For the first time in a few years we've had a relatively quiet closed season. Not since the days of Martin O'Neill have we truly had a settled squad (some may say it got a little too settled under MON). Gordon Strachan came in with his own ideas, and out went the old guard of Thompson, Sutton and eventually Hartson et al. To be fair to Strachan he inherited an expensive and aging squad. Martin O'Neill, as we all know, does well with money - but there wasn't any left for him in the end.
So Strachan started a revolution. He immediately set about releasing players and filling the gaps with journeymen, the Dion Dublins and the Paul Telfers who in hindsight were both embarrassingly capable in the SPL and embarrassingly incapable in Europe (Bratislava!). As Strachan got settled into the job he started phase 2 and phase 3 of his tenure, getting us the Scott McDonalds, Jan Vennegoors and Scott Browns while putting the likes of big Dion out to pasture.
Strachan had a thankless job in replacing the bhoys of Seville, but it was necessary. He brought us three SPL titles and two appearances in the last 16 of the Champions League in four years. Couldn't really ask for much more given the resources and the rebuilding job in hand.
When Strachan left he did so leaving a team which had finished just short that season, 4 points off Rangers in the league. At the time I remember looking at our squad and believing we only needed two or three really good signings, we weren't that bad so there was no need to 'mess with the magic' - just a tinker here and there.
In comes Tony Mowbray with his own ideas of revolution. He wanted to dismantle the team which had got us to the last 16 of the Champions League twice and replace it with... well what?
I could write about Tony Mowbray all night. He refused to bid for James McCarthy, a Celtic supporter who wanted to sign for Celtic and who would have cost a mere £1.2m - a player who is being valued at £10m two years later (and everyone and their dog could see it at the time). He signed Danny Fox, one of his few signings that looked capable, then sold him 5 months later for a tiny profit. He loaned out our captain, sold our top goalscorer and bought more players than the papers had even linked us with. All with a budget of about £8m. He took a relatively stable squad that was just short of the mark and tried to completely replace it, despite their not being a huge amount wrong with it.
When Lennon came in at the end of the season to try fix Mowbray's mess I was once more crying out for stability, but knew that change was once more inevitable - we hadn't lost the league by a small margin in the previous season, we were awful.
Lennon went about selling and loaning out most of the players that Mowbray had signed. He brought in Stokes, Kayal, Hooper, Izaguirre, Mulgrew, Majstorovic, Ledley and Commons among others.
Fast forward a year later and we have lost the league by one point. There are numerous individual 'ifs and buts' we can look back on, such as the Samaras penalty miss at Ibrox or the bad run of games just before Christmas - but the fact remains that we nearly won it, we achieved our highest points total for six years and in the end it was Rangers consistency against the little teams which was our undoing.
So we are back in a similar position to what we were when Strachan left. We have lost the league narrowly and we have the makings of a good young squad. For me it all has to be about stability now, tell the EPL teams where to stick their mid table mediocrity and keep our best players - and just add one or two where we need them.
I hear some cries from our own fans about our inactivity around us, I hear Rangers fans try to hit us with this inactivity stick when faced with the anti climax that is their own inactivity. "Well good!" is my answer - don't **** with the magic if the magic isn’t broken - and at this point in time with the unknown that is Ally McCoist and Craig Whyte at Rangers, I am certain that all we have to do is exactly what we did last season and the league will be coming home.
So Strachan started a revolution. He immediately set about releasing players and filling the gaps with journeymen, the Dion Dublins and the Paul Telfers who in hindsight were both embarrassingly capable in the SPL and embarrassingly incapable in Europe (Bratislava!). As Strachan got settled into the job he started phase 2 and phase 3 of his tenure, getting us the Scott McDonalds, Jan Vennegoors and Scott Browns while putting the likes of big Dion out to pasture.
Strachan had a thankless job in replacing the bhoys of Seville, but it was necessary. He brought us three SPL titles and two appearances in the last 16 of the Champions League in four years. Couldn't really ask for much more given the resources and the rebuilding job in hand.
When Strachan left he did so leaving a team which had finished just short that season, 4 points off Rangers in the league. At the time I remember looking at our squad and believing we only needed two or three really good signings, we weren't that bad so there was no need to 'mess with the magic' - just a tinker here and there.
In comes Tony Mowbray with his own ideas of revolution. He wanted to dismantle the team which had got us to the last 16 of the Champions League twice and replace it with... well what?
I could write about Tony Mowbray all night. He refused to bid for James McCarthy, a Celtic supporter who wanted to sign for Celtic and who would have cost a mere £1.2m - a player who is being valued at £10m two years later (and everyone and their dog could see it at the time). He signed Danny Fox, one of his few signings that looked capable, then sold him 5 months later for a tiny profit. He loaned out our captain, sold our top goalscorer and bought more players than the papers had even linked us with. All with a budget of about £8m. He took a relatively stable squad that was just short of the mark and tried to completely replace it, despite their not being a huge amount wrong with it.
When Lennon came in at the end of the season to try fix Mowbray's mess I was once more crying out for stability, but knew that change was once more inevitable - we hadn't lost the league by a small margin in the previous season, we were awful.
Lennon went about selling and loaning out most of the players that Mowbray had signed. He brought in Stokes, Kayal, Hooper, Izaguirre, Mulgrew, Majstorovic, Ledley and Commons among others.
Fast forward a year later and we have lost the league by one point. There are numerous individual 'ifs and buts' we can look back on, such as the Samaras penalty miss at Ibrox or the bad run of games just before Christmas - but the fact remains that we nearly won it, we achieved our highest points total for six years and in the end it was Rangers consistency against the little teams which was our undoing.
So we are back in a similar position to what we were when Strachan left. We have lost the league narrowly and we have the makings of a good young squad. For me it all has to be about stability now, tell the EPL teams where to stick their mid table mediocrity and keep our best players - and just add one or two where we need them.
I hear some cries from our own fans about our inactivity around us, I hear Rangers fans try to hit us with this inactivity stick when faced with the anti climax that is their own inactivity. "Well good!" is my answer - don't **** with the magic if the magic isn’t broken - and at this point in time with the unknown that is Ally McCoist and Craig Whyte at Rangers, I am certain that all we have to do is exactly what we did last season and the league will be coming home.
****in idiots
Danny Fox played practically every game that season up until he was sold at Christmas, he was the best (only) left back we had in years.
