Bitter Smith departs with no dignity
Rather than soak up the acclaim for winning a third championship with his expensively assembled squad led by the £8m strike force of Nikica Jelavic and Kyle Lafferty Smith has continued his attacks on Celtic.
Despite public acknowledgement of a referee lying to Neil Lennon and the eventual retirement of Dougie Dougie McDonald the outgoing Rangers boss dumps all the problems of the season at Celtic’s door.
“The season got off to a bad start, in that respect, when Celtic put up a challenge to referees and to everybody else,” Smith claimed without giving any details. “That got the season off to a bad start and it went downhill after that.
“From my own point of view, I hope everybody would realise that people who work in Scottish football – referees included – are always under terrific scrutiny.
“It was an unfair circumstance they were placed in this season and I just hope that now everybody gets on with it.”
Perhaps the ‘everyone else’ that Smith was referring to was the Referees Committee who hit Neil Lennon with a six match touchline ban for his first offence.
Lennon’s appeal got the punishment reduced to four games with an independent SFA review headed by Lord Carloway describing the interfering presence of SFA President George Peat at the hearing as contrary to the principles of fair play.
Smith may have forgotten Ally McCoist successfully appealing a two match touchline ban after his assistant attempted to get at Lennon in the Celtic dug out during a Scottish Cup replay.
The exiting Rangers boss continued: “I would hope Celtic realise that, if their team is good enough, then they will win.
“If they’re not good enough, they’ll not win – and they can’t look at anybody else, whether it’s referees or any other influence. I don’t say that in a smug way.
“I just felt that it set the tone for what has been a poor season for our country, in terms of publicity overall.”
Being a fair minded man it can be assumed that Smith’s views on Celtic not being good enough would apply to Rangers and their efforts in the Champions League.
With UEFA match officials beyond criticism Smith won one of his last twelve Champions League matches- at home to Turkish side Bursanspor.
Over two spells as Rangers manager Smith won 6 of his 36 Champions League matches, the same number as Gordon Strachan and less than Martin O’Neill.
The win over Bursanspor was the only one that the former Rangers boss enjoyed in his last 21 European matches stretching back over three years.
As Smith said: “If they’re not good enough, they’ll not win – and they can’t look at anybody else.”
Despite being acclaimed as Rangers greatest ever manager by outgoing chairman Al Johnston the Ibrox club have refused to offer Smith a seat on the directors board.
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