WHAT IS IT with us Scots? Not a lot of Kilmarnock fans were ecstatic when Stevie Clarke was named as Manager, but, he won them over with their best league finish since the glory days of Willie Waddell, more than half a century before.
Several divisions of the Tartan Army had their doubts about him getting the Scotland job, but, you've got to admit, it's been a glorious ride, as ever with Scotland, at times a roller coaster one. Now however, in the wake of losing to a limited but well-organised Northern Ireland team, questions are being asked about the Gaffer's fitness to take us to Germany in the summer.
'Twas ever thus with Scotland and Scotland managers. A good manager can make a difference, that's true – apart from Willie Wallace, every Lisbon Lion was already at an under-performing Celtic when Jock Stein succeeded Jimmy McGrory, to end a long trophy-less run.
Yes, Stein made a difference, but, the talent was already there and it is a fact of life, just as: “you win nothing with kids” - if the talent isn't there in the first place, the trophies will not follow.
In Scotland terms, Ian McColl and Willie Ormond are not looked on by those intellectual footballing giants of The Scottish Football Writers Association as being among the great Scotland managers, but, they were fortunate in having several genuinely World-Class players to pick from, and their results demonstrated this.
Craig Gordon apart, there isn't a current Scotland squad member who will get near any All-Time Scotland XI, so, to have got the results he has, with the talent at his disposal, I reckon Stevie has shown himself to be a very-good manager.
I watched Brazil beat England 1-0 the other night, and my take on the game was, had the Brazilians had a Pele or a Ronaldo at the sharp end of the park, England would have been seriously embarrassed.
Watching Scotland on Tuesday night, it was a case of longing for a Law, Dalglish, Gilzean or McCoist – jings, even a Kris Boyd, and we would have won easily. One small censure I would aim at Stevie Clarke, and this comes back to the Scottish Football Psyche – Scotland doesn't do one man up front – get it sorted.
Also, as I have been demonstrating for years via my writing, Scotland doesn't do friendlies either. For some unfathomable reason, it must have something to do with that Scottish Psyche, our record in games that count, has always been better than our results in “meaningless friendlies”. I think there might be something to be said for reverting to the old SFA practive of not awarding caps unless the game is a competitive one – in a recognised tournament.
Watching last night's game, I felt deflated, that's because I don't like watching Scotland lose, but, as we all know, with Scotland: “it's the hope that kills”. To have nearly 80% of the possession and still lose 0-1 cannot be excused away as anything other than a bad night at the office.
But, on the basis of: “bad dress rehearsal – great first night” I still harbour hopes of it all coming good in Germany. After all, if you look at our past record, we have been rather good at playing like world-beaters in the season or so before a big tournament, before imploding totally when it starts for real. Maybe, this time, we are getting the “Disaster For Scotland” headlines out of the way before things get serious.
Just remember, 'IF' is not, never has been and never could be a Scottish poem.
THE SFA has come in for a lot of criticism this season, over the way we do VAR in Scotland. Narry a week goes bye, but there isn't a strair-heid rammy womewhere over the decisions, or non-decisions, of the man in the TV truck.
I have long held that Rugby Union, with its use of the Television Match Official – their equivalent of VAR, does the job better, and perhaps football might benefit from looking at the handling game;s protocols.
But, at the weekend there were a couple of incidents which perhaps gave the poor, hard-done-to VAR officials a wee break, when Rugby's TMO's got it wrong.
The first outrageous boob came in Cape Town, when Scottish TMO Colin Brett missed a very-obvious (so obvious TV showed it twice in slow-motion replays) foul, when an Ulster forward illegally punched the ball out of a ruck to allow a team mate to pick-up and score, and the try stood.
The second was in the Harlequins v Saracens game when 'Quins' South African skipper Stephan Leweise delivered a late and high “cheap shot” on the grounded Owen Farrell. Initially, the reason for no action being taken over the Leweise foul (which was at the very least a yellow card and more-likely worthy of a red) was that the referee was playing advantage and Saracens scored.
Then it was suggested that TMO Stuart Terheege had seen the incident but decided to take no action because TV pundit Austin Healy had seen it first and called-up a replay to highlight the hit – and he (Terheege) didn't want to be accused of allowing TV to referee the game. I don't know what's worse, the lame excuse, or the fact Leweise got away with what was probably a red card earning foul.
See VAR isn't so bad. Like all such innovations, it's only as good as the humans making the decisions.
FINALLY – High on my list of books I'd like to have written but couldn't be arsed, is an anthology of Rangers players over the years who met my late Hun of a Faither's dismissive opinion: “NRC – Not Rangers Class”. High on my list of names for inclusion would be that of Joey Barton.
Whenever I see Barton mentioned, I immediately think of that classic Eric Morecambe line: “This boy is a fool”. He certainly reinforced that opinion this week with his latest “look at me – I matter” media snapshot – his unfair criticism of Partick Thistle's you goalkeeper Ava Easdon.
Joey has rightly been heavily criticised for his remarks, yes, they do amount to verbal bullying, but, if Joey had a working brain cell, he might have held his tongue. Let's just say, one of the very last guys I would upset would be Ava's dad Lex Easdon. - a former World Kickboxing Champion.
There are a lot of hard men in Paisley, there are a lot of bams as well, but, not even the bamiest Buddie Bam would dream of upsetting Lex. Joey Barton, of course, is a whole different level of bamery.
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