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Celtic Needs Proper Clarification On These Emergency Measures Without Further Delay.

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Yesterday, Motherwell took over 30 cars with them on their trip to Celtic Park, according to their manager and members of their squad.

We have no reason to doubt it.

Fortunately, the trip, for most of them, wasn’t terribly far.

A very different scenario awaits us this week.

We are travelling to Ross County, in the Highlands, for our next league game and the idea that our players should take their own cars to that guarantees exhaustion for all of them before the game has even kicked off.

It won’t happen like that; instead Celtic plans to take a fleet of coaches, splitting the squad into smaller groups so that if there’s an outbreak on one bus it doesn’t affect, unduly, the squad as a whole.

I am not dismissing the restrictions or arguing against them; regular readers will be well aware that I support the government in whatever it has to do.

What I’m against are confusing and contradictory messages about what our club should do, and that’s what they’ve had in the last few days.

Regulations handed down by football appear to be superseded by that from the government, and when Ange was asked about this yesterday he said the club was awaiting clarification.

I was tempted to ask him who’s advice the club would go with if that clarity wasn’t afforded us by Tuesday; I didn’t because I cannot imagine any circumstances where we would make our preparations for that game without that clarity having been given.

Today we’ll be seeking that clarity. We need to get it.

The governing bodies have, as per usual, made a proper pigs ear of this and until it’s sorted we have to assume the worst and book those coaches. God alone knows what Hibs will do at the weekend when their entire squad has to travel to Glasgow, probably by car.

That would be less than ideal for them.

Our multi-coach plan sounds better, on the surface, but how many players to a coach?

Five? Six?

Imagine even one of them gets this at the current time; can we lose five or six additional players on top of the injuries we currently have, and still expect to be able to play games and stay competitive?

So that information, when we get it, will be most welcome.

Perhaps I’m just giving the authorities more credit than they are due, because Nicola Sturgeon plans to make a major announcement tomorrow and the game is 30 some hours later, and we too also have a cup final to arrange for the weekend.

If it goes ahead, and I guess we’ll find that out tomorrow as well.

The game at the start of the New Year is clearly under threat right now, and you only have to look south of the border to see it where the new regulations, coupled with fresh outbreaks at several clubs, plunged the weekend into chaos to match what Spurs and Leicester had to put up with in Europe in midweek.

It didn’t turn out well for either club.

It is madness, of course, but we live amidst madness now. The danger is that it’s becoming normal to feel this way, to think this way, to have this hanging over our heads, and I don’t want any of it to become normal or feel normal.

But it’s clear we’re a ways from being back to normal.

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  • Henrik Guevare says:

    Aye and I’ll bet its Parks Buses another issue that wasn’t raised at the AGM

  • SSMPM says:

    Worrying times ahead for Hoops fans. I think the team respond and up their game when the fans roar us on so I hope the fan silence on Sunday is not repeated by a covid affected near or empty Hampden Park. HH

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