You’ll have noticed a rash of “Sevco are back in the hunt” stories in the last few days, right? Because beating an Aberdeen side whose manager had metaphorically chucked it before the game, a Hearts team whose manager had literally chucked it before the game and the securing of an away win at Hamilton is an achievement worthy of football’s greatest teams, isn’t it?
Three wins on the bounce. In the SPL. That’s what all the excitement is about. That’s where all the headlines are being generated from.
Amidst them is a piece by Keith Jackson, where he extolls the virtues of the Warburton “approach” and credits the man for changing the system lately. Or tweaking it, rather, as neither Jackson nor anyone else could tell us what had actually been done differently. And he claims that this guy’s willingness to make compromises with his approach has saved him from the same fate as people like Mowbray, LeGuen and Deila.
First, let me remind him of something; Ronny Deila left Glasgow a two time league winning manager, and with a domestic cup win to boot. There is no disgrace in the way Ronny departed. He was the youngest of these managers and whatever perceived failings there were in his approach he has an entire career to put them right.
And it’s not like he arrived at Celtic without success. As a league and cup winning boss in his own country – at an unfancied side, at that – he was and is entitled to a hell of a lot more respect than that which Jackson’s rag and his fellow hacks have ever afforded him. He was in a job that was swallowing him whole. But Ronny Deila was not a failure.
On top of that, Jackson and others are jumping to a very big conclusion here. I think Aberdeen is run by an incompetent and that Hearts are transitioning, and I expect that those things will keep Warburton in his job for another wee while anyway, but I don’t think Sevco’s performances will have improved enough over the season to keep his job safe. I don’t rate this guy at all and I reckon the gig is nearly up, one way or another.
There’s a difference between letting him see this season out and trusting him to take the team into another one, and that’s where the crunch will come. I expect us to win this title by a record margin; in other words, they will certainly drop more points, many more, before this season ends. It’s going to be embarrassing for them.
Keith Jackson ought to be pretty embarrassed too, for the admission he made about what would have constituted his “Old Firm XI” before the season started. I mean, I’m sure you can imagine this before you read it, but I’ll share it with you anyway.
It lines up thus; Gordon, Tavernier, Toure, Sviatchenko, Wallace, Roberts, Brown, Barton, Kranjcar, Griffiths and Waghorn.
For just a second ponder that.
Toure, Barton and Kranjcar in the team sight unseen, on the back of reputation only, a respect he doesn’t bother to afford either Scott Sinclair (who you didn’t have to be a genius to realise would be a class act here and who’s combined transfer fees in England would have bought and sold the Govan NewCo ten times over and fixed the roofs too) or Moussa Dembele. So selective at best, and that’s being generous to him. Wallace in ahead of Tierney who had come off an outstanding debut season in the SPL where everyone was agreed they were watching a future star. Tavernier, in ahead of a seasoned pro and international in Lustig. Joey Barton. Of course. Kranjcar, who hadn’t played more than a handful of games in three years … and Waghorn. On the back of scoring goals against mostly part-time players.
Was that team anything other than an attempt to play to the gallery and sell season tickets? Even at our worst last season I never thought Waghorn would have got into our team, and nor would I have taken Tavernier if they had been giving him away. I’ve always said that whatever the merits of Lee Wallace might once have been, four years in the lower leagues has confirmed him as a lower league footballer; even Lionel Messi would have stagnated.
The Record’s efforts to put a positive spin on their summer of signing dreck was expected, of course, as is this attempt to keep the Warburton revolution on rails. But it’s clear that they’ve written this season off as part of “the journey.” Ho-ho-ho. The Journey. I love that one. If Network Rail did journeys this long and arduous they’d be lucky to give tickets away.
And that’s the bottom line, of course, because the one thing Sevco can’t afford is for their own ticket sales to dry up. Facing litigation and trouble at every turn, it’s more important than ever that they keep their own fans onside and believing.
This year has shaken the faith. Next year will destroy it and all the Daily Record editorials in the world won’t make it better.