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Chris “Union” Jack Can Indulge His Wishful Thinking, But Celtic’s Future Is Secure

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I am consistently amazed by the Scottish media “experts” on how Celtic will go about their business. Today Chris “Union” Jack – so named because Sevco is the subject he writes about almost exclusively, the one closest to his heart – has joined them.

Jack is symptomatic of a peculiar problem we have here in Scotland, but one I’m sure isn’t unique to us. He writes for a national newspaper, who employs him to do a specific job. They know he’s a dyed in the wool Sevco supporter, so that’s what they send him to cover. I daresay there are Celtic fans who they send to write our club. Other media outlets frequently do the same. It makes sense, in some ways, but it taints everything they write with bias.

It means that only very rarely do they write a critical article or ask crucial questions.

Guys like Jack are so lop-sided in their views that the wee bubble they live in expands to cover their writing.

They don’t write news or facts, but infuse their pieces with wishful thinking. That’s what comes across most when you read this guy.

Today’s article is no exception. He paints a picture of life inside Ibrox where everyone understands how things work; if a bid comes in for a top player they will accept it. They have to. They are skint. Nothing wrong with that view, except that he seems to think they would reinvest every penny of the money. Which makes me wonder, if they accept it because they need it why would they then spend it? What would be the point? Wouldn’t it be better to keep it for running costs?

I don’t know.

But let’s move on from that for a moment.

Because he also paints a picture of life inside Celtic Park, where he seems to think there is tension over whether or not we should sell players when big offers come in. He rightly surmises that we don’t have do that. But then says the manager will be under pressure to sell anyway. He paints, in short, a picture of life inside Celtic Park as one that is full of doubt and angst just bubbling away under the surface. Of a club one big money sale away from … crisis.

How bizarre is that?

This is what I mean about wishful thinking. And it’s ridiculous that a national newspaper doesn’t spike this kind of piece.

Even so, let’s take a look at this claim.

First, it’s based on a shaky foundation which is that interest in Barrie McKay is real and not some figment of Keith Jackson’s imagination.

All the evidence points towards it being the latter.

Jack says the player will not be going to RB Leipzig in this window. Correct. Because they’ve not made an offer and according to them have no intention whatsoever of doing so. Beyond this window he has a year of his deal left, so when Jack and others say that he’ll leave there’s a pretty good chance that he’ll do exactly that … only the club won’t get money for him when he does.

I think the rosy picture he paints of the understanding at Ibrox is also pretty blue tinted.

If there was real interest in McKay he’d be gone in a flash and Warburton wouldn’t see a tenth of the cash. I don’t believe for a second that he would be happy with that situation. I don’t believe for a second that he would simply accept it.

Across at Celtic, things are quite as complicated as Jack makes out either.

The players who have left over the years – Van Dijk, Wanyama, Forster, Ki – all had one thing in common. They wanted to go. They had expressed a desire to try English football. Celtic had limited options, but one of which would have been to keep them until their contracts ran down and then lose them for nothing.

We decided, at that point, to cash in and not a soul doesn’t understand why.

Here’s what will happen with Moussa Dembele.

At some point he’ll decide either to stay at Celtic for the long haul or to go and find out whether he’s got what it takes to play at a level higher than the SPL. If Celtic was in the Champions League every year I think it could be five years before he did that. He would be well compensated in the meantime.

If he stays for the long haul, great.

He’ll be part of a team that goes down in our history when we get to the ten in a row.

He’ll be there when we cross that line. He will not go down as just another player who made a good living out of the sport; he’ll be part of the folklore and legend at a massive institution and in the warm memories of people everywhere.  For eternity.

Immortality is something a lot of players would choose over big, big money.

It’s not like he’ll ever be in the poor house.

Most of us are realists about this stuff though. The kind of cash that’s on offer down there does turn heads and top players want to come up against top players every week, to test themselves and see how good they really are. It will happen with Moussa, there’s just no doubt about it.

But it won’t be in the summer; he’s committed to our next Champions League campaign and he’s said so.

The club won’t sell him until he wants to go, because, there’s no need to. To do so when there’s no clamour from the player would just be stupid.

There’s only one way it would happen and that’s if the manager signed off on it on the understanding that he’d get the bulk of it to spend.

And this is where Jacks’ article really does indulge in wishful thinking.

Celtic has fortified itself from the consequences of missing out on European football for a couple of years. We’re not Rangers, we would not fall into ruin in such horrendous circumstances. The money is there to ride out a lean spell, without much difficulty and only minimal pain.

There is no need for us to “bank the proceeds.”

We’re a football team, not a for-profit.

Which means that the manager would be fully entitled to the money from a sale and he would undoubtedly get it.

There’s not a lot of argument inside Celtic Park between the board and Brendan and there won’t be because the manager has their backing and that of the only people who matter; the fans. He’s a happy man. Indeed, I can’t remember the last time things at our club were this harmonious and everyone was pulling in the same direction.

Only the Scottish media could suggest that a club like ours netting a fortune in profit from the sale of a player could be a bad thing, precipitating a full-scale crisis, whilst insisting that at Sevco a similar sale would be greeted with all round delight.

Only a true blue delusional could believe it enough to write it and slap his name on it.

What a media we have here.

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