There is a lot of nonsense flying around Sevconia tonight, and I understand exactly why that is. Tomorrow they will step out onto the turf at Celtic Park knowing that if we beat them we have clinched seven in a row. Their fans will be forced to attend our title party. Be grateful for the last few days and the way they will cling to the delusion that it’s the last bad day. Our stadium might have gotten wrecked otherwise. I still think it might be.
One of the biggest pieces of nonsense flying around is the idea that Celtic fans are “sick” that they have approached an Under 18 coach who’s only been retired from playing the game two years. They talk about how Gerrard is “box office” and how the “cash registers will be ringing.” Well of course they will; mugs are always easily parted from their cash.
Remember this one? Spelling mistake and all.
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first; Sevco fans are nuts for thinking Celtic fans are in any way concerned about this possibility. The more cerebral of their supporters know this is a show-stopping risk of monumental proportions. They at least can see it as a mark of desperation and something almost unforgivable.
I’ll put it this way; when Neil Lennon was appointed interim boss I got behind it because what other choice was there? When our club conducted their “managerial hunt” and came up with Neil Lennon for the following season I was outraged.
Even hindsight has not convinced me that appointing him boss was the right thing to do. I was against it from the start, and remained unconvinced all the way through his tenure.
If Brendan left and we appointed him tomorrow, I would be unenthused but I would not be as furious as I was because I think he’s a better manager than he was then and he’s no longer learning on the job. At the time, that appointment was disgraceful because it was an unpardonable risk at a time when we did not need to make one.
Some will say Ronny was the same; it was as if the people running our club were asleep at the wheel and we were simply cruising with no destination planned.
Neil Lennon, don’t forget, was mid-way through a season when he took over. His first full season, we didn’t win anything. In his second we won the league after being a considerable distance behind McCoist’s team. Some Sevco fans, who are invoking him as the spiritual answer to their Gerrard doubts, have always said Rangers imploded rather than we played well, and after that said that our manager won his titles with “no competition.” Bear that in mind when they start talking about him as the guru of instant success, proving it can be done.
I’ll cover all this tomorrow in greater detail.
Like I said, a section of their support is well aware that approaching Gerrard is a huge risk, bordering on desperation. Is this a time when they can afford to take a chance, a wild punt, on a managerial nobody? Of course it isn’t, but rather than ask why they would Sevco fans are looking for reasons to be optimistic and there are precious few of them.
I’ve heard nonsense about how “box office” he is and how all of England will be talking about the club if this goes through. It’s bollocks. There will be a fleeting amount of interest and then they will get back to their EPL love-a-thon, probably within a week. The next time Gerrard is mentioned in their media will be when they are highlighting how badly things are going for him in his first managerial role, and debating how much it’s damaged him.
For now, here’s my honest-to-God view on it; I hope they get the deal done.
I will feel momentarily bad for Steven Gerrard as a man, because I know what Ibrox will do to him, but I will have limited sympathy beyond the first day because he will only take it if he ignores what that club is and the state of it. After that he deserves everything he gets and Ibrox will be Chernobyl for his future career prospects.
Steven Gerrard has exactly none of the qualities that would scare me in a prospective Sevco boss. None of them. There are candidates whose names have been mentioned and who would certainly not have made me laugh; I might declare who some of them are if they appoint this guy. They have the right combination of credentials and experience.
Tomorrow we will wipe Sevco all over a pulsing Celtic Park. The title party will bring to an end any notion they have of being close to us for the time being, but in the aftermath they will push that aside in the hope that another moonbeam is just around the corner. It will sell season tickets. It will fill their heads with foolish nonsense, like that which Mark Guidi was talking today about “a major investment”. Pure bullshit, I’m afraid.
But the sort that gets their club temporarily over the line, and perhaps the Gerrard appointment will be made on Monday and they can cling to that for comfort, those who don’t’ understand what it actually means. That no manager of renown wanted the job. That they were forced to go for the desperate, the mad or those who think it’s a bigger offer than they can turn down … those at the bottom of the tree and trying to work their way up. Like the hapless geezer in the manager’s office right now … but with less experience. I understand why life in the bubble seems warm and cosy to them. After tomorrow it’s all they have left.
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