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Scotland update: Lee Wallace out for six months

2010-09-09T13:53:00.003+01:00

It's being reported today that Lee Wallace got a serious knee injury in the Liechtenstein game, with reports that he could be out for six months or even the entire season.

If so it's a big blow for a squad without much depth in many key positions and gives manager Craig Levein yet another headache.

It doesn't do anything for Hearts' season either, of course, who lack proper cover at left back.

Scotland impress no one on rise to the top

2010-09-09T10:20:00.003+01:00

There's no easy games in international football anymore eh?

Lithuania are obstinate brutes who will exploit every trick in the book (and a lax referee) to boot their opponents out of the game. Liechtenstein can score a slick goal if you go to sleep. Poor Scotland - seeking form, fortune and a reason to believe in themselves again - have been put through the mill this week.

Still, Lithuania's win over the Czech Republic changes everything. On the one hand, it allowed Scotland to go top of the group with four points - never mind that it's a false position. But next up it's... the Czech Republic, who'll be looking to smack Scotland and make up for lost points.

So Craig Levein has a lot of work to do between now and then, because there are question marks all over the pitch. The manager has also showed himself to be worryingly sensitive to outside influences, appearing to change the formation for Liechtenstein in response to criticism that his team wasn't attack-minded enough.

But just because you've got more strikers on the pitch, it doesn't mean your team will be any better going forward - a basic lesson that any half-decent manager should have learnt long before they get near a technical area. Football is all about possession, and 4-5-1 isn't necessarily more defensive than 4-4-2.

The curse of injuries makes it difficult, but what Scotland need is a settled system, where everyone from keeper to centre forward knows their roles and what needs to be done.

Levein has bought himself time to try and do this. Here's hoping he finds the right solution.

Levein faces first real test

2010-09-03T10:35:00.002+01:00

Qualifying for Euro 2012 starts tonight, ready or not. Hold your breath, Scotland.

The striking thing about Craig Levein's first team for a competitive fixture is the strength of the Rangers contingent, with Alan McGregor between the sticks, David Weir back in at centre half and Kenny Miller leading the line.

Most of these decisions are explicable - with Craig Gordon injured, picking a keeper is a judgement call between various candidates of lesser ability, and if McGregor is allowed a second chance then it might as well be in this game. Weir is old but has experience, though partnering him with the slow Steven McManus might just be asking for trouble. We'd much prefer Christophe Berra in there instead.

Kenny Miller earns the right to show if his goal-scoring start to the domestic season can be replicated in dark blue.

But elsewhere, the old injury curse has struck again, giving cause for chewed fingernails everywhere. With Lee Wallace out, Levein has chosen to move Steven Whittaker to left back and bring Alan Hutton in at right back.

Is Hutton fit? He's barely played for Spurs so this is a big ask, while putting the right-footed Whittaker on the left makes you wonder where the balance and width will come from. In midfield, only Barry Robson is left footed, and he's not a winger. There is a real fear that Scotland could be pulled out of shape this evening.

We're also relying on Lee McCulloch to do the holding job in midfield, another cause of worry. He's filled in there plenty for Rangers but international football demands a little more class and guile - Barry Ferguson, re-invented as a solely defensive midfielder at Birmingham, will be missed.

And then there's the reliance on Steven Naismith, too, who's hardly convinced in a Scotland shirt. Why not Graham Dorrans, who has been impressing so much at West Brom.

Having said all that, Lithuania ain't great, and Scotland shouldn't panic.

Fingers crossed, eh?

Stokes proves player power rules

2010-08-31T22:16:00.003+01:00

The transfer window closed today with the most intriguing switch of the summer, as Antony Stokes moved from Hibs to Celtic.

A straightforward deal on the face of it - another coveted player moves to the Old Firm - but there's more to this than meets the eye, and the clue is in the transfer fee, rumoured to be around £800,000.

£800k? For a player who scored 23 goals last term, and has two years remaining on his contract? Hibs sold Steven Fletcher to Burnley a year ago for £3.5m, and he never scored 23 goals in a season.

The days of Hibs being pressured into selling a player for a cut-down fee have long gone, and yet Celtic appear to have got a bargain. Gary Hooper suddenly looks rather overpriced compared to Stokes.

So what's going on?

Hibs have a recent history of getting their business done early in the summer - Scott Brown (to Celtic), Steven Fletcher and Rob Jones were all sold with lots of time left to bring in replacements. So maybe the club are a little short of money, or at least cash flow. With the new East Stand built this summer, Hibs probably banked on selling either Sol Bamba or Merouane Zemmama to balance the books.

But Bamba didn't play in the World Cup, although he was part of the Ivory Coast squad, so missed the opportunity to put himself in the shop window, while Zemmama is recovering from a serious knee injury so hardly attractive to potential buyers. Maybe the Stokes deal was the only one possible?

Or maybe Hibs wanted rid of Stokes. He's a player with baggage, who got dropped into the reserves by Roy Keane at Sunderland for his unprofessional behaviour. He managed to turn up for every game at Hibs last season, but rumours that he likes a flutter and a party remain.

But maybe the truth is that Antony Stokes was always in control of his destiny, whatever Hibs wanted. It was a massive coup for the club to sign him last summer, despite his baggage - he was a graduate of the Arsenal academy, after all, who signed for Sunderland for £2m. Hibs got him on a free, and on a massive cut in wages as well.

In his assured first press conference at Celtic, Stokes paid tribute to Hibs and manager John Hughes for helping him rebuild his career, but there was also conviction that he was now back in control of his future. Was there a clause in his contract that compelled Hibs to sell at a certain price?

We'll probably never know the full details. Hibs can justifiably claim this was a good piece of business, getting a proven striker for a year and then selling him on at a profit.

Who knows if Stokes will prove a success at Celtic. Denied a certain starting place, he might not enjoy the loss of status within the dressing room, and return to his bad old ways.

What is clear, though, is that Hibs are weaker tonight, and another player has journeyed along the M8 to join the Old Firm.

Europa disaster!

2010-08-26T22:13:00.002+01:00

We've said it before and we'll say it again, no doubt - when the stakes are high, rookie gaffer Neil Lennon plays it all wrong.

2-0 up from the first leg, many were treating Celtic's progress into the Europa League as a given - and it probably should have been. But yet again their diabolical away form came back to haunt them, they conceded four goals to Utrecht and now they are out.

To be fair to him, Celtic had lots of defenders unavailable through injury - but that have made protecting a makeshift back four a priority. Instead Lennon picked a front two of Samaras and Fortune, plus new "wonderkid" James Forrest, plus Joe Ledley (who's not known for putting in a shift)... reckless stuff, and they paid the price.

Motherwell couldn't score the 1-0 victory that would have put them through against Odense, and Dundee Utd came close but missed the chance to progress ahead of AEK.

Both clubs acquited themselves rather better tonight than the green giant from Glasgow, however.

Where do Celtic go from here?

Dundee Utd tie finds a venue at last

2010-08-26T13:57:00.002+01:00

Dundee Utd are in Athens tonight, trying to turn around a 1-0 deficit from the first leg that will allow them to progress to the Europa League Group Stage at AEK's expense.

But AEK's stadium isn't fit for purpose, so an alternative venue at Panionios was found. But Panionios, upset at the thought of AEK using their home, broke into the ground and destroyed the pitch.

So the tie has moved to Olympiakos' stadium. But now the fear is AEK fans will ransack the place, so they have been banned.

Dundee Utd now face the odd prospect of playing an away tie in front of 500 of their own travelling supporters, and no one else. It's going to be a weird atmosphere, that's for sure, more so if any AEK trouble makers manage to disguise themselves as Tangerines to sneak in and cause mayhem.

Anyhow, good luck tonight to the team, and to the fans who will hopefully avoid any trouble. Very much the underdogs here, maybe they can use these unusual circumstances to their advantage.

Rangers look forward

2010-08-26T13:36:00.004+01:00

After a torrid few months, it's suddenly all going right for Rangers.

The squabbles over cancelled lucrative friendlies during pre-season have been forgotten, and focus has switched from the players who have left to the new arrivals who have been coming through the door - few in number, but decent enough to placate the fans.

Maximum points from their first two games in the SPL, too, even if both matches had a few issues of concern. The opening fixture was a narrow win over Killie, but a win nonetheless, while on Sunday Rangers reminded us all why we don't like them, with a disgraceful challenge from Kyle Lafferty and blatant cheating from Alan McGregor.

Lafferty got sent off for his antics and McGregor got a yellow for pretending Derek Riordan had hit him in the face - no complaints there. But any sense of justice was removed by the fact Kevin McBride and Riordan also got the same punishment - just for being in the vicinity, it seemed. You can bet that Hibs will be fired up for the Ibrox return.

Still, later today Rangers find out who their opponents will be in the Champions League group stage. As they are in pot three, there will be no easy route out of the group, but Rangers will be hoping for glamour and prestige aplenty, as well as looking forward to the money that will be coming their way.

Could it be that Rangers are dragging themselves out of their financial hole?

Scottish football's got more than an image problem

2010-08-19T18:28:00.004+01:00

So Neil Lennon thinks that Celtic's failure to sign a big name player this summer is due to English perceptions of our game.

As always, it's a neat way of deflecting attention away from other issues, such as Celtic's failure to get into the Champions League. By falling at the first hurdle once again, the club has denied itself a huge chunk of income, and the glamour of competing with the biggest names in Europe.

Scottish football is in a woeful state at the moment, and yet hopes are receding that anything fundamental might be done about it.

Henry McLeish's 1st report into the game - launched earlier this year - has been hardly mentioned since, derided by the media and "football" people for recommending that money be spent on facilities and infrastucture to improve the game at the grassroots.

C'mon Henry! Asking for money? In these straightened times?!

It was a clear a case of shooting the messenger as you'll see - the McLeish recommendations may not have been spot on, but at least let's have a debate about them, rather than brush the issue under the carpet.

Lennon himself dismissed the need for more facilities for kids, saying that when he was a bairn he simply got a ball and played with his mates in the street.

Yes, and that's exactly the point, isn't it? For many reasons that we can argue about forever -paedo paranoia, traffic, video games - kids aren't just playing in the street anymore... and because so many playing fields have been sold off and community sports facilities are lacking, that means they aren't playing full stop.

Instead, having been frustrated with their first choices, Celtic have spent a fair bit of money anyhow, and Lennon claims he'll have all of the £9.5m windfall from Aiden McGeady's transfer to play with too.

Is this really the best thing to do?

Celtic are caught in a death match with Rangers, breaking the bank in order to win a title that no one really cares about, managed by a man who is surely going to come unstuck sooner rather than later.

Here's a thought... why doesn't Celtic sponsor sports facilities in Scotland instead?

Every week, towns across Scotland are populated by locals wearing replica OF jerseys rather than that of their home town team. This isn't a trend likely to go away anytime soon.

So why doesn't Celtic put something back and sponsor sports facilities in these supporter towns? It would help the club cement relationships with these fans... and maybe help counter some animosity towards them as well.

In other words - it would still be commercially driven and entirely in Celtic's interest... but it would also help put something back into the community as well, and perhaps start to turn this country's footballing fortunes around.

SPL season preview

2010-08-11T22:41:00.004+01:00

Jeez, we're really not that good at this football lark at the moment, are we? A 3-0 friendly loss to Sweden is Craig Levein's first defeat as Scotland boss, and gives him plenty to think about before the first qualifier against Lithuania.

Still, he acknowledged that it was an inexperienced back line, and hopefully come the matches that matter there will be a bit more steel and craft about his team.

But with the SPL back this weekend, we can ignore our relative poverty compared to other nations, and concentrate on domestic issues for a while.

If ever there was a season to challenge the Old Firm, this was it. Title holders Rangers are skint, and have lost Kris Boyd, Kevin Thomson and several squad players this summer, while bringing in precisely no one. The return of Andy Webster - who had a fine season at Dundee Utd - should improve the back line, but, apart from Kenny Miller, who's going to score the goals?

Celtic have brought in lots of players, and with the news that Aiden McGeady has finally moved on, might do some more business. They could conceivably try and buy the title with a massive offer for Craig Bellamy, because their manager ain't got the guile to do it without a huge helping hand. Neil Lennon might have bossed a long winning run last season, but he's fluffed every big match so far. They look far, far away from being a good side.

The problem is, who can challenge them?

Andy Webster apart, Dundee Utd have done well to hold together the squad that finished 3rd last season. In fact, chairman Stephen Thompson got very angry earlier in the summer about "unsubstantiated" rumours about players leaving.

Yet he has also revealed that his family cannot carry on subsidising the club as they have been doing, so he can hardly complain when the media speculate about players like Craig Conway going - it's a simple matter of putting two and two together.

A lot may ride on the Arab's Europa League qualifying tie with AEK Athens - if they play like Motherwell in the previous round, entry into the group stage will ensure a financial windfall for the club that might just help keep the wolves at bay.

Play like Hibs, though (who got dumped out of the qualifying stages by Slovenian side Maribor) and player departures before the end of August become much more likely.

Either way, you just feel that there may not be a huge amount of further potential in this Dundee Utd team. Following their 3rd place and cup win, fans would hope that the club could invest further in the squad, but that's not going to happen. They're a decent outfit, but matching last season's achievements would be some feat, let alone beating them.

Hearts supporters are once again crowing about mounting a serious challenge (will they ever learn?) but everything rests on new signings Kevin Kyle and Stephen Elliott staying fit and addressing the team's glaring weakness last season - goal scoring.

In fairness, that's not quite true - Jim Jefferies will ensure that Hearts are a stubborn, hard to beat outfit. But it's hardly inspiring stuff, is it?

And how about the League's eternal enigma, Hibernian? While clubs like Aberdeen and Hearts have talked about redeveloping their homes, Hibs have now completed the transformation of Easter Road into a modern 20,000 seat stadium. Ok, still dwarfed by the Old Firm, but the club now has real potential, with an enviable youth set up and training facilities as well.

At the moment, though, they're not really showing it. John Hughes had a mixed first season in charge, and hasn't yet demonstrated he's found a way of getting his team to play well. He'll be given more time to prove himself, but the fans are split 50:50 on the man, and will become disaffected if early performances aren't good.

Motherwell will probably round off the top six again, because Craig Brown is enjoying an Indian summer at the club and seems to be running a happy ship.

The only prediction you can safely make about the bottom half of the table is that relegation will be a tightly contested affair again. No team is likely to be cut adrift at the bottom, but plenty - Kilmarnock, Hamilton, St Mirren - are operating on slim budgets and can't afford to replace players who have left with equal quality.

Terry Butcher has proved he can manage in the SPL before and will keep Inverness Caledonian Thistle in contention.

They probably won't do as well as St Johnstone did in their promotion season, and the Perth club could well make it into the top six with some good form and fortune.

Aberdeen, though, seem as listless as ever, despite their just announced plans for the new stadium. If they can raise the finance for it, and if they finally move, the Dons might open a new chapter in their history. But a few more seasons of drift await.

Hughes first taste of Europe is stale

2010-07-30T11:11:00.004+01:00

Hibernian's manager, John Hughes, is fond of saying that his ambition is to get his club "closer" to the Old Firm.

Job done, then, as his team mirrored Celtic's 3-0 loss to Braga with an identical scoreline against Maribor in Slovenia in their Europa League qualifying tie. The 300 or so Hibbys who made the trip in excitement and expectation were left watching a sorry and familar story unfold - a Scottish club in pre-season being rinsed out by European opposition.

Hughes claimed that his preparation for the match was meticulous, but his decision to start without Antony Stokes and Derek Riordan (who had both played parts in warm-up games in Holland) was baffling. Colin Nish is a tryer, but not the obvious choice if trying to keep possession against fitter, technically-competent opponents.

So well done Motherwell, who are bitter about conceding a late equaliser against Norwegian club Aalesunds but have a great chance of getting through the tie. In contrast to his naive counterpart at Hibs, Craig Brown is continuing to show there is still a place for experience in the game.

We're back!

2010-07-29T13:07:00.000+01:00

After an interminable wait, Scottish football is back!

The fans are warming up the vuvuzelas as the new season fast approaches. Fair enough, Motherwell have already started, with victory over Breidablik in the previous qualifying round of the Europa League, but frankly it’s best to treat these ties as pre-season games anyhow, given Scottish club’s miserable record in these games in recent seasons.

And hasn’t Neil Lennon started the new season well? With a mere 3-0 defeat to Braga in his first competitive game in charge as “permanent” manager, he’s proving himself to be much better than Gordon Strachan, who got thumped 5 zip by Artmedia in his first game.

Aiden McGeady didn’t play, but purely because he was injured, and anyhow – as Lenny said – the referee was at fault for the defeat.

A season of glory awaits!

World Cup begins!

2010-06-11T09:36:00.004+01:00

This moron doesn't understand, but the World Cup - despite the endless encroachment of the club game - is still the greatest football tournament on Earth.

And the great thing about being Scottish is that we can now enjoy the party whole-heartedly, without having to worry about how our own team will do. Yup, it's a genuine holiday. We get to watch great football, and the result doesn't matter.

So wish England well if you want to. Support ABE if you don't. Have a wee flutter (Mexico for the semis?). And, most of all, enjoy it.

Scottish football will resume normal service soon enough.

Time to put our feet up and watch the rest of world play football

2010-06-02T16:42:00.003+01:00

The World Cup starts next weekend, and once again Scotland is obligingly sitting this one out so that another country can take our place instead.

We'll be spared footage of members of the Tartan Army throwing themselves into the sea or throwing themselves into crime-ridden townships, and instead can enjoy the World Cup as (mostly) impartial observers... other than wishing England ill (if that's your thing), or keeping an eye out for the ten SPL players who'll be taking part.

Yes, ten, although if you discount Landry Nguemo and Edson Braafheid, who are no longer on loan at Celtic, and DaMarcus Beasley, who's out of contract, that paltry list gets even shorter. Clearly, the SPL does not attract the cream of global footballing talent these days.

Meanwhile, back home, Scotland's clubs can get on with the messy business of planning for next season. Rangers know that Walter will be in place for another year, before handing over to Ally McCoist. So the pressure is on to keep winning next year... except that Kris Boyd and a few others are off, and the club hasn't got any money to replace them.

The search for a new buyer is ongoing, but the only candidate in the frame at the moment is Andrew Ellis and he - like Ally McCoist - is yet to prove he's got what it takes.

Celtic still haven't appointed a new manager (Neil Lennon's still wagging his tail, but hasn't been thrown the bone yet) but apparently Jimmy Bullard has signed up for a season in Glasgow.

Nothing wrong with that, in itself, but are ageing Premiership stars the plan now, or is there a more cohesive strategy at Parkhead?

Kilmarnock and St. Mirren also need to appoint managers, before getting on with the messy business of putting a squad together.

And Hearts held their AGM this week, where they pulled off the usual smoke and mirrors show to general approval from the assembled shareholders. Ex-chairman and Romanov critic George Foulkes seemed very content with things.

Quite why the Hearts supporters are so happy is difficult to fathom - they were rubbish last season and there are still huge question marks about the club's future. Yet the return of Jim Jefferies as manager, and the more conciliatory style of Sergejus Fedotovas seems to have cheered them up no end - despite the £35m debt and the abandoned stadium redevelopment (the much-vaunted plans for a new main stand have been ditched, with vague promises that new, cheaper proposals will be revealed later this year).

No, all Hearts want is a few new players - same as everyone else.

Meanwhile, Henry McLeish will spend the summer writing part two of his manifesto to revamp Scottish football, and the SPL will keep thinking about how to change the league format to improve the product.

We'll be hoping for the best.

Farewell Christian Nade: our man of the season

2010-05-26T23:25:00.006+01:00

We've seen the last of Christian Nade in a Hearts shirt, and while the Jambos are by and large glad to get rid, boy are we gonna miss him.

Nade spent three years in Scottish football, and was laughed at by fans and derided in the press for much of that time. But in so many ways, the big man sums up the current state of Scottish football in 2010.

His arrival from Sheffield United in summer 2007 was yet another example of the insanity of the Hearts regime. Vladimir Romanov sanctioned a transfee fee of £500,000 and a weekly wage of around £10k a week - and it quickly transpired that, yet again, another big-money signing had gone badly wrong.

(If you think only Hearts are prone to this kind of folly, just remember the £2m Celtic blew on Robbie Keane this season to achieve absolutely sweet fuck all.)

Frequently injured, when Nade did play he looked desperately unfit - he may be French, but he's the very embodiment of Scotland's attitude towards exercise.

According to Sky, his manager at the Blades, Neil Warnock, expressed an interest in taking him back to Crystal Palace in 2008 - but for whatever reason, that transfer didn't happen, and Nade stayed at Tynecastle for the duration of his contract.

Unsettled and unhappy (and rumoured to be seeking solace in online, er, chat), Nade entered this season a mess, but at a press conference in October claimed to be putting his problems behind him.

Note that even the BBC can't resist a pun about the man's weight. And note also that Nade comes across as a genuinely open and likeable guy.

There was even, despite his miserable lack of goals (he scored 10 in total for Hearts in three years), talk of a new contract.

Because here's the other thing about Christian Nade - out-of-shape and unfashionable he may be, but, like Scottish football itself, he's nowhere near as bad as his biggest critics make out. He's got genuine technical ability, and a game awareness that enables him to hold the ball up and bring team mates into play. There were some signs that, after Csaba Laszlo's deathly dull rigidity, more positive tactics might bring the best out of him.

Sadly, though, those personality frailities caught up with him once again. Getting sent off against Rangers on 23 January didn't help his cause, but then after playing Celtic, he got into an argument with Ian Black and did what many right-thinking people would do - he punched the little tosser.

The Hearts hierachy then suspended him, and then told him he had no future at the club.

He provided more copy for the papers a few days later, after arranging to play a five-a-side match with some random punters through Facebook. It seemed he was just lonely and wanted some company.

Nade claims that he did in fact sign a new contract before the argument with Ian Black, but the fact that he does not have a signed copy is unlikely to help his case. However, he has certainly helped to shine a little more light on the bizarre way Hearts is run. Although initially reluctant to sign, he claims he didn't want to say so because the club would just drop him, as they did Jose Goncalves.

So what next for our hero? He's still only in his mid-20s, so should have many more years ahead of him as a professional player. But he would need to sort his head out, and become a dedicated athlete - and Scotland probably isn't the place to do that. He also seems to be someone who needs an arm put around him, so he can feel secure and confident. At Hearts the players simply don't get that.

Whatever happens, we wish him all the best. Scottish football is going to be a slightly duller place without him

The Arabs have some difficult decisions to make this summer

2010-05-21T09:46:00.004+01:00

Dundee Utd have enjoyed a great season. Craig Levein might have left mid-season to take the Scotland job, but after a brief wobble they overcame that and ended the season 3rd in the SPL, and winning the Scottish Cup.

No wonder the crowds were out in Dundee last weekend to celebrate, and with Peter Houston looking likely to accept the manager's job on a permanent basis, the club can look back on 2009/10 with immense satisfaction.

Gary Kenneth thinks they can improve on this, and even split the Old Firm next season. Well, sorry to burst the party atmosphere, Gary, but here's a good reason why you can't - chairman Steven Thompson has admitted that his family's support for the club is unsustainable, and players might have to be sold to balance the books.

Thompson claims that the £450,000 loaned to the club this season takes his family's total "investment" to £5m, which was generally reckoned to be the figure his dad Eddie had put in before he died.

But whatever the true figure, it seems clear that this arrangement will not continue. Dundee Utd simply have to balance the books, and that might mean selling players this summer.

Kenneth himself is seen as a likely target for English clubs (Blackpool had a bid rejected in January), while Craig Conway and Morgaro Gomis are also subjects of transfer speculation. Captain Andy Webster will return to Rangers after his loan expired.

And while the fans will have chuckled long and hard at Dundee's late season implosion which ended their promotion hopes, the Arabs could have done with those city derbies next season to help boost match day revenue. No wonder Stephen Thompson used those Cup parade celebrations to ask fans to come to Tannadice more often next season.

So much is speculation at the moment. If a bidding war develops for one or more of their players, Dundee Utd could bring in more than they could hope for this summer... but this might mean negotiating right up until the end of the transfer window. And they may well gamble on reaching the Europa League group stage and the added revenue that will bring.

How much is Stephen Thompson prepared to risk?

Just managing to survive

2010-05-19T10:15:00.006+01:00

So we've come to the end of another season, and it's not been a vintage one.

Another World Cup qualifying campaign ended in failure, and lame performances by our clubs in Europe did nothing to rehabilitate the reputation of Scottish football.

At least there was no Gretna-like disaster story this year, but be in no doubt that Scottish football is facing a huge crisis just now. With finances under attack from all sides, and supporters' demands as high as ever, managing an SPL club now is probably more difficult now than it's ever been.

Consider the evidence. Half the SPL changed their manager during the season, while St Mirren waited until their last game before dumping Gus McPherson. That's seven out of 12 clubs!

McPherson, in particular, might wonder what on earth he did wrong, having led the Buddies to the League Cup Final (which they really could have won) and kept them up once more.

"The team had got staid", said one unsympathetic supporter. Well, maybe so, but if your team's budget is so tight that Billy Mehmet becomes the talisman you can't afford to keep, you might reasonably ask just how any manager is supposed to build an exciting Buddies team.

Elsewhere, Kilmarnock fell out with Jim Jefferies, who took Csaba Laszlo's still-warm seat at Hearts, and replaced him with the two Jimmies. Motherwell dumped high-maintenance Jim Gannon and sought comfort with Pa Broon. Falkirk, having fallen for Eddie May's patter, then got rather taken by Stephen Pressley's smooth chat. Dundee Utd reluctantly allowed Craig Levein to do his duty, but found love on the rebound with his mate Peter Houston.

And Celtic, after the briefest honeymoon, ended their unhappy relationship with Tony Mowbray, and allowed smitten Neil Lennon a chance to try and win their hand.

Other couplings didn't end in divorce, but it wasn't all plain sailing. John Hughes at Hibs and Mark McGhee at Aberdeen - both popular appointments last summer - were under pressure, with plenty of supporters at both clubs asking for them to go.

And Walter Smith and Rangers, while undoubtedly in love, may still part ways this summer. Smith has been working without a contract since January, and with players certain to leave this summer with no guarantee they'll be replaced, he may well feel he's done all he can at Ibrox.

Rangers will crow about their title success, but in truth Celtic's awfulness played as much a part as their own resilience. In a strange way, their League Cup triumph was almost more impressive, because they strength of character in the final to beat a spirited St Mirren with 10 men.

The top level of Scottish football is in a perilious position. No one's got any money, and gates have been sharply lower this season, either through boredom, frustration, or trouble justifying the cost in these straightened times.

Clubs have struggled to persuade even their season ticket holders to turn up, let alone anyone else, and that means that crowds for next season will probably fall again, further squeezing managers' playing budgets. With La Liga and the Premiership on TV, how many punters are willing to pay £50 or more to drag their kid out to an SPL tussle?

Clubs are increasingly realising that bringing through young players from within is the only solution yet, as Henry McLeish's report confirmed, facilities in Scotland are inadequate. Simply put, not enough children are playing football, certainly not in any kind of structured way, and this is being felt all the way through the game. If SPL clubs are struggling, then what hope in the SFL?

The irony is that the SPL was a tighter, more competitive division this season, with many compelling fixtures. The Old Firm did pull away from the pack in the end, but it took them longer than usual, and teams took points off each other all season long. There are plenty of well-drilled, hard-working teams, but they are struggling to captivate their supporters.

Who'd be a manager eh?

Hibs break record and stretch credulity

2010-05-06T14:58:00.003+01:00

When John Hughes was appointed as the latest manager of Hibernian last summer, plenty of fans believed he might be the man to take the club to the next level.

Instead, his team has careered through this season in erratic fashion, much like Hibs have since anyone can remember. If Hughes has had an influence, it's that the swing between high and low points is even more pronounced than it was.

Last night's 6-6 draw at Fir Park (a record scoreline in the 12-year history of this SPL format) summed their season up - great first half, terrible second.

Back in January, Hibs were on Celtic's coat-tails, with pundits wondering if they could in fact finish above the Glasgow club this season. Hughes, mindful of the gulf in resources between even a spluttering Celtic and Hibs, dismissed that possibility, but stated in public that "he wanted third".

Since then, Hibs have crashed into an appalling run of form that's seen two wins from 17 and dumped the club down in 5th place in the League. Last night offered an opportunity to climb above Motherwell into 4th, which would at least guarantee a crack at the Europa League. But they blew it.

The scoreline is even more incredible when you watch highlights of the game. Hibs won an entertaining and open first half 4-2, with a hattrick from striker Colin Nish (who was rumoured to have been dropped following his criticism of the Hibs support).

Hibs then went 6-2 ahead with 25 minutes to go... and then collapsed, with keeper Graeme Smith at fault for at least two of Well's goals. He couldn't do anything about the equaliser, though - a beautiful shot across the goal from Lukas Jutkiewicz which could have been a contender for goal of the season.

Before the game, Hughes claimed that only "one or two" Hibs fans weren't supporting him. If that's the case, they've got very loud voices, because dissent is booming from the fan message boards.

Which is the real Hibs team? The one that chased the Old Firm so hard up until January, or the side that currently seems incapable of hanging on to a lead. Yet again, Hibs find consistency eludes them.

"A wee bit special"

2010-04-29T18:09:00.002+01:00

That's how Walter Smith described retaining the SPL title, after a 1-0 win at Hibs.

To make it all the more satisfying for the old man, the goal came from Kyle Lafferty, Smith's most criticised signing, who has rarely looked worth the £3.5m the club paid for him.

So credit where it's due - Rangers might have flopped badly in the Champions League group stage (again, though Walter Smith is used to that), they might have surrended the Scottish Cup too easily, and Celtic might have shot themselves in both feet this season, but they kept their eyes on the prize in the league, and came through with three games to spare.

Despite his achievements, there's no guarantee Smith or his management team will stay on next season. Off the field, Rangers are in a real mess - in debt by at least £30m, with a tough austerity plan imposed by their bank to try and reduce the debt.

The Glasgow Herald laid out the problems in excrutiating detail - suffice to say, unless a new buyer can be found soon (and that looks very unlikely), there will be no spending spree on the squad this summer.

Any potential buyers have been put off by a tax claim from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, which seems to believe that Rangers have been avoiding paying tax on payments to players by shuffling money through off-shore accounts. Despite Rangers being Her Maj's most loyal club, the Revenue seem unwilling to overlook this small matter.

So, despite their triumph, the future isn't looking all that rosy for Rangers. Their predicament does, however, might make the club more willing to listen to ideas to change Scottish football. And this can only be a good thing.

Good bye Neil Lennon

2010-04-12T14:18:00.002+01:00

Well, the man who wants the Celtic job has ensured that the club won't win a trophy this season, after being beaten 2-0 by Ross County in the Scottish Cup semi final.

Apart from saying how much he wanted to stay in post, Neil Lennon also found time in the build-up to the game to say that he was asking Robbie Keane to consider extending his stay past the end of the season. Which perhaps gives an explanation as to why Celtic weren't firing on all cylinders at Hampden - insufficient focus on the game in hand.

Still, Hibs' John Hughes must feel vindicated, as Ross County have proved that they aren't a bad side at all. Well, he would do, if Hibs hadn't been gubbed 4-1 by Hamilton at the weekend, which makes you wonder - can anyone get the Hibees to turn into a consistent team?

Incidentally, Celtic's last league match was at Easter Road, and though records show that Robbie Keane won the game with the only goal, he was in fact pretty useless all match (the goal was a penalty, by the way).

Just a thought, but perhaps Celtic would be better off ignoring the "box office", and employing a squad of lower-profile grafters who are committed to the club?

Little more than a year ago, Celtic looked unassailable, with Rangers in meltdown and a decent if unspectacular team. Two managers on, they are a mess - and management failings at the very top should take the blame.

Walter Smith, cruising to his second SPL title in a row and now not having to worry about the neighbours having a grand day out at Hampden in May, must be chuckling into his boots.

Saints deliver another home thrashing

2010-03-31T09:47:00.002+01:00

When St Johnstone beat Hibs 5-1 in mid-February, it was the Hibees' John Hughes who came under pressure. After a promising start to the season, the wheels had come off and they had been hammered by a newly promoted team who many had expected to be fighting for SPL survival this season.

What to say now, after the Perth side beat Rangers 4-1 last night?

Well, firstly, credit where it's due. Let's not talk about Rangers, but rather how the home team once again turned in an energetic and astute performance, and thoroughly deserved their win.

They were helped on their way by an outrageous strike from on-loan Cillian Sheridan (who has generally disappointed) and a deflected shot that wrong-footed Alan MacGregor. But Rangers got a goal back to make the scoreline 2-1 after just 16 minutes. Surely enough time for the Champions Elect to mount a comeback? Clearly not.

But we also have to mention that, as with his predecessor Owen Coyle, manager Derek McInnes will be attracting a lot of interest from other clubs now. Saints have probably managed to fend off any would-be new employers until the summer, but may struggle to hold on to their gaffer for next season.

Mind you, if they can keep finding people like him and Coyle to run the club, there won't be much to worry about.

Mowbray loses job he never understood

2010-03-25T16:03:00.004Z

When we posted yesterday about this lacklustre Scottish football season, it was assuming there were few surprises left to maintain interest this season.

But St Mirren thumping Celtic 4-0 is one of the biggest surprises you could hope for. Especially when the Buddies were supposedly licking their wounds after blowing a great chance to win the League Cup, while Celtic were supposedly in fighting form.

St Mirren were slick and incisive last night, but the best footage came from off the field. Tony Mowbray held his head in his hands, while Sellick chief Peter Lawwell thought about which plate he'd use to serve the gaffer's head on.

So that's it - the inventor of the Celtic huddle and man to bring expansive, attacking football back to Parkhead is gone, along with his backroom team, with Neil Lennon appointed caretaker.

The fresh, enthusiastic young coach who had got his first management job at Hibs had never returned to Scotland. Instead, the Tony Mowbray who came back to Celtic was surly and defensive in public, and seemed to lack authority.

His final comments as Celtic manager were as mealy-mouthed as many of his press conferences: "Maybe it isn't a league for trying to force the game and being expansive - maybe it's a league for playing defensive, negative football, and having the quality upfront to counter-attack."

Hmm, Tony. Maybe, if one of your players earns more than your opponent's entire squad, then the onus is on you to try and break them down. And maybe, just maybe, good managers rebuild their team while still getting results on the field, rather than rip up the entire backline mid-season and then wonder why you are leaking goals.

Walter Smith - a man with his own problems - has made Mowbray look like a rookie this season, not a man with two previous jobs in his cv and a supposedly strong conviction about how the game should be played.

Ultimately, Mowbray looked out of his depth, unable to handle the expectations that go with the job.

Hopes rest on Ross County

2010-03-24T18:31:00.003Z

Not been a vintage season, has it?

It started with Livingston's demotion to Division Three, and the usual rank rotten contributions by Scottish clubs in Europe. And now, for many fans, it's over before the end of March.

The SPL title race has been run, and only protocol prevents the handing of the trophy to Rangers now. Discounting the Scottish Cup, the Old Firm have little left to play for this season.

Hibs' season finished last night, when they were dumped out of that competition by Ross County. It's amazing to think that in late January, with Sol Bamba returning from the African Cup of Nations, many commentators were suggesting Hibs could finish above Celtic in the league and maybe - just maybe - end their 108 year hurt in the Cup.

Instead, after making hard work of the easiest possible draw all the way through, they are licking their wounds again, and wondering where the next win might come from. Hibs' traditional post-New Year slump has been more brutal than usual this year.

Dundee Utd and Motherwell may well be duking it out from 3rd spot til the last game of the season, but given our nation's woeful record in Europe, will it really matter?

And Hearts, having all but secured the top six and won a derby, will probably consider their business done for the season. They've nothing else to play for.

Falkirk, meanwhile, ain't dead and buried yet, but they still look odds-on for relegation. Unless they actually haul themselves off the bottom of the table, we'll struggle to get interested in this one too.

So well done to Ross County. Their victory over Hibs in the Scottish Cup has been described as the biggest result in the club's history, and was celebrated with a proper old-fashioned pitch invasion. Their prize is a semi-final against Celtic at Hampden.

Please, oh please, let them win that one as well.

Stumbles of the also-rans

2010-03-17T09:17:00.003Z

The SPL split has not been universally liked since its introduction, but it does add interest as the clubs move towards the end of the season.

If the first half of this campaign was all about the narrowing of the gap between the Old Firm and the rest, the second half has asked some serious questions about those pretenders to the crown. And in most cases, they are falling flat.

Hibs boss John Hughes made 3rd place an explicit target - and they are now in 5th.

Aberdeen have been inconsistent all season, so it was no surprise that just as Mark McGhee expressed the opinion that the top six was still possible, they lost to St Johnstone to make that target look very remote.

And Hearts continue in the same vein - returning Jambo Jim Jefferies was bold enough to tell us all that Mister Romanov was very happy with progress so far... and his club celebrated by capitulating to Motherwell.

Ah, Motherwell, who are now fourth, on the back of an impressive run masterminded by wily pensioner Craig Brown. Unlikely as it seemed a few months ago, you can't now rule them out for third spot.

That depends on Dundee Utd, of course, who alone amongst this gang have shown consistency all season - all the more impressive given that Craig Levein left half way through.

To really shake up the SPL, it needs not only the Old Firm to reign in their previous excesses, but at least a couple of the others to shake off previous bad habits and put a sustained challenge together. If Motherwell and the Arabs are fighting for third, then you have to say that better-resourced clubs like Hibs and Aberdeen are falling short.

Levein hopes for a fresh start

2010-03-03T17:28:00.003Z

Scotland kick off under another new manager tonight, as Craig Levein appears in the dug out for the first time for the friendly against the Czech Republic.

As the Czech Republic are also in Scotland's qualifying group for Euro 2012, both sides will put a little more importance on this knock about than usual.

The build up has, of course, been all about Levein's willingness to invite the Rangers bad boys back into the fold. He's extended invites to all of them, but only Kris Boyd will be involved this evening - Barry Ferguson apparently has a bye until next season, Lee McCulloch is injured, and Alan McGregor is helping the police with their inquiries / injured too.

And Boyd will be starting on the bench, both because Kenny Miller is the designated man for the "run about on your own up front and see if anything happens" role, and probably because there's a little public penance he has to pay before being inevitably summoned to take to the field.

We're pretty pragmatic about all this - it's true that Scotland have a limited pool of talent to choose from, so can't afford to exclude people for past misdemeanours.

But we'd distinguish between these four. Ferguson has been in fine form for Birmingham this season, and if he was as willing to play the holding midfield role for Scotland - rather than start strutting around the park like a cockerel - then he could definitely play a role. Boyd, meanwhile, is Scotland's best finisher, and has shown a little more to his game this season.

But McCulloch and MacGregor are both liabilities, and there are better players in their positions. Levein should move on.

Lost in Sectarianism

2010-03-02T14:09:00.005Z

And so to one of our irregular features on We Love Fitba, which we'll call Lost in Sectarianism in a nod to the Marina Hyde blog in the Guardian.

It's Sunday, and we're at Ibrox, for the third Old Firm match of the season, one that Celtic had to win to maintain any hope of winning the title. But it was off the field where the other battle for (moral) superiority in Glasgow was waged.

Here's the developments so far, but don't feel guilty if you feel like nodding off at any point. Falling asleep with boredom is far preferable to contemplating the depressing reality of Old Firm sectarian hand-wringing in the 21st century.

Rangers elected to begin the afternoon's proceedings with a minute's silence for Gerry Neef. Gerry who? you might say, but obscurity is no barrier to sanctimony these days, especially if your next game is against your hated rivals and you'd just love an opportunity to try and show them up.

Truth be told, if you found 10 Rangers fans who claimed detailed knowledge of Gerry Neef's career at the club, at least nine of them would be lying (he made a total of 48 appearances in the late 60s / early 70s). Nontheless, they all now demanded a minute's silence so that they could pay their respects to a man most had never heard of.

As it happens, the silence was fairly well observed, even though it was reported as "disrupted" in most media reports. Whether it was really disrupted by a handful of Celtic morons, or a larger mob of Rangers fans just itching to shout "scummy bastards!" as soon as they heard a pin drop, is open to debate.

But this episode was just the warm-up to the afternoon's main show piece. Rangers Community Foundation had chosen this match as the ideal event to honour Falkland's vet Simon Weston, who'd given a talk to the Foundation the day before.

Hmm, the Falkland Islands? Haven't they been in the news recently? Surely Rangers wouldn't co-opt one man's terrible injuries and inspirational recovery to make a political point? Are we really that cynical these days?

Sure enough, as Simon Weston was presented with his royal blue shirt at half time, the cameras scanned the Celtic enclosure, seeking any sign of disrespect. The headline just waiting for a story? Rangers support Our Boys. Fenian "scummy bastards" don't.

They found a Celtic fan waving an Argentina shirt around, Scotland's second favourite strip since 1986. This, it was deemed by the Sun, was enough to run the story about how a "twisted Celtic fan" taunted a war hero.

Spurred on by faux outrage, there's now a facebook page where you can register your own disgust at his behaviour, and help to track the offending tim down.

Of course, it is almost too easy to point out that cheap finger-pointing like this is all the more embarassing when it involves a man who met and befriended the Argentinian pilot who dropped the bomb that injured him so badly.

In other words, Simon Weston demonstrates forgiveness and understanding, and a mature world view that our two bigot brothers could barely comprehend, let alone emulate. If Rangers wanted to "honour" this man, maybe trying to build bridges with their neighbour, rather than perpetually wind them up, might be more appropriate?

It might also be stated that - at a time when the prospective next Foreign Secretary of the UK has recently tried to reprise the jingoistic fervour of the Falklands conflict - there has never been a better time to dig out our Argentina shirts and show that we, as a people, have moved on.

But no, Rangers have been declared winners in this round, so we must direct our anger as appropriate. Exploiting charitably-minded war heroes for cheap stunts is fine. Holding a national shirt of another country should be a criminal offence.