The brittle façade of elite football has cracked, offering a glimpse of a business that is fuelled by financial excess and unburdened by any need to conform to agreed rules.
The case, or rather the 115 cases, of Manchester City may be seen as a stark example of this truism but whatever the final verdict on the club there is enough evidence that professional football has taken steps into a land where a level playing field is regarded as a principle only held by misty-eyed romantics. The contortions of FIFA at the World Cup were an embarrassment to the greatest game in the world.
It is thus refreshing to go beneath this monument to greed and unfair play to find that there is much to cherish in the old ball game.
They do not dig for coal in Ayrshire any longer but far below the surface of huge television deals, suspensions waived after political pressure and matches fractured to allow spurious water breaks there is the motherlode of football.
Its traits are obvious. They can be seen as one pulls off Coal Road in Auchinleck and is confronted by Beechwood Park. There stands a testimony to hard work, communal pride and sporting success.
‘Four of us built this stand,’ says Jim McAuley, 66. ‘There’s only two of us left.’ He is sitting on a stool and takes the 50p that grants one the switch from the terrace to grandstand. ‘I think we finally completed this about 20 years ago but we built that and that over there.’ His finger points to the main clubhouse and then to the enclosure on the far side of the pitch.
Lewis Latona celebrates scoring the opener in Auchinleck Talbot’s 4-0 victory over Cumnock
Talbot legend Kenny Paterson says he is treated well by the locals because he is one of them
Talbot are the royalty of the Junior game but the club fully embrace the working-class values that achieved that status.
The honours list in the programme runs the length of the page. The most spectacular is the 15 Scottish Junior Cups lifted.
Their eternal rivals are Cumnock, from just a mile up the road. The warring clans met for the first time in the Lowland League West at the weekend. After a tight first half, Talbot regained their stride after faltering in recent matches and stretched away to a 4-0 victory. The clubs will resume hostilities on Friday in the first round of the Scottish Cup.
‘You hate them for 90 minutes but after that…’ McAuley shrugs. He knows the game means more than 90 minutes of mayhem. The Cumnock crew are, in truth, from the same vein as Talbot.
‘This was mining country,’ says George Ewing, 87. ‘I worked in the pits and I first came to Talbot as a wee boy. It was where we played during the week and frankly it was a dump.’
He is sitting in the splendid sponsors’ lounge of the clubhouse. He takes a sip of his rum and coke and whispers: ‘Don’t tell anyone but my dad was president of Cumnock and I had trials for them.’ His cheery laugh punctuates a conversation that takes in history and culture.
‘I was at our first Scottish final win in 1949,’ he says. ‘What a day. I remember it vividly. But football has always been important here down the years. I mean the area and not just Auchinleck, though it holds a special place in the village. The Barony was a big employer and the miners loved the game.’
The colliery once employed more than 1,000 workers. It closed in 1989.
‘I worked there but I left and spent a lot of my life in the carpet industry,’ says Ewing. ‘But the camaraderie of the pit is still here. What changes there have been. This clubhouse is beautiful and they have upgraded so many of the facilities but the welcome is unchanged.’
Under the framed shirts worn in winning Junior cup finals sit disparate groups of fans enjoying the craic without a single glance at the Scotland game on the TV.
Former miner George Ewing says the camaraderie of the pit is still to be found at Auchinleck
A committee man tells me: ‘See that table. There are 40 Scottish medals between them.’ He is referring to a gathering of Scottish Junior Cup winners. They have medals to show and tales to tell.
There is one recurring problem in interviewing Kenny Paterson outside the clubhouse. He is humble, intelligent and articulate. But everyone stops to greet him. He is a hero.
‘I am certainly treated that way,’ says the 63-year-old who won five Scottish winners’ medals.
To put that into context, no junior club other than Talbot has won more than five Scottish Junior Cups. Paterson and his mates won the same amount of Scottish Junior Cups as such historic clubs as Petershill and Cambuslang Rangers and one more than Linlithgow Rose.
‘I am greeted here the same way I was greeted in that final moment against Pollok,’ he says, referring to the day in 1986 at Hampden when Talbot won the cup. They then were to threepeat, winning against Kilbirnie Ladeside in 1987 and Petershill in 1988.
This feat had never been achieved up to then. It has been repeated since by Talbot.
‘The reason I am treated so well is not only because of the football but because I am one of them,’ he says. ‘I am staying in a socialist area, old pit country, my dad was a miner, I was brought up in Annbank, and I know exactly what all this means to people.
‘I was never here for money. I was here to help this community, to help this club get a bit of success, to put a smile on the face of people.
‘The pits are away and the population has halved here but this club is still very important.’
He does sound a cautionary note: ‘Money is ruining every level of football. It is in danger of ruining this level too.’
Tam MacDonald was one of those band of brothers. He amassed five winners’ medals in the Scottish too. Was it a highlight scoring the winning goal in a final?
‘What year?’ he asks with a smile. ‘I did it twice. I scored two against Pollok and the one against Petershill.’
MacDonald came to Talbot in 1985 and left in 2003 as he followed his playing career with a stint as manager. ‘I was a boy when I came here. I grew up here,’ he says.
‘I was a rabbit in the headlights when I first joined Glenafton from East Kilbride Thistle because I was not used to the passion and noise from the fans. But I soon bought into it. I fitted in at Talbot.’
After he left Talbot, he went on to manage at Shotts, Bellshill and other sides but his heart has always remained in Ayrshire. ‘I did all right here,’ he says with an industrial dose of understatement. ‘But more than that, this club is in my blood.’
He nods across to the stand, saying: ‘Our victories helped build that. There was passion, hunger and desire and that brought results. We wanted to win. That was it. Fair play to the committee here, they got more professional and more professional and more professional…and you can see what that has built.’
So why did the boy from East Kilbride remain at Talbot for so long?
‘I had offers to go to other clubs, of course. So did so many of the team but what is the point of leaving for an extra 100 quid and winning nothing? It is all about winning trophies and medals. I still have the medals and the memories and my jerseys are hanging in there in the clubhouse.’
He seems more than content with that. There is a value in the glory game that is not tarnished by a price tag.
