Charlie Nicholas made his “prediction” on Sky the other day about the club’s chances of getting a result against Rennes, and he made a scandalous claim, that our club looks “scared” playing away from home in Europe. It is the kind of thing you expect him to say.
Our away form under Lennon so far has been excellent.
We went out of Europe at home, not away.
Indeed, this is one of the most relaxed Celtic teams I’ve seen away from home in Europe in a while.
Nicholas does not like Celtic.
We are the club who gave him his start in the game, and you would think he would perhaps show us a little smidgen of loyalty, but no.
Listen, we don’t want hacks who kiss our backsides; leave that to the side across the city, they are the ones who want a sycophantic press which tells them everything will be alright instead of telling them straight that their club is an unstable mess.
Let them lurch into disaster with the blindfolds on, as they have before. We aren’t asking for the press to play that game.
But what we ask for is basic fairness, and from an ex-player is that really too much to expect?
We know the answer, in relation to this guy, is a resounding no.
It’s not the criticism itself, it’s the highly personalised nature of it, the deep undercurrent of dislike, and even contempt, for us that runs through it in a way that’s impossible to miss.
He has always been difficult to take, has Nicholas.
He’s a man who has had his share of run-ins with our supporters, over a number of issues, down through the years. I used to think that he was simply a guy who wanted to keep his media masters sweet, and who realised that putting anti Celtic slant on stuff is what drives the sales and the ratings and the numbers.
You know what it is though?
This guy just doesn’t like our club. He just doesn’t like the people who run Celtic, possibly because they’ve never lauded him or feted him as some kind of hero, and why should they? They’ve watched the way he’s treated Celtic managers, slammed players, slagged off the fans and criticised previous boardrooms … and they know what he’s all about.
Charlie Nicholas is a self-promoter and long ago our club stopped paying attention to him and he does not like it and he does not like us as a result of that.
Anyone else might have said that Rennes a fine team – they are the French Cup holders and defeated PSG in the final – and that any club would find it difficult to go to their ground and win. But instead of simply focussing on their strengths and acknowledging that they would give most sides a game he turns it into a personalised attack on Celtic?
That’s where he stops being objective or even trying to be.
Forget a fair shake from this guy, it won’t ever happen.
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