The Media Wants A Pressure Free Summer At Ibrox. They Won’t Get It.
Whatever we’d done last summer, we were never getting an easy ride of it in the media. Had we appointed Howe, early on, the pressure would have been no less than what it was.
One of the worst things about the situation we were in 370 days ago was knowing that the press was openly gloating at the state we were in, and the situation we were faced with.
But let’s not kid ourselves; we would have been eating shit anyway. We were being put under pressure from the minute the final whistle blew on the campaign prior to it.
Part of that was losing our title, but in the main the pressure was about the rebuild.
The problems were obvious. Some of our players were done, and that was clear. Others were coming up to the ends of their deals. The press was never going to let us even consider keeping them for the duration of those contracts.
From the start of the summer until the end, we were being told that we had to sell. Not that it was an option, but that the three key players – Ajer, Edouard and Christie – needed to go. Brown had gone already. The hacks expected that McGregor might clamour to follow them. The general picture being painted was of a club in total meltdown.
Ibrox has not faced any of that pressure.
The media appears in total denial as to the reality of their position, which is that their club faces an identical decision over Morelos, Kent and Aribo. They kept Goldson. They also resigned some of their ancient warriors. McGregor may or may not be next to commit to them. The media seems perfectly relaxed about it all.
The debate today is about how few signings they need; The Record panel barely thinks they need any.
Bizarrely, Sutton doesn’t think they need that many and I don’t think he’s kidding.
They have lost key members of their backroom team but there is no sense that this is a problem, as there would be if this was us.
Yet for all the deflection and denial that’s going on over there, the real problems remain.
They didn’t win the title last season. They needed extra time to win the Scottish Cup. Their club faces massive decisions over the squad … if Morelos, Kent and Aribo get to 1 September without signing new deals they are free to talk to clubs in January.
Can they really allow that? They seem in no hurry to resolve the issue.
Part of that is the media not asking the questions.
Barry Ferguson has been allowed to say that only one of them needs to be sold; this runs counter to any sort of logic or common sense, and the hacks would never have allowed us to even consider that.
I know that the situation over there is giving the Ibrox board nightmares.
They cannot afford to have their prized assets walk away for free.
They will be scrambling to offer them contract extensions and big money to stay … that will erase whatever budget they had to spend though, and if the offer for Bassey doesn’t come in – haha stop laughing – they really are goosed.
No wonder the media is being steered towards presenting them as a club that doesn’t need to change much. This blog has already said that it’s obvious from the new deals they’ve offered Davis and Arfield that they don’t intend to spend big … I guess the press painting that as no big deal should have been what we expected at this point.
Still, the idea of a peaceful summer over there is for the birds.
They are facing critical, make-or-break choices and enormous pressure to get them right whether the press likes that or not, whether their own fan media (what a joke that lot are, I’ll be covering that subject later on) likes it or not … a full-scale collision with reality will come in the next few weeks and months whether they like it or not.
If this was us, the press would be turning the dial up and up and up … but they are getting almost a free ride, and the picture being painted is one of calm. Inside the walls, I assure you it is anything but as troubles both related to the team and the club itself start to pile up ahead of this campaign. They will not have it easy, even if the hacks want it to be.
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Celtic’s greatest ever comeback was in 1967 against Inter Milan. How much of the game had been played before Celtic scored the equaliser?
