Glenn Gibbons: Damaged goods can mend with Levein on shop floor

Published on Friday 5 March 2010 22:33

EVEN now, four years after the event, the wound from the insult continues to fester. Next week marks the anniversary of the day in 2006 when the supermarket chain, Morrison's, discontinued sponsorship of Scotland's national team, a contract they had inherited with their takeover of Safeway.

At the time, the company's marketing services director, Michael Bates, insisted that the withdrawal had nothing to do with the Scots' failure to qualify for the World Cup in Germany. "Sponsorship of professional sport has never been part of our marketing strategy," he said.

Curiously, that policy seemed not to get in the way of Morrison's stampede last month towards sponsorship of England's 2018 World Cup bid. The apparent slight, however, is merely an indicator of Scotland's disintegrating credibility as a "draw" and, therefore, as an "earner". It also gives some idea of the scale of reparation that faces Craig Levein in his new position as manager of the national team.

At least as important as Levein's avowed priority to make Scotland "hard to beat" is the need to make them appealing once again to marketing directors throughout the land. Having come out of the Euro 2012 qualifying draw along with Spain and the Czech Republic, the Scots are clearly in a group that offers the chance of the kind of redemption that would equate to martyrdom. Conversely of course, the campaign will also provide abundant opportunity for further ignominy.

These are all reasons why Levein's maiden outing on Wednesday had become so significant. Not only were the opponents the Czech side who are to be faced later in the year on more serious business, but the manager's personal risk – the restoration of Kris Boyd – brought the possibility of determining whether the new manager was charmed or cursed.

If this appears a less than clinical method by which to judge a manager's capabilities, it has become necessary in an age when the general standard of player at his disposal is several rungs below the top step on the ladder. In the near-certainty that nobody in a dark blue shirt is going to dazzle, scanning the performance for encouraging portents is as sound a guide as any to the prospects of success.

As it transpired, the most significant aspect of Scotland's 1-0 victory was that Levein's team won a match they had seemed for most of the time much more likely to lose. This does not happen often enough to the Scots – or, at least, it hasn't in the dozen years since they last qualified for a championship – and its occurrence is a source of comfort and even hope.

The last occasion on which such an improbable result was achieved was the 1-0 victory over France at Hampden Park in October, 2006. Largely outplayed that day, the Scots' win by the same margin at the Parc des Princes the following year was much more warranted by their performance.

Celtic fans who double up as members of the Tartan Army would not take more than a nanosecond to realise the significance of Scott Brown's decisive strike on Wednesday. Here is a player who could not buy a goal for his club and who was fresh from an ordering-off in the latest defeat by Rangers producing the winner against a Czech side presently 20 places higher in the world rankings than the Scots.

That may say as much about Tony Mowbray's hoodoo as it does about Levein's voodoo, but, considering the misadventures that have blighted the national team for too long, it could be enough at least to put sponsorship managers back on the alert.

Stain of failure will linger on Mowbray's future

WHATEVER sangfroid Tony Mowbray may evince while being subjected to the trials of one of the most tortuous posts in world football, he must surely be aware by now that a lack of success at Celtic is likely to have a deadly impact on his future prospects.

As job references go, failure at either member of the Old Firm is regarded outside Scotland as the equivalent of being fired from your previous employment for theft.

In Mowbray's case, the ignominy is deepened by the realisation that he is in charge at Parkhead at a time when Celtic, in terms of financial muscle, are Arnold Schwarzenegger to Rangers' seven-stone weakling.

At the present time, nobody would be offered one of the top jobs in England even on the back of having secured multiple honours at Celtic Park or Ibrox. Each competition north of the border (league championship and two national cups) is seen as a two-horse race, with only limited kudos accruing to the winner.

In the event of a bare cupboard, no appointments of any description would be available to the hapless failure. This was a discovery made by John Barnes in 2000, when he was dismissed by Celtic after less than a season, the elimination from the Scottish Cup at home to Inverness making the clamour for his removal finally irresistible.

As with Mowbray, there were widespread misgivings about Barnes's recruitment. Many supporters felt that the Jamaica-born Englishman should not be given Celtic as his first managerial appointment. Mowbray, of course, arrived straight from an undistinguished season in the Premier League with West Bromwich Albion, their relegation seemingly assured before the campaign was halfway to completion.

Barnes waited eight-and-a-half years after Celtic to be made manager of Jamaica, where he lasted a few months. Last June, he took charge of Tranmere Rovers, started with three wins from 14 games and was sacked in October after a run of two victories from 11 league matches.

A decade down the line from the sombre days of Barnes, there is no shortage of Celtic fans rushing to remind us that Mowbray's record is actually worse.