Today we start our Champions League adventure. Exciting, isn’t it? On the back of giving Sevco a right good beating our players jetted off to Barcelona, where tonight they’ll compete against the biggest football club in the world.
I’ve not had a lot of time to reflect on that, mostly because yesterday turned into a crazy day of statements out of Ibrox, one from their supporters’ reps and the other from the club. Neither was anything other than unhinged, and so is revealed the growing siege mentality wafting out of Paranoia FC, the self-styled most victimised club in the world.
What contrasting priorities the two sets of fans have.
Celtic fans are focussed on our own side, and the flowing, fast, attractive and destructive football we’re playing. We didn’t simply beat them on Saturday, we routed them. That sends us into Barcelona night on a high, although with tempered expectations. We know we’re not on the level of the Catalan giants and the best we can hope for is probably a draw. That gives us license to dream a little, but mostly we’ll just enjoy the experience.
Sevco fans have been warned today, by Ally McCoist no less, that they have to get a grip on their own flights of fancy, which are now threatening a season of serious embarrassment at their club. They won’t pay heed to this, of course; they think the name Rangers, whether appropriated from a dead institution or not, confers some kind of power and status. We burst that illusion like a Fairy Liquid bubble at the weekend, but it will persist.
I can’t remember when the focus of our fans was more on what happens pitch-side. We’ve not had hard years, of turmoil and trial, not since the 90’s, but there’s always been something going on in the background and in these last four years in particular. But now I can’t wait for match-days to come around. I get up every morning looking for every development out of Parkhead. I plan team selections in my head, and on the Football Manager grid.
Whilst we’re enjoying domestic football – and why wouldn’t we be? – it’s European nights like these that really whet the appetite.
We’ve missed them, I think that’s fair to say.
It’s been too long since the anthem was heard ringing out over Celtic Park, too long since we went toe-to-toe with the best and longer still since we felt, deep down, that we had some right to.
Even before tonight’s game starts, I’ll be tuned into the Under 19’s Champions League tie. That’s how hyped I am, how hyped we all are, for these matches. We’re back where we belong, in the biggest club competition in the world; how we have to prove it, and earn the respect we once had at this level. It won’t come easy, but no good thing ever did.
And I think it’s especially fitting that whilst we’re trying to earn respect on the pitch, they are demanding they receive it, and everywhere. Any criticism is met with a counter-blast. Any taunt is met with toys flung out the pram fury. I’ll be covering their hypocritical, reeking, tantrum from yesterday in some detail today or tomorrow, but for now let me just say again that it’s pathetic that this club does so much squealing at the moment.
Respect is something they think they are entitled to, without ever giving it out to the rest of us. A period of silence out of there would be welcomed by all.
I understand why they want to focus on things that happen away from the pitch-side. Because what’s happening to them on the pitch is nothing to write home about. Their focus, on the Celtic fans, is a convenient distraction today from putting their attentions where they belong; on the unfolding shambles and chaos at their own club.
I write about Sevco from the luxurious position of knowing my own club gets it right on and off the park, more often than not. When their fans use the pitiful retort that I am obsessed I remind them that I don’t have to focus over-much on problems at Parkhead because, in the main, there aren’t any. Their club is the soap opera, the freak show, the slow-motion, live-action car crash, and I can turn to it knowing that my own is in good hands.
But always there is Celtic, the joy of watching us, of anticipating games, of thinking, every minute of every day, about who’ll play, who we should sign, who’ll score the goals … and it’s a beautiful thing, and especially today. We’re on a great adventure here.
Nerveless, we take on the greatest club side in the world tonight.
Win, lose or draw this is an occasion to savour and enjoy.
In Brendan We Trust.