A Title Clincher At Celtic Park, And Dodgy Dave Unleashes The Squirrels. What A Surprise.

Sometimes in the life of any football fan you hear a link to your team, of a player or manager, that makes you think “If only.”

But realism then sets in and you know “Nah. This one isn’t going to happen.”

Some are more realistic than others.

We have had them:

Rivaldo – Martin tried to get him as he left Barcelona and apparently he was genuinely interested. I never thought so, I thought was talk to get more money out of next club, which was Olympiakos – Who were spending megabucks then.

Zlatan – now this was never on but he had hinted in the past, and when he went to Man Utd, and then to the States, that he would have enjoyed playing for the same club as his idol Larsson had. Some of us, maybe all, just hoped. But we knew, realistically, that it was never on though.

The manager who sticks out was Gus Hiddink. Now, apparently he was on board and DD pulled it at the last minute for Martin, but hey ho, Martin gave us pride and success back and a European Final and you have to wonder; could Hiddink have done that?

We’ll never know, but nor would we have traded the certainty of Martin’s accomplishments to find out.

Over at the now dead Rangers, their perennial liar chairman at the time David Murray, spun all sorts of nonsense about Ronaldo – now referred to as Fat Ronaldo – as he was leaving Inter Milan. Ever sure of the PR side of the game, Sir liar had faxed a bid to Inter of £20m, knowing it would never be accepted and that Ronaldo – then the best in the world – would never even hear of it until years later and certainly would not have entertained it.

It was all smoke and mirrors – as we now know.

This segues well to my main point – Steven Gerrard.

Now we all know that we have our rivals fans reading this blog, so first of all I will say this.

If this was to happen it would be something of a coup for Sevco, a 6 year old club pulling in a major football name like that, and kudos would be due.

But it still looks a lot like smoke and mirrors, and here is why.

Due Diligence

Steven Gerrard will ensure that due diligence is done by his advisers and he will do it himself.

This will not be him accepting “yes I will give you money” statements … both he and they will want to see the books.

The Takeover panel decision will also be looked at.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional.

He will also take into account how the current manager is being treated; there is still no, official, word from on high that he is not getting the job.

Some hacks still talking of “beating Celtic and then has a chance”, yet the “preferred candidate” is plastered all over the MSM – completely disrespectful and shameful – whilst the current boss is trying to put together a team to do that. And they are chopping his legs off.

Gerrard will be watching it all.

Sevco’s European licence is in serious jeopardy just now; does he know that?

Will he want to be there with no Progres in Europe available?

Will he keep them hanging on until he finds out?

This will further inspire questions as to why Derek McInnes turned the job down twice, and as he knows Stevie Clark he’ll be wondering why he is also not interested.

Pressure

Now while Gerrard is, obviously, a man who likes a challenge and is a winner, he will have had before, and he will just now, numerous offers from a great deal of English clubs – in all divisions – to whet his appetite for management. And if you were sane you’d take one of them.

No-one could blame him for that, for wanting something less demanding, with less pressure, to “break his managerial cherry”; Sevco will not give him that. Instead there will be relentless demands on him to win a league where they are struggling to finish second.

With the best will in the world, this guy will never win over their fans unless he can secure the SPL crown.

Even if £10m turned up from a fairy godmother, he wouldn’t get Sevco near us, and failure will be blamed solely on him and not on the board that chose him and then almost certainly decided that it could not resource him properly.

He won’t want to risk his early reputation.

Acceptance

There is a major part of the Sevco support who blame all their troubles on “Celtic minded people”; James has written about it a couple of times.

As much as the MSM and the Sevconuts are trying to ignore that he has, and always will have, a soft spot for Celtic, we are his Scottish team, and it was only last summer that we approached him to have one last season in the game, with us.

Furthermore, practising or not, he is a from a Catholic background … Paul Le Guen and Pedro Caixinha were too and  the abuse they received, from the stands, was greatly enhanced when they failed to take the Peepul to a new height … and no-one should deny that it had that edge to it.

Gerrard is a guy with a family, and he does not need this kind of sickness in his life. He’s never experienced it, never experienced anything like it, and even if he somehow turned the tide and brought stunning success to the club … would he really feel right basking in the glory, surrounded by people up to their knees in Irish Catholic blood?

Is that who he is? No, it’s not.

The Rodgers Factor

Linked to what I said about acceptance.

Some Sevco fans will not accept their manager being a friend with the Celtic manager, far less the Celtic manager being his mentor. We’ve seen the evidence of that time and time again. They were furious that our manager had a good relationship with Warburton and furious that he was on good terms with Pedro.

But it’s his relationship with Murty that really bothered them, and this will be ten times more obvious where Brendan is concerned because the two of them go back a long way.

Prepare for a lot of mutual back-slapping and friendly relations in the media … Gerrard is the last person in the world who will swallow all this “WATP” nonsense.

Another reason you can consider this a bust.

Experience

He is a rookie – fact.

Never mind the Souness comparison as he was a player as well as a manager and had a physical influence of the pitch.

He also had significant money and brought in Walter Smith.

The comparison is Barnes – it was always gonna be a disaster – we shoehorned him in with Kenny Dalglish to give the fans a name.

KD didn’t really want to be there; if you remember a couple years before was on verge of being Rangers international scout and then Newcastle tempted him back into management.

Barnes wanted it and we used it as a reason to get KD in.

The Gerrard link is being sold with Gary McAllister as his number two because he knows the Scottish game and has “a wealth of experience.”

Really?

The last time he played here was for Motherwell from 1981-85 – 33 years ago.

He has coached yes – but he has no managerial experience either, not even as an assistant, so it’s another rookie.

Mark Guidi said Gregory Vignal today … he’s still a player and has never as much as coached a team in his life.

Is Gerrard really going to do this so ridiculously unprepared, and surrounded by rookies?

Sevco’s Stop The Ten Obsession

Sevco are obsessed with 10iar – stopping us doing that is their major focus – not building for the future, not laying down a groundwork, financially, for football, or in other departments.

As James has said, Fergus knew we wanted to stop 10 in the 90’s but he would not mortgage the future of the club to get it, whereas Sevco will.

This also grows into the obsession that “we are still Rangers” and “we are still a big pull”; neither is the case, and this move stinks of an effort to get them into the spotlight again.

Gerrard will know he is coming into something which screams “short termism.”

Indeed, many will see him as a short-term manager, until the next hole needs plugged and the whole merry-go-round starts again.

If nothing else sums up the desperate state of their club it is this continuing nonsense about stopping the ten, rather than consolidating and making things better inside their walls.

It’s Squirrel Time At Ibrox Again.

So what’s this really all about?

Is this about Sevco trying to pretend they are a massive club?

But if  they were better than they currently are, then more experienced managers would be “preferred candidates”.

This all stinks of something produced by the mainstream media advertising agency for Sevco season tickets.

Every season – surely Sevco fans must see this – every season there is a link with this one and that one, be it a a player or manager, at this time when some fans are questioning whether or not to renew.

We have also had the bi-monthly “mega investment is at the door” story too.

Guidi is touting this one again today.

You know season ticket sales over there are slow when they are throwing this pish to their media lackies.

Its all spin, using media lackies to get morons to part with money without asking questions.

So Will He Or Won’t He?

Will this happen?

Who knows?

There are plenty of reasons why Gerrard should head for the hills.

Stranger things have happened though,

North and South Korea have opened a dialogue and Amber Rudd and Theresa May are still in job.

And some rich woman had a baby and named it and that ended up all over the news.

If it does happen, how will I feel about it?

I’ll feel fine. A complete novice thrown in with no funds against Brendan Rodgers … I know who my money is on.

If we were to stay exactly as we are Sevco need a minimum of £40m to come near us..

And we won’t.

We are able to spend – our own money too, fancy that? – and we have a strong nucleus already.

Of course the mainstream press assumes that if Gerrard comes then they must be giving him money ….

It’s all just smoke and mirrors, to take their eye off the issues.

Don’t be surprised if the same manager who was pleading for his job yesterday is still there when season starts.

David Campbell is a very cynical man at times …. 

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