From: eftv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (G C Stewart)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer,eduni.football
Subject: Scottish Football is Crap (official !)
Date: 28 Jan 93 21:40:21 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

Recent controversies regarding the self-styled Scottish Super League
seem to have brought old resentments to the surface. It is said that
teams meeting ech other 4 times a season (at least!) creates grudges
btween rival players, and perhaps it does between fans as well. Us
Celtic fans have been able in the last week, to withdraw from the 
abuse barraging and let the Huns and Arabs get on with it, but one
week it will be be them, the next it will be Dons, Jambos and Tims.
Anyway, here's a few unofficial Paradise jury deliberations on the
current scene in Caledonia.

The Self-Styled Super League
----------------------------
It's not exactly breaking my heart to see David Murray's attempted
usurping of the Scottish game falling apart under his feet, but 
too many of us are treating this scheme as an excuse for Hun bashing
and generally blaming them for everything up to the Gulf War. 
I was pleased to see Celtic withdraw from the SSL, but the manner 
with which they did so left a great deal to be desired. Certainly
the comments from the chairmen of Aberdeen and Partick Thistle were
highly abusive, but they had some right to feel aggrieved at Celtic's
dishonesty. If anything though, Davd Murray's comments at the time 
were more in tune with the Celtic following - "For the first time,
I have reason to doubt the stewardship of Celtic". For most 'Tic fans
though, our "first time" came a very long time ago.
Like the Celtic board (at the moment) though, I do believe in reform
within the context of the Scottish League. Howver the latest 
proposal for league reconstruction was beyond farce. To play 26 games,
many of which would have been meaningless for the top 3 or 4 clubs and
then judge the league championship exclusively on a 6 team, 10 game
play-off might not have produced a quality of game any worse than the
present entertainment served up by the Premier League, but it would
completely go against the fundamental definition of a league
championship - a long campaign demanding consistency and resilliance.
We can at least thank the Super League clubs for saving us from this
mockery of a proposal.
Recent events though have illustrated that an attitude of self-interest
prevails at moreorless all levels of the Scottish league. Rangers have
demonstrated this over several years, at first with their destructive
on-field manner - importing notoriously vicious players from the 
English league and bearing a large responsibility for the recent
decline in the domestic game as a spectacle. This is less the case
perhaps now, but their roughshod methods have been transferred to
board level and the thinly disguised equality of the breakaway 8 or 9
clubs hides the greed of the remaining big four and the string pulling
of David Murray. Hibs, Partick, Motherwell and Dunfermline are very much
at the mercy of the bigger SSL clubs, but they'll go along with it
because they'll make more money out of it. It doesn't seem to bother
them that if the SSL clubs do abandon the Scottish League, then very
likely, old and popular clubs like Falkirk, Raith Rovers, Morton and
Hamilton Accies will go out of business. At the top greed motivates
Aberdeen and Hearts, but it is the worst kept secret (if indeed secret
is the right word any more), that Wallace Mercer is completely under
the dominion of Murray. However it seems that Aberdeen and Dundee Utd
have also cow-towed to Rangers by joining in the first place and Celtic
would also have come under this suspicion if they hadn't persistently
kept one foot publicly in the Scottish League. Certainly the ex-Rangers'
Pools director, Hugh Adam thought so. A vociferous critic of David
Murray, he expressed severe reservations about the SSL in a TV interview
last year around the time of its launching (and his resignation from
the Rangers board). But he also expressed a clear lack of respect for
the ability of Aberdeen, United and Hearts to stand up to Rangers - and
disappointment at the compliance of Celtic. And this is the opinion of
the person who is responsible for the raising of the funds which built
Rangers their pretty little stadium - and gave Murray something grand
to take the credit for. But it is clear that principals were not the
motivation for Celtic's withdrawal. While it was clearly not worth their
while to become a minor partner of Rangers, they would have gladly
participated if David Murray had agreed to a quite unbelievably selfish
money sharing proposal by Celtic, for themselves and Rangers. Murray,
quite rightly rejected this and the Celtic board continues to shame
the great name of the club and its supporters.

McLean v Rangers
----------------
For the most of us, the easiest option is to sympathis with Dundee
United's chairman, manager, Kirk elder and no doubt floor cleaner as
well. Rangers do appear to have overstepped the mark in their desire
to clinch Duncan Ferguson's signature before the European transfer
deadline (which has now passed), but they have every right to be
desparate to sign a fresh player for their forthcoming EC campaign.
Quite simply they have no chance of reaching the final with such
a disproportionate dependence on the scoring of McCoist, who has yet
to prove that he can get ot grips with a man-marker.  Jim McLean
though emerges with little dignity. Yes he is honest to a fault (his
religious beliefs playing a part no doubt), and Duncan Ferguson is a
player in desparate need of disciplining. He is young but extremely
arrogant and nowhere near ready for the pressures of being an Old 
Firm player, but McLean's reaction to Rangers' overtures are totally
out of proportion to any grievance they may have caused. Ferguson is
under contract until 1998 and they are in a position of some strength.
But where have we heard about a Dundee United player being disciplined,
walking out of club or having a showdown with Jim McLean before? Only
every two weeks before - that's bloody well where! Ask Gough, Dodds,
McKinnon, Milne, Connolly, Krivokapic and Gallagher. McLean has a habit
of losing sight of what's right in front of him, in his fanatical
pursuit of whatever dreams he has for United (it was once open 
attacking football, a long time ago!). Like many ageing managers, he
finds it difficult to relate to and get on with young players and he
cannot come to terms with the fact that we live in an era of greater
player power and less club loyalty. There is no shame in that - this
very same thing afflicted the great Jock Stein and quite clearly
ails Brian Clough this day. Where there is shame, though, is the
destructive effect he has on his players and his club. The treatment
meted out to the out-of-contract Miodrag Krivokapic last season was
a disgrace - and in many workplaces would have provoked industrial
action. United have been threatening to burst onto the scene again for
the last 4 years, but intruth they never will while McLean remains
the manager. It is sad, but somewhat appropriate to United decline
back into the obscurity from which McLean dragged them in the first
place.

Scottish Football is Pish!
--------------------------
There are lots of opinions flying around here about the standard of
the game up here. By this I think they mean the quality of the 
average player plying his trade on the ploughed fields of Firhill
or Dens' Park. But standard then must be a relative term and we
tend to judge ourselves by the general standard in Europe. It is
certainly true that Scottish football's standing is poorer now
than in the 1960's. Then Celtic and Rangers reached European finals
and Dundee, Kilmarnock, Hibernian and Dunfermline all reached 
semi-finals. Were Scottish players more skillful then ? No, of
course they weren't. They were less fit and in general they paid
less attention to improving their skills. But the relatively higher
standard was aided by the fact that French, Dutch and Belgian leagues
were all weaker - but a concentration on developing skills and an
altogether more professional approach has seen all three overtake
our game here and at the moment even the once extremely moderate
Danish and Swiss leagues are threatening to do the same. 
The problem is obviously a grass roots one and one which will take
many years and a potential Rinus Michels figure, if one is handy.
But it needn't all be doom and gloom - it is my opinion that the
Scottish game could be transformed as a spectacle tomorrow. 
Standards are not just about the technical excellence but also about
the willingness to play the game in a good spirit and to be a little
adventurous. Both those qualities were once in the Scottish game
in abundance. Look at the old films of games in the 60's and 70's.
When Celtic clinched the league title at Ibrox, of all places, in 1967,
there was a quite obvious show of courteous congratulations from
the Rangers' players. Look at the Celtic side of that era - did they
play all hands to to the deck defensive football with swift counter
attacking? No Jock Stein side ever did. What was typical of that
Scottish dominating side was the cavaliering swagger with which they
played. They even allowed themselves the luxury of conceding a goal a
game on average when winning the league in 1967 (times change but
Celtic defences don't), since 111 went in at the other end. Celtic
weren't alone in their commital to attacking football - Rangers,
Hearts and Hibs have all produced great attacking sides in the 20
year period after 1945. But Celtic's swaggerring reached its limits
and successive defeats by Feyenoord in 1970 and Ajax in 1971, told
us that "swaggerring" was no longer enough. A new era began in 
European football then and we were one of the first to get a lesson
on things to come. Then the work should have begun but it didn't
and we cannot turn the clock back. But the collective attitudes
of the Premier league managers can at least change and help attract
the punters back to the terracings. By my reckoning there are only
3 out of the 12 Premier league sides who look committed to attacking
football. Celtic are one - they have always been and hopefully always
will be too. It has brought them glory but also many defeats. The sight
of sides literally stealing 1 goals wins off them is all too familiar.
Aberdeen are another - they have become much more aggressive under 
Willie Miller and having Roy Aitken as assistant manager has given
the Dons a style more applicable to a traditional Celtic side than
the usual cautious pragmatic approach we have come to expect. They
lack a little in subtlety and indeed have a more modest pool than 
both Old Firm sides - but they are free-scoring and good to watch.
Falkirk are the only other attacking side - it is mainly the 
philosophy of their manager, Jim Jeffries, who threw out the rule
book that says that all lower sides in the table must kick hell
out of everybody else, because staying up at all costs is justified.
It's a pity though, because the Bairns' attacking style has cost them
goals and points and being relegated looks a real possibility. The 
rest of the sides are all capable of reducing games to stagnation.
Rangers can be unbelievably boring, thanks to the ultra-caution of
Walter Smith. They will attack - and attack they do well - but only
when they feel they have to or when the result is beyond dispute.
The rest of the league divides into the brutal - Hearts, Hibs,
Dundee and Airdrie and the downright insomnia cures - Dundee United
and Motherwell. I don't know where St Johnstone are - they just
look average at everything.
It is a very serious situation because not only does it drive away
supporters but it also breeds a type of manager and a type of 
player. Managers will select a hard running athlete before the
artist and we are quite needlessly deprived of certain apsects of
the game - mostly the player who picks the ball up and takes the
opponent on. The game could be tranformed instantly by a little
bit of trust between sides - though I think we should start by 
shooting Alex Miller.

What do you think?

 Gerry Stewart

(phew!)