Opinion

“We don’t do mediocre.”
This might be the confession of a Scotland player if he departed from the approved script in a TV interview. “We’re either brilliant or horrible,” he might add. “In Nice we were truly horrible.” So indeed we were, every it as horrible as in the first half-hour at Twickenham in March. That day, as we happily remember , the second half was indeed brilliant. Sadly, there was no such brilliance in the second half last week. The best that could be said is that it wasn’t as horrible as the first.

Once upon a time, Christmas day fell every week. Every Thursday to be exact, with the arrival on the kitchen table of Roy of the Rovers, Shoot! and Farmers Weekly. The holy triumvirate.

After many decades when bigotry has become so ingrained in Scottish football, no one will claim relief is now within reach.

Celtic took a firm step towards quelling what Neil Lennon had labelled the hysterical reaction to their Champions League exit as they secured a solid lead to take into the second leg of their Europa League play-off against AIK.

Many people firmly believe that Test cricket is fading in popularity and needs to undergo a rethink. In recent months the ICC has brought in an official Test championship to provide ‘context’ to every game and introduced the first four-day Test. These welcome initiatives, however, have had significantly less impact on the longest format of the game than the debut of Jofra Archer in last week’s second Ashes Test. Archer’s battle with Steve Smith was some of the most compelling and riveting cricket seen for many years.

A nother month, another golf club closure in the sport’s cradle. Add Mount Ellen in Lanarkshire to other relatively recent shutdowns of Eastwood in Renfrewshire, Brunston Castle in Ayrshire and Carrick Knowe in the Lothians. Camperdown in Angus is closing, too, it emerged last week.

C igarette sponsorship was stubbed out, time was called on using kids as advertising boards for alcohol brands and now we have a gambling firm which has apparently found a conscience and wagered that it is irresponsible for them to indulge in such prominent product placement in a sport watched by youngsters.

The self-appointed moral guardians of Scottish football will doubtless be gratified by the news Ladbrokes is ending its sponsorship of the SPFL at the end of this season.

The sight of Gareth Anscombe being helped off the field at Twickenham and out of the World Cup will have sent nervous shivers down many spines. We are all aware of the risk of serious injuries in these warm-up internationals, an apprehension scarcely alleviated by the knowledge that injuries are suffered in training too. Indeed, a mishap in training has already deprived Wales of Toby Faletau.

In any other sphere of business, Peter Lawwell would be the subject of unequivocal praise for his performance as a chief executive over the past 16 years.

On Thursday evening Andy King became Rangers' 10th summer signing.

When the final whistle sounded at Celtic Park on Tuesday night, the result was met with predictable jeering – and criticism. The board was targeted for not spending enough on players and for appointing the cheap option as manager; the manager was criticised for his tactics and team selection.

It doesn’t sound an entirely promising set of circumstances. A cup game in front of the cameras against a team smarting from being beaten 5-2 at home on their last outing. Throw into the mix poor form and add the likely absence of the player reckoned to make the team tick, then it is clear Hearts manager Craig Levein faces a daunting task against Motherwell on Friday as he attempts to save his skin and muffle the critics.

I n the space of a few weeks, Calum Hill has gone from being the most disappointed golfer I’ve come across this summer to a very happy chap as Scotland’s recent success story on the Challenge Tour keeps adding exciting new chapters.

There are, according to Paul Simon, 50 ways to leave your lover. You can slip out the back, Jack, or make a new plan Stan, or get on the bus, Gus. Leaving your football club, though, would seem to be a whole lot trickier.

When news emerged at the beginning of the year that Dundee United were sending Louis Appere, pictured, out on loan to junior side Broughty Athletic, one Twitter contributor was quick to posit that it was now all over for the young striker.

This has been a good week for those who feared the dear old transfer request had become obsolete.

E ven as we get ready for the World Cup and anxiously scan the news for reports of any injuries – Wales have already been deprived of Toby Faletau – the law-makers are looking to the future beyond whatever happens in Japan, and have come up with a number of law changes or revisions which will be given trials at various levels of the game.

It used to be that having a director of football bestowed status upon a club. This was the sign of upward mobility, the clue that here was a club on the rise and with need to install an extra layer of power and influence, one often viewed with suspicion by the humble manager – or, as they were more often renamed in these examples, “first-team coach”.