THE END IS NIGH FOR LENNON, BUT GRIFFITHS SAFE FOR NOW

By Andy Ritchie

THEY are taking bets on Leigh Griffiths being booted out by Celtic, but the smarter money is on a much bigger name being gone before the start of next season.

I’m referring to the most important man at the club, the manager, Neil Lennon.

If Lennon has sense, and he’s got plenty as far as I can judge, he’ll have reached the conclusion some time ago that he has very likely achieved just about as much as he can at Celtic Park and that it’s time for a fresh challenge.

In fact, Lennon may even be regretting not having made a move a year ago when his stock was trading higher following the team’s Champions League successes.

There hasn’t been a queue of club chairmen from England battering down the doors to entice Scottish managers south in recent years, which is a sad indictment of what they think about the general state of our game, and Lennon is clearly aware that he will have to sell himself to an extent.

So it didn’t surprise me to see him appear on Match if the Day 11 the other week, when he gave a polished performance talking purely about the playing side rather than about all  the other aspects that come with being an Old Firm manager.

He managed to sound astute and appeared more at ease discussing tactics, formations and playing styles, so if Lennon’s ploy was to try and advance his case, it worked a treat.

The timing was spot on and those chairmen and owners contemplating managerial change over the course of the next few weeks cannot help but have been impressed at the way Lennon came over.

I imagine there is going to be a bit of movement in the Premiership before the World Cup kicks-off.

The dogs in the street are already barking out that there has been at least a degree of contact between Norwich and Lennon, but the Canaries won’t be the only club in the market for a new manager.

Newcastle cannot possibly be happy with Alan Pardew after everything that has gone off on Tyneside and all is clearly far from well in the Aston Villa camp.

Not only have you got the situation with two members of the senior coaching staff under investigation for alleged bullying, results under Paul Lambert haven’t been great either.

The most attractive option is a Premiership club where Lennon’s personal terms would be far more lucrative than if he was managing a Championship side, so much may depend on which teams are relegated.

But I believe that whatever is eventually on offer to him, Lennon has reached the stage where he feels he’s done enough at Celtic Park and that the grass is greener on the other side.

And I’m prepared to stick my neck out and predict that Neil Lennon will no longer be the Celtic manager come August.
But I believe Griffiths will still be with my old club when Celtic begin their defence of the SPFL title.

Contrary to the apparently widely held belief that Griffiths is facing the axe, I don’t think he is even close to being sacked - at least for the time being.

Yes, Griffiths is an idiot. No, chanting racist abuse is not acceptable.

But he is clearly not the sharpest cookie. He also appears easily led when drink is involved.

But a Hibee having a pop at the Jambos and vice-versa is nothing new, and calling someone a refugee hardly constitutes a hanging offence.

I’ve had 50,000 calling me a lazy, fat bastard, so does that mean if I am able to identify the guilt I am free to sue them? I’ll better put in a call to Donald Findlay, just in case.

The SFA has done its best to inflate the situation while Celtic have thrown a fire blanket over what was a drink-fuelled outburst deserving of a heavy slap on the wrist, a club fine, and a warning to Griffiths as to his future conduct.

But if there is a next time that might turn out to be a very different matter as he would be judged to have thumbed his nose at those who are trying to help save him from himself.

Others, players and managers, have committed worse acts and escaped relatively unscathed, but the SFA looks to have turned the Griffiths affair into something of a crusade.

They should have left it up to his club to deal with Griffiths and Celtic, in turn, should order him to find suitable accommodation in the west away from the temptations of life in the capital and the influence of his mates.

If Griffiths can screw the nut, he’s good enough at domestic level to score 25 goals a season. But the real testing ground is Europe and whether he’s good enough to do it at the next level.

Meanwhile, I wasn’t one of those surprised by St Johnstone’s achievement in reaching their first ever Scottish Cup final.

I had a sneaking feeling beforehand that they would dump the Dons due to Aberdeen’s a lack of youth and energy in the middle of the park.

St Johnstone is a team who keep snapping away at the opposition and in Steve May they have some who is always liable to score.

Barry Robson and Willo Flood were running on empty after an hour and as soon as Saints equalised there was only one team going to win, in my mind.

It’s good that we have two teams from the Tayside region in the final for a change and it should turn out to be a decent enough spectacle.

Dundee United beating Rangers in the other semi-final was no surprise either. Even playing at only 50 per cent capacity, United were able to turn over the opposition with relative ease.

And I am sure that didn’t come as a shock to anyone who had watched Rangers the week before in the Ramsdens Cup final.

SIMPLY SAVAGED BY SFA SHEEP

By Andy Ritchie

WE - meaning Scotland’s youth team - were about to go off to sunny, sunny Spain and I was having multiple orgasms at the very thought of it.

Hey, I was only 16 and therefore full of fun and devilment. A round-robin youth tournament lay ahead, but first I was intent on basking in the imaginary limelight.

So, when a photographer from the Scottish Daily Express approached those of us who played with Celtic and Rangers, asking if he could snap us with our reading material, we were up for the cup.

A couple of the guys had chosen Shoot magazine to accompany them on the trip. Me? As we were having a bit of a carry-on, I’d gone straight for the top shelf and got myself a copy of Playboy.

Just when the photographer was about to go to work, an SFA official called Ernie Walker arrived on the scene and called me over. He asked me how my parents would feel if they saw me reading a lads’ magazine. Just as important, he asked me how Celtic FC would feel.

He reminded me that I was representing not only them but the Scottish nation. You could call it an impact talk. He uttered only about three sentences, but the message hit home immediately like a bolt from a crossbow.

I hate to imagine what would have happened if Ernie hadn’t been on the scene at Glasgow Airport that day. There I’d have been, back page on the Express, making an absolute backside of myself.

But I was lucky enough to come across an administrator who knew his way around potentially embarrassing situations.

The question that ought to be asked now is this: where are such like-minded administrators in today’s world?

Press the fast forward button and pinpoint one of today’s embarrassing situations. Stop at Leigh Griffiths, a few long-necked Budweisers on a none too lazy Sunday afternoon and you’re on the money.

When he received his summons to appear at the SFA for that video, I immediately thought of Ernie Walker.

Ernie, of course, went on to become secretary of the SFA for 13 years. How would he have handled that situation with Leigh and his singing Hibs supporting pals? Somewhat better, I would suggest, than Vincent Lunny. Ernie certainly wouldn’t have needed a compliance officer to bring people to order.

Lunny is the c.o. of the ruling body. Here’s a guy who seems to appear every time something like this happens. He must spend hours trawling the websites to find out things about fitba players.

What’s this man doing? Is it a real job? Couldn’t he be doing something better and more constructive than picking through the bones of a lot of nonsense.

Don’t for one moment think I’m attempting to vindicate Griffiths. I’m not. He should get the proverbial boot up the backside for what he did - there are no two ways about that. 

But this officious rigmarole seems OTT. I think the SFA are just being petty. It does smack of someone trying to justify their existence.

The punishment should have come from within the player’s club. Hopefully, getting rapped over the knuckles by his own hierarchy would mean a lot more to him - well, it should mean a lot more - than being savaged by an SFA sheep called Vincent Lunny.

Which brings me back to my point about this chap’s role: jobs like this take money out of the game and we struggle at times to provide things that would be beneficial either to the top end of the professional gig or the amateur end.

But the SFA inevitably provide money for some things that are trivial, But we shouldn’t be surprised, for they are trivial people.

Look, I don’t know a lot about Stewart Regan, but I don’t see a lot happening within the game that I could congratulate him for. No, I can’t say I go to sleep counting the accomplishments of Stewart Regan.

Anyway, these punishments seem to be selective, rather than across the board. Morton’s Rowan Vine apparently made uncomplimentary signs to Cowdenbeath supporters when he was sent off the other night.

I didn’t see Lunny sending a letter to the club asking Vine to come up and see him. Is it only because there were 500 people there and really nobody gives diddly squat about it?

I don’t remember, either, Paul McGowan being lettered by the SFA for being drunk and assaulting policemen. No, it’s my belief that Lunny looks for nonsense and is getting his 50-60 grand a year and Vauxhall car for absolutely nothing.

He should only be getting involved if the club involved don’t do anything, if indeed they thumb their nose at the situation. That’s the time the shadow of Vincent Lunny should fall over proceedings.

Hey, I know times have changed, but one phone call from Ernie Walker would have diffused this situation. I can hear what he would have said: “It’s not in the best possible taste,”

As a result, the morals would have been improved, and it would have made a better impact on the individuals who were causing the situation.

This current SFA hoopla was all so unnecessary . It needed someone just to stop guys like Leigh Griffiths in their tracks with some sensible advice, rather than putting them on the back page.

Maybe Griffiths thinks it’s smart because it’s on the back page. But it’s not smart and he should know that. But I still contend that it was up to Celtic, not Lunny, to deliver the sermon.

LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY…HYPOCRISY?

BY JIM BLACK

PETER DAWSON, the chief executive of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, cannot win, it would seem.

No sooner had Dawson announced that the R&A’s 2,400-strong membership will vote on September 18 – Referendum day - to decide whether to admit women members, he was attacked by sections of the left-wing media for failing to issue a decree stating that any single-sex club would in future be excluded from staging the Open Championship.

The “guilty” male-only clubs, Muirfield, Royal Troon and Royal St George’s were quick to respond to the announcement.

Predictably, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers did not declare a willingness to change. Royal Troon, while stressing that they have no plans to change their membership structure, pointed out that The Ladies Golf Club, Troon – founded in 1882 – pay for the privilege of playing the links and use of all the club’s facilities.

St George’s, meanwhile, issued a statement to the effect that they have been considering their status as a single-sex private members club for some time and when deliberations are concluded, the committee will make a recommendation to the membership.

The fact that the R&A is urging its members to abolish their 260-year-old-male-only policy should be welcomed as a positive step forward, especially as Dawson indicated that there appears to be widespread support for the move, which will require a two-thirds majority.

He also highlighted the necessity to put the needs of the Open high up on the R&A’s list of priorities and the loss of key venues would not seem to be doing that, hence Royal Troon will not be struck off as the venue for the 2016 Championship.

As an aside, Dawson, a first class administrator and a thoroughly decent sort, also revealed that the move to admit women members has been greeted by overwhelming support from within his own household, by his wife and daughter.

The fair-minded and clear-thinking among us welcomed the announcement. Others, many with agendas, in my humble opinion, pronounced themselves far from satisfied.

Some of these same individuals from the media also went on the attack last summer and succeeded in completely overshadowing the Open Championship at Muirfield.

They were assisted in their rants and sense of indignation by the First Minister, Alex Salmond’s decision to boycott golf’s oldest major in protest at Muirfield’s male-only policy.

Yet, this is a man who freely avails himself of the opportunity to play some of the country’s finest golf courses as a courtesy. Is that the whiff of double standards I scent?

Free speech is a right each of us is entitled to and I applaud those with the courage to speak out against what they perceive as injustice. But few of the voices I have heard speak on the issue of single-sex golf clubs have been those of women – other than indignant female journalists from publications such as The Guardian newspaper.

Before I am accused of being an advocate of sex discrimination, let me stress, I am not. Indeed, I am a believer in equality in most walks of life.

But while this is not a case of much ado about nothing, I take the view that the issue of women’s membership of certain golf clubs has been blown out of all proportion and is largely media driven by certain individuals who portray a deep sense of injustice on behalf of others in public, for the benefit of their readers or listeners but who privately couldn’t care less, at least in some instances.

I cannot recall a single female acquaintance expressing strong views on the subject and I have yet to hear any express a wish to seek membership of the R&A, Muifield, Royal Troon or Royal St George’s.

Neither am I aware that there are any female members of the Masonic Order or male members of the Women’s Guild!

Recently, sitting amid the splendour of the R&A clubhouse and more than 200 years of history and tradition following a splendid meal, hosted by a leading committee member, I was given to muse that some traditions are worth preserving.

That comment will cause instant offence among the leftie elements of the press. But do I care? Not a bit of it.

Welcome the ladies by all means, but not necessarily at the expense of all freedom of choice.

STILL on a sporting theme...is there no hope for Leigh Griffiths?

Griffiths is a talented football player - and a complete idiot off the park, it would appear.

The Celtic striker was filmed mocking Hearts Football Club in a pub chant with Hibs fans before the Edinburgh derby.

As a former Hibs player and a fan of the Easter Road club that was perhaps not entirely surprising, given he has history of behaving badly.

Griffiths insisted “it was banter.” I am inclined to the view that it was sheer madness or extreme bravery.

To have done so in a hostelry a mere free-kick’s distance from Tynecastle was taking a chance, to say the least.

I dread to think what would have happened to the 23-year-old had a group of Jambos supporters stumbled on him leading the chants of “Hearts are going bust.”