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Bad results all round as we stay on solid ground.
Friday, July 25th, 2008 Early. “Who’s the Mason in the Black and Gold?” could have been my headline and it conjures up Perry’s boy scoring the winner for East Fife or Berwick. It was in fact John in Glasgow East leaving the opposition in the Brown stuff after being over 13,000 down from the first leg.Now as you know I’m not into politics but why are everyone going on about how bad a state Labour is in? Don’t the SNP deserve a little bit of credit.?
That was a party political broadcast on behalf of the Scottish National Party.
On the football park Cardiff beat Celtic and Barca turned the Hibs over big style. Both games were pre-season friendlies and the results mean very little at all but no team likes getting beaten. For Celtic to lose to a Championship side will give the “Scottish football is crap” brigade down south more ammunition and Hibs losing six and the size of the crowd will cheer up a lot of Jambos who’ve been on the end of some stick since the man from Casablanca arrived.
From afar Victor Laszlo looks to have started quite well in the east of the city but the proof will be in the pudding when the real football starts.
Talking of losing football games we lost our last two in the Annan tournament and didn’t score to boot. I’ll be keeping a good eye on the confidence levels tomorrow.
On the way back up the road last Sunday, Eartha also pointed out that we haven’t scored a goal at Annan in our last three visits. It’ll probably be another 100 years until we’ve played there three times again.
The park we train on at Peffermill has been rock solid this week. The sole of my right foot was bruised after Tuesday and the ground seemed even harder last night. Hopefully there will be a bit more grass and a bit more give at Fernieside tomorrow.
Just over two weeks until the season starts so the friendly games become more important as the fitness levels come up and teams start to take shape. That’s for the rest of course and not us as although our fitness levels are improving we will once again be without two or three key players.
“Remember to pack your shin guards again tomorrow Michael.”
Hair cuts, comic cuts, missing Dan and Fireman Nan.
Thursday, July 24th, 2008 Late. Dapper, Tim, Joachim, MI put the players through his last session for a couple of weeks as the school teacher heads off on holiday.Radovan Graham had his hair tidied up and Deano missed training because of a blister on top of his foot caused by a red hot iron. Sam was back in the fold and I’d forgotten just what a lot of tosh he talks.
Dan and Donal miss Saturdays game against Tynie with trips down south and Nani starts his first weekend as a working fireman.
Dougie’s boy Hubert as well as Chris and Keiran from the Under 19’s will make up our squad for Saturday.
I’m looking forward to a good workout.
Taking players, talking standards and taking responsibility.
Thursday, July 24th, 2008 Early. Just for good measure and to tie up the day as a complete “pain in the ass” package, Mark Lunn phoned me late last night to tell me he signed for Berwick. With the possibility of making the SFL we had been on the lookout for a second keeper which is a pre-requisite at that level. Mark was released by Livie and had trained and played with us over the last few weeks. We wanted to sign him to put pressure on Chris but there was a big fish swimming in our waters so that was that.Forgetting Mark we have lost three players to the SFL recently which is unprecedented. Is the standard of the SFL not as good as it once was or is the standard of the EOS better than it’s given credit for?
We must now look to increasing our depleted squad. That’s a job for those off the park but the experienced players on the park have work to do also. Stewart is our captain and leads by example anyway but he will need help in building team spirit and putting the events of the last couple of months behind us.
I am looking for Dan, Danny, Archie, Kenny and Donal to step up to the plate. Dan has already been Emailing the boys about what’s expected of them off the park and it’s time for the experienced players to push the club forward on it. If my confidence has taken a jolt then so must that of the players.
We can put an excellent team on the park and people should remember that. We have to build our strength in depth but when that first whistle is blown against Coldstream in two and a bit weeks time we will be competitive believe me.
That’s what this club needs now - football.
The season can’t come quickly enough.
Naomi fancies a bridie and the pubic bone isn’t of the funny variety.
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 Late. Keith Anderson phoned at an inopportune moment this afternoon. I’d just found out two pieces of bad news as far as we as a club are concerned. He wanted to ask me what my thoughts and hopes for the new season were and if I come across as subdued or resistant when his article comes out tomorrow or Friday just remember I’m not the type to be down for long.Naomi is signing for Forfar today or tomorrow and I genuinely wish him all the best. As a manager you are resigned to losing your better players but three at one go is a bit much. I started EOS management in 92/93 season and apart from a spell at Meadowbank in the SFL I’ve been in this league ever since.
Only once in the past have I lost more than one player upstairs in the close season and that was two. I’ve never lost three players to the SFL as we’ve done this time round. John Bird and Stewart Purvis left me at Whitehill to join Montrose and I got them back a season later but I wouldn’t wish that on Kevin, Jono or Ross. I hope they do well.
Ross scored a lot of goals or us in his two seasons with the club; he played in a number of positions and was an important Spartan both on and off the field. Good luck in the future Naomi and listen to everything your dad says.
Cloudie phoned after the news about Ross came through and just before the EOS scribe came on the blower. After the calls I looked up the cause of his ongoing problems. Here’s an extract
“Frustratingly, Osteitis Pubis can be resistant to treatment and can last between 6 months and two years before symptoms resolve…….Treatment options for those with acute symptoms are pretty limited.”
And so it goes on. Keith said the consultants were getting excited because it is sometimes hard to make out on the scan but his condition is so acute it sticks out like a sore thumb (I suppose a sore bum is nearer the mark). See you when we see you Cloudie. On the park that is because I know you’ll be about the club.
There you have it - not good news this evening.
As well as being p***ed off I feel as though I’ve let Chris, Robbie, Nicky, Daryl and Deano down, telling them they’ve joined a very talented group of players.
In fact they have but the group is not quite as big as it looked like it was going to be a couple of months ago.
Sam’s on the ball (and it ain’t anything to do with golf) this Saturday.
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 14.30. Sam, fresh from celebrating Padraig’s wonderful victory in the motherland is back and bursting for action. Not knowing a while back whether it would be Broadwood or Holyrood this Saturday we’d turned down a number of fixtures including a chance to play Buckie Thistle. I’m glad to see that our friends from Meadowbank are making the journey up to give Buckie a game.Anyway, with Portobello beach, the Pitz, World of Football and even the aforementioned Holyrood Park an option the great man has fixed up a game against Tynecastle at Fernieside with a 2.30 kick off.
Ye cannae beat a game o’ football.
The by-pass, a hair raising story and not for the sake of it.
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 Early. I’m glad we have Craig around again. It was really good to see him at Pefermill over-seeing the cast of Spartans 300 going through their paces last night. He’s looking in fine shape since his by-pass. Well since the clubs by-pass by the SFL in favour of Annan. He put most of the work in and it’s understandable that he took the blow the hardest. He looked refreshed and ready for the new term. I wonder which Spartan’s team he’ll follow this season?Talking of Craig, there was something different about him last night and it took me a minute to realise. He needs a haircut. I don’t know if he’s had the wife’s hair dryer out but it was a bit long and a bit bouffoned. A sort of Radovan Karadzic look before he grew the beard and the ponytail.
As all the work was going on and I’d stopped counting the number training Craig and I discussed the first team squad for the coming season. At one stage when SFL football was a possibility it looked like we could have had a cast as big as the movie but times have changed.
Did I hear you say “Rats and sinking ships”. Well that’s a bit uncalled for. Players always look to improve their lot and who are we to disagree with that philosophy. As for “sinking ship” I think that’s way off the mark. Sure the way things stand it will be a bit easier picking the team but I for one can’t wait on the season starting.
We’ve brought in five new players who will all be fighting for a place and they are the exact mix I was looking for. From youthful enthusiasm to SFL experience (without being old at all) it will be a different Spartans team this season. There should be a hunger about the team as quite a few have never won the Premier League title.
Bobby Dry and one or two others have been doing their sums and decided we need to add to the squad before the season starts. We’ve lost three already and another two look almost certain to depart but as a manager I’ve never been one to sign players for the sake of it.
If there are players out there that I’m interested in and I think can enhance the squad I’ll go for them. I/we however will not sign players for the sake of it.
Training on a large scale but some problems need ironed out.
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 Late/Early. I’m sitting hear typing away with Chinese music coming out of my tele on BBC2. I wonder if it’s coming from that very big town Eamonn was going on about.Anyway I counted 78 Spartans training tonight including 7 keepers. That covered three adult teams and the U19’s although I think there may be two of them this season. Two U19 teams that is not two players.
We had a good turn-out with only Naomi, Struan, David and Deano missing. Naomi was trying to impress his dad, Struan was no doubt trying to impress some bird in Greece and David was also trying to get a birdie or two as he’s taking part in the Musselburgh Open this week. Deano I’ll talk about later.
Mike gave our boys a good night and thankfully I got to take part in the end game with Dougie on the other side. At 1-1 and in the last minute, an inch perfect free-kick from the talented though aging left back saw Donal volley home the winner with the last kick of the game. That’s me back to only 3 points behind Dougie again.
Bobby Dry was a bit down. He’s just realised that his beloved Spurs are just a feeder club like ourselves and he’s having electric problems on his olive ranch in Italy. He has people out there at the moment and I know how helpless it feels when something goes wrong on your property thousands of miles away. Still he cheered up in the pub when the Stella told hold and had a huge grin on his coupon when Eamonn came in.
Bob is learning Italian by the way - I wonder if Eamonn is learning Chinese. Someone I know who’ll be eating Chinese food for three weeks is the Curvaceous Bentley who’s heading out there to cover the Olymics’ for the SOS. What a lucky girl.
Donal invited me up to check out Barca training over his mum and dad’s wall in St Andrews tomorrow. The boys both have doctors appointments in the afternoon so I’ve declined. I think they are doing a session at 6.30 which Donal is going up to watch.
He’ll no doubt be checking if any of them put out a fag then nick over to a tree or wall for a pee before starting.
Finally Deano is off his work and missed training because he dropped an iron on his foot. Now he’s not sure if it’s broken as he tried to break it’s fall with his bare foot. The affected appendage is now as red as the top of his head.
Now if he’s stood side on as I’m trying to teach him he wouldn’t have had a problem.
Feeder League?
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 Early. There’s been quite a bit of debate in the Forums about how much East of Scotland players are worth and should clubs hold on to them if a bigger fish is circling. Now what constitutes a bigger fish is a debate in itself but only a fool would argue that moving to an SFL isn’t a move up for an EOS player.Juniors is a different fish altogether but once again I’d argue that at the top end the dosh players can earn means in monetary terms anyway, it’s once again a step up.
Teams at our level attempt to re-sign players around the January Sales to keep their squads together. That’s not our style. Teams protect themselves slightly if a player is not yet 24 under a rule I imagine was created for smaller full-time teams who spend money on nurturing a talent through adolescence only to see them whipped away by the big boys.
Spartans as a club have and still do compensate teams in these circumstances although we have never sought to apply the rule ourselves. Over the last few seasons we’ve lost Archie and Tommo to the seniors and we have lost two players already this season to the SFL without compensation.
It appears another may follow. This time however the player is under contract and we could ask for the sort of whopping fee that’s being banded about EOS circles for another leading light.
Will we? I doubt it.
As a player I never fell out with a manager but if I wasn’t happy or not getting a regular game I politely asked to move on as soon as possible. As a manager I’ve never wanted to hold onto a player who wants to leave for whatever reason. Decisions where players are under contract are not mine to make but I don’t like trying to manage unhappy players.
Loosing out on SFL membership has hit Spartans hard in more ways than one.
“Don’t ever get into the consequences” - my thoughts but who said it?
Monday, July 21st, 2008 Late. My good lady brought me a few papers up stairs today and something Padraig Harrington said and Owen Slot in the Times reported after the Irishman’s Open win, struck a cord with me. When you play a sport at any level you have the chance to influence the outcome of games/tournaments etc. and in Padraig’s case History.I played football and as a young striker I found it was easier to score when I didn’t have time to think about it. Cross, boom, goal all in three or four seconds and no time to think. The real class acts have a cool head but there’s not a lot of them about. I remember running through with the keeper to beat and anything could be going through my head - what I had for dinner, where I’d go for a pint after the game or more importantly “if I score, what will the outcome be?”.
I had more chance of scoring if my breakfast or a pint of McEwan’s was going through my head rather than the consequences of my actions.
I say the same things over and over to players and most of what I preach is common sense. “Don’t think about it, just do it” is one of them. Now I don’t say that to every players because they/we are all different. There are players who need to think before they act but there are others I encourage to let instinct take over and take over quickly.
The Sand Snake is one of these that particular shout applies to. There are times when he can be unplayable but there are times when after he’s done the hard bit he hesitates before he delivers. Now maybe he’s trying to be extra careful but 9 times out of 10 when he does hesitate the move fizzles out. A defender blocks the cross or he chooses the wrong option.
At the other end of the park our captain at left back is a bit similar. He has more strengths than weaknesses but when he lifts his head up to measure a pass I sense trouble. Don’t get me wrong without pressure he’ll pass the ball square or wide but other than that I scream at him to put his foot through the ball and will continue to do so. For a slightly different reason to Omar I tell Stewart not to think about it but just to launch it.
Now Padraig’s quote doesn’t have as much to do with my thoughts on Stewart than it does to Omar.
Asked if he felt that he was now the greatest ever achiever in Irish sport he replied in a golf context with - “one of the keys to playing well on Sunday is you don’t ever get into the consequences like that”.
The big man didn’t think about it (even though he had 5 hours to do so) he just did it.
There are footballers who shouldn’t think about it but just let their instinct take over and finish the job.
It’s not only losing that makes you feel crap.
Monday, July 21st, 2008 Early. Off sick for the first time this year today. I thought I felt crap yesterday after our weekend results but when I had to put the central heating on last night (to much abuse) I knew it was something more.I only signed on to send an Email to work. Summer flu, man flu call it what you like but I’m away back to bed.
I knew I shouldn’t have worn those wet boots on Saturday.!!!!
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