Keith Jackson, as predicted, turned the guns on The Mooch this morning, but the criticism was more subdued than I expected, especially from someone who isn’t convinced by the guy and who recognises that the system is not what was promised to their fans.
He clings to a desperate fantasy; that there is some underlying logic to all this, that we just aren’t seeing it yet and that the new signings just need time to bed in.
The part about signings may be true, because I’ve seen it happen at Celtic, but this idea that there is a “style” to their play is for the birds.
He signed players to fit a simple template, the high punt, in the arrogance that Scottish defences could not cope with 1980’s style football played with physically imposing players.
This is not how Jackson attempted to describe it.
“What Beale is attempting to create is a fluid, interchangeable, attacking unit which is almost impossible to predict and capable of doing damage to its opponents from every conceivable angle,” he wrote, and then added. “Jurgen Klopp describes it as ‘heavy metal football’ and that’s the kind of tune Beale is hoping to get out of his squad, now that he has spent a small fortune bringing his own band together over the summer.”
What has he been smoking, and where can you buy it?
The Mooch is playing the kind of stuff you could see every day if you went down to a red-ash secondary school pitch.
A fluid interchangeable attacking unit? Good God, he really has swallowed the BealeBall nonsense whole, hasn’t he?
There is nothing to indicate that the Ibrox manager would even know where to start in building a team to do that … and to use Jurgen Klopp as the comparison makes Jackson sound like what he is; a prize dolt.
I don’t see any sign that The Mooch is attempting to create any such thing.
In fact, if you look at how they played last season and how they’ve played in pre-season – no difference whatsoever – you see very clearly that he has built a team based on brute force and in roughing up the opposition. Everything they did at the weekend was based on that approach.
Celtic had a recognised style under Ange.
What Jackson has attempted to describe doesn’t even fit the definition of a recognised style; that’s more like players wandering aimlessly and doing what they please.
To do what he’s actually talking about requires footballers several degrees of magnitude better than anything Ibrox is able to purchase.
And anyway; an “attacking unit which is almost impossible to predict” is a goal so unrealistic for a manager with so little experience that it’s chasing unicorns even with an unlimited budget.
He isn’t remotely capable of plotting that out or making it happen. He came to the SPFL because he thought it was an easy gig, not because he thought it was a good place to attempt to re-write the Football Tactics Bible. The very idea of it is laughable.
They are a club which lives in a fantasy world, so it’s not a great surprise that fantastical solutions to their problems are what Jackson is pushing here.
His own doubts that The Mooch can pull this off are not too thinly disguised. He has serious reservations. He knows the difference between talking about something and executing it and he sees with his own eyes that there is a huge gap between the bluster and the reality.
He hasn’t yet gotten to the point of contemplating the consequences if The Mooch can’t pull it off, especially when he’s been given so much money, but Celtic fans are entitled to watch with wry amusement as he and others ratchet up the pressure.
I suspect that it’s already obvious to some of the people inside and outside Ibrox that this is already unravelling.
As I said this morning, Gary Keown, although not the sharpest tool on the box, has raised a very interesting point about The Mooch not being the current board’s man, and so there’s already a dotted line around his neck on all those team photos … it might not take much until they invite him in to discuss his position.
Don’t expose the Ibrox manager too much, the longer he’s there the bigger the disaster will be.
Hands off the Mooch. The Mooch must stay.
Utter bollocks, sheer pish and pure shite to appease the gullibillies; by far the stupidest fans in football.
Rumours have it that the onion bears and other klan members are ready to get the marches and protests in place come Saturday should the champions league result and the result against Livi go wrong.
I could be wrong here but didn’t killie have 9 new player there on sat there was a fair chunk of them on the park,,they all seemed to do what sevco couldn’t (score) and defend,, a reckon it’s beginning to look like pedro all over again for them,, sit back and enjoy and watch it unfold
One wonders where Mr Jackson got such insight into Beale’s proposed team formation and tactics? He didn’t get it by running the rule over the new signings I’ll wager and he most certainly didn’t get it by watching their games so far. So was there a wee phone chat with Mickey to discuss how best to quell the rising panic of the hordes, knowing how gullible they are,they might well have thought this would do it especially with the sneaky wee mention of Jurgen Klopp! (Imagine mentioning Klopp in the same breath as Beale!!) Or is this just a forlorn fantasy of his in the hope that there is actually a method in BealeBall?
FFS, get off the man’s back it was only ‘Opening night stage fright’.
Stoap making a bloody mountain out of a molehill. Oops.
Rome wiznae built in a day and that Papal Guard will take time take gell.
It’ll come good in time.
Well that’s what they’re hoping down the Louden.
?There could be trouble ahead….
Bit,bit Beale knows him. Worked closely together on the under 5’s.
Well, he worked at the same Club. In the same City at nearly the same time.
Give him another few weeks and he’ll be wishing he was back there putting out the bibs and cones and spinning fairy tales about his time in Brazil and managing a Superpower Club in Scotchland.
I’ve been saying all weekend that he’ll be gone before the clocks change. They’ll end up replacing him with the St Mirren manager – the only coach that the further impoverished Sevco will be able to afford who is capable of turning this lame collection of unemployed nightclub doormen that Pete Beale has brought into something approaching the robust, tough team that he envisaged. I can hardly wait! It will be fun watching him unspool, Caixinha-style, over the coming weeks…..
in the sixty,s up in the Garngad behind
the wee Rock school ,the black ash pitches we used to play that type of football it was big blooter up the park and charge then after getting lifted over at Celtic Park and seeing what football looked like now if me and most of the boys could see how football should get played i.e. using the players in the midfield passing and go surely the klan could have made an insight to how the game gets played its no rocket science, so as one of the guys has already said the Mooch must stay .
James can you get this FAKE NEWS story checked out about Sillyman and that compo sevco supposedly got for him,especially the 10% sell on clause for sevco as well.
This needs addressed once and for all,maybe you could use some proper contacts for this it would be much appreciated.
If you learned that the Rangers head bummers were scouring the globe for a new head coach as of yesterday , would you be surprised ? I know that I would not be in the slightest ! Imagine spending over £10 million sovs on a new set of players (allegedly of course ) and you cannot out wit the biggest fraud in Scottish football (McInnes) at his own game ? It’s the old dum de dum dum dummmmmm time , innit !
Jackson must have gotten that nonsense from some of his rangers pals passed to them by someone playing football manager if that game even exists any more.
I coached boys football, couple of teams over a ten year period and the one principle you must have in coaching tactics is this. You can only base your tactics and shape around the abilities of the players you have. Quite frankly he has brought in for the most part players the selling clubs wanted to see the back of whether for lack of ability or attitude.
Post I have questioned a few times on this blog, has he even replaced the quality of the guys who moved out? I haven’t seen it. Brutal against the greeks, brutal on Saturday I hear.
If they are knocked out of CL, Beale will follow shortly after. They may have a major fight on their hands for 2nd place this term. HH
James Forrest is one of the finest commentators on Scottish football. Total respect.
They cant even comment remotely honestly where criticism is concernee. It either has to be, in this case , dressed up with wishful thinking or willing blindness about what is planned , intented or achievable, orin other instances criticism is dished out only if Celtic too can be dragged into it . Pathetic stuff. Typical of the cowardice that permeates the Scottish game when it comes to dealing with that club
I was struck by this passage from the opening paragraph:
“He’s been around this place long enough now over two spells to know that there is no room afforded to calm and reasoned logic.”
They are in a constant state of panic and panic causes one to make rash decisions. All through the summer the media were spreading rumours which were meant to unsettle Celtic but now they are beginning to see where the real panic is. Ibrox.
So they have turned the guns on themselves and it could get ugly if Celtic pull further ahead. I reckon the Bhoys will win the title comfortably while seeing Beale off before Xmas.
Had a wee laugh intae my frosties , as well as cringin right enough, wi jackson’s ‘expert tactical analysis’. Can feel the despair creepin in. The guy’s an arse.
Just in case Beale’s not aware, finishing second to Celtic in the SPL is like finishing last in the Glasgow goldfish bowl. And further more, this Celtic team under Brenden Rogers is aiming higher. All you have to do is pay attention to what the manager is doing to a treble winning team. Already a central defender in Carl Starfelt who was a regular for Postecoglou is on his way out, as is Joe Hart. The Celtic manager has got the Champions League on his mind because he’s tightening up this side at the back which was suspect. So this guy Beale has a mountain to climb if he’s hoping to win anything in Scotland this year. The invincible’s springs to mind, watch this space.