letters 140

revisionism unchecked

Dear NTV,

A lot of nonsense has been spouted in the media recently about Alex McLeish. While it has been a great laugh to watch the Huns implode and start snarling at each other, there has been a creeping revisionism from McLeish apologists with regard to the oft chanted mantra of '7 trophies in four years', even to the point of trying to make favourable comparisons between The Cat in the Hat and MON.

Time for us to lay this one to rest I think, before it festers into some kind of half truth.

It's true that the Cat has won 7 trophies in the aforementioned spell (as things stand he won't be adding to it this season unless they can win the Scottish Cup - Celtic in the next round please!) but not all of these trophies carry equal prestige.

The weightiest of his trophy haul are the SPL titles, both of which won on the last day of the season. During the Seville season MON really took his eye off the ball with regard to the goal difference until it was too late, and even then his team started dishing out some hefty thrashings towards the end.

It seems almost petty to mention last season, given O'Neill's personal circumstances at the time, but once again it was clear that Rangers' best efforts were barely able to clinch the title. Celtic's best, on the other hand, saw MON's team romp away with the championship weeks before the season finished.

While O'Neill's sides were racking up records like the longest unbeaten run ever, McLeish has masterminded the worst run of results in Rangers history ever.

Against O'Neill, McLeish managed a record of played 28, won 8 (two in extra time) and set another unenviable record of seven defeats in a row, a feat which is highly unlikely ever to be repeated - unless he stays in his job for another five years, of course.

Leaving aside matters domestic, it's in Europe that the Huns want to be judged. Murray himself said that a few years ago.

I wouldn't be so churlish as to deny them their moment of glory in qualifying for the knockout phase of the Champions League. After all we've been through in that particular competition I'd settle for any kind of scraping through. But once again it shows how lucky McLeish has been at times; the draw they got could hardly have been better had they done it themselves, and the sequence of matches saw them playing the hardest team at a time when they'd already qualified. A goal in the other match would have rendered the Ibrox result meaningless, so it was actually out of their own hands in any case.

Looked in total - and Murray is quite fond of taking a longer term view when it suits him as opposed to judging his manager on a string of poor recent results - McLeish's record in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup is almost laughable. A record of nine wins out of 28 (some of these against giants of the European game like Famagusta and Amika Wronki) pales into insignificance by comparison with O'Neill's exploits.

Maybe when Eck's mob have gone to places like Anfield and Amsterdam and come back with a few results then his advocates can make their ridiculous claims on behalf of the Cat. Let's just say I'm glad he's staying. Murray had me on tenterhooks for a few days there!

Yours etc.
MON REPOSE
by e-mail

cack handed compliment

Dear NTV,

I notice that the day after Roy Keane signed for Celtic Fernando Ricksen declared that he wouldn't be playing for Rangers for a few weeks because of a stomach muscle injury.

Do you think it might have been because he was spending so much time on the pan cacking himself at the thought of having to face RK in the next Celtic v Rangers match??

Yours in the beautiful game,
GERRY DUFFY
Coatbridge

x-files

Dear NTV,

I was just reading a big bunch of NTV back issues I ordered, when I spotted a story about an x-rated interview Chick Young conducted with Walter Smith a few years ago.

The Huns had been pumped embarrassingly the night before by AEK Athens, and apparently wee Chick asked Smith a couple of questions he didn't fancy. Our silver haired maestro of the transfer market went duly mental and his foul mouthed tirade meant the interview never saw air.

I thought I'd try my luck finding a clip of it on the internet, so I did a Yahoo search for 'chick young walter smith AEK athens.'Ó The results were very interesting... Out of the first ten results, four were for websites punting the kind of extreme porn that would make Gary Glitter blush!

I'd always wondered what went on in The 'Blue' Room at Ibrox.

Yours in hiding,
GERRY PACEMAKER
Cambodia

the future's green

Dear NTV,

The horrific start to the Season, with our early exit from Europe and 4 v 4 draw at Motherwell in our first league game, now seems a far distant memory. Many of WGS's most vociferous early season critics have been silenced. The football we are playing is meeting with the approval of the vast majority of the support.

There is still a long way to go but there are clearly visible signs of improvement. Young players have been successfully introduced. McManus, Maloney, Beattie and McGeady have all made a valuable contribution to the team over the first half of the season. They have made dramatic progress, evidence being that they are increasingly viewed as being not promising youngsters but realistic first team regulars.

The new signings, particularly Nakamura, Boruc and Zurawski, have also impressed. At the time of writing Celtic are 3 points clear of Hearts with Rangers a distant 17 points behind in 4th place. That's a Strong position to be in given that many of us viewed this season as being one of transition where Mon's heroes of Seville would be gradually replaced by new players.

Our European exit remains a major disappointment but domestically the team has gelled far faster than many may have realistically thought. A new share issue, generously underwritten by Dermot Desmond, looks set to raise the funds required to build a new training complex for the club which is fit for the C21st.

All in all, as we prepare to enter a New Year, I think the outlook for Celtic seems positive. WGS, his backroom staff, the directors and the players all deserve credit for not allowing the disappointment of early August deflect them from the mission at hand.

Let us hope that the club can continue to progress and that we can finish the Season not only as Champions - which is likely to bring automatic entry to the group stages of the Champions League - but also as Treble Winners.

However this is no time for complacency, much work remains to be done. We seem weak in certain positions, especially full back, but given the progress that WGS has brought about thus far we can be optimistic that he will continue to work hard to improve the quality of player, not only at full back but throughout the team.

Hopefully by the time next season starts we will be viewing Europe with a sense of optimistic anticipation rather than gloomy trepidation.

The Future's Bright, the Futures Green and White.

ANDREW SQUARE
Edinburgh

help wanted

Hi guys,

My name is Andrea Franconi and with a group of friends loving football I'm trying to create a museum dedicated to football and football's fans.

I ask you to contribute to enlarge our collection of stuff dedicated to football (photos, shirts, old or used strips, badges, crests, stickers, scarves, old matches passes or tickets, fanzine..., any stuff related to our preferred sport). I also am interested in exchanging items like scarves, crests, stickers and so on.

Our initiative is completely no-profit and is promoted by a website: http://www.footballthings.it

The website is in English, Italian and Spanish. If you like the website and wish to help us, tell a friend about footballthings.it

I say thank you for your cooperation.

Best regards

mr. Andrea Franconi
Via Isonzo, 27/41
16147 Genova (GE) -
Italy
info@footballthings.it http://www.footballthings.it

atmospheric

Dear NTV,

Find enclosed a copy of a complaint I wrote to ITV after the Rangers v Inter match was screened live:

I would like to draw your attention to the so called 'fantastic atmosphere' your commentators kindly pointed out to the viewers of the live Champions League game between Rangers and Inter Milan last night on ITV 4. This so called great atmosphere is a continual barrage of sectarian abuse and singing against every Roman Catholic in the country. Would your commentators be so quick to praise this sort of atmosphere if it was directed against non white people. I believe not as this would be classed as racism which has no place in this country so why are your commentators so quick to praise sectarianism ? The only way this will ever be driven out of Ibrox (Rangers Football Club) is when TV companies refuse to screen this sort of backward behaviour which is being allowed to flourish at this stadium. You have a duty to ensure that your viewers are not subjected to this abuse about their religious beliefs in this country where everyone is supposed to have equal rights.

JOHN HOUSTON

survey

To whom it may concern,

My name is Richard Maguire and I am a Sociology final year student at Trinity College, Dublin. As part of our final year dissertation (or thesis, some call it), we must come up with an area of interest and conduct primary research in that area - that is, we must conduct surveys regarding our research topic and either interview people personally or send out the surveys by email.

My research topic is about investigating the feeling of Irish identity in Scottish people. The people I am most interested in are second and third generation Irish that were born to Irish parents or grandparents and grew up in Scotland, and whether or not they now feel Irish and why, but others who feel they have a claim to Ireland are also welcome. Obviously, in considering Irish & Scottish links, the first thing that comes to mind is, of course, Celtic. Is there any other group in Scotland that is as large and proud of their Irish heritage as those supporters of The Bhoys?

And so I am writing to you to ask if you could please forward this email to your mailing list of Celtic supporters or any other interested party in the hope that some might be interested in answering 38 short, simple questions regarding their Irish identity and their feelings and opinions towards certain Irish topics.

I hope this is not too much trouble, and of course feel free to fill out the questionnaire yourself, as well as your board, as I am interested in getting as many replies as possible! The link to the questionnaire is: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=573861434666

It would be very much appreciated.

Thanks again, and I hope to hear from you soon... Regards,
-Richard