SATURDAY JURY
Record Sport’s top team tackle the big issues
HAVE Hearts handled the sacking of boss Craig Levein properly by keeping him at the club in another capacity until the end of his contract?
LEVEIN played a huge part in the rebuilding the structure of the club and deserves the time to see out his other duties behind the scenes. The new manager needs to have a free rein but Levein has earned the right to a dignified exit.
HIS relationship with the fans has become so toxic a clean break would have seemed obvious. But complexities in a structure that gave Levein control of the entire football operation make it sensible to have a transitional period where he gradually hands over the youth academy set-up.
THEY’RE either struggling to pay him off or the manager has become so embedded in every aspect of the club he simply can’t do an Elvis and leave the building once the show is over. The spectre of the former manager hanging over the place for the next six months is appalling.
IT’S Glasgow v Edinburgh in the Betfred Cup this weekend. Is there any hope for either of the capital clubs?
THERE’S always hope. Hearts and Hibs are in a state right now and there’s every chance the pair of them could get pounded. But they do have decent players and the slightest spark could help them make life difficult for the Glasgow giants. I wouldn’t bet on it though, we’re heading for an Old Firm final.
I’VE seen nothing in either Hearts or Hibs of late to suggest they have the skills or the courage to handle the Old Firm at Hampden. Sure, cup shocks happen but I simply don’t see it this weekend.
IT would take a seismic shift in fortunes so ferocious it would reduce the old castle rock to rubble. There’s as much chance of an Edinburgh final as the old clock at the Balmoral Hotel showing the correct time.
THE SYFA are advising clubs not to allow kids aged 11 and under to head the ball. Should they be enforcing it as a rule rather than advising?
YES. The game seriously needs to look at the whole issue and making kids games under neck height would be a great start. It might even help develop a new generation of technical players who don’t resort to lumping the ball up the pitch.
HEADERS are part of the fabric of the game, you simply cannot ban them. I’d rather see restrictions on training drills involving heading the ball, such as using sponge balls that help them work on their technique without sustaining repeated blows.
THE nanny state is out of control. The difference between the ultra-light balls of the 21st century and the sodden medical balls that passed as appropriate in the 60s and 70s is night and day.
RYAN JACK has earned rave reviews for his Rangers performances this season. He’ll be in the Scotland squad but has he earned a starting place?
JACK has been superb and deserves his chance. Steve Clarke needs to find out who he can trust at international level and he already knows what the rest can do. Callum McGregor, John McGinn and Scott McTominay could pull a hammy when the play-offs come around so these games are ideal to chuck in a few new faces.
CLARKE has been astute when it comes to his selections to face particular styles and strength of opposition. Jack has been a stand-out and must be a shoo-in for the squad. But he shouldn’t expect to just walk into the starting XI, especially in a midfield that has numerous talented options.
COMPETITION in there is fierce but if Clarke (Hearts should go for him as boss, by the way) can’t find a place for Jack in his engine room we’re better off for players than we all thought.