Jordan sees little hope for Scottish clubs in Europe

ian paul

29 Apr 1991

ON THE day his own team virtually lost their chances of getting into Europe next season, Joe Jordan, manager of Hearts, outlined how very difficult it will be for any club in Scotland to make an impact in the continental competitions again.

It is his reasonable and reasoned view that the league reconstruction which will take place next term gives Scotland's clubs a huge task in achieving any success abroad.

Even if his own team are not involved, following the 1-0 defeat by Celtic at Tynecastle, he anticipates having to increase his first-team pool to cope with the extra domestic fixtures alone.

"Scottish clubs have achieved respect in Europe although they have not done a lot recently," said Jordan, "but the decision taken this season will make it difficult for any Scottish club to do well.

Our sides will get no opportunity to prepare for European games.

And it will not help the international team either."

The 44-game premier division will put enormous strain on playing resources, according to the Hearts manager, and the financial demands of the Taylor Report will not make it easy for any club to find the cash needed to boost player pools.

He would not be drawn on how much bigger his own 16-strong squad would have to be to handle the extra wear and tear that inevitably will affect players but did say: "I will have to get players in here before any can go, to stabilise our challenge.

We didn't want this situation at this club because it will make our job completely different."

Among the tasks he sees managers like himself having to tackle is the judging of youth players to see if they can be promoted to first-team squad status.

If not then others would have to be bought, but with what?

The other major drawback, of course, with which many of us would agree with Jordan, is the danger of quantity rather than quality being sought and accepted .

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"Players cannot do it week in week out, no matter how fit or good they are."

None of this Jordan treatise came as a consequence of sour grapes at losing to Celtic, who now have a real chance of snatching a UEFA Cup spot from Dundee United's grasp.

On the contrary, his words were as much a warning for those who will be trying to further the Scottish cause abroad than for his own fears at Tynecastle.

He was disappointed at losing, especially when he felt Hearts had missed good scoring chances.

"We did have a couple of slip-ups and they took their opportunity."

One of those errors seemed to be committed by Alan McLaren and presented Celtic with their goal, scored by Charlie Nicholas nine minutes after half-time.

But that may not have been the case, although the young defender did miss the ball altogether after a fine Celtic move ended with Coyne slipping over a low cross in front of goal.

His team-mate Craig Levein said yesterday: "No way was Alan to blame.

The ball took a horrible bounce and gave him no chance."

At anyrate, he missed and Charles didn't.

That was Nicholas's third goal in two games as he enjoys a late flourish to a season that has been a desperate disappointment, both for him and his many admirers.

The goal was consolation for him on an afternoon when the game went swinging past him for most of the time.

He still manages to do great things when somebody puts on the brakes and lets him join in.

Celtic did just about enough to win although they had to rely on a magnificent save by Pat Bonner from Eamonn Bannon near the end to keep the points.

By then they were reduced to 10 men, Anton Rogan having been sent off after retaliating foolishly when tackled late by Levein.

Anton slapped his opponent on the back of the head and had to take the long walk.

He was unlucky to be booked in the first half when he kicked the ball away in frustration after being judged to have committed a foul.

It did look the other way around.

That was one of a few questionable decisions by referee Les Mottram who also allowed a reckless Tosh McKinlay challenge on John Collins to go without a booking.

Celtic's best player was in defence where Dariusz Wdowczyk was oustanding.

Hearts' most effective contributor was Bannon who is enjoying a new lease of life on the right side of midfield.

Whether he will still be around when Hearts move stadiums remains to be seen but the chairman, Wallace Mercer, reckons he got great backing from the fans for the plan to move to Millerhill.

There will be a proper count of the questionaire filled in at Tynecastle on Saturday but Mercer's initial assessment is that 60 to 70% are in favour of the move.

Taken from the Herald