From what I can gather, Gary McAllister has been misquoted by the media today.
Sensationalist headlines accompany his latest interview, to the tune that he has refused to concede the title. I see nothing like that in what he’s reported to have said, but what there is in the reports is the repeated assertion that the season must be completed.
I guess that amounts to the same thing. Finish the campaign; it’s the best way.
But McAllister got off with answering the real question, which is what should happen if that proves to be impossible. McAllister won’t get asked that question, because he won’t answer it. Even more importantly, neither will Steven Gerrard.
The media is treating this pair with a respect and a leniency they do not merit.
When they had Lennon in front of them he was asked the question a half dozen times before he answered it, and so they had their headlines and their banner quotes.
Journalists who were there have described it as ridiculous.
Lennon would have been asked that question until either he gave them what they wanted or until he terminated the whole sit-down.
McAllister, like Gerrard, will be spared such a grilling.
Neither can be counted on to say the “right thing” by the Sevco media department, but the ex-Liverpool captain and floundering manager least of all. They know what he would say, because it’s all he could say lest his giant ego be punctured by the wrath of the support which idolises him.
Gerrard doesn’t want to upset Liverpool, not that he would because he knows full well they should have their title as we should have ours. As such, he has done his level best to stay out of the media spotlight. Sevco’s manager is in hiding, it’s as simple as that.
They are keeping him hidden out of the way, like the Russians did with Andropov and Chernenko when they were ill, as a salve against embarrassment.
I think it’s our media who should be embarrassed. Getting Gerrard on the record over this is their job. His saying Liverpool don’t deserve the title if the season is brought to an early close would be a sensational story both here and in England.
His saying Celtic deserves theirs would be massive too.
Of course, it’s just possible that he would ride the middle of the road, that he’d say Liverpool’s lead is unassailable and that Celtic can still be caught, but that mealy mouthed nonsense would cut no slack whatsoever and make him seem like a dithering fool.
Because the obvious follow up question is this; “if the league cannot be completed then Celtic cannot be caught … what then?”
And they know that’s the question he will be unable to answer.
He’s getting a free ride. So is McAllister, which is why nobody bothered to ask him the big question either.
Give Michael Beale his due; the ex-Anfield coach might have given the most ludicrous answer of all them so far on this – that the league be decided based on rankings at the halfway stage – but he at least took it on. But he was thrown out there because Gerrard couldn’t face the hacks himself.
The more you look at Sevco’s so called great leader of men, the more you wonder if he possesses even a yard of guts. You don’t have to be a regular reader on this blog or on the other Celtic sites to know that the esteemed gentlemen of our press do not.
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