I STILL get the (Glasgow) Herald's morning bulletin into my inbox, but I haven't bought a hard copy of this once-great paper in years. I recall, a few years back now, telephoning the Herald Sports Desk, and getting the late Hugh McKinlay. Now, in the Herald's order of precedence of brilliant journalists, Hughie, as he would tell you himself, wasn't in the front line alongside the likes of Dan Archer or Doug Gillon, but Hughie was a brilliant sub-editor, who could polish even their glittering prose, while he could go out into the front line of match reporting and deliver the goods. He was the professional's professional.
When I asked him how things were at the top of Albion Street, back then, (this was right at the start of the bean counters down-sizing the paper) he told me: There are still, just, enough of us in here who still care, but, it's getting harder and I am counting the days until I can go.”
Shortly afterwards, Hughie did indeed go, sadly, he didn't get to enjoy a long retirement, before he was taken, too-early.
I doubt if I could have that conversation today, there are people running desks and getting by-lines in the Herald who would never have got through the doors twenty or even ten years ago.
For example, take one of today's featured pieces, by Graeme McGarry, who asks what is the point of the Scotland Under-21 team under Scot Gemmill. On the face of it, a fair question. Scotland will not be going to the 2025 European Under-21 Championships, a result which young Master McGarry thinks has got Gemmill's trackie jaiket on a shoogly nail.
Here Son, have a reality check from an old hack who has endured far-more “Disasters for Scotland” than you. Scotland failing to qualify for the finals of this competition is nothing new – we haven't managed it this century. Our last visit to the finals of this competition was when it was held in Spain in 1996.
Our record in this competition since then is:
Played 128 – won 47 – drawn 30 – lost 51 – wins per-centage 36.7%
In the qualifying competition which has just finished, we finished third in our group, behind Spain (FIFA ranking 3) and Belgium (FIFA ranking 6). Lest we forget, Scotland is currently ranked 52 by FIFA. Scotland won 50% of their games in their 2025 qualifying group, so, rather than thinking of sacking Gemill, we ought to be praising him for a better than usual campaign.
But what Master McGarry and the great brains of the Scottish Football Writers Association will not tell their readers is: it matters not a jot who is managing our Under-21 team,; you could invest in a time machine, bring back peak Alex Ferguson and give him the manager's gig and we would still fail to qualify – because Gemmill is having to work in a system which is broken and against developing young Scottish talent.
Scot Gemmill is having to largely pick from players who are not playing for really big clubs, and, if they are, they are only getting occasional minutes on the park, because the clubs' first teams are packed by inferior non-Scottish imports.
It is easier to buy a ready-made journeyman from a nation which still believes in youth development, than for the SFA to enforce a genuine youth development programme in Scotland, and until that changes, out Under-21 team will continue to fail to qualify for the big tournaments.
Them are facts – face them.
WE ALL KNOW, managing the England football team is The Impossible Job, so good luck to Thomas Tuchel, the latest schmuck to be tasked with meeting English expectations via the reality of most of the available players coming from a league which is only English in where it is based.
Mind you, I reckon, these days, managing Scotland is fast approaching English levels of impossibility, we do love to make things difficult4 for the manager in whom we trust, or do not trust as the case may be.
I was disgusted by some of the immediate comments on social media from some Rangers supporters, continuing their insidious campaign of hatred against Stevie Clarke. It is a sad condemnation of Scotland and Scottish Football that the national manager should be getting abuse from a section of the football public, probably because, for them, to use a Scottish expression: “He kicks wi the wrang fit.”
That this criticism should come from followers of a club which has very-fre Scots in its first team squad, and whose management would far-rather they were a small fish in the larger and financially deeper English Premiership pond – well, to me, they are onloy embarrassing themselves by their stupidity.
SPEAKING of people embarrassing themselves, Cristiano Ronaldo didn't do himself any favours when he spat the dummy and threw his rattle out of the pram at the end of Tuesday night's Nations Cup match at Hampden.
Sure, it must be annoying when you, who sees yourself as The G.O.A.T. miss the only two half-decent chances which come your way in a game, chances you would have buried with aplomb even five years ago; then to see your expensively-rated team unable to beat Scotland, a nation ranked 44 places below you in the Coca-Cola/FIFA World Rankings – well, I think that gives you some right to throw a wobbler.
It is common knowledge that the hardest decision a sportsman has to make is when to call it quits. To be honest, the few who have managed to get it right are hugely out-numbered by the thousands who got it wrong, who soldiered-on too-long and ended up being dumped out of a game they loved when someone, usually of inferior ability decided: “Nah! He's over the hill and it's time to put him out to pasture.”
As yet, Ronaldo has not met anyone with the strength of character to pull the plug on his career, but, on the evidence of Tuesday night, he is swirling round the stank-hole and it is perhaps time for somebody to grab the bull by the horns and save him from himself.
EMBARRASSMENT is contageous; consider the case of the reports that Manchester United has cancelled Sir Alex Ferguson's contract as Club Ambassador – a move which has brought even more abuse down on the heads of the new High Heid Yins at the club.
Club Ambassadors are a fairly recent arrival in the world of football. Time was when the Club Chairman was its Ambassador. The Manager was perhaps the public face, but when it came to the politics of the game the man seated at the top of the board room table was the Main Man.
United were perhaps fortunate in having, over many years, top shelf, football royalty in the ambassador's role. Once he stepped down as Manager, Sir Matt Busby practically invented the position, before handing it over to Sir Bobby Charlton. After Bobby's death, the role passed to Sir Alex.
The Alex Ferguson of his days as a manager, well for that Alex Ferguson, diplomacy and an ambassadorial role was a definite no-way; however, he has embraced the role of Elder Statesman and while his presence around the club was far from ideal for those attempting to fill his shoes in the technical area, he added dignitas and lustre in the directors' box.
But, this came at a price and perhaps his reported £2 million per year plus employment package is now too-much for a mid-table Premiership club. I dare say, however, he will continue to sit in his free seat at Old Trafford on match days. But, in dropping him, the new United management has given themselves a face as red as the club's shirts.
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