Scottish Premier League Update

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

Celtic | Rangers | Scotland

Celtic Roundup

The bright scarf held aloft and big smiles for the waiting cameras is as much a part of the summer as ice cream and sunburn.

Yet, this season there has been a lack of action at both Celtic and Rangers and Gordon Strachan has insisted he will not be buying simply for the sake of it.

The Hoops have so far added only the little known Pat McCourt from Derry, while Georgios Samaras' loan-deal from Manchester City has been made permanent. It was hoped, among the club support, though, that there would be a couple of 'sexy' signings ahead of a campaign which includes guaranteed Champions League football.

A move for Romanian international Gabriel Tamas collapsed over personal terms - it's believed the defender wanted £20,000 a week while the Hops wouldn't go higher than £14,000 - and Strachan has maintained that the English Premier League is responsible for the way in which the Old Firm are priced out of the market for players.

"There are certain clubs in England who have made it a mad world to deal in," he said. "You have to have common sense from everyone. If everybody wants huge wages they have to go to England.

"If they don't want to go down there you've got to go somewhere else and we can provide Champions League football, 60,000 people, decent wages and a chance to enhance your career. I think some players associate Celtic and Rangers with Manchester United and all these clubs."

And Strachan won't burst the bank to add to his squad.

Bobo Balde will go as soon as he can find a club and his £28,000 a week salary could be put to better use, while Thomas Gravesen is also sitting in the reserves and earning at least £30,000 a week.

Any deals to get this pair off the wage bill will be uppermost in Celtic's mind.

"We'll only try and bring in good players," he said. "It doesn't say anywhere in your contract about having to buy new players. If you can't get new players you just work with the ones you've got.

"Paul Caddis has done well when he has come on, Paul McGowan is having a shot, and we wanted to have a good look at Cillian Sheridan before he got injured.

"Mark Wilson is coming back and will be like a new player and Sammy [Samaras] is full-time with us now which is good.

"Supporters want to see players arriving, of course they do. It's like kids when they wants for sweeties. One says 'I want sweeties' so the other one says 'I want sweeties as well'. Or 'I want a toy' and the other one wants a toy too. It's the same thing here and we're trying our best to do it but what do we do? Do we just say 'right, okay, here's a player' just to keep them happy?

"Don't get me wrong, I'd like to get a couple of new players in but if it can't work, it can't work. We only have three, four, five targets we've been working on. We get thrown every Tom, Dick and harry but it's not going to happen like that.

"It's either get the good ones we want or don't bother."

Meanwhile, top-scorer Scott McDonald is itching to show that he is capable of bettering his 31 goals from last season.

Before a ball is kicked in season 2008-09, McDonald is ahead of the game - twice over.

The Celtic striker wanted to zoom into action when he arrived at the club 12 months ago.

But the two-game domestic ban he brought with him from Motherwell forced him to cool his jets on the sidelines as his new team-mates launched the defence of their SPL title with matches against Kilmarnock and Falkirk.

This season, there will be no delayed start.

When the tapes go up - along with the league flag - on August 10, McDonald aims to be in Gordon Strachan's starting XI and in among the goals.

The driving force is to show that he is no one-season wonder, and that his strike rate on his debut year was much more than a flash in the pan.

Few would bet on McDonald failing, given the steely determination he shows whenever he set himself a challenge.

McDonald is aware that the Scottish trait of building up people just to immediately try and find weaknesses and knock them down pertains to him as much as any other player.

But he believes he he has the strength of character to cope. He said: "I am just one of these people who take sit in their stride and just gets on with it, really. I'm not too concerned with pressure and all of that kind of thing. I am just looking at it game by game and looking to score as many goals as possible and to do my bit for the team.

"Hopefully, if I can do that, we can be very successful again this year."

McDonald has still to get off the mark after four pre-season games, and admitted that, while finding fitness is the aim, hitting the target would be a boost.

"You don't get points for friendlies, but you do get points as a player in the manager's head," he said. "So it's important you start well in pre-season. Last year's was huge for me. I made an impression on the manager which went a long way. It's the same for anyone coming into the team this year, just as it is the same for me year in, year out. You have got to do it.

"So, even though these are pre-season games, you have still got to take them really seriously and be up for it." McDonald finished last season on a real high, and if he had had his way, the campaign would never have ended.

That was almost the case as McDonald followed up his 50 appearances for Celtic with only a very short break based around his international duty with Australia.

Strachan will be wary of his striker suffering a backlash to this lack of down time, and with Samaras now on board, alternating the strike force is a genuine option.

But McDonald is never happy starting on the bench or being subbed during games. And, resplendent in the No.7 shirt handed to him during the close season, he just wants to get busy. Being handed a hefty wage rise and the number so famously worn by Jimmy Johnstone and Henrik Larsson has served only to whet his appetite for more of the same.

He said of his swap from 27 to 7: "I don't really want to make too much of it. It is a number and it has a huge stature at this club. It is such an honour to play in the number seven when you see the players who have worn it in the past.

"It's something I will treasure for the rest of my life. I will be able to say I wore this number when I played for Celtic."

Rangers

Rangers Rangers will be without Barry Ferguson for up to four months after the midfielder underwent an ankle operation. The news was a devastating blow for Walter Smith who will be without Ferguson for the start of the SPL campaign, as well as the Champions League qualifying rounds and most of the group stage games should the club progress after their 0-0 draw with Kaunus in the first leg of their second qualifying game.

Ferguson's loss will also be felt by George Burley, the Scotland manager, who will now have to go into the 2010 World Cup qualifiers away to Macedonia and Iceland in September without his best player. Depending on how long Ferguson is out, Scotland might even be denied him for the qualifier at home to Norway on October 11.

Ferguson, despite being troubled by the injury, played more than 60 games for Rangers last season, insisting that he wanted to play on in the club's domestic and UEFA Cup campaigns, despite having to take pain-killing injections. The rigours have now taken their toll.

In the meantime, Rangers will step up their quest to sign a new midfield player, though the club's pursuit of Steven Davis for £3 million from Fulham may prove fruitless.

"Losing Barry is a massive blow," Ally McCoist, the assistant manager, said. "He is going to be out for the best part of three or four months and no one is more disappointed about it than Barry himself. But these things happen in football and you just have to get on with it. Barry is integral to us but we have some time now to try to shape a team without him.

"We won't rush him back and we obviously wish him well in his recovery. The only saving grace is that this did not happen the day before the start of the new season. We have some time to try to cope with this and I'm sure we will."

Asked if Davis, whom Rangers had on loan for five months last season, might return to Ibrox on a permanent transfer, McCoist sounded more circumspect. "We will need to see what the finances are like and we will all sit down and discuss the situation," he said. "We know how vital it is that we hit the ground running and make a good start to the season, so losing Barry is certainly a problem." Ferguson's loss cannot be overestimated.

The Champions League third qualifying arrives in August and, should Rangers progress, Ferguson would be in danger of missing at least four of the group stage games in a period stretching into late October.

Burley, too, was troubled by the news. "To lose our captain at the start of the qualifying campaign is a huge blow," the Scotland manager said. "Barry has been a very important player for Scotland for a number of years and our hope is that he gets back playing as soon as possible."

Meanwhile, Stevie Smith, the Rangers full back, will also miss his side's pre-season tour after suffering an ankle injury of his own. It is the latest setback for Smith, who missed almost the whole of last season through injury. "I'm gutted for Stevie but the good news is that the injury is not serious," McCoist said.

Midfielder, Kevin Thomson, meanwhile, has insisted there is still enough quality within the ranks to cope without Ferguson and has called on his team-mates to rise to the challenge.

He said: "When the captain, and one of your top players, gets injured there is always going to be negativity. It's up to other players to step up to the plate and prove that it's not just all about Barry in the midfield.

"The guy is an important player and it would be great if he was fit leading us into the new campaign but he's just had an operation and we have to deal with that. It's an opportunity for the other boys to step up to the plate and show what they can do."

As a midfielder, Thomson is well aware extra responsibility is likely to be placed on his own shoulders to fill the void left by Ferguson, and he believes he is more than ready to take the next step in his Ibrox career.

He added: "I've been at the club for 18 months now and I thought performances in patches last year were getting to the level where they should be. If I can try to get a wee bit more consistency into my game - as the manager has obviously stated in the press - and a bit more maturity then I'm sure I can step up to the plate."

Although still not operating at peak condition, Thomson is confident Walter Smith's men will be ready for the visit of FBK Kaunas in next week's Champions League qualifier. He said: "The boys certainly looked sharper and you can see game by game that we are getting there slowly.

"We are only days away from the Kaunas game. We won't be at our peak when that game comes but we won't be far off it. It would have been a trickier tie if we had to go over there first, I think it gives us an advantage at home.

"I'm sure they won't want to come over and lose a goal so it gives us an opportunity to get the ball down and make them work rather than us work hard. With all the friendlies, we haven't had too much time to concentrate on Kaunas but when the game comes we will be ready."

Scotland

Gordon Smith has criticised Macedonia after Scotland's World Cup qualifier in Skopje was brought forward to a 3pm kick-off. George Burley's first competitive game in charge will now take place in the afternoon heat on September 6.

Scotland now face a tricky double-header with Iceland to follow in Reykjavik four days later, and Smith is not happy with the situation.

The SFA chief executive said: "Macedonia were actually difficult before because they were going to withdraw from the fixture meeting if they didn't get their own way.

"The fixtures were already set with Macedonia being the first game at Hampden, when they said they were going to withdraw from the meeting unless they got their first game at home.

"They were very awkward at that moment and they did the same with Norway.

"They changed the fixture with Norway, much to their consternation, but the fact was if we didn't accept the fixtures as they were at that point, they were going back to Fifa and Fifa would draw them out of the hat.

"So we had seven matches that we thought were in the right order and we just had to take this one.

"The awkward thing about it is the temperature over there. It probably won't suit us to play at that time of the afternoon."

Smith has also reiterated his stance on a 2012 British Olympic team.

"It is discriminatory because it is an under-23 event," he said. "If you look at any other event in the Olympics, they are not limited. When you look at the 100m or the hurdles, there are no restrictions on it and I don't see why it should be different for other sports.

"That's just one of many negative factors.

"Our autonomy and position within Fifa could be at risk, too. The fact is also that this is an important time for some clubs with European qualification at this time of year and they cannot afford to be without some key players."

Meanwhile, the SFA are closing in on a sponsorship deal for the Scottish Cup.

Brewery firm Tennents ended their 17-year association with the tournament in 2007 and so far there has been no replacement sponsor. "We have a value and it is about getting the right value," he said. "We have two or three companies but we won't move until we have saturated the market."

Ali Hannah

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