adminA pair of clashes against Celtic will reveal Derek McInnes’ standing and what the future may hold
It’s almost time for the start of the Glasgow Un-Fair fortnight as far as Derek McInnes is concerned.
Next Sunday, to be precise. Not an official holiday period. More like a public examination by sequence of fixtures for Rangers’ manager. Two Old Firm encounters on consecutive weekends means a grim-faced, square-jawed double-header devoid of charm or sophistication.
The meeting of two clubs whose hostility towards each other is as evident as it is damaging to the prospect of peaceful relations between their supporters. If the directors of both institutions are disdainful of each other over everything from ticket allocation to anything else anybody cares to mention, what hope have you got?
After almost 20 years in the technical area that was known as the dugout when he began his managerial career, Derek will be experiencing his first Old Firm derby, as it happens, in a Premier Sports Cup quarter-final tie at Ibrox. And that, according to the permanently cynical, is the consequence of an administrative stitch-up created by interfering with the scales of justice. I do realise this is my chosen profession and fully appreciate that controversy is good for business.
However, there are moments when you really do become weary of every bizarre conspiracy theory connected to disciplinary decisions that are supposedly manipulated in favour of one Old Firm club or the other.
The four-game touchline ban – reduced to two matches on appeal – handed to, and now served by McInnes, being the latest example. Quite apart from that, the fact one match was initially suspended, along with the fixture changes for Europe, meant even an unsuccessful appeal would not have brought the cup tie into the equation.
I thought the amended judgment was reasonable, especially since it includes an interesting caveat relevant during the Glasgow Un-Fair Fortnight.
The two matches left off Derek’s disciplinary record will be reinstated and the suspension served, if he forgets that he’s been bound over to keep the peace and once again breaches rule 72 of the disciplinary code, concerning inflammatory language, this season.
In other words, McInnes will have to navigate two Old Firm matches in eight days and resist the temptation to describe anything as “disgusting” – or worse – for fear of spending more time in the stands. A difficult demand if you’ve got a short temper and are approaching the ultimate examination of your composure, where the ability to control your words in front of live television cameras and a press corps understandably fascinated by the implications of the results in both matches will be challenged like never before.
Two losses against Celtic and the pressure on McInnes would climb to an almost unbearable level for a man battling to prove his credentials for the managerial role he occupies. Try being completely disciplined, and keeping your conduct in check, in those circumstances. There was clearly a great deal that McInnes wanted to say on the final day of last season when a pitch invasion at Celtic Park compounded the pain of Hearts losing the league title.
But he instructed the driver to get the team bus moving instead and departed for Edinburgh before saying anything he might later regret. That wasn’t the situation four days earlier. The now Rangers manager, then at the helm of Hearts, was careless with his language in May when describing a VAR decision awarded in Celtic’s favour as “disgusting”.
Especially since it wasn’t a match he was directly involved in but a game being played 30 miles away in Motherwell. Derek would have realised his choice of words was unwise almost immediately after speaking on live television.
But the original punishment imposed on him was, in my view, excessive. The amended ruling was appropriate in hindsight. If people want to believe the decision has been made to make McInnes available for the back-to-back Old Firm derbies, then they are entitled to that opinion.
Regardless of how misguided it may be. I would make just one observation to the conspiracy theorists. If you believed, before Monday’s appeal ruling, that McInnes was such a poor manager you were pleased Rangers had blundered in appointing him – and that was, undeniably, the dominant feeling while he was dropping points in league matches and humiliating himself in Europe – why would you care if he’s in the technical area at Ibrox next Sunday?
Derek has enough problems with the hypocrites who lined up to insist they never wanted him to become Rangers’ manager in the first place. But who’ll be scrambling to rename him the Govan Guardiola if he defeats Celtic on consecutive weekends.
And he may have to win both matches given recent developments. All that money invested in bringing in 14 new players since moving from Hearts? All those additions to an already sizeable wage bill?
All the income sacrificed by failing to reach any European competition because of Polish and Czech opposition? All the chances lost to partially balance the accounts by selling anyone in the transfer window? Exiting the first cup competition of the new season is, in those circumstances, simply not an option.
Glasgow Fair? That’ll be right. Derek’s stroke of luck might be that, sometimes, it doesn’t require much to restore the equilibrium in football. How often, for instance, do you sign one player, such as Minsu Kim, and he instantly appears to be the best player in the squad?
Unless Kevin Kelsy has ambitions for that honour. There’s plenty of space for difference-makers, I would say.
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