Inside Left

Well folks, just a few more weeks and we can finally restore the natural order of the universe, as the Scottish football season kicks off again on 8th August.

For many of us the start of the season can’t come soon enough. Personally I couldnae give a fart in a Tesco’s bag that England finally beat Australia at cricket for this first time since 1732 or whatever. I just want the football to start so that my week can return to some degree of regularity – the build-up to the game, listing to the radio bringing reports from around the grounds, the Saturday evening staying up late to watch the highlights, reading the sports back pages on the Monday, then getting ready again for the next game.

As I’m writing this word has filtered through that Hamilton’s James McCarthy, another of Scotland’s fine young talent is heading south to the bright lights and the big pay cheques of the EPL. He’s only gone and joined Wigan for a whole bunch of money (about £1.2m, rising to £3m, including all the Clearasil he’ll ever need). The reason he went with Wigan and not Wolves? Because they guaranteed him first team football, that’s why, so there will be none of this being bought by some diddy Old Firm team only to spend the rest of your career warming the bench for the likes of Bobo Balde.

I’m glad for James that he’s finally got his move. Wigan are not a big club by EPL standards, but they’re pretty established in the league and probably wont go down again any time soon, unlike Wolves, one of the many yo-yo teams we’ve seen down south of late (a list which includes West Brom, a team formerly managed and relegated by Celtic’s Tony Mowbray).

I guess there are still plenty of resources out there for big-money transfers: recession be damned I say. Unless … you’re an employee of Livingston Football Club plc, in which case you’re probably quite anxious about the future. At this near-terminal stage, you’d be thinking that most Livi players are taking their kit home with them after a training session, in case the club goes tits-up and they’ll be able to sell it off as ‘memorabilia’ on Ebay for some much needed money. Perhaps it’s not a bad idea to do this before the club goes to the wall, because reports came through today that the club asked its players to come to the friendly game against Plymouth in their own car, as the club had canceled the team bus due to ‘being short a few quid’. Yes, the embarrassment seems to know no boundaries down at the Almondvale.

It is all very desperate really, but to get an idea of the costs involved, I rang up the Sixt office in Edinburgh for a quote.

I asked them for a minibus large enough to take 17 people – plus some luggage and a crate of Stella – from Livingston to Bathgate. If anyone from Livingston FC is reading this, Sixt in Edinburgh will do you a nice 17-seater bus for only £164.14 (excluding taxes and other assorted extras such as kiddie seats), picking up and dropping off at Edinburgh Airport. Not bad eh?

So why Bathgate you’re wondering, and not Livingston? Well, the game had to be played at Junior side Bathgate Thistle’s ground after a failed safety inspection at the Almondvale (another nail in the Livi coffin). Yet, somewhat amazingly given all the setbacks of late, Livi managed to record a rather splendid 2-1 win against Plymouth, a team managed by Dundee United legend Paul Sturrock. Anthony McParland got himself on the score sheet after Plymouth conceded an own goal through Krizstian Timar.

And speaking of Dundee United, Livingston where not the only side on friendly duty last night. Dundee United are currently enjoying a pre-season tour of Ireland and last night they took on Irish Premier League side Drogheda United. The Irish season is well under way (20 games played so far). Drogheda are currently 3rd bottom, but they’ve at least been playing, so should be match-fit. That extra sharpness showed as United found themselves 2-0 down to the part-timers from up the coast from Dublin just after halftime. But a spirited fight-back from Craig Levein’s men restored honour: Danny Cadamateri scored his first goal for the Terrors. Mihael Kovacevic then leveled the scores with 11 minutes left on the clock.

United next play two more Irish sides – Dublin based UCD, followed by Kildare County. They return to the UK for friendlies against two relegated sides from last season, Inverness Caley and Newcastle United. A week before the open the season at home against Hearts, they’ll welcome Blackburn Rovers to Tannadice.

Later on this week we’ve got Motherwell and Falkirk trying to get into the next round of the Europa League. It’s hard to say which team has the harder task here: Falkirk for having to go away to Liechtenstein to defend a narrow 1-0 lead, or Motherwell for trying to overturn a 1-0 deficit to a pacey Albanian side. Actually, Motherwell might be in with a chance of getting through by default as the British Embassy in Tirana are being a little tardy in issuing visa’s to the Albanians.

Lastly:  it’s got nothing to do with Scottish football, but worthy of note (and perhaps a measure of the quality of the Irish league) is that another team where playing a friendly in the Republic yesterday. The Galacticos of Real Madrid – Spain’s most successful team – took the opportunity of a game against Shamrock Rovers – Ireland’s most successful team – to show off their new signings.

Now, on paper you’d be forgiven for wondering if the scoreboard at the Tallaght Stadium, Dublin, could deal with double-digit score lines. I mean, you’ve got yer Kaka, you’ve got yer Ronaldo, Benzema, van der Vaart, Sneijder and Raul. And consider the fact that Real made 10 changes at halftime and still where able to field a side with quite a few internationals. It was all the more surprising therefore that it was only a Benzema goal that separated the sides after 90 minutes. Ronaldo had a go at one of his trademark free kicks, but from the left of the 18-yard area the ball bobbled harmlessly towards the corner flag. Ok, so it was pishing down, but still, that’s £80m worth of free-kicking talent you’ve got there.

I reckon Charlie Mulgrew would have put it away.

The Scottish Premier League is ready to accept a television deal from Sky and ESPN worth less than half the £139m they would have received from failed broadcaster Setanta. (Daily Express)

The Scottish Premier League is set to scrap its reserve league at its annual meeting on 16 July because of squad cutbacks. (Daily Record)

Celtic, Hull, West Ham and Fulham will learn on Tuesday who has won the race to sign £3.8m Nancy striker Marc-Antoine Fortune. (The Herald)

Celtic and Bolton face competition from Racing Santander as they seek to sign Real Sociedad left-back Xabi Castillo. (The Herald)

Celtic have left out-of-favour midfielder Massimo Donati out of their squad heading for pre-season training in Australia. (Daily Record)

Celtic coach Neil Lennon is Stockport County’s number one target for their managerial vacancy. (Daily Record)

Former Dundee manager Alex Rae is to be named Paul Ince’s assistant at MK Dons. (Daily Mail)

DaMarcus Beasley says he might have to quit Rangers in search of regular first-team football to regain his starting place with the USA ahead of the World Cup finals. (Daily Mail)

Cardiff forward Warren Feeney says he would be interested in a move to Hearts. (Various)

Former Dumbarton owner Neil Rankine says he is ready to help cash-strapped Livingston if West Lothian Council gives the club more time to pay rent arrears. (Various)

The BuyStirlingAlbion campaign says it will allow a sponsor to have its name in the club’s title should they achieve their aim of making them 100% supporter-owned. (Various)

Aston Villa’s Scotland Under-21 international Barry Bannon is poised to sign a new long-term contract this week. (Daily Record)

Source: BBC

Ah, another week in the wonderful world of Scottish football lies ahead. Generally at this time of year, football bloggers take a break from the keyboards and enjoy a well-earned break from the cut and thrust of blogging about the round ball  game, but the close season so far has been anything but closed.

Thankfully as a Scottish football blog we didn’t have to spend too much time talking about all the nonsense surrounding Ronaldo, the most expensive man-child in the world as he finally fecks off to chase his dreams in Madrid or the way he’s spending a lot of time in Paris these days. Neither do we have to waste any column inches to the unfolding fiasco at Newcastle, formerly the biggest club in the north-east of England, and now just another Championship side with hee-haw chance of getting sold or back in the EPL anytime soon, no matter how funny it might be. And as for England and their World Cup qualifying campaign, who gives a good fart if they beat Andorra (the world’s only international pub team) or Kazakhstan, whereverthehellthatis. Not us, that’s for sure.

Up here in Scotland, within hours and days of the end of the season, we had three clubs without a manager, one club losing nearly all their players (retaining only enough to field a 5-a-side team plus 1 reserve), two clubs battling to stay in existence and one television station within days of going under, taking all their revenue, and possibly one or two SPL clubs with them. And we’re only half-way through June!

Yes, no time was lost getting rid of the deadwood. Or to be more precise, Jimmy Calderwood. The Aberdeen manager was sent packing right after he managed to secure European football for the second time in three years as well as finishing in the top four for the fifth time in six years.

If that’s the kind of form that gets you fired in Scotland, there’s going to be a lot of managers changing jobs up here soon.

Calderwood committed the cardinal sin of not winning any silverware (i.e. domestic cups) all of which is bad enough, but ‘not winning silverware’ translates roughly to ‘going out to lower leage opposition twice in a row’ which is unforgivable. The perma-tan former Dunfermline manager was sent packing, along with the rest of his backroom staff. Not many tears where shed by the Aberdeen faithful, his obvious Rangers bias coming through more often than not (and we’re not just talking about his orange hue).

Meanwhile, across the country, Gordon Strachan (aka ‘Wee Gordon Strachan’) threw in the towel at Celtic after he narrowly missed out on winning the title for the fourth time in row. It would have taken a minor miracle for Celtic to have won the league on that final day, requiring Rangers to lose to United and Celtic to score, oh, a whole bunch of goals against Hearts. Unlike Calderwood’s sacking, Strachan’s departure surprised few, but delighted many. But like Calderwood, Strachan was never hugely popular at the club. A man not of the Celtic tradition and a man once attacked on the pitch at Celtic Park whilst he was still playing for Aberdeen, he didn’t get off to a great start with that shocker of a result against Artmedia Bratislava all those years ago, but nevertheless he still managed to win the league three years on the trot, the League Cup twice, the Scottish Cup once and pick up three SPFA Manager Of The Year gongs

Not to be outdone, Mixu Paateleinen decided enough mid-table mediocrity was enough, so he too decided to call it a day over at Hibernian. The big Fin, a player managed to get the team into the top half of the table, but that early exit in the Inter Toto Cup (a 4-0 aggregate defeat to IF Elfsborg), together with getting knocked out by Morton in the League Cup made his tenure a long hard slog, much like the football he was accused of getting his teams to play.

So with all the commotion, no time was wasted finding replacement gaffers before the players come back from their short break at Butlins.

Mark McGhee was quickly drafted in to take over at his former club. Well, only after Celtic wouldn’t give him the job that is. To be fair, McGhee never denied that Aberdeen was his second choice after Celtic (a club he played for previously) and who could blame him. As was so delightfully put on BBC Scotland’s Footloose program the other day, if you had the choice of managing your local corner shop or Harrods, you’d not be long deciding.

Hibernian appointed Falkirk manager John ‘Yogi’ Hughes to be the man to take Hibs from 6th to 5th next season. A good choice we reckon. Falkirk have played some really nice attacking football over the last season, and you’d think that with the likes of Fletcher, Nish and Riordan up front, Hibs and Hughes could be quite a quite a threat next season. Or maybe not, if history is anything to go by.

Speaking of Hibs, Celtic are on the verge of bringing Tony Mowbray up north from West Bromwich Albion. Celtic had tried to get Burnley’s Owen Coyle, who clearly fancies a season of getting thumped every week to winning silverware in Scotland as well as Swansea’s Roberto Martinez, a man who would rather manage mid-tablers Wigan in their half  empty stadium every week. At the time of writing, the websites where already starting to fill with former WBA players saying they fancy a year north of the border, so clearly the Mowbray deal is now at the personal terms stage, the sticking point now being around whether or not Celtic will agree to the bowl of M&M’s with the blue ones taken out being provided before every game.

We’ve gone on record on this site how we feel about former players returning to manage their former clubs so we’ll not delve into it again here, but good luck to them all we say. Just don’t say we didn’t warn you when we get to Christmas and your team is out of every competition going …

Unfortunately, it’s not all glitz and money in Scottish football. Throughout the season we’ve seen and heard reports  about trouble in the lower divisions. Livingston have had problems paying players, while Stranraer (who amassed debts of over £250,000 last season) and Stirling Albion are both launching bids to raise money from the supporters in order to save their respective clubs.

News this week came through about the goings on at Clyde. The ‘Bully Wee’ where relegated from the First Division and this week announced another 12 players who agreed to have their contracts terminated in order to avoid bankruptcy; this follows on from the 13 out-of-contract players already released previously. Manager John Brown has announced open trails next Saturday (June 22nd) to restock the club and secure survival.

While money has always been too tight to mention for the teams in the SFL, it’s not always been a land of milk and honey for the top flight teams either. The threatened demise of Setanta has caused quite a stir north of the border. While the amount of money that the SPL received from the troubled Irish broadcaster is small change compared to the mega-deals on offer to the Barclays Premier League, the £125m investment the Setanta deal promised, represented a sizable chunk of income for many SPL sides.  One SPL chairman was quoted as saying that his club’s entire wage bill of £1.5m is paid for by the money from the broadcaster. It’s a situation that is probably echoed at a number of clubs, including Kilmarnock, reputed to have a £12m debt, and Hearts, currently the club in Scotland with the largest net debt, estimated at some £37m. For clubs like St Mirren, Motherwell, Falkirk and even Dundee United,  the Setanta money represents about 20-30% of their income.

Last week the Scottish Premier League stepped in to pay the £3m Setanta owed the 12 clubs in the SPL, after Setanta defaulted on the payment. The SPL clearly expect this money to be repaid, and good news arrived when it emerged that a Russian-born billionaire was preparing a £20m takeover of Setanta. However, even if Setanta was to survive, there are doubts about the continuity of the existing deal that Setanta has with the SPL. Clearly, whatever deal the new owners strike with Setanta will involve a reappraisal and renegotiation of the deals already in place. The SPL would be foolish to assume that the new owners are going to carry on with the deal, which would have seen Setanta broadcast live coverage from 2010 onwards.

But the SPL are not in a strong negotiating position. Scottish football – as we’re continually being told, is not an attractive proposition – and interest in the game outside of Scotland is minimal at best. In the interest of the clubs they represent, the SPL would do well to accept whatever deal it gets from the new Setanta, because there simply are no other parties interested in taking over live coverage of Scottish football.

What it means for our clubs is not yet clear, but one thing is for sure: the shockwaves from the Setanta deal could rumble on for seasons to come.

The word ‘legend’ has been thrown around a lot these last few days in the pubs of Aberdeen. There’s talk of rekindling the spirit of ‘83, of domestic success and of fortress Pittodrie around the Aberdeen FC forums and fansites.

If, as is widely expected, Mark McGhee returns to the club where he more than earned his legend status, he can expect a mostly warm welcome from the Pittodrie support hankering for success after many years in the footballing wilderness.

In his five years at Pittodrie from 1979 to 1984, the striker, signed from Newcastle United for £75,000 was part of the Dons team that for a short period in the early 80’s conquered Scotland and Europe. In over 250 appearances all competitions, McGhee, nicknamed “Dingus” by team mate John McMaster, scored over 100 goals and was voted the PFA players’ player of the year in 1982. He had already moved on to SV Hamburg just before the start of the season that would see Aberdeen win their final league title in 1985 – the last time a team from outside of Glasgow would win the league.

His reputation as a capable manager was largely forged at Reading, Millwall and Brighton, teams with whom he achieved promotion in his first seasons in charge. When he joined Motherwell in June 2007, he transformed the team that narrowly avoided relegation to the First Division and led them to their highest league finish for many years. McGhee narrowly missed out on the Scotland job, the SFA instead opting for George Burley, and was a flight away from being manager at Hearts before having second thoughts,  instead preferring to lead Motherwell into Europe.

While McGhee’s first season at Fir Park was a tremendous success, his second season proved less so. A poor start saw Motherwell struggle to find any consistent form, the side never reaching into the top half of the table. Early exits from the Scottish Cup and the League Cup, coupled with a first round exit in Europe to French mid-table side AS Nancy took a lot of the shine off the highs of the previous season.

It’s a reflection of the state of Scottish football that no silverware has crossed the threshold at Aberdeen, a club that in modern terms anyway, is one of the most successful in Scotland.  The last addition to the Pittodrie trophy room was the Scottish League Cup in 1995, when goals by Duncan Shearer (himself a former assistant manager at Aberdeen) and Billy Dodds saw the Dons beat Dundee 2-0 in the final.

No one can doubt McGhee’s sentimental desire to return to the north-east and the club where he made such a name for himself. As McGhee himself says:

“for me, there is an element of sentimentality attached to the Aberdeen job. This is an opportunity to manage a club where I had fantastic success and memories as a player, so there is an element of going home about the Aberdeen job for me and I quite like that.”

But McGhee should be aware that he’s entering into uncharted territory. While he’s never had a history with any of the clubs he has previously managed, rejoining Aberdeen could open up a potential can of worms and put at stake the reputation that he still retains with the Pittodrie faithful. It is perhaps a mark of the man that he’s willing to accept the challenge.

History tells us that former legends – or even mere former players – do not always succeed as managers. John Greig at Rangers, Billy McNeill and Kenny Dalglish at Celtic are all examples of cult heroes who failed to repeat their on-field magic from the dugout. More recent examples include Mixu Paateleinen and Craig Brewster, while in England Gareth Southgate and Kevin Keegan have been unable to turn their clubs fortunes around.

Aberdeen have been guilty of clinging to sentimentality in the past. Willie Miller, McGhee’s captain during those glory days of the early 80’s and another of the ‘legends’ at Pittodrie became manager at Aberdeen in February 1992 following the departure of Alex Smith and Jocky Scott. Two second-placed finishes in Millers first full seasons in charge where followed by steadily worsening performances, until in one of Aberdeen’s darkest moments, they lost to Latvian minnows Skonto Riga in the UEFA Cup. Struggling in the bottom half for most of the season (the Dons would never be placed higher than 6th), following a 3-1 defeat away to Kilmarnock, the club had no option but to sack Miller.

The team McGhee inherits is possibly one of the strongest sides seen at Pittodrie for some time. His liking for a 4-3-3 formation suits the likes of Aluko, Kerr, Macdonald and Mulgrew and will hopefully bring back the sort of attacking football that has not been seen at Pittodrie for quite some time.

And while no one expects Aberdeen to win the league, most fans expect the club to return to winning ways. For McGhee, bringing silverware back to Aberdeen should be his first priority: the lack of domestic cup success is (according to the club at least anyway) what ultimately cost Jimmy Calderwood, the man he will succeed, his job. European qualification should be considered his second target, as his predecessor has set the standard in his last two seasons at the club.

With a fair slice of luck and the support of the fans and club, McGhee should go a long way, but, as Willie Miller discovered, your legendary status can only help you for so long.

The knives are out for Motherwell. After yet another brutal display by the Steelmen that saw them concede 4 goals, manager Mark McGhee made his second ‘we are gash‘ speech of the week. Even their own players are getting in on the act now, that’s how desperate things have become. Defender Bob Malcolm reckons they’re playing like a lower division side at the minute, though he cant figure out why. Well Bob, you’d better figure out just why real quick before all the practice at being a lower league side gets put to good use come August next year.

Messrs Jefferies and Levein where at it again. Complaining, that is. The Kilmarnock gaffer felt his side where ‘destined to lose‘ to Inverness Caley – especially given Caley’s defensive tactics, while Dundee United manager Craig Levein was raging at Hamilton’s own use of defensive tactics as his side spluttered to a single point thanks to a Hamilton own goal. Apparently not happy at Accies’ 3-6-1 formation, which more than suffocated the midfield, Levein was left ‘extremely frustrated’ at Accies’ tactics.

“Play 3-6-1, get in peoples’ faces, kick them and when the ball is in the air jump into them and the referee doesn’t do anything about it. That set the pattern for the game and it lasted from the first minute until the fifth minute of injury time. I’m just hacked off tonight, they didn’t try and play, they tried to kick us, the referee let them away with it, the game descended into a farce.”

whines Levein.

Over in Edinburgh it’s all smiles as both Hibs and Hearts win on the same day for the first time in possibly ages if we could be bothered to look it up. Not so smiley is Jimmy Calderwood, following Aberdeen’s 2-0 defeat at Castle Greyskull, a defeat that prompted the Press and Journal to decry the game “another pointless exercise as Dons push self-destruct button again”. In all fairness, Aberdeen have not won at Ibrox since Haniball crossed the Alps, so given the respective forms of both teams it should not come as much of a surprise to all and sundry that Aberdeen would lose this game as well. Still, there was some grounds for optimism and who knows, a seventh placed finish is still a realistic possibility up in the North East.

And while we’re up in the north, how about Fort William eh? The mighty Fort got into double figures for the second time this season, this time a slender 10-0 defeat at the hands of Deveronvale. The defeat follows on from another 10-0 tanking, this time at the hands of Junior side Banks O’ Dee, a defeat that filled the Aberdeen side with such optimism that they’re seriously considering stepping up to the Highland League.

Oops, sorry. One more. Peterhead boss Neale Cooper was at a loss to explain why his side’s game against Stirling was not called off. Despite the worsening conditions, which where already pretty bad come kick-off, the game went ahead prompting the former Aberdeen players to say

The match should never have started. It was a farce. It was a great effort from the people who tried to clear the pitch before kick-off, but the sensible decision would have been to postpone it.  It was impossible to get the ball down and play football so both teams were trying to get the ball over the top of the defences. It is very hard for me to analyse the 90 minutes or talk tactically about my team because it was just a farce, therefore a draw was the fairest outcome.

And here’s us thinking that hoofing the “ball over the defence” was a standard tactic down in the lower leagues. Judging by what Cooper said, there is clearly more to the SFL than we thought.