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Scottish Premier League Update

Ali Hannah on the latest from the Scottish Premier League, June 2008

Celtic | Rangers | Scotland

Celtic Roundup

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The fat lady cleared her throat. We all heard her. But she didn't sing. Most of us thought she let out a long lusty note on April 5th when Celtic, following their defeat to Rangers, then lost at home to Motherwell.

We looked at a league table showing Rangers six points clear with two games in hand and waded in to write the obituaries for Celtic's defence of the championship. No it seems our ears were playing up.

Celtic went on to make fools of everyone: journalists, media pundits, players, managers and countless supporters of their own club and others who had written them off. As the champions larked around Tannadice on the final Thursday evening of the season on celebration of their remarkable league win, humble pie was on the menu all over Scotland.

Some of those supporters who had chanted for Gordon Strachan to "get tae ****" when Motherwell won were leaping with excitement as they saw the helicopter bringing the league trophy to them on Tayside, just seven matches later. Celtic dead and buried? A Rangers quadruple? It all seemed a long time ago.

Were Stephen McManus to be believed, Strachan must be deserving of an Oscar as well as the other accolades which have come his way since winning his third title out of three. Half an hour after losing that game to Motherwell the manager had faced the press, and the music, and used the phrase "near impossible" when asked to describe the challenge Celtic faced in trying to catch Rangers in the remaining fixtures.

According to McManus it was a different story when he spoke to the players in the privacy of the dressing room. Had he remained optimistic in front of them? "Of course he was," said McManus.

But Strachan had been ashen-faced and utterly miserable in front of the media that afternoon seven weeks ago. Perhaps he put on a brave face when he faced his players, and tried to lift them, but he looked like a man who thought he had lost the league that day.

Most of us did. "I honestly thought it was still on after losing to Motherwell, but I don't think many other people did," said McManus. "We have a strong belief in our group and the manager has installed that in us. "It's nice when people write you off and you go on and prove them wrong. It wasn't newspaper match reports we were using to motivate us, it was more the comments from some ex-people from our place. It blows you away sometimes, the criticism. For a supposedly bang average side with a bang average manager, we've managed to do not too bad."

There remains a widespread and popular notion that Rangers would have won the league had it not been for their UEFA Cup run. Perhaps they would have, but perhaps not. Rangers' failure to win more than one away game against top six opposition revealed a flaw which was prevalent all season, not just when tiredness caught up with them in the closing weeks.

Rangers were hard to beat for much of the season but actually winning didn't always come easy to them. Their supporters will always attempt to demean Celtic's league success by claiming circumstances conspired against them - the same happened when the roles were reversed and Celtic won nothing in the season they reached the Uefa Cup final - but it isn't much consolation.

For Celtic there is the peculiar joy of winning a "helicopter" title. Obliterating the opposition is all well and good - they won the title by 17 and 12 points in Strachan's first two seasons - but Old Firm supporters take a sadistic pleasure when it is close and they claim a title on the final day: tantalising their rivals to the end only to leave them with nothing.

"We always believed we were the best team in the country and you have to give us credit for the way we came back," said McManus' defensive partner, Gary Caldwell. "I think we deserved it in the end. I think it would have been very easy for the manager to jump on the bandwagon and start having a go at us during our bad spell, but he knew we were playing well. "That's the measure of the man. I don't know how he does it, but he deflects all the criticism that comes his way because there's far too much of it and he deals with it tremendously well.

He always believes that he's doing a good job and has got good players. He's a great manager to have. His best quality is the faith he has in his players. It would be quite easy for managers, when things are going wrong and people are having a go, to just drop you or change things around. But he sticks by his players. That's all you can ask of a manager."

The criticisms levelled at Strachan were not obliterated by the title win. Some will maintain that Bobo Balde should have played more often, and that Derek Riordan's talent was left to wither in the shadows. Massimo Donati was another expensive and unsuccessful signing, and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Scott Brown and even Shunsuke Nakamura seemed to be guaranteed starters regardless of form or sharpness, although Brown was latterly dropped towards the end of a disappointing season.

Celtic's team and formation often looked predictable rather than settled. Those complaints are valid but they amount to small scores in an overall picture of effective management. If signing Donati raised questions about Strachan's judgement, then what about Scott McDonald and Barry Robson?

Those two players plucked from the domestic market contributed magnificently and the latter formed an excellent central midfield partnership with an earlier Strachan purchase, Paul Hartley, which galvanised the side for the run-in. Having dropped nine points in their five league games in December, Robson, Georgios Samaras and Andreas Hinkel were added the following month and Celtic - notwithstanding a couple of wobbles including the Motherwell defeat - picked up.

They timed their run as Rangers began to run out of steam and, perhaps, belief. Walter Smith's team won only three of their last nine league games and dropped seven points in the fixtures immediately after their three Uefa Cup ties against Fiorentina and Zenit St Petersburg. That cost them the title.

Rangers

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As he pulls a beer on sits back to relax on a hot beach this summer, Neil Alexander will slowly be able to relive the frantic last few months of a thrilling campaign.

That his thoughts will be somewhat melancholic given the way Rangers lost the UEFA Cup Final and then the SPL title in the space of eight days is inevitable, but there are highs to relive too given his presence for the Ibrox club.

Signed at the end of January and expected to warm the bench, Alexander was thrown in at the deep end when Allan McGregor was injured in the 2-1 defeat to Celtic and missed the remainder of the season.

The trouble is, however, that the 30-year-old has barely had a chance to appreciate the scale of matches he has been involved in recently.

Between his capture from Ipswich Town to the Scottish Cup win over Queen of the South, Gers played on 32 occasions - an average of once every three and a half days.

Included in that run were a trio of derbies with Celtic and nine European ties against Panathinaikos, Werder Bremen, Sporting Clube, Fiorentina and Zenit St Petersburg.

It has been a lot to take in - and Alexander says now is the time for him to finally do it.

"It has been such a busy season," he said. "Before I came here, I had played in all 30 games to that point I had with Ipswich.

"When I arrived at Ibrox, I sat on the bench for a couple of months then was fortunate enough to get into the team and get a run of matches when Allan was injured.

"Each game was like a cup final for me. It was fantastic to be involved and I enjoyed every minute of it.

"Now it is just nice to be able to put my feet up and have a holiday and I'll enjoy looking back at what I've done. I don't think I've had a chance personally to take in what I've been able to do since I arrived at Rangers.

"I've taken part in Old Firm games and started UEFA Cup and Scottish Cup finals. These are the things a lot of people only dream of. It has all been so surreal yet because we've had game after game after game, I haven't had an opportunity to appreciate it so far.

"For the last few months, it has been a case of continually preparing for the next match and I'm looking forward to reflecting on what has been an amazing season for me."

As ankle injury victim McGregor's replacement, Alexander started the final 12 games of the season for Gers and made three other appearances. He barely put a foot wrong in that time either and instilled confidence in the defence which stood before him.

But despite establishing himself in the team latterly, he insists he remains Walter Smith's second-choice keeper and that he'll have his work cut out to dislodge a fit McGregor.

Alexander added: "That is going to be difficult and I know that. When I came here, it was as Allan's number two and I accepted that at the time.

"Nothing has really changed, even though I was fortunate enough to get into the team and get a run of games under my belt.

"As far as I'm concerned, Allan will be the number one goalkeeper when he is fit again and I'm well aware of that.

"Hopefully I've shown the manager what I can do and everyone knows that if I'm ever called upon again in the future, I'll be able to do a job.

"It is up to me to show I'm up to the challenge. I need to come back in pre-season, work hard and push Allan as much as I can."

Rangers' Scottish Cup success came just 41 hours after Gers had missed out on the SPL title at Aberdeen, a result which took so much out of Smith's players.

Yet they somehow lifted themselves enough to see off First Division Queens and Scotland cap Alexander was thrilled to go into the close season on a positive note.

He said: "It was a relief to get the victory more than anything. Before the game, we were major favourites to win and we had a great lead at half-time.

"But we perhaps took that advantage for granted. We knew Queens would come out and have a go at us but we probably never expected the game to unfold the way it did.

"They deserve a lot of credit because they scored two good goals and made life really difficult for us.

"Thankfully we managed to roll our sleeves up again, fight back and get the goal we needed through Kris Boyd, who was a cup final hero once more.

"We were absolutely delighted to get the win, even if things were slightly lower-key as we celebrated because we had missed out on the league a couple of days before.

"That wasn't us being disrespectful to our opponents, it was just that we were still hurting at losing in the SPL.

"The lads were all knackered but it was great to end the season on a high at the same time."

As he looks ahead to next season, Alexander has his sights fixed firmly on the championship trophy which only just eluded Gers this term. Images of Celtic's players celebrating with the silverware that Rangers thought for a long time was theirs are difficult to forget and will play on the minds of those in Smith's squad.

As he readies himself for another titanic title battle, Alexander says the memory of missing out will drive the Light Blues on as they strive for a 52nd league victory.

He added: "We have a new team but we know what it is like now to see Celtic win the title and it hurts. It is something which will stay with us for a long time. Hopefully we can carry our experiences from the last couple of weeks into next season and use our disappointments as positives that spur us on.

"You have to use things like that to your advantage and I think the management will try to do that."

Scotland

It's all so familiar. A decimated squad and a score line that didn't do justice to the efforts.

George Burley's second game in charge of Scotland ended in a 3-1 defeat in Prague as the Czech Republic finalised their preparations for Euro 2008 with a clinical win.

An auld acquaintance was renewed somewhat painfully for Burley's makeshift side when Libor Sionko - as fate would have it, a former Rangers player who never quite made the grade at Ibrox - despatched them with two excellent strikes, supplemented by an equally impressive effort from Czech substitute, Michal Kadlec.

Despite the result, there were strong positives for Burley, too. Depleted by call-offs they may have been, but Scotland gave a good enough account of themselves to suggest that a full-strength squad can compete in the World Cup qualifiers, which begin in September with an away double header against Macedonia and Iceland.

"You want to be pushed to the limit and tested against the best," said Burley. "We learned a lot. As preparation for the World Cup this was a very good run-out against a top quality side.

"We worked out socks off, showed a lot of passion and endeavour, and although I thought the Czechs looked better in the second half, you have to remember that they have been bringing themselves to the boil for the Euro 2008 finals."

The Scots have rarely been prolific scorers in recent years, so it was heartening to see David Clarkson display excellent close control to tame a cross from Gary Naysmith, swivel and place his shot between Petr Cech and his far post. The other new boy, James Morrison, was only denied a place on the score sheet by a reflex save from Cech and Kenny Miller, too, might have had a goal.

The determination to make it to the World Cup in 2010 is now even more evident. And after debuting in a side which was threadbare and lacked direction or steel under Berti Vogts, Darren Fletcher says the squad has now evolved to such an extent, in terms of both tactics and personnel, that current boss Burley now has an embarrassment of riches by comparison.

Said the Old Trafford midfielder: "This is my fourth manager and it is my fourth campaign coming up and I think we are probably now as good as we have been to kick on. We keep progressing. We got ourselves in a better pot for the seedings. I'm not sure if you can call it an easy group but it's not Italy, France and Ukraine, is it? But people will now expect a bit more from us and that's the next step for us, dealing with the expectation."

A player who has long-since been burdened by a nation's high hopes due to his progress through the ranks with one of Europe's elite club sides and the glowing testimonies from his club gaffer, Sir Alex Ferguson, the beauty is that there are now others in the Scotland side able to alleviate some of the strain. Provided they can all stay fit at the same time. "We've not achieved anything yet but we're making progress. It's getting harder because it's easier to be resilient and hard to beat and organised, the difficult part is taking it on and actually having possession and dominating teams.

"We'll have games at Hampden against the likes of Macedonia where we're now expected to win but they're not easy games. That's the next challenge."

The focus is already on the World Cup qualifying campaign. That was the reason they played the Czech Republic in baking early evening temperatures in Prague. For a so-called meaningless end-of-season friendly, it was a match which served a purpose. Fletcher claimed the first half conditions were the hottest he had ever played in, but it was, quite literally, a warm up for the opening World Cup qualifier, away to Macedonia in September, when afternoon temperatures could soar well above Friday's 28 degrees. It was also a chance to tinker with the system and give debuts to others following the lengthy number of call-offs. "You have to try some new things and I'm sure it might be different again against Northern Ireland. But we had a good team tonight and people did themselves a lot of good," added Fletcher.

"James Morrison for example, I thought did really well in the first half especially. He went past people, he was positive, won corners. Then Davie [Clarkson] came on and scored a great goal, while Ross [McCormack] has shown unbelievable technique and finishing in training as well. The manager is going to have a tough job when everyone is fit – picking who starts – but that's good for Scotland. Look at the competition for places in the midfield, for example. We're going places and it compares favourably to when I first came in."

Burley has not yet had the advantage of getting the very best players together at once, due to injury call-offs, but while personnel and systems could yet vary, he does seem to have a football philosophy he wants his players to adhere to. "I played against his Ipswich team for Everton," says Gary Naysmith, "and I remember the philosophy was that if the opposition score two, we'll score three. Obviously you have to be a bit tighter at international level but it's still the same because he loves us to go forward and loves us to score goals. The gaffer instills in us to keep the ball. He loves it on the deck. Training starts with three-touch, then two-touch then he wants it one-touch. He wants you to be comfortable on the ball, he wants you to make the forward pass when the time is right but if it's not then keep the ball until it is right. I think we can play like that and do well if we can combine it with our real strengths – the fighting spirit and stamina."

The positive approach and intention to see the side evolve and build on the foundation set down by his predecessors is evident and it has impressed the likes of Fletcher, who has grown used to the mentality during his own Manchester United education. "He's speaking about taking us to that next level. He spoke about it being good to be hard to beat, but about there being more."

The midfielder knows there was a time when it seemed the national team was going backwards but now, while it may still be small steps, at least they are taking the country in the right direction. All the way to South Africa, he hopes.