Off The Ball - Midweek Update

Aye aye, and welcome to another Off The Ball. It's Wednesday, so time for the midweek update and where better to start than in beautiful Auld Reekie, capital of Scotland and home to one of the longest managerial saga's in recent living memory.

Another week simply couldn't go by without someone coming out in the press claiming an interest in the job at Heart of Midlothian. True to form, this week is no exception as Ian Holloway, freshly sacked from Leicester, has thrown his CV in the mail.  Given owner Vladimir Romanov's recent comments in the press that he doesn't want a manager who is part of the 'Scottish Mafia', Holloway may well be in with a chance. Romanov's comments must come as a bit of a downer for professional Scottish football manager Billy Davis, the only other out-of-work manager looking for something to do other than sitting on the sofa with a crate of beer watching 'Cash In The Attic'; reading that, he must realise now that he's got hee haw chance of getting the call from the big Lithuanian.

Romanov's comments came in an interview with the BBC in which he also claimed he offered the job to a manager currently working in the Chinese league, but who was on such a lucrative contract that he couldn't be prised away from the job.   Inside Left spent an hour-or-so scouring the internet trying to find out just who this international man of mystery might be.  Given Romanov's predilection for pasty East Europeans, we reckon it was one of Sloboda Santrac, Milorad Kosanovic or Ljubisa Tumbkovic (all Serbians). Time will tell but one thing is certain: the new manager won't be Scottish.

In a somewhat pot-calling-the-kettle-black type statement, Romanov went on to say that Scottish managers are too set in their ways and then rounded off the interview by loosely describing the entire Scottish football hierarchy as some kind of sash & lambeg wearing fix-up where teams without a huge budget just cannot compete. He might be half-right there, but rather than worrying about the Old Firm and joining the ranks of the paranoid bad losers (that's you Levein),  perhaps he should concentrate on getting Hearts sorted out before they're asked to headline next years Edinburgh Festival.

Across town, Mixu Paateleinen is somewhat confused by the critical reaction to Hibs' less than splendid performance against IF Elfsborg in their opening game in the Intertoto cup last Sunday. In an interview with Setanta Sports, the Fin admitted that his side lacked the "fitness, tactics as well as the passing and the movement" going into the game but went on to explain that these things take time and that "people just don't understand it". Maybe not Mixu, we're not all as savvy as you are when it comes to football, but we do know one thing: playing a side that is match fit and second top of their league when your own team hasn't played for over two months and is, by your own admission, not exactly prepared, is bound to end in a complete shiter. But he just doesn't understand it.

Mixu Paateleinen and Vladimir Romanov, two of Edinburgh's finest. We just can't decide which one of these two looks more like Inside Left's arsehole.

Bad news for Aberdeen fans. Yes, Jimmy Calderwood is still manager. No, shit, I don't mean that, I meant that Alan Maybury has decided not to rejoin Aberdeen. The Republic of Ireland international ignored the phone calls, emails, sms's and carrier pigeons sent to his bed-sit pleading for him to sign up for another year, and so Aberdeen have no alternative but to give up trying to sign him.  Things must be bad at Aberdeen if life on the dole is seen as being a better alternative to playing alongside Diamond and Considine at the heart of the Aberdeen back four, eh?  Fear not though fellow sheep-shaggers: other summer transfer target Tim Bakens has still not said 'no', though he is weighing up other options in Holland and Belgium. Yes, Belgium…

In a moment of weakness (or is it clarity? Desperation?) the SFA have done something extraordinary; they've asked Scottish fans whether they'd be prepared to fork out extra money to go and see Scotland take on former World Champions Argentina. With average ticket prices for Scotland internationals hovering anywhere between £20 to £35, the SFA expect the prices to be pushed up to around the £50 mark as Argentina are charging £1m to turn up for the game.  Unsurprisingly, reception to the proposal of playing one of the worlds great teams at these prices has been lukewarm to put it mildly and the prospect of the game going ahead now hangs in the balance. Surely they should know better then to ask Scottish football supporters to cough up an extra £10 to see Argentina? Honestly, what did they expect?  Aye well, it would have been a good test (provided the South Americans didn't send the U-17 team), especially as Scotland play Holland in the World Cup Qualifiers a few months later. But is the extra expenditure worth the effort? Surely there must be other teams kicking around who have time to kill and would like nothing better than a jolly-up in Glasgow in November? England, for example.

Lastly, Motherwell are in talks with a new sponsor for next season. Possibly poor timing given the recent debacle around the Villareal game but Motherwell are talking to Real Radio and, like most sponsorship agreements, as part of the deal, the stadium will also be renamed. If the deal goes ahead, Motherwell joins the illustrious ranks of Arsenal, Bolton, Wigan Athletic and Bayern Munich who all renamed their stadium in honour of their sponsor. We trust some kind of security arrangement preventing animal rights activists from stopping games at the new "Real Fir Park" will be in place for the new season.

Ok, that's it for now. Keep an eye on the site as we continue to update our league guide section with all the news on the divisions in Scotland. If you want to get involved and help us build the site by contributing articles, then leave a comment and we'll get back to you. There's only 23 days to go before the action kicks off again, not that we're counting! Back on Saturday with the Weekender!