Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MINNOWS IN HUNT FOR A WINDFALL
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Tomorrow, 2pm
BETFRED CUP final rivals Livingston and St Johnstone are eyeing a £300,000 record prize at Hampden tomorrow to help ease the crippling financial strain left by the covid crisis.
The winners of the season’s first silverware will bank the biggest cheque in the competition’s history as well as the pride of being the first Scottish team outside Celtic to lift a major trophy since 2016.
And for two clubs chasing only their second major honour the timing could hardly be better.
Livi chief executive John Ward expects the cost of covid to hit his club to the tune of £1.7m.
However the Almondvale chief says the Lions stars who sacrificed chunks of their bonuses to help the club ride the storm will be the first beneficiaries should they triumph at the national stadium.
Ward said: “When we started this season off we never had a proper bonus system in place because we never knew how it was going to transpire. The players have been brilliant with that to be fair.
“So if we win on Sunday a chunk of the prize money will rightly go to the players’ bonus pot and the rest towards paying the bills because this season is about surviving.”
And St Johnstone chairman Steve Brown last month admitted he was braced for a serious hit from covid after posting a modest £20,000 loss for the year end to May 2020.
Last night he said: “Everyone at our club is looking forward to the final.
“It’s been a wonderful competition over the years and we are one game away from winning it for the first time in our history.
“This is a prestigious piece of silverware and the financial rewards for winning on Sunday are considerable.
“Given the economical challenges we have all faced in the past year, it will be a welcome boost to receive such a windfall.”
Given the challenges due to the virus this will be a big boost for us: Steve Brown
DEAN SMITH has rubbished suggestions his Aston Villa side are a one-man team.
Villa tackle Leeds today without the services of their England midfielder Jack Grealish, who is still struggling with a shin injury.
The 25-year-old has missed only three Premier League games since Villa came back up – and they’ve lost the lot.
But Smith (above) says that statistic doesn’t bear up to close scrutiny and reckons it’s disrespectful to disregard his other players.
He said: “I’ve seen the talk about us being, at times, a one-man team. But there needs to be a bit of perspective about that because one defeat was against a side who finished top, another moved up to second and the third ended up seventh.
“It’s disrespectful to other players to talk about us being a one-man team, especially when we’ve got so many other top players.
“We all know what a great player Jack is, and we’re thankful he’s here, but we believe we’re a good team and that takes 11 players to play at the highest level.”
The Villa boss admits his star man’s current injury problem isn’t clear and is reluctant to put a timeline on his return.
He said: “He’s still got a little bit of pain, not too much. As ever with Jack, whenever he’s involved with anything, there’s an awful lot of speculation.
“A lot of people were speculating he was going to be out for this amount of games, or weeks, but we honestly don’t know how long this will be.
“But it’s not long term – he could be back for Sheffield United on Tuesday.
“He’s gutted. He loves playing football, but the doctor says he needs a little bit of a rest.
“It’s only been a week so far but a week’s a long time, certainly in Jack’s mind when it comes to playing.”
SINCE when has nine titles in a row counted as failure in any sport?
Neil Lennon has endured a poor season by Celtic’s high standards but my old Leicester team-mate deserved better than being hounded out with hatred and anger being directed towards him on a frightening scale. When the fire and fury has subsided, and perspective is back in favour, Lennon (below) should go down as a Celtic legend who won five titles for them as a player and another five as manager. Even in resurgent Rangers’ shadow this season, they have won a trophy after the Scottish Cup shoot-out drama against Hearts, so they will not finish the campaign emptyhanded. Lennon will be honest enough to admit Celtic have fallen short this time. He did not win all of those nine titles in a row himself but he played his part in a historic run.
Is missing out on a 10th consecutive title – after completing the Quadruple Treble – really a failure, or just a reminder that success in football has always come in cycles?
The players need to look at themselves as much as the manager and admit Steven Gerrard and Rangers have been a cut above in Scotland this season.
But if Lennon’s contribution to Celtic’s history constitutes failure, I am not sure what success looks like.
Marcus Rashford helping to hurt Tuchel and (right) Chelsea train yesterday