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.