The Football Business Is Like No Other Business - Aye Right

THE headline above is: "received wisdom" in the world of Scottish, indeed British football. The last two words are my retort.

Football clubs, at least at the "professional" level (the quote marks are my jaundiced view of the majority of our SPL and SFL clubs, are almost all limited liability companies - subject to the same company laws as haulage contractors, hotels, retail shops, engineering companies - any business you care to name.

They are owned by their shareholders. In the world of commerce, shareholders invest in companies in the hope of receiving a monetary return on their investment, through the company's management's ability to make profits. In football, by and large being a shareholder invests through a desire to belong, perhaps out of loyalty to the team. They do not seek monetary reward, the occasional cup success, a high position in the SPL, promotion through the three SFL divisions to that top-flight is enough reward.

These general rules do not, however, apply to the Old Firm - where nothing less than non-stop, continuous success - and above all finishing above the other half of the OF, is all that is required of the club management.

Look at the players, the work force of the football "business". No five-day, 40-hour weeks for these guys; two hours of "training", four days a week, plus 90 minutes of "work" once or twice per week, for which, even in Scotland, those considered to be the best receive a weekly salary far in excess of that earned by the spectaors on the terraces and in the stands who fund their life-styles.

These men are by and large "full-time professionals"; except, this is a profession which doesn't require a minimum nationally-accepted standard of knowledge of the chosen subject. You don't have to pass examinations to be admitted to this "profession"; there is no requirement to keep abreast of current developments, no refresher courses, or requirement to upgrade your qualifications periodically. Once you are in, you are there until somebody called "a manager" decides to kick you out.

These managers can obtain professional qualifications, which are universally recognised - but there is no requirement to obtain these qualifications prior to taking up a managerial position.

These football clubs do not even have to make money. They are apparently not subject to market forces. Football teams are supposedly part of the entertainment industry, but are allowed to continue operating even when their seat occupancy rates are so low that, were that club a cinema or a theatre, they would be closed down, their premises closed and perhaps knocked-down and re-developed.

So, given these apparent paradoxes, it is no surprise that the likes of John Boyle, who made millions from the holiday business, Sir David Murray, who made billions from steel, hotels, property and service industries, should flop in the world of football.

It has been suggested that businessmen park their business brains in the cap park the moment they take over a football team. I would go further, I could give you examples of otherwise successful businessmen who came a cropper once they crossed the line from sports fans to sports club owner.

Given the masses of proven examples of this, the fact that billionaire venture capitalist Craig Whyte has hardly set the world on fire in the early months of his time as owner of Rangers FC, should surprise nobody. The fact that, already, less than six months into his ownership of this club/Scottish institution, Mr Whyte is under fire is simply further proof of the truth of my heading to this post.

Now, the question is - can Mr Whyte change this seemingly eternal truth? If he can, he might usher-in a new age of better management, of more success and of untold riches for him and Rangers. But already, it looks like being the same old, same old. Rangers and Celtic will continue to rule in Scotland, while being very small fry in Europe and beyond.

Can We Do The Three Card Trick?

SO that's the Europa League play-off round draw then - not too bad and we just might pull-off the three card trick of having three Scottish clubs through to the group stages.

No, I haven't finally misplaced the few remaining marbles I have; I can see Celtic, Hearts and Rangers all qualifying for the group stages. But, what about Hearts - facing a side from the English Premiership? you ask.

So what, it's only Spurs, a team with a flaky defence, no idea about consistency and, we understand, Mr Redknapp has already said he will be using his fringe players in Europe. Such are the riches to be had from the Premiership, unless their teams are in the Champions League, which brings even-greater riches, they're not too bothered. 'Arry will approach Europe from the viewpoint of blooding kids for the Premiership, that's his main focus.

His season kicks off with a home match with Everton, then they go to Hearts, then Manchester United, then entertain Hearts, before entertaining Man City. I reckon I know which of those games 'Arry rates as the least-important and they don't involve teams from the North-West of England. 'Arry also knows the two matches against Hearts will be played like cup ties, so he will not want his men to risk injury prior to the bigger matches against the Manc sides - Hearts could win this one.

Rangers' trip to Mirabor will be no awayday janut. But, having had their horror shows against Malmo, I fancy Rangers will be able to see-off the Slovenians and advance to the group stages; but here again, only if they are focussed and ready.

Same thing goes for Celtic. We Scots tend to under-rate Swiss sides, but, having been shocked by Neuchetal Xamax and Basle in the past, you can bet Neil Lennon will have Celtic geared-up to winning this one.

LOOKING at this week-end's SPL fixtures, the big game for me will be Sunday's Fir Park clash between Motherwell and Hearts. After Thursday night's terrific win in Europe, Hearts will be buzzing when they visit the league leaders - who will in turn fancy, with home advantage, they can remain top of the table. This one promises much.

Dundee United did well to beat Hearts last weekend, but, that will mean nothing if they cannot make home advantage count against a St Mirren team equally buoyed-up by their home win over Aberdeen. United to win and remain in the mix at the top.

Hibs have had to take a lot of flak in recent months, but, Garry O'Connor started to repay the club's faith in him at Inverness last week, so surely the long-suffering Easter Road punters will have something to celebrate come the final whistle. While for St Johnstone, there is the memory of previous good wins in Leith, but not, I fear, this time.

Dunfermline have to make home advantage count against bottom of the table Inverness - who will arrive on the back of a week of ear-bashing and pain from an angry Terry Butcher. This one, to me, has draw written all over it.

Celtic will be clear, odds-on favourites to beat Aberdeen at Pittodrie - and why not? Can Aberdeen beat them. Doubt it - Celtic to win comfortably.

Finally, the two big friendlies. A narrow defet to Chelsea might be acceptable to the Rangers faithful, but, for the home side - this one is all about putting on a show which persuades the hordes that better times are just around the corner after that CL exit.

While, at Rugby Park, the big question is - will Goodwillie make his Blackburn debut? This should be a football feast, with Rovers edging it narrowly.

IN THE Irn-Bru Scottish League, the most-interesting match for me is the Somerset Park meeting of Ayr United and Hamilton Academical. Last season these teams were two leagues apart. Now they are in the same division.

Part-time Ayr will shock a few sides this season, Accies could be first. Billy Reid's men need to show relegation has barely affected them. If they can win, they should be in what will be a season-long multi-team promotion race. If they cannot, they could struggle.

The other intriguing match for me is at Firhill, where Thistle, dumped out of the League Cup by lowly Berwick last Saturday, face Dundee - the team which would have been promoted last season, but for that swinging 25 points deduction.

This pair should be in the Premier League, and good win for either could be the first step towards getting back there. But, defeat will perhaps signal the start of a long, hard season.

Get out there and enjoy the football, somewhere in Scotland.

The Quicksands Are Sucking Us Down

REMEMBER the heart-rending tale of the Chinese immigrant cockle pickers who were caught in the quicksands and rushing inward tides of Morecambe Bay a few years ago. There deaths were both tragic and unnecessary.

I appreciate some might call me insensitive for likening that real human tragedy with a defeat in a football match, but I cannot help but think our Scottish clubs go into Europe each year with about the same state of readiness as those poor Chinese workers had as they walked onto those treacherous sands to their deaths.

Scottish clubs have been competing in Europe since 1955. Since that date we have been aware that our European mainland neighbours have better technique than us - but that knowledge hasn't narrowed the technique gap in any way. We have also been aware that the Europeans have a better diet, tend to be physically more-impressive and while, in the early years of European competition, a wee bit of Scottish "dig" and the knowledge that, in the immortal words of the battling butcher Corporal Jones: "They don't like it up em", helped offset the technique advantage the European sides enjoyed over the Scottish.

But, as the song says: "These days are past and in the past they must remain". Today's European player has added British stamina and competitiveness to continental technical ability and as a result, Scotland is sinking to the level of the semi-junior European Leagues.

Not that you will ever find the "blazers" within Hampden's corridors of power, whether that power arises from the SFA, SPL or SFL, admitting how rank we are. Scottish football needs to change, it must change; some of us have known that for years - but, the familiar Scottish refrain of: "But it's aye been done this way" has held us back.

Our background doesn't help us. The late Bill Shankly once said that the secret of winning in England was simple - you recruited enough Scots players to make a difference, but not too-many, in which case they would start fighting with each other.

We do love our "bonnie fechters"; we grow up with the need to debate and dispute and we love to get involved in battles. Too many of us have a hair-trigger temper and how many Scottish players talk themselves into the referee's wee black book? Far too many for my liking.

Look at Steven Whittaker last night. Rangers had been given a free kick - so he thinks it a good idea to throw the ball at his Malmo opponent - red card for Whittaker. How stupid was that?

Rangers are or should be the richest club in Scotland. They ought to have the pick of Scotland's young players - but, how many make the grade there? Of those who do make the grade (by having a first team squad number), how many actually get onto the park?

Rangers have, in the past ten years, spent an absolute fortune in recruiting foreign players who were either - over the hill (the de Boers); over-priced (Tore Andfre Flo) or over-rated (Jerome Rotten). Meanwhile they have seen young Scots players become Scotland Under-21 caps and never train on to be first team players (too many to name); or be jettisoned to go on to perform well in England's Championship or Premiership and to become internationalists (Charlie Adam, Ross McCormack, Stephen Dobbie).

They have signed players who if not unfit when they arrived, quickly became so - the latest being Daniel Goian last night. But, have heads rolled on their medical staff - no, thought not.

Don't get the impression, this is a rant against Rangers. For all their failings both on and off the field - they are still Scotland's top club; reigning champions, highest-ranked side in the UEFA co-efficients. But, in European terms, they are rank rotten, a big club in a small league and with small ambitions.

But, Rangers are the best we've got. What does that say about the rest?

Unless things change, radically and soon - we truly are all doomed.



Vlad The Impaler Strikes Again

ONE thing you can say about Hearts' owner "Mad Vlad" Romanov - life is seldom dull on his watch. His latest jolt to Scottish football's measured lurch into the new season came yesterday afternoon, when he binned Jim Jefferies. Surprise, surprise - no, the surprise with Vlad will come when he no longer surprises us.

I have a certain sympathy for JJ, he has been a good manager of a provincial club; he has kept Hearts clinging to the coat tails of the Old Firm, he encourages good football, but, at the end of the day his team has had a poor 2011 by the standards his boss expects and if he was handicapped to an extent by injuries, under JJ Hearts no more than flirted with a genuine challenge to the Old Firm.

This is the problem with Scottish football as I see it. Celtic and Rangers, with their massive home supports, have a fiscal advantage which now makes it almost inevitable that they will finish first and second in the league. But, there can be little doubt - they have, over recent seasons, paid top dollar for second-rate players and I honestly believe that a good technical coach, able to properly harness the Scots Presbyterian work ethic to sophisticated tactics, COULD mount a serious challenge to the status quo of Old Firm domination.

Mind you, such a coach would perhaps have just three seasons in which to perform this trick, before either the Old Firm or, more likely any one of some 40 English clubs came in and cherry-picked his squad with better financial packages. Something like: first season - mount a season-long league challenge, reach one of the cup finals; season two - split the Old Firm, win one of the cups; season three - win the league.

Somewhere around the January transfer window in season two, the laptoployal would start print the stories linking one or t'other with the challenging side's top two players and, if they were held on to, by the end of the third season or the players entering the final year of their contracts, whichever came first, the pressure to sell to one of the Old Firm or an English predator would all but impossible.

For all that, for the good of Scottish football, we need somebody to rise to the challenge and become the real third force. Vlad just might be the man to fund such a challenge, but nothing in his past behaviour leads me to believe he will put-up, then shut-up and allow his chosen coach/manager to show what he can do.

But, good luck to Paulo Sergio - you'll need it.

THE on-going David Goodwillie saga intrigues me. By all accounts, Goodwillie ought to have been paraded as a Blackburn Rovers by now. (That's not to say this announcement will not be long delayed).

The fact he still hasn't been unveiled at Ewood Park makes me believe he could still end up at Ibrox. He's clearly a Rangers fan; it is equally clear, for all the riches being spread before him in terms of a reported £1 million-per-year pay deal, he's not entirely happy with the thought of moving to Blackburn. And, having visited that town a few times, I cannot say I blame him; nice enough place I suppose, but rows and rows of red brick back-to-backs and the ever-pervading smell of Asian spices would make me long for the open spaces and clear air of Raploch.

One thing this long-drawn-out transfer story has shown is, Craig Whyte has a lot to learn about running a football club. As I have posted before, he's a venture capitalist and thus, by nature more used to buying cheap than splashing-out top dollar. But, if his manager has identified a player as a "must-have" as Ally McCoist apparently has with Goodwillie - then not to back his manager and get him, immediately raises doubts about Whyte.

Does he rate McCoist? Did he even want him as manager? Are manager and owner on the same wave-length as regards how to take Rangers forward? These are interesting times.

Then there is the third man in any Rangers transfer dealings - Gordon Smith. What has been his input to the Goodwillie saga? How is he getting on with Whyte and McCoist?

If, as currently appears likely, Goodwillie does join Blackburn and Rangers are left with egg on their faces after their succession of raised but rejected bids - does the fact Rangers didn't get him become a resignation issue with McCoist? Only time will tell.

By the way, fair play to Stephen Thomson for the way he has played hard ball with Rangers. We have become too-used to the Old Firm raiding the competing Scottish clubs to augment their own failing youth development programmes. Too often the other clubs have simply rolled-over and allowed the young talent they developed go to Glasgow for buttons.

We're a long way from the stupid fees the bigger English clubs pay for potential, but, if Dundee United get what they want for Goodwillie - they'll have struck a blow against the big two.

Barnum and Bailey It Aint

RATHER like your kids in the back seat while you drive down the M6 on holiday, a lot of Scottish football fans have been asking: "Is it here yet?" as season 2011-2012 ever-so-slowly cranks up. Once upon a time, when we had an indiginous newspaper industry, rather than being a northern enclave of 'Fleet Street', the likes of the Daily Record had a couple of special pre-set fonts. The first, only used occasionally proclaimed in black 72 point: "THE KING/QUEEN IS DEAD"; the other, used once annually roared: "KING FOOTBALL IS BACK".

Today, football resumes after an ever-shortening summer break with, rather than a fanfare and a blaze of publicity - but by almost shame-facedly creeping in. Mind you, with the state Scottish football is in these days, can we blame it?

Scottish football has been on the downward slope for at least the last 25-years. In that time, the powers-that-be have made a lot of noise, come up with a lot of promises of better days around the corner, but done hee-haw about actually changing things. In increasing numbers the fans have voted with their feet. Aye, the Bigot Brothers still pull-in the fans, but, let's be honest, a lot of their combined following are signed-up for reasons which have little, if anything, to do with a love of football.

When, in the second round of  matches, unbeaten Kilmarnock and table-topping Motherwell can only one-quarter-fill Rugby Park - a Rugby Park which, remember, only holds around half the number of fans it once did - why do we bother?

I've seen Killie pre-season; Kenny Shiels's team is far from the finished article, but, they are trying to play good football, albeit without a genuine striker familiar with the expected juxtaposition of a cow's rear end and a banjo. Motherwell's thumping of Inverness CT in their opening fixture even forced a smile onto Tam Cowan's coupon, Saturday was a fine, sunny day - yet - poor crowd, no goals -yawn.

It goes without saying: playing competitive football during the Glasgow Fair is wrong - but, that's the price we must pay for our long, slow, decline into genteel poverty - or ought that rather be paucity of talent, expectation and ambition.

We seriously and urgently need to re-structure out leagues, re-structure our season and re-state our ambition. But, don't hold your breath; we will surely guddle along for a good wee while yet before, if ever, things turn.

Not even the great WG Barnum could drum up interest in Scottish Football as it is today.

SO, WE now know that the Road to Rio will be via: Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Macedonia and Wales. We might have had it tougher, again, we could have had it easier, but, when it comes to World Cups and Scotland, it was ever thus.

Croatia, who will start the group as favourites to qualify, we have faced thrice since that country re-emerged from the break-up of the old Yugoslavia: all three games, in 2001, 2002 and 2008 have been drawn - 1-1, 0-0, 1-1. So, tight games, probably decided by the odd goal would seem to be the order of the day, but, we need not fear them.

Serbia we have never met before, but in eight matches against Yugoslavia, including World Cup Final meetings in Sweden in 1958 and West Germany in 1974, we only lost once, going down 3-1 in Zagreb in a WC qualifying group match in Zagreb in 1989. Since then, the down-sizing of the once-powerful Yugoslavs to their Serbian rump has weakened them badly. Another two tight games beckon, but two we should win.

Belgium - now the two meetings with them could well be THE crucial games in our group.  We've met the Belgians 15 times since the end of World War II and our record reads: won 4, drawn 3, lost 8. We have been drawn with them three times in World Cup or European Championship qualifiers and have barely registered a drawn against them, while we've won just two of eleven games against them in the last 40 years. You might say: "We are due a change of luck against them", but, these will be probably our two toughest games.

Macedonia, provided we heed the lessons of history and avoid the stifling heat of Skopje between May and October, should not overly concern us - but the lesson of that 0-1 2008 loss in the Macedonian capital must be heeded.

Then there is the clash of the Scotia Nostra and the Taffia. First the good news - we've never failed to qualify when we've been in a World Cup group with the Welsh; we can reinforce that with the glad tidings of our win over them last time out, in the Carling Cup, in Dublin  in May.

But, that was achieved against a very young, inexperienced and experimental Welsh XI and it was our first win over the Red Dragons in six outings. Also, our record in Cardiff is terrible -  two wins in ten visits over the past 50 years.

They will hope to field the likes of Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey against us, but: to modify a famous Shanklyism - if you canny beat two men, ye shouldnae be playin fur Scotland.

The eternal optimist in me believes we can win the group, far less merely qualify for the lay-offs, but, the observer, cowed with repeated under-performance by our brave lads, can equally-easily see us finish fourth in the group.

But, such are the joys of being in the Tartan Army.

Sally - Sally

POOR Ally McCoist - he waits all that time for the top job - and within two real games, his old "Sally" McCoist nickname is back. Indeed, the way his tenure in the grand office, at the head of the marble staircase has begun - one can almost imagine him gazing at the portraits of Messrs Wilton, Struth, Symon, White, Waddell, Wallace, Greig, Souness, Smith, Advocaat, McLeish and Le Guen and asking: "Why me?"

Of course, as he has admitted, his timing hasn't been right - better to have inherited with the club at a low ebb, rather than on the back of Walter Smith's three-in-a-row run of titles, garnered at a time of fiscal difficulty; but, like Tommy Burns across the city before him, he wasn't going to knock-back the job just because the time was not absolutely correct.

Football at the top level today is, more than ever, a results-driven industry - and nowhere more-so than when these results impact on the game's oldest rivalry, that between Celtic and Rangers. Once upon a time, an assistant manager, taking over either of the Glasgow jobs, would be given a breathing space, to grow into the job; the rival fans would have been prepared to accept a season or two of playing second fiddle, before growing restless. Not today.

McCoist is the fifth Rangers' assistant manager to be promoted to the big job. None of the previous four was required to deliver silverware immediately to the extent McCoist is.

The great Bill Struth, on succeeding the dead William Wilton, at least took over a title-winning side, one which had started to make Rangers, rather than Celtic, the dominant force in the city. When Struth took over, Celtic had won 15 SFL titles to Rangers' 10, although Wilton had delivered two out of the last three.

When the octogenarian Struth was ushered out of the front door at Ibrox 34 years later, the league titles tally read Rangers 28 Celtic 20, with Rangers having added a further seven unofficial wartime titles.

David White, the next number two to become number one was appointed in successon to the shamefully sacked Scot Symon at a time of turmoil, as across the city Jock Stein swung the balance of power back Celtic's way. He never really stood a chance against that managerial genius, and the carping from the sidelines of his ultimate successor, Willie Waddell, then a hugely-influential sports writer, undid him from the start, as the Deedle dubbed him: "the boy David".

Waddell had at least restored some equilibrium before handing over to his assistant, Jock Wallace, who benefitted from Stein's declining powers after his car crash to deliver a treble.

Then came Smith's succession to Graeme Souness, which kept an already rolling juggernaut progressing to nine-in-a-row.

So with three successful managerial hand-overs to one failure, Rangers, when appointing from within, have generally got it right. Another "failure" is therefore probably due.

Rangers are an institution, and there is an argument for appointing a manager who at least knows how that institution works. Struth, Symon, Waddell, Wallace and Greig all got the top job after many years within the club, while Symon and Wallace had earned their managerial spurs with trophies at lesser clubs. Smith and McLeish were fans, who, again, had learned the managment business elsewhere, while Souness led nothing less than a revolution in Scottish football. White had barely got to know the place after arriving from Clyde and there is anectdotal evidence that Symon didn't really want him there in the first place, although he had shown signs of managerial talent at Shawfield.

Advocaat and the ill-fated Le Guen were an attempt at bringing continental sophistication to Scotland, with contrasting fortunes - maybe we're simply not programmed for frites with mayonaisse or French cuisine up here.

So to McCoist. Almost certainly he would have benefitted from a spell as manager somewhere like Kilmarnock or Motherwell - to learn the ropes; but neither club is remotely a Rangers. Maybe the guarantee of Sir David Murray's continued support from the chair would have eased him through the first stressful months - but here he is, flung-in, to sink and swim and with a shiny new owner hovering above him, anxious to show his take-over of the club will be good for Rangers.

I do not envy McCoist his job, he is already under enormous pressure, after a less than stellar start. But, after he arrived at the club from Sunderland, and again when Souness benched him in favour of the Hateley/Johnson strike partnership, it seemed unlikely that Alistair would ever supercede Bob McPhail as the club's greatest goal scorer - but he did. So I would not rush to write-off Ally in the wake of a home draw to Hearts and a one-goal loss to Malmo.

That said, however, with a city financier in charge - creatures notorious for their short-termism, Alistair does not have long to turn things around.

The likes of Struth and Symon were used to seeing their sides struggle through August and September, but still deliver trophies in April and May - McCoist will not be given that amount of time, and while Rangers are still likely to be parading silverware round Ibrox come May, 2012 - unless things pick-up soon, it may not be McCoist who is gathering the managerial plaudits for any such success.

Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush

WELL, here we are, one round of fixtures into the new SPL season and already some are ready to package-up the season 2011-2012 SPL trophy and league flag and despatch them to Celtic Park; simply because Rangers were held to a home draw by the club which finished third last season, while Celtic beat last season's tenth-best SPL club on their own ground.

This flies right in the face of reality - winning a league flag is a marathon, not a sprint and has been shown in the past, being two points ahead even going into the final game of a season is not a guarantee of eventual title success.

I reckon gloating from Celtic fans and wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Ibrox faithful, this early in the campaign, is simply further proof of how hysterical the age-old Old Firm rivalry has become.

Of course, we are still in mid-summer, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue should be asked to send a couple of pumps along to the next games at Ibrox and Celtic Parks to hose the fans down before they get too-over-excited.

As of now (lunch time on Monday, 25 July, 2011) just about all I can guarantee about season 2011-2012 is that, come the final final whistle next May, the league order will not be what it is right now: Motherwell, Celtic, Dundee United, Hearts, Kilmarnock, Rangers, Aberdeen, St Johnstone, Dunfermline Athletic, St Mirren, Hibs, Inverness CT.

THERE has been much comment about Craig Whyte's decision to unfurl the 2010-11 league flag on Saturday. Well, in terms of Rangers: it's his ball and he can do what he likes with it. On one hand, he got out there and showed his face to the faithful, on the other, since he played no part in winning it, it might perhaps have been better had he asked Davie Weir, the winning captain, or perhaps an Ibrox legend such as John Greig, or Eric Caldow or Derek Johnstone - to pluck three names out of mid-air, to do the honours.

I NOTE also, on some of the newspaper websites that the mutual game of tit-for-tat between the Old Firm fans, has started. There have been sharp-eared Celtic fans hearing sectarian singing during broadcasts from Ibrox on Saturday, while Rangers fans with equally-keen hearing could discern pro-IRA chanting and singing from Easter Road on Sunday. It's all becoming tedious. But will the clubs actually do something about it? Not until a (proverbial) gun is held to their heads - you see - sectarianism sells, always has, always will - until somebody REALLY does something about it. But, don't hold your breath.

THERE is - believe it or not - life outwith the Old Firm and Saturday's Ramsden's Cup (great sponsorship by the way - in the SFL any gold or silver hanging around is clearly very old and superfluous to modern living) threw-up some interesting results.

Good to see Ayr United knocking-out holders Queen of the South at the first hurdle. Brian Reid, encouraged by a chairman and board who did not jettison him after relegation two seasons ago, is rebuilding his United side and between the experience of the likes of John Robertson, Martyn Campbell and the ageless Mark Roberts and the products of a somewhat under-rated Youth Academy, he has a real chance of keeping the part-timers in a First Division which is far from vintage this season.

I just wonder when Reid will start to be mentioned once the SPL managerial merry-go-round cranks-up. He would, I venture, be worth a punt to a middling SPL club seeking a manager who could work with little cash. For Queens - I predict a season-long struggle.

GREAT to see Spartans open their new ground with a match against a Manchester United XI on Sunday. OK, it wasn't the result they'd have wanted, but here is a prototype "community Club" which deserves to and surely will, once we get a proper pyramid in place, be an SFL club.

With their reliance on graduates of Edinburgh University, Spartans' teams havde something other sides in Scotland lack - players with brains in their heads, and that should give them an advantage.

I see the club becoming a Queen's Park of the east and it will be great to see them in the SFL, when it happens.