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There were 4 of us here back in the good old days; Thick as thieves we were for some 4 or more years. Times change though, especially in football, and we were never likely to all spend our whole careers at the same club. Adam was the first to leave, some 20 or so years ago now. The most talented of our quartet, he turned down moves to Heart of Midlothian and Glasgow Celtic, but jumped at the chance of a dream move to Derby County. There he stayed, becoming a favourite with the fans for his commitment and loyalty until he retired, moved into coaching and eventually became manager in 2006. It is fair to say that he has outshone the rest of us in management as well as on the pitch. His current Derby County squad is the envy of most teams in Europe, nevermind us mere mortals at small Scottish clubs. My brother Charlie was next to leave, moving cross country to Hibernian. The move didn't work out for him though and, after spells at Arbroath and East Fife, he retired at the young age of 30 and took up coaching, a discipline at which he excelled far better than he ever did at playing. His big break in management would come, also in 2006, at Kilmarnock. Finally, Andy departed from Greenock Morton back in 2002 and his was the most unusual career move. Before coming to my own career I will give a brief account of how my 3 old friends have been getting on over the last 9-10 years...
08-22-2007, 04:28 PM
Aye lad, Scotland! We's to the left o' Glasgow... Post #2
Adam took to management like a duck to water. After the upheavals of their recent relegation from the Premiership and the large debts that ensued, Derby were predicted to struggle in the 2006/7 season. As it was some shrewd signings saw the club rarely outside the top 6 as they eased to a play-off place. Ultimately they lost the final, a fate which was to be repeated in eerily similar fashion the following year. The 2008/9 season was a triumphant one though as Derby County finally returned to the promised land of the Premiership. But for running out of steam at the end of each of their first 3 seasons there, their return could have been spectacular. As it was, a steady progression of 9th, 8th and 6th placed finishes saw Derby comfortably re-established amongst the country's elite.
The arrivals of Brazilian playmaker Diego and striker Fred heralded a triumphant 7th season for Adam's vastly changed team. The return of the brilliant Giles Barnes, sadly under-used in spells at Chelsea and then Manchester United, provided the only link with the team of 7 years earlier. Now Derby played swashbuckling sexy football, no more did they use a target-man, no more did they play the direct style of football that got them to the Premiership. Diego was the focal point of a team whose hallmark was neat short passing with a solid defensive backbone provided by a pair of brilliant Finnish defenders. That they won the Premiership title in 2012/13 surprised many, but not others who had tipped them as dark horses. Arsenal, boasting the now worldclass Mikko Salommaa, signed for £8 million from Derby County when they had been in the Championship, had been tamed. The decision to sell the young Finn, taken by the chairman without consulting his manager, still rankled with Adam though. Not least because he had the unpleasant knack of scoring against Derby.
Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool...they were all history. Arsenal were the team to beat. Hotshot Mexican striker Carlos Vela was forming a frightening partnership upfront with Salomaa and the rest of the team was packed with undoubted talent too. The die had been cast, for the next two seasons, just as for the previous one, Arsenal and Derby locked horns. Like a Tour de France climber finally hitting the Alps, Arsenal would leapt of the front of the Premiership, stringing 6 straight wins together, and look back to survey the damage. There on their proverbial back wheel would be Derby, also having strung 6 straight wins together. Behind them carnage, teams with big ambitions being successively unhitched by the incessant pace of the top two. Ultimately 2013/14 saw Arsenal draw two games of a long run in, Derby lost two and with them went the title.
08-22-2007, 04:29 PM
Aye lad, Scotland! We's to the left o' Glasgow... Post #3
In 2014/15 Newcastle United, under new management, joined the duo as the battle went down to the wire. Arsenal, supposedly dropped after a 0-2 defeat at home to Derby and a 2-2 draw at home to Newcastle fought back relentlessly as their two big rivals dropped points here and there. Into the penultimate game of the season Derby County led Newcastle United on goal difference, Arsenal looming a point back. The title was Derby's to lose and lose it they did, drawing 0-0 at home to Crystal Palace to drop to 3rd with a game to go. Newcastle held firm, winning to top the table, Arsenal gliding smooothly into 2nd. So to the final day, Derby were back to what they did best, easing to a comfortable 2-0 win, but it wasn't enough. Arsenal were doing their bit, winning comfortably, so all eyes were on Vicarage Road where an obstinate Watford were holding Newcastle United 0-0 into the dying minutes. The live league tables on Ceefax showed Arsenal top, Derby second on goal difference. Then the defining moment of the season. A penalty to Newcastle in the 89th minute...this was the drama on which the Premiership's reputation had been built - Newcastle thrown the lifeline to snatch back the title. The footballing world held it's breath, or at least those who weren't spluttering into their coffee in surprise at centre-back Alexander Skjelseth stepping up to take the spot kick. Had the Toon's big names bottled it? Did they not have the nerve to take a championship winning penalty? Or was Skjelseth a penalty taker extrodinaire?
No. Emphatically No. Whether the answer to those first to questions was Yes or No, only those players will know, but the whole nation rapidly reached the conclusion that the answer to the 3rd question was No! It was a good catch by the bare-chested Newcastle fan, tears welling up in his eyes, some rows back into the stands, but that was no consolation. Skjelseth droopped to his knees, utterly unconsolable. If he had been the only one brave enough to take that penalty then fair play to him and we can all feel sorry for him, if he confidently told his team0mates he was the man to take it then he was a fool. Again, only he and his team-mates know - the wall of silence from Newcastle United after the game was inpenetrable. As for Adam and his Derby County team, they just looked at the final Premiership table in disbelief. True it was Newcastle who had ultimately thrown the title away, but only a week earlier it had been Derby and the whole nation knew they had been the best team. Arsenal had conceded over 10 goals more and had lost 8 games. Derby had lost just once all season (domestically), but in the final reckoning it was the plethora of draws, 2 points carelessly dropped here and there as though they were confetti, that reallly cost them, not that solitary 1-0 defeat at Everton. Needless to say I like to e-mail a copy of that table to Adam once in a while, just to tease him, especially when he is gloating about yet another victory.
So, after that deviation into the latest Premiership title race, we reach the present day. A glance at the January Premiership table shows no surprises. Arsenal and Derby are again locked in a deadly embrace, the latter finally managing to leapfrog the former, albeit temporarily until Arsenal play on Sunday. In his recent phonecalls to me Adam has sounded edgy, irritated by Arsenal's dogged persistance and great form. True Derby will again be just a point behind with 2 games in hand if Arsenal win, but Adam seems not to believe in himself and his team after the near misses of the last 2 seasons. To the neutral, Derby look supreme, reeling off 10 wins in a row in the Premiership, 15 in all competitions, but the run must end at some point and, with Arsenal clinging on, Adam fears they will roar past when the draws and defeats start coming. Only time will tell. For now confidence among the Derby players is at an all time high...
08-22-2007, 04:32 PM
Aye lad, Scotland! We's to the left o' Glasgow... Post #5
Here's all the usual game info, for anyone who is interested:
FM 07, English league (down to conference) and full Scottish league active. Welsh league is on view only, dunno why, I never do view it or sign any players from it or interact with it in any way :p
I have included players from numerous nations, mostly Scandinavia and some in eastern Europe and one or two from elsewhere.
I have 5 managers active in the game, one added only at the start of last season at Newcastle who is unlikely feature in the story, one at Derby, one at Greenock Morton and two others who will be introduced. My intention is for this to be a story mostly focused on Morton once it gets going, with references to my other managers as and when, but I will consider any requests for alternative story directions.
08-30-2007, 11:47 AM
Aye lad, Scotland! We's to the left o' Glasgow... Post #9
For the next part of this story we will return north of the border, but first, since time is passing quickly as I scribble down the various collections of notes that make up this story, I should tie up loose ends with Derby. Needless to say, in an ongoing story, further loose ends will appear daily, but for now we'll settle for just a fleeting revisit to the midlands. As it turned out Adam was right to be nervous. Chelsea were the next visitors to Pride Park and stodged their way to a 0-1 win to complete the double over Derby, an impressive feat given that Derby have lost only 3 domestic matches all season. The following week Middlesbrough welcomed Derby and sent them back south with a flee in their ear after equalising a Jose Antonio Valverde header for a 1-1 draw. Valverde, a central defender who is competing with 2 other world class, high performance centre-backs for 2 starting positions, has since added further to his tally - 10 goals in all competitions now, every one from a corner. By a happy coincidence, however, Derby found themselves a point further clear of Arsenal after all that as the Gunners suffered an even more dramatic loss of form, losing twice.
Further draws since have seriously undermined Arsenal's hopes of retaining the title, so much so that Aston Villa have sneaked into 2nd place as I write this. Arsenal are very much a marathon team though and have witnessed Derby blow a gasket at the business end of the season for the last two seasons so they are still outwardly confident. Derby 0-1 Tottenham after 60 minutes was a focusing moment, a potentially pivotal moment of the season in the FA Cup 5th round as The Rams stared down the barrel of 3 winless games and a further loss of squad morale. What transpired was a stunning return to form as the creative attacking talents of playmakers Diego and Joszef Sandor and the clinical finishing of strikers Lars-Goran Ragnarsson, Fred and Gianpaolo Pazzini came to the fore. The 4-1 final score became a launch pad from which Derby would win their next 6 games, making it an astonishing 22 wins and 1 draw from their last 24 in all competitions. These wins saw them cruise past a hapless Brann Bergen team 7-0 on aggregate to win through to the Champions League quarter-finals, defeat an obdurate West Bromich Albionfrom The Championship to win their 3rd League Cup title in a row and despatch Arsenal's conquerers Manchester City in the FA cup quarter finals. An unthinkable quadruple is still on, but Adam has banned all talk of trophies for the moment, including the one already won. The old cliche of taking one game at a time is been given a fair old airing.
Some may wonder why I, as Greenock Morton manager, appear to be taking more interest in other clubs and other leagues than my own. The answer though is fairly simple. Greenock Morton are my day time job and during that team receive my full attentions, but as you will soon discover when I find the fortitude to begin writing about my own club's trials and tribulations (and occasional joyous interludes), this season has rapidly gone pear-shaped for us and, after such high expectations and excitement pre-season. The Cappielow faithful are observing the current goings on with a detached indifference, waiting, as am I, for the season to end and the next one to hove into view. In the meantime observing the goings on at clubs managed by old friends provides a welcome relief from the day to day strains here. One thing that is, at last, true for Greenock Morton now is that we are desperately in need of some greater consistency. In past seasons this has very much not been true. People seem to view consistency as a good thing, but we at Morton have been unhappily consistent for a few years before last season. Of course what people really mean is positive consistency, but the lazy public of the modern world have no time for such minutiae and subtleties of the English language. Hopefully our days of consistently losing with just enough wins thrown in to avoid being seriously threatened by relegation are behind us...
08-30-2007, 01:16 PM
Aye lad, Scotland! We's to the left o' Glasgow... Post #10
The town of Kilmarnock is not a million miles away from Greenock. True, it is closer to Ayr and a whole host of other smallish towns, but it is close enough that Kilmarnock football club are regarded as notable rivals of Greenock Morton. They, of course, look down their noses at us, prefering to regard Celtic as their big rivals and Ayr as the local rivals who they constantly laugh at. Whatever, Charlie's long-term love of Kilmarnock FC was a source of much derision and mocking in our household as we grew up. Born and bred in Greenock, the rest of us were (still are) staunch Morton fans. Charlie though decided to be different and, from a young age, supported Kilmarnock. Brotherly love aside, we regard him, in the nicest possible way, as our black sheep. We take Kilmarnock's recent tortoise-like success with a pinch of salt and their even more recent troubled times with a huge dollop of cream. The reader may have detected by now that there may be a little hint of bias, jealousy ( a claim vigourously denied by myself of course ) and gallows humour connected to my reporting of Kilmarnock's minor successes and huge failings. So that is that dealt with. I, for one, regard myself as totally unbiased and think it important that Kilmarnock's achievements should never be reported with too much over-hyping.
It was, again, back in 2006 that Charlie took up the reins of management, following on from the culmination of his inglorious playing career. I could waffle on for ages about how he strove to build the club into one which would be perenial title contenders, but the details would be superfluous. Players flowed in and out through the Rugby Park revolving door during the first few seasons as Charlie tried to put a team together that he was happy with. Most of the early signings were from lower division clubs in Scotland, poor deluded players who feel that a move to Kilmarnock is a step up just because they are a division or two higher. Amongst those Peter Weatherson, Jim McAlister and Chris Templeman all lost their heads and decided to leave 2nd Division Morton to join Kilmarnock. Weatherson did well, McAlister occasionally did well, but happily Templeman was a failure at Kilmarnock and later returned to us at Morton, as indeed did Weatherson some years later.
The general formula for the early seasons at Kilmarnock was to get a decent start, collapse mid-season and then pick up form just in time to leave 9th place behind and grab a top 6 spot by the time the league split. In 2006/7 Kilmarnock finished a creditable 4th. In 2007/8 the division was infeasibly close and, in their only season of struggle in the last few decades, Glasgow Celtic somehow managed to finish below Kilmarnock, allowing their lowly Ayrshire rivals to finish 3rd. Happily Kilmarnock completely failed to build on this and finished 4th in each of the next 3 seasons, sometimes flirting with 3rd, often flirting with a bottom 6 finish, but somehow always arriving at what was now becoming mediocrity in 4th. Their fans were happy, but then they had been used to mid table dossing for so long that 4th looked really goood. They didn't seem to care that the club had begun to stagnate there. Charlie, of course, had a different take on it all, claiming that establishing Kilmarnock as the 4th best club in the country was a genuine achievement and that stability was important and would be the launching pad for the next phase.
Aye lad, Scotland! We's to the left o' Glasgow... 
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