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Scottish Premier League Update

Ali Hannah on Gordon Strachan, Alex McLeish & Tynecastle

Gordon Strachan | Alex McLeish | Tynecastle

Gordon Strachan: A Year at Celtic

Reflecting on his first full season in charge of Celtic, manager Gordon Strachan has suggested that only the sort of scrutiny Tony Blair endures as the British Prime Minister is comparable to being at the helm of either Celtic or Rangers.

Strachan has already voiced sympathy for the way former Aberdeen team-mate Alex McLeish has been undervalued at Rangers and appreciates the thin line between hero and villain.

When you consider how things started for Celtic last July with Champions League humiliation by Artmedia Bratislava, it has been a quick and steep learning curve for someone who delivered the SPL title to Parkhead with some 17 points to spare.

At the conclusion of Celtic's last SPELL game of the season to Aberdeen which ended in a 2-2 draw at Pittodrie, Strachan made it clear that some aspects of the job remain far from appealing but that overall the experience is one he has relished.

He said: "It is fantastic to win the league by the margin that we have done in the end but unless you have been Prime Minister I don't think that anything can prepare you for being manager of an Old Firm club."

Strachan has also insisted that Celtic will have to improve if they are to retain the title they won this season.

Rangers will be rejuvenated under heavily-bank rolled new boss Paul Le Guen, while Hearts will be boosted by the millions they can make if they get through the qualifying rounds for the Champions League.

The Parkhead boss is already well advanced in his plans to ensure his team can hold off Rangers and Hearts and to make some kind of impact on Europe.

Kenny Miller and Gary Caldwell are on their way to Parkhead on Bosons while a replacement for Stilian Petrov, who has handed in a transfer request, is also been looked for.

But, no matter who fills the jerseys, Strachan has serious plans to make Celtic a better team. He believes the SPL table does not lie and they have been the best side in the country, but he is honest enough to admit they got breaks at the right times - and that he can't rely on that happening again next time around.

His players have already been told they are reporting back for pre-season training earlier than he had first planned.

By the time they get back, he hopes they will be joined by the new faces he considers vital to take the club up to the next level.

Recognising that to stand still would effectively be to fall backwards, Strachan said:

"The challenge will be Rangers with a new manager - with money. And with money means better players.

"Hearts will have the strong squad they have just now, and I think they will add to it.

"We're under no illusions we had turning points in the season that helped us, whether it be decisions or fantastic goals we scored.

"We'd be silly to expect to get breaks again like we did this year. But we can't be looking for breaks. We are looking for better players, fitter players, and I know for a fact we can get fitter.

"You can't say we were lucky, because we won the league when 20 points head with six games to go. So, that's a nonsense. But, we know we have to get better if we are to do it again.

"We've also had things which have gone against us, but the fact is we have just shut up and got on with it.

"But, I'd think overall, decisions have gone for us. There's no doubt about that. We need to get better to retain the championship. If we played the same way again, I think it would be a close run thing."

On their Europe exit, he said: "We didn't know at the time but that might have been one of the lucky breaks.

"It might have been too much for us and we might have struggled in the league if we'd got through, though, of course, we always want to be in Europe."

Alex McLeish

Alex McLeish called time on his Rangers tenure with a hollow 2-0 win over Hearts at Ibrox that was too late to secure Rangers a Champions League place.

For the first time in 11 years, the Old Firm have been split with Hearts ending the campaign one point better off than the Ibrox club.

McLeish, warmly applauded by all four sides of the stadium following his final game in charge, responded in kind as he was joined on the pitch by his assistants, Andy Watts and Jan Weuters. He was the last man to leave, drinking in the occasion as he said farewell to thunderous acclaim from a group of fans who have never universally adored him but who appreciate the seven trophies he delivered during a period of drastic financial prudence at the club.

"I was overwhelmed by the reception the fans gave me, very humbled and honoured," said McLeish afterwards. "It was a moment I will never forget. I'm number 11 in a line of managers here, I've won trophies for the club and I would like to think my record compares favourably with some of the other Rangers managers.

"Bill Struth once made comments about there being times of failure and having to show tolerance because Rangers will always come back again.

"I've got no regrets, it's time to go. It has been a drain on me, but it didn't destroy me. I stayed to the end despite a lot of people telling me I should have left earlier this season. That's not in my make-up. If I had walked out then, I would have lost my dignity.

"It was a risk to stay on and if things hadn't got better, the sleepless nights would have continued. We went to Kilmarnock in December and would have gone five points behind them in fifth place if we had lost, but we won and our results have been pretty reasonable since then.

"It was disappointing not to get second place in the SPL, but hopefully what we achieved in the Champions League this season won't be forgotten. I think I'm leaving this club in a healthier state financially than when I arrived. That's never a manager's goal, but while doing that job of trying to get the house in order we still managed to win trophies and I'm proud of that."

McLeish also felt a sense of pride when reflecting on his willingness to make unpopular choices at Ibrox. Another good performance from the eccentric Dutch goalkeeper Ronald Watereuss yesterday gave McLeish a further sense of vindication at picking the keeper ahead of former club captain and hugely popular Stefan Klos last summer.

"That was a massive decision," he said. "It wasn't easy to tell a player of Stefan's calibre that he wouldn't start the season. That's tough on a top professional, but it is decisions like that I've had to make over the last four and a half years. I haven't got them 100 per cent right, but I'd like to think I've got more right than wrong.

"I've gained a lot of experience from being Rangers manager and if I don't waste it, it will improve me as a manager in the future. At the moment, though, I'd say there is no chance of seeing me in a dugout come August. I intend to take a break."

Whatever pressures he has been under, and there have been many, McLeish has not lost his sense of humour. He displayed it in yesterday's match programme in which he was asked to pick his all-time greatest world select. A side which predictably featured Pele, Beckenbauer and Ronaldinho also included among the substitutes one Hamed Namouchi.

McLeish's unfailing faith in the Tunisian midfielder has been a constant source of irritation for his critics among the Rangers support and in the media. Having the last word would have raised a smile from even his most vocal critics.

Tynecastle

It has been a season thick with controversy and intrigue at Tynecastle. There is still a sense of unease at Hearts but at the moment it is overshadowed by the positives as Hearts became the first team in 11 years to split the Old Firm. For the first time in their history, Hearts have a chance to make it into the group stages of the Champions League with a place in the qualifying round of the prestigious tournament waiting on them.

For the minute at least, the pressure is off at Tynecastle and even the 2-0 defeat to Rangers on the final day of the SPL season couldn't detract from what has been achieved by the Jambos this season.

Club chairman Roman Romanov gave the clearest indication yet that Valdas Ivanauskas will still be head coach come the start of the new campaign, and he maintained the search is still on for a director of football. Stadium redevelopment will start by the end of next season at the latest and be along the same lines as the Chelsea Village, but there were assurances that the money invested in that venture would not impede on the playing side as Hearts strive to genuinely challenge for the SPL title.

Romanov acknowledged that off-field matters had dominated the Lithuanians' first full season in charge more than he had wanted but said that when they arrived in Scottish football, they had anticipated a degree of resistance.

"We expected a lot of things," he said. "We expected that the press wouldn't always be fair to us. We expected that.

"A lot of papers work for Celtic and Rangers in this country, it's obvious. Not all of them but a lot of them.

"All the decisions [we made] were difficult but they were made for a reason. They were weighted and thought out and they weren't random sporadic decisions. I wish we didn't change three coaches through the season but we had to and to get this result shows that. I don't think we would do anything different from what we did."

In his programme notes on Wednesday night, Vladamir Romanov posted a reminder that he had asked that the current club stewards be judged on a season-by-season basis - not daily, weekly or monthly. In that case, no-one could consider their first season at the helm anything but a success.

The ifs and buts decree there will always be those who think it could have been even better, those who will argue that the hiring and firing of pivotal personnel may have cost them an even better tilt at the title but there can be no certainties other than those entered into the history books.

As it stands, on top of splitting the Old Firm and unsettling their cosy dominance like no other club or individual since the New Firm challenged and guys such as Alex Ferguson generated a siege mentality within Pittodrie, there is the very real chance of a trophy at Hampden this weekend, the club's first in eight years.

"Of course we want to get the results sooner rather than later, but the most important thing is that we are moving in the right direction and if the results come along the way then fantastic, even better," said Romanov.

"I think that we had a good chance to catch Celtic and Rangers off guard this season and I don't think anybody took us seriously so it was a good year for us to become champions and next year will be more difficult. But I think the players are up to the challenge and the coaching staff and the management are ready to take the challenge."

Barring an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Gretna on Saturday, the indication is that Ivanauskas will be the man charged with meeting those heightening demands.

"He is still learning. Not long ago he was playing so all the advice that he can get from our football organisation people, people who have been here much longer, he will listen to," said the Chairman of his fellow Lithuanian.

"He learns very fast and most important he's not afraid to make sometimes unpopular decisions. I think he did a fantastic job. I think under pressure and in very difficult games he had six wins out of eight and I think in the Celtic loss, we pushed Celtic to the limit and I think we deserved more that day.

"I never saw Celtic look so hopeless in a game. They didn't do anything, they just protected their goal.

"I think that you can compare these results with what George Burley did at the beginning of the season because there wasn't so much pressure on George Burley. Valdas came in at the crucial part of the season and had six wins out of eight and George Burley had eight wins so it's very close.

"All the credit to Valdas, he made some unpopular rotations which Graham Rix, for some reason, didn't want to do. Some players he rested, some players he brought in and it showed on the pitch."

Scottish Premier League Factfile

Scottish Premier League Teams' Official Sites

Aberdeen: www.afc.co.uk
Celtic: www.celticfc.net
Dundee United: www.dundeeunitedfc.co.uk
Dunfermline: www.dafc.co.uk
Falkirk: www.falkirkfc.co.uk
Hearts: www.heartsfc.co.uk
Hibernian: www.hibernianfc.co.uk
Inverness: www.CaleyThistleOnline.co.uk
Kilmarnock: www.kilmarnockfc.co.uk
Livingston: www.livingstonfc.co.uk
Motherwell: www.motherwellfc.co.uk
Rangers: www.rangers.co.uk

SPL Official Site www.scotprem.premiumtv.co.uk

Ali Hannah

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