The Gordon Brown premiership was notable for the utter failure that it was.
For years, he agitated to become the successor to Tony Blair.
He schemed and plotted. He undermined. He opposed numerous policies. He torpedoed Blair’s dream of taking us fully into Europe when he commandeered controlled of the decision to reject joining the Euro.
Yet when Brown got to Downing Street it became blindingly obvious that he didn’t really arrive with a plan for the country.
In many ways that’s like Boris Johnson right now. Brown was an honest and decent man, whereas Johnson is a born barefaced liar … but the two have one thing in common.
They massively underestimated the job of being Prime Minister.
Johnson underestimated it because he thinks he can do anything, but actually hates being bogged down in work. Brown’s underestimation, and that of his team, was of a different sort entirely. Such was their arrogance, they looked at Blair and his staff and the way they performed, and Brown told his own people “if they can do it, so can we.”
There is an obvious contempt at the root of that sentiment. And when you look at the coverage of Brian Laudrup’s comments in the paper this morning, talking about Celtic’s “chaos” last summer you can feel that radiating off the page at you.
Ibrox does look at Celtic Park and often thinks “if they can do it so can we.”
It’s in everything that happens over there. They look at our multi-million strip deals and believe that they are entitled to the same.
Not that they can get what we do, but that they are entitled to.
Part of it is tied up in their “Old Firm” fantasy. They think that just the idea that they are in some way our equal, or partner, in that disregarded enterprise gives them a leg-up and it does not matter how little our club shows interest in that.
One of the best things we ever did, and a decisive move away from them, was to cease any form of joint negotiations over sponsorship or kit deals … that hamstrung them.
They look, too, at our transfer policies.
Just because we’ve been able to realise high valuations for our top players, they presume that they can simply do what they watch us doing, even if, like Brown’s team, they don’t quite understand the skill involved or the fundamentals of doing so.
They look at the Kieran Tierney deal and think “we have a left-back, he has to be worth the same …” without any consideration as to whether talent has anything to do with it.
This whole thing about last summer and how we managed to do it is just another version of the same arrogant presumption.
But we had two massive advantages they don’t have; we got something like value for the players we shipped out and we had a manager with an exceptional knowledge of the game in the far East … and a philosophy, coupled with total control over the plan. The manager was the right fit and he had money to spend.
They make everything sound so simple over there, don’t they?
“Oh look, Celtic did it … we’ll just copy them.”
It’s as if it hasn’t dawned on them that maybe it’s not as easy as it looks.
It’s only when you’re actually attempting them – as Brown finally did – that you realise that there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Bloody blinkered idiots.
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I had to laugh at the Record’s desperation. They sqeezed “total chaos” at Celtic a total of 4 times into a short article. (Once in the headline and three times in the text.) It was almost as if they were trying to give the bears some sort of subliminal message. It certainly reeked of desperation and made me smile.
Yes, I see Brian Laudrup is trying to give the Huns a bit of heart by comparing their present close season situation to Celtic’s “utter chaos” situation from the start of last season before us going on and winning the league and defying all the critics. He’s not entirely wrong and in fact the Huns are in a far better place right now than we were a year ago. He is telling them that anything is possible, no matter the negatives, and I suppose he is giving them a glimmer of hope as is his intention.
However there is one thing missing from his analogy, the all important ‘Ange factor’. They have Gio, they don’t have Ange and his magic wand to make the impossible possible and, since there is only one Ange then, try as they might, they will have to settle for second best once again. We welcome the chase!
I never read anything this tw*t says , you know it’s just going to be cheerleading stuff
Did he also put the ” Rangers* should be asking for £25m upwards for Bassey ” in the article that every ex hun is now required by law to say ?
“Laudrup o’ clock”. HH
A decent player, Laudrup was vastly over rated when he played in Scotland because he played for the huns, and sank without trace when he moved to England.
Compare and contrast the career of Henrik Larsson, a truly world class footballer who graced the grounds of Scotland and won amazing success here before moving onto even better things abroad.
Laudrup has no qualifications to be pontificating about Scottish football.
He was a mediocre one trick pony as a player with a tendency to fall over at the slightest touch, which was enabled by accommodating officials and a lickspittle media.
His opinions now have no relevance.
The ‘only thing going for them’ is their manager.
Laudrup bare faced liar, same as the bare faced liar, running Scotland, you never mention.
Your right also it serves the huns well in many other ways forget we have a Real Global fan base in reality they have west central scotland and few bigots overseas no real fans well who want to be part of that poison! Trust me having lived overseas and saw how the typical orc realises he/ she cant act like they do in brigadoon Scotland, they soon discard oldco as proven in 2012! And now sevco! We have a real modern stadium to ( tho should be even better) New main stand should be a priority ! And done right with semetary with both corners brought up to ! Giving us 72,000 at least! Really show how bigger we are! Their old director Adam told them the truth in 2002! About how bigger Celtic are! Which we all knew anyway but Scotland is a weird place with enablers in position of power driving this pathetic narrative which is utter fantasy! We should still state publically to everyone in media a d sky no ” o f”! As there in is the real problem only in ” brigadoon” eh