Get Real - Both England And Scotland Must Realise Where They Are In World Football

I HAVE been saying for years - Scotland is a small, far-off nation of which our English neighbours know nothing, and care even less. I am unashamedly and unapologeticly pro-independence. I have actually lived and worked in England, on a personal level they are lovely people, but, with the usual reservations about Civil Service and Political Minds, I firmly believe Scotland could survive and prosper as an independent nation.

One of the greatest variances between Scot and Englishman is in our attitude to the well-being of our international football team. Maybe it's the class system in England, I don't know, but, at the moment, when both nations are operating at a level some way below where the followers of both think they ought to be, there is such a difference in attitude to the respective midweek results?

We will not be going to Brazil next year - this we already know. England still harbour dreams of participating in the 2014 World Cup finals. Realistically, given the state of play in their qualifying group, I can see no reason why they will not be there. It will be tight in the group, but, with just two home ties to play and topping their group, England should qualify.

That, however, will not be good enough for their fans in the English media and their readers/listeners/viewers. England are being roundly castigated for only getting a draw - a turgid one at that - in Kiev in midweek. Don't the so-called "experts" realise, that was a bloody good result.

The days when England could simply turn-up in Europe and roll-over their hosts are long gone - they vanished somewhere between the two World Wars - the reality simply hasn't hit homeyet. Today, England are ranked 17th in the world and 11th in Europe, and I reckon, for all the pish we see about the English Premiership, that is about correct.

Our current rankings of 63rd in the world and 33rd in Europe, is, I feel, a false one. There are several teams above us in Europe, whom we should be beating - but, aren't being drawn against in qualifying groups, somehow, we always seem to end up in really tough groups. Similarly, in the FIFA world rankings, there are some countries ranked above us whom we should beat any day of the week - Uzebekistan, Burkino Faso, Iran, Honduras, Mali, Panama for instance.

We, England and Scotland, have singularly failed to address our diminished standing in the world and, until we do, we will continue to languish where we are. It is way past time we had a reality check, then did something about it.

We, at least, learned from Argentina 1978. There hasn't been as much: "Here's tae us, wha's like us" around Scottish football since then. England had bad days, both before and since 1978, but their attitude is still: "We are England, we invented this game don't you know, we are the masters". Aye right.

That said, we still have some remnants of HTUWLU in Scotland. I had to laugh at the weekend as I listened to the Saturday Night Radio Scotland football phone-in, to learn that: "We used to turn-over the Belgians regularly in the 1970s and 1980s. To hear a breathless account of a great Kenny Dalglish goal in Belgium - we lost that game, by the way, but, who's counting.

Our record against Belgium actually reads: p 17 : w 4 : d 3 : l 10. We have beaten the Belgians once in our last ten meetings with them, in 1987. This is the sixth time we have been in the same group as Belgium in either the World Cup or the European Championship qualifiers, they have out-qualified us every time. But, let's not allow facts to get in the way of our guid conceit o' oorsel's.

And, if we've got it bad - England has it, only ten times worse. I am no great fan of the FIFA rankings system. But, that said - I don't think our need for that is as great as it is for our southern neighbours.

Hope Springs Eternal In Scottish Football

JINGS, crivvens, help ma Boab - we only went and won!!

 

I was all-set to watch last night's game from behind the settee, through the gaps between the fingers I had covering my eyes, but, WGS's men did rather more than pleasantly surprise me. They were magnificent and deserved to win.

 

The manner of the victory was also pleasant; and will perhaps still the old call for Scotland to start producing bigger, more-athletic players, considering it was Ikechi Anya and Shaun Maloney, the two closest things we had to the stereotypical Scottish player - ok, I concede that Anya's skin pigment doesn't fit.

 

The two goal-scorers were wee, tricky ball players, you know that quintessential Scottish product which allegedly has no place in today's more-athletic, power game. Two superb finishes too.

 

I was particularly happy for Anya.The Castlemilk Kid did good. But, we have been here before. He is not the first lad to come from nowhere, make an instant impact in the Scotland team and not kick-on to greatness. Let's hope he can build on his superb start.

 

I saw one cyber-warrior this morning bemoaning our back luck, insisting that but for a crap linesman and that cheating, diving, over-rated Welsh tart Bale, we would have finished at least third in the group.

 

Maybes aye, maybes naw. Had we had the rub of the green we deserved in Cardiff, maybe Craig Levein would have survived. Can we honestly say he's have got as much out of the squad as WGS and Co have? I think not.

 

The trick now is to build on this, get consistency of selection and performance and have a real go at things when the European Championship qualifiers kick-off in a year's time. Let's hope we can use the next 12 months to get stronger and prepared for these.

 

I am not in favour of raising the number of teams in the Euro finals to 24 - there simply are not that number of quality teams in Europe; but, that said, a well-managed, committed Scotland MUST be in the top 24 Europe in any season.

 

With our heritage, we should be permanent members of at least the top 16 countries in Europe. Getting us back there and keeping us there wil not be easy, but, WGS can surely do it - IF the Hampden Blazers can remove their digits from their arses and give him the basic structure.

We Are Shite - But, Nobody Who Matters Has Noticed

DRIVING home on Saturday evening, following my spell at the lap-top screen, I was listening to the talking heads on BBC Radio Scotland's football phone-in. These included my old mucker Graham "Britney" Spiers.

 

Before the programme was taken-over by Billy Paranoid of Larkhall and Sean Putupon of Croy, I had reached home, but, I was not impressed by the level of debate - hardly surprising, since Keith "Wealth of the radar" Jackson was another of the "experts".

 

Quite how Jackson has reached the exalted status he enjoys, and how he has managed to remain there, amazes me. But, hey, how the Daily Ranger/Rhebel works has always been a mystery to me.

 

Any way, nobody was prepared to admit to the single point which has long held back Scottish football and continues to do so - the dire level of intellectual ability in the board rooms and corridors of power in Scottish football.

 

Football has long been the People's Game in Scotland. Football lifted the likes of Busby, Shankly and Stein - not to mention the likes of Gallacher, James and McMullan out of the mines; it took George Young and Ale Ferguson out of the shipyards. It gave not-so-gifted miners, engineers and other common men a lift after a week of toil, it inspired.

 

However, there has never been a pattern to how football is governed in Scotland. Like government of the people, it has always been all about the interests of those in power, rather than the common good.

 

Right now, for as long as the fans turn their ire on the managers, the directors who preside over the decline in Scottish football, get an easy ride. This is helped by an over-romanticised vision of what Scottish football once was.

 

We haven't been "a great footballing nation" in my life time, and I am one of the Baby Boomer generation of post-war new-borns. Sure, we've had our good teams, more often our bad. Our best World Cup performance remains ninth place in 1974, that's fact.

 

On Saturday night, Britney was asserting that: "Scotland used to beat Belgium regularly, back in the 70s and 80s."

 

Pish. Keith Jackson waxed lyrical about Kenny Dalglish's goal against Belgium in Brussels. Aye, we lost that one too. Just as Belgium have always qualified for a big tournament when drawn with Scotland in a qualifying group.

 

We were better than the Belgians in the late 1940s - since when, they have overtaken us, as have the Dutch, whom we once beat fairly regularly; the Norwegians - ditto, also the Danes and the USA.

 

The three failing football teams in Europe are us, the Austrians and the Hungarians - this is fact. Of course, these three nations have a common problem, richer neighbours.

 

But, if the will is there, and the people with vision are in place at Hampden and at the clubs, we can rise again. But, that's the problem - they are not and, until we get rid of the self-servers and the half-wits - we really are doomed, doomed ah tell ye.

 

And, for as long as the likes of Britney and off the radar wealth ignore the problem, recovery will not happen.

Must Do Better - But, Can We?

WHAT can I say about our loss to Belgium? I suppose we've had our frites. The better team won, at a canter and without playing as well as we feared they might - but, we're shite and we know we are.

 

When you see players in a Scotland shirt who cannot immediately control a ball coming to them, albeit one which is wet, you wonder what is happening at our clubs. Our lack of technical ability was (again) cruelly exposed by foreign visitors, yet, the High Heid yins in our game seem unable, nay, unwilling, to address a basic problem which has been evident in Scottish club and international teams for decades.

 

Until we get away from playing team games at a young age and really get down to developing individual skills - we will struggle at the top end. Some of us have been saying this for years, but, clearly our clubs are not listening.

 

I admire the way Strachan is allowing the Martin/Hanley central defensive pairing to grow together, but, we have defensive problems. Alan Hutton still cannot defend - he has 34 caps, the same number as Jim Baxter. OK, Baxter wasn't a defender, but, he was a better tackler than Hutton.

 

Steve Whittaker is playing left back for Scotland, right back for his club. Fair enough, Sammy Cox won all of his 25 caps at left back, a position he rarely filled for Rangers, but, we really need to find a settled left back - who plays there regularly.

 

Not convinced about Charlie Mulgrew as midfield anchor-man, but, who else is there? And Charlie is one of those players who, after a sticky start, has grown into the Scotland strip.

 

Finally, I know we're limited - this doesn't take away from criticism above, but, Scotland MUST play with two men up front. Put Griffiths and Rhodes together and, as with the two at the back, let them develop. I somehow don't see Steven Fletcher ever being anything than an occasional "luxury" selection, a guy we bring-in for the very occasional game against a diddier team than us.

 

So, now it is on to Macedonia - an forward tho ah canna see, ah guess and fear.

Lee McCulloch - Rangers Legend

MY principle watering hole in Ayr is James McSherry's wonderful Wee Windaes, the best pub in the town and the one, I am sure - were he alive today, in which Robert Burns would have supped. However, wonderful though the Wee Windaes steak pie is, when I seek slightly more-refined fare, I frequent another Ayr hotel, which is run by a former Ayr and Glasgow stand-off half and where the craic is of the oval rather than the round ball game.

 

Last week-end, mine host at the hotel told me: the previous evening a prominent Ayr business-man, who happens to travel to Ibrox for his sporting fix, had remarked that Lee McCulloch has now earned the right to be a Rangers' Legend - joining the ranks of such as Morton, Young, Waddell, Caldow, Greig, Jardine, Henderson, Wilson, Cooper, Laudrup and, of course, Jim Baxter.

 

Mine host conceded that, undoubtedly Lee Mac is Greig's equal as a footballer and effort-demanding captain, but, could not see the current Rangers skipper as being fit to lace the boots of some of the above. I have to agree with his assessment, however, it is equally true that, from his efforts as skipper and from his current core place within the re-birth of Rangers, McCulloch has indeed, surely earned Legend status.

 

It is indeed a funny old game.

 

 

 

SCOTLAND is, most-certainly, capable of getting at least a draw from tonight's Hampden meeting with the Belgians. After all, for all their good press and undoubted ability - the Belgians have, as yet, won nothing. One good European Championship campaign some 30-years ago, doth not a world power make.

 

The Tartan Army veterans know, Scotland might scrape a home draw against the Germans, or the Italians, they might get lucky if they catch-out the Spanish on a bad night for them, however, Belgium are not yet at that stage. So, let's not settle for a draw tonight - we can have a go at them; you never know, it might pay off.

 

 

 

I SEE Dundee United have spat the dummy with television, in the wake of Gavin Gunning's ban for his wee kick at the Celtic player. On one viewing, in real time, I realised Gunning had a case to answer, he's been found guilty, move on. I still say, the Celtic player's charge on him was also worth, at least a yellow card and the fact he got off Scot free , while Gunning has been done, shows that justice was maybe not fully-served.

 

But, that is no reason for United to go into a major sulk. In a fair world, the SFA and the SPFL would have an "official" camera recording each game, from the same position in each ground and this camera, and this camera alone, could be used in citing issues such as that involving Gunning.

 

That way, every club is treated fairly, there will be no "trial by television" lottery such as that which United are moaning about.

 

The way TV runs the game these days simply proves how wise Sir Robert Kelly was all those years ago when he warned about the dangers of too-close co-operation between football and the box in the corner.

 

Television could be a great advertising tool for football - these days, it seems, football is a tool of television.

Celtic Up - Rangers Down: Time We Balanced The See-Saw

IT SEEMS to me that, with the Lawless man's promotion to the full SFA Board, Celtic's take-over of Scottish football is nearly complete. Mind you, the Celtic Family will still be playing the victim card and claiming they are being conspired against, even when Scotland's new strip is unveiled as green and white hoops!!

Be careful, however, once they sort out all the in-fighting and get back to the top-flight - which given the fact the club is in thrall to gangsters and spivs these days isn't certain - expect Rangers to seek and gain revenge, which will not, in the long-term, help Scottish football.

The way Celtic are pandering to the Green Brigade and Rangers are in thrall to Ra Peepul these days, is not a good thing. How I long for a new Third Force to rise and beat the pair of them.

NO COMPLAINTS from this quarter on Gavin Gunning of Dundee United getting a citing letter from "Cousin Vinnie" after his coming together with Virgil Van Dijk. I think he definitely has a case to answer.

However, I reckon the Celtic player should have had a wee missive from Cousin Vinnie as well. I have long felt the football authorities are too-quick to cite or penalise the retaliator, while allowing the perpertrator of the nasty stuff to escape without possible punishment.

It seemed to me, and I have only seen the incident in real time, that both players should be up before the beaks.

I LIKE the look of Scotland squad new boy Ikechi Anya - what aninspiring story his is: son of a Nigerian father and a Romanian mother, brought-up in Chateau Du Lait and now on the verge of his first cap.

Gaun yersel son, and, awra best.

WHAT a great boost for Hamilton Accies, with their share of the sell-on fee of £13 million which Wigan picked up at the close of the transfer window by selling James McCarthy to Everton.

James came through a very entertaining young Accies team, which was a joy to watch. Sadly, the club lost their bottle and have gone away from a youth development programme which, at one time, made them a model for the rest of Scottish football.

Maybe, with the McCarthy money, they can reinstate that programme - we certainly need to see our clubs bringing through more young Scots, if we are ever to get back to where we think we belong internationally.

 

Time To Re-invent Ourselves

BACK in the early 1960s my elder brother, now sadly gone, and I both found ourselves studying in Glasgow. He was up there in the elevated surroundings of Gilmourhill, en route to his BSc in electrical engineering, I was across the city in a less-celebrated seat of learning, grappling with the complexities of Pitman's shorthand and qwerty keyboards.

 

But, this Saturday, enthused by a massive 48pt Daily Express headline - King Football Is Back

we took ourselves off to Cathkin to watch Third Lanark do battle with Rangers. Some 50,000 others had the same idea, probably, like us, they had missed the action during the long summer close-season and were desperate for the real thing.

 

This doesn't happen in these days of 24/7 football on television, so, there isn't the same call for a big start to the new season. Instead, football sort of, almost apologetically, creeps back into our lives after what seems like an indecently short break. Now, we have European games being played during the Glasgow Fair and three different opening days - one for the Ramsden's Cup, another for the League Cup and a third for the League. Wrong, wrong, wrong - but, here again, can we expect the Hampden Blazers to ever admit they got something wrong?

 

Let's get back to having one big start day; let's ignore the over-blinged neighbours in the English Premiership. If we have to accept that Scotland is now down among the diddy countries in Europe, condemned to play summer football just to get into Europe - then let's embrace summer football.

 

Rugby League re-invented itself as a summer game, to escape the all-encompasing cloak of 24/7 Premiership football on TV. Why shouldn't the Scottish football authorities do likewise and re-align the season to get away from the English game and probably, in the process, get a better TV deal.

 

Who knows, playing on decent pitches, in good weather, might improve our players and bring back the fans in numbers. Doing nothing isn't an option, even if it is the favoured one of the Blazers.

 

THIS week sees the centenary of Wullie Shankly's birth. He will always be Wullie rather than Bill to we fundamentalists from East Ayrshire.

 

This occasion was marked by a wee ceremony at what remains of Glenbuck, in particular the Shankly Memorial Stone, a roadside shrine to the great man. There is talk of a Shankly Memorial Scheme to have Glenbuck re-born: won't happen - one of the reasons so many sons of Glenbuck did so well out of football was, they grafted to make bloody sure they didn't have to go back there other than to visit.

 

Glenbuck is gone, past, the best that can be hoped for is that the damage done to the village by opencasting can be properly undone and the site returned to fields - with a monument to Shankly as a centrepiece. But, rebuild Glenbuck, no. Site a Shankly Memorial Football Academy there - never, won't happen, not least because the SFA and the clubs will never allow it.

 

It's a romantic notion, but, totally unworkable.

 

IT'S Scotland v Belgium, then Macedonia this week. Am I bothered? Frankly no. I got worked-up for the England game, we blew it, losing two such crap set piece goals; I'm temporarily - out.