If you’ve read a newspaper at all, either in print or online – and I read them all, partly for my own amusement, partly because I have to in order to know what they are writing – you’ll be aware of the hype and hysteria surrounding Sevco’s band of misfits from around the world.
I have never ceased to be amazed at how a foreign name suddenly makes someone a better footballer, and how certain nationalities are revered, and spoken of in hushed tones as if they never produced a bad player.
We need no reminding that, “Oh he’s Brazilian. He must be alright,” was a frequent refrain, before we’d seen Scheidt.
Today we’re supposed to be wetting our pants because they have signed players from Portugal and Mexico. Next they’re adding a Colombian, and all of Scottish football is meant to tremble. What an amazing country this is. Some of its citizens have such a low opinion of the game here that they really do think a Benfica reserve will come up and dominate it, as though the B teams which border the Andalusian Provinces were playing against teams from La Liga.
Their latest addition is the real winner though; the “Colombian Harry Kane.” I checked this out last night; no fewer than fifteen strikers have been called up to the Colombian national first team in the past 12 months.
When Sevco fans get excited at the thought that this kid is an Under 20 international they should have some understanding as to what that means; there are over a dozen players in the same position at that level and the same number again in the main squad in front of him.
And not one of the recent call-ups played in Finland. Or in Scotland.
The people who have spent the last twelve months talking our game down and telling us how poor the standard is now believe it is a passport to the World Cup Finals for a guy with players like Rodriguez, Falcao and Bacca in front of him in the queue.
Those who’ve told us that high profile players will not come to the SPL are now telling us that this guy is one of them, albeit one who has been playing in a backwater and escaped the attention of every top club in Europe.
How can it be that moving to Celtic Park can be trumpeted in the media as a death sentence for a player’s international career whilst a move to Ibrox can be just the move that’s required to put that career on rails? Double standards, or just utter bollocks?
By the same token, we’re expected to believe that Portugal is a hot-bed of football talent.
As I pointed out when Sevco unveiled Alves, the average age of their defenders when they won the last Euros was 35. They are an ageing team which isn’t producing the quality replacements the way a top football country is supposed to. Sevco’s 23 year old signing at central defence, Cardoso, hasn’t been near the national team … indeed, his last representation at international level, at all, was in the 2014 Toulon Tournament for their Under 20’s.
Once again, we’re back in this place where, like Warburton, the Sevco manager has calculated that these guys don’t need to be particularly brilliant to succeed … just better than our own domestic footballers. It is sheer arrogance.
I’ll tell you right now, Waghorn arrived in Glasgow with a far better pedigree than any of the guys Sevco has signed in this window. He has played 5 times for a very good England Under 21 team and he’d scored twice. Look how poor that turned out.
I’m not saying these guys are all flops; there’s no way to know that for sure. But I’m not going to be spooked by Latin surnames and talk about “potential.” If they’ve gone out and spent all this money on “potential”, and brought Southern Europeans and South and Central Americans to Scotland … that’s a recipe for disaster if I’ve ever heard one. Colombian and Mexican strikers, at rain-soaked, windswept, Fir Park … on a Wednesday night?
What can possibly go wrong with that proposition?
And of course, all this has to be paid for somehow …
Incredible, isn’t it?
The media’s obvious euphoria at these days is a classic case of people being set up for an almighty crash back to Earth. They need to start getting a grip on their expectation levels, and stop insulting the intelligence of the rest of us with garbage about future internationals.
They have used this argument – that Scottish football doesn’t offer players international recognition – so often to destablise Celtic players … Van Dijk, Hooper, Wanyama, Forster, Guidetti … no doubt they will try the same nonense on Patrick Roberts if he signs on the dotted line … that it really is offensive to see them use the reverse argument to try and sell players on moving to Ibrox.
The worst thing about it is that Scottish football doesn’t have the profile some of those players deserved.
Even for guys who come here and prove to be top drawer, geting into their national teams has often been a tough nut to crack.
But from Finland to Scotland to the Colombian national team … yeah, that’s a journey that a whole slew of players has made before, right?
Honestly, the media really is a joke at times.