Monday, 27 April 2015
This and That: More sour grapes from the Red and White section of London
So, how was everyone’s weekend?
Mine was awesome when it came to football. Saturday I ventured down to Edgeley Park to watch Stockport County’s final game of the Conference North season against Harrogate Town. County played poorly in the first half but ended up coming back to win 2-1 and end the season on a high.
County’s big push for Season Ticket renewals for next year was the promise of promotion to the Conference Premier. While it is positive to show such ambition, I do worry that it will be a big ask with the side currently at County’s disposal. Hopefully some undiscovered diamonds can be unearthed and County can advance up to the next tier.
The fact that 2,601 people decided to show up for a fixture in England’s sixth tier shows that there is a market for local football in Stockport. You would hope that should County get promotion, the crowds would increase further. I’m certain there’ll be a good crowd for the local derby with FC United next season, if nothing else. So long as it doesn’t clash with Everton, I’ll make sure to attend the Edgeley portion of that derby.
On Sunday, I was in attendance at Goodison Park as Everton gained an impressive 3-0 victory over a Manchester United side that had been in good form leading up to the contest. Truth be told, Marouane Fellaini missed an incredible chance to score while the game was still at 1-0, which could have turned the game.
As it was, Fellaini’s miss was followed up with two more goals from Everton and the three points were professionally secured.
I’m delighted with the result, as you can imagine. James McCarthy and John Stones both played very well and the match highlighted how important both are to Everton. Hopefully Everton can hold onto them, as I’m sure there will be no shortage of suitors in the summer transfer window. The same could be said for Seamus Coleman and Kevin Mirallas.
Everton have had a disappointing season, but this remarkably strong finish suggests that should enough of the big stars remain, with some of the dead wood being replaced, Everton may just have a decent season next term. It’s the hope that kills you.
One of the big talking points of the weekend though was surely Chelsea’s hard earned point against Arsenal at The Emirates, something that caused much disconcertion among certain folk in the footballing world.
Indeed, following the contest, Arsenal fans serenaded Chelsea with chants about how boring they were. Biting satire, I’m sure you will agree. I can’t surely be the only one who was a bit perturbed with the churlish attitudes of the assorted Gooners in attendance?
Let us not forget, that when Arsenal won the title in 1989 and 1991 under the stewardship of George Graham, they were known as a deeply negative team. Graham’s famed offside trap tactics won many a close game for Arsenal.
Did the Gooners chant “Boring, boring Arsenal” at the time? Of course not! They were loving it! They would chant, with indefatigable glee, “1-0 to The Arsenal!” as Graham and his sides squeezed blood from a stone to secure silverware.
Long before Arsene Wenger was winning titles playing lovely football with the likes of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp, Arsenal were loathed for being a dire defensive outfit.
And it’s not even like that’s a bad thing. Graham did what he had to do to win trophies, just as Jose Mourinho is doing now. What I can’t stand is the barefaced hypocrisy from the Arsenal support. Even if they weren’t supporting the club at that time, they should be aware enough of their own history enough to realise the irony of mugging off another team for negative tactics.
The further irony is that Chelsea in the past were renowned for a being an exciting flair team. From the Osgoods to the Zola’s, Chelsea were a good cup team who put on exciting footballing exhibitions. Back in the early 90’s the roles of Arsenal and Chelsea were very much reversed. It’s refreshing to see so many Chelsea fans admit that they don’t mind this reverse as they’re happy to have the silverware. Such honesty is hard to come by in the modern game.
And therein lies the rub. Supporters of Arsenal and the football "purist" supporters of other clubs, including my own, wouldn't be half as bothered with the tactics on show if our clubs were using them and winning trophies.
Considering some of the Arsenal support like to taunt Chelsea for their supposed lack of history (which ignores all the FA Cups the team won prior to Abramovich’s millions) some of them seem to be very unclear about their own clubs history.
What it all boils down to is sour grapes.
John Terry, despicable though he is at times, was celebrating wildly after the 0-0 draw because his side had essentially sown up the title. The fact that they’d been overly defensive to secure the point didn’t matter to him or his manager in the slightest.
Football, is a results business and Jose Mourinho got the result he needed.
Even when Arsenal were winning things playing nice football under Wenger, they still had Adams, Viera and Keown providing defensive grit when necessary.
I hate the antiseptic and covertly cynical approach of "Tikki Takka", but if Everton started doing it and won the Premier League, you wouldn't hear me complaining. It would be the same if they used the defensive approach of Mourinho.
Basically, for any Arsenal supporter to complain about Chelsea’s tactics is just another example of their entrenched entitlement. Mourinho’s tactics worked while Wenger’s didn’t. Take your lack of winning the title with some good grace and have a think about your own clubs history before insulting Chelsea on their supposed lack of one.
Peace Out
Saturday, 25 April 2015
The Everton Shopping List
Transfer speculation is a part of football that is ingrained in your average football supporter.
No matter who your team has on their current team sheet, most of us are always looking at other players that we think could improve the squad. Ultimately, it makes sense. Players age, suffer injuries and sometimes get their heads turned by other clubs, so there’s always a reasonable argument to be made to be looking at other players.
As an Evertonian, I was generally happy with the clubs starting XI as the season began. However, outside of John Stones and maybe Muhammed Besic, it’s hard to make an argument that any of Everton’s squad has actually had a good season.
Besic has looked promising, even though he isn’t the finished article yet. He’s had a decent first season though and I feel optimistic about his future. He always looks one challenge away from a Red card, but he fights for the cause and never gives anything but 100%
He’s the sort of aggressive CDM that I always dreamed of being when I used to play in my youth. The best thing about him to me is the accuracy of his tackles. Besic isn’t a Souness type who doesn’t really care about catching or even hurting the man. Besic wants the ball and nothing but the ball, and he times his tackles accordingly. I think no one is more perturbed when he commits a foul than he himself. He’s dedicated himself to the art of tackling, and I can respect that.
Stones has been solid every time he’s played this season. He’s an excellent defensive prospect, and is a shoe in for Club player of the season in my honest opinion. Hopefully that’s mirrored by the rest of the fan base and also those within the club.
However, outside of those two, I honestly think every senior player in the squad needs to be held under scrutiny after this season, some more than others.
Romelu Lukaku broke Everton’s European goal record this season but hasn’t had as good a season as last term. That being said, he’s still young and has time to come good, so he’d be near the bottom of the list for me in regards to people getting criticism
I can’t say the same for Arouna Kone however. My level of dislike for Kone isn’t as high as some other supporters that you’ll come across. In fact, I don’t actively dislike him at all. I actually kind of like him. The memes of him riding varying different animals only endeared the man to me. However, I do think it’s probably time to move him on next term.
As far as replacing him goes, I was leaning towards promoting from the youth set up, but I’m thinking maybe a loan spell for some of the younger strikers could be more beneficial at this stage.
It’s always hard to gage with a younger player what will benefit them more. With someone like Chris Long, he’s still quite young so the best thing for him could be to get some regular playing minutes. He would most certainly be behind Lukaku in the pecking order, as would be Connor McAlney.
There’s also the risk that thrusting either player into the position as back up could be a case of too much too soon.
As a fan base, we generally do quite poorly with giving the younger players in the team a chance. Long or McAlney could enter competent performances but not amazing ones, thus leading to the usual section of naysayers declaring that they aren’t good enough. We do this with pretty much every young player. Even Ross Barkley gets overly criticised if he doesn’t have a 9 out 10 rating in every match.
But what if indeed they aren’t ready?
We’ve had some good defenders come through the youth ranks in Tyias Browning, Seamus Coleman and Shane Duffy. We’ve also had some good midfielders in Barkley and Kieran Dowell. Mason Springthorpe was a relatively decent goalkeeper too.
However, have we had a top level striker come through the youth ranks since Wayne Rooney? Kissock didn’t work out, we all know what happened with Jose Baxter and Hallam Hope never really got any traction at the club.
Is it right to have a youth player as first choice back up if Lukaku goes down? I’d feel perfectly fine with plugging in Browning or Garbutt to the squad if a defender went down injured. If Lukaku went down with injury or suspension and we only had Long to replace him, I’m not sure how I’d feel.
If you’re a young defender, you’ve got other defenders to fall back on. Same if you’re a midfielder. If you’re a young striker, it really is you up there on your own under full glare of the spotlight. I think it’s a great credit to a lad like Harry Kane that he’s been able to perform so well in such situations.
I’d certainly like to see Long and McAlney set some minutes in pre-season and maybe some minutes in the early months of the season. The good thing about the loan market is that you have some more flexibility in when you can arrange them as opposed to transfers. Long could have a few games for the first team and then be sent to a team in The Championship for more minutes if need be.
Should Kone leave, I feel another striker who has played regular first team football would be required to come in, if only to bring some experience to the table.
I’ve decided to look at one goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and striker that Everton could use to shore up the ranks. In some cases, multiple players could be required in certain areas, but for lengths sake, I’ll limit it to one player. The players named were selected using a mixture of what I’d like to see, what I think the manager wants and also the calibre of player that Everton could attract.
Goalkeeper
Who: Costel Pantilimon
Why: League Cup winner and did well whenever called upon as backup for City. I work with City fans who really have no negative opinions on him whatsoever and quite a few were sad to see him go. Only 28 years old, so has a good 5 years in him yet.
Possibility of him coming to Everton: It depends on whether Sunderland stay up I imagine. If they go down, there could potentially be a fire sale and he might be sold to raise funds. Everton could probably get a good deal for him. If Sunderland stay up, they would be less willing to sell, which might put him out of our price range.
Defender
Who: Virgil Van Dijk
Why: I’ve been a big fan of this lad for a while. Good defensively, can play it out of the back like Martinez wants and also takes a mean free kick. He’s got future star written all over him. He could be plugged straight into the squad. I’m fully confident that Van Dijk will be first choice for Holland in the next 2-3 years
Possibility of him coming to Everton: I’m pretty sure Van Dijk wants to move from Scotland to a bigger league. At the end of the day, he wants to play for Holland and he increases his chances exponentially if he moves to the Premier League. He’d probably get a lot of minutes for Everton, which would surely appeal to him, but there are other clubs who are looking at him. Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Man United have been linked with him. All of those clubs would probably look more attractive to him from a prestige standpoint. There’s also the fact that Celtic will be very unwilling to sell him unless it’s for a decent price. We might find that we get priced out of the market if this goes to a bidding war.
Midfielder
Who: Tom Cleverley
Why: Let’s face it, he’s signing so we might as well plan for life with him in the team. For what it’s worth, I don’t think he’s terrible, but I’m also completely unenthused that he currently seems to be our marque signing. He could conceivably do a job for us and combined with some other signings, his incoming wouldn’t be too grim.
Possibility of him coming to Everton: I think he’s nailed on. Martinez has been expressing an interest all season and will probably move planets to get him.
Striker
Who: Danny Ings
Why: Imagine the reaction across the park if we poached him from them? On a serious note, despite his recent goal drought, Ings has had a good season and I think he’d make a good addition to the striking options upfront. It could be that signing Ings might light a fire under Lukaku. They might even make a good partnership if played together.
Possibility of him coming to Everton: Not very likely I say. No transfer fee, as he’d be out of contract, but I’m pretty certain he’s Liverpool bound. I’d like to have him at Everton though.
So, if Everton managed to acquire the players listed, how do I think they’d line up?
I’d personally go for a 3-5-2 formation of
Pantilimon
Stones, Jagielka, Van Dijk
Coleman, Barkley, Cleverley, McCarthy, Baines
Ings, Lukaku
With a bench of Robles, Browning, Galloway, Besic, McGeady (Sadly, I think Mirallas will be off in the summer), Naismith and Long
The formation could potentially swap between a 3 or 5 at the back, should the need arise. I think that’s a decent enough Starting XI that isn’t based completely in the realms of fantasy. Whether we get any of the aforementioned players remains to be seen, but with that team I think we’d give anyone a game.
I’m probably way off, I usually am, but hey-ho
Peace Out
No matter who your team has on their current team sheet, most of us are always looking at other players that we think could improve the squad. Ultimately, it makes sense. Players age, suffer injuries and sometimes get their heads turned by other clubs, so there’s always a reasonable argument to be made to be looking at other players.
As an Evertonian, I was generally happy with the clubs starting XI as the season began. However, outside of John Stones and maybe Muhammed Besic, it’s hard to make an argument that any of Everton’s squad has actually had a good season.
Besic has looked promising, even though he isn’t the finished article yet. He’s had a decent first season though and I feel optimistic about his future. He always looks one challenge away from a Red card, but he fights for the cause and never gives anything but 100%
He’s the sort of aggressive CDM that I always dreamed of being when I used to play in my youth. The best thing about him to me is the accuracy of his tackles. Besic isn’t a Souness type who doesn’t really care about catching or even hurting the man. Besic wants the ball and nothing but the ball, and he times his tackles accordingly. I think no one is more perturbed when he commits a foul than he himself. He’s dedicated himself to the art of tackling, and I can respect that.
Stones has been solid every time he’s played this season. He’s an excellent defensive prospect, and is a shoe in for Club player of the season in my honest opinion. Hopefully that’s mirrored by the rest of the fan base and also those within the club.
However, outside of those two, I honestly think every senior player in the squad needs to be held under scrutiny after this season, some more than others.
Romelu Lukaku broke Everton’s European goal record this season but hasn’t had as good a season as last term. That being said, he’s still young and has time to come good, so he’d be near the bottom of the list for me in regards to people getting criticism
I can’t say the same for Arouna Kone however. My level of dislike for Kone isn’t as high as some other supporters that you’ll come across. In fact, I don’t actively dislike him at all. I actually kind of like him. The memes of him riding varying different animals only endeared the man to me. However, I do think it’s probably time to move him on next term.
As far as replacing him goes, I was leaning towards promoting from the youth set up, but I’m thinking maybe a loan spell for some of the younger strikers could be more beneficial at this stage.
It’s always hard to gage with a younger player what will benefit them more. With someone like Chris Long, he’s still quite young so the best thing for him could be to get some regular playing minutes. He would most certainly be behind Lukaku in the pecking order, as would be Connor McAlney.
There’s also the risk that thrusting either player into the position as back up could be a case of too much too soon.
As a fan base, we generally do quite poorly with giving the younger players in the team a chance. Long or McAlney could enter competent performances but not amazing ones, thus leading to the usual section of naysayers declaring that they aren’t good enough. We do this with pretty much every young player. Even Ross Barkley gets overly criticised if he doesn’t have a 9 out 10 rating in every match.
But what if indeed they aren’t ready?
We’ve had some good defenders come through the youth ranks in Tyias Browning, Seamus Coleman and Shane Duffy. We’ve also had some good midfielders in Barkley and Kieran Dowell. Mason Springthorpe was a relatively decent goalkeeper too.
However, have we had a top level striker come through the youth ranks since Wayne Rooney? Kissock didn’t work out, we all know what happened with Jose Baxter and Hallam Hope never really got any traction at the club.
Is it right to have a youth player as first choice back up if Lukaku goes down? I’d feel perfectly fine with plugging in Browning or Garbutt to the squad if a defender went down injured. If Lukaku went down with injury or suspension and we only had Long to replace him, I’m not sure how I’d feel.
If you’re a young defender, you’ve got other defenders to fall back on. Same if you’re a midfielder. If you’re a young striker, it really is you up there on your own under full glare of the spotlight. I think it’s a great credit to a lad like Harry Kane that he’s been able to perform so well in such situations.
I’d certainly like to see Long and McAlney set some minutes in pre-season and maybe some minutes in the early months of the season. The good thing about the loan market is that you have some more flexibility in when you can arrange them as opposed to transfers. Long could have a few games for the first team and then be sent to a team in The Championship for more minutes if need be.
Should Kone leave, I feel another striker who has played regular first team football would be required to come in, if only to bring some experience to the table.
I’ve decided to look at one goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and striker that Everton could use to shore up the ranks. In some cases, multiple players could be required in certain areas, but for lengths sake, I’ll limit it to one player. The players named were selected using a mixture of what I’d like to see, what I think the manager wants and also the calibre of player that Everton could attract.
Goalkeeper
Who: Costel Pantilimon
Why: League Cup winner and did well whenever called upon as backup for City. I work with City fans who really have no negative opinions on him whatsoever and quite a few were sad to see him go. Only 28 years old, so has a good 5 years in him yet.
Possibility of him coming to Everton: It depends on whether Sunderland stay up I imagine. If they go down, there could potentially be a fire sale and he might be sold to raise funds. Everton could probably get a good deal for him. If Sunderland stay up, they would be less willing to sell, which might put him out of our price range.
Defender
Who: Virgil Van Dijk
Why: I’ve been a big fan of this lad for a while. Good defensively, can play it out of the back like Martinez wants and also takes a mean free kick. He’s got future star written all over him. He could be plugged straight into the squad. I’m fully confident that Van Dijk will be first choice for Holland in the next 2-3 years
Possibility of him coming to Everton: I’m pretty sure Van Dijk wants to move from Scotland to a bigger league. At the end of the day, he wants to play for Holland and he increases his chances exponentially if he moves to the Premier League. He’d probably get a lot of minutes for Everton, which would surely appeal to him, but there are other clubs who are looking at him. Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Man United have been linked with him. All of those clubs would probably look more attractive to him from a prestige standpoint. There’s also the fact that Celtic will be very unwilling to sell him unless it’s for a decent price. We might find that we get priced out of the market if this goes to a bidding war.
Midfielder
Who: Tom Cleverley
Why: Let’s face it, he’s signing so we might as well plan for life with him in the team. For what it’s worth, I don’t think he’s terrible, but I’m also completely unenthused that he currently seems to be our marque signing. He could conceivably do a job for us and combined with some other signings, his incoming wouldn’t be too grim.
Possibility of him coming to Everton: I think he’s nailed on. Martinez has been expressing an interest all season and will probably move planets to get him.
Striker
Who: Danny Ings
Why: Imagine the reaction across the park if we poached him from them? On a serious note, despite his recent goal drought, Ings has had a good season and I think he’d make a good addition to the striking options upfront. It could be that signing Ings might light a fire under Lukaku. They might even make a good partnership if played together.
Possibility of him coming to Everton: Not very likely I say. No transfer fee, as he’d be out of contract, but I’m pretty certain he’s Liverpool bound. I’d like to have him at Everton though.
So, if Everton managed to acquire the players listed, how do I think they’d line up?
I’d personally go for a 3-5-2 formation of
Pantilimon
Stones, Jagielka, Van Dijk
Coleman, Barkley, Cleverley, McCarthy, Baines
Ings, Lukaku
With a bench of Robles, Browning, Galloway, Besic, McGeady (Sadly, I think Mirallas will be off in the summer), Naismith and Long
The formation could potentially swap between a 3 or 5 at the back, should the need arise. I think that’s a decent enough Starting XI that isn’t based completely in the realms of fantasy. Whether we get any of the aforementioned players remains to be seen, but with that team I think we’d give anyone a game.
I’m probably way off, I usually am, but hey-ho
Peace Out
Monday, 20 April 2015
This and That: Celtic's paranoia once again to the fore
This weekend, Inverness Caledonian Thistle won a thrilling Scottish Cup Semi Final against Celtic 3-2 after extra time.
The win will set up a final with Falkirk, who sneaked past my Hibees 1-0 in the other Semi Final the previous day.
However, controversy reigns in regard to Celtic’s defeat, thanks mostly to an incident involving Caley Thistle player Josh Meekings in the first half.
Meekings clearly obstructed a Leigh Griffiths header that was goal bound with his hand. This should have led to a Celtic penalty and a red card for Meekings. Instead, the decision wasn’t given and this has led to much unrest amongst the Celtic support.
At the time of the handball, Celtic were 1-0 up and in control. Should the penalty have been given, Celtic would have had an excellent chance to enter the second half 2-0 up with an extra man advantage.
Now, there’s no doubt the decision was a bad one. Referee Steve McLean had a decent enough view of the incident to give the penalty, but chose not to. It was a bad decision, but in my opinion that’s all it was. However, amongst certain areas of the Celtic support, the desire to be the victim has once again reared its ugly head.
The following is a direct copy and paste from comments on The Guardian match report (Link at the bottom of the article). It was written by poster aaronbeck
· Celtic have only lost 5 games in Scotland this season. Steven McLean has been the referee for 3 of them.
Celtic's record without Steven McLean as referee: 30 wins, 5 draws, 2 defeats
Celtic's record with Steven McLean as referee: 1 win, 0 draws, 3 defeats
https://twitter.com/footballisfixed
Steven McLean's brother played for Rangers. He chose to represent Northern Ireland instead of his native Scotland.
The assistant referee did not 'fail to spot' the incident, as is evident from the video below. He can be seen excitedly repeating the same phrase into his microphone three times. He appears to be saying 'Its a Pen!''Its a Pen!' 'Its a Pen!'
http://videocelts.com/2015/04/blogs/latest-news/did-alan-muir-shout-penalty-penalty-to-stevie-mclean
Mr McLean needs to explain why he chose to ignore what his assistant was telling him.
The SFA needs to explain why, given his background and track record, they selected Mr McLean to referee an important match involving Celtic. (End of quote)
So yeah, the reason for the bad descision wasn’t just human error but a concerted plot to deny Celtic advancement to the final. It’s a giant conspiracy to keep them out of Scottish Footballs showpiece event
I would ask Mr Beck, if that is his real name, one question however. Why would the SFA not want Celtic in the final?
Seriously, why wouldn’t they?
Out of all the possible finals, the SFA has ended up with the least marketable one possible. Falkirk and Inverness are both good sides with dedicated support, but honestly, if Hampden is anything more than half full for that final I’ll be amazed. You’ll be able to hunt wild deer in the atrium FFS.
The best final on offer by far would have been Hibs Vs Celtic. It would have presented the best chance to fill the stadium and would have also provided the best TV ratings. It also would have likely produced the best actual football match to boot.
Rather than prove that nefarious powers were at work to fix the final, I would argue both results are the best argument you could give for proving otherwise. This is quite possibly the worst final you could have out of all the possible options. Again, no offence intended to Falkirk and Thistle, but their support is smaller in number than the two Irish giants.
I have no doubt that the match between Falkirk and Thistle has all the possibility of being an exciting match, but I’m a football fan and can view it as such. To your average man/woman/educated asparagus plant on the street, this final is not a box office final. It will most surely do poorly in the ratings comparatively to what it would have done with Celtic in the match instead.
Celtic supporters need to realise that rather than being the plucky club fighting underneath against the establishment, they now ARE the establishment. They are the biggest and best team in the country. When decisions go against them now, you can rest assured it’s because the referee has had a mare and not because of some kind of grand conspiracy to keep them out of showpiece events.
The SFA wants, nay NEEDS, Celtic to be the featured attraction right now because they are a proven draw. I bet many an SFA official was pulling his or her hair out when that third Caley goal went in. They might as well have burned a bag full of money in an oil drum.
I, for one, am glad we have two slightly less fashionable teams fighting it out to decide who wins the cup, but a lot of people really won’t.
Celtic fans need to take defeat in their stride and move on. Every time they lose can’t always be the result of dirty pool. It’s getting to the point of ridiculousness now. The ref made a bad decision, you lost, that’s all there is to it. Nine times out of ten, you’ll get decisions going for you as you’re a big club. On this occasion, there was the perfect storm of ineptitude from the officials that led to your downfall. Get over it
Peace Out
http://www.theguardian.com/discussion/p/47kvd
The win will set up a final with Falkirk, who sneaked past my Hibees 1-0 in the other Semi Final the previous day.
However, controversy reigns in regard to Celtic’s defeat, thanks mostly to an incident involving Caley Thistle player Josh Meekings in the first half.
Meekings clearly obstructed a Leigh Griffiths header that was goal bound with his hand. This should have led to a Celtic penalty and a red card for Meekings. Instead, the decision wasn’t given and this has led to much unrest amongst the Celtic support.
At the time of the handball, Celtic were 1-0 up and in control. Should the penalty have been given, Celtic would have had an excellent chance to enter the second half 2-0 up with an extra man advantage.
Now, there’s no doubt the decision was a bad one. Referee Steve McLean had a decent enough view of the incident to give the penalty, but chose not to. It was a bad decision, but in my opinion that’s all it was. However, amongst certain areas of the Celtic support, the desire to be the victim has once again reared its ugly head.
The following is a direct copy and paste from comments on The Guardian match report (Link at the bottom of the article). It was written by poster aaronbeck
· Celtic have only lost 5 games in Scotland this season. Steven McLean has been the referee for 3 of them.
Celtic's record without Steven McLean as referee: 30 wins, 5 draws, 2 defeats
Celtic's record with Steven McLean as referee: 1 win, 0 draws, 3 defeats
https://twitter.com/footballisfixed
Steven McLean's brother played for Rangers. He chose to represent Northern Ireland instead of his native Scotland.
The assistant referee did not 'fail to spot' the incident, as is evident from the video below. He can be seen excitedly repeating the same phrase into his microphone three times. He appears to be saying 'Its a Pen!''Its a Pen!' 'Its a Pen!'
http://videocelts.com/2015/04/blogs/latest-news/did-alan-muir-shout-penalty-penalty-to-stevie-mclean
Mr McLean needs to explain why he chose to ignore what his assistant was telling him.
The SFA needs to explain why, given his background and track record, they selected Mr McLean to referee an important match involving Celtic. (End of quote)
So yeah, the reason for the bad descision wasn’t just human error but a concerted plot to deny Celtic advancement to the final. It’s a giant conspiracy to keep them out of Scottish Footballs showpiece event
I would ask Mr Beck, if that is his real name, one question however. Why would the SFA not want Celtic in the final?
Seriously, why wouldn’t they?
Out of all the possible finals, the SFA has ended up with the least marketable one possible. Falkirk and Inverness are both good sides with dedicated support, but honestly, if Hampden is anything more than half full for that final I’ll be amazed. You’ll be able to hunt wild deer in the atrium FFS.
The best final on offer by far would have been Hibs Vs Celtic. It would have presented the best chance to fill the stadium and would have also provided the best TV ratings. It also would have likely produced the best actual football match to boot.
Rather than prove that nefarious powers were at work to fix the final, I would argue both results are the best argument you could give for proving otherwise. This is quite possibly the worst final you could have out of all the possible options. Again, no offence intended to Falkirk and Thistle, but their support is smaller in number than the two Irish giants.
I have no doubt that the match between Falkirk and Thistle has all the possibility of being an exciting match, but I’m a football fan and can view it as such. To your average man/woman/educated asparagus plant on the street, this final is not a box office final. It will most surely do poorly in the ratings comparatively to what it would have done with Celtic in the match instead.
Celtic supporters need to realise that rather than being the plucky club fighting underneath against the establishment, they now ARE the establishment. They are the biggest and best team in the country. When decisions go against them now, you can rest assured it’s because the referee has had a mare and not because of some kind of grand conspiracy to keep them out of showpiece events.
The SFA wants, nay NEEDS, Celtic to be the featured attraction right now because they are a proven draw. I bet many an SFA official was pulling his or her hair out when that third Caley goal went in. They might as well have burned a bag full of money in an oil drum.
I, for one, am glad we have two slightly less fashionable teams fighting it out to decide who wins the cup, but a lot of people really won’t.
Celtic fans need to take defeat in their stride and move on. Every time they lose can’t always be the result of dirty pool. It’s getting to the point of ridiculousness now. The ref made a bad decision, you lost, that’s all there is to it. Nine times out of ten, you’ll get decisions going for you as you’re a big club. On this occasion, there was the perfect storm of ineptitude from the officials that led to your downfall. Get over it
Peace Out
http://www.theguardian.com/discussion/p/47kvd
Wednesday, 25 February 2015
WWE New Year's Revolution 2005 Review
WWE New Years Revolution
The WWE Network has been substantially eating into my life since I signed up just before the Royal Rumble.
Despite the odd case of bizarre music dubbing (Prince Iaukea’s faux “Purple Rain” theme is edited out but X-Factors “Uncle Kracker” theme remains intact?) I’ve been having a mighty fine time watching the shows and Pay Per Views that I had never seen before but had always wanted to.
I’ve also been re-watching shows that I have seen before, just to see whether the crusty hands of time have altered my memories of them in anyway.
Sometimes I’ll want to watch a show for a particular reason, but other times I’ll just skim through the shows on offer until I see one that I feel like watching.
New Years Revolution was a show I hadn’t watched since way back in 2005 when it first happened. I remember being a bit “meh” on it when it first happened, while also remembering a lot of people on the internet complaining about it. Thus, I decided to watch it again.
The event took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico. To my knowledge, this has been the first and last time that WWE produced a live Pay Per View Event from Puerto Rico. The crowd were, understandably, excited to see such a big event.
Commentators for the show were Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, with Jonathon Coachman popping in towards the end as well.
Opening Match
Raw Tag Titles
Champions – William Regal and Eugene
Vs
Challengers – Tyson Tomko and Christian
The Background
This was back before the Raw and Smackdown Tag Titles had been unified. The Eugene character was an interesting one to say the least. Played by Nick Dinsmore, Eugene was Eric Bischoff’s storyline nephew who had some form of Special Needs. It was never outright said by WWE that this was the case, but it was strongly implied that he was mentally ill (Although WWE never felt it was relevant to furnish us with what Mental Illness he actually had)
As a consequence, Eugene had a childlike innocence to him. His other main character trait was that he was a huge wrestling fan, who had watched wrestling so much that he had developed the ability to copy the moves of his favourite wrestlers like some form of savant. At first, the gimmick was popular and it looked like Eugene was going to reach higher parts of the card than originally expected. However, during the summer of 2004 he’d taken part in a feud with Triple H, which had ended with him being decisively beaten. He faded into the mid card before becoming nothing more than enhancement talent.
Upon his debut, William Regal had been assigned to Eugene by Eric Bischoff, so as to look after him. At first Regal had hated the idea, but during the ensuing months, he grew to care for Eugene and they ended up firm friends and Tag Team Champions to boot.
Tomko was essentially just Christian’s muscle, brought in to be his “Problem Solver”. Christian himself was firmly entrenched as a sneaky mid card heel. He would eventually leave WWE later in 2005, frustrated with his lack of push.
There wasn’t really a particular heated storyline going into this. Christian and Tomko were essentially just “Challengers of the Month” and this was the show they were to get their shot.
The Match
Pretty much a standard opening tag contest. Eugene performed a lot of comedy in the opening exchanges, which the crowd responded to reasonably well. Eugene and Christian entered solid enough performances but Regal had an off night and Tomko wasn’t particularly good at this point in his career. There were a couple of instances where Tomko and Regal were on different pages and had some sloppy exchanges as consequence.
Christian entered a serviceable performance. He looked annoyed at Eugene when he was supposed to, taunted the crowd now and then and was basically just “there”. Disappointing from him really, considering his experience in tag wrestling. Tomko lumbered around and did what he could. Regal seemed to not have his head together at all for this for some reason. Maybe he was carrying an injury or was struggling with fatigue due to the travel involved to get to San Juan?
Heels got the heat on Eugene as well as a further heat on Regal. Eugene got the hot tag but injured himself during his comeback. He threw a dropkick and landed very badly on his leg, causing a legit injury. The match was hastily ended, with Eugene getting a weak roll up on Tomko.
WINNERS – EUGENE AND REGAL
RATING - *1/2
OVERALL THOUGHTS – Standard formula tag match with an abrupt ending due to Eugene’s injury. Can’t really fault any of the guys in the match for the finish, as they were making the best of a bad situation. The match up to that point had been average at best and would have probably ended up around the ** mark if the ending had gone as planned. Basic opener that the crowd responded to well.
I should point out that there were numerous skits by the swimming pool involving Maria, Christy Hemme, Candice Michelle and Stacy Keibler in bikini’s. It all built up to them having a chicken fight in the pool. It was what it was, but didn’t really add anything to the show and I must question actually paying to take them to San Juan just for that.
Second Match
Women’s Title
Champion – Lita
Vs
Challenger – Trish Stratus
The Background
In storyline, Lita had been forced to marry Kane and was due to give birth to his Demon Spawn™ until an unforeseen accident, which we’ll cover in more detail later on, caused her to miscarry.
Trish, being the heel of the piece, decided to mock Lita about losing her baby. It was tasteless but at least created the desired reaction of fans wanting to see Lita beat Trish up, so every cloud. The two had an abrupt match at Survivor Series which had ended in a Disqualification, and was notable for Lita causing Trish to bleed from her nose.
The re-match was a hotly contested bout on Raw, that was actually the Main Event on that particular show, which saw Lita win the title clean to gain a measure of revenge. This was probably the highest status the much beleaguered Women’s Title would ever reach in WWE.
The match on this show was a continuation of the storyline.
The Match
Unfortunately this was the second match on the show that had to go home early due to a legit injury. Lita dove off the apron early in the bout and injured her leg severely. Unable to carry on, an audible was called and Trish kicked Lita to win the match and the title.
WINNER – TRISH STRATUS
RATING – I can’t really give it one as there wasn’t much of a match up to the injury and it would be unfair to mark the ladies down for having to go home early.
OVERALL THOUGHTS – Looked like it was going to be another solid match between the two before the injury. I’m not sure if Trish was due to win anyway and they just went to the planned finish early, or if Lita was due to win and they changed the finish on the fly. Lita would come back after this to help train Trish’s Wrestlemania opponent Christy Hemme. However, the feud would fizzle out in Spring as both women would take their characters in different directions
Third Match
Intercontinental Title
Champion – Shelton Benjamin
Vs
Challenger – Maven
The Background
Maven was fresh off a heel turn around this show. I can’t pinpoint the exact date, but I know he was a face at Survivor Series so it was sometime between that show and this one.
Shelton had been champion since October when he’d defeated Chris Jericho. He’d been pushed as an Upper Mid Card face that could hang with the Main Eventers, but didn’t often defeat them.
Maven had pinned Benjamin in a tag match to set up his role as challenger.
The Match
This match got a lot of negativity at the time but I remembered loving it then and I still love it now. Maven stalled for a few minutes at the start of the match, drawing a decent amount of heat while doing so. Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore and rolled out of the ring to grab a microphone.
He cut a promo on the audience telling them to be quiet as they were distracting him. This of course only caused the fans to boo him louder and yell obscenities at him in Spanish. Maven continued to insult the crowd declaring “I can’t concentrate with you talking all that gibberish” which went down about as well as you could imagine and still cracks me up every time I see it.
After cutting his promo, Maven finally got into the ring again where he was promptly rolled up by Benjamin for the win. Fabulous!
WINNER – SHELTON BENJAMIN
RATING – Again, I can’t really rate it as a traditional wrestling match because it was essentially an angle more than anything else.
OVERALL THOUGHTS – A lot of people got cheesed off by this match back in the day because having something like this on a Pay Per View was seen as a rip off. I really don’t see that though. To me, a Maven Vs Shelton match would hardly have been a classic. It would have been, at best, an average mid card match and nothing more.
By booking it the way they did, it made the match unique and also gave Maven a great opportunity to get his smarmy heel act over. He was excellent in this and incited the crowd beautifully. Plus, it was funny to watch the arrogant heel get his comeuppance and it made Shelton look strong in the process.
If the first two matches hadn’t had abrupt finishes as a result of injuries, this match probably wouldn’t have received as much of a backlash as it did. I think the fact they followed two interrupted matches with an extended angle made people have a more negative view of this match than was deserved.
Following the match, Maven called Shelton back in to face him again, as he wasn’t ready previously. Shelton obliged, drilled him with a T-Bone Suplex, and beat him again. Marvellous!
Fourth Match
Muhammad Hassan with Daivari
Vs
Jerry Lawler with Jim Ross
The Background
With Islamaphobia rife throughout the Western World, the WWE decided to deal with it in their usual calm and measured way, by debuting Hassan as a stereotypical angry Muslim.
At first, it seemed like they were going to go a different direction with the gimmick and play up the idea that Hassan and Daivari were both normal Americans who were mistreated just because they happened to look Asian (Hassan himself was actually Italian) but by this show they’d gone the whole hog and had just made them evil men who wanted to put Americans in The Camel Clutch.
Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler had gotten on the bad side of the two, by decrying their Anti-American comments, so naturally a match was made between the potential hot new heel Hassan and the aging half retired Lawler. This was supposed to get Hassan over somehow. Don’t look at me, I didn’t book it
The Match
The first problem with the match is the length. It takes up nearly 10 minutes, which is far too long for what it needed to be. Secondly, with Lawler wrestling and Ross seconding him, the match had no commentary whatsoever, which only hurt it further.
Hassan sold far too much for a guy they supposedly had top card plans for. He should have polished Lawler off pretty quickly and moved on to fry bigger fish, but that’s not how the match was booked at all.
The work wasn’t particularly thrilling either. I like Jerry Lawler and think he is a good storyteller in the ring, but this match was just flat and uninteresting. Hassan eventually pinned Lawler with a Complete Shot after a tedious contest.
WINNER – MUHAMMAD HASSAN
Rating - *
OVERALL THOUGHTS – Boring match that did nothing to elevate Hassan and was a waste of Lawler’s Legend Status. Hassan would start gaining a little bit of momentum over the following months once he started working with fulltime roster members. He’d even get to face Hulk Hogan at Backlash. In the summer of 2005, he was traded to Smackdown and was positioned to be Batista’s Summer Slam foil.
However, in the build up to a match with The Undertaker where he’d earn his #1 Contendership status to Batista’s Title, WWE shot an offensive angle where a group of balaclava clad mercenaries attacked Undertaker with a piano wire while Hassan prayed outside the ring. Awful as this was, WWE probably would have got away with it, but two days after it was shot there was an Islamic Fundamentalist attack on London.
WWE couldn’t edit the footage in time, or so they claimed, so instead played a pitiful disclaimer at the bottom of the screen while the angle commenced. This netted them a boatload of negative publicity and things got so bad that they decided to “kill off” the Hassan character at that year’s Great American Bash. Undertaker Power Bombed him off a stage and we never saw him again. Ah, WWE, classy till the end. Marc Copani, who played Hassan, got into acting I think. I wish him well to be honest; it wasn’t like he booked any of the stuff that got WWE in hot water. He was essentially made the scapegoat and kicked to the curb, when he’d merely been doing what he was told.
Fifth Match
Snitsky
Vs
Kane
The Background
Remember the whole “Lita being pregnant” thing from the second match? WWE decided that they wouldn’t deliver on Lita actually having a child with Kane. With that decision made, they needed a way of getting rid of the imaginary child. Snitsky was the man who ended up with that job.
One week Gene Snitsky was just there on Raw, and nothing would ever be the same again. After Kane had forced Lita to carry his wicked offspring, he then naturally followed that up with the logical step of forcing her to marry him. Ah, young love.
This led to a number of occasions where they’d squabble and Kane would lose a match or two as direct consequence. Kane was booked against Snitsky on Raw one week, who everyone watching just assumed was an enhancement guy who was there to put Kane over. Oh, if only we had been so lucky.
In fact, Kane and Lita had another one of their weekly arguments during the match. While they argued, Snitsky grabbed a nearby chair and walloped Kane in the back with it. The force of the chair shot sent Kane tumbling onto Lita, thus causing her to miscarry.
“Hmm” I thought “It’s strange that they’d use a Jobber of the Week for this sort of angle as opposed to a recurring character”. Oh how wrong I was. Because Snitsky was not there as part of a one shot deal, no sir. Next week on television, Jim Ross interviewed Snitsky about the incident. Snitsky, showing no compassion or sympathy, simply declared that “It wasn’t my Fault!” and thus a catchphrase was born.
Snitsky continued to show no lament for his actions. In fact, he even seemed perversely proud of them. At one point he even punted a doll into the crowd! Snitsky was here to stay and WWE decided to go all the way with him and actually let him put Kane out of action in October for a prolonged period of time. This show was Kane’s return and he was looking for revenge.
The Match
This is a strange one for me. The match told a decent story and had sustained crowd heat throughout. However, both men got very tired and as consequence the offence on display was beyond sloppy.
At one point, the brawl spilled to the outside of the ring and Snitsky removed the protective mats, exposed the dreaded concrete. Snitsky then tried to Piledrive Kane onto said concrete, but Kane countered with a back drop and Snitsky took a bump on the unprotected floor. This was a standard spot but the crowd went nuts for it. San Juan really, REALLY liked Kane and it made the match much more entertaining than it normally would have been.
There was some good progression in the match as far as storytelling. Earlier on, Kane tried his Top Rope Clothesline, but Snitsky countered with a raised boot. Later on Kane tried it again and this time managed to get it, which popped the crowd. I don’t know why, but I liked the little touch of him failing the first time. It made it seem like he’d achieved something when he finally connected with the move.
There were some slow points though. Snitsky used at least two rest holds throughout the bout. And, as much as I’d like to ignore it, the work wasn’t good. Snitsky in particular was out of position a few times and hit some sloppy looking moves.
In the end, Kane drilled Snitsky with a Tombstone to pick up the victory, but it was a very ugly looking one that almost ended in disaster. Kane lost his grip of Snitsky on the move and nearly dropped him right on top of his head. It gave me cause to shudder when they showed the replay.
WINNER – KANE
RATING - *1/2
OVERALL THOUGHTS – I’m torn on this one. I was hovering around ** for it but I couldn’t in good conscience give a match this awful that high of a rating. The work in this match leaves a lot to be desired, but both guys work really hard and the live crowd enjoyed it. I personally enjoyed it as well and got into the story of the match, but in the cold harsh reality of star ratings, this was a bad match. Still, I give props to both men as the match build and story made sense and they were clearly putting their all into it.
The feud raged on for a bit longer after this and there was a genuine possibility that Wrestlemania would feature Kane and Undertaker Vs Snitsky and Heidenreich, but thankfully WWE came to their senses and we weren’t subject to having that atrocity foisted upon us.
Main Event
Elimination Chamber for The Vacant Raw World Title
Shawn Michaels as Guest Referee
Triple H with Ric Flair
Vs
Edge
Vs
Batista
Vs
Chris F’ing Benoit
Vs
Chris Jericho
Vs
Randy Orton
The Background
Triple H had won the Title in September, cutting the legs off hot new babyface Orton in the process, and held it until December of 2004. Due to a disputed finish in a Triple Threat Match between Triple H, Edge and Benoit, the belt was held up with the new Champion to be crowned in the Elimination Chamber
Michael’s was instilled as Trouble Shooting Referee™, thanks in large part to having issues with pretty much everyone in the match at some point or another. At this point though Michaels was firmly entrenched in a feud with Edge, who was trying to get over as an opportunistic heel. It would take winning the first ever Money In The Bank Match and stealing Matt Hardy’s bird to finally get Edge past the Upper Midcard to Main Event barrier. At this point he was a moderately over heel with something missing.
The big story going into the match was the rise of Batista. Obstensibly he was there merely to help Triple H win, but ever so small cracks were starting to appear in his relationship with Triple H. Hints were given that maybe he’d take the Title for himself.
Orton was pretty much dead in the water as a face by this point and would be a heel again about a month after this. Ditto for Jericho, although his heel turn would take a bit longer. Benoit was coming off probably the most successful year of his career, which had seen him win the Title at Wrestlemania XX and generally have great matches with everyone from Triple H to Sylvain Grenier.
The Match
What struck me first off was how over everyone in the match was. The San Juan crowd gave everyone, barring Edge, a babyface reaction. Triple H, the companies top heel at the time, received a thunderous ovation, as did Batista. Edge was seemingly the only one to draw any heel heat on his way to the ring. As a result, everyone was clearly jazzed by the reaction and were all up for having a good match.
With such a collection of excellent workers, the match was naturally a good watch. Benoit and Jericho started out and hit each other really hard, as they were always want to do. Edge’s elimination eventually came at the hands of Michaels. Edge had clobbered Michaels by mistake, so a perturbed Michaels had Super Kicked him to lead to a pinfall. Benoit and Jericho had Triple in a dual submission, causing him to be rescued by Batista
Batista was given scalps of both Benoit and Jericho and was generally booked very strong. It eventually came down to Batista, Orton and Triple H. Orton was able to clock Batista with an RKO and eliminate him. Of interest though was the fact that Triple H could have potentially saved Batista, but he instead left him to his fate. This was a nice subtle touch that added another layer to the Evolution storyline.
Batista eventually clocked Orton with a Lariat before leaving The Chamber, which allowed Triple H to spike Orton with a Pedigree to beat him once again.
WINNER – TRIPLE H
Rating - ****
OVERALL THOUGHTS – An excellent Main Event that made Batista look like a monster while also sowing the seeds for his eventual face turn a month later. Orton was made to look like a chump again, but that was par for the course at this point in his babyface run.
Benoit, as always, was the glue that held everything together and Edge gave a good showing of himself up until his elimination. Back in the day, I very much had a feeling of “What was the point of all that if the belt just ends up with Triple H again?”, but looking at it now I feel a bit differently.
This was the match that tied up some loose ends while also laying down the tarmac for the Road to Wrestlemania. This was the match that essentially finished Orton as a top level face, ending that chapter of his career so he could switch back heel in time for his match at Wrestlemania with The Undertaker. It also set up the Edge and Michaels marriage for the next month, which in turn led to Michaels Vs Angle for Wrestlemania while also giving Edge something else to complain about before he won the briefcase at Mania.
And it also set Batista up as a monster, while also teasing that at some point he might kick Evolution to the curb. This match was the perfect way to get things rolling for Wrestlemania and it was a brilliant match to boot!
OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS – Not a particularly great show this one, but it does have its moments. I would recommend watching maybe just The Maven/Shelton match and the Chamber match on The Network. Kane/Snitsky is an acquired taste, but you may get some enjoyment out of it if you fast forward through the rest holds and can put up with the sloppy offence.
Peace Out
The WWE Network has been substantially eating into my life since I signed up just before the Royal Rumble.
Despite the odd case of bizarre music dubbing (Prince Iaukea’s faux “Purple Rain” theme is edited out but X-Factors “Uncle Kracker” theme remains intact?) I’ve been having a mighty fine time watching the shows and Pay Per Views that I had never seen before but had always wanted to.
I’ve also been re-watching shows that I have seen before, just to see whether the crusty hands of time have altered my memories of them in anyway.
Sometimes I’ll want to watch a show for a particular reason, but other times I’ll just skim through the shows on offer until I see one that I feel like watching.
New Years Revolution was a show I hadn’t watched since way back in 2005 when it first happened. I remember being a bit “meh” on it when it first happened, while also remembering a lot of people on the internet complaining about it. Thus, I decided to watch it again.
The event took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico. To my knowledge, this has been the first and last time that WWE produced a live Pay Per View Event from Puerto Rico. The crowd were, understandably, excited to see such a big event.
Commentators for the show were Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, with Jonathon Coachman popping in towards the end as well.
Opening Match
Raw Tag Titles
Champions – William Regal and Eugene
Vs
Challengers – Tyson Tomko and Christian
The Background
This was back before the Raw and Smackdown Tag Titles had been unified. The Eugene character was an interesting one to say the least. Played by Nick Dinsmore, Eugene was Eric Bischoff’s storyline nephew who had some form of Special Needs. It was never outright said by WWE that this was the case, but it was strongly implied that he was mentally ill (Although WWE never felt it was relevant to furnish us with what Mental Illness he actually had)
As a consequence, Eugene had a childlike innocence to him. His other main character trait was that he was a huge wrestling fan, who had watched wrestling so much that he had developed the ability to copy the moves of his favourite wrestlers like some form of savant. At first, the gimmick was popular and it looked like Eugene was going to reach higher parts of the card than originally expected. However, during the summer of 2004 he’d taken part in a feud with Triple H, which had ended with him being decisively beaten. He faded into the mid card before becoming nothing more than enhancement talent.
Upon his debut, William Regal had been assigned to Eugene by Eric Bischoff, so as to look after him. At first Regal had hated the idea, but during the ensuing months, he grew to care for Eugene and they ended up firm friends and Tag Team Champions to boot.
Tomko was essentially just Christian’s muscle, brought in to be his “Problem Solver”. Christian himself was firmly entrenched as a sneaky mid card heel. He would eventually leave WWE later in 2005, frustrated with his lack of push.
There wasn’t really a particular heated storyline going into this. Christian and Tomko were essentially just “Challengers of the Month” and this was the show they were to get their shot.
The Match
Pretty much a standard opening tag contest. Eugene performed a lot of comedy in the opening exchanges, which the crowd responded to reasonably well. Eugene and Christian entered solid enough performances but Regal had an off night and Tomko wasn’t particularly good at this point in his career. There were a couple of instances where Tomko and Regal were on different pages and had some sloppy exchanges as consequence.
Christian entered a serviceable performance. He looked annoyed at Eugene when he was supposed to, taunted the crowd now and then and was basically just “there”. Disappointing from him really, considering his experience in tag wrestling. Tomko lumbered around and did what he could. Regal seemed to not have his head together at all for this for some reason. Maybe he was carrying an injury or was struggling with fatigue due to the travel involved to get to San Juan?
Heels got the heat on Eugene as well as a further heat on Regal. Eugene got the hot tag but injured himself during his comeback. He threw a dropkick and landed very badly on his leg, causing a legit injury. The match was hastily ended, with Eugene getting a weak roll up on Tomko.
WINNERS – EUGENE AND REGAL
RATING - *1/2
OVERALL THOUGHTS – Standard formula tag match with an abrupt ending due to Eugene’s injury. Can’t really fault any of the guys in the match for the finish, as they were making the best of a bad situation. The match up to that point had been average at best and would have probably ended up around the ** mark if the ending had gone as planned. Basic opener that the crowd responded to well.
I should point out that there were numerous skits by the swimming pool involving Maria, Christy Hemme, Candice Michelle and Stacy Keibler in bikini’s. It all built up to them having a chicken fight in the pool. It was what it was, but didn’t really add anything to the show and I must question actually paying to take them to San Juan just for that.
Second Match
Women’s Title
Champion – Lita
Vs
Challenger – Trish Stratus
The Background
In storyline, Lita had been forced to marry Kane and was due to give birth to his Demon Spawn™ until an unforeseen accident, which we’ll cover in more detail later on, caused her to miscarry.
Trish, being the heel of the piece, decided to mock Lita about losing her baby. It was tasteless but at least created the desired reaction of fans wanting to see Lita beat Trish up, so every cloud. The two had an abrupt match at Survivor Series which had ended in a Disqualification, and was notable for Lita causing Trish to bleed from her nose.
The re-match was a hotly contested bout on Raw, that was actually the Main Event on that particular show, which saw Lita win the title clean to gain a measure of revenge. This was probably the highest status the much beleaguered Women’s Title would ever reach in WWE.
The match on this show was a continuation of the storyline.
The Match
Unfortunately this was the second match on the show that had to go home early due to a legit injury. Lita dove off the apron early in the bout and injured her leg severely. Unable to carry on, an audible was called and Trish kicked Lita to win the match and the title.
WINNER – TRISH STRATUS
RATING – I can’t really give it one as there wasn’t much of a match up to the injury and it would be unfair to mark the ladies down for having to go home early.
OVERALL THOUGHTS – Looked like it was going to be another solid match between the two before the injury. I’m not sure if Trish was due to win anyway and they just went to the planned finish early, or if Lita was due to win and they changed the finish on the fly. Lita would come back after this to help train Trish’s Wrestlemania opponent Christy Hemme. However, the feud would fizzle out in Spring as both women would take their characters in different directions
Third Match
Intercontinental Title
Champion – Shelton Benjamin
Vs
Challenger – Maven
The Background
Maven was fresh off a heel turn around this show. I can’t pinpoint the exact date, but I know he was a face at Survivor Series so it was sometime between that show and this one.
Shelton had been champion since October when he’d defeated Chris Jericho. He’d been pushed as an Upper Mid Card face that could hang with the Main Eventers, but didn’t often defeat them.
Maven had pinned Benjamin in a tag match to set up his role as challenger.
The Match
This match got a lot of negativity at the time but I remembered loving it then and I still love it now. Maven stalled for a few minutes at the start of the match, drawing a decent amount of heat while doing so. Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore and rolled out of the ring to grab a microphone.
He cut a promo on the audience telling them to be quiet as they were distracting him. This of course only caused the fans to boo him louder and yell obscenities at him in Spanish. Maven continued to insult the crowd declaring “I can’t concentrate with you talking all that gibberish” which went down about as well as you could imagine and still cracks me up every time I see it.
After cutting his promo, Maven finally got into the ring again where he was promptly rolled up by Benjamin for the win. Fabulous!
WINNER – SHELTON BENJAMIN
RATING – Again, I can’t really rate it as a traditional wrestling match because it was essentially an angle more than anything else.
OVERALL THOUGHTS – A lot of people got cheesed off by this match back in the day because having something like this on a Pay Per View was seen as a rip off. I really don’t see that though. To me, a Maven Vs Shelton match would hardly have been a classic. It would have been, at best, an average mid card match and nothing more.
By booking it the way they did, it made the match unique and also gave Maven a great opportunity to get his smarmy heel act over. He was excellent in this and incited the crowd beautifully. Plus, it was funny to watch the arrogant heel get his comeuppance and it made Shelton look strong in the process.
If the first two matches hadn’t had abrupt finishes as a result of injuries, this match probably wouldn’t have received as much of a backlash as it did. I think the fact they followed two interrupted matches with an extended angle made people have a more negative view of this match than was deserved.
Following the match, Maven called Shelton back in to face him again, as he wasn’t ready previously. Shelton obliged, drilled him with a T-Bone Suplex, and beat him again. Marvellous!
Fourth Match
Muhammad Hassan with Daivari
Vs
Jerry Lawler with Jim Ross
The Background
With Islamaphobia rife throughout the Western World, the WWE decided to deal with it in their usual calm and measured way, by debuting Hassan as a stereotypical angry Muslim.
At first, it seemed like they were going to go a different direction with the gimmick and play up the idea that Hassan and Daivari were both normal Americans who were mistreated just because they happened to look Asian (Hassan himself was actually Italian) but by this show they’d gone the whole hog and had just made them evil men who wanted to put Americans in The Camel Clutch.
Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler had gotten on the bad side of the two, by decrying their Anti-American comments, so naturally a match was made between the potential hot new heel Hassan and the aging half retired Lawler. This was supposed to get Hassan over somehow. Don’t look at me, I didn’t book it
The Match
The first problem with the match is the length. It takes up nearly 10 minutes, which is far too long for what it needed to be. Secondly, with Lawler wrestling and Ross seconding him, the match had no commentary whatsoever, which only hurt it further.
Hassan sold far too much for a guy they supposedly had top card plans for. He should have polished Lawler off pretty quickly and moved on to fry bigger fish, but that’s not how the match was booked at all.
The work wasn’t particularly thrilling either. I like Jerry Lawler and think he is a good storyteller in the ring, but this match was just flat and uninteresting. Hassan eventually pinned Lawler with a Complete Shot after a tedious contest.
WINNER – MUHAMMAD HASSAN
Rating - *
OVERALL THOUGHTS – Boring match that did nothing to elevate Hassan and was a waste of Lawler’s Legend Status. Hassan would start gaining a little bit of momentum over the following months once he started working with fulltime roster members. He’d even get to face Hulk Hogan at Backlash. In the summer of 2005, he was traded to Smackdown and was positioned to be Batista’s Summer Slam foil.
However, in the build up to a match with The Undertaker where he’d earn his #1 Contendership status to Batista’s Title, WWE shot an offensive angle where a group of balaclava clad mercenaries attacked Undertaker with a piano wire while Hassan prayed outside the ring. Awful as this was, WWE probably would have got away with it, but two days after it was shot there was an Islamic Fundamentalist attack on London.
WWE couldn’t edit the footage in time, or so they claimed, so instead played a pitiful disclaimer at the bottom of the screen while the angle commenced. This netted them a boatload of negative publicity and things got so bad that they decided to “kill off” the Hassan character at that year’s Great American Bash. Undertaker Power Bombed him off a stage and we never saw him again. Ah, WWE, classy till the end. Marc Copani, who played Hassan, got into acting I think. I wish him well to be honest; it wasn’t like he booked any of the stuff that got WWE in hot water. He was essentially made the scapegoat and kicked to the curb, when he’d merely been doing what he was told.
Fifth Match
Snitsky
Vs
Kane
The Background
Remember the whole “Lita being pregnant” thing from the second match? WWE decided that they wouldn’t deliver on Lita actually having a child with Kane. With that decision made, they needed a way of getting rid of the imaginary child. Snitsky was the man who ended up with that job.
One week Gene Snitsky was just there on Raw, and nothing would ever be the same again. After Kane had forced Lita to carry his wicked offspring, he then naturally followed that up with the logical step of forcing her to marry him. Ah, young love.
This led to a number of occasions where they’d squabble and Kane would lose a match or two as direct consequence. Kane was booked against Snitsky on Raw one week, who everyone watching just assumed was an enhancement guy who was there to put Kane over. Oh, if only we had been so lucky.
In fact, Kane and Lita had another one of their weekly arguments during the match. While they argued, Snitsky grabbed a nearby chair and walloped Kane in the back with it. The force of the chair shot sent Kane tumbling onto Lita, thus causing her to miscarry.
“Hmm” I thought “It’s strange that they’d use a Jobber of the Week for this sort of angle as opposed to a recurring character”. Oh how wrong I was. Because Snitsky was not there as part of a one shot deal, no sir. Next week on television, Jim Ross interviewed Snitsky about the incident. Snitsky, showing no compassion or sympathy, simply declared that “It wasn’t my Fault!” and thus a catchphrase was born.
Snitsky continued to show no lament for his actions. In fact, he even seemed perversely proud of them. At one point he even punted a doll into the crowd! Snitsky was here to stay and WWE decided to go all the way with him and actually let him put Kane out of action in October for a prolonged period of time. This show was Kane’s return and he was looking for revenge.
The Match
This is a strange one for me. The match told a decent story and had sustained crowd heat throughout. However, both men got very tired and as consequence the offence on display was beyond sloppy.
At one point, the brawl spilled to the outside of the ring and Snitsky removed the protective mats, exposed the dreaded concrete. Snitsky then tried to Piledrive Kane onto said concrete, but Kane countered with a back drop and Snitsky took a bump on the unprotected floor. This was a standard spot but the crowd went nuts for it. San Juan really, REALLY liked Kane and it made the match much more entertaining than it normally would have been.
There was some good progression in the match as far as storytelling. Earlier on, Kane tried his Top Rope Clothesline, but Snitsky countered with a raised boot. Later on Kane tried it again and this time managed to get it, which popped the crowd. I don’t know why, but I liked the little touch of him failing the first time. It made it seem like he’d achieved something when he finally connected with the move.
There were some slow points though. Snitsky used at least two rest holds throughout the bout. And, as much as I’d like to ignore it, the work wasn’t good. Snitsky in particular was out of position a few times and hit some sloppy looking moves.
In the end, Kane drilled Snitsky with a Tombstone to pick up the victory, but it was a very ugly looking one that almost ended in disaster. Kane lost his grip of Snitsky on the move and nearly dropped him right on top of his head. It gave me cause to shudder when they showed the replay.
WINNER – KANE
RATING - *1/2
OVERALL THOUGHTS – I’m torn on this one. I was hovering around ** for it but I couldn’t in good conscience give a match this awful that high of a rating. The work in this match leaves a lot to be desired, but both guys work really hard and the live crowd enjoyed it. I personally enjoyed it as well and got into the story of the match, but in the cold harsh reality of star ratings, this was a bad match. Still, I give props to both men as the match build and story made sense and they were clearly putting their all into it.
The feud raged on for a bit longer after this and there was a genuine possibility that Wrestlemania would feature Kane and Undertaker Vs Snitsky and Heidenreich, but thankfully WWE came to their senses and we weren’t subject to having that atrocity foisted upon us.
Main Event
Elimination Chamber for The Vacant Raw World Title
Shawn Michaels as Guest Referee
Triple H with Ric Flair
Vs
Edge
Vs
Batista
Vs
Chris F’ing Benoit
Vs
Chris Jericho
Vs
Randy Orton
The Background
Triple H had won the Title in September, cutting the legs off hot new babyface Orton in the process, and held it until December of 2004. Due to a disputed finish in a Triple Threat Match between Triple H, Edge and Benoit, the belt was held up with the new Champion to be crowned in the Elimination Chamber
Michael’s was instilled as Trouble Shooting Referee™, thanks in large part to having issues with pretty much everyone in the match at some point or another. At this point though Michaels was firmly entrenched in a feud with Edge, who was trying to get over as an opportunistic heel. It would take winning the first ever Money In The Bank Match and stealing Matt Hardy’s bird to finally get Edge past the Upper Midcard to Main Event barrier. At this point he was a moderately over heel with something missing.
The big story going into the match was the rise of Batista. Obstensibly he was there merely to help Triple H win, but ever so small cracks were starting to appear in his relationship with Triple H. Hints were given that maybe he’d take the Title for himself.
Orton was pretty much dead in the water as a face by this point and would be a heel again about a month after this. Ditto for Jericho, although his heel turn would take a bit longer. Benoit was coming off probably the most successful year of his career, which had seen him win the Title at Wrestlemania XX and generally have great matches with everyone from Triple H to Sylvain Grenier.
The Match
What struck me first off was how over everyone in the match was. The San Juan crowd gave everyone, barring Edge, a babyface reaction. Triple H, the companies top heel at the time, received a thunderous ovation, as did Batista. Edge was seemingly the only one to draw any heel heat on his way to the ring. As a result, everyone was clearly jazzed by the reaction and were all up for having a good match.
With such a collection of excellent workers, the match was naturally a good watch. Benoit and Jericho started out and hit each other really hard, as they were always want to do. Edge’s elimination eventually came at the hands of Michaels. Edge had clobbered Michaels by mistake, so a perturbed Michaels had Super Kicked him to lead to a pinfall. Benoit and Jericho had Triple in a dual submission, causing him to be rescued by Batista
Batista was given scalps of both Benoit and Jericho and was generally booked very strong. It eventually came down to Batista, Orton and Triple H. Orton was able to clock Batista with an RKO and eliminate him. Of interest though was the fact that Triple H could have potentially saved Batista, but he instead left him to his fate. This was a nice subtle touch that added another layer to the Evolution storyline.
Batista eventually clocked Orton with a Lariat before leaving The Chamber, which allowed Triple H to spike Orton with a Pedigree to beat him once again.
WINNER – TRIPLE H
Rating - ****
OVERALL THOUGHTS – An excellent Main Event that made Batista look like a monster while also sowing the seeds for his eventual face turn a month later. Orton was made to look like a chump again, but that was par for the course at this point in his babyface run.
Benoit, as always, was the glue that held everything together and Edge gave a good showing of himself up until his elimination. Back in the day, I very much had a feeling of “What was the point of all that if the belt just ends up with Triple H again?”, but looking at it now I feel a bit differently.
This was the match that tied up some loose ends while also laying down the tarmac for the Road to Wrestlemania. This was the match that essentially finished Orton as a top level face, ending that chapter of his career so he could switch back heel in time for his match at Wrestlemania with The Undertaker. It also set up the Edge and Michaels marriage for the next month, which in turn led to Michaels Vs Angle for Wrestlemania while also giving Edge something else to complain about before he won the briefcase at Mania.
And it also set Batista up as a monster, while also teasing that at some point he might kick Evolution to the curb. This match was the perfect way to get things rolling for Wrestlemania and it was a brilliant match to boot!
OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS – Not a particularly great show this one, but it does have its moments. I would recommend watching maybe just The Maven/Shelton match and the Chamber match on The Network. Kane/Snitsky is an acquired taste, but you may get some enjoyment out of it if you fast forward through the rest holds and can put up with the sloppy offence.
Peace Out
Saturday, 3 January 2015
Dominik Diamonds Are Forever: My Top 20 Favourite Video Games - Numbers 20 to 16
Video Games, I chuffing love them I do. I’ve loved them from a very young age. They excite me, they frustrate me, they entertain me and they enchant me. Some of the warmest and fuzziest memories of my youth are related to playing games, either alone or with friends. Such was my love, I decided to write a blog post about my 20 favourite games of all time.
Please note that this is about my own personal favourite 20 games, not a list of what I consider are the best of all time. These are just the games that, for whatever reason, I’ve had the most joy playing over the past 20 years or so. With that caveat firmly in place, let’s let the worms out of the can and begin, controversially, with number 20.
Number 20: Goof Troop (Super Nintendo)
This might be seen by some as a strange choice being that this game is essentially just a Zelda knock off using a Disney franchise that never really set the world on fire. Goof Troop was serviceable Saturday morning entertainment that never truly wowed or could match up to other Disney shows of the period.
The game itself has a pretty silly premise, but at least one that lends itself well to entertainment. While out fishing, Goofy and Max’s pals are abducted by pirates, leaving the Goof Family as their only source of salvation. Thus follows 5 levels of pirate fighting mayhem across a chaotic tropical island.
The gameplay is nothing especially unique. You defeat the pirates by throwing objects like barrels at them or by pushing them into the ocean with a grappling hook. There are some notable highlights on hand though. For example, one of the levels involves you traipsing through a haunted castle, which is both atmospheric and genuinely fiendish in regards to some of it’s puzzles. Suits of armour stand upright but suddenly spark to life at a moments notice to chase you around the room. A young me found that genuinely unnerving when I first experienced it.
The reason the game makes the list though is quite simply for the sheer fun I had playing it with my mate Jim back in our younger days. The game encourages team work and also patience, especially when dealing with some of the puzzles. One of the main puzzle types involve kicking concrete blocks into place to open doors. For an example of how frustrating, and in-turn hilarious, this can be I suggest you search out the Game Grumps video where they play the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0IqCzvN_FE (Game Grumps Link)
Complaints about the game would be that the enemies can sometimes be overly cheap and the fact that it blatantly rips off Legend of Zelda. Still, if you’re going to pay homage to another game, it might as well be a good one. The fact they eventually made a co-op Zelda game highlights that this game has it's merits.
Top fun this one, especially when played with a friend, hence why it makes the top 20.
Number 19: Super Mario World (Super Nintendo)
Some of you may think this is too far down the list, but considering the hundreds of games I’ve played over my lifetime, being my 19thfavourite of all doesn’t seem as much of a slight to me as it may be to others reading this.
This game is outrageously good of course. I’ve played it all the way through many a time and I always like coming back to it now and then for another go. The graphics are bright and colourful, the gameplay is both fun and perfectly weighted in regards to difficulty (Aside from Tubular, I lost hours of my childhood to that bloody level!) and the music is both enchanting and eternally catchy.
This was the biggest Mario game yet, with branching over world design, new power ups and the debut of Yoshi as a Dinosaur pal that you could ride like a green, jovial stead into battle. For a young me this was Earth shattering brand new stuff and it blew my tiny little mind.
This game is true classic, a genuine triumph of design and an absolute delight to play. It was a warm nostalgic blanket for Generation X and a chance for those of us in Generation Y to dip our toes in the Mario ocean and realise that the water was lovely.
Number 18: Tomb Raider (X-Box 360/Playstation 3)
The original Tomb Raider games on the PC and Playstation were revolutionary releases that I was absolutely awful at. I remember struggling as far as level 5 in Tomb Raider 2 before I got so enraged with the difficulty that I flung the disc across my living room in disgust. The original Tomb Raider games were absolutely merciless and I was one of the many intrepid gamers that were forced into submission by their destructive difficulty.
As a result, I grew to think of Lara Croft with nothing but contempt. I think I played Tomb Raider 3 a grand total of once at a mate’s house, got killed in about 15 seconds on the first level and promptly gave up on the campaign. I did enjoy locking the butler in the freezer though, that was always a laugh.
So when I heard that Lara was getting dug out of the mothballs for a Next Gen outing, I was sceptical that I’d be interested. Indeed, when the game first came out I passed on it entirely. However, I started hearing murmurs that this was a very good game and when I saw it cheap in Grainger Games I decided to take the plunge and give it a go. I didn’t regret it.
This game is excellent stuff. It wastes no time in kicking the ever loving fudge out of poor Lara, and if the game were real she probably wouldn’t even make it past the first set piece. There are a barrage of villains and wild animals to deal with and the difficulty curve is nicely weighted.
What I enjoyed most about the game though was how it felt like I was playing a genuine Hollywood blockbuster. Scenery collapses around you as you try to outrun toppling mountains and crashing planes. It is an unmistakable thrill ride and completely immersive. One scene in the game is literally just Lara climbing a gigantic radio tower in order to send out a message. With nary an enemy in sight, Lara has to assail the massive structure. What could very easily be a tedious process is actually a very rewarding one. When Lara finally makes it to the top after such an agonising climb, you genuinely feel like you and her have achieved something together.
This game took me completely by surprise and I can only applaud it for transplanting Lara back to the forefront of gaming. For a long time it had seemed like the Tomb Raider franchise had become a relic of a past age, something that Lara herself would be searching a dilapidated hillside to find. But now it’s back, only to flush away all the goodwill it captured by becoming an X-Box Exclusive. Ah, the gaming industry.
Number 17: Street Fighter II: Turbo (Super Nintendo/Mega Drive/Arcade)
God I loved Street Fighter. It must have been the bane of my parent’s existence. If we passed any arcade that had it (Arcades, remember them?) I would immediately beg them to let me play it. They’d normally say no of course, but that didn’t stop me asking. Every. Single. Time.
I just loved this game. I’ll never forget the thrill of completing it for the first time and then seeing one of the cut scenes. Such things were new to me at the time. I still remember completing it with Ken and then watching as he got married and just thinking it was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen. This wasn’t even full motion video either.
Beat-em-ups are a bit of an acquired taste, especially now that they are all about ridiculous combos and seemingly every franchise has just got sillier and sillier as time has progressed. Back when this game came out though, it was a simpler time. Ryu was the good guy who could throw fireballs and Bison was the bad guy who could fly across the screen. Everyone in the game hated him for one reason or another and they were all lining up to kick his arse in a Street Fighting Tournament. Nice, simple and easy to comprehend.
The gameplay in the earlier editions of the series was built about knowing when to time your block and how to avoid the insane cheapness of some of the opposing fighters. Fighters like Sagat would throw both high and low fireballs at you, so you’d diligently dodge them only to walk right into a Tiger Uppercut. Sagat would then laugh at your pathetic broken carcass. Ah, memories.
If you ask me, the more simplistic Street Fighter experience was the one I enjoyed the most. Who cares about wacky combos that cause the screen to flash and change colour? Street Fighter II: Turbo made you think tactically. You could be stuck in the corner with literally no health, biding your time for that one Hadouken or flying punch/kick that you needed to win. Waiting patiently as Vega climbed the cage so you could catch him with an uppercut at just the right moment when he leapt down to attack you is still one of the most satisfying things you can do in a video game.
And if you had friends, this game could potentially last forever. This is my childhood, hear it roar!
Number 16: Grand Theft Auto V (X-Box 360/Playstation 3/X-Box One/Playstation 4)
The most recent game to make the list and it more than earns its place. You talk about immersion in video games, well look no further than GTA V. The PS4 version takes an already stacked game and just makes it even bigger.
The city this game is set in actually feels alive. There are thousands of computer generated people, cars and animals, all getting on with their own existence as you survive through your own whilst playing as one of the three central characters.
As you stroll down by the beach, people are walking their dogs or are chatting on their phones. I randomly passed a gruff middle aged black man who was in the middle of a phone call with his wife blaming her for his erectile dysfunction. This actually happened, they paid an actor to come in and read the lines for this, on the 1000/1 off chance that someone might randomly hear it.
The level of detail to the little things in this game is both incredibly impressive and also a little bit terrifying. I’ve spoken to people who don’t even bother with the story missions. They just boot up the game and go for a drive in the Los Santos sun. I spent a good 20 minutes during one play session just going for a walk and taking pictures.
When you can tear yourself away from the scenery, the game itself is excellent. The game is built around three crooks who are looking to complete a number of heists in order to make ends meat. Michael has been forcibly retired for nearly a decade, but is getting the itch to get back in. Franklin is a young wannabe gangster from the streets who is looking for his first big job. And then there’s Trevor. I don’t think I can adequately explain just how bizarre Trevor is, you’ll have to play the game. The man is freaking cucaracha though and no mistake.
All in all, this game will eat into your free time. No matter how late it is or how long you’ve been playing, it’s very hard to fight the urge to complete just one more mission. Top stuff.
That's enough for now I think. I'll be back soon with 15-11
Thursday, 18 December 2014
This and That: Rangers FC - How to kill a football club twice over
Glasgow Rangers, is that even their name anymore?, is a veritable mess of epic proportions. Ally McCoist’s recent resignation only adds to the general mad house vibe that the club is under at the moment. Decisions seem to be made on a whim, stadium naming rights are sold for £1, attendances are dropping and the general fan base seems at their wits end.
McCoist’s resignation is just another chapter in the seemingly never ending saga of this once successful clubs collapse. I know some snarky people will reply with “What success? This club has only been in existence for 2 seasons!”, but let’s be real about this. As fun as it is to use that stick to beat the slightly more unedifying part of the Rangers support with, this Newco is still very much the Rangers we all knew and loved/loathed (Pick where applicable)
Such an exaggerated collapse of a once powerful institution is something to behold and a dire warning to other clubs. What irks me about all this though is how Rangers just don’t seem to have learnt their lesson. I mean, I don’t think they’ve learnt a single solitary thing from the events that landed them where they are. This isn’t just random Old Firm Bashing either. When you compare a club like Rangers to a club in a similar position, such as Hearts, the differences are staggering.
Hearts found themselves in financial disarray and with a big point deduction to boot. Knowing they didn’t have money to spend, Hearts instead cultivated their younger players and essentially took the pressure off Gary Locke to do what he needed to do to right the ship, pretty much writing a season off. Hearts eventually finished bottom and were relegated, but had it not been for the points deduction they would have likely stayed up. Not only that, a lot of the young lads from last season are now helping Hearts to be top of The Scottish Championship.
In comparison, Rangers realised they didn’t have money to spend, but just went out and spent it anyway. McCoist was put under immediate pressure to get Ranger’s up the leagues, even to the detriment of the sides future development, and as such he didn’t want to risk it all on the youth team. As a result, he shored up the side with journeymen players on inflated wages and slowly started flushing away what was left of the clubs finances. This directly plunged Ranger’s deep into the darkness once more.
McCoist to this day is adamant that signing experienced pro’s was the way forward as opposed to taking his chances with the youth players. This raises questions about both McCoist himself, the Club and also the youth facilities at Rangers disposal.
In regards to McCoist, it questions his attitude to the development of players and also his management style. McCoist's actions during his time as manager have suggested that he lives very much in the short term. His desire for instant gratification seems to mirror that of the board and the Rangers support. This doesn’t mean that he won’t be capable of any success as a manager in the future, but it does suggest that he will be a manager who doesn’t stay at a club for long. It suggests he’ll be someone who will drop in for a couple of years, possibly win something and then move on for the next challenge. If there was any club where you’d expect him to play the long game, it would be Rangers, but that’s not at all what has happened here.
Of Course, an argument could be made that McCoist had little choice in this instance. Rather than rebuilding the club gradually, perhaps at the expense of immediate promotion in the very first season, it was clear that Rangers felt they had to come straight back up as quickly as possible, and placed pressure on McCoist accordingly. Now, I understand that Rangers is a big club and the idea to supporters and board that they’d spend even one season longer in a lower division than they had to was an intolerable one at best, but surely it made sense for the club to take their time and not rush things?
And what does it say about the standard of Rangers youth academy? This was a situation where it would have been both cost effective and also an opportunity for some positive PR to give some of the younger players a chance. However, the manager was so terrified that they’d fail that he decided to pass on them and sign veterans and journeymen instead, journeymen that likely wouldn’t be up to much if Rangers were to make it back to the top division.
This then raises the question, is the youth academy really this bad or did McCoist simply not have the moral fortitude to give them a chance? Now look, I know that’s easy for me to say and to point out that I'm just musing in a column while McCoist was in a high pressure situation and yada yada yada, but let’s remember who this is. Ally McCoist is a club legend and, as a result, you would think he’d have the clubs best interests at heart right? How on Earth then does spending them into a gaping abyss, while taking a pretty sweet wage himself I might add, help the club? Surely it would be better for the club if he’d gone to board and said “Look, I want to play the kids. Give me at least a years wiggle room”, rather than just throwing money that they didn't have at a problem that didn't require it?
If the board then said no and he decided not to take the job, could anyone really blame him? What was McCoist’s end game? Was he thinking “I’ll just spend the money we don’t have because eventually these people will be bought out”? How is that even close to a viable plan when managing a football club, especially one that you're puported to love?
In the interest of balance though, maybe McCoist did have a point that the lads in the youth squad just weren’t good enough? If that were the case, how could Rangers have allowed such a situation to befall them? I can only imagine the amount of young footballers who would jump at the chance to sign a contract with Rangers, regardless of where they were in the league system. Rangers are a hugely popular club. Is it really feasible that Rangers couldn’t cultivate enough talented youngsters for McCoist to use in his team? Their youth facilities in general seem to be to a decent standard. I just find it hard to believe. If Hearts could do it, in a more difficult league in fact, why couldn’t Rangers?
Was anyone even remotely concerned with the long term ramifications of what the club was doing in those two seasons in League Two and One? Wouldn’t there be merit to the club gradually building itself back up rather than spending themselves back into a hole in a desperate bid to climb the divisions as quickly as possible?
The board failed to be honest with the fan base. I know that it sucks to be the bearer of bad news. I work in complaints and that role naturally entails me to sometimes be the first person to actually tell a customer the truth. There is nothing more galling than speaking to a customer who has been told exactly what they wanted to hear on more than one occasion only to kick off when you actually explain what the situation truly is.
If the board had just come clean with the fans and told them that they had to cut their cloth accordingly and manage expectations, maybe there would have been less pressure on McCoist and the coaching staff to get Rangers up the leagues? Maybe McCoist would have felt more confident giving the lads from the youth squad a chance in that scenario? Maybe Rangers could have spent a season in League Two building up the lads and getting them experience?
Not all of them would have come through obviously, but enough of them could have potentially developed into decent players so that Rangers would have been one step closer to self-efficiency. The board could have then hoarded the money for 2-3 seasons with the real promise that they would spend it when the club reached the Championship, where the expected gulf between the top divisions and the lower half would have required such action.
There was always a risk that the kids wouldn’t be up to it, but then that’s one of the pitfalls of going into administration. Rangers, despite what some may think, do not have a divine right to compete in Scotland’s top division. Part of going into administration is because you have been financially imprudent. To be put into administration, dropped down three leagues and then continue to be financially imprudent is just plain insanity. After all, the definition of insanity is to the do the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.
Some clubs, such as Chelsea and Man United, can afford to live in the short term. Their futures are almost assuredly financially secure, so they can take gambles on big money for players and if it doesn’t work out, they can just buy another. Rangers could not afford to live in the short term. They had the chance to create a long term plan that would enable them to climb the leagues while ensuring that they were also financially stable.
They should have been patient with expectations
They should have been honest with the support and managed their expectations
They should have been firmer with McCoist in regards to finance but also placed less pressure on him in relation to timescales
They should have promoted and played their best youth prospects before they got into the veritable dogfight that is The Championship
Rangers FC was a giant mess two years ago, and it’s just the same today. The club had its chance to learn from its mistakes and come back stronger but it didn’t take that chance. Rangers remain a cautionary tale to all clubs to not spend what they don’t have and to also look more to the long term rather than focus on short term gains.
Peace Out
McCoist’s resignation is just another chapter in the seemingly never ending saga of this once successful clubs collapse. I know some snarky people will reply with “What success? This club has only been in existence for 2 seasons!”, but let’s be real about this. As fun as it is to use that stick to beat the slightly more unedifying part of the Rangers support with, this Newco is still very much the Rangers we all knew and loved/loathed (Pick where applicable)
Such an exaggerated collapse of a once powerful institution is something to behold and a dire warning to other clubs. What irks me about all this though is how Rangers just don’t seem to have learnt their lesson. I mean, I don’t think they’ve learnt a single solitary thing from the events that landed them where they are. This isn’t just random Old Firm Bashing either. When you compare a club like Rangers to a club in a similar position, such as Hearts, the differences are staggering.
Hearts found themselves in financial disarray and with a big point deduction to boot. Knowing they didn’t have money to spend, Hearts instead cultivated their younger players and essentially took the pressure off Gary Locke to do what he needed to do to right the ship, pretty much writing a season off. Hearts eventually finished bottom and were relegated, but had it not been for the points deduction they would have likely stayed up. Not only that, a lot of the young lads from last season are now helping Hearts to be top of The Scottish Championship.
In comparison, Rangers realised they didn’t have money to spend, but just went out and spent it anyway. McCoist was put under immediate pressure to get Ranger’s up the leagues, even to the detriment of the sides future development, and as such he didn’t want to risk it all on the youth team. As a result, he shored up the side with journeymen players on inflated wages and slowly started flushing away what was left of the clubs finances. This directly plunged Ranger’s deep into the darkness once more.
McCoist to this day is adamant that signing experienced pro’s was the way forward as opposed to taking his chances with the youth players. This raises questions about both McCoist himself, the Club and also the youth facilities at Rangers disposal.
In regards to McCoist, it questions his attitude to the development of players and also his management style. McCoist's actions during his time as manager have suggested that he lives very much in the short term. His desire for instant gratification seems to mirror that of the board and the Rangers support. This doesn’t mean that he won’t be capable of any success as a manager in the future, but it does suggest that he will be a manager who doesn’t stay at a club for long. It suggests he’ll be someone who will drop in for a couple of years, possibly win something and then move on for the next challenge. If there was any club where you’d expect him to play the long game, it would be Rangers, but that’s not at all what has happened here.
Of Course, an argument could be made that McCoist had little choice in this instance. Rather than rebuilding the club gradually, perhaps at the expense of immediate promotion in the very first season, it was clear that Rangers felt they had to come straight back up as quickly as possible, and placed pressure on McCoist accordingly. Now, I understand that Rangers is a big club and the idea to supporters and board that they’d spend even one season longer in a lower division than they had to was an intolerable one at best, but surely it made sense for the club to take their time and not rush things?
And what does it say about the standard of Rangers youth academy? This was a situation where it would have been both cost effective and also an opportunity for some positive PR to give some of the younger players a chance. However, the manager was so terrified that they’d fail that he decided to pass on them and sign veterans and journeymen instead, journeymen that likely wouldn’t be up to much if Rangers were to make it back to the top division.
This then raises the question, is the youth academy really this bad or did McCoist simply not have the moral fortitude to give them a chance? Now look, I know that’s easy for me to say and to point out that I'm just musing in a column while McCoist was in a high pressure situation and yada yada yada, but let’s remember who this is. Ally McCoist is a club legend and, as a result, you would think he’d have the clubs best interests at heart right? How on Earth then does spending them into a gaping abyss, while taking a pretty sweet wage himself I might add, help the club? Surely it would be better for the club if he’d gone to board and said “Look, I want to play the kids. Give me at least a years wiggle room”, rather than just throwing money that they didn't have at a problem that didn't require it?
If the board then said no and he decided not to take the job, could anyone really blame him? What was McCoist’s end game? Was he thinking “I’ll just spend the money we don’t have because eventually these people will be bought out”? How is that even close to a viable plan when managing a football club, especially one that you're puported to love?
In the interest of balance though, maybe McCoist did have a point that the lads in the youth squad just weren’t good enough? If that were the case, how could Rangers have allowed such a situation to befall them? I can only imagine the amount of young footballers who would jump at the chance to sign a contract with Rangers, regardless of where they were in the league system. Rangers are a hugely popular club. Is it really feasible that Rangers couldn’t cultivate enough talented youngsters for McCoist to use in his team? Their youth facilities in general seem to be to a decent standard. I just find it hard to believe. If Hearts could do it, in a more difficult league in fact, why couldn’t Rangers?
Was anyone even remotely concerned with the long term ramifications of what the club was doing in those two seasons in League Two and One? Wouldn’t there be merit to the club gradually building itself back up rather than spending themselves back into a hole in a desperate bid to climb the divisions as quickly as possible?
The board failed to be honest with the fan base. I know that it sucks to be the bearer of bad news. I work in complaints and that role naturally entails me to sometimes be the first person to actually tell a customer the truth. There is nothing more galling than speaking to a customer who has been told exactly what they wanted to hear on more than one occasion only to kick off when you actually explain what the situation truly is.
If the board had just come clean with the fans and told them that they had to cut their cloth accordingly and manage expectations, maybe there would have been less pressure on McCoist and the coaching staff to get Rangers up the leagues? Maybe McCoist would have felt more confident giving the lads from the youth squad a chance in that scenario? Maybe Rangers could have spent a season in League Two building up the lads and getting them experience?
Not all of them would have come through obviously, but enough of them could have potentially developed into decent players so that Rangers would have been one step closer to self-efficiency. The board could have then hoarded the money for 2-3 seasons with the real promise that they would spend it when the club reached the Championship, where the expected gulf between the top divisions and the lower half would have required such action.
There was always a risk that the kids wouldn’t be up to it, but then that’s one of the pitfalls of going into administration. Rangers, despite what some may think, do not have a divine right to compete in Scotland’s top division. Part of going into administration is because you have been financially imprudent. To be put into administration, dropped down three leagues and then continue to be financially imprudent is just plain insanity. After all, the definition of insanity is to the do the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.
Some clubs, such as Chelsea and Man United, can afford to live in the short term. Their futures are almost assuredly financially secure, so they can take gambles on big money for players and if it doesn’t work out, they can just buy another. Rangers could not afford to live in the short term. They had the chance to create a long term plan that would enable them to climb the leagues while ensuring that they were also financially stable.
They should have been patient with expectations
They should have been honest with the support and managed their expectations
They should have been firmer with McCoist in regards to finance but also placed less pressure on him in relation to timescales
They should have promoted and played their best youth prospects before they got into the veritable dogfight that is The Championship
Rangers FC was a giant mess two years ago, and it’s just the same today. The club had its chance to learn from its mistakes and come back stronger but it didn’t take that chance. Rangers remain a cautionary tale to all clubs to not spend what they don’t have and to also look more to the long term rather than focus on short term gains.
Peace Out
Wednesday, 26 November 2014
A Trip Away - Chapter 10
After finally finishing the washing up, we began plans to undo all our good work, as Adam declared he was going to make pizzas for lunch. He got to making the pizza dough, while I attended to trying to start a fire. Alas, the Scotsman finally met it’s Waterloo, as we needed fuel.
Pete stuck a quite ludicrously large log in the fireplace and we surrounded it with as much newspaper and smaller chunks of wood as we could, in an effort to get it burning. Thankfully, the additional accoutrements got the fire to start crackling away.
Adam finished his pizza dough and announced that it would need a while to rise before it could be cooked. The cottage was about halfway down a winding road into the wilderness. It was an area we had yet to explore, so it was decided that we’d go for a walk while the pizza dough settled.
We left the cottage and Pete stashed the spare key under the plant pot in readiness for the water man’s arrival. We set off downhill along the road and into a sort of quarry. Thankfully, there wasn’t much traffic to contend with. We passed some lumberjacks who were chopping down some of the trees. They weren’t your usual lumberjack types, eschewing plaid shirts and Yukon Caps for high vis jackets and hard hats. I wondered the reasons why they were chopping the trees down. Development? Furniture? Firewood?
We continued onward, over a small stream and into a sort of ravine past the quarry. There were hillsides and mountainous terrain in the nearby distance which we decided to head for. Luc and Pete set off ahead of us around about this time. I was struggling to keep pace in all honesty. I was still tired from the other day and was finding it hard to keep pace. I think partly it was a mental thing. My new walking boots, relatively comfortable the other day under two pairs of socks, were starting to rub against my heels and ankles. My jeans felt heavy and tight the more I walked.
Adam had decided to hang back with me, rather than leave me struggling at the rear again. I was frustrated, but I’ve never really been a fast walker. I love going for a nice walk, but I just can’t do it at pace. We passed another bridge and started making our way up the hillside. The slope had been turned into a makeshift road for heavy vehicles. Stones had be laid out in order to give the lorries and vans purchase when trying to get up the hill. Adam removed one of these stones and chortled to himself. I chastised Adam for this, perhaps through some cosmic idea of solidarity with the truck drivers. Until you’ve driven up a mountain, you just wouldn’t understand.
As we continued up the hill, I really started to tire. My feet were hurting, I was sweating profusely and my jeans were starting to chafe. Both the jeans and walking boots were all new, thus is the hazard of going for a walk in clothing you haven’t properly worn in, and they were conspiring to make the climb arduous. Finally, I decided that I’d taken all I couldst and I couldst takes no mores, and took a seat by the side of the road while Luc and Pete continued onward. Adam hung back with me and we waited for Pete and Luc to reach the top of the road and return.
I felt bad about not making it all the way up the hill, but I remembered the events of the previous day in an effort to console myself. Had I worn more appropriate clothing and not done all the rowing and climbing the previous day, I would have likely had a better stab at it. That being said, we’d walked for something like half an hour and it would be another half an hour back, so I’d at least had some exercise and got a chance to have a look at more scenery, so the walk wasn’t a total bust.
We made our way back to the cottage and I suffered an injury. It had nothing to do with the walking though. I was doing my Woody Allen impression and shrugged my shoulder so much that I felt a jolt in my neck. I nursed by aching injury for the remainder of the walk back. It just goes to show that you should always stretch thoroughly before doing an impression of a well-known Jewish comic actor/director. I’d make a note of it reader, this sort of information could save your life!
Pete and Luc started edging ahead again, but at a turn in the road, they suddenly stopped. I could see them in the not too far distance and thought a car or some such must be coming round the corner. I was in for a surprise. There was something coming around the corner alright, but it wasn’t a car. It was a flock of nearly 30 sheep careening around the bend, being chased by an eager sheep-dog and a shepherd bringing up the rear in a small tractor. Adam and I leapt to the left to dodge the sheep, but they dodged us at the same time and actually started clambering up the verge of the road.
The sheepdog desperately chased the sheep and managed to guide them all back onto the road and to safety. The farmer drove slowly past and thanked us for getting out of the way so promptly. Adam recorded the whole thing on his phone and was quite amused by it all. It was certainly something you didn’t see every day living in Stockport, although I have spent one or two occasions waiting patiently for a farmer to guide his cows across the road back when I used to work in Leek.
We got back to the cottage where Adam, satisfied with the dough, began to prepare the pizzas. I can’t quite remember if I assisted with this or did something else. That’s the price you pay for not keeping copious notes I suppose. The pizzas were eventually finished and they were delicious. Adam had made them more rectangular than circular and Luc whipped up a salad to go with them.
As we ate, the water man, whose name sadly escapes me, ventured in to tell us that he’d fixed the water issue as best he could and that there should hopefully be some hot water now. He told us to notify the cottage owner should the problem persist. He was going to have to do something about it anyway, and went off to call in for more hardware. We thanked him and finished up lunch.
After lunch, we had a look at the remaining supplies that we had and it didn’t make for pleasant viewing. We had run out of pretty much all the essentials and it looked like we were going to have to venture to the shops once again. Considering the nearest shop was, at least, a 40 minute drive, this was slightly more of an issue than it would normally be. This was when we remembered the small shop by the Road Closed sign. That wasn’t in Inverness itself, so wouldn’t take as far to get to.
Pete had had his fill of long drives at this point, and was itching to have another ride in the boat. It was decided that myself and Adam would drive to the shop and pick up some supplies, while Luc and Pete would set sail once again.
Plans were made, an address was acquired and we readied for our journey. We were in hope that it would take 15-20 minutes to get where we needed to go. We were about to be surprised…
Pete stuck a quite ludicrously large log in the fireplace and we surrounded it with as much newspaper and smaller chunks of wood as we could, in an effort to get it burning. Thankfully, the additional accoutrements got the fire to start crackling away.
Adam finished his pizza dough and announced that it would need a while to rise before it could be cooked. The cottage was about halfway down a winding road into the wilderness. It was an area we had yet to explore, so it was decided that we’d go for a walk while the pizza dough settled.
We left the cottage and Pete stashed the spare key under the plant pot in readiness for the water man’s arrival. We set off downhill along the road and into a sort of quarry. Thankfully, there wasn’t much traffic to contend with. We passed some lumberjacks who were chopping down some of the trees. They weren’t your usual lumberjack types, eschewing plaid shirts and Yukon Caps for high vis jackets and hard hats. I wondered the reasons why they were chopping the trees down. Development? Furniture? Firewood?
We continued onward, over a small stream and into a sort of ravine past the quarry. There were hillsides and mountainous terrain in the nearby distance which we decided to head for. Luc and Pete set off ahead of us around about this time. I was struggling to keep pace in all honesty. I was still tired from the other day and was finding it hard to keep pace. I think partly it was a mental thing. My new walking boots, relatively comfortable the other day under two pairs of socks, were starting to rub against my heels and ankles. My jeans felt heavy and tight the more I walked.
Adam had decided to hang back with me, rather than leave me struggling at the rear again. I was frustrated, but I’ve never really been a fast walker. I love going for a nice walk, but I just can’t do it at pace. We passed another bridge and started making our way up the hillside. The slope had been turned into a makeshift road for heavy vehicles. Stones had be laid out in order to give the lorries and vans purchase when trying to get up the hill. Adam removed one of these stones and chortled to himself. I chastised Adam for this, perhaps through some cosmic idea of solidarity with the truck drivers. Until you’ve driven up a mountain, you just wouldn’t understand.
As we continued up the hill, I really started to tire. My feet were hurting, I was sweating profusely and my jeans were starting to chafe. Both the jeans and walking boots were all new, thus is the hazard of going for a walk in clothing you haven’t properly worn in, and they were conspiring to make the climb arduous. Finally, I decided that I’d taken all I couldst and I couldst takes no mores, and took a seat by the side of the road while Luc and Pete continued onward. Adam hung back with me and we waited for Pete and Luc to reach the top of the road and return.
I felt bad about not making it all the way up the hill, but I remembered the events of the previous day in an effort to console myself. Had I worn more appropriate clothing and not done all the rowing and climbing the previous day, I would have likely had a better stab at it. That being said, we’d walked for something like half an hour and it would be another half an hour back, so I’d at least had some exercise and got a chance to have a look at more scenery, so the walk wasn’t a total bust.
We made our way back to the cottage and I suffered an injury. It had nothing to do with the walking though. I was doing my Woody Allen impression and shrugged my shoulder so much that I felt a jolt in my neck. I nursed by aching injury for the remainder of the walk back. It just goes to show that you should always stretch thoroughly before doing an impression of a well-known Jewish comic actor/director. I’d make a note of it reader, this sort of information could save your life!
Pete and Luc started edging ahead again, but at a turn in the road, they suddenly stopped. I could see them in the not too far distance and thought a car or some such must be coming round the corner. I was in for a surprise. There was something coming around the corner alright, but it wasn’t a car. It was a flock of nearly 30 sheep careening around the bend, being chased by an eager sheep-dog and a shepherd bringing up the rear in a small tractor. Adam and I leapt to the left to dodge the sheep, but they dodged us at the same time and actually started clambering up the verge of the road.
The sheepdog desperately chased the sheep and managed to guide them all back onto the road and to safety. The farmer drove slowly past and thanked us for getting out of the way so promptly. Adam recorded the whole thing on his phone and was quite amused by it all. It was certainly something you didn’t see every day living in Stockport, although I have spent one or two occasions waiting patiently for a farmer to guide his cows across the road back when I used to work in Leek.
We got back to the cottage where Adam, satisfied with the dough, began to prepare the pizzas. I can’t quite remember if I assisted with this or did something else. That’s the price you pay for not keeping copious notes I suppose. The pizzas were eventually finished and they were delicious. Adam had made them more rectangular than circular and Luc whipped up a salad to go with them.
As we ate, the water man, whose name sadly escapes me, ventured in to tell us that he’d fixed the water issue as best he could and that there should hopefully be some hot water now. He told us to notify the cottage owner should the problem persist. He was going to have to do something about it anyway, and went off to call in for more hardware. We thanked him and finished up lunch.
After lunch, we had a look at the remaining supplies that we had and it didn’t make for pleasant viewing. We had run out of pretty much all the essentials and it looked like we were going to have to venture to the shops once again. Considering the nearest shop was, at least, a 40 minute drive, this was slightly more of an issue than it would normally be. This was when we remembered the small shop by the Road Closed sign. That wasn’t in Inverness itself, so wouldn’t take as far to get to.
Pete had had his fill of long drives at this point, and was itching to have another ride in the boat. It was decided that myself and Adam would drive to the shop and pick up some supplies, while Luc and Pete would set sail once again.
Plans were made, an address was acquired and we readied for our journey. We were in hope that it would take 15-20 minutes to get where we needed to go. We were about to be surprised…
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