IN THE BYGONE Days of Yore, so beloved of the Ibrox faithful, if you worked in Journalism at the creative end, 'Fleet Street' was your goal. If you had the ability and drive to get there, the world was your lobster. Back then, many of the top operators along the Street of Shame were displaced Scots, bringing the benefits of the exceptional Scottish education system to bear in educating and informing the natives and the world.
In the “Comic” section of the newspapers, the sports pages at the back, Scottish voices there were, but, the English writers, more-so when, as regularly happened for the first century of organised Football, Scotland were beating England, there arose the cult of the English getting their excuses in early.
Football, like most of the world, has changed, but, last after night's “Battle of Britain” between Rangers and Tottenham Hotspur showed one eternal fact, when the English team fails to win such an encounter – the English Press always has their excuses ready.
In reality, a meeting of the fifth-best team from a city state of 9 million people, currently sitting eleventh in a league with a value of £8 billion and the second-best team in a national league with a value of just over £300 million should only end one way.
Restrict your comparison to the two clubs involved and the difference is just as stark: Tottenham is valued at £2.6 billion, Rangers at £150 million. The result ought to be a comfortable win for the English side.
But, football is played on a pitch, not a balance sheet and, on the night, Rangtrs were the better side, who really ought to have won. However, as this blog has been pointing-out for ages, this is not a good Rangers squad. There are players wearing the famous jersey who are not Rangers class.
And, for all their huge transfer fees and the mega salaries they pick-up as players in the English Premiership, there were players on-show on Thursday night who are simply not Tottenham Class. There weren't Greaves, Blanchflower, Mackay, White, Hoddle, Ardiles or Bale-like figures in white on that pitch.
Those who were there, escaped with a draw and should be grateful; the best performance from a Spurs man on the night came from Glenn Hoddle, who, alongside the equally-excellent Ally McCoist, delivered a master-class in the art of the television colour commentator – they, alongside match caller Darren Fletcher, added to the entertainment value of the night.
The entire TNT team did well, a word too for Peter Crouch and Alan Hutton on the less-glamarous pitch-side gig.
I have thought this season, Rangers have played a lot better in Europe, where there is less expectation on them; they do not seem to be as tense as in domestic games, where there is pressure to keep winning and keep pressurising the other lot. But, they have set their benchmark this week, and they've got less than 72 hours in which to recover and redirect their focus on beating that other lot in the Premier Sports League Cup Final, at Hampden, on Sunday afternoon.
It's a big ask. However, while Celtic has 48 more hours of recovery time, on the evidence of the two European games this week, maybe Rangers are in a slightly-better place going into Sunday.
Which side settles first could prove crucial, but, it is already building-up to be yet another Old Firm Classic.
However, to return to Thursday Night. Last time these clubs crossed swords in Europe, back 60 years and 1 day ago, the football landscape was a lot different:
All 22 players on the pitch were British
Rangers fielded an all-Scottish line-up
Tottenham fielded: five Englishmen, three Scots, two Welshmen and one Northern Irishman
On Thursday night, in a “Battle of Britain”, British players were in the minority, but it was still an old-fashioned “British” cup tie, more blood and thunder than guile and silky passing – and all the more-enjoyable for that. It was also, it has to be said, very-well managed by a referee and his team who had a great feel for the game on the night – the actions of the third team on the park is often overlooked in a general review of a match and Referee Sandro Scharรคr and his Swiss team on Thursday were excellent.
Just one thing, and it's a pet hate of mine about modern football. I bet there were more back passes in one half on Thursday night than in the two legged tie back in 1962. It does my head in to see a team, some 30 yards from the opposition goal, suddenly turn round and play the ball back to their own goalkeeper in an attempt to draw-out the opposition and create space.
If it was up to me, Football would join Basketball and insist, once you cross half-way with the ball, you cannot play it back into your own half. Such a law change would encourage individual skill, beating an opponent, and attacking play. But, I don't expect FIBA – the law-making body of FIFA, to advocate this change anytime soon.
If you want to know how well Rangers did on Thursday, by the way, reflect on this – The Online Guradian is not allowing btl comments on their report, always a sign of a bad night at the office for an English side against one of the Celtic Cousins.
IN CASE you thought I forgot, there was another Scottish club in European action on Thursday, with Hearts losing in Copenhagen in the Conference League.
This was a hard watch, I never at any time thought Hearts had a chance of winning. That said, the penalty they lost to was the sort of award I thought we only ever saw given to the home team at Ibrox or Celtic Park in a domestic Scottish game – a “genuine mistake” that was never a penalty in the history of football.
OK I have been hard on this Rangers squad this season, but, having watched Hearts a few times in Europe this season, I am convinced, pro-rata, theyt have wasted more money on badge-kissing third-rate imports than even Rangers.
The quicker we impose an “Eight Diddies Rule” and have Scottish footballers playing for Scottish clubs, the better for the game up here.
No comments:
Post a Comment