Walking in the footsteps of a giant

There are supplements, quotes pieces, articles from former footballers, reflections from modern footballers, fans' statements, reports from bygone matches and layered, sometimes informed speculation.

Fifty years ago it was somewhat different. The mood was one of restraint. The front page of the Glasgow Herald on Monday, February 1, carried three succinct paragraphs on the appointment of Mr J Stein as Celtic manager. The back page told the story at almost inordinate length: 10 paragraphs that included other appointments at Celtic. There was no need to illustrate either article with a photograph.

This week Ronny Deila has largely confined himself to Lennoxtown, rambling at the foothills of the Campsies like some kind of latter day Heathcliff, though one determined to find a happy ending. Stein, in contrast, is the ghost at the feast.

It would be absurd to make direct comparisons between the inexperienced Deila and the man Sir Alex Ferguson claims to be best manager ever.

But on a weekend that promises to be swept away on a fever, it may be timely to offer some sober reflection.

In February 1965, Stein took charge of a side that had not won a domestic title in more than a decade. He stood just 28 months away from winning a European Cup with a team of Scotsmen.

His strengths were various and widespread. But, most conspicuously, he had the ability to innovate, to improve and inspire. Simply, he managed his resources to the upmost.

He went on to win 10 titles, eight Scottish Cups, and six League Cups with Celtic. He could, perhaps should have added a European Cup or two to the one seized at Lisbon.

He was fiercely intelligent, in football and in a wider sphere, he was profoundly charismatic and had that essential trait of making players want to please him.

A wider chronicle of Stein's life can be found in the superb wrings of Hugh McIlvanney (try to find his obituary of the manager online) and in a fine, textured biography by Archie Macpherson.

But it is irresistible on a frantic weekend to ponder one question: what would Big Jock make of this. Stein was capable of envisioning a Scottish team winning a European Cup. His considerable intelligence, though, would surely have refused to contemplate an Old Firm derby where Rangers were in a lower division.

He would surely blink in disbelief at the standing of the Scottish game. Stein's managerial career at Celtic started just after Dundee had reached a semi-final of the European Cup. It continued through an era when Kilmarnock and Dunfermline reached the semi-finals of what is roughly today's Europe League.

Aberdeen, under Stein's protégé, Alex Ferguson won the European Cup-winners Cup, Rangers did the same in a year when the semi-finals of both major tournaments were decided in Glasgow, and Dundee United were halted one step short of a European Cup final.

This season Celtic lost to the champions of Poland and Slovenia before going out of the Champions League qualifying phase. The other Scottish clubs also lost in qualifying for the Europa League: St Johnstone lost to Real Sociedad, Motherwell lost to Sjarnan, and St Johnstone to Spartak Trnva.

There was disappointment about all of this but shock was limited. The truth is that a holy amalgam of Jock Stein and Alex Ferguson would struggle to make a Scottish club side competitive in Europe.

There are reasons for this. Ferguson and Stein could keep their players at Celtic and Aberdeen respectively because they held their registrations. Clubs sold when they wanted to as contracts could run down but the registration was eternal.

They also had top-class players. One of the great entertainments of this season has been the comparison of Aberdeen of 2014 to that of 1983. That investigation destroyed another part of the rain forest but had the consolation of providing a rueful smile to strained face of this burn-out hack.

It is not as if Scotland does not have decent players, or is incapable of producing them. It is that the domestic league has become a backwater. The young flee quickly if they have the chance. They are replaced by the competent from anywhere from East Kilbride to Estonia.

It is not, too, as if Scotland has poor managers. Again it would be absurd to expect the second coming of a Stein, but the standard of managers throughout the league is high. Teams are generally well-coached and strategy is routinely rational.

So what is the problem? It is the league. Or rather the lack of money to support it. Football clubs need huge resources to attract and keep the best. The Scottish football fan is now living in an era when a young player - Ryan Fraser - will choose Bournemouth over Aberdeen, where an experienced player -Cameron Jerome - will sign for Norwich City in the Championship rather than attempt to reach the Champions League with Celtic.

These players are not deluded. They are heading towards both the money and a prestige and profile that, however limited, exceeds anything that Scotland can offer.

The problem for Scotland - and it is replicated to a degree in the Netherlands, most of Scandinavia, and Portugal - is that this was a country that once had great teams and no longer has. Worse, there is an expectation that not only are the old days gone but they are never coming back.

The problem is not that Rangers are not in the top league, though eventual promotion of the Ibrox side will bring more money, perhaps even a sponsor, to the Premiership. It is that the league has become marginalised by the reality of modern football.

Tomorrow the Scottish football world will be consumed by a Celtic-Rangers match that may be historic but will not contain a truly top-class player.

This weekend, too, we can reflect on Mr Stein, his team and other great Scottish sides whose skilled opposition that made his achievements even more substantial.

Deila and the Celtic supporters can dream, too, of a domestic treble, at least until late tomorrow afternoon. This would reflect well on the 39-year-old Norwegian but place him in a Celtic category of treble winners that includes only Stein and Martin O'Neill. Think on.