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Mowbray will struggle to sign big names at Celtic

Graham Spiers

At this time of the football season - back from holidays, sun-tanned, having not looked at or kicked a ball for five weeks - you might expect a freshness about the faces of most players and managers. But not in Scotland. And certainly not on the otherwise highly expressive face of Tony Mowbray.

The Celtic manager, even this early into his exciting new career, is feeling something of the slog about his job. Mowbray, in truth, is dragging his heels in having to go to Australia with Celtic for what he views as a mind-numbing pre-season challenge against Brisbane Roar on July 12, but even more draining is Mowbray's current effort to rejuvenate Celtic by making a batch of uplifting and inspiring new signings.

Marc-Antoine Fortune is expected in most circles to sign for Celtic, though with two or three Barclays Premier League clubs also chasing him, the French striker has clearly been in two minds about coming to Glasgow. The very saga that signing Fortune has become has only underlined the severity of the job facing Mowbray.

McGhee's candour may come back to haunt him

Graham Spiers

Like most people who share an inexplicable love for Scottish football, I wish Mark McGhee well in his new role at Aberdeen. But one thing is already clear about McGhee's sojourn in the north east of Scotland: when things start going badly for him the zealots among the Dons faithful will have a ready-made mallet with which to bash him.

McGhee has been a breath of fresh air for the openness and transparency he has brought to Scottish football, but even he pushed his boat out a little brazenly when he announced at his Pittodrie unveiling that he would have preferred the Celtic job.

In truth, the timing of getting the Aberdeen job had been problematic for McGhee. In effect, he had to tell Willie Miller, the Aberdeen director of football, to hang fire on the appointment last week while he - McGhee - made sure he was finally out of the running at Celtic. And McGhee candidly explained all this to the press with a faintly outrageous self-assurance.

Celtic's credibility is at stake over Mowbray fiasco

Graham Spiers

It is eight days now since Celtic started courting Tony Mowbray as their new manager. In that time, let's face it, the Parkhead club has hardly been a stickler for the rules. Football's laws about unofficial approaches, or "tapping" as it is referred to, may seem quaint and old-fashioned, but they are in place to prevent anarchy and foster trust in the game. In truth, Celtic have ridden roughshod over all of this.

The classic "go-between" has been used by Celtic to "sound out" Mowbray. That way, of course, Celtic, strictly speaking, can claim not to have spoken to the West Brom boss themselves, though this is a blatant case of skullduggery afoot. As they currently say in Westminster, if the law itself has not been breached, then the spirit of the law most certainly has.

Jeremy Peace, a faintly prickly West Bromwich Albion chairman, is certainly not at peace with himself. After a whole week in which the media has been openly blethering about Celtic's courting of Mowbray, Peace claimed that, at long last, he received a call from Celtic on Monday asking for official permission to speak to his manager.

Roberto Martinez is worth the risk at Celtic

Graham Spiers

Last Tuesday morning at 11.44am - I checked back from my phone records - I sent Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive, who at the time was chasing Owen Coyle to be the next Celtic manager, the following impertinent text message: "Peter take note: Roberto Martinez is the rising star of football managers in Britain."

In The Times the next day, putting together a panel of the possible candidates in the wake of Gordon Strachan's abrupt Celtic Park exit, I included Martinez alongside the other usual suspects, simply because he was talented, an intriguing figure, financially "gettable" in the context of Celtic, as well as a classic "left-field" candidate.

Impressive Gordon Strachan has Premier credentials

 

Graham Spiers

Gordon Strachan can be assured of one thing: when the right circumstances arise he will sail back into a job in England. The now ex-Celtic manager has left Glasgow after four years of unarguable success, despite the fact that season 2008-09 revealed signs of a staleness setting in between Strachan and his Celtic players.

Given the way Rangers were able to block Strachan and Celtic's attempts at a fourth successive SPL title over the final furlong on Sunday, perhaps Strachan spoke a greater degree of truth than even he realised when he said two years ago: "Apart from Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, three or four years is probably the most you can really spend at a big club as a manager. You get to a point where you ask yourself, 'how much further can I go here?' The only way might be down.'"

Rangers must close out title race if they are to be great again

Graham Spiers

For their own medium-term health and self-esteem, Rangers need to claim the Clydesdale Bank Premier League title this Sunday afternoon at Tannadice. Victory for Celtic, which would subject Rangers to four long years without the ultimate accolade in Scottish football, does not bear thinking about at Ibrox.

Rangers hold a two-point lead over their great rivals as the final round of SPL matches looms. There is, though, much more at stake in the next five days for Rangers than just the 2008-09 crown.The gulf between Rangers and Celtic - especially the financial gulf - has grown over these past four years, and a fourth successive title success for Gordon Strachan's team would only reinforce that chasm.

With TV money so paltry in Scotland, direct entry to the Champions League is a coveted windfall for both halves of the Old Firm, and in recent years that advantage has gone to Celtic.

It has been shocking recently to see in black and white the growing disparity between the two clubs. Celtic currently manage to generate almost - but not quite - twice the amount of business achieved by Rangers. Celtic's turnover this year is expected to hit the £75million-plus bar, whereas Rangers will be lucky if they scrape to even £45m.

The likelihood is that the amount of business that Rangers will generate in the present financial year will be less than Celtic posted for their first six months. And while Celtic, buoyed by their recent domestic success, have managed to wipe out almost their entire debt, Rangers' borrowings are still believed to be hovering around £26m and rising.

Claims that McGeady axe was personal rile Strachan

Graham Spiers

In Glasgow hardly a week goes by without Gordon Strachan becoming ensnared in some sort of controversy, though the most recent episode, the Celtic manager will feel, is particularly wounding.

Strachan stands accused of dropping Aiden McGeady out of spite - and nothing else - for last Saturday's Old Firm derby at Ibrox, a match Rangers won 1-0.

The result left Celtic, who had held a one-point advantage, two points behind their rivals with three games remaining in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League. This, however, was almost incidental if you listened to some of Strachan's most severe critics, in the media and on the radio phone-ins.

The charge is this: how could he be so petty, so spiteful, so vindictive? It is a serious accusation which doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Strachan and McGeady are no bosom buddies and the Ireland winger was fined and suspended for two weeks last December after verbally abusing his manager in front of the other Celtic players in a dressing-room. Since that episode, however, McGeady has figured prominently for Celtic and all the evidence suggested that Strachan, having doled out his [rightful] punishment, had forgotten about it.

Well, not according to those who were gulping for oxygen after seeing the Celtic line-up at midday on Saturday, 30 minutes before Rangers and Celtic took to the field for the final Old Firm showdown of the season. There was consternation and even rage among some at Strachan's omission of McGeady and the accusation has lingered that Strachan acted out of spite.

Falkirk fans can be forgiven for calling for Hughes's head

Graham Spiers

There is always the danger that football reporters, who can often be far removed from the core of clubs they write about, simply get the issue wrong. 

The most recent example of this in Scotland has just affected Falkirk. The Bairns, under the redoubtable John Hughes, left, have just reached the Homecoming Scottish Cup final by beating Dunfermline in the semi-final, and, in doing so, admittedly almost by default, have qualified for the new Europa League next season.

Yet Hughes's side are currently anchored to the bottom of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, and one of their supporters branches, the Bairns Trust, ten days ago called for the club to sack Hughes. With impeccable timing Hughes and his players responded by booking one of the most exciting days in Falkirk's 133-year history at Hampden Park on May 30 against Rangers.

The tendency in the media has been to cane and lampoon the Bairns Trust for their actions, though there has been a certain easy hindsight about this.

Paul Gascoigne is a classic case of the suffering ex-superstar

Graham Spiers

Quite a few football fans have been commenting on the latest re-birth of Gazza. Paul Gascoigne appeared on Match of the Day 2 last weekend, generally rambling his way through his answers to Adrian Chiles, while other TV appearances are being lined up for the stricken former footballer. It seems this is the latest episode in Gazza's bid to re-claim his life.

Once again, some were taken aback by Gascoigne's appearance on Sunday night: thin, gaunt, sunken-eyed, and even, others said, emaciated-looking. These are cruel words to use to describe anyone, but in Gascoigne's case, the years of physical and psychological damage have produced a remarkable distortion in his appearance. For someone who is still just 41 the ageing process has been dramatic.

Jimmy Calderwood: should he stay or should he go?

Graham Spiers

I think the first football club I ever saw in action was Aberdeen. I was a kid living in Fife at the time and the Dons, very vivid to a five-year-old in their fine red livery, were playing East Fife at the old Bayview Park. This was, I think, around 1969. I'm tempted to say I can still remember Bobby Clark, Henning Boel, Arthur Graham and others from that afternoon, but in truth, the memory is too hazy.

But it was Aberdeen all right. And they looked magnificent to a little child in that eye-catching strip of theirs.

Down the years this great club from Scotland's magical north east have never been far from my football experience. In the 1970s the Dons would pop up at Hampden and sometimes deal the Old Firm a lesson in a cup semi-final or final, and their travelling supporters would be out in force, their dialects being distinctly different from those of the rest of Scotland. Following Aberdeen FC's fate was an intriguing and sometimes exhilarating experience.