2024 is not currently a good year for The Establishment across the Western world, but, mainly in the sporting sphere.
Let's look across the Atlantic, where aside from the Democratic Party's candidate being neck-and-neck in the Presedential race with a Republican candidate, backed by billionaires and, in West of Scotland terms: “A Bawbag”, we have “The Evil Empire” aka New York Yankees, 0-3 down in the best of seven games “World Series”, while “America's Team – The Dallas Cowboys are a by-word for the lunatics running the asylum.
Over here, we have the worst Rangers team in a century falling-off even the pedestrian pace of the Scottish Premiership, Auchinleck Talbot crashing out of the Scottish Junior Cup to a team from the North Region and Hawick struggling in mid-table in Scottish Rugby's Arnold Clark Premiership.
But worse, in a move so-important, it was the second item in the BBC's Lunchtime News:
Manchester United have sacked Erik ten Hag
This was hardly a surprise, for months past now, it has been a case of WHEN rather than IF United parted ways with their Dutch coach. The axe finally fell on Monday morning, less than 24 hours after they had lost in London to West Ham United.
It is difficult to argue with the good sense of sacking ten Hag. United are 13 places and 12 points behind “The Noisy Neighbours” in the English Premiership standings. United being 14th in the table is unacceptable to the United heirarchy, their legions of supporters and their media cheer-leaders.
I watched the highlights of his final game in-charge, against “The Hammers”, and on the evidence of that game, I have a degree of sympathy for ten Hag. In his post-game interview, he bemoaned his lack of luck, which was only too evident in the match. United ought to have been out of sight by half-time, but they missed a host of good chances and were finally seen off by a VAR-awarded penalty, the sort of duff decision which will get football stopped.
Mind you, when it comes to luck in sport – I am firmly in the Gary Player camp; he it was who memorably said: “The more I practice, the luckier I get.”
It is quite clear – if ten Hag had not already “lost the dressing room”, he has lost one or two of his supposed main players.
I think Marcus Radford was only mentioned once in the highlights package, before he was withdrawn after a highly-anonymous 50-odd minutes. And the England internationalist is not the only member of the squad who has consistently under-performed during the ten Hag tenure.
IF and given how big clubs are managed these days, ten Hag had full control of recruitment, then he had to go, since he has bought badly, spending some £600 million to make the team worse. But, received wisdom is that at institutions like United, the recruitment is done by “Sporting Directors” or “Directors of Football” - maybe Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire who is running things at the club, should be considering a bigger clear-out.
The sacking and the speculation over who is next to pick-up what is becoming a seriously-poisoned chalice will, however, keep the English media rat pack excited for a few weeks; after all, daft “Who's next?” speculation is bread and butter to the football media.
This morning, a new clip came up on my Facebook page. It is of Roy Keane and Gary Neville, from 2019, when Jose Mourinho had just been replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjar. Keane, as ever, didn't miss the man and hit the wall, as he insisted: “The same players as threw Jose under the bus will do the same to sOle, leopards don't change their spots.” Neville, for once, agreed with Keane. Five years on, nothing seems to have changed, so, maybe it's not a new manager United need, as much as a big game hunter; or maybe to clear-out the dressing room, they should invite Trigger to come up from Peckham for the day, and to bring his broom.
MEANWHILE – up here Rangers continue to stumble along, so far behind the other big Glasgow side as to be practically out of sight. OK, they beat St Mirren at the weekend, but, their big test comes tomorrow night, at Pittodrie. This is a “Must Win” game for the club, and, I hear in readiness, Roger Hannah, the Honest Man who runs the Scottish Sun's sports desk has already ordered-up the cracked Rangers crest graphic for Thursday's edition.
There is currently such a stench of under-performance around Rangers, their home game with St Mirren was only third on Sunday's Scottish Premiership bill, getting minimal TV highlights coverage. When even the Rostrum Camera Loyal at Pacific Quay rank Rangers that low, well, it's obvious they've got huge problems.
The Bears continue to turn up in numbers, but, I wonder what effect defeat in Aberdeen tomorrow night might have on attendances going forward.
SUNDAY'S big game, at least as far as Sky TV was concerned, was the High Noon shoot-out Edinburgh Derby. My disdain for the possession football of the English Premiership has long been expressed on these pages – I find it ever-so boring.
So, perhaps I ought to have been happier watching this game, which was further proof that what fitba needs to be entertaining is that both sides make plenty of mistakes. But, there are error-ridden games, and there was this match, which was dire in the extreme.
If new Hearts boss Neil Critchley is the excellent coach of young players he is cracked-up to be, then perhaps, over the season we will see imporvement in the younger Hearts' players and less reliance of hired mercenaries, which should augur well for the Gorgie club. However, I fear for the future of Hibs; the joke used to be that the Unknown Six at the back – who included some fine footballers – were not as good as the Famous Five up front. The current lot, to me, are pretty much the Anonymous XI.
I say again, it is long past time the SFA initiated Chick Young's “Eight Diddies Rule”, we got back to Scottish clubs fielding largely Scottish teams and we sent the foreign wage stealers back from whence they came. Otherwise, Private James Frazer will have been right about Scottish football.
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