The High Road To England

THE High Road To England has been a most-pleasing aspect to Scots for over 400 years, since Jamie the Sax and a large proportion of his court swapped Edinburgh for London following the Union of the Crowns in 1603.

Once the Scotch Passing Game, the 19th century predecessor to Spanish Tika-Taka, gained supremacy over English kick and rush, the trickle of Scots heading south became a torrent as the big English clubs coaxed, cajoled and let's be honest bribed the "Scotch professors" south to improve their game and dilute ours.

So Danny Wilson signing for Liverpool doesn't surprise me - we've been here before. Liverpool did sign a young centre half - fellow named Alan Hansen - from Partick Thistle in 1977, and he did well for the club. But, Hansen was a bit ahead of Wilson in development when he went, being 22-years-old and having played over 100 games for the Jags; he was also already a Scotland Under-23 regular.

Wilson, in contrast, is only 19-years-old, has a mere 24 first team games for Rangers behind him and while some of these have been in the Champions League he's still a raw laddie compared with Hansen when he moved.

He's clearly a boy in a hurry and faced with the distinct possibility of losing him for a mere £500,000 compensation as a free agent at the end of the season, Rangers would have been guilty of criminal negligence towards the club's long-term interests had they not sold him in the final year of his contract, for potentially ten times that sum.

However, I wonder if, given his obvious impatience to cash-in on his talent, Wilson is ready for the reality of life at Liverpool. The Liverpool which Hansen joined had a way of dealing with young recruits, dreamt-up by Bill Shankly and followed by Bob Paisley which demanded a period in the reserves - to learn "the Liverpool way", before regular first team football.

Hansen endured this, as did Stevie Nicol, Kevin Keegan and Ray Clemence - it didn't do them any harm. I wonder if Wilson will be happy with reserve football at first - he's clearly not ready for the English Premiership on a weekly basis just yet.

How will he handle life on Merseyside? How will he handle the cash? Will he fulfill his potential? I will watch Master Wilson's career with interest.

I also don't see Danny's departure as weakening Rangers too much. The club still has three international central defenders in Bougherra, Webster and Weir; Sasa Papac has also played international football in central defence, while Kirk Broadfoot and Lee McCulloch, two more internationalists, have both played there for the club and not looked out of place. In Steven Whittaker, Broadfoot and Papac they've got three international-class full backs, while Jordan McMillan, the better for a season out on loan in the First Division is an Under-21 international full back, with Gregg Wylde an Under-19 internationalist - while Andy Little can play there too. Even without Wilson, Walter Smith has plenty of options at the back.

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SPECULATION is reaching near-fever-pitch, as to Aiden McGeady following Wilson south, perhaps to Aston Villa, should James Milner decamp to Manchester City. McGeady will be a bigger loss to Scottish football than Wilson - if only on the basis of: "Who will we all hate?"

McGeady, for all his obvious talents, has long been THE figure of hate for the rest of Scottish football. Freed from the ritual abuse at every ground except Celtic Park and surrounded by better players, he could well blossom and become as good as he and his supporters think he is, but too many up here cannot bring themselves to acknowledge. His decision to play for the Republic of Ireland rather than his native Scotland has made him a figure of hate up here, which says a lot about us Scots as a nation.

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IN many years covering Junior Football, albeit not as regularly as I once did, I thought I had seen every possible evidence of how stupid some football administrators can be - but I had not. Today's news that Queen's Park has been banned from the Scottish Amateur Cup takes the biscuit.

I've got news for the officials of the Scottish Amateur FA - if it wasn't for Queen's Park you wouldn't have a SAFA. Queen's Park is the only Scottish amateur football team most people have ever heard of and by banning them from your premier cup competition you've made yourselves look very silly indeed.

The really sad thing about all this is - the SAFA have just made George Peat and Co appear competent.