Craig Fowler is back with our weekly feature Winners & Losers. The transfer saga of the summer dominates what follows.
First of all, I would like to make everyone aware that this week’s Winners and Losers (the first of the current campaign) is shorter than was originally intended. This was because after I had written all but two sentences of the article I accidentally discarded the draft on Gmail, and then navigated away from the page before noticing the ‘undo’ pop-up, which isn’t there when you return to the same page. So, ironically, I am one of this week’s Losers. Dare I say some of you are probably Winners for having to read less of my pish.
WINNERS
Scott Allan (Celtic)
The biggest winner! He goes from the prospect of playing against Jim Duffy’s Morton and Danny Lennon’s Alloa, to likely being in the squad for a Champions League qualifier. A lot has been made of his decision to sign for Celtic, given his boyhood allegiance to Rangers. What these supporters fail to understand is that sportsmen have a very short shelf life and have to make the best decision for them and their family. Take out the favourite team aspect and look at the choice. Rangers, who on the park are excellent but off the park are still getting their house in order, or Celtic? A side playing at a higher level and who are two matches away from the Champions League? It’s a no brainer. Yes, first team football would have been guaranteed more at Ibrox, but Celtic will need a large, competitive squad if they are to challenge on four fronts.
Besides, he knew Hibs would rather have him sit on the bench rather than sell him to Rangers, and there’s no guarantee Mark Warburton would still have been interested come January or next summer. Hell, he could have burst his knee on Saturday playing at Easter Road and then what? Would Rangers have shown loyalty to him and signed Allan regardless? No chance.
Rangers fans
Yes there were a few who should have been carrying beamers after the way the Scott Allan saga panned out, but any negativity quickly went away when the team dismantled Alloa on Sunday. Considering it was at a ground, and on a pitch, that Rangers struggled at last year, this victory probably told us more of the transformation under Mark Warburton than their opening victory over alleged title rivals St Mirren. Rangers were superb and an absolute joy to watch: two dangerous full-backs, variety in midfield, the big striker dropping to the halfway line to…control and make a pass. No more long ball, no longer predictability.
After four years of Ally McCoist football, the Gers support must be feeling like all their Christmases came at once.
Kris Doolan (Partick Thistle)
Alan Archibald is always on the lookout for strikers to take the place of Dools in the Partick Thistle side and I just don’t get it. He’s got so much in his locker. The problem is that he lacks great physical qualities. The kind of terrific speed (Lyle Taylor) or strength (Matthias Pogba) you sometimes need as an X-factor to get you a goal out of nothing. Doolan is a superb team player who feeds off the supporting players around him.
Maybe Archibald should focus more on improving his support becauase, most weeks, he’s capable of turning in performances like the one he displayed against Killie, with his terrific skill and instinctive movement around the penalty area.
The Hibs board
Well done to Leeann Dempster and to anyone else at Hibernian who helped pacify Rod Petrie’s throbbing cash grab urges during the Scott Allan saga. Usually when pressure builds and builds there is an eventual release – normally the player, who gets to fulfil his life’s ambitions by failing to fulfil the final year of his contract. On this occasion Hibs withstood the pressure and insisted they were sticking to their stance. And I genuinely believe if Celtic hadn’t been interested they still wouldn’t have sold the player to Rangers.
Martin Canning (Hamilton Accies)
Hey! Look who can manage. The most promising aspect of Accies’ dismantling of Dundee United was the performance of Carlton Morris, playing as a lone striker, and Gramoz Kurtaj (the first time I manage to type his name without Googling it first I will execute a cartwheel in celebration) on the left of the three behind the striker. Going into to the season, the big question for Accies was who would link with Ali Crawford while chipping in with a few goals and assists? Against United the duo – both making their first start – spurned great chances before Morris got himself on the scoresheet and Kurtaj got himself an assist. Both look like they’ll be big players this season.
Way to recruit Canzo. (I’m assuming that’s his nickname because… footballers.)
LOSERS
Me (Terrace Podcast)
I’m typing a lot of this out twice and it’s horribly tedious. My cat is also looking at me weird.
Sackie JackNaeMarea (Dundee United)
Clever eh? I’ve said many times before that I believe if you’re going to give Jackie McNamara this season then you have to accept United aren’t going to be a brilliant side. It’s a period of transition. He’s signed a number of highly promising young players, but none of them are quite at the level of a Ryan Gauld, Andrew Robertson or even a Stuart Armstrong just yet, so they’ll need a little time. However, the United fans appear to have runout of patience. Some were calling for McNamara’s head after Saturday – although it’s easy to drunk-text a phone-in after drowning the defeat in a few lagers – even though one win, one draw, a narrow defeat to a tough side, as well as this humbling loss from four games is basically what United can expect from the season. I’m not even sure anyone else is going to do a better job. Regardless, when fans want a manager out, there’s usually only one scenario that plays out.
Kris Boyd’s frown (Kris Boyd’s puss)
At Firhill on Saturday a sight unseen since May 2014 was viewed by all in attendance: Kris Boyd smiled. For someone who spoke about his love for Rangers, Boyd’s brain sure had a hard time getting the message to his face as he often seemed to almost trip over it when playing at Ibrox. Now that he’s back in the blue and white stripes he seems a much happier lad.
Ian Murray (St Mirren)
It hardly makes me a soothsayer that I predicted St Mirren to struggle at the start of this season. New manager, new players, and a bit of deadwood (I’m looking at you Alan Gow) hanging around from last season. It doesn’t scream title challenge, which was an unlikely narrative anyway given the extra clout Rangers and Hibs have over the Paisley club. Not Ian Murray though. He believes they can win the title. Still does, in fact, going by his post game comments. He’s not in this list because his side lost. He’s here because he’s delusional.
Ricki Lord (Dunfermline fan)
Ricki is a friend of mine who you’ll remember from the League One preview podcast. Well, on Saturday, with his team having won 4-1, 5-1 and 6-1 in their first three games, Ricki followed the lead of many Pars’ fans and stuck £5 on Dunfermline to beat Cowdenbeath 7-1. What’s bad about that? Well, Ricki cashed out his bet at 6-0 with five minutes remaining. He won £50. The odds were 300/1. Ricki, upbeat as ever, is simply going to back 8-1 against Forfar in the Petrofac Cup. “There’s always next week,” he said. Come to think of it, this ‘ah well’ attitude maybe makes him a winner… at life. I was about to jump out the window just because I wasted two hours of writing bollocks about Scottish football.
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