WALTER SMITH TRACKING THE LISBON LIONS

April 9, 2008 - Daily Hun Newsdesk

smithcunt1 Walter Smith tracking the Lisbon lions It’s a lazy, languid sort of late afternoon the likes of which we simply don’t get in April in Scotland. Walter Smith has watched on as his loyal lieutenant Ally McCoist has subjected his exhausted troops to yet another punishing ‘light’ training session. Smith looks on happily, and yet his face has all the inscrutabilty of a stern Mandarin potentate.

Later that evening, we are seated on the patio of the hotel as we watch the sun slowly decline in the east. The eve of yet another epic day in the renascent history of Glasgow Rangers Football club. Silence reigns, the birds warble contentedly in the shrubbery, the calm before the storm.

It’s difficult, even dangerous some might argue to make historical comparisons but the parallels between the current Rangers football team and the Celtic team of 1967 are staggering. But let’s first deal with the mundane data. The “A praia dos ebrios” is the very same hotel in Estoril where the legendary Lisbon Lions stayed before eventually becoming European champions. Rumour has it, that Smith’s room is the very same one as that of Jock Stein.

As we watch the players trudge wearily towards the shower complex, the dying sun plays tricks with the eyes. Is that flame haired, small, slight figure Jimmy Johnstone?….No, it is his modern day incarnation the mercurial Chris Burke. And that dark, mischevious figure full of good hearted banter, surely that is Bertie Auld?… no, wrong again, it is Iberian hit man Nacho Novo, a figure silently admired by thousands of Celtic supporters. And that tall, blond,erect leader of men is that Billy McNeil?……Nope, Barry Ferguson a man whose injuries forced him to miss an international for his beloved Scotland, yet whose sheer grit allowed him to return to play against Celtic just a few days later.

And then to the most obvious comparison of all Walter Smith and Jock Stein.

Like Stein, Smith inherited a dispirited squad, low on confidence, short on funds and a huge expectant support. He too achieved a treble in his first full season at the club, and his influence too was felt immediately in Europe. Of course, we have to take into account the fact that then, fitness levels were not as high as nowadays and that Celtic played fewer games than the current Rangers squad. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the Lisbon Lions could probably have held their own against the current Rangers team, well perhaps for the first forty-five minutes at least.

Many experts have commented on the fact that Rangers have overcome technically ’superior’ sides, the same insult that Jock Stein had to suffer. There can be no doubt that the current Rangers team wins with class and the style lies in the struggle. Just like the Celtic team of 1967. Tomorrow is yet another incredible chapter in the history of Scotland’s most successful club. I leave Walter Smith alone with the birds to contemplate becoming Scotland’s most successful manager ever.

He will not let us down.

Original by Dawwell Broadfeet

Published by News Staff · Filed Under Latest