When Charlie Nicholas named his Team Of The Year last week there was an outbreak of fury amongst Ibrox’s fan media, and their online mobs.
Nicholas had picked six Celtic player; I argued that he could easily have picked more.
Now Kenny Miller has sparked further ire over there with his own selections.
He has gone for four Celtic players.
He chose Craig Gordon in goal instead of Hart and he drops Jota on the grounds that he’s picking an SPL team and the winger has missed a lot of games.
At least he has some rationale behind his thinking, even if I’d have had Jota in the team all day every day.
But he’s picked Ralston, McGregor and Rogic with Kyogo.
Basically, this is strikingly similar to the Nicholas selections and once more I would defy anyone to argue except perhaps in that Hart and Jota could easily have made the team as well.
The Ibrox fans are flapping because this is “one of their own” writing this stuff this time.
Two of their players made the team; Bassey and Aribo. Miller doesn’t think any of the rest of them has a case. None of these teams has a Hagi or Kent in it, because those two simply haven’t been good.
It is almost hard to believe, when you see how poor some of their regular starters have been, that this is the team which sits at the top of the table by six points.
It’s just one of the reasons why I believe we will win this title. We do have the better players.
On top of that, think of these team of the year selections as an audition for the player of the year awards at the end of the season, and what’s clear already is that the conversation will be entirely dominated by one question; which Celtic player will it be?
The reason they are top is simple They keep getting rescued by referees giving favourable decisions enabling them to win games usually by a goal late in the game.
How many points have they accrued in this way?
Why do they consistently get awarded more penalties for and fewer against than any other team, even during the quadruple treble years?
Why have they never had a player sent off by a Scottish referee in the past 2 years of league games?
We all know the answer to these questions, and it’ the ONLY reason they’re top of the league.
The reason they are top and won last year is they are better. We got a late pen and missed versus Livingston. They got two valid ones against Hibs and DundeeUtd. And scored. We have dropped five points to Livingston. We haven’t got near beating them in two years. They usually beat us with a set piece where we can’t defend or threaten. The League does not lie they were relentless last season and this season we lost the first three away games. We are six points behind because we dropped five to Livingston and lost via a late set pieces at Ibrox. And we couldn’t even score v a weak St Mirren. We need to look at ourselves and improve.
You sound almost ready to chuck in the towel …
Just massively frustrated we had a massive lead over them and let the power flip to them. Until we accept we are behind we won’t spend what it will take to get the power back. I want us to win not be claiming we are better or unlucky but ultimately be losing. We are close to winning more trophies than any team in the World. Let’s be relentless and invest what it will need to get us there. We all want to win … I think we need more quality to do so.
Spot on with every point made Mark. We have been miles away from where we should be. The problems were self inflicted. Time for a strong window and kick on.
Love your posts, Kenny is a blue nose, but an honest guy, I still think he enjoyed his day’s at our great club, but for other reasons can’t admit it.
I want us to win not to be moaning about why we don’t win or pretend we have better players when the last year has shown we have not. We are six behind. I want us to support Ange spend more of the 100m we have taken in fees. I don’t care what Miller or Nicholas say the results and league tell us we have to improve.
This. You’re bigging up Nicolas and Miller because they choose a majority of our players is pathetic. Ange needs to beat that lot in February. Then he needs to go to Ibrox and win. They won the league last season because their team – not individuals – functions better than ours. This season is shaping up the same. When assessing their penalties, I use the measure “would we be up in arms if it wasn’t awarded to us?” It’s hard to see any conspiracy in the penalty awards to them. Put simply? We need to be better than them eleven v eleven. Over to you Ange.
We might have better players but we don’t have any referees signed, therein lies the problem, the refs are worth the guts of a dozen points a season to Sevco.
We can’t beat that.
My glass must be half empty then, James cos as I see it, the fact we’re 6 points behind such a poor side means we won’t win the league. Poor as Sevco are, the MIB are playing blinders for them. Every game.
The winner of the next Celtic v Sevco game will probably be champions.