Former Rangers, Everton and Scotland manager – and sometime Sons player – Walter Smith has died.

It is fair to say his best days were with other clubs. He joined Sons from Dundee United in 1975 but in 1976 became one of the select few players ever to appear in a Sons jersey in a Scottish Cup semi-final. Arguably he and that squad appeared in two since the first game (against Hearts) ended in a 0-0 draw. We’ll draw a veil over the replay, though. 64 games for the Sons isn’t a meagre tally, though.

It was as a manager that he made the biggest impact on the football world. His Rangers teams won ten league titles in total, five Scottish Cups, six Scottish League Cups and reached the UEFA Cup final in 2008. He is also the only manager of the Scottish National side to win an international trophy (excluding British Isles only competitions,) the Kirin Cup in 2006.

Walter Ferguson Smith, 24/2/1948 – 26/10/2021. So it goes.

As I’ve been away I only caught up with the news of the demotion of East Stirlingshire from the SPFL late yesterday.

61 years in the SFL/SPFL gone in a flash. It’s sad for them but they’ve been living on fumes for seasons on end now. It was always most likely that it would be the Shire that would be the first to fall victim to the play-off system.

Congratulations, though, to Edinburgh City. The role of third (or fourth) largest football side in Edinburgh has been taken in the past by St Bernard’s (defunct since World War 2) and Leith Athletic (demised 1955, reconstituted 1996 and as a senior team in 2008.) As those statistics suggest, surviving in the shadow of Hearts and Hibs is not easy.

Then there is the case of Meadowbank Thistle (Ferranti Thistle as was) admitted to the Scottish Football League in 1974 but weren’t satisfied with the sizes of crowds they were attracting in the capital and decamped to Livingston in 1995.

Speaking of Hibs, I see they managed to muck things up again. Hibsing it indeed. Then again they’ll probably win the Cup Final now and so put to an end the longest running “will this be the year” saga in Scottish football.

Leicester City’s fairy tale first top level title made the news in The Netherlands – as elsewhere I suspect. There was a newspaper article there about the length of time previous winners of their country’s football championship had been waiting to win it again. Schalke 04 topped the list at well over 20,000 days with Tottenham Hotspur second (also over 20,000 days.) Liverpool were about eighth on the list. I can just about make out some Dutch but a list is no problem.

I also divined from a radio report on the way back up that Roberto Martinez had lost the Everton job, paying the price for not getting enough out of a talented group of players. (An alternative possibility is that those players aren’t quite as good as their reputations would have them.)

And then there was the Scottish Parliament election, where the SNP paid the price of winning too many constituency seats and Labour actually did come second in the percentage vote in that element but not in the regional lists. We had voted by post before we left.

So the longest serving manager in European football is to retire.

(This apparently will leave Ronnie McFall of Portadown as the holder of that accolade, at least according to The Belfast Telegraph. There is nothing so good for a newspaper as a local slant to news.)

SrAlec’s tenure at Manchester United has certainly been a fruitful one. He has amassed a haul of trophies unlikely ever to be matched.

But how much of a turning point will this be for the club, though? Especially as he will be hanging around behind the scenes.

When Matt Busby stepped down to be replaced by Wilf McGuiness things were never the same again, probably partly becasue Busby was still hovering in the background.

It is of course an honourable thing for the club not to discard its loyal employees when their main use has been superseded but there are dangers here. United went into a sharp decline (which arguably had already started under Busby) and were relegated to the second tier a few years later, from which they quickly bounced back up.

However, it took till Fergie arrived over 20 years later for the really good times to roll around once more.

It seems David Moyes is the favoured replacement. Good timing, with him being out of contract at Everton in a few weeks.

Moyes has done an incredible job at Everton with little in the way of resources by comparison with Man U. If he is offered and accepts the job he is probably a strong enough character not to feel overshadowed by Ferguson but what if results should fall off? Will he be given the same slack from fans and board that Ferguson has enjoyed when first Arsenal and then Chelsea and lately Manchester City threatened to become top dog in English football?

It most likely won’t happen but I wonder what odds you’d get on United being in the Championship in four or so years time?

Can anyone understand why Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas would want to sign for Barcelona?

OK they were his boyhood team, but Everton were Wayne Rooney’s and he soon enough shook their dust off his feet.

Then again Everton were unlikely to win anything (in the short term) and I suppose Arsenal don’t look like doing that either. They certainly won’t if Fabregas leaves – and Nasri along with him. Barcelona regularly win competitions; for the moment.

But Rooney was a certainty to play for Manchester United – still is (if he can bring himself to do what his manager tells him, anyway.)

That would be far from the case if Fabregas returned to the Camp Nou.

Consider. He is a midfielder: and he wants to join the club with the best midfield in the world? To get a game he would have to supplant either of Xavi Hernandez or Andrés Iniesta both of whom are at the top of their game and unlikely to retire any time soon. The lure of playing alongside these luminaries – not to mention Lionel Messi – is of course strong and he would be returning to a club and a culture with which he grew up and is familiar. But he would be a small fish in a big pond, used most often as a substitute (if at all) whereas at Arsenal he is the main man, the team’s fulcrum, and much respected.

Be careful what you wish for, Cesc. The grass may not be greener back home.