Barry Ferguson has rewritten history with a whine- looking back to the specially extended 2007/08 season.
Seven years down the line it seems that the former Rangers (IL) skipper has forgotten how the season was extended by four days to finish on a Thursday night to suit the purposes of a club that had enjoyed a mini break in December.
Once a few cup replays and a waterlogged pitch at Ibrox kicked in that break came back to haunt Walter Smith’s side as they lost the SPL title to Celtic by three points.
While Ferguson wrongly claims there was no extension to the season he probably forgets how other clubs in other seasons lost out on trophies such as Dundee United in 1987 and Celtic in 2003.
Both clubs lost in European finals without the luxury of being able to attract players on tax free Employee Benefit Trusts- Ferguson and most of the Manchester Legends enjoyed EBT payments.
Rangers did have a number of games to catch up on towards the end of the season but if they hadn’t have postponed a game with Gretna in December, or, if Ibrox hadn’t been waterlogged for a Scottish Cup tie with East Stirling a month later their end of season schedule would have been much lighter.
While Celtic finished the season with an eight match winning run December had proved costly as the effect of bringing Scotland glory in the Champions League effected domestic results.
During that month Celtic played on December 1, 4, 8, 11, 16 and 22 dropping nine points to Inverness Caley Thistle, Hearts, St Mirren and Hibs while reaching the last 16 of the Champions League despite playing Shakhtar Donetsk and AC Milan in a seven day spell.
In contrast over at Ibrox Smith’s side were in action on December 1, 12, 15, 23, dropping just two points despite losing 3-0 to Lyon at Ibrox to miss out on a place in the last 16 of the Champions League
With sporting integrity topical again this week Ferguson told the Daily Record: “I’ve had a check just to get my facts right and the mind boggles.
“We played games on May 4, 7, 10, 14, 17, 19, 22 and 24. Yet the SPL wouldn’t extend the season by a few days. Where’s the sporting integrity in that?
“We were representing Scotland on the European stage. What a boost to the image of the Scottish game it would have been if Rangers had delivered a trophy of that magnitude.
“I know Zenit were given a week off to prepare for the match but we had to play United and, although we won that game, it was impossible to win them all.
“We drew with Motherwell after the downer of losing in Manchester and, despite beating St Mirren away two days after going to Fir Park, we lost 2-0 at Pittodrie three nights later while Celtic’s win at Tannadice the same night gave them the title.
“I genuinely think if we hadn’t been forced to play that number of games in such a short space of time, we would have won the league that season.”
While Ferguson revisits Memory Lane he may wonder why Rangers played St Mirren in their second last match of the season. While the Paisley side had played Celtic three times fighting for a place in the top six by the time they hosted Rangers they were safe from relegation with most of their players already in holiday mood despite their season being extended by two days.
When Rangers reached Pittodrie for their final match Jimmy Calderwood’s side had gone 12 days without a fixture while their opponents arrived match sharp.
And despite an 11 day wait, to accommodate a club that had postponed a game against Gretna to enjoy a mid season break before facing Lyon, Celtic were able to win 1-0 against Dundee United to take the title two days after the funeral of Tommy Burns.
