Off The Ball: Midweek Update

We're one game into the season and already the sparks are flying. Who'd have though that Scottish football could ever be this exciting? Well, we do of course, that's why we are here in the first place. From the seeming disintegration of Glasgow Rangers to the case of the 'Winking Referee', there's enough to keep everyone busy this week. In today's midweek update we follow the red, blue and white road to Castle Greyskull and then nip across the M8 and head eight miles or so down Paisley way where Chick Young has been going positively apoplectic following last weekends game between St Mirren and Celtic.

Actually, why do we call it Castle Greyskull? That's where He-Man lived and he's a hero. Snake Mountain, which is where Skeletor lived, would be more accurate. But 'Snake Mountain' sounds more like an cheap ride at a Troon amusement fair. Mind you, with everything that has been happening down Edmiston Drive the last week, Ibrox and amusement fair - it pretty much amounts to the same thing.

Following on from the defeat at the hands of FBK Kaunas last week, there has been much discussion around the football media about a possible crisis at Ibrox. By not qualifying,  the club has missed out on a great deal of revenue - estimated to be around £10m, revenue which would have been invested in bringing more players to the club, with the promise of European football as the carrot on the end of the stick. But when Pilibaitis headed home with three minutes to go, all that lucrative investment disappeared. With no more European football possible for Walter Smith's men (there is no automatic UEFA Cup place when teams are knocked out in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League), Rangers suddenly looked vulnerable. No sooner had the final whistle blown than the vultures started to circle above the skies of Govan.

Carlos Cuellar and Allan McGregor where among the first of the names thrown around when discussing the inevitable exodus from Ibrox, as David Murray seeks to free funds for Smith to rebuild his side, as well as keep the wage bill manageable. And indeed, it was Carlos Cuellar who is the first to leave, having signed for Premiership side Aston Villa. If reports are to be believed, Cuellar, Scottish Football Writers Player of The Year and a man once quoted as saying "I want to stay at Rangers for life", made it known to Rangers Chief Executive Martin Bain on Sunday that he wanted to leave Ibrox, possibly knowing that Aston Villa where about to activate the release clause built into his contract. There is some speculation around goalkeeper Alan McGregor's future too - some pundits believe that the Scotland keeper could fetch a handsome price with a move down south. Other players who might be on their way out include Kris Boyd, once a target for Cardiff City and part of a swap deal involving Glen Loovens, but now attracting attention from Bayer Leverkussen and Cologne. Boyd is one of a plethora of strikers at Ibrox and Smith might want to offload to raise funds for at least two more central defenders. However, news filtered through this morning that Lille have said no to Daniel Cousin after Rangers approached the French side about the possibility of deal there.

Clearly, Rangers are out to clear the decks in order to rebuild from scratch and the sale of Cuellar, admittedly their best player, has fueled considerable anger and discussion from Rangers fans across Scotland, but it shouldn't all be seen as bad news. With the money raised from Cuellar's sale, Rangers could once again move for Fulham's Steve Davis or Palermo's Mark Bresciano in order to strengthen the midfield weakened by the long term injury to captain Barry Ferguson. Make no mistake, Rangers are still a great football team capable of winning domestically. Their season may not have got off to a great start, but this is a good opportunity for Walter Smith to reassess and rebuild his squad. The transfer window closes in two weeks time. The challenges for Smith are to protect his core squad from the vultures and to find the players that will get him to the holy grail of Champions League qualification.

But perhaps most importantly, he's got to keep the fans on his side. With some fans already exercising their  option to cancel their season tickets, Smith - and the club - must tread carefully.  Puzzling purchases like Kenny Miller must be avoided in order for Smith to feel safe at Ibrox. He's one goal down in his fixture against the supporters and the time to pull off a great recovery has to start today.

It's not often that Inside Left feels warmth and empathy towards Chick Young, but his recent near-rantings about the penalty decision at the St. Mirren game against Celtic at the weekend have struck a chord with us. Chick is a self confessed St. Mirren fan and has been finding referee Eddie Smith's decision to award a penalty following Will Haining challenge on Vennegoor of Hesselink - a challenge for which Haining was sent off - particularly hard to deal with. In fairness, we don't think it was a penalty, but we've seen them given for less. His attempts to get Buddies manager Gus McPherson to comment on the incident where batted away expertly by McPherson, obviously not keen to get the same treatment as  Dundee United's Craig Levein. Chicks beef seems to be that (a) it was never a penalty and (b) Eddie Smith should never had refereed that game given the history between Smith and St. Mirren.

All this sounds like sour grapes from Chick, but he's a passionate fan and like every fan of a losing team, he's got every right to feel annoyed.  The SFA issued a statement yesterday backing up Smith's decision. This is hardly surprising really as to reverse it would also have meant that the penalty might never have been given and thus Celtic might not have won the game. As for charge (b), Chick might have a point there, but then again, should a self-confessed St. Mirren fan be allowed to commentate on public radio at St. Mirren games? Impartiality in all matters is the key to this. The decision to award this game to Smith was perhaps not the smartest one but referees are supposed to be impartial and to start not assigning referees (and for that matter commentators) to certain games surely brings that impartiality into disrepute.

What annoys Inside Left though is that the referees have recently been given a large pay rise after holding the league to ransom - and they're in line for another one soon - because they feel the stresses and strains they're subjected to by the game is worth the extra money. But giving referees the extra money clearly hasn't solved the issue of contentious decisions. As we said earlier, you're just putting a plaster on a bleeding wound.

We've never been a fan of technology in football, but perhaps the time has come to start introducing such a scheme, if only so that referees can feel protected and managers have a valid right of appeal during the game. Obviously, you need to keep the game flowing so you wouldn't want to turn a 90 minute game into a 4-hour instant replay-a-thon; perhaps adopting the Wimbledon approach where a player has three appeals in a game.

le="text-align:justify;">Would that work? We'd be keen to hear your comments.