The predictable demise of John Barnes

The sacking of John Barnes by Tranmere Rovers was inevitable and predictable.

After his failure in charge of Celtic the former England winger didn't take time out to learn from his mistakes, he spent almost a decade re-assuring himself that he was right and that Celtic had got it wrong.

No other club in England ever considered Barnes as a potential manager until Tranmere appeared on the scene during the summer.

As a former internationalist who had started near the bottom, Watford, and moved on to be one of the best English players of the 80s and 90s he really should have been in demand, worth a try after his Celtic experience.

ATTITUDE

Rather than changing his attitude and attempting to learn from his Celtic lessons Barnes nursed a deep grudge that a great managerial talent was being deliberately snubbed by clubs across the divisions.

When the Tranmere job came up it was as if we were back to the golden summer of 1999 when the Barnes magic was poised to transform Celtic with an exciting new brand of football to blow the opposition away. A revolutionary concept that no ordinary manager had ever considered.

Barnes seems to exist in a footballing bubble where everyone is out of sync with the proper way to play football, the Barnes way.

A decade out of football appears to have taught him nothing, as the results at Tranmere showed.

LIMITATIONS

Management is simple, it's about managing, simple as that. It's about getting the best out of players, recognising their limitations and working around them.

Transforming League One players into Galacticos isn't likely, there is a reason that players, and managers are at Tranmere. That is their level, they aren't top notch and no amount of coaching can transform players.

Barnes Celtic career was certainly lively, if Celtic could have played Aberdeen every week he'd have been a legend, if it was Motherwell we'd have been relegated!

Three games against the Dons brought 18 goals, two games with Motherwell brought two defeats.

Barnes Celtic management tends to be remembered for the Scottish Cup defeat from Inverness Caley Thistle and Henrik Larsson's leg break in Lyon.

Larsson's leg break came halfway through his 28 game Celtic reign and was quickly followed by a broken jaw for Paul Lambert in a 4-2 defeat from Rangers at Ibrox.

BACKGROUND

There were a number of issues rumbling along in the background which neither Barnes or 'Director of Football' Kenny Dalglish seemed interested in addressing.

Without exception Barnes signings, or the players signed for him were a disaster.

Top of the pile belongs to Eyal Berkovic with Raphael Sheidt not far behind, £10m plus invested for next to nothing in return on two players wholly unsuited to Scottish football.

Stan Petrov and Bobby Petta turned out to be important players under Martin O'Neill but the least said about Olievier Tebily, Ian Wright, Stephane Bonnes, Dmitrei Kharine the better.

Midway through his managerial reign Barnes sold Craig Burley to Derby County with the grapevine suggesting that Burley and a core of senior players had quickly turned on Barnes style of management.

ABRUPT

The end at Celtic but inevitable and abrupt. After a winter break in Portugal the season resumed with a 0-0 draw at Kilmarnock followed by losing 3-2 at home to Hearts after being two goals up before the Caley Thistle debacle.

What happened in the dressing room at half-time has never been confirmed but reliable stories suggest that Viduka turned spectacularly on Barnes after being singled out for criticism.

With golden boy Berkovic and other Barnes signings immune from criticism Viduka was replaced by Wright for the second half with Barnes sacked the next day as Dalglish returned from a golfing holiday in La Managa.

Barnes sacking did in a roundabout way bring around the successful Martin O'Neill era to Celtic, avoiding relegation is the aim for Tranmere with Barnes very unlikely to ever resurface in the management game.

Licence payers pay for BBC's Rangers tickets

Congratulations to the Herald for some great digging into the licence payer funded expenses of BBC employees.

There must have been some uncomfortable shuffling going on amongst the BBC with the open season going on into expenses claimed by MP's with the BBC known as generous payers of expenses without too many questions being answered.

Amongst some digging by the Herald it discovered that BBC Scotland Head of Sport Ewan Angus received £190 expenses for two tickets to the 2008 Uefa Cup Final between Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg.

CLICK HERE to view page 2 bottom third of the page.

The relevance of this claim is vague, television coverage was provided by ITV with Scottish Television providing coverage to their area.

FLAVOUR

BBC Radio Scotland did cover the match in great detail with an army of reporters and technicians bringing the flavour of Manchester into every home throughout Scotland.

A nosy through the expenses claim of Angus is fairly boring and mundane but the odd gem does stand out such as his personal purchase and reimbursement for two tickets for that match.

The licence fee paid to the BBC is under great pressure from other broadcasters and news agencies as advertising revenues dwindle and the BBC dominates online news with impressive video content.

Over stepping their public service role is a sensitive area, how Angus can justify his Uefa Cup Final tickets as being in the public interest would be enlightening.

The BBC probably does have a role to play in providing 'free' news and information without being dependent of the support of advertisers.

£190 for football tickets is neither here nor there but it does highlight that some supposedly public servants, just like MP's, seem to think that expenses is a perk of the job for their personal indulgences.

Super-fit Craig Thomson admites to 'many crucial decisions'

by Joe McHugh Craig Thomson is really fit, he works out in the gym every day and has his fitness monitored constantly by the SFA. On Wednesday the SFA decided to let Sky Sports know just how fit Thomson is.

After his performance on Sunday the fitness of the referee is of no concern to anyone unless the SFA are trying to send some sort of message down south where Sir Alex Ferguson publicly criticised the fitness of referee Alan Wiley after his side drew 2-2 with Sunderland.

As a diversion tactic to the scrutiny, largely online, that Thomson's performance has attracted since Sunday the fitness feature was virtually pointless.

Daley Thompson was the fittest man on the planet throughout the eighties but was never put forward for football refereeing, basic fitness is expected of a referee and as the pictures and video from Sunday showed Thomson was perfectly placed to make decisions, his placing and fitness weren't issues, it wasn't a case of Arsene Wenger-like problems of not seeing the incidents.

INTERVIEW

Thomson did speak during the interview and interestingly did suggest that there were other tough decisions to call but since he refused to discuss them it's not unreasonable to conclude that he felt that he got the other major decisions correct in the match.

Word for word Sunday's referee said: "I'll never probably have another game where I have so many decisions, of crucial decisions to make within the first thirty minutes of the game.

"Making mistakes, we're only human like players, players make the same mistakes but that's the way that we develop as referees, there's no point going away from the game and not learning from the game.

"It's a big pill to swallow at times."

Thomson never came across as very confident or comfortable speaking but that's maybe just my interpretation.

He mentions the number of crucial decisions that he had to make in the first thirty minutes, since he's only admitted to one mistake, without any explanation being given for that mistake, it's safe to assume that he feels that he got Shaun Maloney's booking correct when many of us thought that a penalty should have been awarded.

QUESTIONABLE

There were further crucial decisions throughout the game that looked questionable, David Weir and Kyle Lafferty managed to avoid being booked while Mark Wilson has already gone on record saying that his booking was incorrect.

Will the SFA ask Wilson to explain his comments to the Celtic website or will they hope that the issue is forgotten and that everything moves on.

After side-stepping the penalty issues on Sunday Tony Mowbray has spoken out about it to the Celtic View, using the club's own magazine to communicate his thoughts to the supporters.

The Celtic manager said: "I have watched the incidents back and I don't think it would have been harsh if we got three penalties, but we can't question the referee's motives.

"He made a decision based on what he thought was right and in the aftermath he has changed his mind, but it's a bit too late for us."

Mowbray uses his words wisely and like Wilson it will be interesting to see if the SFA ask him to explain his comments.

APPEALING

The whole issue is unlikely to die down with Glenn Loovens appealing against a one match retrospective suspension handed out after an incident was reported to the SFA after Thomson reviewed the Rangers-Celtic game in May.

The timing of this appeal must be a nightmare and Celtic's approach will to the appeal will be thorough.

In 2005 the club were satisfied when a three match suspension was handed to Neil Lennon when much lengthier bans were being suggested, that outcome greatly upset Stuart Dougal who had issued Lennon with a red card after a 3-1 Celtic defeat at Ibrox.

Lennon was represented at that hearing by the SPFA's Fraser Wishart, Gordon Strachan and lawyer Rod McKenzie, Loovens is likely to receive similar support.

EXPLAINING

The SFA are perfectly entitled to stick by their one match ban on Loovens but explaining it will be much more difficult.

What is the criteria for retrospective suspensions, was the Loovens-Maurice Edu the only incident in the match worth looking at again?

How many retrospective suspensions are handed out over a season?

Does every referee watch a tape of their matches to look for decisions that they missed?

Celtic have kept a low profile over the decisions at Sunday's match, the comments coming from Mowbray and Wilson suggest that that shouldn't be interpreted as acceptance, the Loovens appeal next week will show the club's strength of feeling about these decisions.

In every walk of life people are judged, if a referee can't get the big decisions right other referees should be given the chance to show that they have the decision making qualities as well as fitness for the big occasions.

McGinn on target at Barrow

Niall McGinn scored the only goal of the game tonight as a Celtic XI won 1-0 away to Barrow AFC.

The match was to celebrate 100 years of football at Holker Street Stadium, home of the Blue Square Premiership side.

McGinn scored the only goal of the match in the 25th minute.

Celtic team: Dominic Cervi, Jason Marr, Josh Thompson, Krisjanis Vallers, Ryan Conroy; Niall McGinn,Declan Gallacher, Richie Towell, Graham Carey; Paul McGowan, Koki Mizuno. Subs: Daniele Giordano, Hayden Cochrane, Luca Santonocito, Jordan Lowdon.

Too many mistakes from referee Thomson

by Joe McHugh Firstly, without doubt Celtic have major defensive problems to iron out. The players, supporters and Tony Mowbray know that, it is what Mowbray is paid to do and judged on.

The defending at Ibrox wasn't a great surprise, a solid reliable central defensive partnership is the basis for any teams success.

Mowbray will no doubt be pouring over dvd's of recent games, possible replacements and 30 years experience in the game to improve his side's defending.

What will the SFA, Hugh Dallas and Craig Thomson be doing to improve the sub-standard display of the referee at Sunday's game?

MISTAKEN
If they think that a glib apology of sorts within 24 hours of the match finishing will satisfy 'customers' who invest millions into the game every season they are badly mistaken.

If the 12th minute penalty incident was Thomson's only mistake it would be easier to accept, everyone makes mistakes, from bloggers to referees and all sorts of professions inbetween, mistakes are part of our everyday life.

The tone of the apology, or admission, to be more accurate, leaves a lot to be desired. Thomson himself has said nothing, his admission has come through Dallas without any sort of explanation, the statement didn't even refer to Celtic but the visiting team.

STATEMENT IN FULL FROM DALLAS
"Taking charge of an Old Firm game is both high profile and challenging. Referees are well aware that their performance will be judged on calling the major decisions correctly.

"Craig and I have had our post match de-brief. Whilst I would compliment Craig for his overall handling of yesterday's encounter, he is disappointed at his error of judgement when he decided against awarding a penalty to the visiting team in the 12th minute.

"Our referees are fitter than they have ever been and our referees are better prepared for matches than they have ever been. We are working each and every day with our top officials to make sure that they are in a position to get the big calls right. However, mistakes are part and parcel of football. I think that it says a lot for the character and professionalism of Craig that he has been more than willing to hold his hands up on this one."

What exactly was his problem with the incident, pictured above? Thomson had a clear view of it and as he demonstrated throughout the rest of the match he wasn't shy at throwing around yellow cards for simulation.

His explanation through Dallas provides no insight, from the picture above he should have had a clear view of the challenge.

If Weir didn't foul Maloney then surely the Celtic midfielder should have been booked?

A decision had to be made but the referee refused. He showed by his willingness to book Maloney and Mark Wilson later in the game that he would book players that he believed had attempted to cheat him into awarding a penalty.

Did he have a doubt over Maloney 'diving'?

Did he look to his linesman for assistance?

Did he see nothing at all?

Was that the only incident that he reviewed afterwards?

Thomson went on to make a lot of questionable decisions throughout the game. Again in isolation there was no big deal on the other incidents but put into a 90 minute performance when the ball is in play for around an hour it is a worrying level of bad judgements.

Some decisions that could have been given differently.

14min) Maloney booked for simulation, could it have been a penalty and yellow card for Weir and a Celtic penalty?

52min) Could Weir have been booked for a foul on Scott McDonald where he ran his studs down McDonald's calf?

62min) Kyle Lafferty puts his boot into Zheng Zhi, could that have been a booking on it's own or for persistent fouling from Lafferty?

66min) Mark Wilson booked for simulation? Horrendous 'acting' from the full-back, not in the Eduardo class, or maybe his heels were clipped?

RETROSPECTIVELY
There were other incidents that could be looked at closely and we know that Thomson does like to review all aspects of his performances, as recently as May of this year he requested that the SFA look into a challenge by Glenn Loovens on Maurice Edu retrospectively.

Surely the SFA should be very concerned if Thomson feels that the 12th minute incident was his only mistake of the day.

Just like all those innocent MP's that mistakenly claimed expenses for mortgages that had long been paid off or for the adult movies enjoyed by their partner everyone makes mistakes, it's human nature.

If an MP can't monitor their mortgage payments then they aren't fit for office, if Thomson can't make a clear cut penalty decision without Rangers being two goals up he shouldn't be refereeing.

PROMOTED
The level of mistakes made by Thomson should be a big concern to the SFA who have perhaps promoted the guy way above his level.

Mistakes of the magnitude that were witnessed on Sunday should be kept well away from the prying eyes of Sky Sports and a worldwide audience, it's little wonder that Uefa and Fifa don't give a second thought to Scottish officials when it comes to Champions League and major international appointments.

There is nothing that can be done to alter the result from Sunday but a long term demotion of Thomson by the SFA would leave other referees in no doubt that failure to call big decisions in big matches won't be rewarded.

So what if Celtic had got three first half penalties at Ibrox in front of the Copland Road stand?

APOLOGY
As recently as December 2006 referee Kenny Clark came out with another apology after failing to 'see' a penalty at the same part of the ground after Stevie Smith fouled Neil Lennon.

Getting firm with officials who opt out of key decisions should be the priority of the SFA rather than applauding half hearted third party admissions that a mistake has been made.

These decisions don't even themselves up over the course of a season, I'd think that there is a very good chance that Celtic will be awarded a penalty in one of their next matches, it might even be a marginal decision.

After the apology from Clark three years ago Celtic were given a penalty against Falkirk in their next match, their first penalty of the season and predicted by John Hughes before the game.

Anyone that thinks that a penalty awarded when you are four goals up at home to Falkirk compares with being denied a penalty when one goal up away to Rangers has no idea about the game.

Celtic supporters will look to Mowbray to eradicate the problems in their defence, the SFA should be looking closely at officials who for whatever reason don't make key decisions.

Thomson's errors will put every single referee under greater scrutiny than ever, the referee appointed for the January 2 Celtic-Rangers match will be in a lose-lose situation.

Going through every match, decision by decision, isn't practical and will destroy the concept of refereeing but equally decision making like Thomson's on Saturday brings refereeing into disrepute.

Unless the SFA take serious action now the problem will continue to resurface and the outside world will wonder what is going on when they look in on the Scottish game.

A third rate, third hand admission does no-one any favours.

McGinn and Mizuno lead the Barrow Bhoys

Niall McGinn and Koki Mizuno are amongst the Celtic squad travelling to face Barrow tonight as part of the Cumbrian clubs Centenary celebrations.

Neil Lennon will take charge of the Celtic squad in what promises to be a good test for the reserve side now that financial problems has forced the SPL into the short sighted measure of abandoning formal reserve football.

The reserve side have made a few appearances down south already this season and lost 2-1 at Huddesfield Town last week in a behind closed doors match.

Next week the reserves head over to Ireland with games arranged against Derry City and Cliftonville.

With a spate of injuries to the first team squad there could be opportunities for some players to play their way into Tony Mowbray's first team plans ahead of the next SPL fixture at home to Motherwell.

Barrow have had a difficult start to the season and currently sit in 18th place in the 24 team Blue Square Premier which is effectively the fifth division of English football.

At the weekend they drew at home with leaders Oxford United with the division also containing former Football League clubs, Luton Town, Mansfield Town, Cambridge United and Wrexham.

Officials for tonight's game will be selected by the Football Association, hopefully they will be more competent than the standards that Celtic have endured in recent SPL fixtures.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Niall McGinn scored the only goal of the game in the 25th minute as a Celtic XI won 1-0 away to Barrow AFC.

Celtic team: Dominic Cervi, Jason Marr, Josh Thompson, Krisjanis Vallers, Ryan Conroy; Niall McGinn,Declan Gallacher, Richie Towell, Graham Carey; Paul McGowan, Koki Mizuno.

Subs: Daniele Giordano, Hayden Cochrane, Luca Santonocito, Jordan Lowdon.

Fox misses Rangers clash

Defender Danny Fox is out of today's clash with Rangers after picking up a hamstring injury in training yesterday.

The former Coventry defender has played in every SPL match this season but will be missing at Ibrox.

Fox's absence opens the door for Mark Wilson who is likely to switch to left-back with fit again Andreas Hinkel playing at right-back.

The loss of Fox will be a big blow for Tony Mowbray who goes into his first Rangers-Celtic match as manager without his other major signing Mark-Antoine Fortune.

Mowbray could pick a team without any of his summer additions if he decides to go with the experience of Barry Robson ahead of Landry N'Guemo in central midfield.

Rangers have their share of injury concerns with Lee McCulloch, Madjid Bougherra and Kevin Thompson all struggling with the effects of flu.

POUNDING

The quality of both side's has taken a pounding in recent weeks with the injury news from both camps further reducing the quality of play on offer.

Normally the first Old Firm game of the season is seen as the litmus test for the clubs summer signings, today there is likely to be just two players, Jerome Rothen and N'Guemo, in line for a debut.

Celtic can of course call upon Niall McGinn and Paddy McCourt but both players are likely to start the match on the bench.

UJPEST

Elsewhere in the world of Celtic it was former reserve boss Willie McStay that stole the weekend honours steering Ujpest Dozsa to a 2-1 derby win over Ferencvaros.

Peter Rajci was the Ujpest hero with the winner in the 87th minute after captain Peter Kabat had cancelled out a 40th minute opener from Fitos.

There was mixed fortunes for the loan Celts with Ben Hutchison scoring his first Swindon goal in the 3-2 win at Brentford with Simon Ferry also involved.

Cillian Sheridan was an injury time substitute in Plymouth's win over Scunthorpe while Darren O'Dea was on the losing side as Reading's miserable home form continued with a 2-0 defeat from Middlesboro at the Madejski Stadium.

CONTRASTING

In management there was some wildly contrasting fortunes, Mick McCarthy, Malky Mackay and Roy Keane were on the end of defeats with Wolves, Watford and Ipswich in the top two divisions.

Down towards the bottom of the Football League Chris Sutton made a winning start guiding Lincoln to a 1-0 win over Aldershot with Torres, Sergio not Fernando, scoring the 83rd minute.

Paul Lambert enjoyed a great 5-1 win as Norwich beat third placed Bristol Rovers to move into seventh place in League One.