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Sunday Papers; 21/12/08
Topic Started: Dec 21 2008, 12:10 AM (71 Views)
Jinty
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The Scotsman


Strachan v McGeady: Advantage Strachan

By Tom English

THIS LAVISH literary production called the Celtic Opus (to be published in February at £1,700 a pop, or £3,000 a time if you wish to plunge on the Lisbon Lions edition) contains 800 pages of memories and weighs in at a remarkable 35kg. It is sewn by hand in fine leather and covered in a silk covered clamshell case. It contains the best of everything, so they say, including tributes to legends of the east end – Stein, McNeill, Johnstone, Dalglish, Larsson... McGeady.
If they could do it over, would they abandon the McGeady project? You'd imagine, at the very minimum, they might like to rethink the headline sitting atop the pages dedicated to their winger: Kissed By An Angel. How inappropriate those words seem all of a sudden. There is no doubt that at his best Aiden McGeady has skills given to him from on high but, right now, the kissing (and making up) part is very far from the minds of Celtic people. There's got be a realistic chance that by the time their history hits the streets their angel will have flown.

This business with McGeady and Gordon Strachan is extraordinary and, for the player, shocking in the extreme.

There's been an unimaginable twist in all of this. It would appear that the hearts and minds of the Celtic supporters are with the manager on this one, a manager they have been ambivalent about right from the start, one they are rarely inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to when things are tricky at Parkhead. McGeady, their darling son, has been cast in the role of the sinner who refuses to repent. The vox pops, the polls, the internet forums reveal more support for the manager than for the player. McGeady, in his fit of pique, must be wondering why his world has suddenly turned against him.

There's little doubt but that it has. Last week some of the Celtic players visited the sick children of Yorkhill hospital right around the same time as McGeady's agent was bemoaning his client's plight, the unfairness of it, the injustice that was perpetrated against him. Anybody looking at both scenarios could only view McGeady as a selfish pup, an arrogant so-and-so who has become so far removed from reality that he doesn't know how fortunate he is in life.

Maybe that's an over-simplification of the dispute between him and his manager and maybe it's unfair to throw Yorkhill at him, but looking at the two stories side by side last week would you blame a person for condemning McGeady for his cheek? He abused his manager because his manager is particularly hard on him. Has been for three years. Always on his case. It can't be easy but then, for his troubles, McGeady gets the big salary, the big house, the big car, the fame and the adulation of the masses. A lot of people would happily trade places with him. But in his bubble, McGeady doesn't see any of this. None of it looks good for the player.

If McGeady has noted public opinion then he won't have missed the vibe coming from the Celtic dressing-room. Of course, his fellow players would have been instructed not to step out of line but even still, in the words of Stephen McManus and, most recently, Andreas Hinkel, it is hard to detect even a modicum of sympathy for their team-mate.

Indeed, it was the Celtic captain who put perspective on the issue by mentioning his trip to Yorkhill. "You talk about a crisis in football, but we've got a bloody cheek at times to be honest," he said. To that, a population may have cried: 'Hear, hear'.

On Friday, Hinkel, a bright and thoughtful character, offered his view, as much as he was allowed. "You know what is good? I didn't read anything and I didn't watch television. In the dressing room it's not that big a thing. Maybe just a few words but not too much. We are professional players and we have to handle every situation.

"In the past I've learned that you must focus on what you can do, on what you can decide, on what you can influence. That is everything. You can't think about things you can't do anything about. There are things I can't decide and I don't care about it because I can't do anything."

Who knows how the McGeady situation is going to be resolved. We're all guessing. For instance, it really is assuming a lot that there will be a queue for his services, certainly not at the £10m it's reported that Celtic may look for. That figure is in no way in keeping with his level of achievement to date. Good as McGeady can be on his day, he is not worth anything like that kind of money, especially not in credit-crunching times.

Consider also what potential suitors might make of him right now. A talent, sure. But so is Shaun Maloney (a fellow Scottish Player of the Year) and he sank in the Premiership. And McGeady has baggage that Maloney never had. He's in a stand-off with his manager, whom he has abused. He's called in the union. Word is that his people are exploring the ins and outs of employment law. He's got the air of a militant about him and to managers in this game that kind of obstinacy is about as attractive a trait as a dodgy cruciate.

The best thing McGeady can do now is get a dramatic burst of contrition, if only in an attempt to smooth the passage out of Parkhead, to convince other managers that he's capable of learning from his mistakes, that he doesn't believe it right to call his manager the things he called Strachan last Saturday evening.

In fact, it's in the interests of both parties that this mess is sorted, for without some kind of truce Celtic can expect to be told by bidding clubs that they'll take their troubled player but only at a reduced fee given his discipline problems. If Strachan and McGeady truly want a divorce then they had both better establish some kind of calm beforehand.

Of course, some kind of calm is not what we're going to get at Ibrox on Saturday. McGeady will be elsewhere but the usual thunder will apply. Strachan's record at Ibrox is not particularly good, not that any of the three defeats and one draw in his last four visits actually mattered a jot in the overall destination of the championship. He wouldn't want a continuation of that dubious run, however. Not with his team dropping points all over the place of late and certainly not with one of his best game-breakers (McGeady) out of the equation.

It wouldn't take much for the tide to turn on the McGeady saga for the fans to round on Strachan for not playing him. A few more defeats ought to do it. Having lost the first Old Firm encounter of the season 4-2 at Parkhead – he calls that one "a freak day" – it's a match he dare not lose.

"Yeah, our record at Ibrox is not great," said Strachan. "It's just them playing better than us. You need to be strong, you need to enjoy the occasion, you need to fear getting beat, many things you need. You need good players. You use all that as motivation and try and play as well as you can. People used to say to me that Leeds was an intimidating place to go to or Old Trafford or Anfield. Not really. It was exciting. If you're intimidated, that's a problem. You must go and enjoy these things."

The last time his side won at Ibrox, Stilian Petrov, Roy Keane, Neil Lennon and John Hartson were in the starting line-up. Shows how long ago it was (December 2006). Hinkel wasn't even a dot on the Celtic landscape at that point, but he's here now and he's revelling in what is to come.

"The game at Parkhead was a great experience," he says. "This is the mother of all derbies. I played the Seville derby, Betis against Seville, and it was very intense but this is a little bit more because it's not just about sport, it's about religion and politics. It's more than other derbies. It's why we play football. If a player needs extra motivation for a game like this then he should finish his career."

What about the less than savoury elements to the game? "You know sometimes I feel it's an advantage for me not being able to understand everything," he says, with a smile.

"I think sometimes its good not to understand what people are saying, just to concentrate. Because of that I don't have problems playing against Rangers. If people are shouting I don't know what they want."

Hinkel says it's just going to be himself and his wife for Christmas, no family from Germany, no big celebration.

"It's my first time away from Germany for Christmas. Normally it's a big family day but not this time. I'm isolated."

He laughed at that point but his sense of isolation is altogether different to the Siberian cool of McGeady's existence. Strachan moves on without him, determined to prove that his team can win big games in his absence, hoping that defeats won't see this drama come boomeranging back to hurt him. Win or lose, though, where McGeady's going is a total mystery.
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The Scotsman


A 120-year-old firm favourite

By Martin Hannan

IT HAS become almost axiomatic for the birdbrained ignorami of Scottish football to chirrup that the Yuletide Old Firm derby just ain't what it used to be.

OK, so it's no longer on Ne'erday; it usually starts at 12.30pm instead of post-Hogmanay hangover time of 3pm; it no longer decides whether Rangers or Celtic is going to win the league; and, unlike the legends of yesteryear, today's players don't care too much for a conflict with its connections to religious tribalism.

What the gainsayers contend is that, compared to decades past, when players from both sides kicked each other silly and blood and booze ran in the streets around Ibrox and Parkhead as bigoted hooligans battled, the present day Old Firm derby is a rather wimpish affair.

There is a ring of truth in the arguments that next weekend's match at Ibrox is just another game for the top two teams in the SPL. Except that the evidence profoundly contradicts the suppositions.

It matters, this match. It really, really matters to fans, players and managers alike. It remains the sine qua non of Scottish football, the one colossus of a game in this country which the footballing world knows and appreciates as unique, not least because no two teams in any other city share such a duopoly of success.

Forget Liverpool, Madrid, Milan, London, Buenos Aires, Manchester, Rome, Lisbon, Turin, Belgrade, Istanbul, Sao Paulo, and the rest. This is still The Big One. Love it or hate it, the Old Firm match, especially at this time of year, remains the greatest local derby on the planet.

Yes, sectarianism has too often been the cause of the peculiar enmities which have filled casualty wards for a century. But is that the only defining factor in the uniqueness of the Old Firm match?

Fact: no other great city derby features two teams who have such a trophy-winning tradition. Between them, Celtic and Rangers have won 159 league titles and Scottish Cups. No other local derby features two teams with a three figure total of national league and cup wins between them.

It follows, then, that Rangers versus Celtic has a history and a tradition of its own, and not just because of bigotry. It's about success and failure, about bragging rights, who can wear the big cheesy grins at work, as much as it is about Billy and Dan.

Walter Smith, manager of Rangers, first attended an Old Firm Ne'erday match around 50 years ago. He couldn't remember the exact date but was sure of something about it. "Rangers won," he said emphatically, while dismissing the Liverpudlian derby with which he became familiar as Everton manager as almost a family affair compared to the Glaswegian equivalent.

He confirms the need for triumph is as vital as ever for players and coaches alike. "There is a different feeling, an edge to an Old Firm game," said Smith. "You have just got to win the game. With victory you don't have a great celebration, you're just kind of delighted that it's over and you have managed to win it. Losing is the worst aspect."

For differing reasons, both sets of fans will need no reminding that the last Old Firm match at Celtic Park ended in a 4-2 win for Rangers. It was a result that shocked the champions and their opponents' manager: "We played really well at Celtic Park, but if you had said to me we would be 4-1 up with minutes to go I would have said that would be totally unexpected. Welcome, but totally unexpected.

"Strange games like that can happen. I'm thinking of the 4-4 game and the games where we have scored five, and it's highly unlikely that Celtic will ever lose four goals at home, but the circumstances fell our way in that game."

But that match is forgotten, as is the position of the teams in the SPL, and the importance of the match is such that Christmas is cancelled, at least as a holiday, for the Rangers squad. The players will be at Murray Park on Christmas Day taking part in the normal preparations that they undergo 48 hours before a big match, and Smith expects no complaints.

"One thing about Old Firm games is that it is never difficult to keep players focused, regardless of when, where and what the circumstances are. The build-up to the game in the media and within your own friends and family keep it right to the fore, even at this Christmas and New Year period."

Another theory is that the number of foreign players taking part has diminished the passion in recent years. Not a bit of it, says Smith.

"Taking religious aspects out of it, which I think are dying out, though obviously they are still there and I am not naive enough to say they aren't, players still know it's one of the biggest local derby games in the world, and if they don't know what it means, they soon learn."

One Rangers player who couldn't agree more with Smith that foreigners soon discover the uniquely intense nature of Old Firm matches is Sasa Papac, the 28-year-old Bosnian defender who continues to absent himself from international football and whose contract at Ibrox has been extended to 2011, meaning he could yet play in a dozen or more Old Firm games. He recalled his first, in September, 2006, when Celtic won 2-0 at Parkhead.

"It took me by surprise, seeing the fans' feelings and how hard the players chased after every ball," said Papac. "Nothing compared to it, not even Bosnia versus Serbia, which was more fans against fans while on the pitch it was quite normal because the players knew each other. Dado Prso had told me before about the Old Firm games, but the feeling you get when you go out on to the pitch and see everything around you is something special."

A veteran of half-a-dozen Old Firm clashes, Papac has certainly learned the peculiar patois that surrounds the big Glasgow clashes – every match is different, form and league placings don't count, players give 110%, etc. "It doesn't matter who is in first or second or third place, every Old Firm game is a new game," said Papac.

Next Saturday, the Old Firm's 120-year-old rivalry will be renewed in Glasgow where the Christmas wish will be peace on earth and goodwill to all – except the other mob.





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The Scotsman


Pat Nevin: Walter and Gordon are spoilt for choice when looking at their selection boxes


AT SOME point most players and just about every manager will have used the phrase, 'We are taking one game at a time.' Of course it is good to be focused on the job in hand but it is also often used to simplify life and delay a tricky line of questioning. The idea is, why tackle a problem before you have to?
It makes perfect sense but even so the Old Firm game at Ibrox next Saturday has been looming for some time: now both Walter Smith and Gordon Strachan will finally have to face up to it and the importance it will have on their respective seasons.

It is difficult to say who will be in the best frame of mind. It certainly will not be the fans as those turkey dinners and Christmas alcohol binges will still be having an effect on many at the ungodly time of 12.30. Both sets of players will hopefully have had a more restrained festive period and will have had plenty of time to think about the occasion. In Celtic's case, after a couple of days holed up in a hotel to keep them away from temptation, maybe there will be too much time to ponder.

It is probably best not to think too much about the respective build-ups over the past few weeks, it has been just too confusing. Celtic could bask in the warm glow of hammering Villarreal in the final Champions League encounter of the season. On the other hand, defeats against Aalborg and Hibs, then a draw at home to Hearts, were less impressive.

Rangers may be equally befuddled when considering a seven-goal destruction of Hamilton Accies alongside a defeat to Hearts and a draw up at Tannadice. Clearer thinking will be needed by the managers and maybe it is the home boss who has to use slightly less grey matter in the build-up.

Smith has generally stuck to a 4-4-2 as the season has progressed, with Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller up front terrorising most defences they have come across. I suspect that will not change and I will be surprised if, barring injury, Pedro Mendes, Steven Davis and Barry Ferguson are not marked down in hard black pencil on the team sheet already.

The accepted wisdom in Old Firm affairs is that you need to err on the side of power when considering the style, so Kyle Lafferty and Lee McCulloch will almost certainly figure at some point. The back four also almost picks itself, though recent frailties in the air with cross balls will be getting the cogs turning upstairs for Walter. Once more this could favour the inclusion of McCulloch, though he may not be trusted to start in his new-found centre back role for this particular fixture just yet. Aiding and abetting at defending set pieces as a midfielder might be the order of the day.

Across Glasgow, Gordon Strachan will have been burning the midnight oil thinking about his options. His favoured 4-4-2 system might just be shelved in favour of the 4-2-3-1 used over in Villarreal, a tactic that almost delivered the mythical European away win. It is another away tie against a big team, after all, but more importantly it is a system that doesn't need old fashioned wingers. With an injured Shaun Maloney having to sit quietly on the sideline and Aiden McGeady being neither injured, quiet, nor anywhere near the sideline, but still unavailable, it must be a temptation.

The two sitting midfielders, one of whom would almost certainly be Paul Hartley, would have three in front of them. In Scott Brown, Shunsuke Nakamura and Barry Robson, Celtic have a triumvirate who are made to play in these roles. They each like to attack, but are all capable of defending as well. They also have fearsome engines and are big game players who will not be afraid to take responsibility in this sort of atmosphere.

If Strachan does plump for this system, and even if he doesn't, there is a decision to be made regarding Georgios Samaras. The Greek has looked like a player stripped of confidence, as well as his ability to control a ball, since coming back from injury. On the other hand he has lost none of his willingness to run his heart out for the entire game to create space for others while occupying at least two defenders. It is a tough call, but I suspect Gordon would love to use him, even just for that effort and the height he offers defensively.

Another question will be whether or not it is a good idea to pull Gary Caldwell out of the centre half position to be the other sitting midfielder? It would certainly stop balls arriving easily at the feet of Kris Boyd, but even though Glenn Loovens has plenty of experience and is rated by the manager, Caldwell and McManus are still the 'go to' partnership at the back.

A fit Artur Boruc will also play even if he has made too many high profile mistakes of late. I actually think he was partially at fault last week against Hearts when he slipped trying to close down Andrew Driver. Keepers work constantly at getting their feet in the right position and, just like his howler at Hibs, he didn't get them planted quickly enough to give the hearts winger a problem.

Neither manager will ever own up to lying awake at night tossing and turning over the choices they have to make, but there is no doubt that when they are having their Christmas dinners, now and again their minds will be wandering two days ahead.

Maybe one or the other will be tempted into doing something completely unexpected? Because both know each other's first choice players so well, an element of uncertainty might not be a bad idea. It would however also be a huge risk which, if it backfired, could be a serious blow to their title hopes.

They will make their decisions but as ever it will be the imponderables that will be their biggest concerns on the eve of the game. Will the players be too pumped up by the occasion? Will the referee have as big a say on the outcome as any player, as has often been the case lately? Will Artur Boruc have managed to resist the temptations of the festive season, and more importantly for the safety of all concerned, will he resist the temptation of goading the opposition fans? If he does we might all still manage to have a Happy Christmas at the end of it.
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