One of Scotland’s dumbest journalists – Keith Jackson of the Daily Record – has attempted to grab the spotlight from Celtic’s excellent campaign by claiming that “2003 belonged to Celtic” and that by the same token this year belongs to the club from Ibrox.
Yet his article points out that in 2003, Rangers won the domestic treble. I remember those days very clearly, and as I’ve written on this blog before 2003 was not a triumph at all simply because we made it to a European final. We didn’t win it. We didn’t win anything. 2003 was a defeat. It was a defeat with some happy memories, a glorious defeat, but it remains a fact that we did not win a single thing and Rangers did the clean sweep.
Who won manager of the year that year? It wasn’t Martin O’Neill, although we took the title to the very last day and got to the League Cup Final as well as Seville. No, Alex McLeish won it, as a manager should when he wins the lot at home.
Not a single person in the Scottish media – and certainly not Jackson – has ever made the ridiculous claim before that Celtic were the dominant team of 2003. They would laugh at the suggestion if it had been pitched by one of our fan sites.
This is nothing but a smokescreen to cover the basic fact that last season’s league title winners have had to settle, this year, for a Scottish Cup and the press has to somehow turn that into a glorious campaign.
Yes, they reached a European final. Dare I say it? Must I be forced, again, to go back to the stats? Seven wins in twenty-one fixtures, nineteen of them in the Europa League. That’s the form on which this fantasy land version of the campaign rests.
Look, I am happy that they’ve convinced themselves that this was some kind of successful season; a Scottish Cup is no more than St Johnstone won in the last one. I am glad that the overhyped European run means they are giving Van Bronckhorst another year … his one dimensional tactics may have held this season but that sort of strategy ultimately can’t.
Still, it is insulting to be fed such obvious rot from a hack attempting spin control. 2003 was not Celtic’s season any more than 2022 was the Ibrox club’s. This year belonged to us, without any question, without any debate.
Nobody credible believes anything else.
Aaron Ramsey the player who was billed as the game changer , the best signing in Scotland in ten years , who cost them a European trophy and £50m is now being deemed as not a massive flop but ‘ Hugely Disappointing ‘
Hyping up Ryan Kent again . Has he done anything this season ?
This is after them winning one trophy in 4 , f*ck me , can you imagine what they’d be coming out with if they had won on Wednesday night
If they had won on Wednesday night apparently they are going to repeat it again next season in champions league this is the say so on FF.
When they brought mcgregor on in cup final I thought they were going to hook kent.
2003 we had an amazing team and a great UEFA Run. They won the treble. I always recall 2003 as a terrific season. Its the same here. This year we had a great season 2/3 domestic trophies. They had a tremendous go at the Europa League. Both had great seasons. Futile arguments about who had best season are irrelevant by Jackson and by this blog frankly. The sour grapes around the Ibrox run to Seville has been staggering, it was a tremendous achievement for them. Our focus must be how do we do better in Europe. Our post Christmas results last 17 years have been woeful. We need to focus on how they get to a UEFA final but we cannot get near it. Lets get behind Ange and note next year will be another close battle our rivals have not gone away. They got to that final, won the Scottish Cup and lost only to Dundee Utd and us in the League. These are two close teams and I look forward to the battle next year, lets back Ange…
Remember James that 2003 treble winners were cheating to achieve this feat.
Beaten by a team 11th in the German league all these so called pundits putting in their tuppence worth about what they achieved, answer nothing,a false league win last season is it more spectacular loan deals next season just like the great Rambo, no money to spend after paying Mike Ashley.
Typical knuckledraggers statement from jackson,everyone knows how bad the media is in Scotland,its always been the same.
Mr jacko (conveniently) leaves out the major difference in the two respecive season’s, the original Rangers didn’t automatically qualify for the Champions League as league winners….
HH