Inside Left has been busy putting together a wee list of our hopes and dreams for the season yet to come. In no particular order, here are some of the things we’d like to see happen in the next season.
1. Our teams to progress a bit further in Europe than last season.
Last season was utter mince for our sides in Europe. Motherwell, Queen of the South, Hibernian and Rangers – in a particularly arse-clenching way – failed to get past their first opponents. Celtic, our Champions League representatives, at least contrived not to lose their home games, preferring instead to lose away from home and the critical eyes of their own fans.
Much sagely stroking of beards followed the elimination of our finest, together with lengthy articles in the press and blogworld about the state of Scottish football. Look, when even Rangers can’t get past some pish Lithuanian side, or Motherwell past some French duffers, things are surely very dire. So, number one on our wish list is for the hope for greater things in Europe this year. We’re not sure about Aberdeen or Hearts who both face some tough opposition, possibly, but surely to God Motherwell and Falkirk at the very least should progress to the next round.
2. To go through a season without one team getting into financial trouble.
It seems we can’t go through a season without one club hitting one financial calamity or another. This season we had worrysome reports about the future financial viability of Stranraer and Clyde, Livingston and Stirling Albion. In the Premier League, we recently lost Gretna, while Dundee United and Falkirk both received advances on the prize money they where due (based on final league position) to keep them going for a bit longer. With Setanta finally going under in a mountain of unpaid bills and overoptimistic subscription targets, it’s sadly unavoidable that we’ll probably be hearing about one or two more clubs who will have to cut back in order to make ends meet.
One manager in particular who won’t be too happy with these possible cutbacks is new Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee. Back on 13th June, Aberdeen director of football Willie Miller promised McGhee that the demise of Setanta would not be affect the transfer budget available to McGhee to strengthen the squad. However, in today’s Evening Express we read that, contrary to this earlier promise, Aberdeen can’t afford transfer fees as a result of the doubts around the SPL’s television rights. It’s hardly an auspicious start to the season for Aberdeen, but, then again, it’s probably going to be much the same story for the rest of the league too.
Although it looks like the SPL rights will be bought (most likely by Sky), the size of the deal looks to be well below what was originally promised, with some sources claiming that at least £35m will be shaved off the deal, representing roughly £2m per club.
3. The emergence of the next Kenny Dalglish
You’ve got to wonder where he’s going to come from, but if finances to bring in players from outside are going to be on the short side, it’s from the youth teams and the academies that the next bright talent may well have to emerge. Sure, we all know that as soon as a player is getting raved about they’ll be snapped up by Celtic and Rangers, never to be seen again, but as Hamilton have proved with James McCarthy, sometimes they unearth a player not dazzled by the bright lights of Ibrox or Parkhead. The fact he’s chosen to play for the Republic of Ireland and not Scotland highlights another huge problem (i.e. our scouting abilities) but nevertheless, he’s a great wee player playing in the Scottish Leagues who has been attracting a lot of attention from clubs south of the border.
Some of the other young players currently playing around Scotland include John Fleck, Chris MaGuire, Scott Arfield, Paul Caddis and David Goodwillie, players all featuring in the current Scotland U21 side.
The SFA are this year also investing heavily in the Soccer One project which hopes to encourage football in schools, as well as offering assistance to volunteers to get their coaching badges. Whether or not this scheme will produce another Kenny Dalglish remains to be seen, but we hope that this season we’re going to see some of these young players become regulars in their club sides.
4. Scotland to qualify for the World Cup
We’re nearly there, but once again we need to rely on a series of fortuitous results to get us to the promised land. Fate has already dealt Burley’s troops a good hand, namely Norway and Iceland dropping points at the expense of the already qualified Dutch and the tricky Macedonians in our Group 9 games.
But while Scotland can look forward to playing both the Netherlands and Norway in the next few months in the hope that neither side will put up much resistance as they’ve got nothing really to play for, the key game is against Macedonia on the 5th September. A victory there will virtually assure Scotland of finishing second in the group. All we have to do then is score, and score like our life (or, in this case qualification) depended on it. Qualification as the best Second Placed team depends largely on the auld enemy, England. You see, Scotland currently lie second from bottom in the ranking of second placed teams, two points clear of Croatia, who share a group with runaway leaders England.
To make matters more complicated, Croatia is currently equal second with the Ukraine, another team that England has left to play. Assuming Scotland doesn’t slip up against Macedonia (the game is at Hampden), we need England to do us a favour and thrash both Croatia and the Ukraine.
5. A serious debate about the future of Scottish football
We’ve mentioned it before, but former First Minister Henry McLeish has invited fans of all teams to contribute towards a discussion about the state of the game north of the border and, more importantly, what to do about it. I recent years we’ve had many initiatives to try and make things a little more exciting (such as the league split, a 10, then 12 team SPL, SPL2 and so on), yet Scottish football remains as stuck as it’s ever done. Our club sides perform badly in Europe, our national side struggles through each qualifying campaign, and our best players are no longer being sold to Liverpool, Manchester United or Arsenal, but to sides in the Championship or League 1.
What has gone wrong? Does football north of the border need more teams, or less? Would the 6+5 rule make any difference? Should we ditch the Third Division in place of two massive 16 team leagues? Would sending the Old Firm packing to the English leagues improve things? Or is Scottish football just perfect the way it is?
Questions, questions, questions. Questions that need an answer real soon! McLeish is on the case, but words need to be followed up with practical actions, otherwise it’s just more hot air.
6. Someone else to win the SPL
It’s not going to happen, but this is a wish list right, so allow me some latitude here.
It’s hard to see anyone breaking the Old Firm dominance this season or indeed any season anytime soon, but if we had to put our money on one team to perhaps cause the biggest shock in world football since records began, we have to go with Hearts. The team improved tremendously last season, partly to do with the lack of interference from owner Romanov, but mostly thanks to the canny management of Csaba Laszlo, the SPL Manager of the Year 2008/09. His achievements have not gone unnoticed: his name has been linked to possible moves down south. The trouble with Hearts of course is in their finances. The club has a massive debt and reported a £3.5m operating loss in season 2007/08, and with an owner whose main source of income is his investment bank, money might be tight this year as the clubs creditors (themselves in trouble) are circling above Tynecastle looking for their money back.
7. Someone else to finish second for a change
Ok, so we’re agreed that no team outside of Glasgow will win the league. The next best thing then is for another team to finish second, a phenomenon known in Scotland as ‘splitting the Old Firm“. Like a total solar eclipse, or a good Chick Young article, it happens relatively rarely. Hearts where the last team in the current SPL setup to manage this, in season 2005/06, with Motherwell and Aberdeen the only other teams coming between the Old Firm since the advent of the Scottish Premier League in 1975.
8. Another exciting end to the season
You can say what you like about the league split, that crazy moment in mid-April when the league, erm, splits into two, with the teams in each half playing each other one more time. Sure, it’s had it’s critics – mainly to do with the fact that some clubs are handed unequal amount of home and away matches, that sometimes (as happened the past two seasons) the team finishing 7th actually had more points than the team in sixth – but the last two seasons we’ve seen some exciting last-day fixtures that decide both the winners and the losers.
The nature of the competition being such that nearly every team, with the exception of Motherwell and Kilmarnock has something to play for come the last day of the season: Rangers and Celtic could both win the league, while there where three teams needing results to remain in the division. In addition, because the teams post-split are pretty much of similar skill levels, the fixtures are better balanced, making for more exciting and hard-fought games.
