Articles

Another Day Of Relentless Negativity Towards Celtic From Our Press Corps.

|
Image for Another Day Of Relentless Negativity Towards Celtic From Our Press Corps.

If I were keeping score, this would not be the first time in my living memory that Celtic were said to be in crisis before a match has been played in earnest, before a ball has even been kicked, before a single point has been played for or trophy contested.

Nor would it be the second time or the third time or even the fourth.

I don’t know how many times in my living memory I’ve read pre-season reports which make it seem as if turning up for the start of the real business is a waste of our time, but it’s a lot.

I still remember one newspaper breaking out the cracked crest because we had lost two friendlies in a row.

Yet for all that, it has probably never been so universally shouted from the mainstream press as it is right now.

To point out that such talk is hysterical seems unnecessary.

Yet we have to say it, because too many of our own fans are getting it into their heads that we’re still digging the hole deeper instead of trying to get out of it. Work is ongoing. The job is being done.

Is Ange frustrated? Yes, that’s readily apparent from his public remarks.

But frustration is not the same as spitting fury.

He has said things are not being done quickly enough, not that they aren’t being done.

He knows himself that several deals are already complete and others are in the pipeline.

He knows people are working hard, if perhaps just not fast enough.

This man has high standards … woe betide anyone at Celtic who falls below them.

Yesterday he also commented on the fitness of the players, and this was taken completely out of context by the media, when what he was actually lamenting was the game coming too early in the pre-season cycle – something every Celtic boss has complained about – and the way the Euros and other external factors have split the squad up and made it harder for him.

None of that was caused by any “shambles” at Celtic Park, and those making such a claim know that full well.

Yet they do it anyway.

Some of them are just dumb. Others have more sinister agendas.

There are some, like Charlie Nicholas, who tick both of these boxes.

He’s getting a full article later, but for now all I can say is that he’s once again proved his singular talent for writing stuff that is so stone stupid you feel a lobotomy might even nudge up his IQ.

The media’s entire outlook is centred on us losing this game tonight, because to them it will confirm us as a club in freefall instead of one led by two men who are working, bit by bit, towards solutions to problems someone else dumped in their laps.

If it isn’t The Record and its pet idiot, it’s the BBC publishing a piece about whether Ange can survive the season, before the season has even started.

Nobody in the press corps thinks we can do this tonight, nobody, as if we were playing the Champions of Europe instead of the Danes, who aren’t in a great place themselves right now.

Is it a big ask?

Well, it’s a tough game but one certainly within our capabilities.

If our bhoys rise to the level they’re capable of, I am so looking forward to the blogs tomorrow as we dole out the humble pie to these idiots.

Share this article