Partners: GoodsFromJapan | JapanVisitor | PortugalVisitor

Home|Football News|Scottish Premier League|SPL Update

Scottish Premier League Update

Ali Hannah on the Rangers, Celtic, and Champions League Hopes

The decision to persevere with Alex McLeish is one of the biggest gambles of Rangers Chairman David Murray’s 17-year reign at the club.

It is also one of the most divisive.

Excusing the drama of the signing of Mo Johnstone from under the noses of Celtic in 1989, his decision to retain McLeish at the helm has caused some resentment among the Ibrox support.

Their qualification to the last 16 of the Champions League has been an unexpected bonus in a season that has been unbridled in its domestic disappointments.

Currently 17 points adrift of Celtic at the top of the league, Rangers also went out of the CIS Insurance Cup at the hands of their bitter rivals and any defence of their title is all but gone.

The start they have made to the SPL in the opening half of the season reveals far more about the character and state of the squad than progress, with seven points, into the latter stages of the Champions League does.

A 3-2 win at Kilmarnock last weekend ended a miserable run of 11 games without a win and it remains to be seen if anything will improve now that the McLeish has been granted a stay of execution. Murray’s version of events is that the five-game “review period” of McLeish was no more than a device to buy time and puncture the hysteria among supporters and the media about the manager’s prospects.

If Murray had no intention of sacking him, as he has claimed, the only matter actually up for review was McLeish’s own stomach for fighting on in the job. The matter was supposedly resolved when he assured the chairman that he wanted to continue. Many will prefer to believe the alternative theory that McLeish survived because Murray could not persuade Paul Le Guen or Alan Curbishley to come immediately.

The former Lyon coach is midway through a season’s sabbatical and did meet Rangers representatives last month. Murray’s denial of the Le Guen scenario was a partial one which amounted only to semantics; namely that McLeish’s job was never offered to, or refused by, anyone else. The bottom line is that had le Guen wanted the job he would have been given it.

“Obviously he was someone who was considered,” said Murray of the Frenchman."

I gave Alex the names of four people who would have come today to be the manager of Rangers, but I didn’t want them. The names which were offered were remarkable.”

Murray intended his announcement last week to end all debate on McLeish’s future but there is nothing more powerful than results, not even platitudes from a Chairman. Unless the domestic form improves, McLeish and his Chairman will find themselves embroiled in the same hysteria and back page headlines that have engulfed the club for the last eight weeks.

“It’s very easy for fans to call for heads, especially in the west of Scotland with its hire ’em and fire ’em attitude. That’s all very well but all you’d be doing would be going to through the rebuilding process again,” said the Rangers chairman.

“Three weeks ago, when this all started, some people asked why I made a statement about a review period for Alex. I felt it was necessary to make a statement because of the demands of the press and the supporters.

“I said I had to put a backstop on it and suggested the beginning of December. Domestic results haven’t got better since then – they’ve got worse – but I feel from speaking to people outwith the goldfish bowl of Scotland we shouldn’t minimise the achievement of what we’ve done in Europe. “I told Alex ‘I am happy to back you so long as you feel we can get things back on the rails domestically because that really is unacceptable’.

“He realises that. He said he knew he could still do it and that was good enough for me.”
Murray has insisted that there will be funds available for McLeish to use in January, but the current manager will have to use the cash for wisely than he did in the summer. Otherwise the hangman’s noose will slowly start to tighten once more.

Champions League

More than a frisson of anticipation will run through Murray Park this week as Rangers await their fate in the first knockout stage of the Champions League.

Now they are firmly among celebrated company on Europe’s premier stage, Ian Murray knows that, whatever name comes out the hat this weekend, it will leave Rangers facing a momentous task to overcome their next hurdle in the tournament.

Arsenal are the team of choice for the young Scot. He adopted the Highbury side as his English team as a kid, and the chance to play at the old stadium is a dream he has long harboured. Arsene Wenger’s side have failed to live up to the standards they set for themselves a few years ago and Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea have left them firmly
in the shade in the Premiership.

But the allure of Thierry Henry and Co remains just as strong for Murray.

“I would love to get Arsenal, but I’m not bothered,” smiled Murray. “Arsenal are my team down south, but, to be honest, when you get to this stage, whoever you come up against is going to be good.

“Arsenal might not have done so well in the Premiership of late, but they seem to lift it when they go into Europe – Arsene Wenger seems to be able to get them going for it. However, it would just be brilliant to play at Highbury.”

Last season, Liverpool were surprise winners of the Champions League after a pulsating final in Istanbul, but their domestic form was way short of the standard they produced in Europe.

It is a strange anomaly, and one that has cursed Rangers this season. In the SPL there is a significant chasm between the Ibrox side and Hearts and Celtic at the top and Murray is conscious of the disparity. “Liverpool couldn’t buy a win in the Premiership last season and then they went on to win the European Cup,” he said. “It’s a different style of play when you are in Europe and maybe that has helped us a bit.

“In the SPL, we have to take the ball to them and normally in Europe we are on the back foot, trying to nick a goal, but I thought that in the game against Inter Milan last week we did well to come out and attack them and we deserved to get something.”

He added: “It is crazy that we haven’t been doing it in the SPL and we know we have to start getting it right on both fronts now.

“Football can be strange. I know that Celtic won all their home games the first time they were in the Champions League group stage, and even nine points wasn’t enough to take them through.

“But we just feel that getting into the last 16 is a great achievement and we know that we have done well to come out of what was a tough group.”

Progressing into the knockout stages of the competition was inevitably savoured by everyone at Ibrox and not just because of the need for flak jackets throughout the current campaign.

Murray said: “It is a fantastic achievement, not just for the club, but from my own point of view, as well – I am glad I made the move to Ibrox and have no regrets about leaving Hibs.”

Given the calibre of Scottish sides – Rangers and Celtic – that have tried and failed to make it through the initial group stage of the Champions League, it is difficult to downplay the significance of Rangers’ progress this season.

“A couple of weeks ago this team was supposedly the worst team in Rangers’ history, so it is nice to make history for the right reasons,” said Murray. “The format changed when Rangers were at their peak, but the group stage is a little bit harder than the straight knockout process because you have to play six games before getting any further.

“There have been good Rangers sides who didn’t go through and I suppose that just makes the achievement all the more enjoyable.

“I thought that Porto were probably one of the better teams in the group and for them to end up with nothing, not even a Uefa Cup place, is really surprising. “We know that we haven’t hit the heights this season but, at the same time, we are also undefeated at Ibrox in the Champions League and lost only one game in the group – and that was away to Inter Milan. “If we can keep up that kind of form in the next stage, then you just never know what could happen. We’ll certainly go into it with our heads held up high.

“Right now, we are just delighted for one another and for the manager because we have all taken an incredible amount of criticism this season.” One aspect of his move from Hibs that has taken Murray by surprise is the intensity of playing so many games. When it comes to launching a two-pronged attack on domestic and European football, the demands, physically and mentally, are exacting.

“It’s not an excuse, but, for players like myself who are not used to a Saturday/Tuesday, then a Saturday/Wednesday schedule, it is difficult,” admitted Murray.

“We don’t really have the luxury of squad rotation the way that other teams do, so it has been hard for us in the first half of the season.

“Once we get a few players back off the treatment table, it will make things easier for everyone.”

The important thing for Rangers now is that they start to bite into the lead that Celtic and Hearts have at the top of the SPL table. But Murray was reluctant to offer any magic answer for the problems that have beset the Ibrox side in the SPL this season.

He said: “We got great results at places like Porto and Bratislava, but for some reason we have not been able to bring that kind of form into our domestic league this season.

“I think it would be very silly of me to claim that, having got through to the last 16 of the Champions League, we will now kick on in the SPL and start to close the gap because we have said all that before and it’s not happened.

“Of course, that is what the aim is at Rangers, but we need to take it one game at a time and get our act together.”

Celtic

In the daily tutorials at Barrowfield, Gordon Strachan has quickly learned what all teachers discover, namely that some pupils are more willing than others.

And, when it comes to handing out advice, the problem is whether or not the recipients take it.

Stephen McManus and Shaun Maloney have rightly earned the status as star pupils with their performances for Celtic this season, but others have needed a little longer.

Precocious talent Aiden McGeady, whose name was known before he had even planted a boot in Celtic's first team, has had to work for the chance to show he has been listening to the lessons.

His performances earned him the Bank of Scotland Young Player of the Month for November, including two outstanding displays in the back-to-back Old Firm meetings. His repertoire of tricks and feints is well documented, but on Saturday it was his tackling, work ethic and commitment that earned the plaudits.

He explained: "I've had to work massively on the defensive side of my game. It is something that has been drummed into me in training daily, and it is what I have to do because, if I am out on the left, I need to give some support to Mo Camara.

"I can't afford to think I'm a luxury player who can go and create something, I also have defensive responsibilities and need to contribute in that area.

"This isn't a team where you can afford to have someone who isn't working back or helping to close down when you've not got the ball. That is something I appreciate and have been working hard to improve on.

"I know I still have loads to learn. I am nowhere near being a first-team regular here and that is what I have to do first and foremost.

"I have to listen to everything the manager is saying as he is so experienced and has proved he knows what he is talking about."

Injuries have played a part in McGeady's recall to the top team, but the ethos of Strachan's Celtic side is well suited to McGeady’s game, so long as he carries out his defensive duties in tandem with his attacking play.

Complimenting the likes of Shunsuke Nakamura and Shaun Maloney, McGeady’s flicks and tricks have contributed in making Celtic such an attractive team to watch this season.

"I didn't know what my first game would be like when I got back into the team against Falkirk last month because I hadn't played for so long, but I have enjoyed it, " he said.

"I've thoroughly enjoyed every game I have played in the last couple of weeks, but obviously my own hope is that it continues.

"There are still a few players to come back into the team and I already know how tough it is to stay in the side.

"But hopefully, I have at least given the manager something to think about." As for his first senior goal against Rangers, there is a fair chance that the youngster hasn't yet tired of watching the reruns.

"It was brilliant. It was one of those chances - I saw the ball coming over and just tried to get in front of the defender, I think it was Fernando Ricksen, and get a touch."

He admitted: "It did go under the goalkeeper's arms, which is a bit lucky, but to score in an Old Firm game was great, especially as I've been at Celtic since I was a young boy and have grown up as a Celtic fan. It was pretty special."

There is as much chance of Rangers forcing their way back into the championship race as there is of Anne Widdicombe winning a beauty contest, but McGeady has refused to get too carried away.

It's not only the fact Celtic have overcome a stuttering start to the season to find fluency, but the manner in which they have rediscovered the form which has made them favourites for the title.

Strachan's side are now three points clear of nearest challengers Hearts and boast a considerably superior goal difference. "It is nice to be 17 points clear of Rangers, but we are not 17 points clear at the top of the league, which is something people might be forgetting, " stressed McGeady.

"Hearts have had an excellent start to the season and so have Hibs, so we've got a bit of work to do if we want to stay top.

“We are going in the right direction and, from my own point of view, it just feels good to be involved."