Keep Kazim Richards Away From Celtic Park

In the time I’ve been writing blogs, I’ve never, not once, called out a player before I’ve seen him play a match for the club, but this time I’m willing to make an exception.

Colin Kazim Richards ought never to pull on a Celtic shirt, and if he does I am appalled at everyone inside Parkhead who sanctioned the deal.

For one thing, his career stats do not inspire optimism. He’s not someone you’d bet on first goal scorer on Betfred.

For a striker, at 29, to have scored less than a hundred career goals makes his signing an absurdity.

For him to have scored less goals than Leigh Griffiths has in a Celtic shirt speaks volumes.

But even if he were ten times as prolific, I wouldn’t want him near Parkhead.

This guy has brought trouble with him everywhere he’s played.

He’s currently serving a ban in Holland for threatening a journalist; his signing comes days after this site, Fields and a host of others were banging the drum loudly in praise of journalistic freedom.

To say that’s an own goal, and a PR disaster in the making, is an understatement.

But it gets worse.

At Brighton he submitted a transfer request after being left out of one game.

At Fenerbahce, he left under a very big cloud after lying to the club about his whereabouts when he hit the town for a piss up whilst under a four game ban and then denied it, causing the club enormous embarrassment when they published those denials in a press release.

His antics at Feynoord are well known; after objecting to an article written about his performances he told the writer that he was “waiting outside” and that he would “put him to sleep.”

If he thinks the press in Holland was negative wait until he appears in the cross-hairs of Hugh Keevins and Chris “Union” Jack.

It’s unconscionable for Celtic to be trying to sign such a renowned trouble maker.

And it’s even worse than that.

In April 2014, he made football history in the UK by becoming the first ever player to be convicted, in court, of making a homophobic gesture to rival fans.

The words “more trouble than he’s worth” come to mind, but it goes beyond just getting a truckload of grief for what I suspect will be a minimal return at best.

What’s our reputation as a club worth, for God’s sake?

What price do people inside the walls place on our dignity and our social standing?

On the evidence of this, none.

Not only that, but as his career headlines make plain this guy will be a troublesome influence in the dressing room and probably incite problems in the stands, something he did at Fenerbahce by having a very public spat with his own supporters.

Is this the kind of guy we want at Celtic Park?

The people running our club … sometimes they show the starkest signs that they simply don’t get where we, the fans, are coming from.

At other times it looks as if they know full well and just choose to treat our wishes and views with utter contempt.

Dare I say this looks more like the latter?

In the meantime, Nadir Ciftci is on the way out on loan, a player who offered practically no sign at all during his time at the club as to why he was “the first choice” of the manager in the summer. Whoever sanctions deals like that, and like this one, ought to be the first out the door at Celtic Park.

Disillusionment is total today.

Our club is mired in mediocrity and we’re about to heap shame on it.