Ok, so we didn’t quite break our eye socket blowing our noses but I bet it hurts just as much. As befitting a site the critics prefer above all others, Inside Left injured itself while out doing a wonderfully middle-class pursuit, namely skiing. On a green slope. On the last run. On the last day. Two years ago.
Yes, as the evenings draw in and the weather gets colder, Inside Left’s old skiing injury is flaring up again. A particularly hard fall on the last day of our holiday has taken care of our tendons, leaving them inflamed and very, very sore. We’ve not slept for two weeks and we’re in constant pain, making typing a very painful and unpleasant experience.
There’s no action in the SPL this weekend, so over at The Scottish Football Blog they have a very good ‘report card‘ on the season so far, thankfully – given our injury – saving us the effort of having to write it.
Graham Spiers was a witness to the continued failings of the Old Firm – in this case, the blue half – to rid itself of bigotry. As we alluded to in our earlier piece on the situation at Ibrox, the club need to do all they can to rid themselves of the one thing that so characterises the club in order to make themselves a more attractive asses to any potential investor. It’s a big ask, made bigger by the fact that the person that caught Spiers’ attention was himself not old (“maybe 18 or 19″) suggesting that the torch of bigotry is being handed down from generation to generation. Admittedly, it’s always the minority that causes the raised eyebrows and the newspaper articles, but unless they’re reported to the club (something Spiers himself didn’t do), then those who do nothing to stop this behaviour are as guilty as those doing the shouting. In other words, you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.
What else? The response to the “Scottish Football Under the Spotlight” debate has been mute to put it mildly. We couldn’t find (m)any blogs and sites that referred to it.
Perhaps it’s just as well as the general concensus of the reports I’ve heard and read seems to be that not many of those attending think that change is forthcoming and that Henry McLeish is really just wasting his time. His report, due out next year sometimes will no doubt be used to stop the wobble on George Peat’s coffee table at Hampden. Gordon Smith will use his copy as drawing paper for the weans.
Possibly.
It’s a shame really that there’s so little faith put into McLeish’s report. At a time when Scottish football desperately needs a champion to grab it by its bootstraps and kick some sense into it, it looks like a lot of time is being wasted on a report that will be be read, hopefully, but which has no power to change anything. That’s the problem with all these seperate bodies that run our game: they’re quangos, answerable to no one but themselves and certainly not answerable to Henry McLeish. The final report will probably attribute a fair amount of the blame for our current situation to the SPL, the SFL and the SFA, but don’t expect much to come out of it: just more sagely stroking of beards and a long silence.
Like Graham Spiers at Ibrox on Sunday, silence is acceptance. Silence once McLeish’s report comes out is acceptance of the status quo and acceptance that this is as good as it’s ever going to get.
Elsewhere, George Burley, Scotland manager by default (they couldn’t find anyone better) is getting himself and his squad ready for a totally pointless and frankly unnecessary friendly against Japan. As is normal for these occasions, the call-offs are coming in thick ‘n fast, leaving Burley with a stripped-down squad. To paraphrase Basil Fawlty, this is supposed to be a football game, not the Burma Railway.
It’s such a pointless game, and the reasons for holding it escape us. Perhaps it was a bit of optimistic planning on the part of the SFA, because on the basis of assured qualification from our World Cup qualifying group, this game makes at least some sense and you could see why you’d want to play a friendly to keep the esprit de corps and all that up. But given that our qualification campaign ended in yet another dismal failure, the usefulness of this game begins to disappear.
Nevertheless, it’s a nice day out for the fringe players in the squad and those looking to make their break-thru on the international scene. And of course it’s a nice jolly for the SFA bigwigs who need an excuse to get those extra Air Miles for that lovely set of nested tables that the Shell station over on the Paisley Road are offering. Possibly.
Related posts:
- The Tuesday Ballbag – CIS Cup Linkage
- The Tuesday rumour mill
- The Monday Ballbag – Scottish football round-up
- The Ballbag
- The Monday Ballbag
Tags: Graham Spiers, Internationals, The Scottish Football Blog
[...] The Tuesday Ballbag “Ok, so we didn’t quite break our eye socket blowing our noses but I bet it hurts just as much. As befitting a site the critics prefer above all others, Inside Left injured itself while out doing a wonderfully middle-class pursuit, namely skiing. On a green slope. On the last run. On the last day. Two years ago. Yes, as the evenings draw in and the weather gets colder, Inside Left’s old skiing injury is flaring up again. A particularly hard fall on the last day of our holiday has taken care of our tendons, leaving them inflamed and very, very sore. We’ve not slept for two weeks and we’re in constant pain, making typing a very painful and unpleasant experience. There’s no action in the SPL this weekend, so over at The Scottish Football Blog they have a very good ‘report card‘ on the season so far, thankfully – given our injury – saving us the effort of having to write it.” (Inside Left) [...]