GAME DISNEY IMPRESS PHIL
THE Disney Corporation could sue for defamation of character if anyone else accuses Scottish football of being Mickey Mouse after the postponement fiasco at Dens Park last Sunday.
The cartoon character has been successful commercially since he first came into being in 1928, thanks very much.
Whatever’s gone wrong with a wonky pitch on Tayside, it’s got nothing to do with Mickey, despite what Chris Sutton says.
We’ve our own cartoon cavalcade to deal with before we get to the world’s most famous mouse.
Rangers manager Philippe Clement did a convincing impression of a man holding our game up to ridicule with a disgusted look on his face when he was interviewed at Dens Park by the TV company who had just had their day’s schedule ripped up and put in the bin.
Dodgy pitches and a nonexistent level of communication between clubs, the manager got all of it off his chest for the benef it of the cameras and the wider public.
Rangers fans can only be grateful that no one saw fit to bring Philippe up to speed on the time when Dundee made a critical situation even worse during Covid by somehow getting mixed up over how you send an email to vote on whether the league title should be called early.
Otherwise, Clement might have felt the urge to consult his mobile phone on the times of flights back home to Belgium.
For once, all of the conspiracy theories about who benefitted most from the late cancellation of the game weren’t the most laughable part of what was a dismal episode.
If anything, they dignified a situation that was much funnier than fiction, even if the joke must be wearing thin for the broadcaster paying £25million a year to be immersed in our periodic pantomime.
C lement gav e a fascinating insight into the l ife of a prominent personality in the west of Scotland with an interview last week. It included the glamorous side of life that is being given the middle finger in public by rival fans when you’re going about your everyday business.
But the big guy looks like he could handle himself in a crisis and that won’t worry him unduly.
Clement looks like he has quickly arrived at two conclusions relative to his short stay in Scotland.
One is the love of the club where he has gone to work. The other is a dislike for a lot of what he sees around him in our game.
He doesn’t understand VAR and how it operates for handball – but that applies to everyone in the country who does not work for the SFA.
But Clement has also repeated claims that his players have been “kicked off the pitch” while referees do nothing about it.
Now he’s mystified by the poor state of our pitches and the manager doesn’t take prisoners when it comes to calling out standards beneath the level expected.
The danger will come when he decides all of this means Scottish football is insufficient to hold his attention on an extended basis.
Ange Postecoglou came here and had a telling impact on our game at Celtic in a short space of time. But Ange had never done Europe before, having been in Australia and Asia forging a reputation.
The Belgian has worked at building his name in his own country and in France.
That could accelerate a move to England if Scotland’s eccentricities lose their charm for him.