Put end to ugly side of SPL

[ian1964 10,457]

IT didn't feel good to talk, or write, about Scottish football last season because the game turned ugly.

 

That's why my biggest wish for the championship that's about to begin this weekend is that sanity is restored to the game.

And Neil Lennon and Ally McCoist have a heavy responsibility in that department because the Old Firm managers must set impeccable standards of behaviour.

They're relatively new to management and the demands on them are incredibly high but they're experienced enough in the ways of the game to understand what I'm about to say.

The pair of them have a duty to their clubs and their fans to make sure there's no repeat of the tangle that brought them together at Celtic Park and helped prompt a Scottish Parliamentary inquiry into a rivalry gone wrong.

 

We've got to get back to talking about football and not fall-outs.

 

The two of them were out of order when they let the tension of a Scottish Cup replay get the better of them and provided TV footage that was repeated over and over again because of its shocking content. They can't go there again.

 

We want battles on the park and a realisation that managers can't get involved with each other.

Concentrate on your own team and never mind looking at the other dug-out. Set an example for everyone's sake.

 

I don't want to hear any more about referees, either, but I would like to be able to comment on improved standards from teams such as Hibs and Aberdeen who fell beneath the standards they expect of themselves last season.

 

I was at Firhill on Saturday to see Celtic play Partick Thistle and was impressed by the size of the support that went to see what was basically the Hoops' Under-19 squad.

 

These people have now got to be rewarded by the first team who threw away a league title last May.

 

And that means starting with a win of any description at Easter Road next Sunday and following that up with home performances that are more convincing than they were last time out.

 

Draws at home drained vital points from Celtic's championship challenge and their own ground has got to be made into a fortress.

 

Three draws in a row against Inverness Caley Thistle, Dundee United and Kilmarnock were costly and so was the loss of the first Old Firm derby at Celtic Park.

The need is to be more consistent because there's no doubt Celtic have a squad that's better than the one Rangers possess and one that's capable of winning the title.

 

What they don't have, however, is Rangers' ability to dig in and grind out results.

 

Ally has a side that had a better fighting mentality than Celtic last season, which is strange since Neil's as combative a character as you'll find in any dug-out.

 

He was a battler as a player and so were his assistants, Johan Mjallby and Alan Thompson.

 

Strength But on the night that Celtic lost to Caley Thistle, Rangers saw a lifeline and grabbed it with both hands to make it three in a row.

 

My impression now is that Celtic have enough players to pick two first teams.

 

Adam Matthews, Kelvin Wilson and Victor Wanyama won't be automatic choices but they help provide a greater strength in depth than Rangers have.

 

Neil will be a better manager for everything he went through last season - and I'm not talking about bombs and bullets.

 

He'll know he can run a football team and will be more comfortable in every aspect of the job now that the initial nerves have passed. But he won't want to lose another title.

 

The eyes of the Celtic fans are now upon their team, and the eyes of the world are now staring at Scottish football.

 

There can be no failure to respond. There must be better than has gone before.

 

http://blogs.dailyrecord.co.uk/murdomacleod/2011/07/put-end-to-ugly-side-of-spl.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDailyRecord%2FMurdoMacleod+%28The+Daily+Record+-+Murdo+Macleod%29

[Guest Dutchy]

My first reaction to that from Murdo is that if you want to get the ugly side out of the SPL, don't have your team accuse the whole of Scotland, not just football of being bigots against Irish catholics. That is a very, very serious thing for a politician to say, never mind a football manager and his players.

 

Also, it's easy to see why the septic fans delude themselves that they're a better team than Rangers, 3iar winners, when Murdo can come out with the very same pish, yet win nothing.

 

Is that anti-opinion???

[ian1964 10,457]

My first reaction to that from Murdo is that if you want to get the ugly side out of the SPL, don't have your team accuse the whole of Scotland, not just football of being bigots against Irish catholics. That is a very, very serious thing for a politician to say, never mind a football manager and his players.

Also, it's easy to see why the septic fans delude themselves that they're a better team than Rangers, 3iar winners, when Murdo can come out with the very same pish, yet win nothing.

Is that anti-opinion???

 

If he keeps saying that then he must get it right sometime!!

[Guest Dutchy]

Ha ha, it's true, said enough times, it then becomes the truth.

 

I will correct myself here before someone points out that septic did win the Scottish Cup, so it was not nothing. But as Murdo was not talking about the Cup, I had in mind only the league that they can't win.

[GovanAllan 0]

As long the Celtic PR machine keeps churning out it's usual pish fired from the mouth of TLB and the other no marks in the media then nothing will change. The republican community has an agenda and everyone but us is buying right into it.

[54andcounting 0]

I don't get the Record, I stopped buying it many years ago....now I remember why.

 

The pish that rag pays guys like Murdo McLeod to write jist pit me right off.

 

And Neil Lennon and Ally McCoist have a heavy responsibility in that department because the Old Firm managers must set impeccable standards of behaviour.]

 

....'OLD FIRM' managers?

 

The pair of them have a duty to their clubs and their fans.......]

 

The PAIR of them?...what? is Coisty bracketed with Ned Lemon?.

 

 

 

The two of them were out of order.........

 

This is bullshit!

 

 

I don't want to hear any more about referees, either..........

 

WOW! Hear,Hear Murdo.

 

 

I was at Firhill on Saturday to see Celtic play Partick Thistle and was impressed......

 

....Bet you were Murdo

 

These people have now got to be rewarded by the first team who threw away a league title last May.

 

Is this the game v Caley or the penalty miss by Sambo he's talking about?

....there's no doubt Celtic have a squad that's better than the one Rangers possess and one that's capable of winning the title.

 

BETTER?...Who won the fcukin league?

 

 

....Neil will be a better manager for everything he went through last season - and I'm not talking about bombs and bullets..

 

....why bring that up?

 

....The eyes of the Celtic fans are now upon their team......

 

My bare arse!!!!

........and the eyes of the world are now staring at Scottish football.

 

...Aye, right!....

Edited July 18, 2011 by 54andcounting