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Scottish Premier League Update

Ali Hannah on the latest from the Scottish Premier League, December 2007

Celtic | Rangers | Scotland

Scotland

It had to happen, but in truth it was the manner of the happening rather than the event itself which left a bitter aftertaste in the mouths of the Scotland fans. First, dreams of qualifying for the European Championships were destroyed in the last minute of a harrowing adventure against Italy after a contentious free-kick and then manager Alex McLeish announced his departure for Birmingham City.

Gary McAllister has ruled himself out of the running for the national job while Mark McGhee, Jim Jefferies and Graeme Souness are among the favourites for the position. McAllister had fancied it when McLeish was appointed but now is looking for a move into club management.

The 57-cap midfielder said: "It was right then, but now I'd be looking for other things. I was very honoured and humbled to be asked along to an interview when Walter went to Rangers.

The thought of international football appealed to me then. It suited my situation, the troubles I've had in my family recently, but now things have moved on and have made things change.

"If I'm going back into football I'd be looking to go into the day-to-day stuff."

Whoever takes over, and there is no rush for the SFA to make an appointment since the World Cup qualifiers do not get underway for another ten months, will find not only the nucleus of a decent squad but also a groundswell of expectation among the Tartan Army.

On paper Scotland have a less arduous task of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup than they did the European Championships but Holland, Macedonia, Iceland and Norway will be no push-overs. Optimism, though, is riding high in a country where genuine hope regarding the national team has been absent for the past decade and there does appear to be a youthful energy about Scotland, something that bodes well for the immediate years.

The reinvention of Alan Hutton has been a remarkable sight. He has evolved from immature spare part at Rangers to a rampaging full-back who was the best man on the park against the World Champions. Sir Alex Ferguson is a known admirer and, if Hutton can eradicate the concentration lapses he is still guilty of, he could be a more than able replacement for the veteran Gary Neville.

Rangers have already received expressions of interest from England for Hutton and may find it difficult to resist offers in the region of £4m in the January transfer window.

Another Scotland player who could be heading to new territory is Darren Fletcher whose lack of club football is affecting his performances at international level. A summer transfer would be no bad thing for Scotland, since it should at least ensure a more regularly match-fit midfield fulcrum. Others from McLeish's squad seem destined for greater things. Stephen McManus has flourished as Celtic captain and while he has shown no inclination to depart, he is developing into a more dependable, less impetuous centre-back.

James McFadden's iconic status is likely to enhance his prospects of a transfer to a club more suitable to his maverick style. Everton's status is such they can ill-afford his sometimes cavalier play. David Moyes regularly praises him as one of the most skilful players at the club, only to describe him as one of the most exasperating. He may yet make his mark in England, but not necessarily at Goodison Park.

Dutch manager Marco van Basten, a keen golfer and a regular at the Dunhill Links Championship in recent years, is looking forward to coming to Scotland and expects to find life tough at Hampden. "I go to Scotland a lot to play golf," he said.

"It's fantastic to go back there for football too. Scotland are very good opponents. They proved that by being involved in the Euros till the last day. It will not be easy." The Dutch, of course, have fond memories of the last time they met Scotland after running out 6-1 aggregate winners in a Euro 2004 play-off. But Van Basten, the legendary former Holland striker, took notice of the Scots' ultimately unsuccessful Euro 2008 campaign.

"I think it is a good draw against teams who have all improved a lot recently," added Van Basten, whose team will also come up against Norway, Macedonia and Iceland in the only five-team pot drawn in Durban. "Scotland were very unlucky not to qualify for the European Championships.

"Norway were also unlucky and only lost out in their penultimate game by losing to Turkey. Iceland is special for me because I made my debut against them. We have played Macedonia before and that will be a difficult game."

Celtic Roundup

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Celtic need a draw in the San Siro against AC Milan if they are to make it into the last 16 of the Champions League for the second successive season. The Parkhead side have a woeful away record in the competition, but their home form remains resolute.

Gordon Strachan’s side have taken nine points out of nine from their three home games against AC Milan, Benfica and Shakhtar Donetsk, but have yet to pick up anything on the road.

There are no pills Celtic can swallow to overcome a condition whose debilitating effects has caused them to rack up 13 defeats and one draw from 14 previous visits to opponents' territory in the group stage of the tournament.

In the course of a typically fluctuating campaign through Group D over the past two months, however, there have been enough curious developments to suggest that the decent odds about Celtic making progress may be justified.

Not that Scott McDonald is deterred, in any case. The Aussie striker believes that Celtic are capable of knocking AC Milan off top spot in the group and has no fear about the trip to Italy. Celtic's final group game is the toughest fixture of the campaign so far, and the Hoops will be returning to the scene of their European exit last season hoping a similar fate does not await them.

Back in March, before McDonald joined from Motherwell, it took Kaka's extra-time solo strike in the second leg to knock out Celtic in the last 16.

Milan are just a point in front of Celtic, and McDonald said: "We have been close many times but we are not going to go there looking for a draw. We're going to go looking for a win. If we win the game we finish top of the section. People might think that is a funny way to look at things but if you ask any player or manager, looking for a draw is playing a dangerous game.

"You have to go out, be positive and hopefully nick a goal.

"We do need to try to stop them because they are at home and have some special players, so it is going to be tough."

McDonald scored the late winner against Milan at Celtic Park earlier in the campaign. If Celtic lose in Milan next Tuesday, Shakhtar would take second place with a home victory over Benfica, but McDonald is being positive.

McDonald said: "When you lose the first one, people write you off. But we always believed we could win our games and we've done it again at 'Fortress Celtic Park' with three wins."

Meanwhile, John Reid, the former Home Secretary, has been officially approved as Celtic's new chairman. Mr Reid was announced as the board's choice for the role in September and, despite some objections from supporters, he was confirmed as Brian Quinn's successor. "I regard this as the greatest honour of my life," he said.

"When you come to this club, you leave the background, religious division, and political division behind. This is not a forum for political debate. I am a member of the Celtic family and a lifelong supporter."

Of those members voting by proxy, 97.85% backed Mr Reid's appointment, however a vocal minority at the meeting condemned the decision to give the job to the 60-year-old, who has also held the roles of Secretary of State for Scotland and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland during his political career. Some fans branded Mr Reid a "war criminal" because of his role in the war in Iraq.

Around one in ten of the hundreds of shareholders in the Kerrydale Suite at Celtic Park voted against the motion endorsing Mr Reid as the successor to the retiring Brian Quinn, while less than 1% of the proxy votes opposed the move.

But before the votes were counted, some shareholders took to the floor to denounce the Labour MP - who was Labour Party chairman and later succeeded Geoff Hoon in defence.

One branded him a "war criminal" and another supporter of 60 years vowed to give up his season ticket. Another claimed his appointment was a "betrayal" of the principles of a club "built on an ethos of compassion and understanding for all people at home and abroad". But lifelong Celtic fan Mr Reid, who will step down as Labour MP for Airdrie and Shotts at the next general election, argued that the club was above party politics.

"People have their own strong views on issues of life and death," Mr Reid said. "Sometimes they will agree with me in helping to resolve the terrible tragedy in Northern Ireland. I'm quite proud that we brought that to an end, I think that would have been worth having a government for on its own. Others will feel angry, opposed to other things, such as the decision to go to war. Sometimes it saves a lot of lives in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, other times it is more difficult.

"The point I'm making is that whatever the merits of that, I do not believe the vast majority of Celtic supporters want that to be debated within Celtic Football Club."

Rangers

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It’s a sign of the feelgood factor in Scottish football at the minute that both halves of the Old Firm need just a draw to make it into the latter stages of Europe’s premier competition. Rangers, like their fiercest rivals, need just a point against Lyon at Ibrox next month to secure their invite to the top table of football’s elite.

Like Celtic, at the very least, they will feature in the UEFA Cup after Christmas. Such a prospect would represent a decent consolation for a Rangers side that has undergone extensive renovation for the second successive summer. Yet at the same time it would also feel like a disappointment for a team who hared their way to the top of Group E with seven points after just three matches. Reaching the knockout stages of Europe's premier tournament remains within Rangers' grasp but as they prepare for a definitive group finale against the French Champions many will feel that they’ve seen this movie before.

Rangers, under Walter Smith, Dick Advocaat and Alex McLeish, have been in this movie before. This, after all, is the team that accumulated eight points in season 2000-01 and still failed to qualify from a group containing AS Monaco, Sturm Graz and Galatasaray. It is the team that, with the exception of the inaugural Champions League campaign in 1992-93, routinely exasperated Smith with untimely malfunctions in Europe but simultaneously surged imperiously towards the record-equalling nine domestic championships in a row.

Just for good measure, this is also the team that gave up the ghost in the annual chase with Celtic in McLeish's final season in charge yet marked his departure with historic qualification for the last 16; a ridiculous turn of events for a team that scraped together seven points and was put together on a shoestring budget.

The 50,000 supporters who will pack Ibrox on December 12 are willing volunteers for another night of nerve-shredding drama. The safety net of entry into the secondary competition would be scant consolation if Rangers fail to record at least one point from their final three matches of the six-game group stage.

Their 3-2 defeat to Stuttgart was inconsequential to the qualification conundrum. Victory, a feat well within Rangers' competitive compass inside the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadion, would nevertheless have removed the layers of tension that will grip Ibrox and left Lyon requiring to score four goals without reply to oust Rangers from second place. Scotland's epic challenge in Euro 2008 qualification Group B is a relevant reminder of how football, in its purist form, can bite back.

Ominously for Smith, Lyon, since their last encounter, have returned to the summit of the French league and were inspired to a 2-2 draw against Barcelona by their brilliant Brazilian playmaker, Juninho.

In contrast, the Rangers manager is left to survey the wreckage of defeat in Stuttgart. DaMarcus Beasley, an impish asset throughout Group E, could be out for the bulk of the season after damaging knee ligaments.

Rangers simply do not possess the conceit or the capability to play for a draw but in setting-out for an odd-goal win in their familiar guise, there is scope for Lyon to render Smith's strategy obsolete with early plunder, just as Barcelona did in Spain.

Further progression would be beyond Smith's remit, and yield a welcome financial windfall, but having come this far, the UEFA Cup does not seem such a palatable alternative.

Looking towards the concluding fixture against Lyon, veteran defender David Weir said: "We have to be realistic. We've still got a great chance. It would have been nice to have finished it on Tuesday night - we're not going to kid ourselves - but we've still got a great chance. It will be a tough game against Lyon because they are a top team but it's one we are looking forward to.

"We know it's not going to be easy but we have got confidence. We've had decent results at Ibrox in the past and it's been a good place for us in the past. So we'll be confident going into it.

"But we know within that that it's going to be very difficult. Every game in the Champions League is but it's one we will look forward to."