The year that was

So 2007 comes to an end, lasting about as long as the average Hearts coach does, I guess. This year in football has seen...

IN SCOTLAND
Walter Smith rebuild Rangers after the shambles left by le saviour, Paul Le Guen

Celtic dodge their way to their second successive SPL title, mostly thanks to a combination of Rangers' ineptness and an incredible habit of nicking one goal wins

Celtic give Milan a run for their money in the Champs League last 16, then beat them at home on the way to the knockout stages for the second successive year

Rangers (disappointingly, in the end) and Aberdeen (miraculously) making the next stage of the UEFA Cup - the first time Scotland has had three sides in Europe after xmas since 1970

Dunfermline's reliance on loan signings, other people's cast offs and Jim Leishman in order to stay up finally let them down - they're relegated from the SPL and the chances of them coming back up are about the same as that of Sven becoming England manager again

Hearts find that a coaching triumvirate of a Russian, a Bulgarian and an Englishman is not the best way forward, especially when their owner forces them to play a Lithuanian goalkeeper who not so much has butterfingers as vaseline hands

Gretna discover the top division a bit of a step up for their Dad's Army-esque players, though somehow Brooks Mileson's heart is still going at it despite the stress that watching their defence causes

The national team get arguably the best result in their history by beating the French in Paris, then beat Ukraine as well - but still fail to make it to Euro 2008, and then manage to end the year without a coach

IN ENGLAND
Chelsea chuck Mourinho, and replace with an unknown Israeli, who doesn't do too badly, to be fair

Manchester United win the title with beautiful, beautiful football - and so Arsenal respond by trying to win the title with even more beautiful, beautiful football, and do it without Thierry Henry

Liverpool fork out squillions for a decent striker - but Rafa Benitez still insists on rotating him

Newcastle have another manager...again...and he's soon under pressure due to his failure to win the Premiership in a Kevin Keegan-like manner...again

Spurs spend squillions on a crap striker (Darren Bent) and finally sack Martin Jol after it was clear for months they were drawing his P45 up

Sunderland win promotion, then Roy Keane's bubble bursts when he wastes millions on Kieran Richardson and Michael Chopra and they concede seven at Everton

Sven is pilloried on his return to England with Man City - until they win nine home games in a row and it turns out Elano and Petrov are f****** amazing

Leeds United get relegated to League One and start with a fifteen point deduction to boot. Obviously the rest of the football world is sympathetic towards their plight...

The national team somehow fail to make Euro 2008, and Steve McClaren is forever remembered as "the wally with a brolly" after a nightmare defeat at home to Croatia

THE REST OF THE WORLD
Real Madrid win La Liga by being the least bad team, then look to win it again by actually being good

Ronaldinho develops a body habitus more suited to the sport of Darts

Lionel Messi becomes amazing

Kaka' becomes even more amazing, though

Milan win the Champions' League and the World Club Championship, but are guff when they actually play an Italian opponent

Argentina play scintillating Copa America football...and then get twatted by a more defensive minded Brazil in the final

Just about all the big European teams qualify for Euro 2008...except Scotland, of course. Oh, and some other team that has escaped my mind...


As for what will happen in 2008 - if I can fit in another blog entry before the bells then maybe we can discuss that.

L.