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SPL Predictions: Rangers disappointed again while Kilmarnock are ready to rise

Craig delivers the final part in his 3 part series on the Scottish Premier League, with predictions for Rangers, Kilmarnock and more.

Kilmarnock

Finished 5th in the last 2 seasons, and will be hoping to do the same again with what is basically the same squad of players. Have spent the summer fending off advances from Rangers for star striker Steven Naismith. Rangers’ first offer was an insulting £400k over 2 years, and while this has been increased to £1.5m over 2 years, Killie want £2m for the Scotland international. Naismith handed in a transfer request before withdrawing it a week later and now looks set to stay at Rugby Park. Only signing has been 20 year-old midfielder Craig Bryson from Clyde who will add depth to that area of the park. Defender Gordon Greer left for Doncaster and midfielder Peter Leven joined Chesterfield, but youngster Ryan O’Leary will fill Greer’s boots, while Leven was never a regular anyway. Reserve goalkeeper Graeme Smith joined Rangers for free, and is now 3rd choice goalie at Ibrox. Naismith’s partnership with Colin Nish was the most prolific in the league last season, with 28 goals between them (Naismith 15, Nish 13) and a lot will depend on those two again. Manager Jim Jefferies likes his side to play the ball on the deck and Killie usually set out to attack teams. Defence is notoriously leaky but if they can plug the gaps they could challenge for Europe.

Key Player – Steven Naismith

One to watch – Ryan O’Leary

Prediction – 4th

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Gretna’s Time Is Up, But Can Hearts Rough Up Rangers And Celtic?

Craig kicks off his weekly Scottish Premier League coverage with the second in a three part series previewing the new season with Gretna, Hearts, Inverness and Hibernian forecasted

Gretna

Reached the SPL after 3 consecutive promotions, but look to be out of their depth at this level. Their cause will not be helped by the fact they have to play their home games at Motherwell’s Fir Park because Raydale Park does not meet SPL stadium criteria. There is also crisis at the top level, with the club’s manager Rowan Alexander being refused entry in to Fir Park for the opening game of the season. Alexander had been on personal leave since March, leaving assistant Davie Irons to guide them to promotion. Irons has continued to take charge of the club but no official announcement has been made. The club’s first few signings were uninspiring – Paul Murray (Carlisle), Abdul Osman (Maidenhead) and Nathan Wright (Darlington) all joining from clubs in the lower reaches of the English leagues. However they signed Uruguayan attacker Fabian Yantorno who has been very impressive in pre-season, and defender Aurelien Collin has joined from Real Mallorca. Striker Kenny Deuchar was top scorer in divisions 2 and 3, but looked to be on the way out last season when he was loaned to Northampton. However he has decided to stay and fight for his place in the SPL and will provide a goal threat. They will need to strengthen more in order to stay up – but the unknown element might help them to do just enough.

Key Player – Fabian Yantorno

One to watch – Erik Paartalu

Prediction – 11th

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Hearts Have had a quiet summer by their standards – but will struggle to replace Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon who joined Sunderland for £9m. Completed the permanent signing of Laryea Kingston from Terek Grozny for £500k following a successful loan deal. Midfielder Michael Stewart also joined from rivals Hibs on a free transfer, but ex-Rangers midfielder turned down a move from Leicester. Spanish midfielder Ruben Palazuelos joined for free after buying out his contract at Gimnastic de Tarragona. Owner Vladimir Romanov also has a stake in FBK Kaunas, and Hearts have 8 players on loan from Kaunas, most of them first team players. They have a good youth system and give many young players a chance in the first team – look out for Gary Glen and Dumitru Copil in particular this season. Their squad is the 3rd strongest in the league, and could challenge the Old Firm in Romanov kept his nose out of team selection and appointed a manager who wasn’t merely a figurehead. While that is unlikely, they should still be the strongest challengers for 3rd place this year, especially if they spend some of the money from the transfer of Gordon.

Key Player – Laryea Kingston

One to watch – Andrew Driver

Prediction – 3rd

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Celtic Will Win The Title And European Dreams for Aberdeen, Dundee and Falkirk

Craig kicks off his weekly Scottish Premier League coverage with the first in a three part series previewing the new season. Rangers supporters look away…

Aberdeen

Finished 3rd last year on the back of a consistent season, but didn’t play the most attractive football. Lost inspirational captain Russell Anderson to Sunderland for the knock-down price of £1m and he will be extremely difficult to replace in the heart of the defence. Secured a major coup by luring Jackie McNamara back to the SPL but there is a question mark over his fitness. Dutch midfielder Jeffrey de Visscher has joined from De Graafschap and could turn out to be a great signing. Derek Young has been re-signed from Partick Thistle in a move that has angered fans, while Lee Mair has joined on a free from Dundee United. May have trouble in the goalkeeping department because 1st choice keeper Jamie Langfield is likely to leave after falling out with manager Jimmy Calderwood. Certainly strong enough for the top-6 and could challenge for Europe again.

Key Player – Scott Severin

One to watch – Andrew Considine

Prediction – 5th

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Celtic

Won the league at a canter last year, and are odds on favourites again this season. Lost skipper Neil Lennon but signed Massimo Donati from AC Milan to replace him in the midfield. Scott Brown was signed for £4.4m from Hibs, a record transfer between Scottish clubs, and will have a lot to prove. However he thrives on pressure and should become a key player at home and in Europe. Scott McDonald joined for £700k from Motherwell and Chris Killen of Hibs joined on a free – leaving them with 6 strikers. Tony Mowbray did his old club a favour by taking Craig Beattie off their hands for £1.75m which seems about a million pounds too much. Defender John Kennedy has returned after 3 years out with a knee ligament injury and will strengthen the defence. They have lacked goals in pre-season, but with the quality of attackers at their disposal it seems unlikely this will continue. Opponents must avoid conceding free kicks in dangerous areas because Shunsuke Nakamura is lethal with a dead ball.

Key Player – Shunsuke Nakamura

One to watch – John Kennedy

Prediction – 1st

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Eight Very Dodgy Transfers

Craig takes a look at some rather bung-ridden perculiar transfers football seasons past.

As the transfer window enters its last month, teams are becoming ever more frantic in their attempts to finalise their squads. And while the majority of transfers follow the more conventional route of a club paying for a player who they have scouted – there are some which follow a more bizarre route.

There are plenty more of course so feel free to add your own strange deals in the comments:

Ronnie O’Brien – Middlesbrough to Juventus

This has to be the single most ridiculous transfer in the history of football. Having had some success at youth level for the Republic of Ireland, Ronnie failed to make the grade at Middlesbrough and was released at the age of 20. The usual career move at this stage for a player is to drop down a couple of divisions and work their way back up, but O’Brien was instead offered a five-year contract by Italian giants Juventus. After mulling the offer over for all of 3.49 milliseconds, O’Brien joined up with his new team-mates for around the same amount of time before heading out on the first of a succession of loans. He was released from his contract two years early in 2002, and moved to the USA with FC Dallas – presumably taking a wad of hardly-earned lira with him. He’s had reasonable success in the MLS and now plays for Toronto FC. He was voted Juventus’ greatest ever player after a group of Irish friends rigged the poll. With a transfer policy like that, you wonder how Juventus ever won the Italian title… oh right.

Jean-Alain Boumsong – Rangers to Newcastle United

It’s hard to believe now that Jean-Alain Boumsong was one of the hottest prospects in Europe, but in the summer of 2004, when his Auxerre contract expired, he had offers flying in from major European clubs – including Liverpool. However on the advice of his agent Willie McKay, Boumsong moved to the club who offered the largest signing on fee, Rangers. The Rangers chairman, David Murray, said at the time that Boumsong was being signed in order to try and sell him a year later. They didn’t even need to wait that long, because after six months of bomb-scare performances for Rangers, Newcastle paid £8m for him to the bemusement of almost everyone. After 18 months of “defending” for Newcastle, he joined our old friends Juventus for around £3m. What were Graeme Souness and Freddie Shepherd thinking of ? Perhaps you should ask Lord Stevens who listed this as one of the transfer deals which required further investigation.

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Copa America Scouting: 12 Players Ready For The Premiership

Craig has been watching South America’s best (for the most part) strut their stuff, and a few players could make their way to England sooner rather than later.

This year’s Copa America has shown the world how football should be played, and no doubt many Premiership fans will be hoping to see some of the stars of the tournament coming to their clubs before the start of the season. With the likes of Tottenham, Manchester City Newcastle, Aston Villa, Portsmouth and West Ham flush with cash there will have been plenty of scouts from England watching. And while Robinho and Messi may be unrealistic targets, these players could all be open to moving to the Premier League.

On to the scouting…

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Is Celtic New Boy Scott Brown Really Worth £4.4 million?

Craig takes a look at Scotland’s biggest transfer news so far this summer.

Last week, Celtic unveiled Scott Brown of Hibs as their main summer signing, beating off competition from Rangers, Middlesbrough, Reading and Tottenham. In the process they broke the transfer record between Scottish clubs, having paid £4.4 million for him. But is he really worth all that money?

Brown is undoubtedly a talented midfielder – I’d go as far as to say he’s the best player I’ve ever seen in the SPL outside of the Old Firm – but he has a questionable temperament and in the pressured environment of Old Firm matches and big European games he may be a liability. Celtic have lost an extremely influential midfielder in Neil Lennon, but in Brown they have an equally passionate and vocal leader in the midfielder, albeit in a slightly different position. With the system Celtic currently play, it’s hard to see exactly where the 22 year-old will fit in – it looks like he may partner Evander Sno in central midfield, leaving Paul Hartley to play wide or behind a lone striker.

I have absolutely no doubts that Brown will thrive at Celtic – but did they really need to pay as much money to secure his signature. Rangers were only willing to pay around £2.5m, which Hibs, quite rightly, saw as derisory – but the indication was that a million more would have secured his signature. So it appears that Celtic may have overspent by almost £1 million on Brown.

Brown will join another 5 ex-Hibernian players in the Celtic squad (Gary Caldwell, Paul Hartley, Derek Riordan, Kenny Miller and Chris Killen), which is a sign of the talent Hibs have produced over the recent years. At least in this case the Edinburgh club received what they would consider to be a reasonable fee – the others who joined Celtic directly all moved for free.

It appears that given the lack of money in the Scottish market, Celtic may have paid over the odds a little bit for their man – but on a global scene the transfer looks like a steal. Brown is already a Scotland international and will go on to gain many more caps – and when the time comes for him to move to a bigger club, Celtic will make a big profit.

Thumbs up.

Will Sheffield United Let Wigan Win To Relegate West Ham?

Craig is not suggesting anything.

Not that a Premiership result would ever be fixed, but given the immense amount of disdain clubs like Wigan and Sheffield United currently hold for West Ham - could we see a less than professional attitude in the final week of the season?

With this weekend’s relegation “Do Or Die Most Important Game Ever In The History Of Football Super Crash Bang Wallop Must Win 6 Pointer” (TM Sky) getting nearer, Wigan and Sheffield United must be considering the possibilities of their match at Bramall Lane.

If West Ham stay up, we face confusion in the style of the Italian league where every summer has legal cases, appeals and counter-appeals and teams not knowing which division they will be playing in until a week before the season starts. In order to save on legal fees, Wigan and Sheff Utd must think about engineering a narrow Wigan victory on Sunday as long as West Ham are losing to Manchester United.

The Hammers have their future in their own hands (at least on the footballing side), and know that a point at Old Trafford will guarantee safety. However, the new champions will receive the Premiership trophy after the game and will want to end the season on a high. And with a few fringe players looking to cement an FA Cup final starting place, even the resurgent West Ham will struggle to take anything away from Old Trafford.

If that is the case, a Wigan win at Bramall Lane will send West Ham down on goal difference and secure the safety of both the Latics and the Blades. If West Ham fall a couple behind early on at Old Trafford, I don’t expect Sheffield United to be trying too hard to score, and maybe Matthew Kilgallon or Paddy Kenny will make an “unfortunate mistake” to allow Wigan to sneak a win. And I don’t think there would be many sad faces at Bramall Lane nor across the country if that were the case.

More Turmoil And Dodgy Decisions Cap Off Busy Week In The SPL

Craig continues our weekly dip into the Scottish Premiership, and other kilt-related activity.

There was no league action last weekend because of the Scottish Cup semi-finals at Hampden. On Saturday, Celtic struggled to overcome 1st division St Johnstone, eventually winning 2-1. As I predicted a couple of weeks ago, Celtic received an extremely dodgy penalty when Dutch scrabble champion Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink took a dive over Saints keeper Kevin Cuthbert. The striker then converted the penalty he won to give Celtic the lead in the 13th minute. However, the 1st division promotion chasers struck back 6 minutes later through midfielder Martin Hardie’s lob, which took them into the break deservedly level. However, the Dutch diver Vennegoor scored a header just after half-time to put Celtic into the final. However, the Saints put up a good fight, and their performance will give them a huge boost in their promotion challenge, where they currently sit 3 points behind leaders Gretna with 2 games to go.

Click here for highlights.

In the second semi, Hibernian drew 0-0 with Dunfermline on Sunday in a match which was more exciting than the scoreline suggests. Hibs are chasing a cup double, after winning the CIS Cup in March, while Dunfermline have more important things to concentrate on – they currently sit 4 points adrift at the bottom of the Scottish Premier League with only 5 matches remaining. The replay will take place next Wednesday. Hibs’ preparation for the match was overshadowed by a players’ revolt at the club – 15 players reportedly complained to the chairman about manager John Collins’ training techniques while Collins was out of the country. Captain Rob Jones came out after the match and gave the manager the full backing of the squad, but it’s unlikely that will be the end of the story. Midfielder Michael Stewart will not play again for the club and is training with the youth team due to his part in the revolt, and playmaker Scott Brown had this to say.

This was the 3rd players’ revolt of an amazing season in the SPL – firstly the ‘Riccarton Three’ at Hearts spoke out about dressing room unrest, closely followed by Paul Le Guen’s public spat with Barry Ferguson. Heads rolled on both occasions – Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley left Hearts, soon to be followed by Craig Gordon in the summer, while Le Guen was sacked just weeks after his argument with his captain.

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Forget Makelele, Which Other Footballers Deserve Their Own “Role”?

There is a select list of players throughout football history who have either been so revolutionary or so influential (or both) that they inevitably have a “role” named after them. The Premiership has been the lucky beneficiary of the “Cantona role”, “Bergkamp role” and most recently “Makelele” role.

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Manchester United Fans Must Take Some Blame

Craig isn’t so sure the Rome police were the entire problem at the Stadio Olympico.

While the media are falling over themselves to condemn the Italian police for their behaviour in the Stadio Olimpico, the Manchester United supporters must also take some of the blame for the incidents last night. Firstly, the incidents appeared to blown out of proportion – it looked to me as though the police were simply trying to force the United fans away from the barriers, albeit using very heavy-handed tactics. The only United fans being hit violently by the riot police were those who were stupid enough to confront the Roma fans, and then who failed to retreat when the police tried to disperse them – hardly the ‘innocent fans’ the media have claimed.

Italian football fans are nuts, and I would fully support all Italian teams being thrown out of Europe for a few years following all the recent incidents – Anders Frisk being hit by a coin; Dida being hit by a flare; the death of the policeman and Wednesday night, to name but a few. If Feyenoord were thrown out of the UEFA Cup for failing to control their fans, then why not Roma? However, Celtic recently visited the San Siro to play AC Milan and there was not a single piece of trouble. 10,000 Scotland fans went to Bari to play Italy, and were warmly received, with not a hint of a problem. Roma had no problems when Valencia or Lyon visited – both clubs with a support as large as United. Some people have claimed that English fans have never been forgiven for Heysel, which may be true, but Liverpool visited Juventus 2 years ago and there were no problems surrounding that game.

It is also worth remembering that there was crowd trouble at Manchester United’s last European away game, when they played Lille, which although not serious, will have been taken into account by UEFA. Obviously the main aggressors appeared to be firstly the Italian fans, then the riot police, but United fans did themselves no favours by getting involved. I believe UEFA will take action – probably a stadium ban for Roma and a hefty fine for United for failing to control their fans. Hopefully there will be no repeat of these incidents at Old Trafford on Tuesday, otherwise both teams will face being unceremoniously dumped out of Europe.

Scotland On The Up, But The Job Is Far From Over

Craig brings you CaughtOffside’s weekly Scottish Football update.

Scotland remain in the qualification places for Euro 2008 following the recent double-header. They left it late at Hampden in the must-win match against Georgia, with Craig Beattie becoming the hero with an 89th minute winner. Goal machine Kris Boyd had given Scotland the lead – taking him to 5 goals in 6 caps – before ex-Rangers player Shota Arveladze equalised for the Georgians.

Scotland toiled throughout the second half and created few chances, but new boss Alex McLeish made 2 inspired substitutions which won his team the game. The introduction of Scott Brown from the subs bench provided fresh impetus before Beattie came on to fire home the late winner. Unlike those down south, the 51,000 fans were excellent throughout, and Hampden was bouncing at the end.

Scotland line-up: Gordon; Naysmith, Weir, McManus, Alexander; McCulloch, Ferguson, Hartley, Teale (Brown); Boyd (Beattie), Miller (Maloney)

In midweek, they travelled to Bari to face world champions Italy, and while it was a performance full of passion and endeavour, Scotland were undone by 2 Luca Toni headers. Kris Boyd was left out in favour of Scott Brown as McLeish went for extra legs in the middle of the park, but Boyd’s eye for goal could have made a difference, because many crosses were fired into the box and found nobody on the end of them. Italy’s performance was nothing special, and Scotland will fancy their chances of getting something when they come to Hampden, after all they managed a 1-1 draw in the World Cup qualifiers.

Scotland line-up: Gordon; Naysmith, Weir, McManus, Alexander; McCulloch, Ferguson, Hartley, Brown, Teale; Miller

Ukraine have now overtaken Scotland at the top of the table, but you could throw a blanket over the top 4 teams in the so-called Group of Death. Scotland must win the home match against Lithuania and the away matches in the Faroe Islands and Georgia, as well as taking points of the other ‘big’ teams to stand any chance of qualification.

In other news, Celtic have confirmed the signing of 23 year-old Australian Scott McDonald from Motherwell for £700k. McDonald became famous on the last day of the 2004/05 season, scoring twice in the last 2 minutes against Celtic to hand the SPL title to Rangers. This day became known as Helicopter Sunday, a reference to the helicopter which was taking the SPL trophy to the ground of the champions. It will be interesting to see how the Celtic supporters take to the striker, but he certainly has the talent to play for one of the top teams in Scotland.

Hibs Joy, Celtic Stumble and Rangers Disgrace

Craig brings you CaughtOffside’s weekly Scottish Football update for those find it hard enough keeping up with the English Premiership.

Hibs won their first trophy for 16 years, beating Kilmarnock 5-1 at Hampden on Sunday. Captain Rob Jones scored the first goal to give Hibs a half-time lead, before Abdessalam Benjelloun and Steven Fletcher made it 3-0. Killie defender Gordon Greer then scored to make give them hope, but Hibs capitalised as the Ayrshire side threw everyone forward and Benjelloun and Fletcher both grabbed their second goals. Even as a Killie fan, I have to say Hibs thoroughly deserved their victory and if we had to lose to anyone I’m glad it was them because they are an exciting team who always try to play football.

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Scottish Football Reaches Record Heights While Celtic Stumble

If you don’t have time to keep up with Scottish football but always wonder if anything happens other than Rangers vs Celtic, Craig brings you CaughtOffside’s quick and dirty update on everything kilted.

Rangers delayed Celtic’s title party for a couple more weeks by recording a 1-0 victory at Celtic Park. Ugo Ehiogu scored the only goal with an amazing overhead kick, just days after having possibly the worst ever individual defensive performance in the history of football in the 1-1 home draw against Osasuna. With 8 games to go Celtic are 16 points clear, so the defeat only delays the inevitable.

Meanwhile, with 3 matches remaining until the ‘split’, the top 6 and bottom 6 places are basically settled, after Kilmarnock beat Inverness CT 3-2 and Hibs beat Falkirk 2-0. Inverness can still match Killie and Hibs’ totals but they still have to visit Ibrox, so it would be a huge ask for the Highlanders.

Aberdeen 1-0 Hearts
Celtic 0-1 Rangers
Dundee Utd 1-1 Motherwell
Dunfermline 0-0 St Mirren
Hibernian 2-0 Falkirk
Kilmarnock 3-2 Inverness CT

Full table

This Sunday, around 46,000 Kilmarnock and Hibs fans will head for Hampden for the CIS Cup final. Killie fans have enlisted Rolf Harris to sing a Killie version of his song “Fine Day” which has been adopted as an anthem for Australian winger Danny Invincible. The song may even make the charts – so listen out for it on Radio 1 this Sunday, or have a listen here.

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The Lazy Man’s SPL Update 8-3-07

Craig continues our weekly coverage of all things Scottish (well, just the football)…

Celtic’s European adventure was ended in the San Siro, despite an exceptional defensive performance. AC Milan were frustrated for 180 mins by the Celtic defence and goalkeeper Artur Boruc before Kaka scored the only goal 3 minutes into extra time. Milan attacked from the start and only a last ditch Lee Naylor tackle stopped Inzaghi from giving them the lead. A few seconds later Celtic should have had a penalty against the run of play, but a clear handball in the area by Paolo Maldini was missed by the officials.

Milan piled on the pressure and only some inspired saves from Polish keeper Artur Boruc kept Celtic ahead. But Milan were mainly limited to long-range efforts, with Kaka and Pirlo in particular showing their frustration as they blasted a number of efforts from 30+ yards – most of them causing more danger to the fans behind the goal than the Celtic net.

Celtic’s 3 central midfielders, Sno, Lennon and Jarosik performed admirably, with 19 year-old Dutchman Sno being the pick of the trio. Thomas Gravesen also impressed after replacing Jarosik after an hour. However, the wide men Nakamura and McGeady were poor, getting no change out of Oddo and Jankulovski, the Milan full-backs. And Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink had a tough job as a lone striker, but didn’t really impose himself enough on Maldini or Bonera. After Milan’s goal early in extra-time, Craig Beattie and Kenny Miller were thrown on, but neither had any impact on the game as Celtic failed to create any clear-cut chances.

Despite the defeat, there are many positive signs for Celtic – they have a good young core to their team with Boruc, McManus, O’Dea and Sno and all 4 of these players have proved that they have the ability to play on the European level. Indeed, had they slightly more firepower in attack, they may well have made it past Milan into the last 8 of the competition – Maciej Zurawski may have made a difference had he been fit. So the signs are that they may well reach this stage again next year, and possibly even further.

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Who Is Your “Old Player Of The Year”?

Inspired by the story of Ryan Giggs’ billionth appearance for United this weekend, Craig takes a look at a few other players who’ve had the best job in the world for quite some time.

Recently, the media focus has been on Arsenal’s young stars – and quite rightly so. But as Ryan Giggs’ is showered with praise as he approaches his 10,000th appearance, it seems necessary to consider that there are many players at the other end of their careers who are still shining in the Premiership this year – most of whom don’t get the credit they deserve for their achievements.

This is by no means an exhaustive list – so let us know who at your club is a golden oldie.

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