Today there’s a lot of talk going around about “unity” and how we have to show it as a support, and get behind the team and the manager for the run in, lest we be responsible for destroying what’s left of the season and contributing to the loss of the league title.
What balls these people have to hide behind that old cobblers.
Let me tell what their calls for unity actually come down to.
“Sit down lads and shut up.”
There are three games left at home this season.
Three. That’s it.
If you’ve got a season ticket, that’s your chance to be heard or to make your feelings clear.
Whether your intention is to boycott for an afternoon or if you go to protest as loudly as you can, it’s better than attending and sitting there in silence, and it’s much better than turning up to sing “faithful through and through” and sending a signal to the board that they’ve got you now and forever.
Be aware; those are your last opportunities before the curtain comes down.
If you don’t use them, if you don’t make your feelings clear, then you are just begging to be ignored or worse.
Because if you believe those urging unity will be asking hard questions on your behalf in the summer, then you are a mug. I can tell you right now what their message will be; there’s a new manager coming in, let’s give the club our support and see where the road leads.
In short, you’ll get the same bullshit all over again.
For years now I’ve been listening to these people tell us “this isn’t the time for this.”
I always ask; when is the time?
After we’re out of Europe?
No. Because then we’re still chasing a treble.
Out of one the domestic cups?
No. Because then there’s a double to win.
No longer chasing a cup?
Shut up and be good little bhoys until the league is won.
Managerial changes?
Let’s not ask how we got here, let’s just focus on giving the new guy our 100% unqualified support … no matter how unqualified he might be.
This is all designed to do two things; to shut you up and to get your money.
Today, in the aftermath of a calamity that’s been coming all season, our club’s official media outlet has yet to utter a word about the future.
They either don’t think we’re worthy of that vision or no vision exists.
The idea that we’ll ever read an apology or acknowledgement of responsibility on there (or other sites) is laughable.
As long as fans are turning up and handing over their cash we will never get the leadership we deserve.
The supporters are not responsible for this disgraceful regression.
They’ve done their part, and to put the onus on them to get this pathetic shower over the line is the worst deflection I’ve ever seen. The players and this woefully inept management team are more than capable of throwing this away whether the fans give their vocal, unanimous, support or not.
Every single Celtic fan has a choice to make here, and I have no doubt whatsoever that Lawwell and the board are perfectly willing, at this point, to throw Deila to the wolves come the seasons end. It blames him and him alone. They have no choice but to let him go, but he can’t fall alone.
If Deila and his backroom team are made to bear the full brunt of this then whoever replaces him will work under the same constraints, within the same system, following the same strategy. Anyone who thinks a change of management will change the course of our club is living in cloud cuckoo land and time is running out to make sure we get the changes we need.
So come Sunday, take the afternoon off.
Go and see a movie.
Or get making banners and organising friends to the cause of a major protest.
Do something more than turning up and singing defiantly and “backing the team”.
Because that will be interpreted as support for the regime and the direction of the club, whether you intend it to be or not.
We are running out of time to let these people know what we think. Guys like me can write as many blogs as they want; that won’t change the way things are. Only you have that power, you who buys tickets, you who goes to games, you who spends their money.
Use it.
Use it for the rest of us.
Help us, help yourselves, help Celtic by not being silent, by not sitting down and shutting up, by seeing these appeals for “unity” for what they are.
Nothing more than an attempt to keep you in your place until season ticket renewal time and a fresh set of empty promises, designed to get to your wallet.
Three home games left, friends.
You have the power.
Use it wisely.