MANAGERS are judged on two things – results and transfers. Get both right and you are a genius. Get both wrong and you are out of a job.
It is either good buy or goodbye. Simple as that. The old transfer merry-go-round got one last spin for the season in midweek and, as ever, there were a few signings that were more than just a shade interesting.
Kevin Thomson to Rangers from Hibs for £2million. Paul Hartley (left) to Celtic from Hearts for £1.2m. Shaun Maloney from Celtic to Aston Villa for £1m.
And, it seems, about half of Lithuania to Hearts!
I said here a fortnight ago that I was a bit puzzled as to why Thomson and Scott Brown seemed joined at the hip.
If you bought one it appeared you had to by the other.
But Walter Smith separated the players – for now, anyway. I realise there is still talk of Brown joining his old mate at Ibrox in the summer with figures of between £3m and £4m being bandied about.
That’s a lot of money for a youngster who was at Rangers as a kid and allowed to move on.
Thomson is a talented player, no doubt about it.
He has loads of skill and will bring class to any midfield.
Don’t look for him chipping in with a lot of goals, though. I
believe he has scored only three in his entire career and, intriguingly, two have been against Celtic! Hartley reminds me a wee bit of Bertie Auld. Celtic signed my old pal back in 1964 for a princely sum of £12,000 from Birmingham City.
At the time it looked as though he was being brought in merely to add a bit of experience to a squad called the Kelly Kids after the late chairman Sir Robert Kelly.
There were youngsters such as Billy McNeill, Jimmy Johnstone, Bobby Murdoch, Tommy Gemmell and Bobby Lennox coming along. They needed someone to help guide them.
Bertie, in Glasgow parlance, was as gallus as they come. He played his football with a fair degree of swagger.
There was no way this guy was going to be a bit-part player.
A year after coming back he was scoring two goals as Celtic beat Dunfermline 3-2 in the Scottish Cup Final – their first piece of
silverware in seven years – and two seasons after that he was the man of the match as the club
lifted the European Cup in Lisbon.
So there’s a lot for Hartley to live up to!
The player has said that he will be hated by Rangers fans for
turning down advances from their club but, as I have always said, that’s no bad thing.
The day the opposition support starts cheering you, then you know you are not doing your job properly.
As it happens, I don’t think it will bother Hartley too much about getting stick from the
opposition. He must be used to it by now!
Maloney to Aston Villa? Martin O’Neill could have waited until the end of the season and got him for nothing, but he preferred to spend £1m. If my figures are accurate, that’s £9m the former Celtic boss has put into the Parkhead side’s coffers this season after his
earlier purchase of Stilian Petrov. He’s buying players he knows well. Graeme Souness obviously kept tabs on what was happening at his old club Rangers and brought in the likes of Jean-Alain Boumsong, Barry Ferguson and Tugay. O’Neill must have similar thoughts too. To be fair, Shaun Maloney is not going to turn
Villa’s season around and he could have played the waiting game.
They are out of the FA Cup and it looks as though a mid-table place is the best they can hope for.
But at least he has done the
decent thing and shelled out a few quid for the player.
Now we can all settle back and see how all the new guys perform. Good buys or goodbyes? All will be revealed in the coming months.
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CAN it be true that referees need an operation to have every morsel of common sense removed before they are handed their whistles and red and yellow cards?
I ask after Iain Brines’s sending-off of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink following his last-minute winner for Celtic at Caley last week.
The Dutchman had already been booked for querying a decision by the ref who, as TV pictures showed, clearly got it wrong.
Then the big striker went to a section of Celtic fans behind the goal to celebrate his winner.
Okay, technically, that can be seen as inciting rival supporters.
AC Milan in the San Siro, maybe. But Caley Thistle in the Highlands? Give me a break!
If the match official had kept his card in his pocket, no one – and I mean no one – would have been bothered enough to complain.
But he had to play to the letter of the law and order off a player guilty of no more than showing
delight after netting a fine goal.
I’ve already said it in the past and no doubt I’ll say it again in the future – the problem with common sense is it is not that common.
I’m sticking with Hibs
A MONTH or so ago I tipped John Collins to lift the CIS Cup and I don’t see any reason to change my mind now.
Collins’s Hibs, of course, will face Kilmarnock in the final at Hampden on March 18 and I think we could be in for a fairly entertaining encounter.
The Easter Road men will surely recall their last appearance in this tournament’s final – it was against my Livingston side three years ago. Hibs were odds-on favourites, but we refused to follow the script.
We triumphed 2-0 – deservedly so, in just about every neutral’s opinion – and the Edinburgh men looked pig-sick at the end. They learned a harsh lesson that afternoon.
I’m sure they won’t make the same mistake this time round.
Roy’s the boy for SFA
I HEARTILY applaud the decision by the SFA to bring Roy Aitken into their new management structure alongside Alex McLeish and Andy Watson.
Okay, I am slightly biased because Roy was my captain at Celtic and I also bought him from Newcastle when I was boss at St Mirren. He has had some health problems to overcome in recent times but, take it from me, this guy is no quitter.
Actually, when you look at it, the SFA have really replaced like with like. Walter Smith, Ally McCoist and Tommy Burns have all moved on. Two guys with a Rangers background and one with a Celtic link.
Now we’ve got former Rangers boss McLeish and his Ibrox No.2 Watson and ex-Parkhead skipper Aitken in the dug-out.
The more things change, the more they stay the same!
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TWO of my old clubs, Celtic and Livingston, meet in the Scottish Cup at Almondvale this afternoon. And it’s hard to see past Gordon Strachan’s side. I think they got a wake-up call when they went out at the first hurdle against Clyde last year. They learned that hard lesson and put out a full-strength team against Dumbarton in the previous round and won 4-0. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a similar scoreline today.
WILLIE ORMOND looked at the players in front of him and said: "Stand proud - don't dare let anyone down. You are all just 90 just minutes away from becoming legends."
That was back on September 26, 1973 and we were just about to take to the Hampden pitch for a make-or-break World Cup qualifier against Czechoslovakia.
I would imagine Alex McLeish may say something similar to his troops on Saturday before we face Italy. The parallels are there for all to see. Scotland, 34 years ago, hadn't qualified for the World Cup Finals for 16 long, miserable years.
Scotland of today haven't been involved in a major finals of any sort since the World Cup in France in 1998. Now we can call a halt to almost a decade of failure by overturning the Italians.
It's a one-off game. We don't have to bother with permutations or suchlike.
Goal difference doesn't come into it Win and we are through.
Simple as that.
That's what we faced, too, back in 1973. I sat in the dressing room surrounded by players such as my boyhood hero Denis Law, Billy Bremner, Danny McGrain, Jim Holton, Kenny Dalglish and Sandy Jardine and we absolutely believed we could win.
We didn't under-estimate a Czech team that would go on and win the European Championship in 1976, beating world champs West Germany on penalties in the final.
They were a class outfit but we gave every ounce of energy we had that stirring night in Glasgow.
We even gifted them the opening goal before coming back to level through Holton and then grab the winner through a young Joe Jordan, coming on as a sub for Dalglish.
I thought my heart was about to explode at the final whistle.
I can tell the present lot it is a feeling that will live with them forever if they succeed on Saturday.
And Glasgow is hardly a happy hunting ground for the Italians - they have never won there in three attempts.
That record stretches back to 1965 when John Greig netted a lastminute winner at a packed Hampden Park.
There have been two draws since - a goalless encounter at Ibrox in 1993 and last year's 1-1 stalemate at the national stadium.
History will go out of the window on Saturday. All that will matter is how Alex McLeish's men perform on the big day.
It's going to be a confrontation where every single player must be totally dedicated - just as we were in 1973.
This is NOT Mission Impossible against the best team in the world.
You only have to look at Celtic's win over reigning European kings AC Milan at Parkhead to see what can be achieved if you believe.
And I am certain Big Eck will work overtime in installing that self-belief all week.
He already deserves an enormous amount of credit for how he raised his team for the encounter against France in Paris in September.
As he strode on to the pitch that night he looked confident and comfortable. That aura gets through to players. It's an old cliche, but that Hampden crowd can get the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end. Believe me, I have savoured some fabulous moments at that famous old ground.
None better than the evening of April 15, 1970 when Celtic played Leeds in the European Cup semifinal.
A record crowd of 136,505 turned out and there was no way we were going to lose.
We won, of course. And the fans played their part. In the words of old Scotland boss Willie Ormond three years later, we knew we dare not let anyone down.
I'm confident that spirit, with a packed Hampden behind them, will prevail among the players against the world champions.
Go get 'em, Scotland!
IF I'm correct, the players shared what was called at the time a "fantastic" £250,000 for reaching the 1974 World Cup Finals. That's about a fortnight's wages for John Terry!
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IT'S amazing that Aberdeen haven't scored more than one goal in European competitions since 1996.
I believe they had a great chance to rectify that situation in the 1-1 draw on Thursday. Lokomotiv Moscow keeper Ivan Pelizzoli looked like a bit of a flapper.
But to get a point against such excellent opposition is not a failure.
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RANGERS should not be too downhearted after their 2-0 loss in Barcelona.
But it does underline the progress they have made under Walter Smith that they are on the brink of the last 16.
A year ago they were losing 2-0 to St Johnstone in the CIS Cup at Ibrox. Chalk and cheese!
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CELTIC know what they have to do to reach the last 16 - beat Shakhtar Donetsk by three clear goals.
I realise that Benfica could still scupper that by winning their remaining two games and then it could come down to goal difference with the head-to-heads between the clubs identical.
But I don't see that happening.
Celtic fans won't thank me for pointing this out, but my old team have never scored a goal against a side from Milan in Glasgow in four attempts.
A frightening statistic, isn't it?
Master of understatement or what? So that's the daunting news for Celtic as they prepare for the Champions League encounter with AC Milan.
Amazingly, the Hoops have played AC three times in Glasgow and Inter once over the years and have yet to break down the famous Italian barriers.
Now that's a helluva lot of minutes without getting a goal in front of your own fans.
I can recall Jock Stein's great side getting a goalless draw against AC Milan in the San Siro in 1968 and we believed we had an excellent chance of getting through.
What happened?
One defensive slip and Piero Prati went clean through to slide the ball past John Fallon and that was game over.
Three years later Celtic got another scoreless draw at the San Siro - this time against Inter - and couldn't get that much-needed breakthrough goal in the second leg.
Penalty-kicks were called for after extra-time and, of course, Dixie Deans missed one.
They scored all five and it was European oblivion once again for my old club.
AC got another goalless draw in 2004 and repeated the feat, of course, last season before Kaka scored that wonderful solo goal in extratime in the second leg to put the Italians through and, of course, they went onto lift the coveted prize.
However, please don't call me a prophet of doom and gloom - let's be positive.
The good news is that if you believe in the law of averages then something has to give.
And let's hope that is Wednesday night.
You can be sure it is going to be another pulsating, enthralling European adventure in front of a sellout crowd.
Forget all the talk about the Italians being intimidated by a Celtic support in full voice.
Surely those frightening statistics from the past underline emphatically that is not the case.
So, how will it go? Milan haven't got off to the best of starts domestically, but I wouldn't be surprised if it ended in a draw. Nil-nil? Possibly - AGAIN!
Twenty-four hours before the Parkhead clash, Rangers go into action against Lyon in France.
I predicted Walter Smith's side would beat Stuttgart and I believe they can return from this one with a draw.
That wouldn't be a bad result at all.
IT'S fair to say that Celtic quitting Barrowfield has been long overdue.
New players would almost faint when they saw the bleak conditions when they turned up for their first day of training.
Yes, I know older fans will say it was good enough conditions for the team to conquer Europe in 1967.
But this is the 21st century. Players need and deserve better facilities to give their best.
That's just the way it is nowadays - it's called progress So the £8million that Celtic have invested in the smart new complex at Lennoxtown will, I'm sure, prove to be money well spent.
HEARTS MUST FIND SOME CONSISTENCY
Which Hearts side will turn up at Love Street to face St Mirren today?
Erratic doesn't even come close to descibing their displays in recent times. A 4-2 win over Rangers followed by a 2-1 defeat at Inverness Caley Thistle and then a sound 4-1 CIS Cup victory over Dunfermline. So, it all depends on how the heads of Anotoly Korobochka's side are working but I'm going for a Hearts win.
HOOPS SHOULD GET KEV DEAL DONE NOW
I WAS impressed by Dundee's Kevin McDonald's display against Celtic in the CIS Cup in midweek.
I would say that is as good a performance from a teenager that I have seen in many a year. Yes, it was THAT good.
Celtic have been linked with him in the past and I would now say they should step up their efforts to try again.
It could even be beneficial to get the deal done in January and leave the midfielder at Dundee until the end of the season.
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ABERDEEN may have been fairly satisfied with their goalless draw against Dnipro at Pittodrie.
But I can't see anything but a removal from the UEFA Cup for the Dons in the Ukraine on Thursday.
I would love to be proved wrong but if Aberdeen do manage a victory it will be a result akin to what Sir Alex Ferguson achieved with the club in the 80s.
I don't think so, though. Sorry, Dons fans.
I HAVE lost count of the amount of times I have been asked the same question: "How on earth did Celtic lose the 1970 European Cup Final against Feyenoord?"
We were absolute certainties to lift the trophy for the second time in three years and, in a lot of eyes, the Dutch were just there to make up the numbers.
After all, we had beaten Leeds United home and away in the semi-finals and, remember, they were being called the best team in the WORLD - not just Europe at the time.
So, and I make no excuse for saying this, maybe we were just a wee bit over confident that evening in the San Siro. In the end we got what we deserved - nothing.
I have often insisted we would have beaten Feyenoord if it had gone to a replay.
There were no penalty kicks 37 years ago and we were only three minutes away from a second game - and a second chance - when Ove Kindvall netted and gave them a 2-1 extra-time triumph. I recall all this, of course, just to illustrate how important Europe is to fans.
Old Firm supporters always have high expectation levels and they don't come any higher than those big European nights.
That is where Celtic and Rangers want to perform. These are the occasions where the players with genuine quality and ambition want to strut their stuff.
Gordon Strachan takes his side to the Ukraine to meet old foes Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday while Walter Smith's outfit square up to Stuttgart 24 hours later at Ibrox. By all accounts, Shakhtar have been spending heavily in rebuilding a side that beat Celtic 3-0 just three years ago.
They didn't hesitate in writing a £15million cheque for Mexican frontman Nery Castillo from Olympiakos.
That's just about double what Gordon has spent on bringing in Scott Brown, Massimo Donati, Scott McDonald and Chris Killen.
In fact, it's more than Walter has splashed in the summer and he has brought in 13 players.
But let's remain positive and take some heart from the fact Shakhtar have sold Brazilian playmaker Matuzalem to Zaragoza.
He was immense against Celtic in that one-sided rout in Donetsk.
He bossed the game and, in all honesty, Martin O'Neill and his side simply could have no complaints at the end of a dismal evening. But just look at the changes at Parkhead since October 20, 2004 and that torrid 90 minutes.
Only three players are still at the club from the 14 who were used that evening - Bobo Balde, Stephen McManus and Aiden McGeady.
O'Neill and his backroom staff have gone and they have been followed out the door by - take a deep breath for this - David Marshall, Stan Varga, Jackie McNamara, Didier Agathe, Neil Lennon, Stilian Petrov, Chris Sutton, Ross Wallace, Juninho, John Hartson and Henri Camara.
Remarkable! So, you can't really use the last game as a barometer.
Prediction? A draw and a point would be more than acceptable. Obviously, Rangers will want to do well in their home games.
It will be very difficult to get anything on their travels to Barcelona, Stuttgart and Lyon.
But the Ibrox men are set up these days not to throw caution to the wind and that was underlined in their goalless draw in Belgrade last month.
However, I believe they have enough firepower to win in midweek. They have a good record against German teams at Ibrox and I'm taking them to get three points.
Okay, they suffered their first SPL defeat of the season yesterday but they can bounce back.
DUNDEE UNITED skipper Barry Robson may consider a course in anger management after his shameful actions last week.
What a pity the midfielder lost the plot against Celtic and got sent off once the red mist descended.
He was having a fine game until he head-butted Lee Naylor.
It is to the Hoops defender's eternal credit that he didn't do a dying swan act and stayed on his feet. How many times have we seen a guy hitting the turf like he has just been shot after the merest brush with an opponent?
Robson, in my opinion, is a very under-rated player but he doesn't do his image or reputation any good when he gets involved in acts of crass stupidity.
Okay, he apologised to Naylor afterwards but, of course, it should never have happened in the first place.
His manager Craig Levein has admitted Barry has to do something about his fiery temperament and you have to hope the player takes this on board.
United will now be without one of their key players in the run-in to the season and that's not clever.
Barry Robson is only 28 and could still have a great career. But he will have to keep the head.
Or, at least, keep it out of other players' faces!
SCOTTISH Cup semi-final weekend is looming with Celtic facing St Johnstone at Hampden on Saturday and Hibs taking on Dunfermline a week today.
The progress of the First Division Saints and the SPL strugglers from Fife has been remarkable. I believe Owen Coyle, the Perth boss, can become a top manager.
He didn't go over the top earlier in the season when St Johnstone knocked out Rangers from the CIS Cup, one of the results I am sure helped ease Paul Le Guen out the door at Ibrox.
Coyle didn't start shouting his mouth off about what they were going to do in the tournament either. There were no crazy predictions.
He didn't try to belittle Rangers. He showed a lot of class and composure.
Can he see off the other half of the Old Firm in another Cup competition? Not this time, Owen, I'm afraid. Certainly, Celtic have gone off the boil and that can happen when a competitive edge is taken away.
However, Gordon Strachan wouldn't mind lifting the Scottish Cup to add to the title. He will well remember his first-ever game in charge of Celtic in the national competition. Well, how could he forget it?
Clyde 2 Celtic 1 - on Roy Keane's debut for the club!
Making it even worse was the fact that my old club had won the trophy twice in two successive seasons leading up to that Broadwood collapse. So he will be determined to put that right and I am sure he will. There is no way that he will under-estimate St Johnstone and I'm convinced there is no cup catastrophe round the corner this time.
What about another of my former clubs, Dunfermline? They've been struggling since day one in the Premier League yet they are now only 90 minutes away from an appearance in a final.
Astonishing.
You can't say they have had it easy getting to this stage, either. They've knocked out Rangers, holders Hearts and Partick Thistle en route to Hampden - that's very impressive.
Is this a game too far against the CIS Cup winners? Hibs have been blowing hot and cold and I am sure John Collins will have learned a thing or two in his six months in charge.
I'm going for Hibs to make it a Green Party Final at Hampden on May 26
RANGERS have six games to go to make certain they claim second spot and a place in next season's Champions League qualifiers.
I'm tipping them to see off nearest challengers Aberdeen to achieve their goal. The Dons only have themselves to blame - they are the only club not to have taken a solitary point off the Ibrox men this season.
Rangers play St Mirren at Love Street today and I believe they will get all three points but it will be tight, that's for sure.
The Saints are hardly in the comfort zone in the league and are scrapping for anything they can get.
Rangers weren't too convincing in last week's 1-1 draw at home to 10-man Inverness Caley Thistle who, remarkably, have taken eight out of a possible nine points off them during the current campaign.
What Aberdeen would give for that tally.
But lessons will surely have been learned and that should make certain there are no slip-ups today.
WAS Maurice Malpas correct not to play Scott McDonald against Celtic yesterday? McDonald, of course, will be performing for the Hoops next season and the Motherwell manager was determined not to turn the game at Parkhead into a media circus. Fair enough.
However, that didn't prevent Falkirk boss John Hughes from fielding Alan Gow against Rangers earlier in the campaign in the knowledge his young frontman would be joining up at Ibrox in the summer.
And Hibs still kept Gary Caldwell in their team when they played Celtic last season although their skipper had agreed a pre-contract with Gordon Strachan's side in January. Kirk Broadwood should also be playing for St Mirren today against his next club Rangers.
At the end of the day, it is all down to the manager's judgement. He should know the temperament of his player and how he will react in difficult, even bizarre, circumstances.
PAUL TELFER and Dado Prso won't be at the Old Firm next season and the best of luck to them both in whatever happens next.
Telfer, of course, has just quit Celtic and returned south to be with his family.
Prso will bid farewell to Rangers at the end of the season. Prso was a good bit of business by Alex McLeish who landed him on a Bosman. Injuries have curtailed his progress and, at 32, he's decided enough is enough.
He enhanced our game and, although he only arrived in 2004, the Croatian won an army of admirers - and not just among the Ibrox support.
Both Paul and Dado were good, solid, dependable professionals. The younger players at both clubs will have learned plenty from them. That is why they will both be missed.
SCOTLAND'S stunning victory in Paris was due in a large part to bravery. They had belief in what they were doing and didn't panic. But I am refusing to get carried away by booking my hotel room just yet for the Finals in Austria and Switzerland.
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MARK McGHEE knows a thing or two about football. After all, he must have learned something from the best. As a player he was managed by Sir Alex Ferguson - and me! Mark, who was with Sir Alex at Aberdeen and, of course, myself at Celtic, is a boss in Scotland for the first time.
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ALEC STEWART
THE MOLE