Post by alsybhoy on Jun 2, 2011 14:17:47 GMT
Quote:
Walter Smith – Myth or Legned?
Are there really only two sides to every story? When discussing the career of Walter Smith we can say that there is the legned propagated by the Scottish Media and there is the view taken without the effects of blue tinted spectacles. The truth lies somewhere in between, a third side you might say.
Whatever way you look at it, the history books will say that Walter Smithhas had a very successful career. I wouldn’t dispute that but, if you scratch the surface does it stand up to the sort of scrutiny that is
required when the man’s record is being compared to the likes of Stein or Fergusson?
Comparing Smith to Stein is heresy, pure and simple. It’s also nonsense.
No-one in their right mind would enter a debate as to who was the greater of the two. For goodness sake, Smith isn’t even the most successful manager the Dark Side have had, that title goes to Struth.
We can only evaluate the coaching ability of Smith since the time he became the assistant to Souness at I***x. The majority of his coaching took place there with further time spent at Everton and then as the Scotland National coach. There was also a short period as assistant to Sir Alex Fergusson at Manchester United.
Because that was the shortest time in any job, it’s the one I’ll start with. With three months of season 2003/04 left Smith was drafted in to help United defend their Premiership title. Smiths coaching methods were novel as far as the English Champions were concerned. As one of the young players, Darren Fletcher, said at the time, they were allowed to “kick lumps out of each other” on the training field. Arsenal won the title and Manchester United finished third, the lowest position they have ever finished since the conception of the Premiership.
So impressed were the SFA that they had to make Smith the National team
coach to follow the ill fated Berti Vogts. In a little less than two years Scotland climbed dozens of places in the FIFA rankings, that is fact. However it’s always worth remembering that Berti was left an ageing squad by Craig Brown, and by “ageing” I mean completely past it. The squad that Smith inherited was predominately the one newly shaped by the German, albeit painfully through a number of embarrassing defeats where he separated the wheat from the chaff. Even then Berti’s team did record a win over the Dutch, Scotland’s best result in many, many years.
So what did Smith achieve with Berti’s team. Well, the cold hard stats are, played 16, won 7, drawn 5 and lost only 4. Not bad you might think, but then you have to look at the teams that the wins were achieved against, Slovenia, Norway, Moldova, Bulgaria, Lithuania and the Faroe Islands. The final victory was at Hampden against France when the Heid slid in to give the home side the most unwarranted victory since records began. The French tore Scotland apart for 90 minutes but, quite simply, just couldn’t get the goal they required. Anyone who watched the game could see that if the French had scored one, they would have scored five.
Draws against the USA, Japan, Belarus and Austria weren’t quite so impressive although there was a Hampden draw against Italy in another 90 minutes of but clenching defending.
That was topped off with defeats to Italy, Ukraine, Switzerland and the mighty Belarus. And so the much heralded era in charge of the National team ended with a home draw over Italy and a lucky win over France as the “highlights” in a 16 game reign. Not the all conquering national hero as portrayed in the sycophantic media I would suggest.
Before looking behind the Laptop Loyals’ version of his two spells in charge at the Death Star I should look at his time at the helm on Merseyside in charge of Everton FC. A quick “google” will show you that the blue side of Liverpool thought that watching Everton under Smith was painful. Whole forums are dedicated to discussing whether Everton or the Orcs played the most mind numbing, soul destroying football under Smith.
Much is made of Evertons’ financial state when Smith was in charge (sound familiar?) but it doesn’t actually take much digging to see that he spent many tens of millions of pounds while operating under “difficult circumstances” (sound familiar #2).
The unofficial Everton website, “ToffeeWeb” summed up his time in charge like this,*In addition his legacy after nearly three seasons in charge reads : “Everton were playing utterly awful football with little spirit or creativity. He failed to play most of the players in their best position. He could not ensure that each player understood the team plan and his particular role within it. The available players appeared to be poorly prepared for each match.
The rumours about poor morale, lack of communications, dreadful fitness, diet and conditioning regimes at Everton could not all be dismissed. It was as if he needed the services of a head coach of real subtlety and skill. The 4-5-1 experiment had been a complete disaster. He could not decide on a formation and basic system of playing. The policy of buying ageing injured players had backfired badly. Based on performance, Everton were consistently poor; no defence was possible; there were no excuses – Everton under Walter Smith were simply dreadful”.*
During that time Everton’s classy midfield player, Olivier Dacourt gave an interview to a French soccer magazine during which he said:
*** **’Mr Smith told me to go out and foul players. When I asked him about yellow and red cards the gaffer replied; “you don’t worry about yellow and red cards, I’ll worry about red and yellow cards”‘.*
In 2002 Smith was finally sacked by Everton. His unique coaching ability had taken them on a truly awful 13-game run of away defeats, the precipice of a relegation dogfight, and blowing an incredible £58m of their hard-earned cash. In his three seasons in charge of the blues, Everton finished in 13th, 14th and 16th places respectively. No mention of a Knighthood at this point in time.
Finally we have to examine his time at the Death Star, as assistant and then manager of the club he supported as a boy. The club, he freely admitted recently, that he supported by singing sectarian songs on the terraces of Mordor. Ah, these were more innocent times, long before those pesky UEFA chaps started sticking their noses into the business of Scotland’s second biggest institution. Carstairs being the biggest, I would suggest.
His first five years were as right hand man (make up your own joke here) to the “Beast” himself, Graeme Souness. This was the curious period of “cheque book” football when, in excess of, 5o million pounds Stirling (when 50 million was a lot of money) was spent in the quest of buying the European Champions Cup. During a dark period as a supporter of Celtic it was always entertaining to watch the ugly ones fail time after time in European competition. In fact the only thing worth noting at this time was that the I***x side overtook Shamrock Rovers as the most unsuccessful club in European Champions Cup history. They became the club who has entered the competition on the most occasions without winning it. A record they continue to extend to this day. A record no-one will ever surpass, it ‘kinda makes you proud doesn’t it?
Souness jumped ship when Liverpool came calling and Smith was promoted into the top job. And still Celtic were struggling, even to survive, due to the inept running of the club leaving Aberdeen as chief challengers for the League title. That had a predictable outcome year after year. A further 45 million quid was thrown at the holy grail of the European Cup. David Murray stated, *”We have to deliver a European trophy within three or four years or be challenging regularly in the Champions League. If we are not doing well in that timescale I will consider my tenure to have been a total failure”.*
Total failure it is then David.
Not to mention the huge debt and HMRC investigation. Or the numerous UEFA sanctions for sectarian chanting. Or the scandalous rioting by your fans in Manchester. Or the visit to Barcelona, unreported in the Scottish media, that the Mayor of that beautiful city described as their “worst experience in football.”
The list goes on.
But don’t just take my word for it. Have a look at the results gained by Smith in European competition during his first stint at the Death Star and make up your own mind.
First Round *1991*
Sparta (ag) 2-2 Rangers 1-0 1-2 (Lost on away goal rule)
Group 1 *1992*
Clubs Pld W D L GF GA Pts
Marseille 6 3 3 0 14 4 9
Rangers 6 2 4 0 7 5 8
Club Brugge 6 2 1 3 5 8 5
CSKA Moskva 6 0 2 4 2 11 2
Matches
Rangers 2 – 2 Marseille
CSKA Moskva 0 – 1 Rangers
Club Brugge 1 – 1 Rangers
Rangers 2 – 1 Club Brugge
Marseille 1 – 1 Rangers
Rangers 0 – 0 CSKA Moskva
The was the much wailed over “one game from the final” It can be seen in
perspective when you see the level of competition and the actual results (1 home win???)
First Round *1993*
Rangers 4-4 Levski (ag) 3-2 1-2 (Lost on away goal rule)
Qualifying round *1994*
AEK 3-0 Rangers 2-0 1-0 (*A*nother *E*arly *K*nock-out)
Group C *1995*
Clubs Pld W D L GF GA Pts
Juventus 6 4 1 1 15 4 13
Dortmund 6 2 3 1 8 8 9
Steaua 6 1 3 2 2 5 6
*Rangers* 6 0 3 3 6 14 3
Matches
Steaua 1 – 0 Rangers
Rangers 2 – 2 Dortmund
Juventus 4 – 1 Rangers
Rangers 0 – 4 Juventus
Rangers 1 – 1 Steaua
Dortmund 2 – 2 Rangers
Group A *1996*
Clubs Pld W D L GF GA Pts
Ajax 6 4 0 2 8 4 12
Auxerre 6 4 0 2 8 7 12
Grasshoppers 6 3 0 3 8 5 9
*Rangers *6 1 0 5 5 13 3
Matches
Grasshoppers 3 – 0 Rangers
Rangers 1 – 2 Auxerre
Ajax 4 – 1 Rangers
Rangers 0 – 1 Ajax
Grasshoppers 3 – 1 Auxerre
Rangers 2 – 1 Grasshoppers
Auxerre 2 – 1 Rangers
Second qualifying round *1997*
Göteborg 4-1 Rangers 3-0 1-1
As you might expect after spending 90+ million pounds domestic success continued as they lorded it over the relative paupers of Scottish football until Celtic finally mounted a challenge.
With a team that cost a mere fraction of the Mordor side Celtic won the league and said cheerio to ten-in-a-row. Wim Jansen showed that coaching nous outweighed financial clout every time. The first time in ten years that a decent challenge was put in Smith was found out. Found out and booted out. Only, of course he wasn’t sacked, David Murray doesn’t sack managers. Really?
Smith returned to his spiritual home after walking out on his country. Can you imagine anyone else getting away with that without a media induced lynch mob being raised? Ok, Alex McLeish did the same before adding another relegation to his CV, but you know what I mean. Consider the treatment of Aiden McGeady who decided to ply his International trade with the Republic of Ireland after not even being approached by Scotland. I can see the Daily R****d now, with its’ free gifts of pitchfork and torch for every reader.
This time around the domestic trophies were more evenly spread. However, further upheaval at Celtic, including management changes and failure to strengthen at key times means that Smith leaves on the back of a three-in-a-row when we should be looking at six-in-a-row for Celtic. However, it wouldn’t be fair to criticise Smith for failures at our own club. Once again the success of the man can be gauged by his record in Europe.
I won’t bore you with another blow-by-blow account of his final few years in European competition but here are some of the low-lights.
The run to the UEFA Cup Final in 2007/8 was the most impressive although even that doesn’t bear much scrutiny.
The run to the final started in the Champions League where the tern “anti-football” was coined by Lionel Messi following a mind numbing 0-0 draw at I***x against Barcelona. The round of 32 saw them eliminating Panathinaikos on away goals after 0-0 and 1-1 draws. In the next round Smith saw his team get through at the expense of Werder Bremen thanks to a narrow 2-1 aggregate win. This was notable because it was the only time they scored any goals at home in the entire competition.
Sporting Lisbon went out due to an inexplicable 2-0 defeat in Portugal before Fiorentina were eliminated after two mind numbing 0-0 draws in the semi final ties. Fortunately Zenit St Petersburg did the football world a favour by putting R*****s to sword in the final in Manchester. Scotland, as a nation, was shamed as Chelsea fans, masquerading as R*****s supporters (Copyright: Daily R****d) ran riot and carnage ensued.
To summarise the final years of the “master tactician” in Europe it’s interesting to examine the record in full:
Played: 31
*Won: 3*
Lost: 13
Drawn: 15
The final 15 European home matches shed even more light on the issue at hand:
2010-07:
1. PSV 0-1
2. Sporting CP Lisbon 1-1
3. Manchester Utd 0-1
4. Valencia 1-1
5. Bursaspor 1-0
6. VfB Stuttgart 0-2
7. Unirea Urziceni 1-4
8. Sevilla 1-4
9. FBK Kaunas 0-0
10. Fiorentina 0-0
11. Sporting CP Lisbon 0-0
12. Werder Bremen 2-0
13. Panathinaikos 0-0
14. Lyon 0-3
15. FC Barcelona 0-0
Played: 15
Won: 2
Lost: 6
Drawn: 7
Goals for: 7
Goals against: 17
As you can see in the final 11 European ties at I***x, the number of times R*****s scored more than one goal was nil. Football to stun pigs by.
But, the media, never tire of telling us, everything “Walter” has achieved since his return has been done on a shoestring budget and that his hands have been tied by the banks. Not so. Since Smith rejoined the Govan side midway through the 2006/07 season he has spent, just short of, £37 million on players (not including loan payments or applicable fees). If that’s a ”shoestring budget” then sign me up for one of them right away.
R*****s, during Smith’s second spell in charge, have won the SPL 3 times, had 4 cups and reached the UEFA Cup final. Celtic, under Gordon Strachan, Tony Mowbray and Neil Lennon achieved 3 league wins, 4 cups and twice made it to the last 16 of the CL.
So to conclude:
“Walter” has spent more than double the amount that Alex McLeish did while he was in the job and has, more or less, won the same amount of domestic trophies. He did this while at the same time achieving less in Europe than Gordon Strachan. He did manage to reach the same European final as Martin O’Neill, but spent more, while on both occasions achieving less domestically.
Legned or Myth?
You decide.
good article here! personally i think wattie is a sack of shit tbh. european record is funny thogh ;D
Walter Smith – Myth or Legned?
Are there really only two sides to every story? When discussing the career of Walter Smith we can say that there is the legned propagated by the Scottish Media and there is the view taken without the effects of blue tinted spectacles. The truth lies somewhere in between, a third side you might say.
Whatever way you look at it, the history books will say that Walter Smithhas had a very successful career. I wouldn’t dispute that but, if you scratch the surface does it stand up to the sort of scrutiny that is
required when the man’s record is being compared to the likes of Stein or Fergusson?
Comparing Smith to Stein is heresy, pure and simple. It’s also nonsense.
No-one in their right mind would enter a debate as to who was the greater of the two. For goodness sake, Smith isn’t even the most successful manager the Dark Side have had, that title goes to Struth.
We can only evaluate the coaching ability of Smith since the time he became the assistant to Souness at I***x. The majority of his coaching took place there with further time spent at Everton and then as the Scotland National coach. There was also a short period as assistant to Sir Alex Fergusson at Manchester United.
Because that was the shortest time in any job, it’s the one I’ll start with. With three months of season 2003/04 left Smith was drafted in to help United defend their Premiership title. Smiths coaching methods were novel as far as the English Champions were concerned. As one of the young players, Darren Fletcher, said at the time, they were allowed to “kick lumps out of each other” on the training field. Arsenal won the title and Manchester United finished third, the lowest position they have ever finished since the conception of the Premiership.
So impressed were the SFA that they had to make Smith the National team
coach to follow the ill fated Berti Vogts. In a little less than two years Scotland climbed dozens of places in the FIFA rankings, that is fact. However it’s always worth remembering that Berti was left an ageing squad by Craig Brown, and by “ageing” I mean completely past it. The squad that Smith inherited was predominately the one newly shaped by the German, albeit painfully through a number of embarrassing defeats where he separated the wheat from the chaff. Even then Berti’s team did record a win over the Dutch, Scotland’s best result in many, many years.
So what did Smith achieve with Berti’s team. Well, the cold hard stats are, played 16, won 7, drawn 5 and lost only 4. Not bad you might think, but then you have to look at the teams that the wins were achieved against, Slovenia, Norway, Moldova, Bulgaria, Lithuania and the Faroe Islands. The final victory was at Hampden against France when the Heid slid in to give the home side the most unwarranted victory since records began. The French tore Scotland apart for 90 minutes but, quite simply, just couldn’t get the goal they required. Anyone who watched the game could see that if the French had scored one, they would have scored five.
Draws against the USA, Japan, Belarus and Austria weren’t quite so impressive although there was a Hampden draw against Italy in another 90 minutes of but clenching defending.
That was topped off with defeats to Italy, Ukraine, Switzerland and the mighty Belarus. And so the much heralded era in charge of the National team ended with a home draw over Italy and a lucky win over France as the “highlights” in a 16 game reign. Not the all conquering national hero as portrayed in the sycophantic media I would suggest.
Before looking behind the Laptop Loyals’ version of his two spells in charge at the Death Star I should look at his time at the helm on Merseyside in charge of Everton FC. A quick “google” will show you that the blue side of Liverpool thought that watching Everton under Smith was painful. Whole forums are dedicated to discussing whether Everton or the Orcs played the most mind numbing, soul destroying football under Smith.
Much is made of Evertons’ financial state when Smith was in charge (sound familiar?) but it doesn’t actually take much digging to see that he spent many tens of millions of pounds while operating under “difficult circumstances” (sound familiar #2).
The unofficial Everton website, “ToffeeWeb” summed up his time in charge like this,*In addition his legacy after nearly three seasons in charge reads : “Everton were playing utterly awful football with little spirit or creativity. He failed to play most of the players in their best position. He could not ensure that each player understood the team plan and his particular role within it. The available players appeared to be poorly prepared for each match.
The rumours about poor morale, lack of communications, dreadful fitness, diet and conditioning regimes at Everton could not all be dismissed. It was as if he needed the services of a head coach of real subtlety and skill. The 4-5-1 experiment had been a complete disaster. He could not decide on a formation and basic system of playing. The policy of buying ageing injured players had backfired badly. Based on performance, Everton were consistently poor; no defence was possible; there were no excuses – Everton under Walter Smith were simply dreadful”.*
During that time Everton’s classy midfield player, Olivier Dacourt gave an interview to a French soccer magazine during which he said:
*** **’Mr Smith told me to go out and foul players. When I asked him about yellow and red cards the gaffer replied; “you don’t worry about yellow and red cards, I’ll worry about red and yellow cards”‘.*
In 2002 Smith was finally sacked by Everton. His unique coaching ability had taken them on a truly awful 13-game run of away defeats, the precipice of a relegation dogfight, and blowing an incredible £58m of their hard-earned cash. In his three seasons in charge of the blues, Everton finished in 13th, 14th and 16th places respectively. No mention of a Knighthood at this point in time.
Finally we have to examine his time at the Death Star, as assistant and then manager of the club he supported as a boy. The club, he freely admitted recently, that he supported by singing sectarian songs on the terraces of Mordor. Ah, these were more innocent times, long before those pesky UEFA chaps started sticking their noses into the business of Scotland’s second biggest institution. Carstairs being the biggest, I would suggest.
His first five years were as right hand man (make up your own joke here) to the “Beast” himself, Graeme Souness. This was the curious period of “cheque book” football when, in excess of, 5o million pounds Stirling (when 50 million was a lot of money) was spent in the quest of buying the European Champions Cup. During a dark period as a supporter of Celtic it was always entertaining to watch the ugly ones fail time after time in European competition. In fact the only thing worth noting at this time was that the I***x side overtook Shamrock Rovers as the most unsuccessful club in European Champions Cup history. They became the club who has entered the competition on the most occasions without winning it. A record they continue to extend to this day. A record no-one will ever surpass, it ‘kinda makes you proud doesn’t it?
Souness jumped ship when Liverpool came calling and Smith was promoted into the top job. And still Celtic were struggling, even to survive, due to the inept running of the club leaving Aberdeen as chief challengers for the League title. That had a predictable outcome year after year. A further 45 million quid was thrown at the holy grail of the European Cup. David Murray stated, *”We have to deliver a European trophy within three or four years or be challenging regularly in the Champions League. If we are not doing well in that timescale I will consider my tenure to have been a total failure”.*
Total failure it is then David.
Not to mention the huge debt and HMRC investigation. Or the numerous UEFA sanctions for sectarian chanting. Or the scandalous rioting by your fans in Manchester. Or the visit to Barcelona, unreported in the Scottish media, that the Mayor of that beautiful city described as their “worst experience in football.”
The list goes on.
But don’t just take my word for it. Have a look at the results gained by Smith in European competition during his first stint at the Death Star and make up your own mind.
First Round *1991*
Sparta (ag) 2-2 Rangers 1-0 1-2 (Lost on away goal rule)
Group 1 *1992*
Clubs Pld W D L GF GA Pts
Marseille 6 3 3 0 14 4 9
Rangers 6 2 4 0 7 5 8
Club Brugge 6 2 1 3 5 8 5
CSKA Moskva 6 0 2 4 2 11 2
Matches
Rangers 2 – 2 Marseille
CSKA Moskva 0 – 1 Rangers
Club Brugge 1 – 1 Rangers
Rangers 2 – 1 Club Brugge
Marseille 1 – 1 Rangers
Rangers 0 – 0 CSKA Moskva
The was the much wailed over “one game from the final” It can be seen in
perspective when you see the level of competition and the actual results (1 home win???)
First Round *1993*
Rangers 4-4 Levski (ag) 3-2 1-2 (Lost on away goal rule)
Qualifying round *1994*
AEK 3-0 Rangers 2-0 1-0 (*A*nother *E*arly *K*nock-out)
Group C *1995*
Clubs Pld W D L GF GA Pts
Juventus 6 4 1 1 15 4 13
Dortmund 6 2 3 1 8 8 9
Steaua 6 1 3 2 2 5 6
*Rangers* 6 0 3 3 6 14 3
Matches
Steaua 1 – 0 Rangers
Rangers 2 – 2 Dortmund
Juventus 4 – 1 Rangers
Rangers 0 – 4 Juventus
Rangers 1 – 1 Steaua
Dortmund 2 – 2 Rangers
Group A *1996*
Clubs Pld W D L GF GA Pts
Ajax 6 4 0 2 8 4 12
Auxerre 6 4 0 2 8 7 12
Grasshoppers 6 3 0 3 8 5 9
*Rangers *6 1 0 5 5 13 3
Matches
Grasshoppers 3 – 0 Rangers
Rangers 1 – 2 Auxerre
Ajax 4 – 1 Rangers
Rangers 0 – 1 Ajax
Grasshoppers 3 – 1 Auxerre
Rangers 2 – 1 Grasshoppers
Auxerre 2 – 1 Rangers
Second qualifying round *1997*
Göteborg 4-1 Rangers 3-0 1-1
As you might expect after spending 90+ million pounds domestic success continued as they lorded it over the relative paupers of Scottish football until Celtic finally mounted a challenge.
With a team that cost a mere fraction of the Mordor side Celtic won the league and said cheerio to ten-in-a-row. Wim Jansen showed that coaching nous outweighed financial clout every time. The first time in ten years that a decent challenge was put in Smith was found out. Found out and booted out. Only, of course he wasn’t sacked, David Murray doesn’t sack managers. Really?
Smith returned to his spiritual home after walking out on his country. Can you imagine anyone else getting away with that without a media induced lynch mob being raised? Ok, Alex McLeish did the same before adding another relegation to his CV, but you know what I mean. Consider the treatment of Aiden McGeady who decided to ply his International trade with the Republic of Ireland after not even being approached by Scotland. I can see the Daily R****d now, with its’ free gifts of pitchfork and torch for every reader.
This time around the domestic trophies were more evenly spread. However, further upheaval at Celtic, including management changes and failure to strengthen at key times means that Smith leaves on the back of a three-in-a-row when we should be looking at six-in-a-row for Celtic. However, it wouldn’t be fair to criticise Smith for failures at our own club. Once again the success of the man can be gauged by his record in Europe.
I won’t bore you with another blow-by-blow account of his final few years in European competition but here are some of the low-lights.
The run to the UEFA Cup Final in 2007/8 was the most impressive although even that doesn’t bear much scrutiny.
The run to the final started in the Champions League where the tern “anti-football” was coined by Lionel Messi following a mind numbing 0-0 draw at I***x against Barcelona. The round of 32 saw them eliminating Panathinaikos on away goals after 0-0 and 1-1 draws. In the next round Smith saw his team get through at the expense of Werder Bremen thanks to a narrow 2-1 aggregate win. This was notable because it was the only time they scored any goals at home in the entire competition.
Sporting Lisbon went out due to an inexplicable 2-0 defeat in Portugal before Fiorentina were eliminated after two mind numbing 0-0 draws in the semi final ties. Fortunately Zenit St Petersburg did the football world a favour by putting R*****s to sword in the final in Manchester. Scotland, as a nation, was shamed as Chelsea fans, masquerading as R*****s supporters (Copyright: Daily R****d) ran riot and carnage ensued.
To summarise the final years of the “master tactician” in Europe it’s interesting to examine the record in full:
Played: 31
*Won: 3*
Lost: 13
Drawn: 15
The final 15 European home matches shed even more light on the issue at hand:
2010-07:
1. PSV 0-1
2. Sporting CP Lisbon 1-1
3. Manchester Utd 0-1
4. Valencia 1-1
5. Bursaspor 1-0
6. VfB Stuttgart 0-2
7. Unirea Urziceni 1-4
8. Sevilla 1-4
9. FBK Kaunas 0-0
10. Fiorentina 0-0
11. Sporting CP Lisbon 0-0
12. Werder Bremen 2-0
13. Panathinaikos 0-0
14. Lyon 0-3
15. FC Barcelona 0-0
Played: 15
Won: 2
Lost: 6
Drawn: 7
Goals for: 7
Goals against: 17
As you can see in the final 11 European ties at I***x, the number of times R*****s scored more than one goal was nil. Football to stun pigs by.
But, the media, never tire of telling us, everything “Walter” has achieved since his return has been done on a shoestring budget and that his hands have been tied by the banks. Not so. Since Smith rejoined the Govan side midway through the 2006/07 season he has spent, just short of, £37 million on players (not including loan payments or applicable fees). If that’s a ”shoestring budget” then sign me up for one of them right away.
R*****s, during Smith’s second spell in charge, have won the SPL 3 times, had 4 cups and reached the UEFA Cup final. Celtic, under Gordon Strachan, Tony Mowbray and Neil Lennon achieved 3 league wins, 4 cups and twice made it to the last 16 of the CL.
So to conclude:
“Walter” has spent more than double the amount that Alex McLeish did while he was in the job and has, more or less, won the same amount of domestic trophies. He did this while at the same time achieving less in Europe than Gordon Strachan. He did manage to reach the same European final as Martin O’Neill, but spent more, while on both occasions achieving less domestically.
Legned or Myth?
You decide.
good article here! personally i think wattie is a sack of shit tbh. european record is funny thogh ;D