A Response To Keith Jackson’s Latest Sevco Nonsense

On Thursday night, and then again on Sunday, I’ll be cheering Motherwell on to a win over Sevco.

The reasons are many, and I usually don’t feel I need to go over them except that the Scottish media keeps on forcing me to, with their bizarre assertions.

Chief amongst those is the garbage running under Keith Jackson’s by-line today, that Hibs and Celtic could be the “main beneficiaries” of the Ibrox club getting promoted.

I have to laugh at Jackson.

He seems to think that promotion is now inevitable and that the rest of Scottish football needs cheering up about it.

This is his attempt at a silver lining.

And it’s garbage. It is unpardonable garbage.

For a start, the road is very far from clear and the end is very far from in sight for his favourite club.

Motherwell don’t simply boil down to a single footballer – Scott McDonald – although I see the Roy of the Rovers type quality in a story where he strikes to sink them.

The fact is, Sevco have struggled in the last four matches.

They won two of them but were unable to beat Queen of the South at home and they lost to Hibs away.

If I were one of their players or one of their fans I wouldn’t be quite so ready to count my chickens and start preparing for life in the SPL.

They’re in for a tougher time than a lot of people think.

Someone said to me recently, “Aye but they beat Motherwell a couple of years back, when the Well had a better team than they do now …” and whilst I have to admit that’s true there’s one wee caveat that person forget to recall.

The manager of Motherwell at the time was Stuart McCall … and I said then, and still believe, losing a game like that to a team who should have been cannon fodder ought to have been a sacking offence.

I’ve watched all four of Sevco’s games in the playoffs so far, and they were dreadful in all but the Hibs match at home, where they showed more hunger to win.

Their performances since McCall became the manager have been nearly always shocking; what they’ve done differently than under McCoist or McDowell is that they’ve put more men behind the ball. It’s painful to watch.

Jackson’s article contradicts itself on the main point; that we should welcome the promotion (if it comes) for the “challenge.”

But he acknowledges that they are a long way from being in a position to do that.

Apart from being stupidly bad reasoning, it also reeks of contempt for every other club in the league, who, presumably, are only there to make up the numbers.

I am offended by this line of reasoning, and by another; that it would be good, commercially, for Celtic if there was a Sevco entity playing in the league.

For a while now I’ve wondered if perhaps the era of the big season ticket base is over.

People pointed to empty seats at Parkhead and concluded, ludicrously, that it was because “there was no Rangers”, as if following Celtic was wholly dependent on that.

I always thought that argument was patent nonsense, and next season may very well put it to bed once and for all.

Football prices are too high these days. Fans are being ripped off left, right and centre. The type of people who bought season tickets year in year out can no longer afford it. The recession put paid to the days of 60,000 sellouts every other week.

Add to that the fact that Celtic have already modestly increased the price of a season ticket and will be hoping there’s no drop off in the number of renewals as a consequence.

Which brings me to another point; the deadline for renewals is already past.

The club knows roughly how many there’ll be anyway and those fans who’ve already bought them … most of them did so presuming Sevco wouldn’t make it back to the top flight.

Is Jackson suggesting that there will suddenly be a huge upturn in fans buying what’s left of them if Sevco makes it to the SPL?

I’m not even remotely convinced.

Then there are the number of Celtic supporters who think the club hasn’t done enough in the years of Sevco’s climb out of the basement.

A lot of them haven’t renewed anyway and if the Ibrox club does it, a lot of them will be sickened enough by the sight of a swaggering Dave King and any residual chance there was of them buying tickets will be gone.

Does Jackson really think that the sight of a financially doped NewCo playing in the SPL again, as if what happened to Rangers never did, will make more fans fork over their money to watch it?

Dave King’s “plans” for Sevco are either what he says they are or they are something different.

If they are something different, then they’ll not catch us for decades.

If they are what he claims – spending money they don’t have in an effort to swing the balance in their favour – then I can understand exactly why a lot of people will vote with their feet.

If they don’t get promoted, there’s a chance – just a chance – that even he will have to realise the futility of that financial insanity and get real.

That’ll give the SFA and the SPL time to bring in some kind of financial fair play rules which stop the madness in its tracks.

My other reason is much simpler;

Scotland can do without this over-hyped excuse for a rivalry and if it never again sees the light of day I will not miss it.

The game in Scotland doesn’t need this.

It will bring zero material benefits to Celtic because they have nearly all the season ticket money they are going to get already and those fans who do want to see “a challenge” would be better looking to the north of Scotland or Edinburgh for it, as that’s more likely than it coming from Glasgow unless Thistle really put a run together.

Come Thursday, I’ll be cheering on the Steelmen.

Because I don’t want Sevco in the SPL.

They will bring nothing to the party but hype and hate and the kind of stupid fiscal policies Scottish football ought to have left behind.

And if a guy called McDonald happens to score the goal that keeps them just where they are …  well I’ll live with that too.