da cassino online： Plenty of Sir Alex Ferguson’s former players have gone into management but of all his former charges the one who has arguably received the least credit for what he has achieved in the dugout is Alex McLeish. After taking Motherwell to second place in the Scottish Premier League in his first season as a manager in 1995 while still in his mid-thirties, the Scot enjoyed success at both Hibernian and Rangers before succeeding Steve Bruce at St Andrew’s in November 2007. Furthermore, while McLeish’s brief spell as Scotland coach earlier that year might have ended in disappointment – he failed to get the national side over the line to qualification for the 2008 European Championships after replacing the Rangers-bound Walter Smith – he would have booked the Tartan Army a trip to Austria and Switzerland the following summer had the Scots won a crucial away tie in Georgia.
da jogodeouro： Nonetheless, seven wins – including one over France in Paris – from ten games gives the former Aberdeen player the best win percentage of any Scotland coach.
In Sunday’s Carling Cup final, McLeish has the opportunity to claim Birmingham’s first significant piece of silverware since the Blues last won the League Cup in 1963, and their first honour of any kind since they lifted what is now the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy sixteen years ago. One major trophy in 136 years is a poor return for a club with such a long history but the record books count in their manager’s favour going into the weekend’s game at Wembley. The League Cup, or at least its Scottish cousin, is a format in which McLeish has enjoyed great success in the past. He won it twice as a centre back with the Dons and three times during his five years in charge of Rangers.
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Standing in Birmingham’s way at the weekend will be Arsenal, who for all the plaudits they have received for their playing style are going through their longest run without a trophy since the eighties. Contests between the sides managed by McLeish and Arsène Wenger are still flavoured by the events of 23rd February 2008. Martin Taylor’s tackle on Eduardo da Silva after three minutes cast a shadow over the rest of the game and, for as long as the bosses remain at their respective clubs, the atmosphere that afternoon will continue to influence future fixtures. Not only were Arsenal’s players left visibly affected by the injury suffered by Eduardo, they conceded an injury-time equaliser in rather shambolic circumstances. James McFadden scored from the spot as William Gallas took a seat on the turf in disgust, and Wenger’s side’s sense of injustice over the draw precipitated a run of form that ultimately cost the Gunners the league title.
The Blues ended up being relegated that season, a fate that befell another club that McLeish joined mid-season earlier on in his career, Hibernian. The manager took the Easter Road side back up at the first attempt in 1999 though, and within two years they had finished third in the SPL and reached the final of the Scottish Cup. By returning Birmingham to the top flight after only a one-year absence in 2009 and then following up that success with this season’s Carling Cup final appearance, whatever the result on Sunday it would be fair to say that McLeish’s achievements in England bear comparison with his record before he managed in the Premier League.
Perhaps it is the fact that McLeish never played in England that has resulted in the relatively low amount of praise he gets south of the border, because the press have fewer memories of his past to warm to. Birmingham’s style of play has been shown to not always be the most endearing too. Counting against McLeish as well is the ease with which the achievement of his winning seven trophies in five years at Rangers can be belittled, such is the duopoly that the two Glasgow clubs enjoy in Scotland. Of course, McLeish has no chance of replicating that level of sustained success with Birmingham under their present ownership but consolidating the Blues’ renewed top flight status last season with such a fine home record and giving the club its highest ever Premier League finish, ninth, qualified as a triumph up there with anything he did at Ibrox.
If Birmingham win on Sunday they will enter European competition for the first time in half a century. Again, it would be a challenge that McLeish’s managerial credentials would see him well prepared to undertake. After taking Motherwell into Europe in the mid-nineties, he experienced Champions League football with Rangers and, in the 2005/06 season, an otherwise unhappy one for the club, he made them the first Scottish side to successfully negotiate the group stage. With Fulham and Middlesbrough both reaching European finals on similar resources to Birmingham’s in the past five years, a run in the Europa League would be within both the club’s and its manager’s capabilities should the weekend bring success.
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Can Birmingham cause an upset against Arsenal? They are 11/2 with bet365 to do just that!
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