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Peter Grant Evidently Thinks Celtic Should Do Nothing To Protect Itself.

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Just when you think you’ve seen it all, another ex-Celtic proves that you lose IQ points just getting behind a microphone with certain people.

This time it’s Peter Grant, appearing on the same radio station where Andy Walker was so completely and utterly owned the other night. His partner in the studio? Barry Ferguson. So right there that should tell you about the level of debate.

Grant demanded to know what the point of Celtic wanting a meeting with the SFA is.

It’s almost as if these people all make the same calculation; I haven’t been in the papers for a while, so how can I assure that I make some headlines? And the easiest way to do that, as has been proven time and time again, is to suggest Celtic has gotten something wrong.

So many of these people do it because it works. Nothing is guaranteed to get you in the paper quicker than if you’ve got some connection to Celtic and you tell the listening world or an editor or just some down on his luck hack that we’re acting stupidly as a club. You’ll see your name in headlines before the sun rises and sets.

“What is the case? What is it going to do? Barry (Ferguson) will say Rangers have had decisions against them, and I have said for years Celtic have had it against them. We have all said it, my grandfather use to say it! We only talk about it because it’s Celtic and Rangers, but what are you going to get? You are going to get silence.”

He’s saying that all clubs get these decisions against them, the exact same argument Walker tried and failed to deploy. Of course all clubs get bad decisions, but that should not stop anyone who takes the business of scrutinising this stuff seriously from asking the simple series of questions which are being asked in this case; is one club getting a disproportionate number of bad decisions? Is another club getting a disproportionate number of good ones?

I am always leery of “stats” which appear online. Most of them are wrong because those putting them up don’t do their basic research. But it’s clear from all the numbers in the public domain that one side in Scotland gets more penalty kicks than any other. They are also the club which has not had a penalty kick awarded against them in the league this season.

Now think about that for a moment. Not one penalty decision against them in 20 games, in spite of a large number of controversial incidents which have been highlighted by opposing managers, former refs and even some in the journalist trade itself.

If the argument for the number of penalties they get is that their club plays attacking football and therefore is more often in the opposition box, why aren’t the numbers for them and Celtic at least broadly comparable? Because we play more attacking football than they do and score more goals to prove it. We play a style of football which emphasises playing on the deck; in short, more of our players are in the opposing penalty area with the ball at their feet than any other team in the country and our penalty stats aren’t close to theirs.

Grant thinks all we’ll get from any meeting in silence. Maybe he’s not noticed it, but we’re getting something right now which is much worse than silence. We’re getting enablers – like him, you might argue – telling us “nothing wrong here Timmy, now be on your way.” We’re getting the SFA feeding preposterous excuses to tame hacks in an effort to deflect and deny us the space in which even to put questions forward in the public sphere.

I remember Grant as a player. He was a no-nonsense type who had courage and determination. Thank God he’s not running things at Parkhead right now because his attitude seems to be that for fear of getting nothing we should do nothing and say nothing, just sit in the corner, perhaps, with our thumb in our mouth and hope for the best.

It is gutless. But hey, it got him in the papers.

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  • Ryan Derry says:

    What I’m finding funny about walker and grant comments is this. In order to prove the point that all clubs get stuffed going against them they both went back to their playing days. What these gobshites don’t seem to understand is there is now two opportunities to get the call right and we’re still being hoodwinked. Fkn soup takers

  • Jackson says:

    James, have to disagree with you on Grant, he was never a “nothing to see here Timmy” guy… his point was the so called SFA will do and say SFA….
    HH

    • Roonsa says:

      Disagree. He is saying there is no point because the SFA won’t listen. There very much is a point regardless of whether the SFA listen or not.

      PG has spent too much time palling up with people like Barry Ferguson. There’s a time and place for that. I am sure BF is a likeable person. But a likeable person who sees Celtic as the enemy. As such, don’t be taking any football chat off him as kosher.

      We must act alone.

  • William Melvin says:

    Sevco having no penalties awarded against them isn’t the complete story.
    What we have to see is decisions going against them when it really matters.
    When we start seeing penalties,sending off of their players etc when they are a goal down or the scores are level,then l might have some comfort that there is a level playing field in Scotland.
    They won’t be harmed too much if one of their players is sent off or they concede a spot kick when they are three goals up with five minutes to go.
    Until then l will be a fully paid up member of the Paranoid
    Celtic Supporters Club.

  • scouse bhoy says:

    what is his opinion about the official response for jotas disallowed goal at motherwell ?.that just took their incompetence to a new level that the celtic board should have torn to pieces. received the ball in an offside position ? dear oh dear.

  • Bennybhoy57 says:

    Peter pointer…pointing out no use Celtic complaining as SFA will just remain silent.
    Celtic know its went beyond allowing the SFA to say nothing to see hear.
    Celtic will be letting Maxwell know, VAR and his honeymood periods over.
    I fully expect them to back Ange the players and fans, regarding how referees are Using VAR in games involving Celtic.
    IMO if they don’t get the answers they are looking for, they will pursue this till heads roll at either Sfa or Referee association…or both.

  • Kevan McKeown says:

    Don’t agree and utterly unfair, suggestin he’s doin it tae get in the papers imo.Tae me, he just sounds like somebody thats seen enough of the bias all his years tae dae him a lifetime and he’s just utterly sick tae the teeth of any kind of protest, by club or support, gettin naewhere. Absolutely nae faith in the SFA whatsoever ! Although ah dont agree with his conclusion, ah can see how he might feel like that. It’s a shit day when one of our best servants comes away wi that.

  • John S says:

    Scottish football wouldn’t be the same without the cheating.

  • SSMPM says:

    We’ll get little or no joy from the SFA, they have already answered the questions regarding controversial calls by refs, explained away and hid behind. The script has already been written. We need to show why we believe their interpretations of the rules on those occasions are wrong. We need to try at least to highlight why it is then that our and many fair minded people’s perception of the refs and the SFA’s actions and conclusions are wrong and what we believe influences them. That is not going to go down well with them particularly if we’re brutally honest and accusery.
    If anyone now thinks they’re going to retrospectively say the refs got them wrong, they wrongly gave them their support by quoting rules that explained and backed them, well I’ll eat my head. The script is written, it’s the conclusions we need to change.
    Our best hope from this exchange will be to prompt change going forward. We need to persuade them to adapt their current thinking on how they and the refs function. New rules and regulations need to be introduced and implemented. This needs to be a revolution. It needs to follow many of the solutions spoken about many times by many people. Start with the recruitment policy and adapt it to reflect the concerns of bias and to introduce policies that better protect not only the clubs but also the refs. Many ideas have been floated and I like it to start with a new professional refereeing body, a better recruitment policy looking beyond these shores also, declaration of refs interests to prevent them from being the ref of games of clubs they support and are against, and an independent supervisory body with proper powers to sanction refs and thus allow accountability and to evidence their transparency by allaying public concern through open dialogue about issues as they arise with regular objective club meetings looking at the betterment of the game through think tank commitees.

  • Stesano says:

    This the attitude a hun loves funny hun ex or players never take his stance!! He knows the score alright but think Peter needs the work sadly it’s pathetic and your right by not calling it out your teaching the poison how to treat you and we saw how that worked for decades before wee Fergus, Peter grow a pair!! Tho that Cooney the wee ultimate ” uncle Tim” is another coward

  • Al says:

    The problem is when the facts and figures are laid out people like Grant either admit they were wrong or they double down . He and those like him are terrified to rock the boat . The Scotish celtic types are infected by the back of the bus syndrome . Look at the peno count look at the lastcredcard for a ho.e player at Ibrox look at VAR this season . If that’s not enough to raise eyebrows then what is? It takespeopke like Sutton and Hartson to raise it Too many cowards in Scotland

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