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Starting the new year in Hungary was the furthest thing from Willie McStay's mind as Celtic clinched the SPL Reserve title for the eighth year running at Ibrox in April.
Existing doubts over the future of the reserve league were soon to be compounded by the disappearance of Setanta giving hard up clubs a get-out for abandoning an essential level of football.
Celtic's development plans would be severely altered by the demise of the reserve league although the club had already been planning ahead with friendlies arranged throughout the season in an attempt to provide the players with a game every week.
The club had also been busy recruiting a number of players mainly from Eastern Europe who were not yet ready for first team football but who showed promise and potential, 'projects' as Gordon Strachan dubbed many of them.
Player development was to be a two way street with Celtic looking for players to gain first team experience, possibly away from the normal channels such as in Scotland and England.
Hungary had been identified as a country with potential to recruit and develop players with discussions on-going with Ujpest Dozsa to see what could be of mutual benefit for both clubs.
Celtic had sent coaches to a number of Eastern countries to study players and clubs but it was an initiative from Ujpest that put a new dimension into Celtic's plans and the career of McStay.
Looking back on his career changes of 2009 McStay recalled: “A year ago I was concentrating on working with Gordon, I enjoyed the chance to work with first team footballers, at international breaks I was holding the fort working with the players.
“That was good. I'd worked with players like John Kennedy and Thomas Gravesen in the reserves, working with the first team players while Gordon was away during international weeks that gave me an edge.
“We were successful in the reserves, we played a good style of football although the personnel was changing constantly. Sometimes we had no strikers, we used Kevin Cawley up front but the style of play was good, we kept the ball and passed with energy, the players knew what they were doing and what was expected of them.
“Little did I know that when Ujpest were watching our players to see who they might want to take on loan that the more they watched the team the more that they liked our style of play.
“They said they liked myself and decided to make a bid to take me to Budapest.
“I knew nothing about it until I came back from the Hong Kong tournament at the end of May. I spoke about what was happening at Celtic and it's been a whirlwind since then.
“I managed four days holiday during the summer with my family then went with my wife over to Budapest. It's a a gorgeous city, our stadium is a great, 15,000 all seater and I told Mary that I had a nice feeling for it. Ujpest and Hungry was a challenge for me.
“I spoke it over with Celtic. They want to develop links with clubs and I'd been over in Slovenia looking at things as had others. Celtic were looking at Eastern Europe and how to develop things and set up pilot schemes. They needed someone there to look at players.
“With a new manager coming in and the Reserve League folding it was a perfect scenario for me to go and get the experience that I need to be a manager, I just felt that it was an offer that I couldn't refuse and if I hadn't taken it I'd have had regrets.”
The move to Hungary got complicated over the possibility of Celtic and Ujpest facing each other in the Europa League forcing McStay to cut all ties with Celtic 15 years after being appointed by Tommy Burns following a treble winning season with Sligo Rovers.
A close up view of the McCann years, the season's of annual managerial change, the successes of Martin O'Neill and the latter turmoil of Gordon Strachan's reign had given McStay experience that no coaching course ever could.
Only Sir Alex Ferguson has survived in the management business throughout McStay's time coaching at Celtic with the new Ujpest boss leaving behind player development to be judged by results on a weekly basis.
He added: “At Celtic there was different demands on me, there's less pressure involved in coaching and I enjoyed 15 years coaching players.
“Winning was expected but as soon as you say you got beat people started to enquire, winning isn't important till you get beat
“Ultimately working with the youth players you didn't stress that it was about winning. At Celtic, in the development side it was about how you win.
“Every game was a test, about your preparation, has the training been good, has your fitness and preparation been good, how did you do against your opponent. That's your test and you have to get through them to make it into the first team.
“At youth level the skills should be there, then the players have to develop their mental strength, that's when the test comes and pressure from the coach.
“Players have to react to their tests. They have to react to going a goal or two down. At Celtic you must believe in yourself and your team-mates, as a coach you have to try and do that.
“I'm one of the world's worst for self analysis. I'd look at a youth game and blame myself for the defeat. Nobody needed to tell me the faults and mistakes.
“After a defeat I would analyse everything that I did during the week, our preparation, what I said, how I said it and try to learn from that.
“Looking back on that it's been a fantastic learning curve for me, to watch managers from Tommy Burns through to Gordon Strachan has been very educational.
“There were things to learn from every manager and now I'm trying to put my stamp onto Ujpest and bring the club success and silverware.”
by Joe McHugh 'I've got the bug again' Willie McStay said as he enthused about life in charge of Ujpest Dozsa.
After over a dozen years working with the youth squad and reserve team at Celtic the one-time Sligo Rovers manager is back in the cut and thrust of management in a country that he had never even visited.
Ujpest are sitting in third place at the winter break, four points behind leaders Videoton who they beat home and away in November to reach the semi-finals of the Hungarian Cup.
Winning the club their first silverware of the century is the task facing McStay in the months ahead with the former Celtic defender delighted to be back in the firing line.
“Management gives you a real adrenaline rush and a sense of fulfillment,” he explained despite the recent spate of dismissals that left Jim Gannon, Gary Megson and Alan Irvine out of work over Christmas. “It's win, lose or draw and the responsibility is on me.
“It's been refreshing to be judged by results every week but I'm still coaching as well. As a coach I have to demonstrate much more to get my message across, there's much more involved with dvd and video analysis to get things through.
“This job has given me an edge, the challenge will hopefully make me successful at Ujpest and also elsewhere along the road in my career.
"Ujpest haven't won a trophy for eleven years, we're still in three competitions and winning something would be fantastic. The challenge for me has been to go to a new country and learn.
“I've had a fantastic six months. I was walking across the pitch at Steaua Bucharest with 27,000 there in my first match, that was amazing.
“I turned to Joe (McBride) and said 'The last time that we were working together was at a sports centre in Stirling Univercity with no-one there'. They had a running track around a terrible pitch and there we were were walking across a lush surface in front of a full house. I liked that. It's been really stimulating for both of us.”
Football may be a universal language but proving yourself in an alien environment demands more than ability.
Being accepted by a new dressing room and into the football community isn't easy with few managers moving abroad to achieve success on the continent.
Beating Ferencvaros in a heated local derby turned acceptance for McStay into support from the Ujpest fans with the local media also won over.
He admitted: “Initially the media and other managers were sceptical of me, they wondered who it was coming over. Now I have a good relationship with the media and they appreciate that win, lose or draw I'm there to face them.
“The other managers in the league respect me. It's natural that they were suspicious, they'd have preferred that a Hungarian got the job so it was a challenge to win them over.
“When you walk into a dressing room as an unknown you have to win the players over, you need to get them playing for you. That's the key to management.
“At Ujpest we've got a good team spirit, Hungarian players can be very emotional, it's either highs or lows. Usually when they lose the first goal they lose the game but we've went behind nine times this season and went on to win seven of the games.
“That's not been done by design but it shows that there's something about us. Some of the papers call us the Miracle Men and that's a compliment, there's a belief about the players.
“Those results come from the work that we've put in at training, the fitness levels and preparing the players properly. If you aren't up to the demands of the game you can't come back.”
Part 2 Tomorrow: Leaving Celtic after 15 seasons
He's generally regarded as a sly old fox and master of the media but has Walter Smith scored an own goal by throwing fresh fuel onto the Kyle Lafferty controversy?
There are always talking, or typing, points thrown up after Celtic-Rangers matches but generally they linger on and die away after a few days as life moves on to the following weekends fixtures.
Most people had had their say and there wasn't a sane voice anywhere willing to defend Lafferty's violent attack on Andreas Hinkel.
A few people had suggested that Marco Fortune had fouled Allan McGregor at the disallowed Celtic goal but no one had been prepared to defend or justify Lafferty's actions until today.
Will Smith's comments force the SFA to recall their Review Panel out of hibernation or are they still scratching around to find guidelines for cases that require a second or third opinion?
After deciding to review incidents that happened to involve Celtic players in successive matches last May it's all gone kind of quiet on the Review front.
"I've seen the incident once since the game and Kyle's tackle was a forward's challenge, claimed the Rangers manager.
"Everyone keeps saying the referee should have acted but the referee did act. He deemed it a yellow card offence and that was it.
Less than a week ago a referee acted and gave Kenny Miller a red card, that was hardly 'it' as Rangers attempted to find some vague grounds to appeal against the referees decision.
For reasons best known to himself Smith has decided to further highlight the Lafferty incident and keep the controversy going for another day or two.
Looking at it rationally the Rangers manager should surely have kept quiet on the issue, let it run it's course and move on rather than attempt to excuse it under the 'forward's challenge' claim.
There are plenty of players at Celtic and Rangers who have suffered serious injuries when opponents have gone beyond what is generally acceptable in the cut and thrust of the game. Ian Durrant and John Kennedy were both spectators on Sunday.
Lafferty's 'forward's challenge' was of a similar nature to the incidents that put the career's of Durrant and Kennedy on hold; robbing Kennedy of his career and Durrant of two years football before returning at a lesser level.
I suspect most footballers watching the Lafferty-Hinkel incident either winced or were incensed, there is no place for that sort of challenge in the game.
The 'forward's challenge' summed up the mentality of Lafferty, he's in a bad place just now. Rangers supporters want to love him but can't, he contributes little to their team, he's playing out of position and worst of all he's picking up the sort of wages that would probably have Kris Boyd signing up onto a new ten year contract.
Throw in the atmosphere of a Celtic-Rangers game you have all the ingredients that led to the foul on Hinkel.
By reviving the incident and describing it as a 'forwards challenge' Smith is excusing Lafferty and setting a dangerous precedent.
Without doubt there will be some nasty borderline challenges put in on Rangers players before the season ends, being on the receiving end I doubt that Smith will shrug his shoulders and accept a yellow card as punishment then watch the same forward being involved in a goal scoring incident.
Saying nothing would have been the sensible option, adopting the Arsene Wenger method.
After the Charlie Mulgrew incident last season referees will naturally be suspicious of Lafferty
BBC video clip of incident
Celtic's Scottish Cup tie with Morton will be re-arranged to Tuesday January 12 with a 7.45pm kick-off if it is postponed on Saturday.
There seems to be little chance of the game being played on Saturday with Cappielow currently under a blanket of frost and snow.
The 'cold snap' is expected to last beyond the weekend and looks like playing havoc with the Scottish Cup card.
Conditions in England are no better with tomorrow's Manchester City-Manchester United Carling Cup Semi Final postponed earlier today due to the conditions across Manchester.
If the match is postponed on Saturday and Tuesday it will be re-scheduled for Monday January 18 then Wednesday January 20 ruling out playing the re-scheduled match at Kilmarnock... after that who knows when we'll get to visit Greenock.
Morton website
BBC weather outlook
Utrecht have won the race for De Graafschap winger Marko Maletic.
The 16-year-old had a trial at Celtic and was also watched by Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers but has decided to remain in Holland.
During December there was a constant stream of trialists invited over to Lennoxtown for a closer look.
Celtic's u-19 side are currently enjoying an official winter break and aren't scheduled to be back in action until January 30 when the face Motherwell away.
Steve Frail's side haven't played since the 4-1 win over St Mirren on December 12 and are two points ahead of Hamilton at the top of the league.
Celtic have came out with some impressive fighting talk tonight as the refereeing network threw a comforting blanket around Steve Conroy.
To the surprise of no-one Kenny Clark and Stuart Dougal were quick to defend Conroy's performance despite both admitting that he had made mistakes with his two biggest decisions.
Getting the throw-ins and corners correct doesn't really deserve praise, disallowing a goal for no obvious infringement and yellow-carding Kyle Lafferty for a violent potentially leg breaking 'challenge' deserves more than sympathy and spin.
Using the Celtic website Marco Fortune discussed the incident that saw his goal disallowed and while cleverly avoiding direct criticism of Conroy made his feeling known with the backing of the club.
“I jumped and never touched the keeper, only the ball,” he said. “My first impression was that I had scored because the referee ran to the centre and then I saw him run back towards the goals, so I didn’t understand.
“At first I thought the goal was offside, but then the referee told me it was for a foul. Sometimes the referee makes mistakes but that’s just football.
“For me I had scored and was really upset, but there was a lot of time to play, so you have to change your mind quickly. For about five seconds I was really upset, but then I just kept on playing.
“I think everyone that plays for Celtic and Rangers wants to score a goal in the derby, particularly if you are a striker and this is my first year here so people will think I should score.
“So I wanted to score and I did but then the referee made his decision.”
Just as Conroy has his network of apologists spinning the story from his side Fortune has came out with some direct comments on the disallowed goal.
That incident was typical of Conroy's below par performance with the booking of Kyle Lafferty a close second.
Rangers captain David Weir's arm gestures and blatant dissent at a first half free-kick went unpunished while Lee McCulloch was able to run off and ignore Conroy wanting to speak to him after a second half foul on Aiden McGeady ten yards into the Rangers half.
Celtic have plenty of work to do with improvements required in all areas of the park.
Finding the right attacking combination is crucial to their title prospects, goals don't come easily or flow freely at the moment.
Having legitimate goals disallowed and finding players fouled in the penalty box without any punishment in key matches makes the task even harder.
Hopefully the decision makers at the SFA are looking closely at their referees from top to bottom to ensure that brave decision making is given a priority ahead of jobs for the boys.
For the second time this season Celtic have found themselves on the wrong end of major refereeing mistakes against Rangers.
Once again, just like in the October defeat at Ibrox, there were plenty of deficiencies in the Celtic performance.
This time around the forwards were mainly to blame as they managed to score just once from the bulk of possession. Allan McGregor was forced to make only one outstanding save as Celtic's pressure and possession failed to be converted into clear cut chances or goals.
At Ibrox in October Celtic's main problems were in defence where goals were given away cheaply, Rangers equaliser today was another example of poor defending.
Celtic's onfield problems are the responsibility of Tony Mowbray and ultimately the Celtic board.
The problems and shortcomings are obvious, resolving them is Mowbray's job and he'll be held responsible if Celtic fail to win the title this season.
Equally the Celtic board are responsible for selecting managers and providing them with the funds and support to ensure that the club is successful.
Who is referee Steve Conroy responsible to?
Who was responsible for selecting Conroy for the match?
What action will be taken to improve his decision making or are we simply to sit back comforted in the knowledge that these mistakes balance themselves out over the season?
The Celtic-Rangers game is the top fixture in Scottish football and only the best referees are given the task of taking charge of the prestige match.
Today Conroy demonstrated that he doesn't have the decision making skills to handle top matches, hopefully it'll be a long long time before he is again given such a high profile match.
There were two first half incidents that left Conroy open to criticism, the same sort of criticism that was directed at Craig Thomson after the October fixture which resulted in a second hand and second rate apology issued from Hugh Dallas.
Marco Fortune's challenge on Allan McGregor was perfectly legitimate, he had his eye on the ball and headed into the net despite McGregor's challenge.
It was an unusual goal, usually it does require a foul to beat a goalkeeper in that sort of position but there was nothing wrong with Fortune's 'goal'.
For reasons known only to himself Conroy decided to disallow the goal without any appeal coming from the Rangers defenders. They knew their keeper had been beaten fair and square.
Comparing that decision to the non-penalties at Ibrox in October puts Conroy in a very poor light.
Thomson failed to see the clear foul on Shaun Maloney, that can happen although when it happens two or three times in the one match it becomes very concerning.
Getting things right on the park will be a tough task for the Celtic manager, competing on a level playing field with competent officials capable of making correct decisions isn't asking for too much.
