Davie Weir interview - The Scotsman !

[BLUEDIGNITY 33,682]

http://sport.scotsman.com/sport/David-Weir...nder.4910950.jp

David Weir interview: Veteran defender talks tough

By Tom English

SOME THINGS in football are hard to credit. You want an example? OK, how's this; you remember the first half of last season, right? Rangers led the way in the SPL. At the turn of the year they were ahead of Celtic on points and no wonder because their team had firm defensive foundations.

They had Carlos Cuellar calling the shots at the heart of things. They had David Weir playing with authority alongside him. And, of course, they had Alan Hutton at full-back. Alan Hutton who had wowed Scotland with his performances in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. Alan Hutton who managed to stand out in games against the two nations that fought out the World Cup final the summer before and who was at that verymoment the subject of frantic financial discussion in the boardroom at White Hart Lane. Impressive or what?

Of course, two of them have gone from Ibrox now; Hutton for £9m and Cuellar for £7.8m. Now, what would you say if we told you that the creaky old Rangers back four that we've seen this season, the one that couldn't defend crosses until recently, the one that has given away an amount of cheap goals, has conceded just one more goal in 22 league matches than Cuellar's and Hutton's version? Hard to credit, what with all the recent discussion about the vulnerability of Kirk Broadfoot and chums. But it's true.

It's a little food for thought. And here's some more, courtesy of Weir, a discerning voice worth listening to. He's not one for phone-ins or fans' websites but he stays in touch with the feelings on the ground, reads newspapers, watches the bulletins, keeps abreast of what's going down. L'Affaire Boydy? The supposed fire sale at Ibrox? The Rangers Supporters Trust and their 17-point plan? Weir knows the score.

"I'll tell you what I think about that," he says of the RST. "The people who wrote these 17 points, good luck to them, but they're saying there's no youngsters coming through from Murray Park and they're completely wrong. If these lads are so interested, if they're such big fans, then why haven't they been watching the U-19s or the reserves because John Fleck isn't the only one with a real chance, there are four or five other kids who will be round about the first team in the next year or two.

"Some of the better ones come along and train with us so I see them. I see them playing, I see them training, I see them in the gym, in the restaurant, I get to know them, learn what they're all about, I get a sense if they can make it or not. What these fans are saying doesn't make sense. I can't give credence to any of the other points they make because I know that one about Murray Park is wrong. And it's a big thing to get wrong. The people who are coming out with this stuff are not doing their homework if they don't know what young guys are coming through. We see these lads every day. To say Murray Park is not producing players is just a nonsense."

Maybe he would say that no matter what, but you have to value his perspective for Weir's been in the game longer than any of them. You get a small reminder of that when he starts talking about this week's Co-operative Insurance Cup semi-final tussle with Falkirk at Hampden. John Hughes and himself were teammates back in the distant past. Got relegated together, promoted together, won the B&Q Cup together and thought they'd died and gone to heaven.

Good days and bad. He's seen them all. Saw them at Everton, too. Saw Everton plunged into an almighty mess that had him fearing at various stages of his Goodison Park years that a Leeds was going to befall the club sooner or later. He credits the steady hand of Walter Smith, his manager then as now, for making sure that doomsday never arrived. But it was a hell of a struggle. Olivier Dacourt had to be sold (£6.5m), so did Marco Materazzi (£3m), Ibrahim Bakayoko (£3m), Nick Barmby (£6m), Francis Jeffers (£8m), Michael Ball (£6.5m), Don Hutchison (£2m), John Collins (£2m), Richard Dunne (£3m). He counted them in and he counted them out again.

The departures never affected morale, he says. Had it done so the club would have sank and God knows where Everton would be now. Weir says every player at Everton had a choice to make through those times and it was this: do I mope or do I focus? Most of them came up with the right answer. And what of the Rangers players? Are they having to ask themselves a similar question?

"The situations are totally different," he says. "Walter made the point in the papers that we lost an entire team at Everton because of money problems but we're only talking about losing one player here. It's not the same at all. There's good times and bad times in football and as soon as it's bad times there seems to be a group, and I think it's a small group, going 'sack the manager, sack the board'. This game changes so quickly, though.

"From Monday to Friday nothing that has happened with Boydy, or whoever, has had any impact on us as players. Every footballer has had a taste of this at some stage of their career but, I'm telling you straight, at the end of the week if your wages are in the bank and you've got three points on the Saturday then you're loving your job. There's really not a lot to complain about. We don't have too much to be moaning about. We might have to sell a player but it's not the end of the world in the big scheme of things, is it? When you see what's happening out there; companies going to the wall, people losing their jobs, struggling to pay the mortgage, worrying about repossession. So there has to be a small readjustment at our football club. I don't want to play it down, but that's life."

What his teammates notice, he says, is the changing atmosphere at Ibrox. The reaction of the crowd is something they can't miss and something they talk about. "You can sense within the supporters at the moment they're... how do I describe it... they're ready to jump on a mistake, they're fearing the worst. That's what affects you. Among the fans there's a bit of fear and uncertainty and negativity and I can understand that.

"But look at how fast things turn. We win on Saturday, Celtic lose on Sunday and we're only two points down and we have John (Fleck] in the team, a 17-year-old who looks an absolutely fantastic prospect. One day you're in crisis and the next day the crisis seems much less than it was and maybe a few people are thinking 'well, did we make too much of that?'"

In fairness, though, it was Boyd who averted embarrassment last Saturday with his two goals against Falkirk, the same Boyd the club seem extremely keen to sell. Some fans argue that the league could be lost if he goes and it's a point of view that Weir acknowledges even if he doesn't agree with it.

"You could argue that if his goals go then our title hopes go with him. You could make that point, no doubt about it. And you could also argue that we have five or six strikers and somebody else will get an opportunity. I mean, is your glass half empty or half full? But either way, it's not our issue. We're footballers and our world is very simple. If we win a game, everything is rosy. Don't win and there's trouble.

"If you give yourself an excuse to fail, then you'll probably fail. But we can have no excuses. Our job is to get ourselves mentally right every week regardless of what's happening behind the scenes. We have to get our priorities straight, we have to know what we can control and what we can't and the rest, really, is irrelevant."

Tuesday night at Hampden is the next test of the Rangers resolve. Good ol' Yogi is so full of fire and brimstone after the supposed wrongs of Ibrox a week ago that he'll be plotting into the night. Weir is expecting a battle but he can handle that. The football is what he'll think about. The stuff around the periphery, the things he cannot influence, he'll leave to others.

[TannochsideBear 355]

Any chance of someone cut/paste the article as I refuce to give these bassas the hit!!

[Guest therabbitt]

SOME THINGS in football are hard to credit. You want an example? OK, how's this; you remember the first half of last season, right? Rangers led the way in the SPL. At the turn of the year they were ahead of Celtic on points and no wonder because their team had firm defensive foundations.

They had Carlos Cuellar calling the shots at the heart of things. They had David Weir playing with authority alongside him. And, of course, they had Alan Hutton at full-back. Alan Hutton who had wowed Scotland with his performances in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. Alan Hutton who managed to stand out in games against the two nations that fought out the World Cup final the summer before and who was at that verymoment the subject of frantic financial discussion in the boardroom at White Hart Lane. Impressive or what?

Of course, two of them have gone from Ibrox now; Hutton for £9m and Cuellar for £7.8m. Now, what would you say if we told you that the creaky old Rangers back four that we've seen this season, the one that couldn't defend crosses until recently, the one that has given away an amount of cheap goals, has conceded just one more goal in 22 league matches than Cuellar's and Hutton's version? Hard to credit, what with all the recent discussion about the vulnerability of Kirk Broadfoot and chums. But it's true.

It's a little food for thought. And here's some more, courtesy of Weir, a discerning voice worth listening to. He's not one for phone-ins or fans' websites but he stays in touch with the feelings on the ground, reads newspapers, watches the bulletins, keeps abreast of what's going down. L'Affaire Boydy? The supposed fire sale at Ibrox? The Rangers Supporters Trust and their 17-point plan? Weir knows the score.

"I'll tell you what I think about that," he says of the RST. "The people who wrote these 17 points, good luck to them, but they're saying there's no youngsters coming through from Murray Park and they're completely wrong. If these lads are so interested, if they're such big fans, then why haven't they been watching the U-19s or the reserves because John Fleck isn't the only one with a real chance, there are four or five other kids who will be round about the first team in the next year or two.

"Some of the better ones come along and train with us so I see them. I see them playing, I see them training, I see them in the gym, in the restaurant, I get to know them, learn what they're all about, I get a sense if they can make it or not. What these fans are saying doesn't make sense. I can't give credence to any of the other points they make because I know that one about Murray Park is wrong. And it's a big thing to get wrong. The people who are coming out with this stuff are not doing their homework if they don't know what young guys are coming through. We see these lads every day. To say Murray Park is not producing players is just a nonsense."

Maybe he would say that no matter what, but you have to value his perspective for Weir's been in the game longer than any of them. You get a small reminder of that when he starts talking about this week's Co-operative Insurance Cup semi-final tussle with Falkirk at Hampden. John Hughes and himself were teammates back in the distant past. Got relegated together, promoted together, won the B&Q Cup together and thought they'd died and gone to heaven.

Good days and bad. He's seen them all. Saw them at Everton, too. Saw Everton plunged into an almighty mess that had him fearing at various stages of his Goodison Park years that a Leeds was going to befall the club sooner or later. He credits the steady hand of Walter Smith, his manager then as now, for making sure that doomsday never arrived. But it was a hell of a struggle. Olivier Dacourt had to be sold (£6.5m), so did Marco Materazzi (£3m), Ibrahim Bakayoko (£3m), Nick Barmby (£6m), Francis Jeffers (£8m), Michael Ball (£6.5m), Don Hutchison (£2m), John Collins (£2m), Richard Dunne (£3m). He counted them in and he counted them out again.

The departures never affected morale, he says. Had it done so the club would have sank and God knows where Everton would be now. Weir says every player at Everton had a choice to make through those times and it was this: do I mope or do I focus? Most of them came up with the right answer. And what of the Rangers players? Are they having to ask themselves a similar question?

"The situations are totally different," he says. "Walter made the point in the papers that we lost an entire team at Everton because of money problems but we're only talking about losing one player here. It's not the same at all. There's good times and bad times in football and as soon as it's bad times there seems to be a group, and I think it's a small group, going 'sack the manager, sack the board'. This game changes so quickly, though.

"From Monday to Friday nothing that has happened with Boydy, or whoever, has had any impact on us as players. Every footballer has had a taste of this at some stage of their career but, I'm telling you straight, at the end of the week if your wages are in the bank and you've got three points on the Saturday then you're loving your job. There's really not a lot to complain about. We don't have too much to be moaning about. We might have to sell a player but it's not the end of the world in the big scheme of things, is it? When you see what's happening out there; companies going to the wall, people losing their jobs, struggling to pay the mortgage, worrying about repossession. So there has to be a small readjustment at our football club. I don't want to play it down, but that's life."

What his teammates notice, he says, is the changing atmosphere at Ibrox. The reaction of the crowd is something they can't miss and something they talk about. "You can sense within the supporters at the moment they're... how do I describe it... they're ready to jump on a mistake, they're fearing the worst. That's what affects you. Among the fans there's a bit of fear and uncertainty and negativity and I can understand that.

"But look at how fast things turn. We win on Saturday, Celtic lose on Sunday and we're only two points down and we have John (Fleck] in the team, a 17-year-old who looks an absolutely fantastic prospect. One day you're in crisis and the next day the crisis seems much less than it was and maybe a few people are thinking 'well, did we make too much of that?'"

In fairness, though, it was Boyd who averted embarrassment last Saturday with his two goals against Falkirk, the same Boyd the club seem extremely keen to sell. Some fans argue that the league could be lost if he goes and it's a point of view that Weir acknowledges even if he doesn't agree with it.

"You could argue that if his goals go then our title hopes go with him. You could make that point, no doubt about it. And you could also argue that we have five or six strikers and somebody else will get an opportunity. I mean, is your glass half empty or half full? But either way, it's not our issue. We're footballers and our world is very simple. If we win a game, everything is rosy. Don't win and there's trouble.

"If you give yourself an excuse to fail, then you'll probably fail. But we can have no excuses. Our job is to get ourselves mentally right every week regardless of what's happening behind the scenes. We have to get our priorities straight, we have to know what we can control and what we can't and the rest, really, is irrelevant."

Tuesday night at Hampden is the next test of the Rangers resolve. Good ol' Yogi is so full of fire and brimstone after the supposed wrongs of Ibrox a week ago that he'll be plotting into the night. Weir is expecting a battle but he can handle that. The football is what he'll think about. The stuff around the periphery, the things he cannot influence, he'll leave to others.

Dont say I aint good to ye....

[CanadianBacon 2,088]

"The stuff around the periphery, the things he cannot influence, he'll leave to others."

So, er..........why did he mention the RST bit in his article?

Make your mind up Davie......get involved and comment, or leave it to others.

[TannochsideBear 355]

Thanks for posting the article.

You have to laugh that he discredits 16 points because he has a personal opinion that one of the points is wrong. A point that he is entitled to, but the proof for fans is how many Auchhowie-reared players play in the first team regularly.

Yesterday we had Mcgregor and Fleck. Fleck has now started 2 games for us and had not played at the time of the "We deserve better" campaign being launched. I dont include Ferguson as he cost us £3.5M to buy back from Blackburn. That leaves us one player to have come through the ranks and playing regularly. So who is wrong in their assessment, Davie? The proof is not in how many under-19's look like good players or eat well. Can they force their way into the team or not?

Sadly, this is another example of a current player, not exactly playing at the peak of his form, going into print with a negative slant on his ultimate paymasters. Aided and abetted by a well known Rangers hater to boot and in a rag that has plenty of previous as well.

Weir, like so many of his colleagues, should really stick to talking on the park, concentrating on the job in hand, and tell us all where we got it so wrong when they have delivered the title, and only then.

[Gaffbear 4,099]

I can see where Davie is coming from but all these supposedly superb youngsters and we play 1 out of position while wastes of fresh air like McCulloch and Miller get starts in our most important game in ages.

Drops the SPL's top scorer

Ferguson walks straight into the side and stays there yet has been very poor in every game so far.

Broadfoot still at right back

Those are glaring mistakes on Walters part and should be addressed,not by the forced inclusion of Fleck(who will end up being a fall guy should we lose next saturday) but by playing width,flare and pace while dropping slow cumbersome accidents like Ferguson and Broadfoot and never letting diddy's like McCulloch near the team.

[Guest Andypendek]

This in particular irked me enormously:

If these lads are so interested, if they're such big fans

Ah, Davie has spotted it! They're not really Rangers fans at all, these moany dimwits! Probably they're really tims in disguise, looking to sow discord amongst the fanbase. What an ignorant comment! What arrogance! For a player who has some 2 years playing time under his belt as a Rangers player to publicly question the motives or allegiance of fans with, I should hazard a guess, a lifetime of support behind them; a lifetime of financial and emotional committment; a lifetime of highs, lows, ecstasy and frustrations is bizarre, outrageous; he has no right, no right whatsoever.

I should point out here that I disagree 100% with the 17 point statement and don't support it in any way shape or form. I don't doubt, though, what team David Edgar supports, or that he wants to see a successful Rangers team.

I hope Davie Weir reads things like this, and if so I'd like to say to him: the hierarchy, the management and now you are pissing off a huge amount of people with this constant criticism. Fair enough disagree, fair enough put your case but try to remember that your words carry weight and be just a little careful with the things you say. When you leave the club, say what you like! Ought to be soon, I imagine. But given that most if not all the people behind the 17 points will be contributing to your wages, a little respect in return would not be amiss. Or don't you care about that?

We know there's no bond between fan and player any more. We know you guys will move when the chance arises, and I blame no-one for making the most of their career. But if you could keep your contempt under your hat while we're paying your wages, it'd be appreciated.

[BritishBear 34]

His opinion matters fuck all, he is only here for a final pay day, another 5 months and he won't matter.

[1690 Posts 71]

The RST's point was shyte though. We've stuck around 10 players out on trial to see if they can cope with a higher level and to get them ready for first team football. Planning for the future in action.

[reddrock 107]

Dont tell us nuthin we already thought or knew or in some cases thought we knew

[Jeff crap in the head 120]

His opinion matters fuck all, he is only here for a final pay day, another 5 months and he won't matter.

[papaguy51 912]

His opinion matters fuck all, he is only here for a final pay day, another 5 months and he won't matter.

He would have left after his first six months if he just wanted a pay day.

He's worked his old arse off to stay fit for us and he's still arguably our best defender, if not physically then certainly mentally.

No complaints from me