Anti-Celtic PR Firm Forced To Hail Celtic Boss

Today, in an ironic twist, the noted anti-Celtic “PR firm” Level 5 has had to praise Celtic boss Ronny Deila, after he was named manager of the month for October.

There are obvious reasons why this makes me smile, most notably because it was the month during which a lot of Celtic fans – me included – finally snapped with the guy.

For the record, I don’t think we were wrong.

A lot of our performances this season have been dreadful and the one in Molde was simply beyond the pale.

It was a disastrous display and Ronny deserved every bit of criticism that came his way.

I was actually asked earlier in the week if I was going to apologise for some of what I’ve written.

And it makes me wonder; apologise to who exactly?

Ronny? I’m sure he doesn’t read this site and if he does I’m certain he doesn’t care what I think.

Is it my fellow fans I should apologise to? Why? For what? For writing stuff they don’t like?

There’s an easy answer, and there’s always been an easy answer, to that; no-one’s forced to read this stuff. People know they will always get my honest opinion … and there are numerous articles on here where I’ve sat down and ate huge helpings of humble pie.

You know why? Cause I love Celtic. And I want my doubts erased. I was delighted this week when we secured Nir Bitton on a five year deal. Because that’s the kind of thing we should have been doing with all of our top players. Keeping them. Building a squad instead of dismantling one.

I want Ronny to be the Messiah. I want to watch as he delivers a treble.

Anyone who thinks I’m waiting, hoping, for this guy to fail … go have a lie down, or find a good doctor.

I’m a Celtic fan. I want this club to be all it can be.

So today I’m delighted he’s won this award, and I hope he wins many more of them.

It makes me happy to think he’s getting credit after the avalanche of negative press, and I differentiate that from what the fans think.

We criticise because we care.

They criticise because, for a lot of them, we’re the enemy.

So I get a special kick out of one of those natural foes having to send out the word to everyone that Ronny had won this award.

A couple of other sites have already explored Ladbrokes new relationship with Jim Traynor and Level 5.

Paul67 over on CQN highlighted how, on the day the two companies signed the deal that the Ladbrokes website carried two separate anti-Celtic stories, which Level 5 was only too happy to send into the world. Those stories formed the basis for numerous newspaper stories that day and in the days that followed, with some even labelling Celtic “in crisis.”

CQN, as you can probably gather, has been having a lot of fun with that in the last day or two!

See, for me this is the real way to handle criticism at a football club.

No bitching. No moaning. Just put points on the board, and balls in the net.

Over the last week or two there seems to have been new found focus around the place.

One of the signs of this came when Ronny got tough with the media. He knows the difference between their criticism and ours, and he called them out on their double standard. I thought it was about time. He’s played the Nice Guy role too long. It was time to get tough.

In the same week, the board has extended the contract of a top player.

Does that mean all’s forgiven there?

Of course not, and the Ian Livingston thing, and the minimum wage thing, are telling examples of how we Celtic fans try to hold our board to account.

But we also give credit where it’s due.

Leigh has continued to bang in the goals.

Other players have staked their claim, like Rogic.

Instead of talking a good game, Celtic has made the critics eat their words one at a time.

Now the same people who’ve been dishing out the crisis stories are being made to cover the positive side.

That delights me, as it must delight all of us.

Compare, and contrast, if you will, the two very different strategies being followed in relation to ourselves and Sevco at the current time.

Even when crisis is genuinely swirling around that place you rarely hear of it.

They don’t just an easy press, they get a fawning press.

But occasionally, even the media has to change the tune.

So tomorrow, unless there’s another gloating megalomaniacal press release from SevcoLand, the back pages will be filled with pictures of Ronny Deila holding the manager of the month award.

At the end of the season, if everything goes well (and a domestic treble will never see any manager sacked, no matter what Alex McLeish might think) they might even have to eat an even bigger helping of that old humble pie.

If they’re short they should call me.

I know the recipe and I’ll gladly sit down to a plate of it myself.

Congratulations, Ronny, on the award.

Now, start planning the victory on Thursday.