Arse has collapsed, again...

Right, so, that's that. That's the season drawn to a close with a Maurice Edu header in the 92nd minute.

They are 13 points clear, haven't lost a game in 4 months and we cannot pull our fingers out. Despite Robbie Keane. Keano rocked up on loan, and has been scoring regularly for us, but I don't think a 6 month stint would have been enough to see us through. Maybe if he'd taken the Spurs boys to Dublin in the summer, we'd have gotten him all year, and he'd have made a Larsson-esque contribution to the season.

As it is, we've got Mogga, and his particularly dour brand of football. After spending the first half of the season bedding in (forgiveable) and trying to get a set of comparative cloggers to play sexy football, he'll be spending the second half trying to persuade Keane to stay and apologising for flogging half the squad to Middlesborough.

I'm not saying Tony Mowbray is a bad manager. Not at all, he gets his teams playing some delightful looking football, but it will take work. The trouble with being an Old Firm manager is you need to have success instantly. You need to be the man who can bring in the domestic cups, league and a good run in Europe all within a year. Rangers fans tend to give their managers more leeway (Paul Le Guen notwithstanding, but he was pish anyway. He's doing well out in Africa now though) so had Smith not done what he was drafted in to do, he'd probably still have the job anyway.

Rangers have done extraordinarily well with the shoestring squad they have. With us flaunting our depleting money bin, with the marquee signing of Keane(who I'm getting of sick of writing his name), and them having to haul boys through the ranks it may end up being a good thing for Scottish football. With them not being able to afford any decent players until someone with a tenner walks by, they'll be developing the baby Gers to play with the big boys.

Celtic being buoyed by Irish, English, European and Antipodean players, rather than Scots, is strangling the game. Sure, the other SPL teams will have good players, but its rare for a Scotland manager to see beyond the top teams. Although, I suspect Levein's time at Dundee will see him scope beyond Glasgow.

Its a shame that two of the most exciting and creative players in Scotland at the moment have both chosen to play for Ireland (I'm looking at you, Aiden McGeady and James McCarthy), which sadly says a lot for the lack of quality we have had in the national game of late. Smith and McLeish worked wonders to get morale and unity in a fairly mediocre set of players during the Euro qualifiers, and Burley just wasn't up to the task. As Rob Marrs has said on his blog Craig Levein should rip out the guts of the entire Scottish system and rebuild it from the schoolboys and up. Get some pride back into the shirt, and to get Chris Iwelumo to not miss 6 yard sitters.

Rangers players made up 7 of the squad to face the Czech Republic last week. It cannot be a complete coincidence that they happen to be running away with the title with a bunch of Scots boys (Kenny Miller, Kris Boyd, etc.) flying the flag for them.

As much as it pains me to say it, Rangers winning the league this year is a good thing, for a number of reasons;

» It gives Tony Mowbray more time to develop a coherent side, capable of playing how he wants and persuading Keane to drop his wages and play up north full time.
» It shows that money doesn't always mean success. This is a good thing.
» It shows that there is talent, and depth, in the Scottish players we have at our disposal. We need to bring through a few more and not rely on players like Iwulemo and Driver who are English, but qualify (or not, in Driver's case) through various loopholes to play for Scotland, or at least have a look in to.

Above all, if the arse fell out of Rangers campaign like it did do Celtic's, it'd completely negate all what I've just written and make me look a fool. Oh, and the UEFA co-efficients, blah blah. I could write something disparaging about the Belgian Pro League having a few more money woes than the SPL, but I wont because I'm annoyed that Celtic will be in the Europa League, rather than the Champions League next year.

- Garry Swan