Kevin Thomson: Tony Mowbray has his work cut out stopping dominant Rangers

[johnnyk 158]

KEVIN THOMSON last night insisted Tony Mowbray is taking over at Celtic just in time for a new period of sustained Rangers dominance in Scottish football.

 

Thomson's former Easter Road mentor Mowbray will be unveiled as Gordon Strachan's successor at Parkhead this morning after the s2.5million deal to bring him north from West Brom along with Peter Grant and Mark Venus was completed at tea-time yesterday.

 

But the Ibrox midfielder believes Mowbray will face the fight of his life in attempting to stop a resurgent Rangers from going on to nail down a place at the top of the pile on the back of last season's SPL and Scottish Cup Double

 

Thomson, speaking exclusively to Record Sport,said: "Celtic have got themselves the right man for the job. Tony is a fantastic manager .

 

"But let's not forget we have a fantastic manager of our own in Walter Smith and we are the team in the ascendancy now.

 

"I'm not going to say we are miles ahead of Celtic but I will say this, we are the champions and that means it's their turn to chase us.

 

 

"I think that's the hardest part of being at the Old Firm. Second best will not be tolerated but that's the situation Celtic find themselves in.

 

"We are in the driving seat right now and know the financial climate is a difficult one. That makes Celtic's task even tougher."

 

And Thomson believes Smith's youthful Rangers side could be ideally placed to go on a run of back-to-back title triumphs.

 

He said: "I look around our squad and I see a lot of good young players. It feels like we might be on the start of something special. We are all confident in our ability to move on to the next step.

 

"It's up to Celtic to beat us. I'm sure Tony will want to make some changes to his team but we've been through the rebuilding work. When the gaffer took over he said he had to make a few signings which were purely short term.

 

"But it was also part of his plan to make some signings for the longer term. We are now reaping the benefits from that philosophy.

 

"The likes of myself, Steve Davis, Steven Whittaker and Maurice Edu are still relatively young - but we have great experience.

 

"That should give us the grounding we need to push on from here and I see no reason why we can't go on to win two, three, four or five titles in a row."

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/football/spl/2009/06/17/kevin-thomson-tony-mowbray-his-work-cut-out-stopping-dominant-rangers-86908-21447405/

[Gazza_8 233]

I wish our players would keep their gobs shut when it comes to these things. Samaras made the same mistake at the end of last season and look what happened.

[br1ndy 0]

Some1 has to give the papers their stories.

[calscot 0]

With our debt I can't see how we are at the start of any domination. We have little money to spend and while Celtic are not exactly loaded, their almost zero debt means they have room to borrow and give Mowbray a war chest, whether they qualify for the CL or not.

 

Even if they miss out on the CL, the blow will be softened by four guaranteed European home games with a good chance of at least a couple more. I can easily see them spending 15 million while we spend about a third of that if we sell a couple of players.

 

Mowbray hardly has us shaking in our boots but we shouldn't underestimate him. He did well at Hibs and so knows the SPL inside out and did quite an admirable job at West Brom.

 

I think it will be close again this season with hopefully Walter's experience and a more settled side, enabling us to shade them at the end again.

 

I still feel we had more bad luck than good last season and if that's not repeated combined with a level playing field officials-wise and no 67 game season to recover from, I think we should have a much better start. If we're quick enough out of the traps, Celtic could be a good few lengths behind before Mowbray starts to find his footing.

[andrew_2010 0]

It's not really gobbing off - he's stated fact. "Tony is a fantastic manager" - he'll know that from personal experience. But he also knows that Walter is too both from his personal experience and Walters track record.

 

He then said that we have the edge as we are champions and its up to them to knock us from there - just like last year I'm sure he will have said celtic have the edge but its up to us to peg them back.

 

If you are worried about players giving celtic ammo, look no further than everyones golden child of the moment: Nacho Novo. His mouthing off is much worse (fun to hear) but must rile them up just as much, if not more so. I always put it down to them being bad losers and worse winners. I would have hoped for more (public) grace in victory from a Rangers team/player. (I'm probably alone in those thoughts though...)

[Norris Cole 0]

It's not really gobbing off - he's stated fact. "Tony is a fantastic manager" - he'll know that from personal experience. But he also knows that Walter is too both from his personal experience and Walters track record.

 

He then said that we have the edge as we are champions and its up to them to knock us from there - just like last year I'm sure he will have said celtic have the edge but its up to us to peg them back.

 

If you are worried about players giving celtic ammo, look no further than everyones golden child of the moment: Nacho Novo. His mouthing off is much worse (fun to hear) but must rile them up just as much, if not more so. I always put it down to them being bad losers and worse winners. I would have hoped for more (public) grace in victory from a Rangers team/player. (I'm probably alone in those thoughts though...)

 

I'd possibly agree with that, however given the injustices the club had to endure during the tainted t@ig season of 07/08, such reactions are understandable. And he was the only one who made any reference to the filth - could you imagine if it had been the other way around? Out would have come the T-shirts etc, with all the players giving it the "justice has been done, we were cheated last year" line.

[Super_Ally 0]

I think the run up to the final day shoot out showed we are generally a bit smarter when it comes to shooting out mouths off. We had at least one thread about it on here. About Samaras, Caldwell etc gobbing off while our players get on with the job in hand.

 

The comments about winning "x" amount of league titles in a row could well come back to haunt him. However, it is still nice to hear our players coming out with a positive comment once in a while.

[craig 5,199]

It is somewhat ironic that we slate WS for not making positive statements. Am sure I have read on here a few times that he should be making comments that we should win quite easily against the lesser teams.

 

Yet when one of our players comes out and makes a positive statement we then slate him for doing so. Nothing KT said was demeaning to Celtic (unlike Samaras' comments). He was complimentary towards Mowbray and he was absolutely right when he stated that being Champions means the other half of the OF is chasing us. How much pressure was on us last season given a) they had won 3 in a row and b) the fact they were reigning champions ? There was far more pressure on us to break the cycle than there was on them to continue it. So, again, I think he is right.

 

His only potential mis-guided comment was the 2, 3, 4 or 5 in a row. However, he didnt say it would happen but that we have a group of young players who are capable of it. Given we won the league last year with these young guys they have shown they are capable of it so he is right to say they could do that for a few years.

 

Cal, debt is not an indicator of dominance or otherwise. The smart money would be on them making a few signings to strengthen whilst we cull our squad a bit. However, that doesnt mean that we cant be the dominant force. Spending doesn't equal success. As you state, last season we had far more bad luck than good. Had the luck, and bad officiating, actually evened itself out over the season then we would have won the league by double digits and there can be little doubt over that. In fact, we were barely two months into the season and the points differential due to bad officiating and lucky decisions was already double digits. So if the luck evens itself out this season then we are double digits ahead, which means Celtic NEED a couple of signings to catch up. But given they are paying 2.5 million for Mowbray just how much are their board willing to spend ?? It COULD be a period of dominance for us as we have a strong nucleus and just need to fill a couple of starting XI positions. It might not be either though.

 

Not sure what you mean by "having a better start" cal. Europe aside we had an excellent start last season. Did we not win our first 6 or 7 games and the first point we dropped was at Aberdeen..... thanks to a dodgy decision ? It was just that Celtic also kept picking up points (thanks in part to dodgy officiating).

 

But to look at just exactly what KT said.... he didnt mention dominance (that was the paper's headline) - he merely said there was no reason why we couldnt go on and win 2, 3, 4 or 5 IAR. He isnt saying we will, just that we have the players to do so and who can argue when you look at the number of younger players at Ibrox who have already played their part in a championship winning team ?

Edited June 17, 2009 by craig

[calscot 0]

Spending may not be the only factor but it is significant. You just have to look at our spending in two league winning seasons which was mostly funded by the Boumsong and Cuellar sales. Both spending sprees were crucial to us winning the league.

 

Celtic fell behind us last season because they have not really spent much or well in the last two years. That could be rectified this season.

 

I still think that it is hard to start a period of dominance when your finances are stretched and you have to trim the squad while your rivals are in a pretty strong financial position.

 

We may somehow win a few leagues in a row but I can't see it being other than a hard fought, close fight each year.

 

I think we have the edge at the moment but we have experience what a new manager can do for the OF with 7 of them winning the league in their first full season since 1986 - and we all know Walter should have added his name to that list for the second time.

 

Alex McLeish did it against O'Neil and Mowbray is in the same mould as Big Eck...

[Super_Ally 0]

Spending may not be the only factor but it is significant. You just have to look at our spending in two league winning seasons which was mostly funded by the Boumsong and Cuellar sales. Both spending sprees were crucial to us winning the league.

 

Celtic fell behind us last season because they have not really spent much or well in the last two years. That could be rectified this season.

 

Have they not spent much? Scott Brown?

 

We've spent a little more than previous seasons, due to getting good fees in though.

 

So whilst we have strengthened in some areas, our squad, our first, has been depleted by an �£8mil centre back at the same time.

 

Net spend I think they may have out spent us or there wont be much in it.

 

Money is definitely a factor though and think you make some good pants.