-rans in the minor European competitions.

We need root and branch reform of Scottish football, but, I don't see the stumble bums along Hampden's sixth floor corridor ever admitting this, far less implementing the necessary changes, or even having the backbone to stand-up to the Big Two to make it happen.