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Graham Spiers
Craig Levein earns a ballpark £300,000 a year as Scotland manager. Fabio Capello, we are told, earns a ballpark £5.5 million to manage England. Well, you pay for genius, don’t you?
Last Sunday afternoon the Scottish sabbath was intermittently disrupted by the roars emanating from pubs as Capello’s players locked horns with “the Germans”. To be accurate here, it is not the case that, north of the border, the Scots were all roaring over England’s demise. For one thing, plenty English people live in Scotland, and the Three Lions were well represented in the watering holes of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness. For many others, though, haughty England’s sad collapse made a comical spectacle.
It was impossible, watching Capello’s post-match “interview” (I use the word generously) with the BBC’s Gabby Logan, not to witness some sort of final indignity. Just about incapable of understanding a single question Logan put to him, we were suddenly taken back to the politically-incorrect days of Fawlty Towers, and Manuel, the inept Spanish waiter with his incompetent English, being grilled by an aggrieved Basil. Frankly, was Logan in her utter despair about to whack “Manuel” Capello over the head with a frying-pan?
Continue reading "Comedy of England's humiliation through Scottish eyes " »
Graham Spiers
For those of us watching this World Cup from afar – and in my case that means Glasgow, where football matters – there has been one aspect about England that has been unforgivable. It has been appalling to witness Fabio Capello’s near-incompetent use of the English language.
Following the woeful draw with Algeria, Capellos’s post-match TV interview was a mere snapshot of his dire skills in his adopted language. Football never seems to get this, but anyone from the top echelons of industry or commerce (or teaching), watching these Capello interviews, would be thinking: “This guy is being paid £5 million a year yet he can hardly communicate…”
For many, it is an affront to common sense.Craig Brown, the former Scotland manager, and a man who sometimes seems to have a monopoly on Uefa coaches’ seminars, says that “communication is the key”. Well, if this is even half right, where does it leave Capello? For on a scale of one to 10, the Italian’s ability to communicate adeptly in English merits a feeble three. It is actually quite shocking to behold his dreadful efforts.
In my own experience of covering football two names in this context spring to mind: Berti Vogts and Paul Le Guen. Both were illustrious names in European football, and both had impressive track records. Yet Vogts’ English was so poor – and remained so – that he was rendered only semi-competent when he became Scotland’s manager in 2002.
Continue reading "Fabio Capello needs extra language lessons" »
With the World Cup kicking off next Friday, we are asking Times football writers to predict the outcome for each group stage. Today, Graham Spiers, a proud Scot, is given the dubious pleasure of previewing group C, which features England: The group of brazen upstarts
As a Scotsman it obviously gives me no pleasure to have to write this but... poor England. What a potential cropper Fabio Capello's men have a week on Saturday when they face the USA in the group's opener in Rustenburg. The USA have a team perfectly capable of getting a result against the group favourites, and if it happens, brace yourself for the shrill, shrieking, morally-indignant fall-out from Blighty's press corps camped on African soil. Remember, this England side is already a semi-final shoo-in, and no pretzel-chewing, baseball-watching bunch of Yanks are supposed to stymie that plan.
Continue reading "World Cup group-by-group analysis: group C" »
Graham Spiers
It is usually around this most vexed time in the sporting calendar – when England are taking part in a major football finals, while Scotland are not – that a recurringly troubling question is asked north of the border. Namely, should a Scotsman support England?
Craig Levein, the Scotland manager, gave voice to this minor trauma of Scottish life and culture last week when he said that he hoped England would do well at the World Cup. For many football fans in Scotland this was an unremarkable comment to make. For others it proved to be a porridge-spewing moment.
Continue reading "Why the Scots should support England in the World Cup" »
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Graham Spiers
This Thursday evening hundreds of Celtic fans are due to pile in to Celtic Park to witness two men – Neil Lennon, currently the club’s ‘interim’ manager, and Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive – stand up on a public stage and spell out their “vision” for next season.
There is only one slight problem with this. Thus far no-one knows - least of all Lennon himself - who the next Celtic manager is to be.
Continue reading "Celtic need to make their managerial vision clear" »
Graham Spiers
The Neil Lennon question resolutely refuses to go away. Will he or won’t he be installed as the next Celtic manager? It is an issue that, from the anecdotal evidence, appears to completely divide the jury, otherwise known as the Glasgow club’s foaming support.
One ex-Celtic player, now fairly prominent in the media, said to me last week: “They cannot possibly give it to Lennon, surely? He’s just not got the experience. I can’t believe some of you newspapers guys are even thinking of it.” Others, however, think it is perfectly feasible, right and proper that Lennon should be appointed long-term, given his work over the past seven weeks.
Continue reading "Neil Lennon left in limbo after proving worth" »
Graham Spiers
What a grisly scene at Pittodrie at the weekend, where the fall and fall of Aberdeen is becoming very painful for anyone who loves Scottish football and its so-called “major brands”.
Mark McGhee’s team were beaten 3-1 by Hamilton Academical, in front of little over 7,000 spectators, and had two players red-carded. The TV images of the “highlights” – that laughably mis-used word for football broadcasts – revealed acres and acres of empty seats at the stadium. A glum McGhee, meanwhile, was pictured in a lugubrious pose in the Aberdeen dugout, taking further dog’s abuse from one or two irate punters in the seats behind him.
Continue reading "Billy Reid can raise Aberdeen from their slumbers" »
Graham Spiers
If you are any current member of the Lloyds Banking group who deals with Rangers, then the Ibrox manager, Walter Smith, really must be getting on your wick. Smith is upping the ante in terms of his tirades against the bank, and an ever-compliant media is providing a stage upon which he can stride regularly while off-loading his indignation.
Rangers have just won their 53rd Scottish league title – a prestigious milestone for any football club. The feat should not be played down or diluted. There has been fatuous talk of how poor, how lacking in style the current Rangers team is, when in fact Smith’s side have cantered to their latest success. If strength and spirit and tactical discipline are anything in football, then this Rangers team has been unduly slandered.
Continue reading "Walter Smith's triumphs overshadowed by sins of the fathers" »
Graham Spiers
The idea that Billy Davies could be the next manager of Celtic - as reported in The Times today - will shock many people in Scottish football, not least some supporters of both Rangers and Celtic. But this latest twist in the Celtic saga ensures that, for all its faults, the Scottish game is never fully exhausted in its ability to surprise.
The facts are these. Davies, regardless of whether Nottingham Forest are promoted from the Championship or not, is almost certain to leave the City Ground in the summer. For family reasons he may also find it opportune to return to Scotland. And the Celtic job is one that greatly appeals to the 45-year-old Davies.
You can't quite put a potential Davies move to Celtic in the same category as Maurice Johnston's infamous move to Rangers 20 years ago - but there is more than a faint resonance of it. Davies, a former Rangers player, has always been viewed as "a Rangers man" and was once described as being "willing to crawl over broken glass" to get the Ibrox manager's gig. So for the vacant Celtic job to suddenly be in his sights is one that will surprise and shock many people.
Continue reading "Expect some foaming at the mouth if Billy Davies joins Celtic" »
Graham Spiers
Mark McGhee may be on the brink of being sacked by Aberdeen - and as sackings go in football some will argue that this one would be as justified as any. McGhee’s dismal Dons have now won just once in 15 matches, having been removed by Raith Rovers at home from the Active Nation Scottish Cup. On Sunday an angry and pitiful Pittodrie crowd of 7,568 turned up to watch the latest setback, a 3-1 defeat to St Johnstone, which only served to thicken the lynch-mob on McGhee’s trail in Scotland’s north-east. Even he admits that he might be done for. "I genuinely fear for my job now," McGhee said. "I’ve said all along that there are certain areas where I don't feel I'm culpable, but clearly, at this rate I'm not getting as much out of my players as I require."
Continue reading "Mark McGhee admits he might be done for at Aberdeen" »
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