Scottish Football Blog Awards 2010 - Terry Butcher and Inverness

Football management is a strange beast. A good manager in the wrong job can be left looking foolish. A bad manager in the right job can be left looking like Midas.

Terry Butcher is a decent manager with both successes and failures in his career. At Inverness he has found a well run club that suits his style. The result has been a year of almost constant progress for the Scottish Football Blog's Manager and Team of 2010.

In November 2009 Inverness didn’t look like they had much hope of promotion. Butcher had been unable to prevent their relegation and together they seemed set to follow the established pattern of a relegated club failing to get straight back to the SPL.

Then something clicked. Inverness put together a 19 game unbeaten run that included seven straight wins. Dundee’s implosion helped, but Butcher clinched promotion with two matches to spare thanks to his side’s form as much as failures elsewhere.

And the return to the SPL has seen Inverness breathe fresh air into the top half of the table as well as extending their unbeaten away record to over a year.

That includes draws at Ibrox, Parkhead and Tynecastle, with a two goal deficit being clawed back against Celtic and the 1-1 draw at Ibrox repeated when Rangers headed north.

Snipers might say that many of those draws have been achieved by "parking the bus." But that overlooks the decent footballers Butcher has in the squad and some of the spectacular moments they've given the SPL this term.

Stirring stuff and, if two home defeats haven’t been a fitting end to an impressive year, there is a feeling of a young club coming of age. It's easy to forget that this is a club that has only existed in its current form for 16 years.

A top six finish looks more than achievable in 2011. Off the field the club appear to be in rude health and active at the heart of their Highland community.

The news that David Sutherland, the club’s largest shareholder, is now prepared to relinquish his 25 percent stake to suitable investors should help secure an even brighter future.

A debt free Scottish football club looking around for investment to move forward rather than to save their skins? Truly, Inverness Caledonian Thistle are at the rarest of things: a Scottish football success story.

Others might want to look and learn.

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SPL 2010/11: Looking Ahead

You might, were you to spend six months somewhere that Scotland’s amber nectar wasn’t readily available, find yourself craving a pint of Tennent’s Lager.

Straight to the pub on your return, down a pint. And think: “On reflection, that’s really not that great.”

We fall into the trap of missing things because we’re used to them. Like a soldier writing letters to an ugly sweetheart at home, we pine for things we can’t have because we can’t have them not because they represent a true measure of quality.

All of which runs through my mind as I sit and contemplate the return of the SPL. The Best League In Scotland. Possibly.

Had I written this preview on Tuesday I might have been a bit more eager for things too get started. But then I saw some of our “finest” players turn in very bad impersonations of top class footballers and the joy of anticipation was replaced by more familiar feelings of gnawing despair.

Am I confident of a great season in the SPL. Nah, I’m really not. Not at all.

There is an argument to be made that things might be exciting because we’re not quite sure of how Celtic and Rangers will fare. So I suppose you have to make a choice and decide if you’d rather have 12 bad teams or 10 bad teams and two not-quite-as-bad-but-still-hardly-brilliant teams.

One side of the Old Firm will win the league and one will finish second. I can’t see any other outcome.

I’m not going to predict which will take the championship though. There are still questions. Rangers, threadbare but experienced. Celtic, another new look, another new manager and an apparently still leaky defence.

Transfer dealings that have not yet been finalised will play a part for both teams. Too soon, for me, to say with any confidence who will come out on top. Tony Mowbray was the SPL’s Manager of the Month in August last year. And that hardly set the tone for the season ahead.

Third place? Dundee United will look to build on last year. That won’t be easy but nor would it be an outlandish prediction to say they’ll challenge for the “best of the rest” tag.

Jim Jefferies will ensure Hearts pose more of a threat this season. But has the squad been greatly enhanced? Will Kevin Kyle stay fit and will Hearts become over reliant on his physical presence. If they do who will feed off him? Kyle has rarely proved himself a prolific goalscorer in the past so Hearts will still need goals from somewhere.

Hibs’ pre season form and European misadventure suggests they are unlikely to get off to a flier this year. Given their normal travails after January it’s difficult to see when exactly they’ll be able to piece together a sustained challenge for anything other than a solid top six finish.

In signing Paul Hartley Aberdeen have pulled off something of a coup. His experience should help a young squad improve on last year. It couldn’t be much worse.

Motherwell look to be responding well to Craig Brown and his methodical approach to preparing his team. Can they last the pace of a full league season?

What strides have St Johnstone made in improving on their solid return to the SPL. A top six finish would represent another step in their encouraging development.

Further down I can see four teams being involved in the relegation battle. Kilmarnock’s financial struggles continue and, much as I expect them to be a stuffy and obstinate side, I fear they might leave it late to escape the financial blackhole of relegation yet again.

Inverness will look to start well, build from there and make sure they pick up points at home. They’ve stuck by Terry Butcher and he’s got them back up. If he can now keep them up then they’ll have had a decent enough season. Don’t expect fireworks though.

Hamilton again impressed last season but as players leave it becomes harder and harder to repeat that success. Could be a long old struggle.

All the clubs in the bottom half of the table might just be saved by St Mirren. I don’t want that to happen, I want to see Danny Lennon succeed. But I fear that things could go badly. Very badly.

A tentative table prediction. Tentative because I think United will finish third and I think St Mirren will probably go down. Other than that, it's anyone's game:

1 Rangers/Celtic
2 Celtic/Rangers
3 Dundee United
4 Hearts
5 Motherwell
6 Aberdeen
7 Hibs
8 St Johnstone
9 Kilmarnock
10 Hamilton
11 Inverness
12 St Mirren

End game

All that glitters?

And so we're finished. The cup final remains, of course, but the SPL is done and dusted.

Survival Saturday. Helicopter Sunday. Combined they turned out to be the footballing equivalent of a wet weekend in Blackpool.

Lex Gold took to the airwaves to boast about how exciting the SPL was, how the last day drama was proof of the thrilling brand this is his SPL.

And there was drama. But it wasn't provided by the gleaming quality of our 12 top teams. Rangers and Celtic were still locked in a battle because they are each as poor as they have been at anytime since the mid 90's. Falkirk, Inverness, St Mirren: did any one of them have more claim on survival than the other two.

This is a league topped by mediocrity, stuffed with averageness and rounded off by the truly awful. A helicopter at Gleneagles won't change that.

Will it improve? God alone knows. But, I'd predict, we will all be back, frustrated and enthralled as ever, come July.

Saturday Special

One of the benefits of feeling like crap is being able to spend an afternoon submerged in Scottish football. A small benefit to be sure, but paupers in a credit crunch can't be too choosy.

So our afternoon kicks off at Love Street where Artur Boruc, apparently no stranger to love, showed himself to be quite street as well, avoiding a red card when many a ref would have stubbed him out like a discarded cigarette.

St Mirren held their own but, as Scott Booth mentioned more than once in yet another turgid Setanta co-commentary, you need to take your chances against Celtic. Boom, boom. 2 nil and Celtic are cruising. We've seen it all before.

With about half an hour to go last Saturday Jimmy Calderwood was staring at three points on the road, Mixu was staring into the abyss. Two goals later and Hibs have a point that feels like a win, Aberdeen a point that feels like the death of a reasonably close friend.

Jimmy's woes continued at Ibrox as Ranger closed the gap to four points again. If depression lingers then Hibs proved what a difference a last minute Steven Fletcher sclaff can make by running out 4-1 winners at Motherwell.

Hibs fans of a certain vintage may remember the heady Alex Miller days when Brian Hamilton powered the midfield. The engima of Hamilton, it was said, was his ability to play well away from home before freezing at Easter Road. No enigma, the guy was terrified because of the stick he took in Leith. With apathy and antipathy rolling down from the stands at the moment might the whole Hibs team be suffering from the Hamilton syndrome? Time will tell.

Across Edinburgh Hearts continued their strange season. Third in the league with a win over Falkirk. Will that please the Jambo faithful? Or are they suffering from withdrawal symptoms? A message to the Gorgie Boys: a team that isn't imploding might make for a duller life but sometimes simple is good.

Dundee United continued their Jekyll and Hyde season with a draw at home to Hamilton. Accies finding a bit of form again but I had really expected Levein to have led United to a comfortable third place by now.

Inverness continued to haul their themselves away from the relegation battle with a fine win over Kilmarnock, Mehdi Tauoil getting into a spot of bother and no doubt ensuring the redoubtable Mrs Jefferies will be welcoming home something quite removed from a bundle of fun this evening.

So we are...well, where are we? Hamilton close the gap on St Mirren who really, really need to start scoring goals. Celtic and Rangers are as they started, Hearts get a sliver of breathing space over United.

And Hibs move into the top six but remain only a couple of wins off a bottom of the table scrap. This league produces few winners and few losers but yet again there's confirmation that this year's big question is not who's best of the rest but who's the runt of a dismal litter.

Some SPL Predictions

We are but a heartbeat away from the new season. So time for some very unscientific predictions:

First managerial casualty:

Mixu. Almost certainly. If the rumours have an ounce of truth in them then a humping by Clyde could mean he's away before the start of the season. To be swiftly followed, I'd guess, by Rod Petrie.

Third place:

Dundee United. I've got a feeling that Craig Levein (man least likely to be sacked) will have got United even stronger this season. Could be third at a canter.

Relegated:

I've got a feeling Hamilton might make a strong enough start to survive. So take your pick from St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Hibs (see above).

A season of reasonable contentment:

Falkirk. Top six again. A cup run. Yogi's stock will rise further.

Champions:

Celtic again I think. There's a chance Rangers might struggle a bit this year. Celtic might not need to do much to keep the title.

Last Chance Saloon:

Csabo Lazlo. Just because the Heart's job is last chance saloon in perpetuity. Jimmy Calderwood, bit of an enigma at Aberdeen - needs to get the fans back. Kenny Miller, surely now is the time to deliver.