The BBC Just Trapped Ange Into Endorsing The Aussie Farce. Blame Celtic For That.

Before the game tonight I caught Ange doing an interview with self-confessed Ibrox fan Kenny McIntyre, and of course he only wanted to do one thing and that was promote the Australian farce. Ange is clearly totally unaware of how the fans feel about this and McIntyre did not bother to enlighten him. No matter. Someone will soon.

Until that happens, Ange must not, in any way, be held responsible for this dire and indefensible decision that was taken above his head. I am absolutely certain that he was not informed beforehand that this was a controversial idea. Like a lot of other people who view our club from afar he has no idea of the politics and history that we have with the “Old Firm” issue or with our own board’s inconsistent, and even deceitful, stance on it.

Ange has already seen some stuff that would be considered weird elsewhere but here it is as normal as toast and coffee in the morning. He had to deal with a fan presser where he was expressly warned not to trust the media or officialdom. He knows already the logic of that. He had to watch in what must have been bafflement as the loudest fans in the ground effectively went on strike over the club’s abhorrent decision to offer a job to Bernie Higgins.

So the idea that fans might not be as overjoyed about the prospect of playing a match in Australia against our domestic challengers probably hasn’t dawned on him at all, but I doubt that he’ll be in the least bit surprised by it. I do suspect that he’ll be less impressed when he’s clued in on one salient detail no-one at the club will mention; that the board of directors agreed to this, and put his name on it, knowing that our fan-base loathed the very idea of it.

But that’s on them, not on the big guy himself. He cannot continue to be in ignorance of it though and I think it is better that someone rips the scab off this running sore right away. Ange needs to know what the depth of feeling on this is like because cynical bastards like McIntyre, aided and abetted by those at the club, are going to leave him twisting in the wind otherwise.

We have to show understanding in the meantime. Ange did not do this. This decision was taken over his head and he was shoved into the spotlight to promote something nobody else at the club has the guts to attempt to. That man has been giving a proper going over here by those over his head. He should not be blamed for it.

Nor should he kept in the dark over it though.