A Daily Record headline today has our new goalkeeper “urging” his “critics” to give him space and time to grow into the Celtic team.
In a week when I’ve been writing about that newspaper’s war of attrition against Shane Duffy, before he’s even in the shirt, it is no surprise to see them switching their focus now to our goalkeeper.
He is “under fire” if you believe this rag. From who?
From our media enemies, a witless section of our support who would have sold Larsson after his debut and Andy Walker.
People nobody in their right mind should be taking seriously.
I’m going to address our own fans first, and if you’re reading this you know who you are.
I’ve read social media comments writing this guy off already and when I do I wonder who needs a mainstream media to undermine our footballers when we have such rampaging ignorance in our own ranks. Barkas is a new player in a new team in a new country.
He has played a grand total of five games for our club. Three out of five were clean sheets.
So what’s he being judged on here? Two matches? Are you people kidding me? Forster had 17 clean sheets in his season at Celtic Park … in 39 games. Barkas is already well on course to beat that record. Yet some of the comments I’ve read about him have been shocking.
Honestly, some of our fans need to get a grip.
At the moment I’m glad there are no fans in grounds, because if discontent at this guy spreads as a result of some of the negativity being dumped on him I don’t want him hearing it in the stands. This is why the blogs exist; to break the media’s ability to make us turn on our own.
Some folk make the job easy for them.
Where are the negative headlines about Ibrox players?
Nowhere, and there never will be. There are obvious questions already over Hagi but the hacks aren’t going to ask them. None of them asked whether Balogun was injury-prone although his career record virtually demands that question, and what do you know? He’s injured already.
But the hacks ignore that stuff, completely.
Which brings me to Andy Walker, a man so dumb he’s the village idiot who wandered out of town one night for a pee and hasn’t been able to find his way back.
I hear Michael Gannon is auditioning for his former job.
I’m not even engaging with the pish he talked this week. He’s a joke and long since passed the point where he was anything else.
This is the company some of our fans are in.
Honestly, our club is always in the line of fire but there are times – like this – when it’s so obvious and so ridiculous that it begs to be called out as what it is.
This is blatant. It is undisguised. The press will chip away until they find a weak point and then they will hammer on it. Bolingoli’s Celtic career was already undermined by these people before his own self-destructive behaviour, and you know what?
I’m not sure that the former wasn’t at least part of the cause of the latter.
If I were Barkas I wouldn’t be asking these people for time and space, I’d be telling them where they could put their spiteful coverage.
I’d be telling them to shut it, but of course he’s done the right thing because that would make matters worse.
The best thing he can do is do it on the park, and I have no doubts he will.
I base that on his previous club record, his international caps, his career before Scotland.
What do his critics base it on? A couple of matches?
No, the crest on his shirt, and that’s the simple truth of it.
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