The news, last night, that our new left back has been arrested in Glasgow City Centre for a “road traffic offence” left me shocked, and stunned, and pissed off with the guy.
Before I write another word, the media is making allegations about other incidents for which there is not the least public evidence and none of us should be involved in spreading rumours to that end.
Leave that to the hacks and their penchant for mischief.
There is nothing about that in the Police Scotland statement and I think we can trust their version more than the tabloid gossip.
Still. What a goddamned idiot he has been here.
Getting behind the wheel drunk is no joke. It’s a flat-out disgrace and he should be severely sanctioned for it.
He’s new in the country. New to the team. New to representing this club.
He will almost certainly cop a major fine from Celtic.
What happens after that we’ll find out in due course, but this act of sheer recklessness is almost limitlessly stupid and there need to be major consequences for it. He won’t be bagged or binned, those arguing for that are over-reacting, but by God he can’t get off with a slap on the wrist either. He is deservedly in big trouble.
What in God’s name was going through his mind?
He’s finding it tough enough to get into the side without being at the centre of a circus like this.
If he came here expecting a free ride and an easy path to the team, well Greg Taylor has had something to say about that and Ange will most definitely not be in the least bit impressed.
Whatever superstar pretensions he may have come here with, he had best get over them swiftly.
To be part of this unit, you have to be made of the right stuff.
Ange talks about a certain type.
This guy has pissed all over his team-mates and the dressing room, and if he wants to be part of Celtic he had better shape up or he will be shipped out pronto and the manager will not even hesitate.
It doesn’t matter what he cost or what his rep is, the boss will simply not tolerate this kind of thing, and he will not allow it to disrupt the squad.
This, to me, is up there with the Bolingoli disgrace of a couple of years ago.
But I said that I thought the big guy was thrown to the wolves over that, especially as Ibrox’s wayward idiots didn’t get the public slating that he did when they had their own moments of madness, but nobody mourned for him because most people had made up their minds that he just wasn’t that good anyway, and saw it as a chance to get him moved on.
We’ll see how this is dealt with, but before anyone gets past it, this guy needs to apologise to the whole club, and the support, and start focussing on his game.
He has given himself one Hell of a mountain to climb and he only has himself to blame for it. If he thinks he’s here on holiday or that this isn’t going to be a demanding environment he better think again, get real and start to focus.
He’s put himself under enormous scrutiny and immense pressure, and some of our supporters are pretty relentless and unforgiving at the best of times. His honeymoon is over already. He doesn’t get to make many more mistakes.
Even if this is a one-off moment of stupidity – and that happens; Edouard, don’t forget, was involved in an incident far worse than this before we signed him – it’s the last thing he needed before we’ve really seen him play.
Sorry, James, that’s a wild, bordering on disgraceful over reaction. Like the rest of us you have no idea the extent of his intoxication. Could have been 1mg over the limit; could have been treble. Until we have facts it’s maybe wiser to not pass comment. This lad is new to UK. Who knows the laws where he comes from?
I think we should be in the transfer market for a new Left Back before the window closes.
Is that right, aye.
What’s your point caller?
In any country it is a no no to get behind the wheel of any vehicle under the influence of alcohol if that is the case he has not a leg to stand on but let the facts of the matter come out before judgement or condemnation.
How shocking for you to take this stance.
There is a wonderful and very supportive article on another Celtic site which I have had the pleasure of praising on that very site. It was reasoned, compassionate and supportive.
There are excellent Celtic blog sites and also poor ones. Yours today has fallen into the latter category. What you have written above James s a disgrace and you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself. Without any information you have gone rushing in, without having the facts available. You have simply jumped on the press bandwagon.
Also, the comment from Johnny Green is as mindless and stupid as they get.
Compare this with Jim’s reasoned and factual comment. Respect to you Jim.
In my opinion. being mindless and stupid is ignoring the consequence should it all go tits up.
Having covered many court cases there is a world of difference between “getting behind the wheel while drunk” and being over the drinks driving limit. I’m not condoning what is alleged to have happened but let’s wait till the evidence comes out in court before jumping to conclusions.
There is also a world of a difference between an anonymous member of Joe Public getting behind the wheel whilst over the limit and a member of the Celtic FC playing staff doing the same. This is bad ju-ju for the club. Somebody needs to cop the whack for this as it’s not the first time a player has gone off the rails early into their career at Celtic. After the Bolongoli debacle, Celtic should have been extra careful with subsequent signings – especially young lads, far from home and (from what I know) can’t speak English too well either.
We should be erring on the side of caution. If he has overstepped the mark, and I haven’t said he has, then we should have a Plan ‘B’ in place. The CL is too important to be going into with only one definitive LB to rely on. We must cover all bases.
Almost no facts are known about this. No comment from me until they are. A guy can legally drive in northern England, pass over the border and be over the limit legally. Or he could be blind drunk and a danger to others. There’s a difference. When we know which it is in this case we can make our mind up about this guy. One of them I could put down to cultural and threshold differences, the other should see him sacked.
But none of us know which it was yet. So we’re best keeping our powder dry.
What is it with Celtic and left backs? LOLZ! Thank goodness GT has upped his game and is playing wonderfully. If it wasn’t for the fact that Scotland have both KT and Andy Robertson who play that role, he’d be a shoe in for an international first team call up.
As for the young Argentinian lad, Celtic do need to be tough but don’t go too hard on him. We will need him at some point. We are still in the transfer window so if the situation was that his position at Celtic is untenable then we do have the option to get another back-up for GT. However, I don’t think that will happen. We need to be tough but stand by him.
I do understand that if this was a player from another team, I’d be wondering why he didn’t get sacked. Drink driving is right up there in terms of stupid, dangerous and reprehensible things to do. But we only know what the police statement tells us. Celtic need to take some responsibility here as the club is surely responsible for helping the boy integrate into the Glasgow way of things.
Way over the top Forrest, no surprise in that a common feature of many of your blogs.
Your pontificating has reached the ridiculous stage it’s annoying at best. LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE. I will remind you that our current dressing room leader and on the field general, Callum McGregor, as a young man in March 2016 committed the same offence. That never stopped his development at the club. Let’s hope that a young man, many thousands of miles from home, who has made a huge error of judgement, committed a crime and will be punished accordingly will learn from that and go on to also carve a successful career at Celtic. Unlike your judgmental nonsense I’m sure he’s already felt the warmth of Calmacs arm around his shoulder along with that of his teammates.
He’s young and possibly misinformed re: the limit so it might be nothing more than some hun fud polis making a big desl of it to hurt us. Then again he might have been utterly stoatin’ and a real danger to others – we just don’t know! Until we do let’s not rush to judgement.
I have to agree that to claimat this moment this is up there with Bolingoli’s jaunt is completely ridiculous. All Bernabei has done is cause the club embarrassment whereas Bolingoli could have caused the club to be severely sanctioned and possibly spread infection. Not to downplay drunk-driving or anything but from a club perspective you’re talking totally different levels of offfence here. Unless Bernabei has killed someone there’s no comparison beyond embarrassing the club.
no way can you compare it to the bolingoli shambles otherwise scotlands media shame would be calling for postponements and points deduction. he wont be the last footballer to be charged with this offence.
I just hope the Club haven’t left the boy Stu k in a hotel room, eight thousand miles from home. They have previous, Petrov, Cadete etc
Cut the boy some slack Jame
You really need to stop trying to tell us what the manager is or might be thinking, James. Was this kid out alone in Glasgow?. If so has he been left to live alone in a flat in a strange country? Was this kid out with senior first team members who allowed him to have a drink and drive home….if so will these senior members who allowed him to do so be on their last legs with Ange?. The answer to these questions is WE DON’T KNOW. So everybody who is having a go calm the hell down and stop stirring for shite.
LOL You’ve got the whole first team squad out partying with him and then you ask everyone to stop stirring the shite.
Funny as fk 🙂
Bernabei is not a boy, he is 22 next month and all the man he will ever be.
Now whether he has fkd up just a wee bit or a very big bit, that is still to be disclosed, we will all find out in due course. However, we only have two weeks left in the transfer window and if this incident does happen to bite us in the arse then we have to try and offset that potential damage by getting in another LB just in case. Forget all the morality stuff, blame game etc. and let’s get real. Let’s think about the best course of action for CFC right now, we need to address the possibility that it might affect the squad structure. It has come at a bad time when everything in the garden was looking rosy but it has to be addressed and quickly.
I was married with a family and I certainly wasn’t a boy at that age.
Although now, I’m not even the same man as I was last week. lol
Too many people makin assumptions before facts come out. What ah will say is, when DOES it become as bad as Bolingoli ? If he was over the limit and caused an accident or worse ?! Some cases are worse than others, but doesn’t matter (if he was) how much he was over the limit, D&D should be taken very seriously and dealt with at every turn. Hopefully it’s not as bad as people think , or as some people nae doubt will be hopin. He’s young and should realize the chance he’s been given. Needs tae learn common sense and quick.
Of course,Berna deserves to be sanctioned,and he sure as hell won’t be relishing standing tall before big Ange today,with his agent and interpretor in attendance.Having said that ,and without trying to downplay the severity of drink driving on society,I think he won’t be the last 21 year old to make an arse of things.Calmac done the same as a youngster.We learn from mistakes as we mature.He can’t repeat the his own hough,and now must get his head down and graft his butt off for the team
‘A road traffic offence’, could be driving on the wrong side of the road or a dodgy bulb or something. Does anyone have evidence that it was as a result of drink driving?
That’s a good point
In any country it is a no no to get behind the wheel of any vehicle under the influence of alcohol if that is the case he has not a leg to stand on but let the facts of the matter come out before judgement or condemnation.
It was reported in 2016 that Celtic’s “new left back” Calum McGregor was banned from driving after being caught driving at almost four times over the limit.
What’s the difference James?
I’m sorry, but this could have been catastrophic this. The boy seems a bit of a ned to me. His last game playing for his previous club, he headbutts an opponent. Yes I get we don’t know all the facts as of yet, but drink driving can kill some innocent person, it’s happened all over the world. If he was drunk driving, I think we seriously consider sacking him for that.
It’s never a good idea for a sportsman to entertain alcohol, except on special occasions. The lad is young and has clearly not learned this yet. When he grows up he may realise that any adult proposing to drive a vehicle whilst ‘under the influence’ is a reckless danger on the streets.
As for his career, give him the chance to make amends.
Here comes the Christian upbringing (if true) – all angels have a past and sinners a future.
Amen brother. Love it pal. So true. Jesus told us so. The wee man will come back from this.