One of the most ridiculous of all this month’s Sevco-centric stories was the one that some of the media were running last night, about how Gerrard said he hoped his son would grow up a Sevco supporter.
Oh really? Liverpool fans are going to love that one.
Most importantly, I’m moved to ask, “Really?”
I know Gerrard isn’t the sharpest tool in the box, but this is pig ignorance on an epic scale.
There is so much wrong with this story I don’t know where to start.
How about with this; he wants his son to grow up and join the ranks of the sectarian singers and anti-Irish racists?
Is that the kind of ambition he really wants to have for his kid?
When our supporters mock the Sevconites with “your grandchildren will be Celtic fans” is that just about football supremacy without end?
No, it isn’t.
It’s an acknowledgment that one of the things that will matter here is demographics. Our fan base continues to expand because we’re an inclusive and welcoming club. As time has gone by theirs has become ever more insular, their world view narrower.
That’s not a recipe for growth but regression.
This is the support that wallows in child abuse stuff … and I’ve heard Gerrard praise them as “magnificent” even on those nights for which UEFA has sanctioned the club.
If he wants a little history on the “institutions” at Ibrox I suggest he read Stephen O’Donnell’s incredible book which I reviewed in detail here.
There may be some households where bigotry will be so ingrained that it will produce Peepul who still want to “kill a fenian before I die” but the next generation is going to detest all that stuff and everyone who’s a proponent of it.
That club will die a slow death. It’s been dying that slow death since its inception. Why do you think nobody came to the aid of Rangers?
Who wanted anything to do with an institution built on bigotry and hatred?
Civic Scotland walked the other way … and if anything the Ibrox NewCo which replaced it is even more hateful and destructive. More on that later.
In my view, Gerrard’s remarks are idiotic and makes a pretty big presumption about the kid himself, a kid who will certainly be a head smarter than his old man was, with all the advantages he’s going to have in life.
I have serious doubts that a young man growing up with a good education and a high standard of living is going to throw in his lot with some of the dregs of humanity.
Gerrard’s comments also suggest that the Ibrox honeymoon is going to go on forever and that is a very stupid assumption to make.
This ends in his sacking, and I think that’s pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain.
Once Celtic hoists the nine in a row flag the pressure on Gerrard will be enormous, the fans who currently laud him will be fuming with him as fear and loathing sweeps through the Ibrox support and the clamour for his head will force King’s hand.
His managerial career will have taken a major hit before it’s even properly started. There is no way he will ever be back at Anfield unless in the lowliest coaching capacity. Is he really going to pledge undying loyalty to the club that did that? I think not.
And why’s he focussed on his son anyway? He has other kids, right?
I could be speculating here but I think it is highly unlikely that Lourdes is ever going to put her name on an Ibrox season ticket.
When their fans sing about being up to their knees in fenian blood how long do you think it will take her to realise “hey, that’s me they’re talking about.”
Gerrard has thus far managed to avoid much of the baggage that weighs that club down, but it is a matter of time before he’s caught up in the net.
It happens to them all. Warburton was a smart guy but he, like those before him, took his place on the pitch at Linfield for the bigot’s beano and so will this guy in due course.
It will haunt him for the rest of his career, if not his life.
How’s he going to answer the questions when his own kids ask him “Dad, what in God’s name were you doing there?”
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