The End Of An Era

The end of the English Premier League season has the real feeling of an end of an era.  Yes the Chelsea job is vacant again (though the strong rumors are of the second coming of Mourinio) and yes the Manchester City job is vacant again.  However, while Wenger is still in his position despite debate a few months ago about his position, the reason for this feeling is the retirements of Michael Owen, David Beckham and above all the departure from Manchester United of their manager Alex Ferguson.

Alex Ferguson joins St Mirren, October 1974

Of all the acres of print devoted to Danny Lennon’s most famous predecessor, surprisingly few words were devoted to his formative years in management.  The twelve years (four at Love Street and eight at Pittodrie) in Scottish Football.

Nowhere is this best illustrated than when Ferguson’s rebuilding work on United’s youth set up is mentioned.  His belief in bringing through your own players has been a hallmark of all of Ferguson’s work from the early days at Love Street.  It was here that Fergie originally set up his formula for the moulding of quality young players, a formula that has since been refined with the high point undoubtedly the 1992 FA Youth Cup winners that now read like a who’s who of Manchester United legends.  The Youth systems that Ferguson put into place had initial success in bringing through Fitzpatrick, Stark and McGarvey.  After Ferguson’s departure, the youth set up still produced players with potential such as Frank McAvennie, Paul Lambert (yes that one) and (ironic given Ferguson’s last opponents as Manchester United manager) Steve Clarke.

One criticism that been made of Ferguson was the siege mentality be brought in to Manchester United.  I think that this facet of his mental toughness was necessary if he was to have had the successes he has had, even more so at Aberdeen.  It is notable that since Ferguson’s last championship at Pittodrie, Hearts (in 1986, in 1998 and arguably in 2005) and Aberdeen themselves in 1991 have all lost championships in the closing weeks of the season.  All suffered from the mental pressure of going for the championship and imploded at key moments.  Ferguson knew that the best teams had to be mentally tough, particularly so if you are going to take on the Old Firm.

Early on in his time Ferguson identified the key to winning silverware in Scottish Football – win in Glasgow.  As it turned out, that’s what his sides did.  His Aberdeen side won a key League game at Parkhead on the way to his first Championship in 1980, while his first three Scottish Cup wins came against the Old Firm.

Ferguson’s achievements have passed into folklore.  However his achievements here in Scotland were not just the foundations for his 26 years at Old Trafford.  They were historic on their own terms.  The peak years of Ferguson’s team (probably 1982-85) saw all manner of barriers come down.  There’s that win in the European Cup Winners cup that saw a quarter final win over Bayern Munch before the final win over Real Madrid on a rainy night thirty years ago in Gotherburg.  Arguably more than that though there’s the hat-trick of Scottish Cup wins – the fourth team to do this (after Queens Park, Vale of Leven & Rangers) and the first since the early sixties.  There’s also the first league and cup double by an non Old Firm team. 

Both of those landmarks came on 19 May 1984 with Aberdeen’s 2-1 cup final win over Celtic, a side they finished 7 points ahead of to secure Ferguson’s second championship.   As if to underline the quality of Scottish Football at that time, Aberdeen lost out on the last day of the season the previous season to a Dundee United side that went on to be cheated out of a place in the European Cup final by Roma.

While tomorrow we should remember his achievements, all of them, we should also remember those moments.  His initial calling card that was Fergies Furies (as the St Mirren side that won promotion to the Premier League were dubbed) dismantling of Dundee United in the Scottish Cup in 1977, his jig across the Easter Road pitch (with echoes of Willie Waddle’s own jig when Kilmarnock beat Hearts to the championship in 1965) when Aberdeen became Champions in 1980, the priceless television interview in the aftermath of Aberdeen’s Scottish Cup win in 1983.  Oh and Aberdeen’s general trophy kleptomania during those peak years.

Breaking Hearts

66th Scottish League Cup Final, Hampden; St Mirren 3, Hearts 2

You know, it is very difficult to know where to start with this match, bearing in mind that I’m still finding my way down from cloud nine from this match, but here goes…

St Mirren won their first silverware in nearly 26 years on Sunday by beating Hearts to lift the League Cup. Despite dominating the middle section of this match, Hearts should have buried St Mirren at the start of this match.  By the time Hearts got their second consolation, it was too late for them.

Hearts started the brighter, undoubtedly aided by St Mirren being caught cold.  The pressed high up and possibly should have taken the lead through Sutton.  They did when after 10 minutes Ryan Stevenson picked up the ball just in front of goal – he tried to shake off the marking but shot across Samson, maybe coming off Dummett.  In the next 15 minutes, Sutton’s header hit the post while Ngoo failed to connect with a cross.  Taouil also had a shot that was just tipped past by Samson.  A second goal would have sunk St Mirren before half time.  Yet the turning point came with 8 minutes to go until half time when St Mirren equalised, inflicting a crucial psychological blow while their numerical advantage in midfield was started to tell.

Thompson’s through ball found Teale, who outpaced the Hearts defence and centred for Goncalves to tap in.  Hearts must have been shell shocked to have been pegged back.  It only got worse for them at the very start of the second half.  Hearts first proper touch of the second half was the restart after St Mirren possession at the start of the second half concluded with Thompson’s low volley (below) off a Dummett centre.  Rather annoyingly this was a goal that I missed.  Unsurprisingly, St Mirren looked at their most comfortable during this period.

If anything St Mirren looked the more likely team to get a third, as their formation sucked the life out of Hearts.  McGowan had a shot at goal that went over before St Mirren got that third.  The other Newcastle loanee Connor Newton dispossessed one of the Hearts players, passed the ball to Goncalves, who completed the one two with Newton in lost of space.  Newton smashed the ball past Goalie MacDonald.

A brace of substitutions with 15 minutes to go seemed to spark a late Hearts rally – one that brought their second goal as Stevenson once again shot past Samson.  Stevenson could have had a hat-trick had the woodwork not come to St Mirren’s aid.  In a funny sort of way, while I thought that Hearts were slight favourites because of their experience, St Mirren showed a lot of nous by taking the ball into the corners – this I think ate up at least 3 minutes at the end of the game.

The foul on Carey right at the end essentially extinguished Hearts chances seconds before Craig Thompson confirmed St Mirren’s maiden League Cup win and first trophy since the Scottish Cup win in 1987.  In the short term, this should provide a fillip in St Mirren’s quest to move up the table.  St Mirren sits 5 points behind Kilmarnock and Aberdeen in 8th and 9th place respectively (and a point behind Hearts in 10th).  Overhauling those teams should be a viable target for the rest of the season – starting next Saturday with the visit of the Champions elect Celtic.

In the longer term this victory can provide St Mirren with the financial foundations to build on as well as a new status as a team familiar to the winners circle.  Providing of course that the key players from Sunday are able and willing to stay and that the issues with the side (lack of a commanding central defender and a defensive midfielder) are resolved.

For Hearts the future is less certain, they may feel that this was the cup that got away from them.  Also at a time when Hearts may be still in financial trouble, the disparity in prize money may give them problems.  They should however take positives from that start.

From a supporters point of view there are three things that stick in the mind.  Firstly there was the atmosphere in Paisley a couple of hours before the game.  Walking through Paisley on my way to catch the train, there was a lovely chilled buzz around the place.  Secondly, the atmosphere at the game itself was incredible.  Certainly better than the atmosphere in the 2010 final, while thirdly the atmosphere after the game back in Paisley…  well you will have seen the pictures of some of the players celebrating… 

One other thing comes to mind, at the “reception” in County Square Renfrewshire Council continued the tradition of somehow screwing up a part of the “Reception”.  When St Mirren won the Scottish Cup in 1959, the players had some trouble getting from the bus to the Council headquarters (at that time in County Square), on Sunday a stage was erected…  and was populated by a bunch of photographers, not the players. 

Now, where is that cloud that I came off of...

All Eyes On The Prize

Sunday sees the 66th Scottish League Cup final, or to give it it’s sponsors laden name, the Scottish Communities League Cup Final.  With half of the Old Firm fit for purpose, it’s perhaps unsurprising to see a non Old Firm League Cup final, the first in six years.  Mind you, the prescience of Hearts and St Mirren might be something of a surprise.

Billy Mehmet gets the winner in the 2010 League Cup semi V Hearts at Fir Park

St Mirren are still chasing their maiden win in this competition after defeats in 1955 (to Aberdeen) and three years ago to Rangers.  Ironically enough their last cup win over Hearts came in the semi-final that year (right) – St Mirren’s last meeting with Hearts at Hampden also finished with a win, Hearts being St Mirren’s semi final victims during their cup win in 1987 (below).  Despite being at the wrong end of the table, St Mirren’s form has picked up since the 4-1 mauling by Ross County after the mid season break. 

Part of that has been down to Lennon reverting to the 4-2-3-1 formation he deployed last season, this I think has been done to accommodate Goncalves.  Part of that has also been down to the form shown by Goncalves, who got the opener in the historic Semi-final win over Celtic as well as goals against St Johnsone in the Scottish Cup and Inverness in the league.

While St Mirren are still in the bottom half of the table, their opponents are not that far ahead of them.  Hearts probably start as slight favourites due to their cup final experience.  Remember that Hearts are going for a second domestic trophy in a row after their Scottish Cup win last year (which – and I mention this in the interests of balance – included a quarter final win after a replay against St Mirren).  It is however worth remembering that this will be only their second League Cup final in 50 years. 

From 1955 to 1963 Hearts reached 5 League Cup finals, winning four of them.  This period represented something of a golden period for Hearts as they won the League twice (in 1958 & 1960) and the Scottish Cup (1956).  Since then their only appearance in the final came in 1996 where a see-saw final that finished 4-3 to Rangers has been since overshadowed as the one where Gascoigne had a dram at half time before grabbing a brace in the second half.

Frank McGarvey gets the winner V Hearts; Scottish Cup Semi Final, 11 April 1987

Hearts cup final experience comes in the shape of Andy Webster, Darren Barr & Jamie MacDonald – all starters in last season’s Scottish Cup final against Hib’s.  Webster has also featured in Dundee United’s Scottish Cup win in 2010 while Barr captained Falkirk to defeat in the previous season’s finale.  Granger & Zaliukas were also starters last season but injury rules them out of Sunday while Ryan Stevenson did not feature in the final.

What is not known is Gary Locke’s preferred formation for Sunday.  He has played 4-4-2 in the games since John McGlynn’s departure.  Whether he deploy’s 4-4-2 on Sunday remains to be seen.  However St Mirren should stick with their 4-2-3-1 formation that served them well recently.

As has been said before St Mirren can be soft at the back, however John McGinn (brother of Stephen McGinn, formally of this parrish and now at Watford) and Connor Newton (on loan from Newcastle) have formed a solid partnership at the base of the midfield.  They also work well with the “sweeping” centre-back Jim Goodwin.  Those three players will be key to building a platform for other players to do their work.

Key to getting the goals will be the partnership of Stephen Thompson and Paul McGowan.  Technically McGowan is more a playmaker, so the spaces that he operates in and his use of them will be key on Sunday.  Thompson on the other hand will only really be as good as the quality of the passes to him.  However as Thompson is the most experienced member of the Saints team (having played for Rangers, Burnley and was part of the Cardiff team that played in the FA Cup final in 2008) this will make him one of the on pitch leaders alongside Goodwin.

In truth, this is a very nip and tuck final.  Hearts recent finals experience only makes them slight favourites.  I would hope that this is yet another Classic League Cup final to go alongside the vintage finals of 1987, 1994 & 2008 to name but three. In truth it may well be an awful lot more nervy than that – certainly not a repeat of the very comfortable 2-0 win St Mirren racked up against Hearts at the end of February.  I take St Mirren to win 2-1, but that’s only because my head thinks Sunday will be too close to call.

Sporting Picks of 2012: Part 4; August 4th

"Super Saturday" At The London Olympics

The sporting highlight of this year was of course the Summer Olympics, held of course in London.  Having already posted on my five moments of the Olympics (as well as my five performances), I thought that I would concentrate here on the middle Saturday of the Olympics – a day that saw Britain win six gold medals.  To put that achievement into context, Britain won more medals on Saturday 4 August 2012 that they won in both the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics.

Farah wins the first of his 5,000/10,000 double

While there were two further rowing gold’s (Copeland & Hosking in the Lightweight Double Sculls and the Men’s Foursomes) and a gold in the Velodrome (Woman’s Team Pursuit), the day belonged to the Athletes on the second day of the Athletics programme.

While Jessica Ennis had been the dominant Heptathlete since the Berlin World Championships in 2009, her loss in Daegu in 2011 had cast doubt over her chances of victory.  Ennis cast that doubt aside and dominated the Heptathlon, taking the lead in the opening discipline (100m hurdles).  In contrast, Mo Farah emerged during the Daegu World Championships as a contender for the longer distance races by winning the 5,000m.  Farah doubled up for the Olympics, going for both the 5,000m and the 10,000m.

Unlike Ennis, Farrah has excelled in a discipline where there is little history of British success, the last male British medal in the 10,000m was at the Montreal Olympics (in sharp contrast, Liz McColgan became the World Champion at 10,000m at the Tokyo World Championships in 1991 & maybe should have added the Olympic crown in Barcelona a year later).

 

While Ennis & Farrah were expected to be contenders, the Long jumper Greg Rutherford kind of flew under the radar as a medal contender (though not thought of as a contender for the title itself).  Yet his second jump of 8.21 metres was enough to take gold, though he did extend his jump to 8.31 metres.

The funny thing though is that if I had to pick one moment that encapsulated these games perfectly, it would not be Britain’s most successful hour on the Athletics track but the Mens 8 (above) at the rowing regatta.  The mens team were leading at the half way point of their race, but having put everything into the race fell behind as the German crew found that extra gear to take Gold.  The British crew finished with Bronze medals but conveyed both the sense of disappointment at loosing alongside an air of dignity that has been amiss from Football.

Sporting Picks of 2012, Part 3; July 21st

Tour De France: - Stage 20

Nibali followed by Froom & Wiggins during Stage 17

“Bradley Wiggins is poised to become the first Briton to win the Tour de France after victory in Saturday's time trial.  Only an accident, stopping Wiggins, 32, from finishing Sunday's final stage in Paris, will prevent him from winning.  He now leads Chris Froome by three minutes, 21 seconds after beating his Team Sky team-mate in the 53.5km race. 

"Today was a superb performance," said Wiggins. "I really wanted to get out there and finish with a bang. Fortunately I managed to do that."  He added: "It's the stuff of dreams to win the final time-trial and seal the Tour.”

In among the hype surrounding the BBC’s Sports Personality… programme little was made of the small cheat the BBC employed to award the “Team of The Year” award to the whole of the British Olympic team.  The award should have gone to the outstanding British sports team of the past couple of years – The BSkyB sponsored British Cycling team headed by David Brailsford.  Their most spectacular feat was turning Track cyclist (and Olympic champion at the Individual Pursuit at Athens 2004) Bradley Wiggins into a Tour de France winner.

That probably sounds unfair on Wiggins, he did become the first British sportsperson to win three Olympic medals at a single games since 1964 at those games.  It’s just that the transition from track to road racing had proved too much for others, notably Chris Boardman.  For Wiggins though, it would be a different story as he worked hard and made a breakthrough of sorts in 2009 by finishing fourth, equalling the record finish by a Brit.  2012 though was his best chance for glory at Le Tour, Contador was serving a ban, while Andy Schleck dropped out because of injury.

Wiggins still had to contend with the defending champion Cadel Evans, Andy’s brother Frank Schleck, Vincenzo Nibali and surprise package from the 2011 Vuelita de Espania, teammate Chris Froome.  However when he pitched up in Liege for the prologue time trial at the end of June, Wiggins was clear favourite.  Wiggins showed patience in waiting to take Yellow, when he did – on Stage 7 at La Planche des Belles Filles – it was on the first key mountain stage.  So why have I picked the penultimate stage?

In truth, Wiggins was a comfortable winner but did not really cement his win until the penultimate stage, where he more than doubled his lead over second placed Froome and firmly put third placed Nibali out of the frame.  Wiggins had successfully kept Nibali at bay on the 17th stage at Peyraguides buy finishing ahead of him and just behind team mate Froome. The individual time trial from Bonneval to Chartres saw Wiggins extend that lead over his nearest challengers and effectively win the tour by putting himself out of the reach of Nibali & Froome.

Of course, the story for Wiggins doesn’t end there.  After cementing his place in the pantheon of British sport, Wiggins rang the bell at the start of the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.  Wiggins also added to his Olympic haul by becoming the Olympic champion at the Time –trial, overcoming the disappointment of his team mate Mark Cavendish’s fruitless attempt to win the Road Race.

The Tour of 2012 could be seen as the high water mark of British Cycling.  Brailsford, Wiggins & co will be working towards ensuring that the successes of 2012 continues and is built upon in the same way that the successes of the track cycling team from Beijing in 2008 were built upon.   

Some Thought's About That Semi Final...

Sorry about the blogging hiatus.  There will be new posts in the next few days, continuing the sporting picks of last year.  Firstly though some thoughts about the League Cup semi final, in particular Sunday’s historic win for St Mirren.

Steven Thompson makes it 3-1 to the Bud's

Historic?  Well, you would have to go back to 1959 for St Mirren’s last win over Celtic at Hampden.  This result set’s up only their third League Cup final, three years after the last appearance in the final – that 1-0 loss to Rangers.  Celtic were huge favourites to make their second final appearance in a row.  So what happened?

Firstly, for the first time against the Old Firm since Lennon became St Mirren manager (the Christmas Eve 2011 game against Rangers doesn’t count as St Mirren came up against an incredibly poor Rangers), the players executed the game plan expertly – high line and pressing the Celtic players.  What undoubtedly helped was that St Mirren did not give away an early gift of a goal to Celtic this time.  St Mirren have conceded early goals each time Celtic have visited Greenhill Road since that 4-0 win – four days after the defeat to Rangers in the League Cup final.  This time it was St Mirren that grabbed the first goal.

Secondly, Lennon went into this match playing a sort of variation of 4-5-1, with Goncalves, McGowan & Teale as the more advanced midfielders.  This wasn’t a true 4-2-3-1 as neither Newton nor McGinn performed solely as sitting midfielders, getting forward at any opportunity.  Whether this signifies a revival of last years 4-2-3-1 is anyone’s guess, as Lennon has favoured formations with two up front this season.

Lastly, I hope this does not mask the issues that still persist with this team.  The current St Mirren squad is still two defensive players short…  at least.  We need a central defender and a defensive midfielder.

I’ll be posting about the final nearer the time, but from this distance the final looks like it’ll be a nip and tick affair.

Sporting Picks of 2012, Part 2: July 1st

14^th European Championship Final: Olympic Stadium, Kiev; Spain 4, Italy 0

“Spain made history in magical fashion as they outclassed Italy and claimed a successive European crown to add to their 2010 World Cup triumph.  Vicente del Bosque's side staged a compelling claim to be the greatest international side of all time as the Euro 2012 final was transformed into an exhibition with Italy - who performed creditably for long periods - passed brutally into submission.

Spain's virtuoso performance was a decisive answer to a growing band of critics who had forced coach Del Bosque and his players to defend themselves against allegations that they had been "boring" throughout Euro 2012 at the pre-match media conference.”

One of the pitfalls of doing lists like this is that in a vintage year like 2012, something has to fall short.  In this case the toughest decision surrounded how much Olympics to do and where everything else fitted in.  After deciding on the amount of Olympics, the final decision came down to writing about either Spain’s historic hat-trick of Football championships or South Africa’s series win in England that saw them unseat England as test Cricket’s best team.

Spain won out because they are undoubtedly the best football team on the planet just now, and because South Africa, whilst being the best Test Cricket side in the planet, I suspect are not the legendary sides that the West Indies were in 1976, or Australia were in 1995.  On the other hand, Spain are already compared to the West Germany sides of the mid 70’s and the France side of the turn of the century – this summer Spain surpassed them.

This summer Spain took their biggest advantage…  and took it to it’s logical conclusion.  Remember when Scottish football fans slated Craig Levein for playing 4-6 against the Czech Republic two years ago.  Well…  Spain essentially won Euro 2012 with that exact formation.  Whereas Levein’s version of 4-6 was intended more as a 4-4-2-0 (which morphed into 4-6 due to Scotland’s inability to keep possession), Spains version was more of a 4-2-4-0 or a 4-3-3-0 and did keep the intended shape.  Spanish journalists called the formation 4-2-3-1 with Fabregas as the “false 9”.  Poppy!  And indeed cock!  It was 4-6, simple as.

What this formation did do was enable Spain to retain possession and operate their Tiki-taka style.  In this respect, it worked.  Where the formation didn’t work so well (which is why Spain were called boring) is that Spain’s possession was not converted into goals.  Fabregas was always too much of a midfielder to be a proper “False 9”, so doesn’t have the forwards instinct for getting into goal scoring positions or for making runs that forwards would make.  Had Villa not been injured, Spain would have romped to victory.  Spain looked their most uncomfortable against Italy in their first game, Italy remember played 3-5-2 in that game.  For every other game, except their next game (against Ireland, who they thrashed 4-0), Spain dominated without really getting the goals their play deserved.  So what happened in the final?

Put simply, Spain looked like they switched Fabregas and Silva, with Silva playing through the middle and making the sort of runs that Fabregas should have been.  As a result, Silva fitted into the mould of the “false 9” better than Fabregas did.   This undoubtedly contributed to Spain’s flying start – which included their opening goal (scored by Silva).  Spain got the second just before half time from a counter attacking move that saw Jordi Alba steer the ball past Bufon.  When Italy’s third substitue Motta was forced off with an injury, it was essentially game over.

The big question now is how long this Spain side can go on and what happens next?  The previous sides to have won back to back championships have evolved differently.  France fell apart in South Korea, becoming the first World Champions to fall at the first hurdle since Brazil 36 years previously, before reaching the Quarter finals of Euro 2004.  In contrast, West Germany could have made it 3 in a row losing their European crown on penalties to Czechoslovakia.  However unlike France, who have still to put together a side that puts them into contention for a championship, West Germany built the foundations of a side that would see them become European Champions again in 1980 before reaching the next three World Cup Finals – winning in 1990.

While the odds will be stacked against Spain retaining the World Cup next year in Brazil, I suspect that the future of Spanish national team will be in good health for several years to come.

Sporting Picks of 2012, Part 1 - February 14th

Rangers Enter Administration

Craig Whyte Announces that Rangers have gone into administration

“Rangers Football Club has entered administration - meaning it has been docked 10 points, effectively ending its Scottish Premier League challenge.  The club appointed London firm Duff and Phelps as administrators at 14:50.  The move followed an unsuccessful legal bid by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) at the Court of Session in Edinburgh to appoint its own administrator.

HMRC lodged its petition over alleged non-payment of about £9m in PAYE and VAT following Craig Whyte's takeover.  Mr Whyte confirmed on Monday that the club had filed legal papers to appoint administrators. He insisted Rangers would "come out stronger" and "always be here".  It was initially thought that the club had 10 days to make a decision on whether to proceed, but the HMRC action on Tuesday changed the dynamic of the situation.”

This story was by far and away the biggest football story in this country, with repercussions that will be felt for the next few years.  For people outside of Scotland, it will be astonishing to think that the Rangers story kept Euro 2012, Wimbledon and the build up to the London Olympics off the back pages of almost all of the Scottish newspapers.

Rangers had been in financial trouble over the course of the last decade.  What had put them on to the road to liquidation has been an investigation by HMRC into the administration by Rangers of Employee Benefit Trusts (or EBT’s) that they had set up for their players towards the end of the 1990’s.

The impending tax case and the financial woes was the issues that saw the majority share holder David Murray decide to sell his stake.  By the spring of 2011 there looked to be two contenders for Murray’s share.  Dave King was a South African born businessman who had long had an interest in Rangers – he also had form in tax avoidance having been wanted by the South African authorities for such a charge.  The person who won was Craig Whyte, a Scottish businessman who had, to put it mildly, an extraordinarily chequered history. 

He had been disqualified as a company director for seven years, while most of the companies he had been involved with had gone into administration.  In short, Craig Whyte was not, by any stretch of the imagination, the ideal candidate to take over Rangers.  Had any of this been exposed by the Scottish media, in particular the red top tabloids, then Whyte would not have received the hero’s welcome that he got on the last day of the 2010/11 season when he had all but taken ownership of the Scottish Champions.  Yet while these stories had been circulating – mostly in Private Eye – at the time, they did not reach the mainstream Scottish Media until Mark Daly’s investigation was broadcast by BBC Scotland in October 2011 – five months after Whyte’s takeover.

Other little facts that failed to reach the mainstream media until it was too late was Whyte’s failure to pay either PAYE or NI to HMRC and the theory that Rangers were trading insolvent.  When Rangers filed the papers to go into administration, many people didn’t see what happened next when it came.  Essentially due to the ineptitude of the Scottish press to report the facts.

Rangers limped on to the end of the season.  The close season though was filled with the fall-out from Rangers administration and subsequent liquidation, with the question of where the newly constituted Rangers would play dominating the Scottish Sports media (keeping Euro 2012, Wimbledon & the build up to the Olympics off the back pages).  The SFA & SPL hierarchy wanted (for commercial reasons) New-co Rangers to begin life as an SPL member.  The supporters (initially of Aberdeen, Hearts & Hibernian) wanted Rangers to receive the treatment that they believed that, given the same set of circumstances befalling their clubs, their clubs would receive.  When those supporters began to talk of boycotts and non renewal of season tickets, the SPL clubs took notice and blocked New-co Rangers application to join the SPL.  One suspects that the corporate sponsors that were supposedly planning on pulling out of Scottish Football took note of the new found supporter-power and changed their plans.

Likewise, when the re-constituted Rangers submitted their application for entry to the SFL, despite the despicable pressure put on them by the SPL & SFA hierarchy (remember, for purely “commercial reasons”), the clubs voted to admit Newco Rangers to the bottom rung of the SFL.  Six months on, parts of the Scottish footballing landscape are still the same.  There are lots of differences thought, mostly in the contrasting reputations of the governing bodies, the Scottish sports media, Rangers themselves and the fans.

Rangers, now owned by Yorkshire businessman Charles Green, have started in the Third Division and are only now living up to the tag of favourites for the Third Division crown.  To the surprise of many tax experts HMRC lost the “big” tax case against Rangers, many of the same tax experts believe that HMRC will appeal this decision in the New Year.  Both the SPL & the SFL have kept with the Murdoch shilling by striking reduced Television deals with BSkyB (and with ESPN) – so much for talking up Scottish Football.  Meanwhile both the SPL & The SFL have unveiled their own vision for the future structure of league football in Scotland.  The SFL see a top league of 16, while the SPL see two leagues with invites for SPL2 to go out (hands up who thinks Newco Rangers will get an invite?).

The implosion of Rangers did not come out of the blue, so to speak.  The ramifications of the decisions made this summer will probably be still reverberating around the game when Rangers return to the SPL.

Introducing This Years Sporting Picks

So with 2012 almost at an end, it’s nearly time to say goodbye to a truly vintage sporting year.  Before we do though there is the (almost) annual sporting picks posts.

Last years picks included Barcelona’s European Cup triumph at Wembley, the high point of Novak Djokavic’s incredible year, the deciding stage of Le Tour De France, England’s demoralising defeat of India in the Trent Bridge test and at that point the lowest ebb of Scottish Football. 

This years picks has been difficult to choose, but I have somehow managed to pick five moments.  There is staggeringly only one from this years Olympics, however there was a separate moments of the Olympics post that i compiled at the time.   However there are two moments of sporting history related to victorious Olympians.  The last two moments are from Football, including the biggest football story of the year, one shamefully glossed over during the BBC’s “Sports Personality…” programme.

So before those posts are published, may I wish you a happy new year..

Olympic SPOTY... If You Please!

Sunday sees the annual BBC smug-fest that is Sport’s Personality of the Year.  Unlike in previous years, where there was a problem with the quality of sporting achievements by British Sportsmen & women, this year sees a high standard of contenders for this award.  Most of the contenders were Olympic Champions, the Olympics being the one bright point in the BBC’s year given the continued decline of their Football coverage and the perceived decline in other broadcasting standards.

2011 Sports Personality winner Mark Cavendish flanked by Darren Clarke & Mo Farrah

So, there are no footballers because of England’s failure to get beyond the quarter finals of the European Championships while there is just the one Golfer – Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy – nominated.  There are no professional boxers nominated, while the first female Olympic Champion in boxing – Nicola Adams – is nominated.  You could quibble about the exemption of the likes of Alistair Brownlee, Victoria Pendleton or Greg Rutherford but honestly who would you leave out.  The question is, who will win the award that has tendril like taken over the old “Sports Review of the Year”?

Of the twelve, there are probably four contenders slightly ahead of the rest.  Jessica Ennis has been here before, this time however she is nominated as the Olympic Champion at the Heptathlon.  Having come close when she added the European Championship to her World Championship gold medal, she will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Mary Peters, who won the equivalent event at the Munich Olympics and then became Sports Personality of the year in 1972.

Having also been previously nominated, Mo Farrah was nominated last year for his heroics in winning the 5,000m at the World Championships in Dageu.  Farrah “doubled up” for the Olympics, going for gold in both the 5,000m and the 10,000m.  He won both, becoming only the 7th man to become Olympic champion at both the 5,000m and the 10,000m (Lassie Viren managed the feat twice – in Munich in 1972 and again four years later in Montreal).  Farrah also became the first Brit to win Olympic gold at those events. While these two contenders represent sports that had been in the doldrums recently, the next two contenders represent sports that have had their best year.  For British Cycling and British Tennis, 2012 will go down as their Annus Mirabilis.

The spearhead of British Tennis’ great year has been Andy Murray.  When he was nominated in 2009 and 2011, there were slam sized holes in his CV.  This year the knocking at the door became louder and louder until the door opened at Flushing Meadow’s.  His performance against Djokavic in the Australian Open semi final hinted that Murray was going in the right direction – it took Djokavic just under 5 hours to defeat Murray.  After defeat in the Quarters at Roland Garros, Murray’s season then took off at Wimbledon.  It wasn’t just that Murray became the first Brit to reach the final since 1938 that generated momentum, but that until Federer snatched the second set to level at 1-1 Murray was on top.

Murray’s season then went from strength to strength.  He won Gold at the Olympics, beating both Djokovic and Federer on the way and also picked up a Silver in the mixed doubles partnering Laura Robson.  His high point though was his US Open triumph in September – the first British Slam winner in 35 years and the first male Slam winner in 76 years – reversing the result when he faced Djokavic in Australia.

The last of the main contenders won Olympic gold after their historic victory.   Bradley Wiggins had previously won three Olympic gold’s, but before the Olympics began took part in Le Tour de France.  Justifying the tag of favourite, he finished 3 minutes and 21 seconds ahead of compatriot and team-mate Chris Froome in the annual jaunt across France, becoming the first Brit to win Le Tour.  As an encore, Wiggins won gold in the Olympic Time trial.

Ennis, Farrah, Murray and Wiggins to my mind are the four front runners.  That’s not to say that they are the only contenders, the Golf constituency could easily rally behind McIlroy and see him home – miffed at the exclusion of the Ryder Cup hero Ian Polter, while the status of Ellie Simmonds – at times the face of the Paralympic Games – could enhance her popularity.   I however suspect that Wiggins will prevail out of that group of four, following in the pedals of Tommy Simpson, Chris Hoy and Mark Cavendish as Sports Personality winners from the world of Cycling.  If only the BBC extended their awards-fest to Villain of the year, then I would confidently predict that award would be won jointly by Craig Whyte, David Murray, Stuart Regan and Neil Doncaster.