For the second time since this weekend, a former player has decided to use a media platform to attack Moussa Dembele for the same thing; not poor form, but the way he left the Celtic Park pitch after being substituted.
Now I know that this can be a small minded country that obsesses at times over fluff, but this is surely taking the piss. All the guy did was walk off the pitch. He didn’t do somersaults or a lap of honour or take his top off and whirl it around his head like a lasso rope. He didn’t do it on his knees or on all fours, barking like a dog.
He walked off the park.
Some Celtic fans, who have spent way too much time reading the tabloids, interpreted it as his saying goodbye, or so we’re told. I’m sure they did. But there was no farewell wave. He didn’t toss his jersey into the crowd. He didn’t give our fans the finger or blow them kisses.
He walked off the park.
Commons criticised him for what he did next; going up the tunnel to the changing rooms for his shower. He omits that before that Moussa shook hands with everyone in the dugout, and when he was done he came back out and took his place with his team-mates.
Thompson thinks his walk off the pitch was too slow.
Jesus. Talk about pecking around in the dirt, looking for something to moan about.
This isn’t journalism, it is pathetic self-serving nonsense. These guys aren’t writing opinion pieces because they have something to say, they are manufacturing controversy to get attention in the way the media knows best; attack Celtic or Celtic players.
How about this?
Moussa came off the pitch reluctantly because he’s a model pro who was heart sick at how poorly he played.
What about that?
That makes more sense than him doing some kind of extended farewell which lasted all of a minute and didn’t involve any of the above things you usually get when a player has kicked his last ball for a club.
Look, it might well be that Moussa goes in this window – I doubt it; for openers none of the clubs mentioned thus far should remotely interest him and would represent a huge step backwards – but if he does anyone who says they “called it” from the way he left the pitch at the weekend is a flat out liar or someone who’s confused fact with fantasy. It means exactly nothing. Their haste to turn it into more than it is shows their true motivation.
A quick headline. Nothing more.