Even The Ayrshire Faithful Are Starting To Lose Faith in Rangers

DOWN here, in God's Orange County, NOT being a Rangers' supporter is grounds for being dubbed: "The Only Gay In The Village". For instance, when I say "The Sash" was my school song - I am not completely kidding.

 

The on-going stooshies in the script of Edmiston Drive, that long-running football "soap", which has, these past two and a bit years, been far-more entertaining than River City, continues to exercise minds down here.

 

Just this week, I found one of my friends, a retired polis, almost in tears as he considered the awful truth - the current tribute act could well go the way of real Rangers (1872-2012). This prospect is, to him and many others around here, very real.

 

At least, it helps keep our tortured Scottish minds off our nation's absence from the World Cup.

 

 

 

NOT that all is sweetness and light in the East End of Glasgow. On paper, their new manager seems like the same sort of Scandinavian, left-field recruit as The Magnificent Seven proved to be back then. There is a lot to be enthusiastic and excited about in his CV.

 

However, managing Celtic is not quite like managing a provincial Norwegian team - not lerast when it comes to meeting the expectations of the fan base. Still, Peter Lawwell hasn't made too-many mistakes thus far, so, we wish Ronald well.

 

More-worrying, perhaps, was that the Celtic big bosses felt it necessary to recruit the Blessed Bunnet to try to engourage the natives into buying season tickets.

 

 

 

IT WILL be interesting to see who gets the Easter Road gig. The Championship is already shaping-up to be THE division in Scotland in the new season, and, IF, after so-many recent bad appointments, Hibs get it right, they will, at the very least, be looking at a promotion play-off place.

 

Real Stars Don't Join Tribute Acts

THE thing about tribute acts is, they fill a need. The real Rangers probably died when Sir David Murray and Graeme Souness decided to sign Mo Johnston - the first openly acknowledged Roman Catholic to play for the club.

That SHOULD have drawn a line under the old archly-Protestant Rangers Ra Peepul. Triumphalist, underlining the "right" of the skilled pro-Unionist Presbyterian Scot to rule the roost up here, at least in football.


Post-Mo, things started to change. Of course, some die-hards objected and are still objecting, to what they saw as the death of one of their club's "traditions" being under-mined. Yes, of course, there have been changes - for instance some old Rangers men probably burled in their graves when Lorenzo Amoruse, an Italian Roman Catholic was appointed Rangers manager. But, today, there is still a hard core of "traditionalists" who would far rather watch a Rangers team of 11 Protestant Scotsmen than the current multi-national team. Others might not be happy with Roman Catholics, or Muslims, wearing the famous blue strip, but, as long as Rangers keep winning, they will put up with things.


On the opposite side, there are Celtic supporters who view the signing of Mo-Jo as pandering to a "traitor", and who see the all-embracing Rangers of today as window dressing. They still hate Rangers, as Rangers supporters hate Celtic, but, they would maybe hate them more if they were still the Rangers of old.


Other Celtic supporters take every opportunity to rubbish the continued use of the Rangers name. "Your team's deid", they tell the continuing Peepul.


That may be correct, however, if it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks - the chances are, it's a duck. By that yard stick, the "Rangers" which will play in the SPFL Championship next season can be regarded as Rangers-continuing. Certainly, they are keeping the Rangers brand alive.


I tend to treat this Rangers as a tribute act. They dress the same, they play in the same stadium, but, I don't think they had the standards and ethos of the pre-SDM Rangers, good and bad though these standards might have been.


However, one thing you never see with a tribute act is, one of the originals still playing. While there may be litigation and arguments along the way, were Sir Paul McCartney and/or Ringo Starr to go back on the road as "The Beatles", nobody would see the group as anything but The Beatles, even though there is no way John Lennon or George Harrison could be up there. In pop music, unless two memebers of the originals are fronting competing groups, under the same name, the group with the foremost original member still strutting his stuff is seen as the real thing.


That's how it works on the live entertainment, recording, side of the entertainment industry. It's not the same on the football side of things. So, bringing back Kenny Miller (again), to my mind, does not give legitemacy to the Rangers tribute act.


They wear the same strip, they play in the same stadium, they still attract much the same level of committed supporters, but, for me: until they get back to being an essentially Scottish team, bringing through Scottish-reared players, this currnt Rangers will not be the real thing, and, bringing back Kenny Miller, who, for all his talents, is yesterday's man. doesn't make them any more legitemate.






WHILE Rangers are looking backwards, Celtic are looking ahead, with Ronald Dhal (I think) seemingly set to be the next manager at Parkhead. Well, it's a good choice - much of the Celtic Family's back story has been distorted by fairy tales and distortion.


He's certainly a left-field appointment, but, the new guy, should he take the job, brings an impressive CV, a good track record and, he should be good for the club and hopefully for Scottish football.






MEANWHILE, elsewhere, maybe the Hibs fans should re-think their plans to get rid of Rod Petrie. He has made a good appointment in taking Leann Dempster to Easter Road, just as, in the past, he has appointed some (on paper) good managers at the club, with devastating lack of results.


Petrie has, for my money, been a good steward at the club. However, that's what he is, a steward. The real power in Leith resides with my old mucker Tommy Farmer.


Shouting "Petrie Out", no matter for how long and how loud, will not move Tommy. For as long as TF has faith in Petrie, Rod is safe.


IF the Hibs fans genuinely want rid of Rod, they have to persuade TF that there is someone out there who could do a better job. And, that will not be easy, and perhaps not possible.

We Lost - Blame Me

THAT'S it - I have been telt by some of the field officers of the Afton Army: I am banned from attending future Glenafton Athletic Junior Cup Finals. The Glen have now been in five Junior Cup Finals, I have witnessed the four they have lost - to Irvine Meadow in 1962, Auchinleck Talbot in 1992, Largs in 1994 and Saturday's loss to Hurlford United. I missed the only one they have won, against Tayport in 1993.

So, the troops have decided, I am a jinx and I have now been banned, sine die.

Big Ryan McChesney's inexperience was exposed when he gave away the first penalty, after two minutes. I thought Ross Robertson was already on the way down when McChesney helped him on his way. The fact the 'Ford front man was heading away from goal, only makes big Chessy's poor decision-making worse.

I thought Chessy was hung out to dry with his second penalty concession and red-carding. I thought at the time, any contact was outside the box. Eldest daughter, watching back home in New Cumnock, says there was no contact.

However, referee Colin Steven, who gave the Glen nothing, from start to finish, was seemingly looking for an excuse to red-card Chessy, and duly did. The referee was a disgrace; it was a case of - a Glenafton player fouls a Hurlford one, free-kick and yellow card. A Hurlford player fouls a Glenafton one, possibly a free-kick, and a: "don't do it again" lecture.

If this is the standard of referee the SFA is promoting, we are all doomed.

That said, the better team won. Even had Glenafton kept all 11 men on the park, and had the hapless official been a bit more even-handed in his officiating, 'Ford would still have won.

I am delighted for Darren Henderson, who, in spite of all the furore about his pre-season switch of clubs, remains a thoroughly-likeable guy, who said and did all the right things.

Tommy Bryce, to be fair, lacks the Henderson chutpah, but, is a thoroughly solid and dependable operator. His rebuilding of Glen this season has been remarkable and, I am sure, the club will do well again next season.

Finally, I understand Sunday's final was the last for SJFA assistant secretary Joe Black, who is finally retiring, with Ian McQueen, big Gordon's elder brother, taking-up the dual role of SJFA assistant secretary and treasurer.

Joe should have been put out to grass years ago. He was an example of the arrogant, old school Hampden blazer - the game is better without him. I shall not miss him and his petty, nit-picking arrogant ways.

ROY Keane has, apparently, knocked back the chance to manage Celtic. I think the Celtic Family dodged a bullet there.

Nice One Gordon - We Can Enjoy Our Summer Now

STEADY-ON Gordon, many more performances like that against Nigeria last night, and we risk getting above ourselves again. Sure, we only got a draw from a match we probably should have won, but, considering the referee confirmed my long-held belief that English officials are over-rated - there was nothing wrong with the og we didn't get when the African keeper shit himself at being so close to Grant Hanley and flung the ball into his own net, for instance - the Scotland of Berti Vogts, George Burley or Craig Levein would have lost that game.

OK, the Nigerians were better technically than our boys, but, there is a team-spirit in the Scotland squad now whish had got lost for a time. Allan McGregor, Ikichi Anya and Charlie Mulgrew - how he has come on since returning to Celtic are now genuinely international class. Andrew Robertson was terrific, his partnership with Anya is exciting, while Scott Brown still picks-up stupid bookings and gets himself too-involved in the nigglig stuff, he is becoming a genuine Scotland captain.

I liked the look of the boy Martin from Derby and, while his lack of first-team action continues to tell against Alan Hutton at international level, he copes pretty well and, if he can sort out his differences with Paul Lambert and get into the Villa first team, it will be all the better for Scotland.

I WAS at BT Murrayfield yesterday for the big renaming launch. One of the other hacks present was a man whom I had always thought of an a Rangers obsessive - a definite fan with a lap top, and fully-paid-up scommittee member of the Lap Top Loyal.

They don't get it. This guy still insists the convicted fraudster, failed director of the now dead Rangers, is THE man to lead the current tribute act to the promised land - a return to dominance of Scottish football, If that is the mind-set of one of the university-educated, member of a profession Rangers fans - then I am afraid - the tribute act will surely go the way of the real Rangers. They have learned nothing from the club's downfall.

ONE name I haven't seen mentioned as a possible replacement for Neil Lennon at Celtic Park, is that of Paul Lambert. He has served a managerial apprenticeship, he has coped well in difficult circumstances at Villa Park, and, while his survival there perhaps owes as much to the common-sense ownership of Randy Lerner, who refused to join the English Premiership charge into sackig the manager when his team wasn't in the top eight of that division - I thik Paul has done ok.

He is used to working on a limited budget, he has a terrific European pedigree and was a past Celtic captain. For me, he ticks many-more boxes than some other names which have been bandied about.

Darkness On Leith

SOME weeks ago, I suggested Rod Petrie and Terry Butcher might be thinking along the lines of relegation from the Premiership being no bad thing for Hibs. I never for an instance thought they might take the suggestion seriously, but, thanks to the gross ineptitude of everyone at Easter Road, the unthinkable has happened.

 

Once Jason Scotland put Hamilton ahead on the day, it looked likelier that Accies would get the second goal they required to tie the play-off, then go on and win it. Hibs were in that dreadful place, the corridor of uncertainty from then one. Did they push up and go for an equaliser on the day, to restore their two-goal aggregate lead, or, did they tighten-up, hold what they had and hope for the best?

 

In the end, they couldn't quite decide which road to go down and finished up by - going down. Darkness on Leith right enough.

 

Mind you, I don't see relegation this season as being all together bad for Hibs, or Hearts for that matter. Sure, there will be uncertainty around Tynecastle about how the Levein/Neilson/Crawford management team will function; however, that there are a lot of talented young players, tempered by fire this season, at Hearts and IF the management team gels quickly, Hearts will be tough nuts to crack in what will surely be, even-more than usual THE competitive division in Scotland this season coming.

 

Anent Hibs, I see changes aplenty over the summmer. Many of the players who crumbled in 2014 will surely be out the door in the next week. Butcher will probably revert to type and import some cheap and cheerful journeymen from the lower leagues in England to replace them. They will, therefore, be competitive in the upper reaches of the Championship in the new season. But, will they be good enough to go up? Only time will tell.

 

The next question around Hibs is - for all he emerged form a system at Ipswich which relied heavily on home-grown talent; and given that Maurice Malpas has a good reputation as a coach, and also grew up in football at a club with a reputation for growing their own - can the Hibs management produce another golden generation, albeit one whose lustre lasts longer than the last golden generation of Hibbees did?

 

Then, there is the Ethiopian in the fuel supply. What will the new season bring at that long-running football soap opera, Edmiston Drive? I continue to insist, the biggestg advantages which the Rangers tribute act's rivals have in the new season are - this club is wedded to paying over the odds for under the necessary talent, and continuing with a manager who, as a coach is definitely a taxi.

 

But, for all these questions, the fact that three of the five biggest supports in Scotland will be asked, in season 2014-15, to pay to watch at best a third-rate product, is not good news for Scottish football.

 

I can only see the long decline continuing.

 

 

 

ALL the above said - well done to Alex Neil and his Accies. They will immediately be installed as relegation favourites for next season, but, they deserved to triumph today. They were the more-positive side, they never stopped going forward, they played the better football, and, they deserved to win.

 

I am delighted for everyone at New Douglas Park, and for some good friends of mine who are Accies' fans. Welcome back to the top flight.

 

 

 

AT least, the SPFL has the sense to properly "sell" these promotion-relegation play-offs, as second chances. Unlike the preposterous FA, who big-up their play-offs with a Wembley final and a trophy for the winners.

 

This is ridiculous. Enormous credit to QPR's ten men, who kept going, then took perhaps the only chance they got, to beat Derby yesterday, but, that they, who in reality finished third in the English Championship, should have a trophy to show-off, while Burnley, who finished above them in second, have nothing, well, it's daft.

 

But, that's English football for you - a clear case of never mind the quality, feel the width, as it were.

 

  

Lennon No More

SO - the Ginger Whinger is no more, Super Lenny/That wee Lurgan Lout (delete according to your religious prejudices) has departed Celtic Park.

 

We will miss him, there was always good copy to be had around Neil Lennon. I don't actually blame him for going - without the other lot to worry about, he has been almost sleep-walking through the past couple of years at least. It must be difficult to motivate yourself to appear interested in a competition you know, before the first ball has been kicked, you are going to win.

 

Now, we have to consider Neil Lennon's term as Celtic manager. Of course, this will best be done by some future football historians. Today, with his departure so recent, is not the time when rational analysis can be carried out.

 

Three titles in a row is good; his record in domestic cup competitions less-so; as is his European record, albeit at a time when European campaigns are becoming ever harder for Scottish clubs, or indeed clubs from outwith the mega-rich, English, German, Spanish and Italian leagues to mount.

 

But, since we have to give an instant reaction, here goes.

 

Neil Lennon was a Celtic Man, to an extent Gordon Strachan could never have hoped to be. He had to operate in a strange world where he was expected to prevail domestically, but, didn't prevail to the extent he probably should have.

 

He was expected to go far in Europe with a squad of, at best, in European terms - second or third-rank players. Again, he failed, but, here, failure was to a degree relative.

 

I don't think he has left a lasting legacy at the club. He hasn't put in place a system which will keep good, young players able to take themselves and the club to the "next level" - the knock-out stanges in Europe on a regular basis. But, there again, I sincerely doubt if, ever again, a Bob Kelly-like figure, prepared to accept a few barren seasons while the young boys mature to be ready to win the big prizes, can be allowed to emerge in Scotland. Nowadays, it is all about winning THIS SEASON.

 

He has certainly been good copy and has been a much-maligned person. for his own mental health, it is perhaps as well he has gone, before (if they ever do) the Rangers tribute act gets into the Premiership to muddy the waters.

 

In some ways, Neil Lennon was a Scottish Muhamad Ali. The American establishment and their reactionary Redneck cheer leaders truly were scared by that "Uppity Nigger" - I think their smaller, but no-less reactionary Scottish heirs, half a century on, were somewhat scared of that "Uppity Tim".

 

We will miss him. I wish him well in his future football career. 

Sore Heads In The Fair City - Enjoy Them Lads

BACK in 1993, our village football team returned from Glasgow bearing the Holy Grail - the Scottish Junior Cup: it sparked-off the biggest party this village has ever seen and, some upstanding members of the community were fairly well pissed for the next week.

 

Thus forewarned - I know well how some of the fair citizens of the Fair City of Perth will be feeling this morning. I hope this isn't their last victory party, but, this being Scotland, appreciate they might have a wee wait before they have the chance to let their hair down with abandon again. I can, however, assure them, nothing beats the first time your club wins a big trophy. Savour it, because, you never know when it might happen again.

 

I actually thought, for all the quality on the park at Wembley, for all the money in the English game, the Celtic Park affair was the better match. Yes, to lose it will be hard for Jackie McNamara and his men, but, they went down with their heads high and surely, they will not grudge their opponents from upstream on the Tay their moment of glory.

 

Now, all that waits to be settled is the final place in next season's Premiership - will it go to Hibs or Hamilton? I must admit, when I worked in Edinburgh as a youth, I would occasionally go along to Easter Road with some of the older guys at work, to watch Pat Stanton, Alex Edwards & Co. I enjoyed the experience. Then, as a football reporter, I always enjoyed my trips to New Douglas Park during that exciting period when the young McArthur, McCarthy and Brian Easton, a winner with St Johnstone on Saturday, were coming through and making waves.

 

It seemed, just a few short years ago, that, every time I was scheduled to cover a game at Hamilton, Ronnie McDonald and Billy Reid would unleash another terrific teenaged talent on to the scene. Then, there was big Mark McLaughlin. When he was coming through at Arthurlie, it seemed obvious to me - here was a local boy around whom St Mirren might build a team, but, he never got the call to Love Street, but, went on to have a longer and more-distinguished career at Hamilton than many who did get the Love Street call managed.

 

Sadly, Hamilton, when they last got into the Premier League as it was then, bottled the accent on youth. Still, it is nice to see them have the chance to get bck there. Hard luck too to Falkirk, where Gary Holt has carried-on where big "Elvis" left off. And, as an aside here, didn't Mr Pressley do well in difficult circumstances at Coventry in the season now ending. But for the pre-season points deduction, he'd have got the Sky Blues into the promotion play-offs.

 

Finally, well done the Blue Brazil - all but written-off pre-matches, they saw off the challenge of the Pars to remain in the Championship, which is a terrific testimony to the managerial skills of Jimmy Nicholl and a great boost to their Chairman, or, is he the RWM of the club?

 

Just the Hamilton v Hibs shoot-out and the Junior Cup Final punch-up to get out of the way and then, we can settle down and have some real fun, cheering-on ABE at the World Cup.