McLeish makes peace after row with Vogts

The Rangers manager, Alex McLeish, has made his peace with Scotland's Berti Vogts after the summit meeting between Scottish Premier League managers and the German coach of the national side.

McLeish was unhappy with Vogts' criticism of the Ibrox captain, Barry Ferguson, after the 1-0 defeat by Denmark last week. But the pair appear to have resolved any differences after a "positive" meeting at the start of the week and McLeish is eager to help Vogts pull the national team through a disappointing set of results.

McLeish said: "It was a chance for Berti Vogts and Rainer Bonhof to speak to other Premier League managers and he's looking for help. We will be as accommodating as we possibly can without making it difficult for our own teams.

"It was a positive meeting," he added. "It wasn't a sit on the fence job and there were a lot of standpoints that needed to be addressed. We all want a successful Scotland and hopefully we can have that in the future.

"But there are a few good youngsters coming through the ranks who are not quite ready yet – as we've seen in recent experiments by Berti – but they have tremendous promise for the future.

"If we can get a crop of talented youngsters at one period in time then we could see success in Scotland."

On the domestic front, the Partick Thistle chairman, Brown McMaster, has revealed a £1m profit for the club and claimed other teams could do the same if they were not so naïve. The Jags were on the verge of bankruptcy just five years ago and losing close on £10,000 per week. But, after consolidation both on and off the pitch, the club have turned the tide.

However, McMaster insists the Scottish Premier League newcomers will not be throwing money at the chance of staying in the top flight.

McMaster said: "You have people like John Boyle [the Motherwell chairman] following a route which was always going to end in tears.

"The idea that he'd get people away from Celtic and Rangers if he put a good team together at Motherwell is just naïve. We are desperate to stay in this division but we're not going to lose £1m just to achieve that.

"Even if we had money available to us, we wouldn't dare think about it. I look at clubs who do that and I just can't see the point.

"I honestly believe clubs like Hearts and Hibs are running out of players to sell. They've sold a few guys this year and bailed themselves out but there aren't any left."

But McMaster is delighted with the financial results for the club so soon after Partick were close to going out of business. "The situation is now under control," he stressed, "and we're intent on keeping it that way.

"Two years ago, we got to the stage where we were breaking even again. Then, last year, we sold off the north part of the ground, making a profit of £770,000.

"We also got to the Scottish Cup semi-final, earning us £250,000 from the tie against Rangers."

* The Scottish referee, Hugh Dallas, will take charge of Friday's European Super Cup final between the Champions' League winners, Real Madrid, and the Uefa Cup holders, Feyenoord, at the Stade Louis II in Monaco.