There are members of our media who, believe it or not, will not indulge themselves in the Scottish sporting press’s favourite parlour game, which is “which club will Ange Postecoglou end up at in England?” They actually do understand that Scottish football is better off with the best people staying, and they want to see our game develop and grow.
For some of them, the betterment of Scottish football has never been a factor for them in anything they’ve said or done. What matters to them is the promotion of one football club, and there are so many of them in the media it’s hard to keep up.
There is another set, and we know who they are too, who just like to see Celtic in a bad place. Some of them self-define as having come from Celtic backgrounds. But seeing our club struggle, or in crisis, or simply just in difficulty, pleases these people no end.
They enjoy the speculation. To some of them, it’s more than a parlour game. It’s an existential debate, because their favourite club can’t continue living in our shadow without there being a major impact on their ability to recover.
Others just thrive on putting the boot in.
What unites these two groups is a simple thing; they don’t particularly care what the answer to the riddle is. To them, the important thing is that it happens in a timely manner. That it happens quickly so that they can pretend it has plunged our club into turmoil.
Celtic is more resilient than they appear to believe. The departure of Rodgers – not the fact of it but the timing, and how it was done – was one of the seismic events at Celtic that I have witnessed in my adult life, and that was supposed to wreck our club’s stability. Actually, we were at such a peak when Rodgers left that for two years afterwards we continued to win things.
I firmly believe that we had we made a managerial appointment that was in the least bit sensible or ambitious at that time that we would never have been caught.
Still, these people cling to the belief that the sooner Ange goes the sooner we’ll be in the doldrums and circling the drain. It’s actually nauseating when they try to justify themselves, and when they seek for new ways to ask him about other clubs.
They are interested really in only one question, the one they never just come right out and ask because it would betray their frustration and pain.
“When are you going Ange? When are you finally going to go?”
If they only had the balls to put it that way, I might even respect them more for it.
You’re correct in saying that the Sevs and their pathetic media hangers on are convinced that we’ll collapse at Ange’s eventual departure, all the while ignoring the looming crises they’re facing themselves in terms of finances and playing staff.
But when Ange does depart I think he’ll be harder to replace than Rodgers was.
The ethos that Ange has brought to the club is to my way of thinking driven in the main by the the sheer force of his personality and this can be seen in the way he immediately moves out anyone who he feels isn’t fully on board with the message.
Let’s just hope that when the day comes the board has fully grasped that the manager is the most important signing they can sanction after the farcical Rodgers to Lennon succession.
If Ange was asked that question he would take it in his stride as always.
I don’t know mate, I don’t have a crystal ball, can I borrow yours?
Feq, there would be a plethora of ‘well mate’s’ skelping through that interview.
That would be gloriously funny to see.