Tell me something; does Ryan Jack or someone related to him own a newspaper chain?
Because unless there’s been a run of a particularly virulent strain of Sevcoitus in the sports departments – a disease defined by writing more pro-Sevco shite than usual – that’s the only explanation I can think of it for the near unanimous pity-party in the press for the guy.
We’ve not reached Christmas yet, but already the neddish Sevco midfielder has a crime count which would have made Al Capone blanch.
And yet, if the media has its way he will see a red card overturned for the third time in that short spell. It makes you wonder why the SFA doesn’t just write a new rule saying sending’s off for Sevco only count for the game in which they happen; they have no impact on other matches.
This is ridiculous. Last season, Scott Brown had to endure a torrent of negative headlines about the physical side of his game after he won an appeal against a ridiculous red card decision at Ross County. Scott has had to read nonsense like that before, of course, as did Neil Lennon before him. Neither of those guys was ever sent off four times in a league campaign, far less this early in one, which is to say nothing for the fact that Jack was also sent off in a closed door game.
Think about that for a minute; what kind of player gets sent off in friendly?
Can you imagine the headlines if Scott Brown had already been sent off four times in a season? Can you imagine the reaction on the Sevco forums if he had already been cleared on two of the previous three cases and the media was spinning for a reversal on this one? They would be livid, and we on this side of the blogging fence are pretty disgusted that it should even be considered; that tackle yesterday was disgraceful.
Which other player in Scotland would get this much benefit of the doubt? Not Scott Sinclair, who the press was almost united in branding a cheat this time last week. Not Brown, as has already been pointed out. Jayden Stockley committed some horrendous tackles last season and was rightly condemned for many of them – the one on Tierney not included, by the way – and was hammered with several bans. I don’t remember anyone arguing for sainthood on his behalf.
And nobody should be attempting to argue it for this geezer either.
I fully expect to see editorials claiming he is being picked on by refs; curiously, I am willing to bet that they will be from the same people who claimed that Scott Brown gets an easy ride from officials. If these people have something to say, I trust that this time they’ll just come out and say it instead of dancing around it as they usually do.
“Officials are biased in Celtic’s favour”; there you are; I’ve said it for them.
Add it to the list of conspiracies against their club.
But I warn them; this guy isn’t learning, so if you’re going to stand up for him and make a case for him as a victim you better be prepared to keep on defending him and arguing the point, because he’s going to keep referees busy all through this campaign because he’s a thuggish eejit without a scintilla of self control.
And a lengthy ban – not just a slap on the wrist – is all that might put a leash on his atrocious attitude which a Sevco shirt has magnified a thousand times as it often tends to do.