Betfair: Scottish Football Betting: Tony Mowbray is unlikely to stop the rot

Today’s update from Betfair:

Paul Moon is not impressed by the arrival of Tony Mowbray at Parkhead. Here’s why the former West Brom boss will further re-iterate the point that Scottish football is going nowhere.

Scottish football has always been an irrelevance. It neither contributes to football in terms of the big picture nor entertains domestically and no matter from which angle you view it, progress seems unlikely. Fantasy talk of Celtic and Rangers joining the English Premier League would merely consign them to eternal mediocrity whilst sounding the death knell for the ailing SPL.

The Scottish game is in serious decline and finding words of encouragement is difficult! Apart from a dearth of homegrown talent, other impediments include an extreme negative mentality and outdated sectarian intolerance. The crazy obsession with the ‘Old Firm’ rivalry merely perpetuates prehistoric thought processes and holds Scottish football back! Low television revenue and modern economics compound this mind-set.

In the last 18 months Alex McLeish left the post of Scotland boss to take charge of lowly Birmingham and Roberto Martinez turned down the opportunity to manage Celtic, preferring the job at Wigan. Any club who loses out in the glamour stakes to Wigan must have serious problems and this is further proof of the importance attributed to football north of the border.

Success for Celtic has normally been defined as finishing above Rangers and producing a decent set of accounts. But they are in desperate need of a visionary. They require a manager with credentials, intelligence, charisma and world fame. They needed someone with European experience. They needed someone who could galvanise the region and bring fresh hope. They chose a man who could work on a tight budget.

The appointment of the dour Tony Mowbray as Celtic manager was dismal and will not advance matters. He is a decent, honourable man with some ability but lacks class and the requisite skills to take the club to the next level. He is destined to fail. His naivety was cruelly exposed in the English Premier League with West Bromwich last season and his forthcoming European experience could be embarrassing.

In fairness to Mowbray, he has inherited a mess. His side is sadly bereft of genuine talent and in total need of reconstruction. To hear Scotland midfielder and former hoops favourite Paul Hartley say that joining Championship side Bristol City is a ’step up’ sums up the skill quotient at Parkhead.

The situation looks dire and it is hard to imagine Mowbray turning things around. He has little chance of encouraging quality players to sign. Why should they? The football is of a low standard and they cannot even compete with the wages of Hull, Portsmouth and Fulham.

He was delighted to secure the services of Nancy boys Landry N’Guemo (loan) and Marc-Antoine Fortune and that appears to be the level the club is currently working at.

Of course Celtic will want to beat arch-rivals Rangers for the SPL Title but competing on the European stage is vital and the real barometer of success! Latest Betfair prices: Celtic [2.00] Rangers [2.06] Hearts [55] Bar [120].

Every year Celtic and Rangers recklessly squander their free pass into the Champions League. On 28 July 2009 Celtic host a tricky first leg match against Dynamo Moscow. The winners would progress to a play-off to enter the group stage, though I remain unconvinced that will be Celtic and may well be laying them in both matches if the Betfair market overrates their true chances.

Dynamo finished third in Russia last season and is currently managed by Andrey Kobelev. They are 13 games into their season and will be fit. They have recently signed Uruguayan midfielder Luis Aguiar from Braga in Portugal. They also boast a number of Russian internationals, including experienced duo Aleksandr Kerzhakov and Dmitri Khokhlov and Romanian playmaker Adrian Ropotan.

One thing is for sure. Even if Celtic do overcome their first hurdle in European football’s premium tournament, they certainly won’t be there at the business end. But here are the prices of a few teams who may well be: Barcelona [5.4] Real Madrid [5.6] Chelsea [7.6] Man Utd [9.0] Liverpool [12.0] Inter [13.0] Arsenal [18.0] AC Milan [27.0] Juventus [27.0].

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