Standing ovation please, folks, for the brilliant guys on the E-Tims podcast last night. I do love to listen to these guys when they are on their game, and this week they are really on their game. Their podcast on the match at the weekend is brilliant and everyone should listen to it, because these boys understand football and speak intelligently about it.
But these guys do more than talk about the games. They talk about the issues which relate to the games, and they have sharp analytical minds which can get to the heart of a matter as well as anyone in Celtic cyberspace, and their observations nearly always make me go “Ahh … yes.” One from last night’s podcast stands out an absolute mile.
Regular readers will know that I lamented the booing of the team after the St Johnstone game; I was so focussed on the booing that I didn’t focus on the bigger picture. And the bigger picture was our manager standing alongside his players on an afternoon where he must have known that the reception was going to be frosty to say the least.
I wonder if he said to them, on the way back into the dressing room, “They are booing me, not you. A little residue of anger still, from the way I left.” I have no idea. That’s a bit of blue-sky theorising on my part.
What I learned last night was that Rodgers was there with the players the whole way, standing by their sides, making sure they know that at Celtic there is a collective effort, that everyone is in it together. That’s massive. That’s good man management.
Where that becomes important is in the E-Tims boys observation of how The Mooch behaved at the weekend.
He went straight up the tunnel. There was no standing by his players, there was no acknowledging the fans. He abandoned his footballers to the savage response of the crowd. It was the complete antithesis of leadership, and you have to wonder if that has gone over well in their dressing room. It was a cowardly act … and a selfish one.
But then, as they pointed out, that’s who this guy is. A thoroughly selfish man, a man who got his current job by undermining the last manager. For reasons known only to himself, The Mooch is an extraordinarily arrogant individual, and I have long thought that everything about this Ibrox team can be explained when you start from that basic position.
The idea of him abandoning his players to what he was well aware would be a hostile crowd is almost unforgivable for a manager. Players know they cannot trust you to have their back when you behave like that, and even those who knew him from Gerrard’s time at the club must have been appalled by that. That creates real, long term dressing room issues.
It really is over for this guy, and as the E-Tims guys pointed out, if he gets sacked from this job, and this quickly, having spent all this money that’s his “managerial” career over. He will, as the lads pointed out, forever be known as a mere coach; that will be the limit of the jobs he is offered from here on in. They wondered why, with this level of risk, he was willing to leave QPR in the first place, as it was never going to be a job with this much pressure.
And this is where I think I can fill in the blanks for these guys, because this is like one of those puzzles where two people hold a different part of the clue.
The Mooch wanted the Ibrox job because he believes that Scottish football is an easy environment to succeed in; in his mind, you only have to beat one team, and he really does believe it’s that simple … and those who are still trying to work out his tactics and cannot believe that they are as piss-poor as I make out should reconsider that view in light of this. Because he thinks winning in Scotland is perfectly possible with those 1980’s long balls.
Everything that man does and has done flows from an arrogant belief that Scottish football can be easily conquered, that if you can find a way to beat Celtic a couple of times a season that they will erect statues and paint wall murals of you forever more. He thinks being The Man at Ibrox is just a matter of waiting until a Celtic boss gets a better offer or our players head for pastures new. He reckons that if we drop the ball just once he can walk away with the prize.
But Scottish football is way tougher than that, and better men than he is, and better managers too, have found the spotlight of managing in Glasgow way too hot to endure for long. He will be very lucky to make it until Christmas and I strongly suspect that it will be nothing to do with Europe but the teams he has so causally written off – the Aberdeen’s, the Hib’s, the Heart’s, who will send this joker homeward to think again.
I suspect too that many of the players at Ibrox will not miss him at all. Indeed, Keith Jackson wrote, and then conveniently forgot, that The Mooch was not that popular amongst the players the first time he was at Ibrox either … and there’s more than a whiff of arrogance about the way he’s gone about throwing guys like Kamara and Sakala on the scrapheap although they were amongst the most technically gifted players at the club.
This guy’s brute force football is on a par with his brute force people skills. If the E-Tims boys have it right, and not for the first time I’d bet on it, the problems over there are much bigger than they appear on the surface. That place is a volcano, ready to blow.
You can listen to the latest, excellent, E-Tims podcast right here.
Imo his whole team shouldve disappeared up the tunnel along wi him right away, same as ah couldnae see any benefit in our team walkin round the pitch after the St.J. game. Tho Beale’s whole persona before Sundays game, hearin him on the radio and tv that mornin, was of sheer, smug confidence. So far up his own arse he couldnae hide it. The disrespect he showed GVB, was just a clue what this guy was all about. Amazin how quick they turn tho. From strategic mastermind in the makin, tae bein just about handed his jacket in 90 mins. It’s amazin stuff.
You’re right, James. All his “tactics” actually make sense if you look at them as being solely geared towards beating the Celtic team of February to June 2023. He just assumes that’s all that matters, because the other games will just take care of themselves somehow. The funniest part is the one team he is set up (in his mind) for no longer exists.
The guy is a complete fool and an arrogant one at that. Long may he reign.
The PRESSURE is now on him there can be no more slip-ups in the league one drawn game one lost game he will be gone tattie bye.
And then there is the Europa league games to take on,the klan fan base have themselves winning that group so even finishing second and still going through won’t be enough for them so as I said at the top of this post he is gone P45.
Things have gone quiet on the DRUG RUNNER POUNDLAND Escobar wee Davie MARTINJAIL.
He must be due a special guest star appearance soon in the papers and on the sevco podcasts trying on a pair brown brogues,watch this space.
Anyone with an ounce of sense or discrimination would realise within 5 minutes of listening to this fraud that he is an utter chanty wrassler.
The zombies, however are soooo dumb that they couldn’t see it, given their tendency to believe everything they’re told.
COWARD
They should not have survived the first eruption. Criminal Scotland gave them a helping hand and many suffered because of it. Hopefully the 2nd eruption kills them off, for the greater benefit of Scottish football as a whole.
If the sevco players have seen the video of Beale scurrying up that tunnel ASAP,
initially they might have laughed, or felt embarrassed for him?
…and then they’d get angry?
Beale must have lost respect within his own squad for doing a runner! 🙂
Another 10 days of zombie on zombie fighting it is glorious in the boozer last night they were all still going mental I nearly busted my hernia in hilaraty long may it continue
So…as an aside Mr f, a wonderful result for the ladies away from home in the UEFA cup against Brondby. Now where are all these stories that you said you would impart thereof.
Trying – in vain – at the moment to find a full time Women’s Team writer my friend.
I will get one. I am determined to.
A really telling sign that he’s cracking under the strain was the way he responded to a question about the money he’d spent post match – he broke ranks and made it clear that the amounts of money quoted as paid for the likes of Danilo were “nowhere near as high” as the figures quoted in the papers. Why the smoke screen? Why the need to make Rangers seem like bigger spenders than they are? Even he (Mooch) is getting fed up with the compliant media inflating their values etc! The thing I find funniest of all though is that the same Rangers fans who think they can spot a player and were singing the praises of Dessers and other recently purchased diddies, now realise they were wrong. Fans are fickle but Rangers fans are very quick to jump from one extreme to the other depending on results against us. Their problem in Eindhoven wasn’t their defence, it was that they never offered anything in attack. In the first half, they had one solitary shot at goal compared to about 17 shots by PSV. The zombies were actually very well organised and made themselves difficult to breakdown with their usual counter-attacking hopes and expectations. In the second half, having lost that goal ten minutes before halftime, they then had to try to actually play the game to get back into it and that’s when they got slaughtered. Rangers play a fearful game. A cautious game of resolute defending but these are no longer the days of Albert’s, Gascoigne or Laudrup where they represented a serious threat on the counter-attack. This current Rangers team are devoid of ideas attacking.
Hype when he was appointed that he was previously a coach CV in Brazil, no less. Only to find out it was under 12s or so….lol Primary school age.When I was 12 , the school janny ran the football in most of the schools.
Consequently Moleinho’ s previous experience, is similar to the guy in charge of the saw dust and milk cartons..
The SMM never learn
Some managers might be drawn to a league if say it had accommodating officials and lax anti doping laws
Is that a possibility in world football
Was one of the most glorious sights I’ve ever seen in football, in making the scum players doing a lap of honor to such an abusive baying zombie mob, letting there feelings know for all to see.
Surely has to rank right up there, for actions of throwing your players under the bus while the manager is driving it.
The shepherd leading his lambs to the sacrificial slaughter, while nowhere to be seen.
Players long ago, stopped responding to such an approach with being so robotic in playing to plans and orders given.
Moleman is possibly one of the most arrogant, egotistical, snidey prick, of such a horrible individual to come into Scottish football in recent times, and that takes some doing, yet the scum love to attract the likes.
The moleman actually thought he was walking into the scum shit hole as some sort of saviour, with his head stuck so far up his own arse, explains for the shite he loved to spout, to total thicks that were lapping up every word.
Tells you all you need to know about about hun culture, feed them shite and they will eat it.
For the moleman, this now is his crap team, so the blame game can’t be played, and the throwing of shite under a bus will clog up the wheels of the scum mechine, and the passengers chocking with the stink being caused.
Personally think the moleman has done a fantastic job, with potentially leaving the scum in financial ruin and was hoping a new contract was heading his way for doing such a wonderful job?
i too wondered why he would give up a job in england where he would be in the shop window for bigger jobs and came to the conclusion that with almost a penalty per game , opponents having perfect goals chopped off and having players sent off made it easier for him to win a league and con one of the bigger clubs down south come in for him with a massive payoff before he was found out , like slippy , add to that when yer rubbing shoulders with the like beaton and other watering holes swoping dodgy hand shakes anything is possible
He’s a clown James!
So Beale had tunnel vision on Sunday then…
He certainly did when he did his moonlight flit from Queens Park Rangers to the deceased (c. 2012) Glasgow Rangers !
Ell’ mend im’ !
Scottish football is largely in terms of winning the title about beating one other team. The rest of the league is way poorer than it was say even 20!years ago. So at Ibrox as long as you are good enough to usually beat hearts or Aberdeen hibs etc the title will be close …..it will come down to four games. This I believe is why the ticket fiasco started. They were fed up with us celebrating at Ibrox and worked out if you build a team to beat the other teams and pack Ibrox with 50000 Bears then you have a better chance of winning two derbies at Ibrox. It’s simple really.
The mooch to me thinks he is the wonder kid from Ted Lasso.
Its plainly obvious.
It’s only one game. If they sack him now, the Ibrokes board will look utterly desperate. I think everybody and their granny thought PSV would beat the huns convincingly. Well no surprises there. We only beat them 1-0 remember, and l don’t think Beale,s a rotten manager. I certainly don’t think he’s a world beater, but not rotten. Don’t forget our 0-0 home game against St Johnstone. We haven’t exactly set the heather alight ourselves, have we? Imagine if we had been shouting for Rodgers head the day after that game. Okay, the huns got knocked out of the Champions League by a half decent team, but we got knocked out the League Cup by a rotten team. Yes, Rodgers will turn things around, but l haven’t seen anything near where Ange had the team so far. We all need to calm down.