BBC Scotland’s “Club Player Of The Year Article” Seems Bizarrely Anti-Celtic And Pro Ibrox.

Words are what I do for a living. So I am interested in words. I am interested in the way they represent reality. I am interested in tone. I am interested in the ways in which the words people use can reveal bias. You see a lot of bias when you read our media.

I may be going mad tonight, but I think the BBC’s puff piece on who the media and fans chose as each club’s player of the year reeks like a dead fish left under a bed. It’s the words that bother me, and the tone of it.

This is what the Celtic section says.

“Benfica’s 23-year-old winger Jota has been a stand out as Celtic won a Premiership and League Cup double, with 13 goals and 12 assists, to lead in both the fans and writer’s polls. Whether he will still be at the club next season is yet to be seen, with an option to buy on the table but only after a considerable transfer fee is paid to the Portuguese giants. Japanese star Kyogo Furuhashi is close behind him but injury problems have curtailed his efforts, with David Turnbull’s early season form, and the outgoing Tom Rogic’s recent inspired performances, both putting them close.”

You have to love the negativity in the paragraph about Jota, and that’s what it is. Negativity. You also have to love how they focussed on Kyogo’s injuries and Tom Rogic being “outgoing.” Where’s Callum? Abada? Where’s Giakoumakis? I guess the players who have been stellar for Celtic are only worth mentioning if they’ve been injured or are leaving.

Is it just me? Or does that read as wrong to other people?

Read the Ibrox piece. Nothing but positives. It is markedly different in tone.

“The battle to be (Ibrox) player of the season had more players fighting for the crown than any other club. Captain James Tavernier’s incredible season – 13 goals and 14 assists in the league, as well as notching his 80th goal for the club in the win over Motherwell – has him just ahead of Fashion Sakala and Joe Aribo in the writers’ award. He was close to taking the fans’ award, with Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos also battling away, but goalkeeper Allan McGregor is the man who just edged it. Of late his performances may have dipped slightly, but at the beginning of the season he was in outstanding form to win the acclaim of the support.”

That makes it sound like they were all absolutely brilliant. Am I crazy? Am I mad?

The crown, by Christ?

Have these people seen the team of the years? How many Celtic players?

How many from the Ibrox side?

Half of those Celtic players aren’t even mentioned in our segment.

Yet there are namechecks in that one for several Ibrox players … and four of them, by the way; Kent, Morelos, Aribo and McGregor, might be “outgoing.” No mention of that though.

This is what I do all day every day, and it makes you cynical sometimes.

But tell me, honestly, am I wrong about this or is that brazenly anti-Celtic and pro-Ibrox, whether intentionally or not?