There are eight Celtic players in the SPL Team Of The Season.
That there aren’t at least nine is a travesty, I’m afraid, the kind of bad joke that comes from having the fans voting on this stuff and doing it in such a way that they reward losers.
Let me explain how the voting worked; each position was voted on, none of them more than once.
Which means that in a 4-4-2 system there was only voting slot available for the best striker and one for the best central midfielder.
The places were awarded for who finished first and who finished second; this makes it very Glasgow-centric for a start.
It means that Morelos got in by virtue of coming second to Edouard and that Ryan Jack somehow made the midfield ahead of Scott Brown, although not surprisingly both finished behind Callum McGregor, who was way out in front.
Normally I wouldn’t entertain such frivolous nonsense, but that is just untenable.
To leave Scott Brown out of the Team of the Year is like a bad joke, and to have Ryan Jack in there in front of him takes absurdity to a whole new level.
Even if Jack had played superbly well this campaign – and he didn’t – he’s not a patch on Scott Brown, whose only competition in that role was McGregor. This is what happens when you allow the public to vote and you allocate success and failure in such a daft way.
It’s not like it’s the only thing, because others are missing from the Team of the Year as well; there’s no place, for example, for Ryan Christie and only could a fool would even attempt to argue against his inclusion. Change the formation to one up front and he has to play in the hole behind Eddie.
Sam Cosgrove had a good claim to finishing ahead of Morelos in the 4-4-2, and actually so did Defoe who scored more goals and got more assists than the Colombian ned.
Also, should you really be in the Team of the Season if you only turned up for half of it?
Most of the rest I can’t really argue with; Barisic probably makes it because Tierney isn’t in Scotland any longer, or there would almost certainly be nine Celtic players in that team and two Sevconuts there as some kind of act of charity.
Neither of them really belongs there.
You could, as I said, make an argument for Defoe with more goals and assists than Morelos or for Cosgrove … and if you changed formation Ryan Christie would pretty much walk into the team … but Ryan Jack isn’t even funny.
That’s where I call bollocks on the lot of it.
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