Scottish Premier League Update

Ali Hannah on the latest from the Scottish Premier League, April 2009

Celtic | Rangers | Motherwell

Celtic Roundup

Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell could barely contain his excitement when news of Phil Gartside's chat of the Old Firm switching to the Premiership rumbled over the border.

Gartside's argument that a two-tier Premier League involving both Celtic and Rangers would enhance the quality of the fare on offer appears to be motivated by little else other than self-interest, but Celtic are currently happy to overlook that.

Lawwell is adamant Celtic are proud of their Scottish heritage and happy to be part of the Scottish set-up. But the supremo admits that he has a responsibility to the club and its supporters to investigate the prospect should any move get the go-ahead.

He said: "We are a Scottish club. We are playing in Scotland at the moment and we are delighted to do that. It's an exciting league but in the long term we have a responsibility to look. I think we would be obliged to look closer at something like that.

"We don't know anything about the details but we believe it is not only Bolton and Phil Gartside who have support for it.

We will just wait and see how it develops. These type of things have happened before and they haven't been able to deliver, so we will wait and take it from there."

Ironically, given the fact that Celtic and Rangers have been the instigators of previous talk, this current plan has been drawn up south of the border.

Clubs in the lower half of the English Premier League face a severe drop in money if they are relegated to the Championship and an English Premier League Two would cushion the blow.

Lawwell added: "I think there is a very strong rationale at the moment for an EPL2. The bottom half of the EPL at the moment, especially this year with it being tight, are getting a wee bit concerned that it is such a huge drop from the EPL into the Championship.

"So I guess they are looking for a softer landing and, potentially, this could deliver it. I believe the top four are looking for less games and an 18-team league. Maybe this could deliver that as well.

Circumstantially, at the moment, there seems to be a lot going on but only time will tell how that will affect Celtic and Rangers."

One thing that would be guaranteed is that the Old Firm would start in the second tier of the set-up.

That fact means participation in European competition would be jeopardised but Lawwell said: "It's too early for us to even consider that.

"But we all have a responsibility here to look at what is best for Celtic Football Club and our supporters. If the right proposal comes along we will give it serious consideration and see where we go. It's very early and we haven't been involved in these new ideas."

Meanwhile, the Parkhead club are ready to travel the world this summer. Lawwell has revealed that Celtic have already accepted an invitation to play in the prestigious Wembley Cup along with Barcelona on July 25 and 26. He also confirmed they are planning to take their place in the Peace Cup in Spain, a multi-centred tournament which has attracted among others Real Madrid.

That tournament will be staged at the end of July, and Celtic's participation will be dependent on them retaining their SPL title and therefore not being required to play in the Champions League qualifying rounds at that time.

Celtic have already agreed to provide the opposition for the opening of Cardiff's new stadium on July 22, and are awaiting confirmation of an offer to play Queensland Roar in Australia 10 days earlier. They have also received invitations to return to America.

All of these matches will provide much needed match preparation for Strachan's side, but will also generate considerable income.

Lawwell has vowed the board will support Strachan in his attempts to strengthen his squad in the summer, and reiterated they tried their best to bankroll additions in the January window.

However, a combination of players targeted not being available and others electing to accept offers to move to the Premiership meant Willo Flood was the only man added to Strachan's first-team squad.

Having been thwarted in their attempts to sign experienced Croatian Robert Kovac, Hibs' Steven Fletcher, West Brom's Marek Cech and Manchester City pair Ched Evans and Gelson Fernandes, Lawwell is determined the club will have more success in this transfer window.

"We don't set a budget, we don't publicise what we have to spend. Gordon and I understand where we go, and we'll be planning to strengthen the squad once again in the summer. We're up against the finance and also the status the English Premier League has around the world. So there are two big obstacles we have to bringing players here."

That's what cost Celtic the chance to sign Kovac from Spartak Moscow, with the 30-year-old defensive midfielder rejecting a lucrative offer to move to Parkhead when a huge deal was presented to him by West Ham.

Lawwell accepts it remains tough to compete with the lure of the Premiership. But they will not stop trying. And competing in high-profile tournaments will help maintain the profile of Celtic, both among players around the globe and clubs down south who are considering inviting the Old Firm to join them.

"Our trips down south have been nothing but positive for the club, the way we've acted as a club, the way the supporters have behaved," he said. "They've been great ambassadors and there's no question we would be warmly welcomed.

"The Peace Cup would be conditional on us qualifying directly for the Champions League, but again it is a highly prestigious tournament. If we go to Australia or the States on top of that, it's the complete package, really."

It could also be a real money spinner with the winners collecting a cool £1.7million, which would help swell the club's coffers at a time when any extra income will be greatly received. However, supporters - who are currently being invited to renew their season tickets - are more interested in how this money will be spent.

Lawwell is hoping not to disappoint, recognising how much of an anti-climax the last window turned out to be.

He said: "January is not a great time to be bringing players in. There wasn't much activity at all. It was a pretty stagnant market.

"The players we wanted, who would have made a difference, just simply didn't become available.

"Believe me, we had more coverage in terms of our scouting than ever before."

Rangers

Barry Ferguson - and Rangers' regular goalkeeper, Allan McGregor - were both in action for the first time since they were banned for breaches of discipline which occurred while they were on duty with Scotland for the World Cup qualifying double header against Holland and Iceland.

Neither played in Sunday's 3-2 victory over Hibernian at Easter Road and Tuesday's outing in a reserve fixture against Hearts was meant to help the pair progress towards match fitness.

However, scarcely had the fixture kicked off at the Forthbank Stadium in Stirling than Ferguson pulled up, clearly in distress, after a block tackle on Hearts' David Templeton.

Rangers' reserve coach, Tommy Wilson, said: "Barry just felt his calf pop. I spoke to him on Monday and he was really up for the game so I was very disappointed when he had to come off.

"He was desperate to get back to action and has played for me a couple of times in the reserves this season when he was coming back from his ankle injury.

"The doctor has examined him and strapped him up and I think he may have torn a couple of fibres in his calf muscle.

"However long that keeps him out for I'm not sure but I wouldn't imagine he'll be fit for this weekend or the week after.

Meanwhile, Pedro Mendes was left seething about the physical nature of Scottish football after a challenge with St Mirren's Will Haining in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup saw him stretchered off.

Mendes blasted: "If I'd had my foot on the ground that tackle could have broken my leg.

"It was a violent challenge but that's how football is in Scotland - very fast and more aggressive than England's Premier League.

"It's just swollen but I hope to play in the league this weekend."

In-form Mendes has been nominated by his fellow professionals for the Player of the Year award but the former Spurs and Portsmouth playmaker is adamant that team glory is more important than individual plaudits.

"I'm more concerned about winning the league and Scottish Cup.

"And we're close to achieving it, since we're in the Cup Final and just one point behind Celtic. As they've still got to play at our place, everything is in our hands and we can still win everything.

"I'm honestly not bothered about individual awards."

Meanwhile, Saints boss Gus MacPherson revealed that Haining came out worse from the tackle on Mendes.

And he reckons there has been an over-the-top reaction to the challenge. MacPherson said:"Will has picked up a knee injury and it's from the challenge with Mendes.

"A lot was made of it as Mendes was stretchered off but it seems his injury is just bruising and he'll be okay for the weekend while we have concerns over Will.

"When I saw the challenge again, Will clearly won the ball although it was an awkward challenge and he caught Mendes.

"The ball bounced at an awkward height and it's just a clash as both are going for it. Will won the ball but Mendes was running, his momentum took him into Will and the clash opened up his knee.

"He has now got a problem with it. We're not too sure if it's cartilage or ligament but we'll send him for a scan and we'll see what the damage is. It just seems ironic our guy is the one who has come off worse in this."

Motherwell

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee has claimed that the ramifications of Setanta's financial problems could prove to have "catastrophic" effects on the Lanarkshire club and most of the other members of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

The broadcasters were plunged into difficulties after losing one of their two packages to show live Premier League matches from England between 2010 and 2013 in the most recent bidding war with Sky.

Setanta fear that they could lose subscribers next year and are currently attempting to negotiate reductions on the length and cost of the four-year, £125 million agreement they reached with the SPL last summer and which is also due to commence in 2010. That allows them to exclusively show live matches from the elite division but McGhee, whose club depends on TV revenue for almost a third of their income, fears he may be forced to dispense with his seasoned professionals and field a youth team if the cuts are severe.

SPL clubs meet at Hampden on Thursday to debate Setanta's proposals but McGhee has first-hand knowledge of how difficult it can be when TV contracts cannot be honoured.

"We don't know the figures yet on the Setanta deal," he said. "It depends what the reduction ends up being. If it's a third of the money then that could end up being a third of our turnover.

"That would be catastrophic for our club and we'll end up playing the youth team next year.

"I was at Millwall and the collapse of the ITV Digital deal did have a huge impact on the club."

"We have to save money and the Setanta deal could cause further problems. Stephen could turn round and say he wants to stay and then we don't have the money to keep him.

"For all our sakes we need to know where we stand."

McGhee, meanwhile, would be delighted to lead his team into Europe next season - even if it by the backdoor. The Fir Park club could claim a place in the Europa League via Uefa's Fair Play rankings, which rewards countries with low disciplinary records.

"If we have to come back training the first week in June, I don't care - I'll be here," McGhee smiled.

"The opportunity to get back into Europe would be fantastic - if that route gets us there, I'd accept it."

The Uefa Fair Play system awards three places in the first qualifying round of the Europa Cup for the best-ranked countries in the national Fair Play League, with the slot going to clubs that have not already qualified for European competition.

Rankings are based on a points system correlating to the number of red and yellow cards administered to each club and national side in Uefa over a 12-month period.

Scotland sit third in the Fair Play League - behind Norway and Denmark - and McGhee insists the attitude of his players has played a key role in maintaining a low national card count.

"One of the things I say to them every time they go out is about their discipline, about not getting involved with the opposition, not reacting to anything, not over-reacting and not getting involved with the referee or the officials," said McGhee.

"I think we've done a pretty good job with that this season. They've been disciplined, which I think is why we're in that position in the Fair Play League this year.

"I'm pleased and proud of the fact that we don't have a bad disciplinary record - it's credit to the boys."

McGhee also says he's in the process of talking to players regarding their future beyond the end of this season.

"I'm talking to all of the players this week and looking ahead to what we can do with them and what we need them to do over the summer," he added.

"That includes players who are out of contract and players who are in contract that we feel could move on. It's an ongoing process."

Ali Hannah

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