James article earlier on Gamboa and Lustig was balls on accurate.
On top of that, I would actually include Boyata for praise too.
This has been a good World Cup for our defenders so far.
And as a result of this there’s a question we must ask.
Why do players that international World Cup managers rate and respect and play get slaughtered in Scotland?
Even, at times, from our own fans?
In my view it is another point of the “back of the bus” attitude that we are expected, even by our own, to follow.
You may be sick of me bringing this up, but I wont stop, as the only way to deal with these issues is to keep them front and centre.
The fact is we are sometimes taught to believe that we, as Celtic fans, shouldn’t say too much about how good we are, or how good our players are.
This comes from the press and Sevco people in certain positions.
It’s almost as if our believing in our team is wrong somehow.
Take Mikael Lustig; he has been an excellent servant to us, he needs back up at right back, not because he is a bad player – he has shown he is not – but his age is now becoming an issue.
He needs rest, but even his injuries, which were issues earlier in his career, are not as bad.
But that he needs back up is not in dispute.
Why can’t Gamboa be it?
Is it possible that he is just getting fully settled and ensconced at Celtic? I don’t hear any major issues about why he is not in the team.
What the press would have you believe is that our right backs are really poor and a soft spot; they are not.
They defend first and if they can they are able to move forward as well.
They are the epitome of modern day full backs.
And the same applies to Boyata at central defence; he wins headers and can play from the back.
This is the way Brendan wants us to play football; steady, building from the back, a passing game. He wants footballers, not people who simply batter the ball up the park.
The hacks don’t like this, this is further proof that we are moving forward as a club, stepping away from those who would hold us back and they want us to be restricted in this so they disparage our footballers and they look at every single error and emphasise it.
There have been many examples throughout the decades, you may not recall but they tried it with Larsson and have done it with plenty of others.
“These guys are only good enough here.”
“They can’t step up to a higher level.”
Etc, etc. etc.
Yet here these guys are, at the highest level of all … and playing well.
Yet when its players in other teams, such as Sevco, they are hailed as world beaters all over our press; remember the praise that James Tavernier and Martyn Waghorn were getting for playing well in the Championship?
You’d have thought the England manager had Warburton on his speed-dial.
So we have to promote our own, realise what quality we have, and revel in it.
It’s time we realised we are not at the back of the bus, we are driving it now.
David Campbell is a Celtic fan and blogger from Glasgow, and he is glad that the world acknowledges how good our players are even if the hacks here at home won’t.