So some of our SPL “rivals” are sneering at our defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich, one of the great clubs in world football, in an environment we are the only club in this country even remotely qualified to play in, in a competition none of the also-rans can ever hope to reach.
Their sneering is pure jealousy.
It is also phenomenally ignorant and staggeringly counter-productive. How are we supposed to respond to this?
Simple; double our efforts. Wipe the floor with every team we meet here.
The truth is, I loved every second I just spent in Germany. It reaffirmed everything I’ve heard about the respect in which we’re held across world football; that’s something these people and their clubs can only dream about. They don’t have the magic, they don’t have the things that make us great. The things Europe values us for are what these people hate us for.
That is not lost on me. It hits home today like never before.
Celtic has done right by Scottish football; Scottish football acts like this. Celtic has tried to lead Scottish football into a better future. Scottish football would rather stay mired in filth and corruption, with incompetent leaders and out of date thinking. We are a forward thinking club in a backward looking country, and that’s never been so clear.
This weekend is the Scottish League Cup semi-finals. It will be the first game at Hampden my old man has missed in my living memory. He says he will never attend a game there again, no matter the importance, no matter the occasion, and I believe him. More and more of our fans will come to that conclusion and about more than just Hampden.
Put simply, we owe the rest of Scottish football exactly nothing.
I am fully aware of how many people here weren’t wishing us well last night. Their ingratitude and narrow mindedness, their bitterness, appals me after having seen the way perfect strangers in a foreign country where we were the opposition made us welcome.
Scottish football is stuck in the mud because of this, because of this stinking attitude. Had any other club raised the idea of an SFA inquiry I think it would have found support; the gutless wonders or self interested climbers on the boards at Aberdeen and Hibs and elsewhere couldn’t see past that it was us asking for it, and that has nothing to do with hate. These people are so stuck in their ridiculous Old Firm mindset that they still see the world through that prism.
Look at Motherwell, who have meekly allowed their cup semi at a “neutral venue” to turn into a home game for Sevco. Pitiful. Pathetic.
Not one of them possesses the imagination to be more than they are, and unable to rise all they wish for is that we fall to their level.
They will wait until Hell freezes over, and in the meantime any residual loyalty many of us Celtic fans feel to the game here will die. Because we really have nothing in common with these clubs any longer, and I say that as someone who has the hugest respect for a lot of their fans, those guys and gals who know this game stinks and want to see it change.
I have written in this blog that I wish Scottish clubs – but one – well in their continental endeavours. I still wish their supporters enjoyable trips and the making of new friends, but I feel no sense of unity with the leaders of those clubs or some of those within their ranks.
They can go straight to Hell.
I repeat, we owe them nothing and from this moment on our only focus should be on sticking it to them every chance we get.