Last night, we saw the latest shocking incident involving Alfredo Morelos.
I use the word shocking loosely.
It was not a shock to see him viciously stamp on a rival player, although that kind of thing easily meets the textbook definition.
It was not a shock, either, to see the referee do nothing about it, because this was Morelos after and he seems to have immunity from red cards.
No the truly shocking thing about it was just how un-shocking the whole scenario was.
We are used to this now; it’s become a Trumpian type of thing where we now just shrug our shoulders and say “well it’s him, isn’t it?” followed by “and he gets away with murder.”
He went on to score the winning goal and was immediately wrapped in the cotton wool of deflect and deny by his manager, but really I don’t know why Gerrard bothers any longer with the charade.
He saw it and approves of it, that’s obvious or he’d do something about it.
He should just be brazen about it like the player himself, like the refs who waive away the protests.
Jack Ross went on the telly and the radio and moaned about how the decision had cost them, as we would have moaned, as Lennon did moan about the Bitton sending off, and other incidents down through the years.
Every club would have moaned.
Over the last decade, every club has moaned, repeatedly.
But none of them – and that includes us – has ever actually done a damned thing about it except blow off some steam in the aftermath of a bad decision or two.
Nobody ever actually seriously proposes reform.
Nobody ever actually demands that changes be made.
So all this moaning, it is tiresome and futile and I just wish they wouldn’t bother unless it’s backed up by serious action, and it never, ever is.
The media will continue to call these things “errors” and “mistakes”, websites like this will continue to highlight them, clubs will complain … and that’s the extent of it.
In five years we’ll be singing the same song, and in ten years all that’s changed will be the addition of some extra verses.
I see no evidence that the clubs are ever going to get real about it.
I mean, what exactly have they been waiting for up until now?
For things to improve on their own?
Try that if you have a medical condition which would usually require an operation.
See if it goes away by itself.
Is it because clubs are lazy or lack bottle?
It’s certainly not because we’re happy at the current standards, because nobody outside of Ibrox is.
It’s gone on this long, and gotten this bad, because the clubs have allowed it to and we’re the biggest culprits because we should have been leading the way.
It was just one of a number of things we didn’t do which would have made a huge difference to where we are.
The game in this country is a joke, and until we fix it the joke is on us and on teams like us who hope for a level playing field they are never going to get.
Apart from Morelos last night Hibs were denied a stonewall penalty, but that’s not a surprise either because the Ibrox club hasn’t had one awarded against them all season and I see no way that’ll change.
I have no sympathy for Hibs or any other club, including ours, which falls victim to the Honest Mistakes over and over again.
Why should I? Why should anybody?
As certain people will push you only up to the level of your tolerance, so too refs and the governing body will walk all over clubs only to the point where the clubs start pushing back.
Until that happens, Morelos can do as he likes, Ibrox never has to fear conceding penalties and people like Jack Ross are just pissing in the wind.
If club chairman had any balls they’d stop whining and actually do something about this instead of letting themselves and the whole game be cheated in this blatant fashion.