Nacho Novo is at it again. Today, an interview he’s given FourFourTwo has surfaced in which he repeats the ancient lie that he turned Celtic down to sign on at Ibrox.
The claim is, and the claim has always been, risible nonsense contradicted by the facts.
I have never been able to figure out who Novo is truly lying to here.
Is it the Ibrox fans, because he doesn’t want them to think he’d have signed for Celtic if the money had been right?
Is it the Celtic fans who he wants to mourn his “snub?”
Is he lying to himself, unable to take the hurt at being told that we didn’t consider him as valuable as he thought he was?
The press loves his version, although many of them are well aware that it is transparently fictitious.
Celtic’s manager at the time was Martin O’Neill; both he and the hierarchy at the club were adamant that Novo wasn’t worth the fee he demanded or the wages he thought he’d breeze up to Parkhead and command. He says Rangers proved they “wanted him more”; it’s code, and not well disguised code, for “they offered me more cash.”
At no point did it come down to a choice between Celtic and Rangers; that choice was never on the table for Novo.
He went to Parkhead for talks, the club heard what he was looking for and sent him on his way.
That’s the truth of it. He was snubbed. We were not.
He went across the city, signed for them and channelled all his bitterness.
Before long, he had swallowed their creed whole, and the Catholic from Ferrol in Spain turned himself into a twisted parody of uber-Protestantism, even making frequent sojourns over to Belfast to hobnob with the dregs of Ulster Loyalism, who he counts amongst his “friends” today where he’s a regular on their engagements circuit.
Novo is a loathsome little man, one of the vilest individuals ever to associate himself with the messy politics and nascent bigotry of this part of the world. It does something to the stupider folks who get tied up over there; I think he and Gascoigne are the shining examples of what happens when you put low wattage brain power in the vicinity of that toxic soup.
He lives in a world of utter fantasy because that lie he tells so regularly has come to define his life.
He’s repeated it so many times now I suspect that he believes it and doesn’t even question where his loathing of Celtic comes from.
Well it comes from coming to our club with a way too high opinion of himself and finding out that it wasn’t shared by the people he most wanted to impress.
Then, like many a jilted lover, he turned his hopes to hatred. It’s not unique.
Neither is he. A second rate player, the only thing Novo has ever excelled at is being a nasty minded little man.
At that, he genuinely holds his own.
Celtic do not sign players like Novo. Celtic decided that he was not the right type of character. He has since then shown that to be true by immersing himself in the bigoted culture of that club.
Novo was my mates next door neighbour in Broughty Ferry and helped him settle in etc, Billy is a big tim and Novo was forever in their house at parties wearing the hoops and there were videos to prove it and Novo was over the moon when he was to be linked with Celtic however he tried his hand and told Mon and Jim Hone from memory that rangers were willing to pay his gambling debts and MON had heard enough and showed him the door and that’s what he told Billy had happened, Novo was devastated and that’s why he’s such a prick towards us.
He’s a rotten individual, just like sevco so perfect match!
I didn’t like him but he done a job time and time again
Novo in some ways is no different to a lot of players.
He had a wage that he wanted, Celtic refused to meet that demand and he went elsewhere to someone who would pay.
What he does to mention is that wage demand was met by a Tax scam which HMRC are now chasing him for.
He now needs to jeep playing to that audience to get that audience to pay his tax bill.
You play football with your head/brain. He is lacking in that department. I suppose being of a certain religion he expect a shoe in at Celtic and after being shown the door he went to the highest bidder and adopted the kulchur like weak minded folk do. Celtic’s openness has proven to be extremely successful over the years.
His bitterness has probably got him a nice little earner like a lot of the leaches punditing on tv, radio and papers. If they go off kee lthey know their time is up and the next brain dead ex player is rolled up.
Ranjurs and are merely an income source and to guarantee that he buys into the whole bigotry scene to keep the cash flowing from the gullibillies. The ‘pub’ bearing his name in Glasgows south side has been renamed,,possibly sold on. Novo is just another has been given the oxygen of publicity by the Scottish media.