Uilleam

"Eintracht" means "Harmony". Should we be worried, for the 1st time, ever, about Masonic officials?

No chance. Eintracht will score.

Glad to see that Frankie has arrived safely. (That'll be Johnnie with the larger ones.)

What a man dressed by a woman looks like: I do wish he was fit to play tomorrow.

You sure know your fitba', Gs. Who scored?

A 5th Question, then: "Why don't you go home?"

Lowry, for the goal, primarily.

7M GBP A loan fee, surely?

Souness in today's ST. "It was my brother Bill who introduced me to Ibrox on a European night when I was about ten." No, surely not.... Europa League final could be the greatest night of Rangers players’ lives Rangers’ return from near extinction to the Europa League final is incredible Graeme Souness Sunday May 15 2022, 12.00am, The Sunday Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/europa-league-final-could-be-the-greatest-night-of-rangers-players-lives-x3gwt2rd2 It was my brother Bill who introduced me to Ibrox on a European night when I was about ten. Bill is four years older than me and would take me from Edinburgh to Glasgow for the games. Although I grew up in Hearts territory, I was awed by the sheer scale and spectacle of Rangers’ stadium as a boy. I vividly remember going with a Union Jack draped across my shoulders to show my support and enjoy the special atmosphere on those nights under the lights. I was always playing on Saturdays, so midweek games were the only ones I could go to. The recent Europa League semi-final win over RB Leipzig was the greatest night of football I’ve witnessed as a Rangers man since I first went to games six decades ago. I was so proud of them, I thought: “We’re playing like a big European team and deserve to be in the final”. I didn’t think: “This is a team from one of the smaller leagues in European football.” John Lundstram makes it 3-1 in the semi-final against RB Leipzig at Ibrox SNS This is Rangers’ greatest achievement. I know winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup in Barcelona in 1972 was amazing, but football was a far more level playing field then. Today, the money that television has brought into Europe’s big leagues has distorted everything. This achievement also surpasses anything the Rangers teams I managed did in Europe, although we were in the Champions League, or European Cup as it was called then. It was fantastic to watch. Rangers have no right to be in the Europa League final given their resources, but I didn’t see a team that had any inferiority complex or didn’t fancy themselves. They came under pressure midway through the second half of that second leg in the semi-final at Ibrox, when Leipzig got their goal, but rallied and went again. There was so much belief in the team that they could get the job done. In many ways it was more impressive than the earlier win in this tournament against Borussia Dortmund, who did not field their strongest team, perhaps believing: “This is Rangers from the Scottish Premiership, it won’t be too big a problem for us.” They underestimated Rangers big time, but Leipzig turned up with their strongest XI knowing they would get a hell of a game and Rangers were still better than them over the two legs. Logic rarely applies in football, but if you look at a Bundesliga table, they are now playing the weakest of the three German teams they have faced in the final. At the time of writing, Dortmund sit second, Leipzig are fourth and Eintracht Frankfurt are down in 12th. James Tavernier is all smiles after his side confirm their spot in the final in Seville SNS I guarantee that will not be mentioned by Giovanni van Bronckhorst in any team meeting before Wednesday night’s final in Seville, though. I had breakfast with him at the training ground recently. He is an impressive, intelligent man — wise enough to know that the Germans will definitely turn up for the final after beating Barcelona and West Ham United to reach it. The vast majority of people who have been involved at Rangers in the past ten years deserve enormous credit. Reaching the final has not only put Rangers back on the map, the credibility it has given Scottish football cannot be underestimated. It is ten years since Rangers’ administration and liquidation. The treatment they received within Scottish football, being demoted to the bottom division as punishment, was only to be expected because of the parochial attitude up there — and I’m speaking from experience. In ten years Rangers have gone from near extinction to the final of the second most important European competition. Souness in action for Rangers in the 1987-88 season ACTION IMAGES Sadly, this will not be universally accepted in Scotland as a great thing. The same people that were happy to see the demise of Rangers ten years ago will be watching on Wednesday, wanting them to lose. There was great delight in Rangers’ demise, maybe that’s why their fans often sing: “No one likes us, we don’t care”. When Walter Smith led Rangers to the Uefa Cup final in 2008, I never imagined I would see them in another European final in my lifetime. Walter did it with a disciplined and organised team, playing counterattacking football, but I don’t see the same strategy from this team. They play a brand of football that’s composed. They have a plan, everyone knows what they are doing and they carry a threat with real pace and energy. The scoring stats of James Tavernier, the captain, are ridiculous. He has 18 goals this season — a full back should just not get that many. He has a striker’s instinct for reading the game and thinking: “I can get in here” and he has the athleticism to get there. He takes a wonderful set piece, too. What an asset to have. Calvin Bassey has emerged as a real prospect. His run down the left out of defence to create the winner against Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final also stood out from the recent games I’ve watched. John Lundstram took six months to settle in but seems to be flourishing now as an athletic midfielder who can drop into defence when required. Allan McGregor, the veteran goalkeeper, also deserves a mention. He made a fine save against Leipzig at a crucial time. Rangers, like Celtic, never play an easy game. It’s a cup final every week for both of them. It’s not the same for the big clubs abroad, who can roll over teams a lot easier. The way football has evolved with television money, Scotland’s been left behind. But if there was a British league and everyone was starting from zero — Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City — Rangers would be in the top six on a regular basis. In Glasgow, both Celtic and Rangers could fill a 100,000-seat stadium for the major English clubs’ visits. We will see that by the number of Rangers supporters who travel to Seville this week. I can’t be there because it’s my daughter’s wedding, elsewhere in Spain, the same day. My youngest son has to get a television sorted somewhere and I have put that firmly on his doorstep. I can’t have anything to do with it or I’d be consulting a divorce lawyer within 48 hours.

Starting Wednesday

From today's Sunday Times, a short piece on GvB. Speak softly, but carry a big stick, as somebody (no, not Dick Advocaat), once said From the Moluccas islands to Ibrox: inside the mind and motivations of Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst Marcel van der Kraan charts Van Bronckhorst’s rise to Ibrox from the remote Moluccas islands via a plethora of Dutch masters Marcel van der Kraan Sunday May 15 2022, 12.01am, The Sunday Times Football To properly understand Giovanni van Bronckhorst the man and the manager, you must first understand his upbringing and education, and particularly the Moluccan heritage he is so proud of. The Moluccas are an archipelago of islands to the east of Indonesia. With the declaration of a single republic of Indonesia in 1950 to replace the federal state, they attempted to secede. Supported by the Moluccan members of the Netherlands’ special troops, it was defeated by the Indonesian army and the troops were transferred back to the Netherlands along with some refugees of the conflict. Van Bronckhorst, a real family man who is married to his childhood sweetheart Marieke and father of sons Jake and Joshua, has always been a proud Moluccan and has never described himself as Indonesian. Through the stories of his grandma, who died in 2017, the year he won his first league title as a manager, he knows how much the people of the Moluccas have suffered. He is a proud ambassador for them, a minority in the Netherlands, where mum Fransien Sapulette and dad Victor van Bronckhorst raised him in Rotterdam. He has a charity foundation and regularly returns to visit. Despite the political tensions between Indonesia and the Moluccan Islands and people, he has reached out to the capital Jakarta to support his family’s project to educate disadvantaged children there. As a boy, Van Bronckhorst’s mum took him to a small amateur club, LMO, which stands for Linker Maas Oever (Left Bank of the river Maas, which runs through Rotterdam). Everyone from Rotterdam knows that’s the poorer part of the town, but it’s also an area where kids play football on the streets, producing wonderful footballers over the years. It’s also where the famous De Kuip stadium and Feyenoord’s academy is situated, and their scouts soon discovered young Giovanni, inviting him to join the club, which had just started coaching for under-eights. That initiative came from Wim Jansen. Jansen had just retired as a player, most of his career spent playing and training with Johan Cruyff, who also became one of his best friends. Together, they helped Holland to the 1974 World Cup final, giving the world “Total Football”, a super-offensive style played with two wingers, a striker and a No 10, so eight-year-old Giovanni was educated from the youngest possible age in the same style he would later enjoy at Arsenal, Barcelona and with the Dutch national team. Significantly, this quiet and calm Moluccan boy blossomed under managers who carried the same calmness and had excellent man-management skills; Jansen at Feyenoord, Arsène Wenger at Arsenal, Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona. The fiery Dick Advocaat at Rangers was the exception, but then again, it was good, Van Bronckhorst admitted, that he also saw that style of management. He learnt organisational skills from Advocaat and was happy when the former Rangers manager came to his rescue when he went through a bad spell in his first year as Feyenoord manager. Van Bronckhorst learnt one thing in particular from his former manager — “Be tough when you need to be tough” — and used Advocaat’s wise words to win Feyenoord’s first league title for 18 years, making the former academy kid (“he’s one of our own”, sang the Kop at De Kuip) even more popular than he was before. Van Bronckhorst was ruthless when it was required that season. The most popular player was Dirk Kuyt, who had come back from Liverpool, but Van Bronckhorst reckoned Kuyt could not deliver what he wanted and put him on the bench for weeks. That led to an explosive situation, where Kuyt did not hide his frustration and disappointment in the media. Van Bronckhorst stayed cool as ice, knew he had fired Kuyt up and put him back in the side for the final game, which Feyenoord had to win. The outcome? Kuyt scored a hat-trick and the two of them celebrated the title as if nothing had happened. Van Bronckhorst won five trophies in four seasons at Feyenoord and was given a new nickname: Prijzenpakker (trophy grabber). Again, he had proved everyone wrong. In his first season, when Advocaat had to help out, there were doubters. Van Bronckhorst would never be a manager with enough authority, according to the majority of the media. Exactly the same as the critics who said he would never make it in the national team, yet, in 2010 he captained Holland against Spain in the World Cup final in South Africa and played his 106th game for his country. Van Bronckhorst never wanted to be the noisy one, yet gradually climbed to the highest level in the world. Lionel Messi named him in his team of the best players he has played with as left back. Ronaldinho said he saved so much energy for attacking at Barcelona because he had a man behind him he could always rely on. It sums up the character of the Dutchman. Reliable and delivering quality, with a football brain that’s ticking over day and night, fed by some famous coaches. One of them adjusted something in Van Bronckhorst’s style, which maybe gives him that little edge to steer a club like Rangers to a European trophy. Van Bronckhorst was assistant manager at Feyenoord to Ronald Koeman, the man taught by the super-attacking Cruyff and asked to educate a young Pep Guardiola at Barcelona. Koeman told how Cruyff called him into his room and said: “From now on, you have a new room-mate. His name is Pep and he’s from La Masia, our academy. I want you to take care of him.” Guardiola got the gist, loved every detail of Cruyff’s Dutch “Total Football”, and went to the extreme with it once he became a coach, but Koeman, who won 30 trophies in a glittering career, went one step back when he became a manager. He said he loved attacking football, but felt it was wiser to focus a few per cent more on the defence, particularly when the quality is not always Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Manchester City. Van Bronckhorst watched Koeman every day as his assistant, took it all in, saw how cool and analytical his talks with the media were, and it looks now as if that was time well spent. ON TV WEDNESDAY Eintracht Frankfurt v Rangers BT Sport 1, Kick-off 8pm https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/from-the-moluccas-islands-to-ibrox-inside-the-mind-and-motivations-of-rangers-manager-giovanni-van-bronckhorst-bgkvvwb63

I am optimistic that, given the entire backroom staff is Dutch, this will come to pass. Generally, you can't fault them in this regard. If they are good enough..... Advocaat threw BF into the 1st team, and he never looked back. I always recall that Edgar Davids was bossing the Ajax midfield at the age of 16. Yes, Ajax! Yes, 16! OK, he was exceptional, but he wasn't wasting his time playing against Stenhousemuir, or Montrose (or their Dutch equivalents, if such there is). Of course, the players, themselves, have to show that they want it. Carpe diem, as we say down Govan way.

If Lowry is not already the dug's bollox, he soon will be. An elegant payer, who makes it look easy, and who took his goal, well, elegantly.

But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes

We'll see how long this moral panic continues, how it pans out, and who it affects. (You wid, but.)

Fairly recently, you will need no reminding, a well-known red topped comic did a tabloid number on a couple of fellows who contributed to a weel kent Rangers' podcast. This organ "outed" them for dodgy social media posts from some years previously. The two resigned from their roles, immediately. However, friends of the podcast, and other concerned citizens, intrigued by the odour of sanctity emanating from the rag, investigated the social media postings and posturings of a number of 'football writers' associated with it. Lo! They uncovered a veritable omnibus of of sexism, homophobia, sectarianism, and the like. Muck rakers muck raked! Much mealy mouthed talk, in print and elsewhere, ensued, but little in the way of public clamour. These writers remain employed, and if I was a betting man, I should hazard a guess that they attended the annual beano, the other night. I should hazard another guess that the 'turn' most probably tailored his script to what he understood to be his audience, or that, maybe, his booking agency put him forward, as an appropriate act, on noting that the gig was for The Scottish 'Football Writers'. I wish Eilidh Barbour well in the Augean task of redding out her profession. I know nothing of Prof. Raymond Boyle, my time at Gilmorehill being too long ago for polite company to mention, but, if one may judge a man by the company he keeps......

Old, pale, male, and stale.

Here is an article from today's Times, in which Tony Pulis (yes, that Tony Pulis) discusses his research into the academy system/model. Quite fortuitous, really. Tony Pulis: Most academy kids are never going to play football – not enough is done for them The former Crystal Palace and Stoke City manager tells Matt Lawton why the Premier League’s youth development system is in need of a drastic overhaul Matt Lawton, Chief Sports Correspondent Wednesday May 11 2022, 4.30pm, The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tony-pulis-most-academy-kids-are-never-going-to-play-football-not-enough-is-done-for-them-rjz2n3z6t Growing up in Newport, Tony Pulis used to love it when his dad could find the time to watch him play football. “It meant I’d get a lift home, sitting on the crossbar of his bicycle,” he says. “We never had a car.” Pulis has seen how the life of an elite young footballer has changed since then. Not just during his career as a player and then a Premier League manager, but through the generations of his own family. He watched his son, Anthony, battle through the ranks, from an apprentice at Portsmouth to a journeyman professional at 12 different clubs before making the transition into coaching. And now he is quietly tracking the progress of his grandson, a talented eight-year-old enjoying the benefits of a category one academy at a Premier League club, and a product of the Elite Player Performance Plan that was launched ten years ago to produce more home-grown players for the country’s top clubs. It is, however, a system that Pulis — who left his most recent managerial role, at Sheffield Wednesday, in December 2020 — believes is in need of a complete overhaul. As Pulis observes from the sidelines with other relatives, he marvels at the standard of the facilities and the support these kids receive. This is an under-9s match we are watching but they are playing on a pitch fit for Premier League superstars under the guidance of coaches, physiotherapists and player care officers. Kit, including boots, is among the many things that are provided free of charge. “It’s brilliant,” Pulis says. “The academy my grandson attends is terrific, it really is.” But Pulis has big concerns — not for the gifted few who eventually emerge from the system to enjoy careers as professional players, but instead for the vast majority who do not; those who at different stages of the process are discarded and suddenly have to deal with crushing rejection, the death of a dream, and often with not much of an idea about what to do next. In some cases, the scale of that disappointment has had tragic consequences. Jeremy Wisten was 16 and only months away from securing a first professional contract when he was released by Manchester City. Less than two years later, in October 2020, he took his own life. Mental health issues are commonplace, as Pulis, 64, has discovered. “I spoke to one father whose son was released at 18,” he says. “It took them two years to put him back together. He’s back on track now, and getting an education, but they lost him for a while.” As Pulis says, academy football has become an industry within an industry — a search for talent that could eventually command a sum of tens of millions of pounds. Players as young as nine now sign contracts, even though Pulis estimates that “only 0.5 per cent of the players from that age group will make a living out of the game”. Yet one top-flight club have been known to send limousines to the homes of these boys on the day they sign their contracts, giving the entire family that first taste of the jetset lifestyle they hope football can provide for them. “It’s like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory,” Pulis says. “The kids and their families are sold this dream, and I’m not sure how often they are warned about how unlikely it is that they will actually make it.” Pulis sees the commitment both the boys and their families make. Matches which fall under an Academy Games Programme that involves more than 10,000 fixtures every season can involve round trips of between 200 and 300 miles. Training takes place, even at this age, three nights a week, with matches at the weekend. When clubs distribute their academy brochures to families, some include a code of conduct for parents, and the relatives attending this match are certainly well behaved. That said, one father could be heard bemoaning his nine-year-old’s “body language” to another parent. It is when these lads get older, however, that Pulis sees serious problems. The academies require them to start missing school for what is called “day release”, with clubs providing their own schooling in classrooms at their academies. The issue with this, of course, is obvious: the lack of continuity compared with other children at their school. The Premier League delivers a formal education programme for all apprentices aged between 16 and 19 who have signed a full-time scholarship agreement at a club, with a BTEC qualification mandatory. But Pulis argues that this is hugely inadequate, and is in fact failing the scholars who may want to pursue a different form of education. The data is not readily available but Pulis has been told that by this stage the education of many of these young players has already been compromised. Statistically, young academy players achieve year six SAT scores above the national average. By 16, however, their exam results fall below that benchmark. The real challenge comes, of course, when the clubs decide to let players go. Attempts are made to relocate them to other clubs — as was done by City on behalf of Wisten — but too often these boys are in no fit state, mentally, to seize an opportunity at a lower-league club. Wisten began to struggle when he was dropped from City’s elite youth squad after suffering a knee injury. His parents tried to console him but he found it difficult to cope with the disappointment. At the time of the 18-year-old’s death, his father, Manila, said: “We told him it didn’t matter, that we were proud of him. He withdrew. He spent a lot of time in his room after that. I don’t think he ever moved on. I can only speak for my son, but I want to highlight the issue that kids in football need to be taken care of mentally.” As Pulis says, at any one time there are between 10,000 and 12,000 boys in the academy system — 3,500 in the Premier League academies alone — yet his research indicates that as many as 95 per cent of these players will not have a career in the game. The head of education at a category one academy — which are the top-ranked academies in the country — told Pulis that 78 per cent of players who turn professional at 18 are no longer playing football three years later. Another said that from 400 players who sign professional forms at 18, only eight will still be playing in the top five tiers of English football by the time they turn 22. “Having spent all my working life in the game, I have been shocked by the statistics that I have compiled through my research,” Pulis says. “Academy football gives false hope to 95 per cent of its workforce, and unfortunately it has done very little to address that. Young lads are used to service the system. Without the numbers, full-on coaching sessions could not take place, a games programme that incorporates over 90 per cent of all professional clubs could not take place, and the whole army of employed academy staff would be made redundant. “As a young lad with unlimited hopes in life, the dream of becoming a professional football player is just so special. The opportunity given through the academy system drives his and his family’s hopes of achievement. Lads will spend year after year dreaming of that day, but 95 per cent of those lads will never experience that joy. In fact for most, the experience of total rejection and despair will be felt.” It has led Pulis to draft a proposal he has already taken to the Premier League and the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) — one that involves the formation of a dual-scholarship programme overseen by an independent body, funded by the Premier League, that focuses only on the education of the players in preparation for an alternative career. Pulis has spoken to schools, colleges and universities that would happily go into partnership with such a scheme — including colleges in the United States — to provide an education for these players as well as a games programme that could become a springboard back into professional football. After all, some boys will develop later than others. The UK, says Pulis, would be divided into six regions, with regional directors and teams of mentors dispersed to work with the young players at different clubs. They would assist players and their families in tailoring an education for the individual, while also making sure that the required standards are met. “If they are going to demand that commitment of players and their families, then football has got to provide some kind of a safety net,” Pulis says. “And the safety net is an education; a bespoke education that can lead to an alternative career. Some boys might not be academic. They could be better suited to a more vocational course. It would be the job of the mentors to help determine that.” Pulis explains why he is so motivated to implement change. “It’s only since my grandson has gone into an academy that I’ve really started to pay attention to just how big that part of the football industry has become,” he says. “In many ways it is better than it was before. But in certain areas I don’t think it is doing enough. “My concern is around the balance with the educational side. And my concern is about the amount of sacrifice the parents are making. A lot of parents will see all this and start to dream of their lads one day becoming a professional. They will be bowled over by everything. That’s fine for the players who come through; the five per cent. It’s a fantastic profession, one that has given both me and my family a great life. “But the statistics show that most of these kids are never going to play football, and not enough is being provided for them. “The system makes massive demands on families. The kids will see less of their friends, the parents might devote more time to this one child than their other kids. The travelling and time that is involved. There’s a big sacrifice that is made. I want these dual scholarships to support these lads even after they have been released. “The academies are first class. I’m not sure there are better facilities anywhere in the world. But any one club can have as many as 250 boys in their academy and the majority will be working for the elite minority. Everyone knows that.” Pulis has spent the best part of a year conducting his research and drafting his proposal. “I’ve spoken to lots of relevant people,” he says. “It can be devastating for a boy and his family when he is rejected. Some of these boys will feel they have let down their families. For some it might have been seen as a way out of poverty. It can affect the parents, siblings. It can lead to the horror stories we sadly hear about. “I’ve spoken to universities and colleges who would love to have these kids. There is a solution here, and I’ve presented my proposal to both the PFA and the Premier League. I’m now waiting to see how they respond but I hope they are receptive. I hope they understand where I am coming from. I hope they can see it from the point of view of the parents and families.” Pulis has studied the academy brochures players and their families receive, and the focus is very much on the success stories rather than what, for most of them, will be the grim reality of failure. Such brochures advise parents how to secure day release from their son’s school, highlighting the wonderful opportunity they have. And while there are references to the support they can provide should a player be released, it tends to focus more on trying to find an alternative club. Further to that, the remit of the player care teams seems to mainly concern those who are in the academy rather than those who have left. So far, only Crystal Palace have attempted to tackle the issue of supporting players after they have departed. In February they became the first top-flight club to offer a three-year aftercare programme to help scholars deal with the “trauma” of being released. They acknowledged the “sheer volume” of players who drop out, even after signing at 18. “One club,” Pulis says. “We need to see change right across the system.” Ten years of the Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) 0.5 per cent the proportion of under-9 players – the youngest age group – who Pulis estimates will make a living out of the game professionally 98 per cent the proportion of 16-year-olds with scholarships at all professional clubs who will either be released or who will drop out of professional football completely, according to Pulis 97 per cent of former elite academy players now aged 21-26 did not make a single Premier League appearance, according to reports this year That report stated that 70 per cent of the former academy players were not handed a professional contract at a Premier League or Football League club 72 per cent of players released from Premier League or Football League clubs surveyed last year said they felt they were not given enough support by the club after they were cut 88 per cent of players surveyed said they had experienced depression or anxiety after being released 10,000-12,000 the number of boys in football’s youth development system at any one time 3,500 the approximate number of boys in Premier League academies 250 the number of boys each Premier League club is allowed to register in their academy

Well, if you look at the much vaunted 'Ajax model' you will see that there is a huge turnover of players, and that this starts at almost the earliest age group.

To get any number into the 1st eleven, you require to accept a huge churn rate. Hence English sides bring in young players who have survived the churn elsewhere.

To get a high number of 'academy' or youth team players into your first XI, you need to accept a huge churn rate of hopefuls, at almost every age group associated with the club, and this irrespective of any 'clear pathway' into that starting side.

Any coverage provided by Pacific Quay would -will- be so grudging, graceless, and green eyed that missing it would-will- be no hardship whatsoever for any of us, or for any honest minded member of mankind.

Tell that to The Senior Service...

Dundee United are dugmeat. I notice that Messrs Eden Mill, gin distillers, have sponsorship with the fhilth, the midi-fhilth of Leith, and the mini-fhilth of Tayside. I like the occasional gin, but I think I might stick to Plymouth.