Yesterday a friend of Sevco’s incoming boss, The Portuguese Bond, told the media that he’d never actually worked for Celtic as a scout.
As if that was important to a living soul who’s head wasn’t wedged up his backside.
In fact, said the friend, “that was me.”
He went on to say that Celtic had never actually bothered to act on a single one of his recommendations which I suppose says plenty about the overall standard of them.
This was an attempt to detoxify this guy in the eyes of a hard-core element of the Sevco support that is, quite frankly, off its nut and out of its face. Some of the comments directed at this guy because of his alleged Celtic links have been astonishing. Those links are actually an impediment to his being “accepted” by that section of their moronic support which wants someone in there who “understands the club.”
Let’s not mess about; we know exactly what that means.
You could “understand” their club by reading a history book. A very thin one, being that it covers such a small expanse of time. If you wanted to delve into the history they’ve appropriated like grabbing a man’s clothes after he’s dead, you could gain an easy, quick, appreciation of it if you picked the right book, one that didn’t include chapters on sectarian signing policies, EBT’s, financial doping and friends in high places doing you favours.
As a football club, Rangers claimed to be the most successful in the world. Sevco, in pretending to be them, sets itself a high bar for success and failure. How could it not? If you wanted to “understand” the club then surely understanding that would be enough?
But of course, none of that is what they are talking about.
They want someone who understand the “cultural background”, and God help them but it’s the very last thing they needed. Maybe this guy will force them to confront their attitudes a little and grow the Hell up a bit. So he has a soft spot for Celtic. You know what? A lot of people do. If he goes in front of the media and disavows this, like Barton, then their fans have something to worry about, because I’d call someone who did that a snake.
This appointment makes not one shred of sense on paper. He doesn’t have the “wow” factor they were promised. He’s not from a top league. He’s never won a major honour. He knows Mourinho. Wow. You know what? Football is a small world, and a lot of people in it know each other. When the media has to dredge up garbage like “Oh, he’s a bullfighter and can ride a jet-ski ..” you know there’s not much else in the locker.
He doesn’t even tick the two most basic boxes we were told he would have to; a history of developing talent, and a reputation for “sticking around.” The longest he’s been at a club is a little over two years. This time next season he’ll already be halfway out the door, whatever he does or doesn’t do in the dugout. The idea that he’ll “build” an infrastructure … he’ll have to do it hell of a quick and alone, as the Director of Football plan has been kicked into touch.
But then, they were told not to get their hopes up about a De Boer type appointment; something like this was always on the cards and it’s as good as it’s going to get.
In short, Sevco fans have real – very understandable, very legitimate – reasons for worrying about this appointment, or even being outright opposed to it.
But the fact this guy understands and gets and respects our culture and history isn’t one of them.
To be fair, a lot of them have dismissed this as being unimportant. They are quite right to do so. The hold-outs will never be convinced though, even those who are hiding behind blaming the press for the quality of the news.
“It’s the Sun …” or “It’s the Record …” some of them are saying, as if the video itself is suddenly not real because it’s been published by one of those titles.
They do enjoy living in denial.
Their new manager is not a bigot. He will not hate us, automatically, on the day he arrives. He’s not the one they wanted.
They are just going to have to suck it up and live with it.