Craig Levein is at it again this morning, using the media to attack Scott Brown and demanding that refs give teams more protection against him. This is in reference to a complete non-event incident in this week’s game, which left Levein smarting from the ease with which we won.
Levein is a mouthy git.
This is not, of course, the first time he’s let it get away from him in the last few weeks. He always has something to say, always has something he can’t wait to get off his mind and which he assumes the rest of the world is waiting for with baited breath.
But he has no business whatsoever talking about our captain – Scotland’s captain – in the manner he has this morning and I trust that Brendan will tell him to keep his gob shut when he appears in front of the media. It’s telling that Levein is still smarting from the Celtic Park defeat, days after it. For all the hype his team have had in the media for their “run” of form, the last five games don’t make all that great reading; one win, three draws and us.
He has a job to do. But then, he’s had a job to do at Tynecastle for a while now, and you can tell by the league position just how good at it he’s been.
His career record is less than stellar, yet he had a pop at Neil Lennon and Hibs after a last minute goal knocked them out of the cup. Last week he was pontificating on how manager’s had Brendan Rodgers figured out, only for Brendan to pull the rug from under his feet by changing tactics in a way that left Levein flapping on the touchline and his team 3-0 down at half time.
These are title winning bosses. These are guys who’ve had success, and who are respected. He was the manager who played a 4-6-0 formation and lost his job as Scotland boss having won exactly no games. When he couldn’t find a manager who was willing to work under his reign at Hearts he and Ann Budge essentially decided he would appoint himself; it was farcical.
Now he’s passing judgement on the playing style of Scott Brown … this from the manager who gave Ian Black his one and only Scotland cap, from the fourth tier.
Scott Brown has had all this before, of course, always from whining bitches who are unable to find a game plan to check a player who is excelling under Brendan. The player who was involved in the incident, young Cochrane, says there was no malice in it … Levein looks like a tit pushing this story when even his own player won’t back it.
But the media backs it, of course, full of people who view Scott Brown like some kind of movie monster. The Sevconuts are also clapping wildly, their own hatred for Brown having bubbled over last season in a series of incidents culminating in one of them trying to attack him on the park. (Has the SFA report on that incident come in yet?)
Levein can keep flapping his trap. He is in a dogfight to keep his team in the top six, or his job will swirl down the tubes. He’s probably fortunate that our next game is against Kilmarnock who nevertheless have three games in hand over his team. Motherwell, with one game in hand, are only six points behind them.
He has more to worry about than Scott Brown; that game is behind his team and focussing on it and on a single incident in it – and Brown was magnificent all night long and dominated the game – he is doing exactly what Motherwell did earlier in the season and nursing a grievance which will bleed in to every other game.
And if he wants to talk about rough-housing, he should start in his own dressing room; quite how Lafferty stayed on the park the other night is a mystery.
Any other manager would have hauled him off; Levein left him on and I got the feeling it was less to do with the idea that he might conjure up a goal than it was about the possibility that a well-timed elbow might do some damage instead.
He can give out the lectures when he’s not employing such a notorious thug.
Join the best Celtic Facebook Group there is right here.
Like our Facebook page and comment on and share the articles by clicking here.
You can also follow us on Twitter at @The_Celtic_Blog