Did Darvel do Celtic a favour when they beat Aberdeen?
Two words came to mind when Everton sacked Frank Lampard last Tuesday. Ange Postecoglou. Everton are a total mess. What Ange inherited at Celtic Park 18 months ago was a club in a similar kind of state, which he duly tidied up in an immaculate fashion.
Postecoglou created fear and alarm when he spoke about Josip Juranovic being right to “maximise his opportunities” and move to Union Berlin. He said: “That’s what all of us have in our careers, a limited time and we want to take opportunities.” Everton have subsequently ignored the Hoops boss to instead rummage through the drawer marked ‘usual suspects’ for Lampard’s replacement. Postecoglou shouldn’t take it personally. It could be the case that the outstanding job he’s done at Celtic has been overlooked due to results like Aberdeen’s Cup exit at the hands of a club from outwith the SPFL.
Brand Scotland is sullied by nights like that and a top-class manager’s efforts are tainted by association in a league where clubs such as Aberdeen and Hibs live on past reputation. Rangers’ game against Hearts at Tynecastle on Wednesday night could be one of the most memorable of the season. A rival to Celtic’s seven-goal epic there earlier in the season, when they won by the odd goal on a day of wild abandon.
The Premiership could do with another barnstormer to remind onlookers of what it is capable of producing. Meanwhile, Celtic are at Tannadice today, where they scored nine times in August. Ange won’t be able to better that achievement but he has to continue his long, unbeaten run in case the day dawns when he can maximise his opportunities.
If that’s what he wants, of course.
Meanwhile, I can’t go back on what I wrote in this column last Sunday – the day before Aberdeen played Darvel in the Scottish Cup.
“Any Pittodre manager who goes out of any cup competition, live on television, to a team from the West of Scotland League gives up the moral authority to remain in charge.” Jim Goodwin forfeited the right to continue in his job when Aberdeen, approaching the 40th anniversary of their greatest ever day, crashed out.
The Dons went from Gothenburg to the gutter on a little ground in Ayrshire. Willie Miller, who captained the Dons on the night they humbled Real Madrid in the final of the Cup
Winners’ Cup and is, for me, the club’s best ever player, must have needed dental surgery on Tuesday morning. Speaking through gritted teeth and biting his tongue, rather than giving full vent to his innermost feelings. Although he must have been struggling for words last night as Aberdeen went from debacle in Darvel to humiliation at Hibs.
It has been a harrowing week that encapsulated the extent of the club’s fall from grace. But nobody wants to be disrespectful these days. Nobody wants to cause offence. What Miller should have been saying was that this was a disgrace that should signal a watershed moment in a beleaguered club’s history. The time to realise the Dons have become a myth.
No longer a force in the land and more easily defined as serial failures. You know you’ve hit the skids when Darvel’s win makes a morning television feature on Lorraine.
A jokey item scheduled in between my old friend Ross King’s bit about celebrities in Hollywood and a lady I’d never seen before discussing this week’s soap operas.
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