retired_marcias

Kilmarnock...Luck, relative success and absolute failure

The signings of young Ipswich Town striker Jordan Rhodes, experienced Sheffield United midfield enforcer Nick Montgomery and Glasgow Celtic centre-back Scott Cuthbert all proved to be inspired (or lucky depending on your perspective). Rhodes was to become one of the best target men I have ever seen, regularly winning over 20 headers per game. Happily he was not a prolific scorer though and Charlie rarely found a second striker who could consistently score the goals alongside him. Swede Patrik Henriksson did so one season before the Killie board promptly sold him to Newcastle. Finn Tobias Thoren, still at the club, had one hot season a few years back, but then decided he wanted to play for a bigger club (who can blame him?) and has never been the same since.

The signing, for a pittance, of young Hungarian 'keeper Gabor Szenpeteri failed to raise any eyebrows, even in Kilmarnock. He went straight into the first team though and did very well in his first season. So much so that the most ridiculous transfer in the history of British football took place. Glasgow Celtic decided either that they liked the player or that he might help Kilmarnock unseat them as champions. Either way Gordon Strachan bid a mind-boggling £11.75 million for him. Charlie would have accepted the offer, the Kilmarnock board did so. Strachan left Celtic just a week later to take over at Liverpool. Maybe he decided he'd plpay a practical joke before he left. Who knows? Charlie promptly signed 3 more young goalkeepers for next to nothing, any one of whom was equally as good as the Hungarian. Kilmarnock did a lot of scouting in Scandinavia and Hungary and so built up a nice fortune at the club from signing young unknowns and selling them for huge profits. In the meantime, Charlie's next phase finally arrived as Kilmarnock finished 2nd for the next two seasons.

Referring back to huge dollops of cream however, I can't just summarise the second of those seasons with that one dismissive line. Kilmarnock looked awesome as the steamed through the early part of the season and established a 10 point lead soon after Christmas. Even I had to admit that they looked truly superb and were destined for the title. I was wrong Sure I sent messages of condolence to my dear brother, but they were the punctuation. The flood of humourous messages ( I thought they were highly witty, Charlie for some reason failed to see their comedic potential ) formed the mainstay of my communications with him as Kilmarnock blew their 10 point lead in spectacular style. Still, they re-found their form as the season finale approached, just as Celtic began their phase of looking as though they were playing in treacle. Credit to Kilmarnock for their gutsy fightback - they took the title down to the wire and a final day showdown. Pity really that the showdown was at Celtic Park and that Kilmarnock had to win to take the title. As the game unfolded it quickly became apparent that there was more chance of us landing a man on Pluto than Kilmarnock winning in Glasgow. Oh well, I'm sure they enjoyed consolidating their 2nd place from the previous season!

And there I must finish for the moment. It would be unrealistic to delve into Kilmarnock's more recent history without interweaving it with that of Greenock Morton so I will return to the goings on in Scotland after we take a further deviation. This time a much more wild deviation than simply down to Derby or Kilmarnock. It is to the Middle East that we must go next, in search of Andy...As a subscript to this chapter of the story though I must point out, in case anyone should be under any illusions to the contrary, that Kilmarnock did "grace" one or two domestic cup finals during the 7 years so far recounted, but I am sure readers will join me in expressing my delight at the fact that they failed to win any of them. 7 years without a trophy...poor Charlie and poor poor little Kilmarnock!

shannon2007

See, well worth waiting for. Now don't you dare give up :p

BarryLFC

fixed.

retired_marcias

fixed. </BLOCKQUOTE>

:p

disclaimer

Needless to say I do not in any way share the disparaging views of my Greenock Morton alter-ego when it comes to Kilmarnock. Prior to playing CM they had no meaning to me at all, but after some great fun managing them in CM 01/02 and CM 03/04 I have become almost as passionate about them in game and real life as I am about Derby County. Were I to write this story from a different perspective there would be lots more glorification of Kilmarnock's minor successes...as it is the story will always be from the perspective of my Greenock Morton manager so I will have to put up with HD's Ayr-Kilmarnock related taunts

BarryLFC

yessum.

retired_marcias

The Middle East...where a Scotsman is king

Andy McIntyre was a politico, a peace activist, a family man, a footballer. Indeed, he still is all those things apart from a footballer. Like the rest of us time has overtaken him and he hung up his football boots some years back. For me politics and football don't really mix. Rather, I am a football man and have precious little interest in politics. For Andy the two don't so much mix as form the two corner-stones of his life. He was always a far more cerebral footballer than the rest of us, but his politics and other activities are his own business...here I will concentrate on Andy as a football man.

He did the whole 'Reach 30, start considering a career after football, take your coaching badges, become a player-coach then a coach then a manager' thing like the rest of us, but his was a highly unusual path. Almost certainly because of his strong political interest and a general interest in the region it was to the Middle East that Andy went to finish his football career after he was released by Greenock Morton at the age of 27. We've all heard of mercenary footballers going to play in Qatar or Saudi Aradbia at the end of a glittering career for one final pay day even though the standard of their football league is no-where near that of the big European leagues. Andy was no mercenary though, nor was he a great footballer with a glittering career behind him. He was a journeyman footballer who interested Saudi and Qatari teams not a bit. Instead it was to Lebanon that he moved. Initially he had a sabatical from football, prefering to immerse himself in a study of the country's political situation, but soon he found himself contracted to Al-Nejmeh and playing football week in week out in the cauldron of Beirut.

For 7 years he played in the Lebanese capital, becoming a cult hero in the city. It's fair to say that European footballers are a rarity in Lebanon and even a Greenock Morton reject can cause quite a stir. A run of the mill footballer he may have been in Scotland, but in Lebanon he was quite the superstar. For 5 years after his retirement he was a hugely popular manager at Al-Nejmeh before his big moment came. On the 3rd September 2014 he was appointed manager of the Lebanese national team, with a brief to uphold the country's honour in the Asian Cup qualifiers and, if possible, qualify for the Asian Cup proper.

Thus, over the course of 16 days in October the 6 group games of the qualification tournament took place, with Lebanon facing Uzbekistan, Myanmar and overwhelming group favourites Saudi Arabia. For some reason all 6 matches were played in either Rangoon (Myanmar) or Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), giving Lebanon 4 neutral venue games and 2 away games. Saudi Arabia were hugely lucky to grab an opening 2-2 draw with Lebanon in Rangoon and ludicrously lucky to score two quickfire end of first half goals and block out a host of Lebanese chances to win 2-0 in Riyadh. The 4 points were enough to give the group to the Saudis, but 7-1 and 4-0 wins over Uzbekistan and 3-0 and 3-2 wins against Myanmar saw Lebanon easily through to Asian Cup finals.

retired_marcias

Lebanon...the increasing excitement of a people

The Asian cup is not big news in Scotland. Infact, most Scots don't even realise it is taking place at all, not so much through their own ignorance as the fact that results are nowhere reported by the national media. Personally I had to dig around on the internet to find the results of the games not involving Lebanon...Lebanese results were texted to me by Andy with an ever increasing level of excitement. The opening 4-0 win over Iran was hugely impressive, but it wasn't until Lebanon's next game that Scots began to realise that one of their own was making a bit of a splash on the international stage. The result even made the "In Brief" section of Ceefax's football news though it clearly deserved more. Lebanon 9-0 Thailand certainly caused a few raised eyebrows, but in truth no-one outside of Asia took more than a passing interest - Thailand are not renowned for being a great footballing nation.

Four days later though there was no need to go in search of Lebanon's next result, and not only because of a plethora of exultant text messages and phonecalls from Andy. Saudi Arabia had been lucky against Lebanon in the qualifiers as I have already aluded to, but they have a pedigree of qualifying for World Cups even though they rarely do anything when they get there. In Asia expectations were that they would beat Lebanon, but there were dissenting voices, people who pointed to Lebanon's dominance of their qualifying games and said that now they would get the result as well as the performance. This time it made the Ceefax headlines and was splashed all over the back page of the Daily Record, even bumping Celtic transfer rumours to the inner pages. Saudi Arabia 0-8 Lebanon read the simple headline. Those who didn't already know had to look to the actual text of the report to realise it's significance, that a Scottish manager was making such a big impact in the international arena, albeit halfway around the world. Sure it was 1 goal fewer than against Thailand, but Saudi Arabia are a class apart from Thailand and this was a result that shook the whole footballing world to its foundations. Lebanon had been ranked a lowly 126th in the world when Andy took over, Saudi Arabia are a top 30 side. Needless to say, Lebanon were very much on the rise up the world rankings now.

I should make note of a personal interest here. Thanks to great tips from Andy I had signed up 3 Lebanese internationals, all still playing club football in Lebanon at the time, very cheaply the January before the finals so I had more interest than most in how they did. Into the season after the Asian Cup finals I would go on to sign another who would arrive the following January (2016 for those who have no idea what year we are in at this point of the story), but the shenanigans that surrounded the arrival and departure of the numerous Lebanese players at Cappielow is for my own part of the story. Suffice to say here that I was very pleased with the summer performances of striker Valery Zanazanyan, winger Rabih Badawi and defender Greg Yepiskoposyan. Funnily enough though, I was not the first British manager to look to Lebanese football for cheap talent. Down at Portsmouth, Tony Adams had already signed up no fewer than 5 Lebanese internationals, all of them playing a major part in his team.

retired_marcias

Morton...the early years

Before I bring the reader up to date with Lebanon's recent history it is high time that we return to the banks of the Clyde and to Greenock Morton where it all began. I had other friends in the team of course, but it was never quite the same after my brother and two best mates left the club for pastures new. As a one club man I was hugely popular with fans and players alike for my work rate, effort and commitment. Talent was not something I was overly endowed with, but I worked hard at my football and found a role for myself as an all action midfielder in the Morton engine room. It was seen as quite natural that I would join the Morton coaching staff on retirement and so I did.

In truth, though I have much enjoyed them, the years since I took over as manager have mingled together to such an extent that I can't actually remember, without looking it up, the season in which I was asked to take over the reigns. It was mid-way through the season after Morton had won promotion from Scottish Division 2. Things had not gone well and the club looked destined for a short stay in Division 1 as they continued to inhabit that uncomfortable half-way ground between the two divisions - a little too good for Division 2, but seemingly not quite up to the standard of Division 1. We all know clubs who are like that, some stay that way for years on end, others constantly change managers and eventually fall one side or other of the fence. At Morton it fell to me to take over the team and guide them clear of a relegation which had, sadly, been looking increasingly likely under the previous manager.

I was like a young kid again, all that boyish enthusiasm long forgotten, with a new toy to play with. This was a dream come true for me. I was born and bred in Greenock, I had spent over 20 years at Greenock Morton and now this was my big chance. I was a hero, after a fashion, to the fans, but football history is littered with men who, having been playing heroes at a club, came back to manage and fell on their sword. Men who would forever be tainted by failure as a manager at the club were they had once been idolised. Relatively few managers leave a club universally adored by the fans, with their head held high. The relationship so often sours: fans with unrealistic expectations, a board needing a scapegoat and the manager is barracked by his own fans before the inevitable sacking. Of course some managers leave a club of their own accord, often to move on to a bigger club, but they too often find their relationship with the fans of their old club strained - some fans accept a manager moving onwards and upwards, others will never accept that another club is bigger or better to work for than their own. All these thoughts passed through my head, but only briefly to be truthful. To be worried about the ending when the beginning has only just arrived is extremely pessimistic, but I knew this would be my final association with Greenock Morton - hopefully a long and successful one, but if not there could be no going back.

It was a tough baptism in management and our subsequent narrow survival in Division 1 was met with relief by everyone at the club and very much so by myself. Now I would have a full season to test myself and, equally significantly, a summer during which to rebuild the squad to become more my squad. The arrival of a number of Kilmarnock rejects met with a predictably mixed reaction, but midfielder Allan Jenkins and hot-shot (or so he would become...at Kilmarnock he had been totally frozen out and thus had a lot to prove) striker Steven Dobbie soon endeared themselves to the fans, as did a returning Chris Templeman. I never expected my second season to go so well, but things just fell into place and Morton, tipped again for a relegation scrap, found themselves elevated to the Scottish Premier League. The only thing absolutely certain now was that we really would be in a relegation scrap the next season!

I finish this section with a note on the live match which has just finished on TV - dubbed as a title decider in England and eagerly anticipated by the footballing public: Arsenal vs Derby County. It's fair to say Derby haven't enjoyed visits to the Emirates Stadium in recent years, so much so that before last season's victory there they had been utterly wretched, losing 6-0 on one occasion, but that wasn't the piece de resistance. That came in Derby's 3rd season in the top flight, as they went into the final game of the season sitting a magnificent 3rd and with the possibility of finishing 2nd if results went their way. Results didn't go their way. I forget now whether Tottenham won lost or drew in 2nd, but that quickly became irrelevant to Derby who slumped to 6th place after being thrashed 7-0 by a rampant Arsenal team. That Adam got his tactics wrong was understatement of the year, but it is always difficult when you go a goal down to such a great team - do you defend like crazy and try to nick an equaliser or do you push forward and go for it, then when you go 2-0 and 3-0 down do you go for damage limitation or do you throw caution to the wind? Clearly Derby did the latter. A final footnote to that game before I return to today's game, had Derby lost "just" 6-0 they'd have finished 5th, as it was Chelsea pipped them on goals scored!

So to tonight's game...and what a game it was, unlike so often, worthy of the billing it was given as a title decider. Many people had yet to take to their seats when Gianpaolo Pazzini fired home the opening goal after just 26 seconds, but the home fans went for the half time victuals rather more contented as they fought back to lead 2-1. Adam's half time team talk was inspired and inspiring though as Derby flew at Arsenal a second half which saw free-flowing chances at either end. Hungarian playmaker Joszef Sandor crashed home an equaliser and when Lars-Goran Ragnarsson finished off another sweeping move in the dying embers of the match the away end erupted and the assembled journalists had plenty to write about. Arsenal were crushed, no doubt about it, but those who were dubbing it a title decider certainly did not include anyone connected to Aston Villa - their fans, players and staff alike were very put out such a description, their team were, after all, sitting 2nd even before the match. True no-one expected them to stay there, they had no recent pedigree, they were predicted to finish 12th, etc, etc, but this was the business end of the season, clearly they did have staying power and had now become the only realistic challengers to stop Derby winning back their title of 3 seasons ago.

retired_marcias

Morton...more Entish than hasty

I could bore my readers with consumate ease if I chose to relive Morton's early years in the SPL. We survived quite comfortably each season, but our progress was not at all hasty. Consolidation was the order of the day and we consolidated for quite some time, although not quite as long as Falkirk. You can't help but feel slightly sorry for Falkirk. They strove manfully to keep their SPL status, finishing 9th, 10th or 11th for the better part of 10 years as they watched Dunfermline, Gretna and others descend through the trap door to Division 1. Now Falkirk too have finally succumbed to the relegation that has, for so long, eluded them. Anyway, I digress from the real purpose of this narrative...Greenock Morton did not flirt with the relegation trapdoor, indeed they didn't flirt with anything other than the mid to lower echelons of the SPL, but the fans were content, not least because we barely spent any money at all during this time due to chairman Andy Duffy's very tight purse strings and my own lack of interest in delving into the transfer market for talentless players no better than what we already had.

In the end, after a number of years of frugal management during which time the club built up a nice little bank balance of ~£2.5 million, I decided it was time to take the next step. There comes a time when a club's ans and board begin to expect more than just survival and though this time didn't appear to have arrived yet I wasn't going to hang around...we had some money at last, albeit not a lot and not a lot of it put into our wage budget either. Our ageing squad had done us proud, but it was time for players like Stephen Dobbie, Allan Jenkins, Stephen O'Donnell and others to take a back seat as a new cosmopolitan generation took over. Finns, Hungarians, Norwegians and other nationalities began to arrive on the cheap as Morton expanded their scouting network at last. In truth it was a well-trodden (or trodden at least) path which had already seen Kilmarnock become a force in Scottish football and also turned them into a rich club, selling players on to EPL clubs for outrageous profits.

The 3 signings which raised eyebrows the most though were our 3 Lebanese internationals who arrived in January of 2016. It is from the circumstances of their arrivals that the somewhat spurious title for this story comes. Some European players don't even know where Middlesbrough is when they are first told by their agent of interest in them from the club so 3 lads playing their football in Lebanon can perhaps be forgiven for not having the faintest idea where Greenock Morton play. They showed initiative, when told Morton where interested in them, but unfortunately not enough to look the club itself up on the internet. Instead they used an atlas of Great Britain, a tool which would suffice for a majority of clubs, but was problematic in our case...apparently they found 7 places in Britain named Morton, but none of them were in Scotland and none had a football team worth speaking of. Fortunately their muddle about exactly where we are, and indeed in which country, was settled and they arrived on free transfers in a blaze of publicity.

Valery Zanazanyan, a striker, is undoubtably one of the most talented players to ever grace the Cappielow turf, especially at the time we signed him. Winger Rabih Badawi who arrived with him was probably his biggest competitor on that front, although one or two of our other recent signings were mildly snazzy too. I liked him, he was superb to watch in training and brought tricks galore to both the training ground and matches. What he didn't do was score goals, at least not for a while and when he did he only managed a handful in a series of erratic and inconsistent performances. Despite that the fans loved him though and I was confident he would soon settle down and start banging the goals in. Sadly, scouts from numerous EPL clubs liked what they saw and liked even more what they saw when they turned up to watch him in training. Badawi was a different kettle of fish...injured at first it was a while before he made an impact, but when he did it was spectacular - he quickly became the wing wizard of the SPL, rattling off a string of consistent performances full of assists. Again the fans adored him, unfortunately so did the Heart of Midlothian manager. Greg Yepiskoposyan was the third. He was less spectacular, but since he was a defender that was generally felt to be a good thing and he did a fine job at the back for us for 12 months.

So, for once Morton's fans were licking their lips in anticipation as the 2017 season kicked off. There was a real buzz around Cappielow and everyone felt we could really do something...but I'm running ahead of myself...the eagle-eyed amongst you will have realised that we have rather left Kilmarnock behind in all this and that won't do at all, not least because I left their story at a point when they were about to embark on two of the most explosive seasons in the club's history...

retired_brianrt

I like this Glamdring. I shall be keeping my eye on this one. Love the writing style and the idea you've come up with