If Only He Had Been One Of Us

NOBODY ever says: “The best of English,” it is always: “The best of British.” Sir Bobby Charlton, who has died, aged 86, was English – but, he was undoubtedly The Best of British. Indeed, for at least the last 30 years of the 20^th Century and the first 23 of the 21^st, apart from Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, nobody better exemplified the essence of “Britishness.”

One of the hardy annuals of Scottish Football legends is of the young Celtic player, in his first Old Firm game, sitting fuming at the break, upset because he, a Protestant, is being abused as a “Fenian Bastard.”

He is reassured by team mate Jimmy McGrory: “Ignore them – I get called that all the time,” only for the young team mate to come back with: “Aye OK, but, you are wan.”

Well, no Tartan Army foot soldier that I can think off ever called Sir Bobby: “An English Bastard,” we Jocks had far-more respect for the man – we would quite happily have adopted him as one of our own, because, the Tartan Army has always recognised Class, which Charlton had in spades.

One of the perennial English legends, one which has been repeated ad nauseum since his passing, is of ordinary English tourists in umpteen countries across the globe, running into an officious local policeman, demanding: “Papers,” then, when a UK passport is produced, the stern, officious countenance gave way to a smile and three words: “English – Bobby Charlton.”

That, as much as his phenomenal career on the football field, is a measure of the man's standing.

The basics of his life are well-known, he was born in Ashington, County Durham, to Robert, a local miner and his wife, Cissie, who was a Millburn – a revered name in Geordie football culture.

While elder brother Jack briefly followed his father down the pit, before finding his own football nirvana at Leeds United, Bobby was different. He passed his 11+ and went to a rugby-playing grammar school, before his mother intervened and got him transferred to another, football-playing one. This led to appearances for England schoolboys and he became the most-wanted young player in the land, with 18 clubs vying to sign him, before. After local scout Joe Armstrong charmed the redoubtable Cissie and he went to Manchester United, where Manager Matt Busby was assembling his legendary Busby Babes.

Here, Bobby came under the wing of legendary coach Jimmy Murphy, who immediately recognised he has a special talent on his hands. Some United players, such as Charlton's great friend Duncan Edwards, were in the first team aged 16 or 17, but, Charlton was a slow burner, not making his first team debut until well into his 19^th year. As was common then, he did his National Service, serving in the same Army unit as Edwards.

He was in the United team which won the League in 1957, but lost in that year's FA Cup Final, after goalkeeper Ray Wood was injured. This was in the days before substitutes. He also featured as United reached the European Cup semi-finals, losing to Real Madrid.

The “Busby Babes” were among the favourites to win the European Cup that season and they reached the semi-finals again, by beating Red Star Belgrade, in Yugoslavia. However, on the flight home, taking off after a stop-over in Munich, the aircraft crashed.

Twenty-three of the 44 passengers died – these included eight of Charlton's team mates. He himself had a miraculous escape, being catapulted, still in his seat, clear of the wreckage, where he was found by goalkeeper Harry Gregg. Gregg, who died in 2020 and Charlton, were the last survivors of the Busby Babes.

He was back in the United first team just over three weeks later, but, the accident cast a pall over his many remaining years. He perhaps suffered from “Survivor's Guilt” and for a time, he found solace in the bottle, before bouncing back and resuming his stellar career.

Less than 12 weeks on from Munich, Charlton won the first of an eventual 106 England caps, marking his debut, against Scotland at Hampden Park, with a fantastic volleyed goal, in a 4-0 England win. He went to the 1958 World Cup Finals with England, but, he remained an unused squad member as they failed to advance to the knock-out phase.

However, he would play a major role for his nation in a further three World Cups, in 1962, 1966 and 1970. That 1966 campaign remains his greatest international period, After a dull 0-0 draw in the opener, Charlton set England on the way to glory with the opening goal, against Mexico. He took them to the final with two goals against Portugal in the semi-final and if, in the final, he and Franz Beckenbauer marked each other out of the game, as England won 4-2, after extra time.

Wembley wasn't so-kind to him the following year, when Scotland beat the then World Champions, but his 1968 visit to the twin toweers was more-memorable, as he captained Manchester United to that longed-for European Cup win, beating Benfica to finally scratch an itch which had bothered him for over a decade.

In 1970, after a record 106 caps, he bowed out of the England team after they lost to West Germany in the World Cup, in Mexico. He continued to play and captain Manchester United until 1973, when, after a record number of appearances and goals, he retired.

There was a short and unsuccessful spell as Preston North End manager and a last hurrah with Waterford in Ireland, before he joined the growing band of former players who were talking heads on television.

He left us with a highlights video few could equal. The sight of Charlton breaking from midfield, bfore sending a long-range shot rocketing past a helplessly-flayling goalkeeper, it's a football vision for the ages.

His natural shyness perhaps inhibited hims media work, but, when he spoke, everyone listened, such was his presence. He later returned to United as a Director and Club Ambassador, while he collected the honours he was due: various Hall of Fame inductions, life-time achievement awards, the iconic statue of The Holy Trinity: George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton, erected outside Old Trafford. A This Is Your Life television programme, honorary degrees from local universities, a grandstand at Old Trafford named in his honour.

But, around the world, the name Bobby Charlton stood for all that was good about the Beautiful Game – that is perhaps his over-riding achievement, that he stood for so-much to so-many people, even those who had never seen him play.

His final years were blighted by Dementia and a family fall-out, later sorted out, before Jack pre-deceased him. Whether or not you believe in a Hereafter, it would be nice to think that, somewhere in the Elysian Fields, Bobby Charlton is today reunited with Duncan Edwards, Eddie Coleman, David Pegg and the other Busby Babes, whose legend he did so-much to keep alive.

He was one helluva player, it was a joy to watch him in action.

 

From Balls-Ups To Goldenballs

ARIS LIMASSOL v Rangers was a tough watch. I switched over at the end, to watch the All Blacks v Uruguay match in the Rugby World Cup. Thus, I missed the Aberdeen v HJK Helsinki match, in which the Dons needed a late equaliser to snatch a draw.

A quick check of the UEFA Association Co-efficients tells us, Scotland is the 10^th strongest of UEFA's 55 national associations; Cyprus are ranked 22^nd in the same table, while Finland are ranked 34^th.

I will be one of the first to admit, UEFA's Co-efficient rankings are flawed; the way the listings operate they tend to favour the big clubs, from the major associations – the clubs with a near season ticket into European competitions. However, it could be argued that Rangers are a club which benefits from this.

That said, the figures tell a story. Rangers are ranked 30^th, while Aris Limassol are ranked 286^th. Surprisingly for Scottish fans, while Aberdeen are ranked 177^th in Europe, their Finnish opponents are ranked 40 places higher, at 137^th.

Playing in Europe in midweek is, of course, a different ball game from playing in the Scottish League at the weekend. It can also be argued that several seasons of under-performance, both domestically and on the continental stage has seen the Dons fall further than they might properly deserve to be. But, given they were facing a side with a superior short-term European pedigree, perhaps any criticism Aberdeen might get for only drawing with a Finnish side, should be tempered somewhat.

However, what can we say about the Rangers performance? Other than to say the display was so bad, it stunk to high heaven and proved, yet again, some of the players recruited to Ibrox are not, and never will be: “Rangers Class.” There were occasional flashes of class from Rangers, but, too-often, these were offset by careless, unforced mistakes.

Whoever comes in as the long-term replacement for Michael Beale has a huge job on his hands, and, sorting things out will be an expensive process for the club.

Still on the subject of the Club Co-efficients, I note, Lazio are ranked 38^th in Europe, while Celtic come in in 53^rd position. So, that probably reinforces the claim – made by a Rangers' supporter on Facebook, that The Hoops narrow loss on Wednesday night can be added to the lengthy list of 'Celtic moral victories in Europe.' OUCH!

I HAD JUST written the above piece, when I received an interesting Facebook message from one of my Celtic-supporting friends. He asked for my thoughts on this:

“Here’s an idea for your next blog. In most industries, someone who proves to be incompetent is dismissed after due process. But not football managers. They are ‘mutually consented’ and paid compensation for the termination of their contract.

I realise that incompetence can be hard to prove, but Michael Beale would seem to fit that description, and Caixinho before him.”

My mate makes a serious point. The problem is, proving incompetence – or is it. In the case of Mr Beale, it might be easier than for some other managers. I refer to a statistic you often see brought up: KPIs (Known Performance Indicators).

For instance, Rangers are expected to finish first or second in the Scottish League every year, so, it might be said: the current situation whereby they are lying third in the table does not match the club's KPIs; they have also lost their last two games, to a team ranked 256 places below them in UEFA's Clubs Co-efficient table and to a team which went into the game (a home game for Rangers) eight places below them in the domestic league.

This is Rangers' eighth season back in the top-flight in Scotland, since the club was wound-up and re-born in the bottom division. In the seven completed seasons they have won: 58.7% - 61% - 68% - 77% - 89.5% - 78% and 80.7% of the available points. In that time, they have won one league title.

Their median points take in that time is 73%. This season, in the Scottish League, Rangers have collected 57% of the points available to them. That level of performance represents a fall of 22% from their median performance since returning to the top flight. It also represents a season-on-season fall of 30% and a 36% drop from their best performance in that period.

I appreciate, it might be difficult to go to the likes of an Employment Tribunal and prove that Mr Beale, having presided over that level of performance, was an incompetent manager. However, what cannot be denied is, under him, the team has not met the KPIs which the club has reason to expect.

Mind you, given some of the players they have allowed to be signed, who showed themselves to be Not Rangers' Class, maybe the various directors over this period should be disbarred from being company directors, since they also failed, badly.

FINALLY – I am currently enjoying the new Netflix series on David Beckham; it's brilliant stuff. I always felt, through all the media pish about “England's golden generation” and all that – the one player who came across as a genuine football man was “Goldenballs.”

I got the impression with some of them, playing for England didn't really matter, they weren't bothered. But, Becks cared, and it showed.

The series is a joy, Mr and Mrs Beckham come across well, while so do some of the team mates – Gary Neville and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. However, not coming out as well are the English football media and the England fans.

 

They Maybe Sacked The Wrong Guy

AM I surprised to see Michael Beale getting his jotters from Rangers? Not in the least; for me, Beale was like most of the current Ibrox squad – as my dear Auld Hun of a Faither used to say: “Not Rangers' Class.” Mind you, NRC is a judgement which could have been made on most of the players, coaching staff and High Heid Yins down Edmiston Drive, since Walter Smith first stepped down.

Let me make it clear, in advocating what follows here, I am not suggesting the club goes back to the days of fielding an all-Protestant XI, but, until those in power at the club turn their back on what I like to call Souness 101, buying-in cheap non-Scots, and revert to giving the best Scottish players a platform on which to perform, Rangers will continue to struggle.

Scotland always has produced young players who are as talented and driven as their contemporaries from anywhere else in the world. But, whereas once a fair number of Scots could be given the opportunity to strut their stuff in Europe, in the colours of Rangers, today, Scots in the club's first team are rarer than rocking horse shit.

For a century or more, Scotland never won an international in a game where there wasn't a Rangers player in the XI; today, you virtually never see a Rangers' player in the national side. Hardly surprising, since they struggle to get into the club side because of the policy of buying-in non-Scots.

Also, as I have pointed out before, in Scottish League games (although not so-much these days, with the diddy teams aping the Old Firm in buying-in cheap foreigners) Rangers (and Celtic) players used to get a weekly lesson in what it took to win tight games.

Every week, in their domestic games, they would face an XI which contained maybe three boys, local to the opposition club, plus five Rangers supporters, determined to show the Ibrox management, they should be signing him, plus three Celtic supporters, determined to beat them. Against those sorts of numbers, the players learned what it took to win games.

Today, for all their badge-kissing, I reckon most of the squad would far-rather be playing somewhere warmer – but, they don't have the necessary talent.

My own view on Mr Beale was, probably he's one of those coaches who is a natural Number Two and he was never cut out to be a Manager, far-less a Rangers Manager.

But, if I have doubts about him, they are nothing to my certainties about the guys upstairs – the current board, to me, lacks a single member who is remotely Rangers Class, and that is the club's problem.

And, of course, they are trying to placate and please a fan base who take entitlement to extremes.

MATCH OF THE DAY in Scotland on Saturday is a no-brainer. Scottish Junior Cup holders Cumnock Juniors will entertain their very-good friends from just along the A76, Auchinleck Talbot in a second round tie, at Townhead Park.

This is good news for my grandson and the other foot soldiers in U Division of Police Scotland, a quiet afternoon on overtime rates, keeping the natives apart as they exchange pleasantries. The added ingredient this season, not that this fixture needs one, is that Cumnock knocked the then holders, Talbot, out of the competition, on their way to winning it less than six months ago.

A lot has happened since. Cumnock has changed managers, while long-serving Talbot boss Tucker Sloan has let several Beechwood Park legends go as he rebuilds his squad.

These changes have given the West of Scotland Premier Division a strange look – with nine of the 30 regular season games played, Irvine Meadow prop-up the 16-club league, Glenafton Athletic, who have also changed managers – Mark “Mavis” Reilly replacing Ryan Stevenson – are second-bottom. Just above them, in 14^th spot, are Talbot, Troon are 13^th, with Cumnock in 12^th spot. Strange days indeed, given four of these five teams are usually to be found battling it out at the head of the tables.

But, to paraphrase a football cliché – form is transient, supporters' mutual dislike is permanent. The teams' current travails will not dampen the atmosphere at Townhead on Saturday.

IT SAYS a lot about modern Britain, that the betting industry is one of the few growth areas. You can now have a punt on just about anything, with in-game betting a particular growth area in sport.

Thus, betting on which top manager will be the next to be handed his jotters is a nationwide extension of those Death List betting forums you find in some pubs – whereby the members pay a set sum in each week, betting on which well-known personality from a list will be next to kick the bucket.

So, if you made a killing this week from backing Michael Beale to be jettisoned at Ibrox, where do you go next?

Midweek defeat in the Champions League has surely shortened the odds on Erik ten Hag being the next big-name boss to collect a hefty severance payment. Such is the turmoil at Old Trafford at the moment, the feeling is it's reverse gravity rather than an increasingly-shoogly nail which is keeping his manager's jacket hanging up.

Well, it gives the football writers something to do in speculating.

FIFA didn't half ratchet-up the pressure on the great brains on the sixth floor corridor at Hampden Park, when they decided to increase the size of the participating teams in the 2026 World Cup Finals to 48 teams.

Surely Scotland can qualify to be one of that many teams, although I would not bet on us being able to – after all, we have practically written the book on how not to qualify for the big show.

The logistics of hosting that many qualifiers means, it's now a multi-national event, with Canada, Mexico and USA tasking-on the job. However, in their efforts to take their remake of Never Mind The Quality, Feel The Width to extremes, Mr Infantino and his troops have decided, three countries isn't enough. They have just announced, the 2030 tournament will be played on THREE CONTINENTS.

Nominally, it will be played in Morocco, Portugal and Spain, one African and two European countries, albeit close together either side of the Straits of Gibraltar. However, with half a nod to the fact 2030 marks the centenary of the inaugural World Cup, it has been agreed, there will be games played in Argentina and Uruguay.

Should Scotland manage to qualify, you can bet, we'll be one of the countries asked to fly to South America to play one game, before flying back to Iberia or North Africa and still jet-lagged, going out early.

Don't expect any of the big guns: England, Germany or Italy for instance to be inconvenienced. And, should Argentina or Brazil be asked to play in South America, what's the betting, it will be their first game, and they will be given plenty of time to get over the jet lag before they have to play on this side of the Atlantic.