it's still about Europe

The curse of being a small country with a shit sporting record is that any successes are ludicrously overhyped, with all perspective abandoned in the process. The danger with this is that subsequent setbacks (which are inevitable, if you're a small country with a shitty record)spin the nation back into depression, annoyed that it had been taken in, yet again.

Take, for example, the latest international football rankings, published earlier this week - while England's move up to 4th was greeted by considerable cynicism south of the border (not surprising, when the points system somehow ranks a team that had a terrible World Cup higher than the champions, Italy), Scotland's climb to 34th has been widely celebrated. Yup, we're the 34th best nation in the world at football! Rejoice! Everything is fine!

Of course, these rankings are a meaningless distraction. The co-efficients that judge the relative strength of domestic leagues are not, however, and Scotland risks losing a Champions League place next season unless the 3 clubs in Europe this time around - Celtic, Hearts and Rangers - up their game. Although supporters of the other clubs in Scotland hate to admit it, it will be good for the game if these 3 make some progress. Scotland needs as many routes into Europe as it can get.

Of course, with Hearts gubbed at the first hurdle, only one Scottish team made it to the group stages of the Champions League, and Celtic went to Old Trafford on Wednesday night for the latest "Battle of Britain" clash.

Before the game, lots of ludicrous statements were made about how it would show the gulf in class between Scotland and England. (Similar things were said before Celtic knocked Liverpool and Blackburn out of the UEFA Cup a couple of years ago). I had a conversation with a Man United fan before the game, who rubbished Jan Vennegor of Hesselink, scoffing at his World Cup and saying he was hardly a world-class signing. This was used as an introduction into a wider rubbishing of Celtic's squad.

He, of course, missed the point entirely. World-class strikers in high demand don't cost £3.5m. If JVH had had a storming World Cup, he would have increased his reputation and his value, and therefore become far too expensive for Celtic. They are not shopping in the same market place as Manchester United or any of the top English teams. This is not about a gulf in class, but a gulf in income.

Similarly, some commentators used Wednesday's match as a test of how Celtic would compete in the Premiership, which was equally pointless. Currently, Celtic receive around £2m from the SPL TV deal every season. United receive at least £30m more than that - a decent transfer kitty in anyone's language. Therefore, if Celtic were in the Premiership, they would be competing with the squad they have now, plus a fair injection of extra quality. Probably all of it in defence.

Of course, despite years of trying, Celtic are no closer to joining the Premiership than the Tories are to becoming a major force in Scottish politics again, and so for now they have to put up with the defence they've got. While new signing Thomas Gravesen held his hand up for the mistakes that led to the goals, these individual errors probably won't be repeated too often.

The back four, meanwhile, have looked shaky all season. While Celtic look threatening enough in attack (crap World Cup or not, JVH has started well for them), they'll need to tighten up to progress past the group stage. They'll be hoping the return of Bobo Balde from injury will improve things. As it was, on Wednesday they couldn't keep Saha quiet, and United won the game 3-2.

On Thursday night the UEFA Cup got underway again, and Hearts terrible week continued. After losing their way in the SPL last Saturday and hearing that their owner Vladimir Romanov, is going to be investigated by UEFA for slagging its referees off (the SFA are also unhappy at his allegations that Scottish refs are biased towards the Old Firm), they lost 2-0 to Sparta Prague. At "home". Much like their Murrayfield tie with AEK Athens in their last European game, the scoreline didn't reflect the true horror of the game for the Edinburgh team. When your man of the match is your keeper, and you still lose, you know it's been a bad night.

Rangers turned in a shocking performance, too, but a 0-0 away result in Europe is a decent result. Whether they should struggle so much against a team of the limited resources of Norway's Molde is another matter. Highlights for the Gers were that their debutant keeper got through the game without conceding a goal, and Barry Ferguson returned from injury. Ferguson still has plenty of believers in Govan, despite a career that has been short of real achievement to date; now it's time to see if he can repay their faith.

So, two losses - one a gubbing - and a scoreless draw. Time to be depressed about Scottish football again.