Another day, another Celtic player getting misquoted for the purposes of giving Sevco fans a wee lift.
This time it’s Craig Gordon, who according to some hacks actually said that next season could be a “four horse race” between Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts and the hapless and skint Ibrox club. Except that he didn’t. I watched exactly what he did say, and it was nowhere near that.
Gordon was speaking on a day when he’d gone down to the Celtic ticket office to talk to fans queueing up to back the Brendan Rodgers revolution.
It was an historic day for us, the day the world saw just how good the Celtic fans are at backing their club when the club goes out and brings in the best, and it was a huge lift to us all.
Gordon spoke to the media afterwards, and it was there that he was asked if Sevco would be our main challengers next season, a typically loaded and ridiculous question, arrogant and dismissive of all the other teams in the league, but exactly what we’ve come to expect.
If you watched the footage, as I did, you’ll know Gordon sniggered a little at that idea.
What he went on to say is that Aberdeen and Hearts would be tough opposition and that potentially there could be three teams “in and about it.”.
There was no suggestion of it being a four horse race, and the idea that the Glasgow NewCo would be our “main” threat was treated with the absolute contempt it deserved. But the media couldn’t write that, so they wrote this instead, this utter distortion of what Craig Gordon actually said yesterday.
And he was being diplomatic, as everyone knows well.
In point of fact, there’s not much doubt that Celtic will finish far ahead of all comers next year, as most people are grudgingly aware.
The idea that we’ll be challenged by three teams is nonsensical.
What this boils down to, of course, is the media indulging in its favourite pastime, which is trying to get a Celtic player to say something nice about the team out at Ibrox.
Gordon was supposed to say that “yes, Sevco will be our biggest challengers”, but he hadn’t forgotten about Aberdeen or Hearts as much of the media has. He gave them respect and their due and the press still tried to spin it the way they wanted it.
This is what they do. This is what we’ve had to get used to. Instead of headlines about how the Brendan Rodgers revolution has already electrified Celtic Park, they’re writing about how our goalkeeper thinks we’ll be pushed to the line by three different teams, one of whom is the skint Glasgow NewCo who’s manager is currently AWOL.
They are really getting desperate here.