Tony Cascarino The Latest Fool To Push The “Celtic For England” Fantasy.

Tony Cascarino is in the papers today, expressing amongst other things his regret as signing for Celtic. You know what? We regret it as well.

One of the most useless forwards ever to play with the club, the best thing to come out of it was Tom Boyd signing for us in the swap deal. I wouldn’t change that outcome for the world but none of us would sign him again if we could back either.

Cascarino’s comments about the club itself and about the deal which brought him to Parkhead aren’t nearly as nutty as the ones about how our club and the one from Ibrox should move to England. You’d think this was a new concept to see the coverage it’s getting, something ground breaking and original instead of a re-tread of a tired old idea.

We are no closer to any such move than we’ve ever been. Indeed, it’s widely accepted now that it’s a pure pipe dream, but if it’s not this then it’s the idea that we’re on the brink of a European Super League. That idea, in fact, is easier to believe.

UEFA will never let our club join the English league. The English league does not want us. Scottish clubs, who on some level might fancy us not being around so that we can have a different title winner, fear us becoming a League Of Ireland with even less TV money than we get right now, and so they would fight tooth and nail against it as well.

There is a general presumption too that Celtic fans would welcome the move.

But there are more views on this than Heinz has flavours, and more fans are wholeheartedly against it than the press seems to know. Even those who are broadly in favour of it cover a large spectrum of opinion, from those who would welcome in it any circumstances to those who would not do so unless we were invited in as equal partners with a place in the top flight.

I just find the discussion over it tiresome and it’s an easy way for ex-players and those who don’t really understand the mechanics and politics of football at a higher level to get their names in the papers pushing a clapped out concept.

He should have stuck to “I should never have signed for Celtic.” All of us would be in broad agreement with that. This is a little outside of his range.