Partners: GoodsFromJapan | JapanVisitor | PortugalVisitor

Scottish Premier League Update

Ali Hannah on the latest from the Scottish Premier League, December 2009

Celtic | Rangers | Hamilton

Hamilton

The SPL does have its critics, but James Wesolowski likes it so much he might just stay.

The 22-year-old Australian extended his loan stay at Hamilton Accies until the end of the season this week, but the midfielder has admitted that by this summer he will, in all likelihood, be calling time on his Leicester career.

Wesolowski, who has dual Polish and Australian nationality courtesy of a grandfather and a pressing need for a passport to get into the EU, has one year remaining on his Leicester contract but even if the Championship side win promotion into the coveted Premiership this year, the player won't be tempted to go back.

He has been told that he will be on the fringes of things by Leicester manager Nigel Pearson and having had his patience thoroughly exhausted when he broke his leg, not just once, but twice, the midfielder is looking for the holy grail of regular football.

"I came through the academy at Leicester and I would love to play there," he acknowledged. "But I don't think that chance is going to come again for me. It has come and gone.

"I have another year after this year on my Leicester contract. They have been quite good about things so far and about letting me go out on loan so I don't think that will be a problem.

"I am at a point in my career where I need to be playing football. I have had problems with injuries in my career and this season is a big chance for me to get consecutive games and to get my fitness levels up to the best they can be.

"The manager has told me that I wouldn't be playing regularly at Leicester and, even if they do get promotion, I don't think that will change. At this stage in my career I need to be playing."

Wesolowski wrote his New Year resolutions back in August and five months in, he has not went off the rails just yet.

The midfielder has found a niche at Hamilton and as Billy Reid's side prepare to take on Hearts this afternoon at New Douglas Park, Wesolowski spoke glowingly as he revealed his pride at staying the course with his long-term goals.

His formative years were spent in a specialist sports school in Australia where fortnightly visits to the sports psychologist drilled home the benefits of positive thinking. After he suffered his first broken leg in a crunching tackle from Bobo Balde in a pre-season friendly against Celtic in 2005 he may have felt the use of such tools and certainly, when he broke the same leg again just five games after his return to the Leicester first-team they would have become something of a mental crutch to him.

A further fractured ankle has not helped his cause and even a loan spell at Tannadice last term ended prematurely when he returned to Leicester in May with a hamstring problem. Yet, it is only when he reveals that the 14 appearances he has made for Hamilton so far this season are his best return in four years, that the extent of the time he has spent on treatment tables becomes obvious.

At the beginning of this season he wrote down his goals for the campaign on a piece of paper he keeps pinned on his bedroom wall and the satisfaction he has gained from being able to tick off a few boxes is palpable.

"I wanted to play a certain amount of games and score a certain amount of goals, which I have not done yet," he said. "I like to do that at the start of the season, write down a few goals and and then pin it up in my bedroom where I can see it every day.

"It helps to motivate you. It isn't too bad because I have been playing, but I need to score some goals!

"It is like building a house. Every day is important, whether it is training or lifting weight or eating the right stuff, it is all about the big package. You need everything you can and it is all about staying positive and motivated."

Wesolowski has flirted with the Australian national team, but has yet to be capped at senior level. Making himself available to Poland is an option for the midfielder, but it is the yellow shirts of the Socceroos where his heart lies. Whether he is able to force himself into the World Cup squad is doubtful but it is not something that he has yet given up on and, given his age, there will be other campaigns for him.

"I come from Australia and they helped me with my football when I was a kid and all my family are there so I'd like to stay there," he said when asked about the possibility of playing for Poland. "There are a couple of Australians out here with Scott McDonald, Danny Invinsible and Trent McClenahan so I am sure they are watching us."

Meanwhile, his manager believes that there is more improvement to come from him although that may make life more difficult for Hamilton Accies should they wish to hang on to the player beyond the end of the current campaign.

"There is a lot more to come from James," said Reid. "It is sod's law that if he does really well then other teams will look at him but the better he does for me the better for Hamilton."

Celtic Roundup

Scott McDonald has insisted the only way he will be leaving Parkhead in January is if he is pushed out the door.

The Australian striker was the subject of of speculation from Wigan during the summer and his future is likely to come back under the microscope as Tony Mowbray looks to freshen up his squad in the January transfer window.

McDonald is currently the club's top scorer again this season and has three-and-a-half years remaining on his deal. He is third in the all-time list of SPL goal scorers, and is closing in fast on the century mark. But such is the peculiar state of flux which exists at Celtic that statistics alone may not be enough to safeguard the 26-year-old's long-term future at the club. Georgios Samaras is in form, £3.8-million signing

Marc-Antoine Fortune is cooling his heels on the bench, and the club are also thought to be pursuing Tours striker Olivier Giroud. But McDonald has stated he is in no hurry to jump ship for England.

"I think for the foreseeable future everything is happy for me here, so I don't really see myself anywhere else," McDonald said. "Everyone has goals and the Premier League is the best league in the world. Obviously players want to play in that league, no question. But it all has to be at the right time for that individual. The way I see it I am happy here and I am not really going anywhere to be honest - unless I am pushed out. Then, so be it. But hopefully that won't be happening any time soon."

Wigan - who saw their original season-long loan rejected and were ultimately scared off by the club's £5m valuation - have indicated they may return for the player next month, but what kind of career move a transfer like that would represent is a moot point.

Obviously players want to play in that league, but it all has to be at the right time for that individual McDonald, of course, started out his life in football as a trainee at Southampton and if he were to return down south to such an unglamorous outpost as the DW Stadium, he may encounter not only smaller crowds but greater competition for a first-team place. "It has to suit the individual and the most important thing is not just to go there for reasons other than football, whether it be money or anything else," McDonald said.

"You want to be playing, I think that is the most important decision. Some people have said things about that [Wigan] in the last couple of days because it has been in the press. But it is just press talk for me. I am not being funny but I have not really heard anything and I don't really want to hear anything if I'm honest. I am just fully concentrating on the job here and I think finally I have settled a bit and in the last couple of games I have been playing well so I just want to continue in that form and work hard."

Things have slowly started to pick up around Parkhead after a wobbly start to the season. Given the predictions of mass upheaval in January, it is interesting that the victories have been achieved with a relatively settled line-up. "I don't think January has ever been an issue for the players here," McDonald said. "There has not really been any thought of players coming or going. It hasn't been spoken of in the changing room. We have just been desperate to get some wins on the board. They have been few and far between and it is just really nice to have two wins on the bounce." Another constant has been the threat offered by Aiden McGeady, a player who McDonald reckons is the best in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, but who is also unlikely to be short of offers in January.

"He has been in good form in the last four or five weeks especially - I'm not saying he wasn't playing well before that, but his final product has been there for everyone to see once again and it has been good that people have been getting on the end of it," McDonald said. "Hopefully he continues in that manner and he can be a big player for us until the end of the season.

"He is one of the best - I think he is the best - in the league, especially at beating players and out-running people. So why not get it to him every time you see him there one- on-one with someone. If I see him out there, nine times out of 10, as long as I am not 18 yards out, I will give him the ball."

For Mowbray, the countdown to January continues. Ki Sung-yong, the 20-year-old FC Seoul midfielder was in Glasgow last week to finalise his signing, and with Scott Brown on the sidelines, he is likely to get a chance to fill the space vacated by Landry N'Guemo when the Cameroon midfielder departs for Angola and the African Cup of Nations shortly after the Old Firm match on January 3. Two more highly-rated young trialists - Estonian Sander Puri and Slovakian Milos Lacny - are set to arrive in the next few days, and both will hope for a better fate than Honduran Osman Chavez, who was sent away last week.

Mowbray admits the anatomy of a transfer deal has moved on hugely since his days as a player, and feels the club have to be

scrupulous in attempting to get value for money. He has no problem with most agents. He just wishes there weren't so many of them.

"It's not easy to sign players as there are lots of parties involved in the potential signing of a good player," he said. "There's the player, two clubs and generally about four or five agents and everybody's got to agree. In my time in management transfers have become more complicated. The bigger the club you are, the more people see the potential to make money. It's important that you get value for your money. You've got to back your judgment and not go into deals that aren't right for the club. Things have changed hugely since 1991. I don't think players had agents back then. I didn't. I came and met the manager, watched a football match and signed the next morning. Ideally you'd want it somewhere between where it is today and where it was back then. "

Rangers

Kenny Miller, the Rangers striker, has played down the significance of a training ground argument with Ibrox defender Madjid Bougherra.

The duo had something of a heated exchange that was leaked to the tabloid press last week in the wake of Bougherra's third late return from international duty but Miller has maintained that there is no lingering problem between himself and the Algerian.

Bougherra set up Rangers' first goal against Falkirk on Saturday afternoon with a run down the right channel and an intelligent ball across the six-yard box for Kris Boyd to convert, and in the aftermath of the strike he and Miller had a 'high-five' celebration.

The Scotland striker went on to score a penalty later in the game to tie up the points for Rangers and his anger at Bougherra last week stemmed from the fact that the defender is one of the Ibrox side's best performers and Miller wants him to be out on the pitch.

"It was all handbags," he said. "You get these arguments but when it is reported it is always blown out of proportion. You see Kyle Lafferty and David Weir in the press the next day because they have had an argument.

"I had a bigger argument with the referee on the pitch on Saturday than what they did last week. It is the club we are at and things are going to get blown out of proportion.

"We are grown men, we all have opinions and we are going to have disagreements throughout the course of the season. I am sure every other team in Britain will have the same."

Miller was keen to underline that he has every respect for the Algerian's ability on the football pitch.

"I said a few weeks ago before the Champions League game that he is a massive, massive player for us," he said. "He is one of our best players, he is a big asset for the club which is why he is always being linked to going here, there and everywhere.

"We want him on the field of play which is where he was on Saturday and you see what he brings. He has got that attacking option for us as well and he set the first goal up for us.

"He is a massive player for us both defensively and offensively. We were at 0-0 when he set up that first goal. You think that if you are 2-0 up that your centre-half might try and play as an overlapping right winger.

"You do miss that because it is another option for us. He brings a stability to the back four as well.

"He'll want to stay fit, he'll want to play because he will want to be at the World Cup fully fit. I'm sure he will love to finish this season on a high and then go off to the World Cup."

Meanwhile, Miller has set his sights on a domestic treble with Rangers this season to ease the balm of the this term's European disappointment.

The Scotland forward will go to Seville this week to play in a game that means nothing in terms of Rangers' qualification hopes, but Miller believes that the current form of the Ibrox side is enough to suggest that domestically they can be top dogs.

The striker has targeted the forthcoming home games as must-win since he wants Rangers to be heading to Parkhead for the January Old Firm derby at the top of the league.

"It is a big month," he said. "We have two home games and United in between and then just after Christmas we've got Hibs away, Dundee United again and then Celtic away so it doesn't come any harder than that.

"We know that if we can get points on the board then we can hopefully go into Christmas top of the league and then attack those three games and try and win them.

"We know these three games can put us back on top of the table and then those three really tough games after Christmas. If we come into them with a decent run of games then we could have a wee bit of daylight between ourselves rather than chasing all the time.

"We would love to get the Treble. We are still in the League Cup and are well placed in the league so I don't see why we can't.

"In the manager's first full season here we missed out on what would have been a quadruple. We lost the league on the last day of the season and this year we got the League and the Scottish Cup which is the double that you want to win. There is no reason why we can't go and be a success again this year."

Ali Hannah

"The Onside In-Site" Copyright © From 2000. All rights reserved. Soccerphile Ltd.