Every local has an Alan Brazil.
Propped up at the end of the bar, bloated with booze, bloated with self-importance. Spouting ‘facts’ with the absolute authority of a white, straight, middle-aged man and all the privilege that brings. Good luck to him.
In a brutal business where talent offers no inoculation to a redundancy scythe, it is some gig Brazil has managed to spin out.
So chin, chin, Alan and all the best. Let’s raise a glass to a couple of bottles of Merlot at lunch, the blokey bantz and two fingers up to the woke brigade.
Yet, however obnoxious and boorish Brazil’s Life on Mars chat sounds to a modern ear – and my word it does, it really does – it undeniably chimes with a certain demographic.
The Joey Bartons of this world, the Brazils of this world can be found in every bar and every workplace and every playground up and down the country. As any woman who drifts away from a cultural norm will attest.
They are entirely entitled to their opinions, regardless of the casual arrogance with which they are shared, solicited and otherwise.
This week’s remarks on TalkSport as Brazil confidently told the nation what they cared about – spoiler alert, it’s not women’s football – were as predictable as day following night.
Fair play to Shebahn Aherne who did her best to interject. ‘Listen, your language, that’s important…’ she chided as she offered a reminder of Brazil’s granddaughter who plays football as he brayed insistently that ‘no-one is interested in Manchester United’s women’s team.’
How the argument came about was overlooked; Aherne had simply started off by reading out a statement from Manchester United which laid out the club objectives. So whether or not anyone is interested is an irrelevance; the club has a strategy which involves their women’s team and the ambitions for it.
But however exhausting Brazil’s chat is as women’s football continues its fight to exist, there is something to be said for the upfront nature of his comments. As unpalatable as his pantomime remarks will be to those who are invested in the women’s game, there is nothing ambiguous about them.
This week Celtic manager Elena Sadiku spoke about the fact she failed to get a centre-half in before the closure of the window having lost Caitlin Hayes, the club’s postergirl to Brighton.
What she didn’t say was as notable as what she did.
As Sadiku suggested that Scotland felt like it was in danger of being left behind compared to the advances being made around the rest of Europe, she very pointedly reflected on her time at Hammarby where the women’s side and men’s side came under the same club umbrella with financial resources shared.
Celtic went into the Champions League this season, the last 16 of elite European competition with a captain who still works as an accountant and who needed to request holiday time for the away trips and a vice-captain whose time is split between Police Scotland and the club.
As of now, there is no women’s team in the country who have a place of their own. Glasgow City come closest but their facility at Petershill is rented from Partick Thistle’s Community Trust.
Celtic moved mid-season to New Douglas Park from Airdrie with the surface at the former believed to be considered worse than the previous plastic pitch by those who are playing on it every other week. Rangers lease Broadwood from Clyde for their games.
Brazil’s attitude towards women’s football is, as Aherne said, dinosaurian. But the optics around some of the SWPL clubs suggest their existence owes more to a box-ticking exercise rather than an authentic wish to develop and invest.
AND ANOTHER THING
There won’t be too many people who know Mick McArdle’s name.
Currently in place at Hampden as the head coach of the women’s national team in an interim basis following the departure of Pedro Martinez Losa, McArdle has a CV that ought to make him a genuine contender for the job.
Having overseen the growth of the women’s elite pathway from under-17 to under-23 levels, McArdle is a safe pair of hands ahead of this month’s Nations League games against Austria and the Netherlands.
His first task was to name a squad for the double header with the omissions as notable as those he called up. Nicola Docherty was left out of the squad and while Rachel Corsie’s absence can be attributed to injury, it will be interesting to see what may come next in an international sense for the current captain.
McArdle will know himself that getting his hands on this team on a permanent basis will depend on how compelling an audition it is across these next two games.
AND FINALLY
A duck at Petershill Park. On a leash. With ‘shoes’. And Celtic paraphernalia attached.
Frosty caused quite the commotion this week as he/she/it turned up to last weekend’s Scottish Cup tie as Glasgow City dismissed Celtic from the competition.
In a season in which a peeing pup already caused quite a stir, one could suggest it makes the women’s game look a little quackers to have such nonsense going on.
