GLF 62: Graham discovers that fact is stranger than fiction in the SPL
YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP…..
Over the years I have written a couple of articles with this title but I think it is even more appropriate when we look at what has happened in the SPL already this season.Particularly when you look at the situation at Rangers, Hearts, Dunfermline and Dundee Utd.
Some of the stories coming out of these clubs have been hard to keep up with and hard to believe that what we are hearing is actually going on at some of our clubs.
Take Hearts for example,where do you start??Not being content with making sure they shot themselves in the foot every time they got in a position to challenge last season,they have almost shot the bottom half of their body off this season.
I watched the recent 2-2 Edinburgh derby where the team line up was widely regarded as a strange one,being heavily loaded with Lithuanians.Then the news came through that the game was to be shown live on Lithuanian TV. The suggestion being that Mr. Romanov had picked the side to maximise that market.
Then we had the statement from the three amigos of Pressley,Hartley and Gordon, that things were not well behind the scenes,well that was a bit of a shock to many of us!!This brought the strange response from Romanov that if they did not beat Dunfermline they would be transferred to Kilmarnock or whoever would take them and then he would play a team of “kids” at Celtic Park the next week.
This from a man who owns Hearts outright but has done little so far to back up the words he was quick to spout when he took them over.They are still playing at the same ground,they still have a debt of £20 million and growing by all accounts,they failed in Europe as they have done under previous regimes and managers.
He seems to have split the Hearts support right down the middle with some still believing he is the white knight who will lead them to some sort of promised land. Whereas others,to mix metaphors even further,see him as a wolf in sheep's clothing who can only ruin the club in the long run.The concern could be that if he leaves then the club could go to the wall and that they are not a very attractive proposition for any potential buyer.
Then we have Rangers who were about to sweep all before them having got rid of Alex McLeish and replaced him by the top European coach that Paul Le Guen was meant to be.
They were lauded for the demolition job that they did on us at Fir Park where they played some sweeping attacking football,although when we did get to them we did show that there were frailties in defence.
Since then they are back to being described as one of the worst Rangers teams of all time,with a bewildering number of systems being adopted and players out of position.
His poor grasp of the English language has not helped his cause as the press don't get the answers they are looking for therefore reducing their ability to create a story.
Some of the signings he has made do not look any better than those that saw McLeish slaughtered,with Svensson already pushed to the fringes along with Sionko and the lumbering Sebo.After their draw with us they were 10 points behind and although there is a long way to go it is a gap that they are unlikely to pull back given the lack of confidence and belief that they have in their side.
It is also interesting to try to make sense of the managerial roundabout that is the job at Dundee Utd.Craig Brewster was hailed as a great young manager for the job he did at Inverness,but with hindsight it may well be that he inherited a good side and didn't do much with it.
At Tannadice he was forced to clear out a highly paid side that were under-achieving and replace them with his own players.This task appears to have been too much for him as well,with the likes of Noel Hunt and David Proctor not having the quality necessary.
After the defeat to Aberdeen he was unwise to say that he may not be able to motivate the squad to stay in the SPL,surely the strangest way to hand in your resignation,particularly to trigger happy Eddie Thomson.
The players probably showed what they thought of their manager when they went out the following week and lost five - one to Falkirk and probably consigned him to the managerial scrapheap.Having said that two wins in twenty-eight games probably means that's where you belong.
The ongoing manager situation at Dunfermline is maybe a bit routine compared to those above but once again Jim Leishman seeks the safety of the boardroom when the going gets tough.Then we hear the list of usual suspects lined up to take his place,although it would appear they still have no money to spend and any manager will have his hands severely tied.
Our early season ills when some were calling for the heads of Malpas and Hegarty seem to pale into insiginificance.
Graham Barnstaple
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