Name dropping
7:44 pm on the 3rd of June, 2003As you no doubt know I’m no stranger to the stars, having met Thabo Mbeki, David Sole, Pat Nevin and Pieter van den Hoogenband to name a few, but tonight I surpassed all of those. In fact Kevin Gallagher and Matt Elliot are standing outside of my window now. Yes that’s right the ’stars’ of Scottish football were out in force tonight as the Scotland Under 16s (or something) trained at Garscube estate, right by my halls. Walter Smith could be seen chatting away to his successor David Moyes on the touchline with Bob Malcolm just afew yards away with Alex Smith, behind them sat John Collins, Jackie MacNamara, Mixu Paatelinen and a host of others. I think the lonesome figure of Gordon Durie could be seen on the other side of the pitch collecting loose balls but I may have been mistaken. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera so you’ll just have to take my word for it. (Even if I had had it do you really think I’d be able to take photos of that lot without feeling faintly ridiculous?)
It’s quite a collection for the future of Scotland to be working with and if it’s something Berti has initiated then it’s the first good thing he’s done as far as I’m aware. I’ve criticised his work with the first team in the past but maybe he is structuring the youth setup well and for that we have to be grateful.
We do still need someone else in charge of the top team though - maybe Walter? As long as it isn’t Tommy Burns we’ll be fine. Here’s to Saturday.
June 4th, 2003 at 9:10 am on the 4th of June, 2003
despite my earlier defences, i’m sadly coming round to feeling that walter may be better than bertie. Off the pitch i think he’s doing ok, but on the pitch his teams puzzle and depress me. i look forward to being proved wrong on Saturday.
And since when did you have a problem with feeling faintly ridiculous?
June 5th, 2003 at 9:36 am on the 5th of June, 2003
Walter? Jesus, I hope not.
Still, its nice that their all getting together and helping the youngsters train. Getting to train with someone like Davie Moyes can’t be bad.
We’re not going to qualify for Euro 2004 anyway. I say let him finish what he started, and sack him when it becomes clear he’s still not winning in a year or so.
I don’t think that will happen though. I think they’ll sack him when we go out to an away goal at home to Lithuania.
June 5th, 2003 at 2:11 pm on the 5th of June, 2003
I never said I wanted walter, just that I’m beginning to think he would be an improvement.
You never know tho. He’s got loads of coaching experience. Assistant to Jim McLean, Alex Ferguson (for Scotland), Graeme Souness. A pretty good record as talent spotter (Gattuso, Dacourt, Matterazi, even Negri). A man-management record in getting the best out of various disparate personalities (Gazza, Laudrup, Negri again). Walter might do a good job.
June 5th, 2003 at 2:29 pm on the 5th of June, 2003
Walter’s still here, I might go over and speak to him, see what he thinks about it and if he doesn’t want to do it maybe we should ask Davie Provan and Charlie Nicholas?
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