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Islam Feruz “Advice” To Young Dembele Is Self-Serving Cobblers From A Failure

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Islam Feruz is in the news today, and a lot of my fellow Celtic fans are giving him the benefit of the doubt this time. That says everything about who they are; forgiving, decent, genuine human beings who see the good in other people first.

Perhaps I’m just more cynical, perhaps I’m not a decent person.

Because when I read Feruz’s words on young Dembele, I don’t read contrition or maturity or a new level of respect for our club. I read, instead, a chancer engaging in one last effort to maintain his lifestyle. I read a guy who’s learned nothing, gained no perspective, as lacking in insight as he ever was, and thinks some mealy mouthed platitudes and Hallmark sentiment can change our memories of history, and what’s on the record.

Feruz’s statement was full of self-serving cobblers and even outright fiction.

His “version” of what happened with our club would be hilarious if it wasn’t so grim.

“Listen, I had my head turned at 15 years of age,” he said. “I didn’t realise there was money involved in football. I just played football for the love of the game.”

Laugh? I nearly peed my pants.

What was he? The last guy to realise that?

From the start, all Feruz and his people cared about was money.

Celtic knew that; they still thought he would recognise the immense confidence and faith they had in him, and reward it with at least some basic loyalty. So they lavished attention on him and made sure his family were taken care of. He would have made a good living at our club, but he wanted more. Always more.

The joy of the game was the furthest thing from his mind when he realised that with his talent came offers to make large sums of cold hard cash. He speaks now of regret at leaving Celtic “too early” because there he would have got more games. What a joke. The truth, as we all know it, is that he couldn’t wait to leave, and was less concerned with development as a player than he was with who made him the best financial offer.

I don‘t mind that, not really, all but the disloyalty of it. None of us is daft enough to think there are too many footballers out there with altruistic motives; those who stay at one club throughout their career are exceedingly rare when fatter contracts are to be had. What I do mind is being treated like a mug, taken for a fool, by someone who thinks we can be fobbed off by phony expressions of regret from someone who’s never given a toss.

Listen, this is about rehabilitating Feruz’s own reputation more than protecting the development of one of our young stars. His own career has been virtually wiped out by a bad attitude and an arrogance that is breath-taking in someone who’s achieved as little as he has. Since signing his contract extension with Chelsea in January 2014 he’s been on loan four times and played only a dozen matches, without scoring a senior goal.

Everywhere he’s gone, stories about his negative behaviour have followed him like a bad smell. This is a kid who’s blowing it, big time, and knows it. He’s trying to reinvent himself in the hope that it’ll spark a resurrection of his own career, but the simple truth is that Feruz won’t change. My God, in June this very year he was indicted by a court up here for failing to turn up on driving charges, where he’d been stopped by police and given them a false name.

Maturity? don’t make me laugh.

He still thinks he’s better than he is.

He still thinks the world owes him something.

Right now he’s on loan at Excel Mouscron, a second tier Belgian team, where he’s made one appearance from the substitute’s bench. His career prospects are pretty ruinous right now; at 21 he’s running out of time to establish any kind of reputation.

The game is unforgiving of those who’ve squandered talent. He knows that too.

I have exactly zero sympathy for a guy who so readily disregarded everything we did for him – and the late great Tommy Burns in particular.

The only lesson he’s truly learned is that he’s driven his career into the wall.

He has no advice to offer, because the cautionary tale never changes a person’s outlook.

If you’re made of the right stuff, and you know what the priorities are, if you’re humble, a strong individual who’s committed to the sport above everything else, but who knows he’s good and that the rewards will come with time, you don’t need this kind of “advice”.

The only advice you do need, the only folk you need to listen to, are those who can make you a better player.

But nobody can make you a better person, which is Feruz’ “advice” is hollow, even unhelpful, and I have no problem viewing his comments as little more than self-serving PR.

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