The club have today received an offer from Maurizio Zamparini, president of Italian Serie 'A' outfit Palermo. At least, that’s what Zamparini would have you believe because Hamilton have denied there's been any contact, but we all know it's part of the 'chase me' game that goes on when two clubs are discussing one of their carbon based life-forms. Palermo have not revealed how much they've offered (or not) for 17-year old McCarthy, but given that he's been valued at something close to £4m then it's not unreasonable to think that an offer of around £2m to £2,5m is not far off the mark. Assuming Palermo made an offer at all.
Mind you, did you get a look at Zamparini? He looks like the kind of Sicilian businessman whose offers would be hard to refuse, if you know what I mean. We'd be checking the ends of the bed for decapitated Highland Cows, that's all we're saying on the matter.
So what to do? Keep him and hope he improves (assuming he survives the SPL) and then sell him on for more, or sell him now while you're still getting offers? McCarthy is young and he's got a great future ahead of him, but it is clear that future wont be at Hamilton. We’ve heard so much about him and he’s one of the players to watch for next season, assuming he stays of course. Our advice is this: enjoy him while you can because once Hamilton are relegated in May next year, he’ll be off for sure.
In other news, Hearts may finally have a(nother) manager and in a radical departure form the norm, he's a red-haired lad from the Outer Hebrides named Hamish "Jock" McJock. Only joking, this is Hearts we're talking about; he's foreign of course. Gudjon Thordarson, formerly coach of world soccer powerhouse Iceland is said to be interested in the Tynecastle job. Gudjon, which we assume (without any research on the matter), translates as 'Good John', has managed several clubs in his time albeit mainly in Iceland, so we'll gloss over that. Closer to home, he's gaffered Stoke (he got them promoted but was then mysteriously sacked days later), arsed up Barnsley (he quit), returned to Keflavik but quit after three days to go to Notts County, where after another disastrous season, he left by mutual consent of the entire town of Nottingham.
Hmm, quite a record.
Also in discussion with Hearts is Vladimir Weiss, the Artmedia Bratislava coach. Remember Artmedia? They knocked Celtic out of the Champions League back in 2005. At Inside Left we've never heard of Vladimir Weiss and we can't be arsed looking him up either - at least not on the bosses time - so we'll leave it up to you to Google him. He's got the same first name as Romanov and he sounds Eastern European, so they'll get on like a house on fire no doubt.
Aberdeen have promised Jimmy Calderwood money for next season. Quite how much is not clear, but according to the club they'll be "investing £1m more in the football budget than when Jimmy arrived in 2004". So thats £1,000,050. Ok, so we shouldn't grumble, it's a lot of money for a club like Aberdeen. But having the money is one thing, getting players to come and play for you is quite another; remember this is the club that a Dutch amateur player turned down because he'd be taking a drop in wages in coming to the North East. Personally, Inside Left reckons that the Aberdeen board should be persuading comb-over richie Donald Trump to stick two fingers up to those pesky Balmedie farmers and instead buy Aberdeen FC. He could then knock Pittodrie, build an 18-hole pitch 'n put on the site, stick a burger van up one end, a pub at the other and hey presto: sorted! Balmedie Country Club my arse.
And Inside Left is blushing at being taken in by the Third Lanark publicity stunt. Yes, it turns out that they were never serious about joining and the whole thing was just an attempt to get their name in the news and pull in more crowds as part of their push to move up to the Juniors. Seeing as they had about as much chance of being admitted to the league as Inside Left has of becoming the internet's top Scottish football website, we'll let the matter rest.
But if anyone fancies an evening in one of Glasgow's dodgiest parks to stand on terraces that double up as a urinal for drunk teens, druggies and jaikies and watch a game of football played on something resembling a World War I battlefield, you know where to go.
Until tomorrow, slàinte mhath!
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