Chick Young's Column

floody · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:47 pm

Chick Young is BBC Footballs Scottish corespondent, and writes what I believe is a weekly column on Scottish football. I thought we could have this thread in which i would post the columns and we could discuss what is said.

This weeks column:

Quote:

Frankly, there doesn't seem much point in even opening the polling booths. Ballot papers are not required.

Just be done with it and give Aiden McGeady the player of the year awards now, both Scottish Football Writers' Association and that of his fellow professionals. It's shootie-in.

The gifted young Glaswegian, who allowed his football soul to be wooed over the sea to Ireland, has lit up the season with his dancing feet and dipping shoulders, leaving magic dust and shell-shocked defenders in his wake.

Oh, what a loss for Scotland is the one who got away. How could that have happened?

You can't blame the lad. He's entitled to play for the country of his forebears if that's what stirs his heart.

The Irish prised a foot in his door when Celtic stopped him playing for the Scottish schoolboy team and Packy Bonner started to nibble his ear.

It was a piece of opportunism by Dublin, that's what it was. But it was Scotland's loss all right.

McGeady is the fans' kind of player. Big, ugly centre-halves might be vital components of successful teams but they don't affect the box office. You don't make up your mind to take in a game just to see a bloke built like a brick outhouse boot a ball into the stand.

But McGeady and his ilk? Things of beauty they are. They make turnstiles click like machine gun fire and they warm the soul on a cold winter's day.

Four years ago I stood with Martin O'Neill at Celtic's Barrowfield training ground on a spring afternoon and watched the club's youngsters play. McGeady shone like a diamond in a coal face.

It was as if the ball was laced to his boot. They couldn't get it off him, couldn't get near him.

Celtic's Aiden McGeady is challenged by AC Milan's Rino Gattuso
Aiden McGeady has come of age at the highest level

Except he loved it so dearly he couldn't bear to part with it. He should have been in dribblers' anonymous.

Beating three men was never enough - he always needed to take on just one more.

And so the strikers grow weary of making runs and checking out of them only to go again...and again...and again. They are, after all, playing football, not dancing the Grand Old Duke of York.

O'Neill told me that at that stage of McGeady's development it was not a problem, but there would come a time when the player would realise that the pass and the cross were as telling as the mazy run, when the extraction of the Michael of just a couple of players was enough.

And now the Celtic player has reached - and eased into - that stage.

It makes you wonder what he might be worth in the transfer market if Alan Hutton- a defender - and Craig Gordon - a goalkeeper - are price-tagged at �9m.

Celtic are sitting on the kind of goldmine which at one fell swoop could write off the cost of their Lennoxtown training complex.

Multi-million pound deals will never replace the joy of discovering and nurturing your own talent, although McGeady can reflect on the irony of life given that those who were developing with him - players like Ross Wallace and Craig Beattie - never quite took it to the next level at Celtic.

That's not McGeady's problem. But I doubt if he has many, as spring thinks of poking her head out from under the duvet.

It's his season in the sun, all right, and that showing against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Sunday was the embodiment of everything in his locker.

The double drag-back - copyright Zinedine Zidane - for the creation of Scott McDonald's second goal was stuff to take the breath away.

But there is more to his game now than flicks and tricks. He is not a performing seal.

But he should retain the skills. He'll have two player of the year awards to juggle with come May.

CFCBhoy · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:14 pm

Chick Young is a ned. This will be an interesting topic. Severe anti-Celtic whiff comes from everyone of his articles that's why I was so shocked when I read this. Praised McGeady but still manages a few jabs.

"The Irish prised a foot in his door when Celtic stopped him playing for the Scottish schoolboy team and Packy Bonner started to nibble his ear.

It was a piece of opportunism by Dublin, that's what it was. But it was Scotland's loss all right"

Rubbish. Can't remember the exact details but the SFA wouldn't allow McGeady to represent Scotland at schoolboy level. He wanted to play schoolboy football and Celtic wanted him to be playing for experience so Bonner explored the option of representing the Republic. When he was told he could play for them, he jumped at the chance. It is the SFA's fault that he doesn't play for Scotland. Their loss is Ireland's gain though

floody · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:24 pm

This is the first of his columns I have read, but I knew from being told that he liked to be a tad controversial and outspoken at times so I thought this would be an interesting thread to discuss what he says and see who agrees and who disagrees etc.

Regarding this weeks column, I agree with his descriptions of the way McGeady plays football, and how he shnes through so often in a league often dominated by big, bruising centre halves. However the sheer bitterness and jealousy that shines through here at McGeady's decision to play for the Republic instead of the Scots is unreal.

floody · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 6:57 pm

The column above was last weeks In fact,

this is this weeks:

Quote:

The Nou Camp is a special cathedral of football, maybe my favourite place on earth to watch the beautiful game.

And once again Celtic's Champions' League fate will unfold in the shadow of its towering grandstands on a breathless Catalunyan night.

It promises to be a thunderous occasion.

But the Scottish champions have to negotiate a first leg in the east end of Glasgow as Barcelona and their soccer gods strut their magical stuff on a winter's night when the passions will rise and the Parkhead faithful will growl their welcome in the Lisbon Lions' den.

There won't be a ground in Europe this week to rival the bubble and effervesce at Celtic Park.

Celtic are staring down not just the barrel of a gun, but a triple salvo of nuclear football power which threatens to blow them to kingdom come.

Samuel Eto'o, Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi; even fearless defenders gulp nervously at the thought of that trio.

And then there's Ronaldinho, who partied so hard he threatened an Eamon Holmes silhouette. It was as if someone was inflating him.

But don't be fooled. He still has an angel's touch on the ball.

I see that Andreas Hinkel, who arrived at Celtic from a tour of duty in La Liga where he was employed by Seville, believes the roly-poly Brazilian is a shadow, in football terms, of his former self.

Obviously, on the flesh count, the corollary is true.

Had Hinkel not been cup-tied for the competition, he might have been tempting fate.

Hinkel was lacking in energy against Hearts at the weekend. At one stage Andy Driver accelerated past him with such pace that it seemed as if the German was towing a caravan.

Messi is similarly jet-heeled and the new Celtic full-back may be permitted a quiet smile to himself that he can forego that particular torture.

And yet all of this would be to underestimate Celtic's remarkable achievements.

At the very worst this tie will be alive and kicking in Spain.

Gordon Strachan and Frank Rijkaard are unlikely to meet for a chat in the transfer market place. They shop at different ends you see.

There is not a player on the planet that Barca would not consider wooing. Meanwhile, the Celtic manager often has to settle for: "Woo, what a talent he is?"

The Catalunyan giants have tracks on every kid on the planet out of nappies who threatens to extend his dribbling skills beyond the bib.

If you can bounce a rubber ball round a nursery then there is every chance there will be a Barcelona scout at your front gate.

You get the impression that Messi and Bojan Krkic were monitored in the womb.

But then there is something about Celtic.

There is no doubt that in Artur Boruc, for all his nonsensical antics, they have a goalkeeper who is among the world's best.

His public spat with captain Stephen McManus in the Hearts game was school playground stuff, but would be laughed off in the dressing room.

Embarrassing, but not fatal to team spirit although there is much cringe-worthy about watching a publicly viewed domestic argument.

Aiden McGeady, this column has already predicted, will be a double player of the year and Scott MacDonald's tally of 24 goals at this stage of the season is remarkable.

On the other hand the absence of Scott Brown, through suspension, is not good.

The Champions' League is back and we give thanks to the good Lord for that and the continuing presence of a Scottish team in its unfolding.

When the draw was made I thought it signalled the end of the road for Celtic but now I am not so sure.

I honestly believe that Strachan's side can yet shoe-horn themselves in to the holy ground of the last eight although maybe, just maybe, Barcelona are just in time finding their own straight and narrow.

It will be breathtaking at Parkhead. We will be breathless in Barcelona.

CFCBhoy · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:03 pm

Can't beleive he reckons Celtic will do.

On the other hand though:

"Hinkel was lacking in energy against Hearts at the weekend. At one stage Andy Driver accelerated past him with such pace that it seemed as if the German was towing a caravan."

The same Andrew Driver that is labelled as one one the fast players on the British Isles. Hinkel was one of the better players against Hearts & fully deserved his goal but Dick Young still gets his kick in.

floody · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:47 pm

Quote:

Fifty years ago my pal Denis went to Spain on holiday by train.

His dad worked for British Railways and it seemed - to young Glaswegians who had hardly crossed a road, never mind a continent - that he was off to another world.

Half a century later I reflected the other night that Barcelona, on football terms at least, are on another planet.

Celtic were in the wrong movie in the Nou Camp. They had wandered into the big boys' playground.

The scoreline might have been close but the gulf in class was of Grand Canyon proportions.

In the opening spell it looked as if Gordon Strachan's defence couldn't have taken a beach ball from Ronaldinho and Messi in a phone box.

The Catalans were a joy to watch.

Except of course, strictly speaking they are not Catalan at all.

Barcelona are a cosmopolitan melting pot of South America and Europe's finest.

The club can afford to shop in the designer stores of the transfer market where only the finest produce is on sale.

There is a Savile Row cut to their players while Celtic are still popping down to Matalan.

It's a dose of their own medicine of course, because this is exactly what every other club in Scotland faces in relation to the Old Firm.

So, if Strachan mumps about the inequality of it all he may hear suggestions of double standards.

Personally, I'd be more interested in finding out how to persuade, encourage, bribe, cajole or whip our players into changing their attitudes.

It's about coaching and it's about fans. It's about re-educating supporters.

Only in Scotland do we cheer tackles and clearances which are monitored by air traffic control.

Only here do we pay to watch players with a touch which would struggle to trap a medicine ball.

Players who are so ill-equipped with the tools for the job that their second touch is a header have no place in the modern game.

And in its 17 laws there is no ruling that says a centre-half is forbidden from finding a team-mate with a short pass.

We are entitled to demand more, to see players perform with an angel's touch, to produce speed of thought and creativity the likes of which makes the jaw drop and which the citizens of Barcelona are served on a weekly basis.

We should demand Catalan standards, even at Matalan prices.

Of course there are other factors. Barcelona play their football on a pristine surface.

They do not have to deal with the bog that is Fir Park and other acreages where lawnmowers lie rusting.

Trust me, it will help your touch and your speed of thought if you play the game on lush grass when the wind isn't howling.

Kids learn more on summer days and summer nights when the turf is thick and green, and the rain is not horizontal.

Celtic manager Gordon Strachan
Gordon Strachan could not guide Celtic to victory in Barcelona

But we continue to insist in this little outcrop of rock in the North Atlantic that somehow it's better to take down the posts in the public parks in the summer and play when the gales howl and the mud thickens.

Aiden McGeady is the brightest young thing in the Scottish game, a stick-on for player of the year.

But he would've been sharply reminded in the Nou Camp on Tuesday that he has contemporaries whose sorcery is from a higher place.

We have much to learn - there's work to be done and a long journey ahead.

And just like my mate Denis all those years ago, we may have to train a few people.

floody · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:42 pm

Quote:

Gretna Football Club lie wounded, fighting for life.

In fact the obituary writers are hard at work. And all the bitter and twisted can think of doing is give them a right good kicking.

It has been vitriolic at times, the tsunami of delight which has thundered over their demise.

Jigs of delight danced around their sickbed. I've found it all a little sad.

A rare moment of joy for Gretna in the SPL
Gretna's players and staff face an uncertain future

Have the ghouls no place in their hearts for the players whose income has been slashed or taken away altogether?

Is it different from the closure of a factory or a coal mine?

And in any case when a romance turns sour, is it better never to have had the love affair at all?

Do you not smile at the memory of the joyous moments before it went horribly wrong.

Brooks Mileson is not guilty of any crimes against humanity. All he did was throw his fortune at a village team and trigger one of the most remarkable adventures in the history of the game in this country.

Gretna are the mouse that roared.

Of course, it has crashed and burned in spectacular style.

The demise of the club completes the most spectacular game of football snakes and ladders ever seen.

But when all is said and done they brought interest to our leagues where there was none and if their core support never really topped 1,000 then they still multiplied it fourfold from where they began.

They planted seeds of fascination with our game with coaching classes in parts of Scotland where they were once more intrigued by the flounder trampling championships on the Solway.

And trust me, such a pastime exists.

Of course there was gross mismanagement. It wouldn't have come to this had there not been.

But there should be some self examination by other clubs in this country before they point the finger at Raydale Park.

What is to become of them? Gretna were, I concede, a little like spoilt kids, the recipients of too much too early and too easily in their lives.

That tends to be a scenario which ends in tears. And maybe that is why they are hated.

But there is not that much wrong with buying success.

The Old Firm have been doing it since before Hibs last won the Scottish Cup. Or the Ice Age. Which ever came first.

I'll tell you exactly what will happen to Gretna.

They will parachute back to from whence they came, after breathing on a life support machine until the season's end, their presence in the SPL making an absolute farce of the bottom six fixtures after the split.

In truth, the clubs will be taking money from fans under false pretences as Gretna depart the top division never to be seen again.

And then they will start life in the First Division next season hit by a ten point penalty, victims of a player embargo.

They cannot claim protection in law from double-jeopardy because the SFL and the SPL are separate bodies. Their fate is already laid before them.

Then it becomes a decision by those in charge of the club - the administrators - as to whether it is really worth the bother.

It will be like trying to halt the rushing tide on the Solway, an impossible job at the best of times without attempting it standing on quicksand.

They are living the nightmare now all right, speeding back down the road which led them to the stars with only their memories to keep them warm from the cold wind of reality.

"Preserve your memories," wrote Paul Simon, "they're all that's left you." He was right too. But they don't pay bills.

I haven't had the chance to ask him, but I suspect that Brooks would do it all over again.

Oh come on, the man had a right go and when all is said and done rocked the very foundations of the game in this country.

And I can't find it in me to dance on the grave of a football club.

CFCBhoy · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:50 am

Attention/Sympathy seeking fud f*ck

Marshall_Helmsdale · Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 11:17 am

I know chicks a little bit biased but its always a giggle at work to read this with the other scottish lads im with.