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I
recently read a column on ESPN where
the writer took a number of situations
in the NBA and discussed what road the
league might have gone down if Y had
happened instead of X. And because I
can’t think of any better ideas,
I’m basically stealing the idea and
turning it into a Top Ten Falkirk What
Ifs?…
10.
What if Lambie hadn’t been appointed
manager?
There’s virtually no way that his
reign could have been worse. Not only
were the results shocking with some
terrible football thrown in, but he
also made some awful dealings in the
transfer market… and three years
later we were in administration. If
the Lambie era was a piece of my
university coursework, it would
probably have received a No Grade mark
and resulted in me getting kicked off
my course.
In saying that, we were punching far
above our weight in Jefferies’ last
season. Even if Lambie had just kept
us up it would have been the first
time since reconstruction that we
would have spent more than two seasons
straight in the top flight. I doubt
anyone could have done a worse job but
I’m also not convinced there were
many alternatives that would have
taken us on a level.
Four or five years ago I would have
had this in the top three What Ifs…
now it’s number ten. I have a
feeling if I’d actually had to
witness that season in person it would
be a lot higher.
9. What if Alex Ferguson hadn’t fallen out with the
board of directors when he was
player/coach?
After leaving us he had a brief stint
at East Stirling, before completely
transforming St. Mirren and winning
the First Division with a team that
had an average age of nineteen -
nineteen! He then got sacked, ended up
at Aberdeen and, as they say, the rest
is history.
So let’s assume he stays with us. He
possibly takes over when Prentice
leaves and assuming he’s a success
there’s virtually no chance he would
have gone to St Mirren at that time.
He might still have ended up at
Aberdeen in 1978 as a replacement for
Billy McNeill (who had gone to Celtic)
but say he had us in the top five of
the Premier Division at the time, the
board gave him some financial backing
and he ended up knocking back Aberdeen
(and that scenario assumes they
didn’t approach him because he was
out of a job at that time. Maybe he
doesn’t get the chance to say no to
them at all). Imagine him at Falkirk
in the early eighties.
This would have been higher but for
two reasons. Firstly, there is a hell
of a lot of assumptions in there and I
have no idea of the football climate
in the late seventies and early
eighties. Secondly, for my generation
this probably doesn’t make that much
difference as any success he might
have had would probably have been
diluted by the nineties. But for my
Dad’s era, who knows.
8.
What if Hitler hadn’t invaded
Poland?
We were second in the league on the 1st
of September 1939. We’ve not been
close to winning it since.
(Perhaps not
one of the worst consequences of that
particular act of aggression mind).
7.
What if Hearts don’t get those two
late goals in the Cup semi in 1998?
Probably doesn’t make much
difference in the long run as
there’s a good chance we would have
lost the replay (considering we
couldn’t beat them with Crunchie’s
superhuman effort) but…
Urgh, I’m only just getting over
that! I genuinely wonder if I’d now
be a happier, more optimistic person
by around 10-20% if those five minutes
hadn’t transpired the way they did.
6.
What if we’d been allowed to
groundshare at New Broomfield?
I still don’t know if we should have
been allowed up that year but quite
frankly I don’t care. I will never,
ever, EVER understand how Motherwell
were allowed to vote on our
application. Combined with Dundee
United and Livingston stating they
weren’t going to vote in our favour
BEFORE we’d given any proposals,
that’s one of the biggest scandals
in Scottish football history.
In saying that, has it all worked out
for the best? If we get allowed up
then the 10,000 seater rule probably
doesn’t get changed as soon. Could
Hughes have kept us up in his first
full season as manager? Even if he
had, the season after that was the one
where four teams were in the
relegation battle and Dundee ended up
going down with thirty-three points.
You fancy our chances in that year,
probably groundsharing again, a lack
of funds trying to get Westfield up to
requirements, and Yogi still learning
as he goes along? Err, no… neither
do I.
Taking into account the recent history
of relegated teams not coming close to
winning the First Division, we’re
probably still stuck there.
5.
What if Airdrie hadn’t gone bust?
At the time I always thought Raith
could have chanced their arm and said,
“Well, if we’d known it was only
going to be one team relegated that
year then we might have tried harder
to finish ninth. Let’s have a
playoff!!!” Anyway, they didn’t…
Would we have come straight back up or
languished in the Second? I mean, look
at Ayr United now. You forget how
relatively successful they were around
that time.
4.
What if Jefferies had persisted with
Yogi as a striker?
Chances are he doesn’t succeed,
doesn’t become a legend first time
round, gets shipped out, never comes
back under McCall, and doesn’t
become our manager.
Does Coyle get the job? Would he have
done any better? Means we probably
never get Latapy.
Hughes not becoming a starting centre
back in the early nineties changes
everything. It’s like 2015 Biff
taking the Sports Almanac back to 1955
Biff in Back To The Future II.
3.
What if the ground requirements
didn’t get reduced to 6,000 seats?
Yikes. It’s probably not that far
fetched as well.
It could have gone two ways for us. We
could have ground-shared if we wanted
in the SPL (for at least a season, but
probably more) or alternatively we
would have had to put up four stands
incredibly quickly when we wouldn’t
have needed them and which would have
put us in a heap of debt. Either way,
neither sounds particularly appealing.
2.
What if the Taylor Report hadn’t
recommended all-seater stadiums?
Would we still be at Brockville? Quite
possibly. It would have needed to have
been upgraded but there wouldn’t
really have been any need to move.
Imagine still being at Brockville.
Sigh.
1.
What if Neil Oliver’s ‘goal’
hadn’t been disallowed?
Enough said.
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