Notorious amongst football fans as the pundit who supports every side bar your own, Sports Editor Euan McLelland talks criticism, realism, Boyd and Burley with the Daily Record’s Hugh Keevins in the second of our two big interviews!
Already this season seems to be shaping up to be a thriller. Although we are so early in the campaign, what side do you think will win the title, and who will face the drop this season?
The problem is, that we (as sports journalists) are always asked before the season starts, to give a prediction, and then you find Celtic with ten, eleven injuries: it’s what you don’t know that’s the worry when you make your predictions, not what you know! I tipped Celtic at the start of the season, and at the moment they are doing really well - ten games undefeated with ten players out. So if that prediction holds up, then fine. Rangers, I am convinced, will be chasing them all the way to the last day of the season. As for who goes down, Hamilton Accies have got to be favorites, even though they play good football. Inverness do not pick up enough points, and I would not rule out St. Mirren either - if you don’t score goals, you cannot win games.
You were very critical of Rangers early-season defeat to Kaunas. How much do you think the side has improved since then, and how much of this would you attribute to the new faces brought into Ibrox by Walter Smith?
The side that has been improved, has come as a direct result from what happened in Kaunas, because it came as such a shock to the club that they then went out and got Bougherra, Mendes and Steve Davis on a permanent basis. Now, they wouldn’t have done that had they beaten Kaunas, so that tells you that those who were critical of the result were correct, because Rangers knew that it was about a seven on the Richter scale, and totally unacceptable. We’re not great in this country at international or club level, but we are better than that, and that result was the one that caused them to say ‘What we have isn’t good enough, and we better do something about it quickly’. For that reason, if they do eventually win the league, Kaunas will turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to Rangers.
Not since Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen side of the 1980’s has a team other than the Old Firm won the Scottish title. In the current Scottish football environment, is this virtually impossible now?
I would say it is absolutely impossible nowadays, for as long as the game is as we know it. We were on a level playing field back then, and it was possible for other sides to become as good as the Old Firm, as long as you were winning. But everything has changed now. Celtic and Rangers just simply have the money to keep on buying a naturally better class of players than the rest of the clubs get, and you only have to see the margin between the Old Firm and third and fourth every year to know that it is a gap that is too big to be bridged. Unless something totally unforeseen comes along, that I can’t think of, Rangers and Celtic will win the title until the end of time.
If there is one player who will end up swinging the title to either side of the Old Firm this season, who will he be?
Kris Boyd, because he keeps scoring goals. It has never mattered to me how ‘ugly’ a player he may be; if you score like Boyd scores, you need to be the prime influence. For Celtic, it is harder to pinpoint one single player. Their goals this season have been spread around the entire squad, and I would argue that for Celtic, after going ten games without dropping a point, it is a more collective effort on their part. But Kris Boyd is a phenomenon, so he would be the one to swing it Rangers way, if it was to go theirs.
Since the Martin O’Neill days of Hartson, Sutton and Larsson, Celtic have never seemed to have that sort of defence-terrifying partnership. In McDonald, Samaras and Vennegoor of Hesselink, do you think that Strachan will be able to find this deadly duo?
No, because you get what you pay for. Henrik Larsson, although he cost only £650,000, which was a freak, is arguably the best player Celtic have had in the post-War era, including the Lisbon Lions. The millions they spent on Sutton and Hartson, they won’t spend again! So on the basis of getting what you pay for, no, he won’t get what O’Neill had. They will need to get by on hard work.
After a shaky start to our World Cup Qualifiers, is it fair to see South Africa further off in the horizon just now than it was when the groups were initially drawn?
This is a purely personal opinion: we won’t get to South Africa; George Burley won’t last the campaign as manager; and eventually there will be a revolt because the fans don’t like the style of football that they are seeing. I suspect that we will lose when we are in Holland, the margin of which is unimportant, and that will be us three points further away. I don’t think he (Burley) has the charisma for the job, and I do not think the fans are responding to him. I have absolutely nothing against him, but if it isn’t working - it isn’t working: you have to look somewhere else.
Do you think the SFA were correct in the appointment of George Burley? Was he the best option?
For a variety of reasons, he was the safe option. Graeme Souness, I don’t think could work with the SFA in general, and Gordon Smith in particular. I think there would be a clash of personalities there. Mark McGhee, at that point, was flavour of the month, and I do believe that he’s got the ‘smarts’ to do the job. Craig Levein would have to be a contender if it came up again, but at that particular point, I think the SFA thought of George Burley: ‘This is a man we can work with’. It is important the people you work with, but I think in the national team, you need a more forceful personality.
The Scotland squad named for the recent friendly with Argentina featured nine players from the English Championship. Is this a strong enough stomping-ground for our internationalists?
It was strong enough for Celtic to go there and get Kenny Miller. It was strong enough for Rangers to take Kenny Miller back again. We are in a place where we have to go wherever we can. The Premiership is not full of Scottish players, like the way it was when I grew-up, when you could almost pick an entire team of Scots playing in England. We’ve also got so many foreign players within Celtic and Rangers that your choice has been restricted there, so it is not a case of ‘is it strong enough?’, it is a case of having to go there to fill out our squad.
The majority of Old Firm fans at the start of the season say: “Our goal this year is both the league title and a place in the knock-out stages of the Champions League”. As football supporters, should they not seek glory rather than money for their club, and brace the UEFA Cup as an exciting, realistic target?
They all live in a fantasy world. The talk about them being ‘the biggest clubs in the world’ - no they’re not. They’re big, but not that big. They believe that the Champions League last sixteen, last eight, is practically an entitlement. They have had great moments: Seville for Celtic, Manchester for Rangers - both terrific achievements based on what they had and how far they made it go - but, in terms of Europe, they are as far behind the cream as Inverness and Hamilton Accies are behind Celtic and Rangers in the domestic championship.
What is your opinion on the quality of the current SPL?
It is as good as it can be because there is no money, and there is no need to expect that it can get any better. In the current financial meltdown, the crowds are dropping off; football will become a luxury item for people. Ordinary people cannot afford to go to two or three matches a week - it is financially impossible! This means that Celtic and Rangers cannot go out and buy exotic players, and the lower clubs certainly cannot, so the league is all it possibly can be.
Already this season there has been outcry over some of the refereeing decisions that have affected results in big matches, bringing up the never-ending debate about the introduction of video referees. Surely it’s a good thing?
It’s a good thing, but FIFA don’t want it. We can shout and ball all we like, but we cannot introduce it off our own back, it has to be a rule of world football. Football doesn’t follow the laws of natural progression; it takes forever! I can however, understand the argument that it is difficult to have monitors in every football ground. The Premier League should not get celebrity justice over the lower leagues in that aspect.
In the race for third place, what side excites you most?
I saw Dundee United on Saturday, who were rumored to be ‘that’ side, and they were well beaten by Kilmarnock, who had lost five games on the bounce. Now, that tells you that everybody can beat everybody else. At a certain period of the season, a team will impress you, but in other periods it will be other teams, because nobody has the consistency to be impressive all the time. I give Hamilton great credit. They might be at the bottom of the league, but they play football as attractive, on its day, as Dundee United, who are third top.
Already this season seems to be shaping up to be a thriller. Although we are so early in the campaign, what side do you think will win the title, and who will face the drop this season?
The problem is, that we (as sports journalists) are always asked before the season starts, to give a prediction, and then you find Celtic with ten, eleven injuries: it’s what you don’t know that’s the worry when you make your predictions, not what you know! I tipped Celtic at the start of the season, and at the moment they are doing really well - ten games undefeated with ten players out. So if that prediction holds up, then fine. Rangers, I am convinced, will be chasing them all the way to the last day of the season. As for who goes down, Hamilton Accies have got to be favorites, even though they play good football. Inverness do not pick up enough points, and I would not rule out St. Mirren either - if you don’t score goals, you cannot win games.
You were very critical of Rangers early-season defeat to Kaunas. How much do you think the side has improved since then, and how much of this would you attribute to the new faces brought into Ibrox by Walter Smith?
The side that has been improved, has come as a direct result from what happened in Kaunas, because it came as such a shock to the club that they then went out and got Bougherra, Mendes and Steve Davis on a permanent basis. Now, they wouldn’t have done that had they beaten Kaunas, so that tells you that those who were critical of the result were correct, because Rangers knew that it was about a seven on the Richter scale, and totally unacceptable. We’re not great in this country at international or club level, but we are better than that, and that result was the one that caused them to say ‘What we have isn’t good enough, and we better do something about it quickly’. For that reason, if they do eventually win the league, Kaunas will turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to Rangers.
Not since Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen side of the 1980’s has a team other than the Old Firm won the Scottish title. In the current Scottish football environment, is this virtually impossible now?
I would say it is absolutely impossible nowadays, for as long as the game is as we know it. We were on a level playing field back then, and it was possible for other sides to become as good as the Old Firm, as long as you were winning. But everything has changed now. Celtic and Rangers just simply have the money to keep on buying a naturally better class of players than the rest of the clubs get, and you only have to see the margin between the Old Firm and third and fourth every year to know that it is a gap that is too big to be bridged. Unless something totally unforeseen comes along, that I can’t think of, Rangers and Celtic will win the title until the end of time.
If there is one player who will end up swinging the title to either side of the Old Firm this season, who will he be?
Kris Boyd, because he keeps scoring goals. It has never mattered to me how ‘ugly’ a player he may be; if you score like Boyd scores, you need to be the prime influence. For Celtic, it is harder to pinpoint one single player. Their goals this season have been spread around the entire squad, and I would argue that for Celtic, after going ten games without dropping a point, it is a more collective effort on their part. But Kris Boyd is a phenomenon, so he would be the one to swing it Rangers way, if it was to go theirs.
Since the Martin O’Neill days of Hartson, Sutton and Larsson, Celtic have never seemed to have that sort of defence-terrifying partnership. In McDonald, Samaras and Vennegoor of Hesselink, do you think that Strachan will be able to find this deadly duo?
No, because you get what you pay for. Henrik Larsson, although he cost only £650,000, which was a freak, is arguably the best player Celtic have had in the post-War era, including the Lisbon Lions. The millions they spent on Sutton and Hartson, they won’t spend again! So on the basis of getting what you pay for, no, he won’t get what O’Neill had. They will need to get by on hard work.
After a shaky start to our World Cup Qualifiers, is it fair to see South Africa further off in the horizon just now than it was when the groups were initially drawn?
This is a purely personal opinion: we won’t get to South Africa; George Burley won’t last the campaign as manager; and eventually there will be a revolt because the fans don’t like the style of football that they are seeing. I suspect that we will lose when we are in Holland, the margin of which is unimportant, and that will be us three points further away. I don’t think he (Burley) has the charisma for the job, and I do not think the fans are responding to him. I have absolutely nothing against him, but if it isn’t working - it isn’t working: you have to look somewhere else.
Do you think the SFA were correct in the appointment of George Burley? Was he the best option?
For a variety of reasons, he was the safe option. Graeme Souness, I don’t think could work with the SFA in general, and Gordon Smith in particular. I think there would be a clash of personalities there. Mark McGhee, at that point, was flavour of the month, and I do believe that he’s got the ‘smarts’ to do the job. Craig Levein would have to be a contender if it came up again, but at that particular point, I think the SFA thought of George Burley: ‘This is a man we can work with’. It is important the people you work with, but I think in the national team, you need a more forceful personality.
The Scotland squad named for the recent friendly with Argentina featured nine players from the English Championship. Is this a strong enough stomping-ground for our internationalists?
It was strong enough for Celtic to go there and get Kenny Miller. It was strong enough for Rangers to take Kenny Miller back again. We are in a place where we have to go wherever we can. The Premiership is not full of Scottish players, like the way it was when I grew-up, when you could almost pick an entire team of Scots playing in England. We’ve also got so many foreign players within Celtic and Rangers that your choice has been restricted there, so it is not a case of ‘is it strong enough?’, it is a case of having to go there to fill out our squad.
The majority of Old Firm fans at the start of the season say: “Our goal this year is both the league title and a place in the knock-out stages of the Champions League”. As football supporters, should they not seek glory rather than money for their club, and brace the UEFA Cup as an exciting, realistic target?
They all live in a fantasy world. The talk about them being ‘the biggest clubs in the world’ - no they’re not. They’re big, but not that big. They believe that the Champions League last sixteen, last eight, is practically an entitlement. They have had great moments: Seville for Celtic, Manchester for Rangers - both terrific achievements based on what they had and how far they made it go - but, in terms of Europe, they are as far behind the cream as Inverness and Hamilton Accies are behind Celtic and Rangers in the domestic championship.
What is your opinion on the quality of the current SPL?
It is as good as it can be because there is no money, and there is no need to expect that it can get any better. In the current financial meltdown, the crowds are dropping off; football will become a luxury item for people. Ordinary people cannot afford to go to two or three matches a week - it is financially impossible! This means that Celtic and Rangers cannot go out and buy exotic players, and the lower clubs certainly cannot, so the league is all it possibly can be.
Already this season there has been outcry over some of the refereeing decisions that have affected results in big matches, bringing up the never-ending debate about the introduction of video referees. Surely it’s a good thing?
It’s a good thing, but FIFA don’t want it. We can shout and ball all we like, but we cannot introduce it off our own back, it has to be a rule of world football. Football doesn’t follow the laws of natural progression; it takes forever! I can however, understand the argument that it is difficult to have monitors in every football ground. The Premier League should not get celebrity justice over the lower leagues in that aspect.
In the race for third place, what side excites you most?
I saw Dundee United on Saturday, who were rumored to be ‘that’ side, and they were well beaten by Kilmarnock, who had lost five games on the bounce. Now, that tells you that everybody can beat everybody else. At a certain period of the season, a team will impress you, but in other periods it will be other teams, because nobody has the consistency to be impressive all the time. I give Hamilton great credit. They might be at the bottom of the league, but they play football as attractive, on its day, as Dundee United, who are third top.
Published: December 2008, Strathclyde Telegraph
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