Scottish football's got more than an image problem

So Neil Lennon thinks that Celtic's failure to sign a big name player this summer is due to English perceptions of our game.

As always, it's a neat way of deflecting attention away from other issues, such as Celtic's failure to get into the Champions League. By falling at the first hurdle once again, the club has denied itself a huge chunk of income, and the glamour of competing with the biggest names in Europe.

Scottish football is in a woeful state at the moment, and yet hopes are receding that anything fundamental might be done about it.

Henry McLeish's 1st report into the game - launched earlier this year - has been hardly mentioned since, derided by the media and "football" people for recommending that money be spent on facilities and infrastucture to improve the game at the grassroots.

C'mon Henry! Asking for money? In these straightened times?!

It was a clear a case of shooting the messenger as you'll see - the McLeish recommendations may not have been spot on, but at least let's have a debate about them, rather than brush the issue under the carpet.

Lennon himself dismissed the need for more facilities for kids, saying that when he was a bairn he simply got a ball and played with his mates in the street.

Yes, and that's exactly the point, isn't it? For many reasons that we can argue about forever -paedo paranoia, traffic, video games - kids aren't just playing in the street anymore... and because so many playing fields have been sold off and community sports facilities are lacking, that means they aren't playing full stop.

Instead, having been frustrated with their first choices, Celtic have spent a fair bit of money anyhow, and Lennon claims he'll have all of the £9.5m windfall from Aiden McGeady's transfer to play with too.

Is this really the best thing to do?

Celtic are caught in a death match with Rangers, breaking the bank in order to win a title that no one really cares about, managed by a man who is surely going to come unstuck sooner rather than later.

Here's a thought... why doesn't Celtic sponsor sports facilities in Scotland instead?

Every week, towns across Scotland are populated by locals wearing replica OF jerseys rather than that of their home town team. This isn't a trend likely to go away anytime soon.

So why doesn't Celtic put something back and sponsor sports facilities in these supporter towns? It would help the club cement relationships with these fans... and maybe help counter some animosity towards them as well.

In other words - it would still be commercially driven and entirely in Celtic's interest... but it would also help put something back into the community as well, and perhaps start to turn this country's footballing fortunes around.

SPL season preview

Jeez, we're really not that good at this football lark at the moment, are we? A 3-0 friendly loss to Sweden is Craig Levein's first defeat as Scotland boss, and gives him plenty to think about before the first qualifier against Lithuania.

Still, he acknowledged that it was an inexperienced back line, and hopefully come the matches that matter there will be a bit more steel and craft about his team.

But with the SPL back this weekend, we can ignore our relative poverty compared to other nations, and concentrate on domestic issues for a while.

If ever there was a season to challenge the Old Firm, this was it. Title holders Rangers are skint, and have lost Kris Boyd, Kevin Thomson and several squad players this summer, while bringing in precisely no one. The return of Andy Webster - who had a fine season at Dundee Utd - should improve the back line, but, apart from Kenny Miller, who's going to score the goals?

Celtic have brought in lots of players, and with the news that Aiden McGeady has finally moved on, might do some more business. They could conceivably try and buy the title with a massive offer for Craig Bellamy, because their manager ain't got the guile to do it without a huge helping hand. Neil Lennon might have bossed a long winning run last season, but he's fluffed every big match so far. They look far, far away from being a good side.

The problem is, who can challenge them?

Andy Webster apart, Dundee Utd have done well to hold together the squad that finished 3rd last season. In fact, chairman Stephen Thompson got very angry earlier in the summer about "unsubstantiated" rumours about players leaving.

Yet he has also revealed that his family cannot carry on subsidising the club as they have been doing, so he can hardly complain when the media speculate about players like Craig Conway going - it's a simple matter of putting two and two together.

A lot may ride on the Arab's Europa League qualifying tie with AEK Athens - if they play like Motherwell in the previous round, entry into the group stage will ensure a financial windfall for the club that might just help keep the wolves at bay.

Play like Hibs, though (who got dumped out of the qualifying stages by Slovenian side Maribor) and player departures before the end of August become much more likely.

Either way, you just feel that there may not be a huge amount of further potential in this Dundee Utd team. Following their 3rd place and cup win, fans would hope that the club could invest further in the squad, but that's not going to happen. They're a decent outfit, but matching last season's achievements would be some feat, let alone beating them.

Hearts supporters are once again crowing about mounting a serious challenge (will they ever learn?) but everything rests on new signings Kevin Kyle and Stephen Elliott staying fit and addressing the team's glaring weakness last season - goal scoring.

In fairness, that's not quite true - Jim Jefferies will ensure that Hearts are a stubborn, hard to beat outfit. But it's hardly inspiring stuff, is it?

And how about the League's eternal enigma, Hibernian? While clubs like Aberdeen and Hearts have talked about redeveloping their homes, Hibs have now completed the transformation of Easter Road into a modern 20,000 seat stadium. Ok, still dwarfed by the Old Firm, but the club now has real potential, with an enviable youth set up and training facilities as well.

At the moment, though, they're not really showing it. John Hughes had a mixed first season in charge, and hasn't yet demonstrated he's found a way of getting his team to play well. He'll be given more time to prove himself, but the fans are split 50:50 on the man, and will become disaffected if early performances aren't good.

Motherwell will probably round off the top six again, because Craig Brown is enjoying an Indian summer at the club and seems to be running a happy ship.

The only prediction you can safely make about the bottom half of the table is that relegation will be a tightly contested affair again. No team is likely to be cut adrift at the bottom, but plenty - Kilmarnock, Hamilton, St Mirren - are operating on slim budgets and can't afford to replace players who have left with equal quality.

Terry Butcher has proved he can manage in the SPL before and will keep Inverness Caledonian Thistle in contention.

They probably won't do as well as St Johnstone did in their promotion season, and the Perth club could well make it into the top six with some good form and fortune.

Aberdeen, though, seem as listless as ever, despite their just announced plans for the new stadium. If they can raise the finance for it, and if they finally move, the Dons might open a new chapter in their history. But a few more seasons of drift await.

Hughes first taste of Europe is stale

Hibernian's manager, John Hughes, is fond of saying that his ambition is to get his club "closer" to the Old Firm.

Job done, then, as his team mirrored Celtic's 3-0 loss to Braga with an identical scoreline against Maribor in Slovenia in their Europa League qualifying tie. The 300 or so Hibbys who made the trip in excitement and expectation were left watching a sorry and familar story unfold - a Scottish club in pre-season being rinsed out by European opposition.

Hughes claimed that his preparation for the match was meticulous, but his decision to start without Antony Stokes and Derek Riordan (who had both played parts in warm-up games in Holland) was baffling. Colin Nish is a tryer, but not the obvious choice if trying to keep possession against fitter, technically-competent opponents.

So well done Motherwell, who are bitter about conceding a late equaliser against Norwegian club Aalesunds but have a great chance of getting through the tie. In contrast to his naive counterpart at Hibs, Craig Brown is continuing to show there is still a place for experience in the game.

We're back!

After an interminable wait, Scottish football is back!

The fans are warming up the vuvuzelas as the new season fast approaches. Fair enough, Motherwell have already started, with victory over Breidablik in the previous qualifying round of the Europa League, but frankly it’s best to treat these ties as pre-season games anyhow, given Scottish club’s miserable record in these games in recent seasons.

And hasn’t Neil Lennon started the new season well? With a mere 3-0 defeat to Braga in his first competitive game in charge as “permanent” manager, he’s proving himself to be much better than Gordon Strachan, who got thumped 5 zip by Artmedia in his first game.

Aiden McGeady didn’t play, but purely because he was injured, and anyhow – as Lenny said – the referee was at fault for the defeat.

A season of glory awaits!

World Cup begins!

This moron doesn't understand, but the World Cup - despite the endless encroachment of the club game - is still the greatest football tournament on Earth.

And the great thing about being Scottish is that we can now enjoy the party whole-heartedly, without having to worry about how our own team will do. Yup, it's a genuine holiday. We get to watch great football, and the result doesn't matter.

So wish England well if you want to. Support ABE if you don't. Have a wee flutter (Mexico for the semis?). And, most of all, enjoy it.

Scottish football will resume normal service soon enough.

Time to put our feet up and watch the rest of world play football

The World Cup starts next weekend, and once again Scotland is obligingly sitting this one out so that another country can take our place instead.

We'll be spared footage of members of the Tartan Army throwing themselves into the sea or throwing themselves into crime-ridden townships, and instead can enjoy the World Cup as (mostly) impartial observers... other than wishing England ill (if that's your thing), or keeping an eye out for the ten SPL players who'll be taking part.

Yes, ten, although if you discount Landry Nguemo and Edson Braafheid, who are no longer on loan at Celtic, and DaMarcus Beasley, who's out of contract, that paltry list gets even shorter. Clearly, the SPL does not attract the cream of global footballing talent these days.

Meanwhile, back home, Scotland's clubs can get on with the messy business of planning for next season. Rangers know that Walter will be in place for another year, before handing over to Ally McCoist. So the pressure is on to keep winning next year... except that Kris Boyd and a few others are off, and the club hasn't got any money to replace them.

The search for a new buyer is ongoing, but the only candidate in the frame at the moment is Andrew Ellis and he - like Ally McCoist - is yet to prove he's got what it takes.

Celtic still haven't appointed a new manager (Neil Lennon's still wagging his tail, but hasn't been thrown the bone yet) but apparently Jimmy Bullard has signed up for a season in Glasgow.

Nothing wrong with that, in itself, but are ageing Premiership stars the plan now, or is there a more cohesive strategy at Parkhead?

Kilmarnock and St. Mirren also need to appoint managers, before getting on with the messy business of putting a squad together.

And Hearts held their AGM this week, where they pulled off the usual smoke and mirrors show to general approval from the assembled shareholders. Ex-chairman and Romanov critic George Foulkes seemed very content with things.

Quite why the Hearts supporters are so happy is difficult to fathom - they were rubbish last season and there are still huge question marks about the club's future. Yet the return of Jim Jefferies as manager, and the more conciliatory style of Sergejus Fedotovas seems to have cheered them up no end - despite the £35m debt and the abandoned stadium redevelopment (the much-vaunted plans for a new main stand have been ditched, with vague promises that new, cheaper proposals will be revealed later this year).

No, all Hearts want is a few new players - same as everyone else.

Meanwhile, Henry McLeish will spend the summer writing part two of his manifesto to revamp Scottish football, and the SPL will keep thinking about how to change the league format to improve the product.

We'll be hoping for the best.

Farewell Christian Nade: our man of the season

We've seen the last of Christian Nade in a Hearts shirt, and while the Jambos are by and large glad to get rid, boy are we gonna miss him.

Nade spent three years in Scottish football, and was laughed at by fans and derided in the press for much of that time. But in so many ways, the big man sums up the current state of Scottish football in 2010.

His arrival from Sheffield United in summer 2007 was yet another example of the insanity of the Hearts regime. Vladimir Romanov sanctioned a transfee fee of £500,000 and a weekly wage of around £10k a week - and it quickly transpired that, yet again, another big-money signing had gone badly wrong.

(If you think only Hearts are prone to this kind of folly, just remember the £2m Celtic blew on Robbie Keane this season to achieve absolutely sweet fuck all.)

Frequently injured, when Nade did play he looked desperately unfit - he may be French, but he's the very embodiment of Scotland's attitude towards exercise.

According to Sky, his manager at the Blades, Neil Warnock, expressed an interest in taking him back to Crystal Palace in 2008 - but for whatever reason, that transfer didn't happen, and Nade stayed at Tynecastle for the duration of his contract.

Unsettled and unhappy (and rumoured to be seeking solace in online, er, chat), Nade entered this season a mess, but at a press conference in October claimed to be putting his problems behind him.

Note that even the BBC can't resist a pun about the man's weight. And note also that Nade comes across as a genuinely open and likeable guy.

There was even, despite his miserable lack of goals (he scored 10 in total for Hearts in three years), talk of a new contract.

Because here's the other thing about Christian Nade - out-of-shape and unfashionable he may be, but, like Scottish football itself, he's nowhere near as bad as his biggest critics make out. He's got genuine technical ability, and a game awareness that enables him to hold the ball up and bring team mates into play. There were some signs that, after Csaba Laszlo's deathly dull rigidity, more positive tactics might bring the best out of him.

Sadly, though, those personality frailities caught up with him once again. Getting sent off against Rangers on 23 January didn't help his cause, but then after playing Celtic, he got into an argument with Ian Black and did what many right-thinking people would do - he punched the little tosser.

The Hearts hierachy then suspended him, and then told him he had no future at the club.

He provided more copy for the papers a few days later, after arranging to play a five-a-side match with some random punters through Facebook. It seemed he was just lonely and wanted some company.

Nade claims that he did in fact sign a new contract before the argument with Ian Black, but the fact that he does not have a signed copy is unlikely to help his case. However, he has certainly helped to shine a little more light on the bizarre way Hearts is run. Although initially reluctant to sign, he claims he didn't want to say so because the club would just drop him, as they did Jose Goncalves.

So what next for our hero? He's still only in his mid-20s, so should have many more years ahead of him as a professional player. But he would need to sort his head out, and become a dedicated athlete - and Scotland probably isn't the place to do that. He also seems to be someone who needs an arm put around him, so he can feel secure and confident. At Hearts the players simply don't get that.

Whatever happens, we wish him all the best. Scottish football is going to be a slightly duller place without him