A thoroughly modern footballer

Apparently John Terry kissed the Chelsea badge when he scored against Burnley yesterday. Shame the badge belonged to one of his teammates.

Ha ha etc etc.

How much do I care about John Terry's off field pursuits? About as much as I care about his on field pursuits. Which is to say very little.

Will he be stripped of the England captaincy? Fabio Capello will make his mind up on that based on what he believes is best for the team. If the team have lost confidence in him then Capello will sacrifice him. It's all about the team for Italian. Again, I'm not that bothered.

But Terry's is a tale of our times and a warning shot for all footballers. Coupled with the very public - and, for the media, profitable - unravelling of Tiger Woods' life, the lifting of the Terry injunction means all bets are off. The vultures are circling and that rarified breed of fully grown children that staff professional football clubs are in their sights. Other footballers, and their staff, should look at Terry and think "there but for the grace of God."

Terry's career is a litany of misdemeanours. The latest indiscretion proves that he's not grown up at all. Worse he's now living in such a bubble of money and drooling underlings that he's prepared to try and use the law to buy silence.

No doubt debates about privacy and freedom of the press will continue to rage. But the fact remains that as his people sent out releases highlighting his marketabilty as England's brave John Terry, as his list of honours extended to Dad of the Year and as the money kept rolling in he was knocking off his mate's bird.

One need not moralise on infidelity to say that carries more than a hint of hypocrisy.

Firing off an early contender for the Obsequious Column Of The Year Award, the Mirror's Oliver Holt argued passionately that Terry must not be stripped of the captaincy. Alongside listing Terry's qualities in a manner that would make the most dedicated PR blush, Holt also hinted that Terry's behaviour is in part due to a difficult upbringing.

From what we read we may surmise that life Chez Terry was probably not The Waltons. But many players from what we used to call the wrong side of the tracks have been model professionals. Many players with idyllic childhoods have turned into complete pricks. That happens.

John Terry is man who earns more in a week than the entire squads of some of the teams he plays against. As captain of club and country he is surrounded by advisors, PR men, media trainers and wise counsel. At his age he makes his own choices. The nature/nurture debate doesn't really wash with a man who earns as much in half a week as the Prime Minister does in a year.

Sadly John Terry is a thoroughly modern footballer. Overpaid, too much time on their hands, too many yes men, too many people prepared to cover up for them. John Terry is as much a product of the madness of his sport as he is of his upbringing.

And the result is a man who thinks right and wrong extends only to what he wants to do. The manager might have the final say at training and on match day, although even that has been open to doubt in the past, but the rest of the time he is living by his own rules. That's unhealthy for anyone.

He's not alone. Each day, somewhere there is a footballer risking a tabloid expose for some aspect of their private life, another risking his career by sticking something other than a Vicks inhaler up his nose.

The poster boy for England's World Cup campaign is also the poster boy for the excesses of a game descending into madness.

Changing the behaviour of the fans helped make English footballers richer than Croesus. How ironic it would be if it was the behaviour of the footballers themselves that began to drive the new breed of fans - and the money men - away from the game.

In the meantime the clubs need to bring in more control. Academies need to offer much more than just an education in football and saying very little in post match interviews. Somebody, somewhere needs to try and introduce some sanity into the way players are paid and treated. It's not too harsh to say that a lot of footballers are not the brightest and are given to stupidity. Clubs have to stop letting that stupidity reign.

At the moment football is eating itself and it's really not that pretty.

Lost for words

It takes an organisation of quite incredible incompetence to make one thankful for the expertise and tact of the SFA.

So take a bow the Confederation of African Football.

On the eve of their showpiece final, at the start of the biggest year in the history of African football, CAF have announced that Togo will be fined $50,000 and banned from the next two tournaments.

Their crime? Withdrawing after the team buses were ambushed by terrorists. An ambush that saw two of their party die.

CAF have offered government interference as the rationale for their decision:

The players publicly expressed their willingness to return to the Nations Cup to compete. But the Togo government decided to call back their national team. The decision by political authorities contravenes Caf and African Nations Cup regulations.

These regulations are actually appended by a clause suggesting that they can be relaxed in the event of extreme circumstances. Clearly terrorist attacks ending in murder are not extreme enough.

There is also a suggestion in some quarters that when Togo's players requested to play in the tournament their request was blocked not by their government but by the organisers. Something about this stinks.

Togo have responded with a threat of legal action:

This is a surprise decision and it means that people (Caf) have no consideration for the lives of other human beings. This is insulting to the family of those who lost their lives and those traumatised because of the attack.

We had two people dead and others suffered so if those people at Caf had any consideration for others I don't think at this time this is a reasonable decision. We are awaiting the official notification and we are going to take legal action to resolve the matter.

We can only hope that Togo get the result they hope for in court.

And what of FIFA? So far they've declined to comment. The world game perhaps, but rotten to the core the world over.

Silver Surfers

Everything changes. Everything stays the same.

Walter Smith in charge at Ibrox. Jim Jefferies in charge at Hearts. Craig Brown back in the dugout. Kilmarnock turning to Jimmy Calderwood.

If the BBC was once called hideously white must we now call SPL managerial cabal as hideously old? (And hideously white as well, of course, but that's a whole different kettle of fish).

For a country that prides itself on exporting bright young managers across Hadrian's Wall we seem loathe to give them jobs ourselves.

Are we in danger of thwarting the development of young managers? Is the reliance on Scottish managers schooled at Largs robbing our players of exposure to different methods and approaches that have, undoubtedly, helped English players?

We find ourselves stuck in a situation where serious students of the game describe Ally McCoist as a bright young prospect who might one day, with a favourable wind, stand on his own two feet. Really? At the age McCoist is now most of us have cut the apron strings. Does he not sometimes feel frustrated about being thought of as a glorified Timothy Lumsden?

All the above examples can easily be explained away as clubs in varying amounts of turmoil calling on experienced hands to the steady ship. Stability and solid foundations before a new man comes along and adds vigour as the final piece of the jigsaw.

Fair enough. But the real reason is the fear that pervades every boardroom in the land. Clubs at the bottom of the league fear relegation. Clubs at the top of the league fear slipping to the bottom.

So they stick with what they know. The ignore the examples of Gus McPherson, Billy Reid or Derek McInnes bringing teams into the SPL and staying there. Of Tony Mowbray taking Hibs to third. Of John Hughes getting Falkirk up, keeping them there and taking them to two cup finals.

All this suits a press corps desperate to see their friends in jobs. It makes them feel closer to the story, even part of the story. So they recommend the same old faces for every job and treat anyone who is not a part of their gilded circle of old pals with suspicion. Often intolerable suspicion.

We sneer at English clubs looking to Scotland or Europe for their managers. We ignore the fact that our incestuous reliance on the same old faces is likely to result in the same dwindling of new alternatives that has happened in England.

Fair play to old these elder statesmen who are able to carve out a living in the game after all these years. But they will start to exit the stage sooner or later. The fear in those boardrooms might turn to shock when they realise that a new generation is not waiting to step into their shoes.

Unimaginative and dull. If those are the guiding principles of recruitment at our clubs is it any real wonder that those are the most distinctive features of the fare served up by those clubs week in, week out?

MaCalamity no more?

Home is where the Hearts is

A pub conversation on Thursday night centred around SPL managers who might soon be feeling the cold blast of unemployment.

Tony Mowbray and Csaba Lazlo were the two names that cropped up most often. My own take was that Csaba was safe if he got to the end of the transfer window without getting embroiled in a full scale bust up with his lord and master.

Well, I never claimed to know anything about football.

My mistake was, of course, to predict anything about events at Tynecastle which, since Vladimir Romanov arrived back in 2005, has housed our least predictable club.

I'll miss Lazlo and his meandering discourses on the most simple of questions. And, much as the fare on offer has been at times turgid this season, he has done well at Hearts. He knew there were deficiencies in his team. He even highlighted players he felt capable of solving the problems but his hands were tied by his absent but tyrannical owner.

Almost as soon as Lazlo had taken his leave his replacement was installed. Step forward Jim Jefferies, Hearts first manager of the millenium coming back to replace their tenth.

The prodigal returning after almost a decade in the wilderness to lead the faithful to glory? That will be the script that Hearts fans long for.

The pull factors for Jefferies are understandable. He's a lifelong Jambo, he had his greatest managerial success at Tynecastle and the wage will no doubt prove a tidy addition to the pension when he takes his leave from the game in a few years.

But Jim, a man whose innate glumness makes him something of a mascot for this blog, seems like a strange fit for the mad, Vlad world that Tynecastle has become.

Latterly, of course, Jim had problems with his chairman at Kilmarnock but I'm not sure dealing with Michael Johnson is decent preparation for the experience of working for Romanov.

Maybe, just maybe, his stoicism will bring the stability that Hearts crave. And we don't know what assurances he has been given, or indeed if any such assurances will be honoured. The signing of Darran Barr would at least give an indication of Hearts intent for next season.

But I keep coming back to that unpredictability. I've always though of Jim as more of a football pools man than a high stakes Vegas casino man. And this job looks to be a gamble, the chance of a solid CV being punctuated, even ended, by a cameo role in the Romanov circus.

Jim will hope not. The Hearts fans will hope not. But only Vlad will be able to provide the answers.

Sniping at the gutter press, Part II

So, it seems the Scott Brown story won't go away.

Speaking on Celtic's Channel 67 (online) Tony Mowbray said:

The story of Scottish football really isn't big enough for the newspapers that are out there and they try to create an agenda that can run for a few days and can cause a bit of unrest.

It gets reaction from supporters, it gets letters pages going, it gets the back page the following day because there's reaction.

It doesn't affect me but I know it affects our supporters.

Why do I speak to the press? Really to talk to our fans - that's the only reason that I talk to the media.

If it were down to me solely, I would probably end up doing all our media stuff to our supporters through mediums like yourself (Channel 67) and Celtic View (the club's official magazine).

Maybe there's a proportion of our fans who don't have access to Channel 67 or have the opportunity to buy the View, and their only knowledge of Celtic Football Club is through the daily newspapers.

That, in my mind, is why I give the courtesy to talk to the newspapers.

I've spoken to the last two Celtic managers, who tell me, 'don't get over-concerned about it because it's never personal - every Celtic manager gets that'.

I do get to hear these stories - the Scott Brown story this week, which did need addressing of course because it was a total untruth and had no substance to that whatsoever.

People just can't make stories up and write them: it should be allowed to happen, which is why the club are taking action, I think.

A fairly clear indication that he thinks the tale was entirely fabricated. Also a fairly major hint that his views on the free media wouldn't be out of place in a meeting of the Politburo in Khruschev's Kremlin.

But in the Record it's a different story:

Scott Brown continued to insist yesterday that he was told he can leave Celtic.

The SPL club went public to deny Record Sport's story that revealed Tony Mowbray informed the midfield player he could be sold during the January transfer window.

But information given to us made it clear Brown believes his days at Celtic Park are numbered.

We stand by that information and our source, who is well known to Celtic.

Yet, on the Parkhead club's official website yesterday they branded our story as "erroneous and without foundation."

The truth is that before printing the story it was read out to Brown.

And there is no question, no doubt at all, Record Sport's piece was endorsed by him and his reaction included.

He knows we reported accurately a story which has been the talk of his Celtic team-mates at their Lennoxtown base.

In fact, even yesterday afternoon Brown was still adamant he'd been told he could leave.

Someone has been economical with the truth, but Record Sport's conscience is clear. It's now a matter for Brown and Celtic.

I still think this has no chance of ending up in court. I still, for what it's worth, think that there's more to it than meets the eye. Certainly there's more to it than Keith Jackson plucking quotes and stories from thin air. And I'm far from his biggest fan or the biggest fan of his newspaper.

But there was a couple more hints from Mowbray that this is a hardening of his attitude. He noted that his experience of the media was completely different with Hibs. If he was naive enough not to realise that Glasgow was going to be a little different then he's found out now.

Secondly, I wrote yesterday that there was a circling of the wagons inside Celtic Park. Mowbray has run with that theme today. Note also how he tries to pull the fans into the conspiracy. "It's us and them," he seems to be saying, "are you for me or against me."

There are problems with this tactic. For a start some of the fans have been as, if not more, critical of the manager than the press. And, no matter how much we'd all like to think they might, the press are not going to disappear. Speak to them, don't speak to them but they'll still be watching you.

The most telling quote of all is that Mowbray has spoken to his predecessors. Press and fans alike may not welcome the guiding hand of Gordon Strachan making a return. But the new man has found out very quickly the lesson that seemed to dismay Strachan so much: a great job, yes, but you've got to put up with a lot of crap to get anything done.

So where are we? Still no court case likely. And confirmation of my conclusion yesterday that there's going to be no more Mr Nice Guy from Mowbray. An attitude that still needs results to be anything but a snarling mess.

Oh, and I wouldn't bet on Scott Brown or Tony Mowbray still being around this time next year.

Scottish Blog Awards: Self Promotion

The good people over at Scottish Roundup ("The best of Scottish blogging every week" - including me last week) have put together the Scottish Blog Awards.

There's some cracking blogs included in a lengthy list (142 blogs were nominated) and I'm glad to say that The Scottish Football Blog is there as well.

I think there's going to be categories (I'll be in Sport presumably) but at the moment the long list appears as is.

So feel free to visit (they deserve it - it must have been a real labour of love to put it all together) and cast your vote. Obviously if you'd like to vote for me that would be swell. If not there are some cracking blogs to look at including some of my own favourite football blogs.

You've got until 8pm on Wednesday the 27th to have your say. I think the voting is some kind of Strictly Come Dancing type public vote/judges vote hybrid.

Your understanding for sticking with this non football post is appreciated with apologies.

Sniping at the gutter press?

When I heard that Celtic were considering legal action against a news outlet for they what considered to be an erroneous story concerning Scott Brown I immediately trawled through Google News.

I was amazed by the sheer volume of stories concerning young Scotty that seemed to tip over into fantasy:


Now he's a good player and we all hope his recovery can spark a return to his best. But, seriously, the Nobel Peace Laureate and leader of the free world?

Or this:


I'm not qualified to judge such things. But I've got a feeling most women who chose to voice an opinion on such things would judge Scott to be more ugly politician material than contender for what I believe The Sun used to call "Page 8 Mate."

Thankfully the indefatigable Scotzine came to my rescue. Seems that Keith Jackson and the Daily Record wrote:

Tony Mowbray has stunned star man Scott Brown by telling him he has no future at Celtic.

Record Sport understands the Scotland midfielder was given the bombshell news during a showdown meeting with Mowbray before Christmas - and that the manager made it clear he hoped to sell him during the January transfer window.

Brown is believed to be devastated by Mowbray's decision to ditch him - and by the fact his one-time mentor at Hibs, a man he had huge respect for, chose to jettison him during his long slog back to fitness after botched ankle surgery last summer.

As ever we know not where these stories come from. Journalistic arrogance, stupidity, mischief making, wishful thinking? A previously trusted source who has a grievance against reporter, player, manager or club? Or, perhaps, it's true and Celtic are making a hollow threat to remove the public gaze from a crucial bit of January business?

Any of us who have ever had any reason to read media pages or study the history of newspapers know that any of these could be reason enough for the ensuing stramash.

We've all been around football long enough to know that these stories appear all the time especially in a January transfer window when much to-ing and fro-ing is being discussed but very little is actually happening.

What surprises me about this is how swiftly Celtic have threatened legal action. This is a bit of tittle tattle like the hundreds of other gossip articles that appear all across the backpages and the internet every day. What makes this different? If Celtic react like this to everything that is printed there's going to be a libel lawyer in Glasgow rubbing his hands with glee. Football is surrounded by these tales but what clubs resort to legal action?

So again, why now? Is it because it misrepresents a meeting between manager and player? Fair enough but there are no direct quotes from the meeting and surely Tony Mowbray will have experienced this kind of thing in the past. There is what we might term a reaction quote from Brown:

I believe these things should remain private. Maybe you should ask him what was said. I have nothing more to add.

That amounts to a no comment rather than a denial. Are Celtic claiming Keith Jackson made this quote up? Unpopular as journalists are, I find that unlikely. And it would make Jackson an idiot but surely not the first journalist to make up a quote by a footballer.

Might we not, in fact, be justified in remembering the saga that Brown was instrumental in engineering when he left Easter Road?

I've got a feeling that this story is not yet fully played out but I've little doubt that there's more chance of Gary Caldwell marrying George W Bush than there is of it reaching the law courts.

Whatever the truth of "Jacksongate" (as it shall never again be referred to) I think Celtic's reaction is further evidence of a circling of the wagons inside Celtic Park. On Monday we had the normally amiable Mark Venus give a "hysterically" straight faced press conference including gems such as:

I am no expert on football

And:

I don’t know what a banana skin is, I think it’s something that’s left after you have a banana, isn’t it? Do you know what I mean?

Amid this display of comic genius he also found time to contradict Mowbray on the availability or otherwise of Aiden McGeady and deny any knowledge of a "grand plan" for the Mowbray revolution (although this did raise similarities with a Josh Lyman press conference from The West Wing which deserves some credit).

Mowbray and Venus have been stung by their early experiences at Celtic. The reasoned, articulate approach to describing their plans and aspirations doesn't really cut it in Glasgow football. So it's time for the siege mentality so favoured by Gordon Strachan. Being obstructive at a press conference, threating legal action. It all amounts to telling the media to "get tae..."

Fair enough. Maybe it's what they need to start turning things around. But all this, like tabloid transfer tales, is just froth. If the results don't change then no amount of legal grandstanding or surly press conferences will offer any respite.