The Mooch Backtracks Again, Claiming He And The Celtic Boss Are Actually Mates.

Oh dear God. Another day and another barmy statement from The Mooch, this time on a BBC interview which is so lickspittle grovelling that I half expected Jim White to pop up with “Oooh Michael, why are you so good?”

In this one he has claimed that there is plenty of mutual respect between him and Ange and has made out that they get on just fine and that any talk suggesting otherwise is an invention of the press. He is truly, and properly, off his nut this guy.

They really looked comfortable together the other day, didn’t they?

Very chummy indeed.

The Mooch really did believe that he could breeze around mouthing off about people and that there would be no comeback. Ange called him out. People at Hearts called him out. Big Sutton took aim and opened up with a barrage that might have stopped Russian tanks in their tracks. And every time someone does this, The Mooch retreats.

He thought he could play the hard man, but like every wannabe bully, he’s really a coward at heart and now he’s trying to show a little of his softer side.

To what end? People have pretty much made their minds up, and all he’s doing is digging a bigger hole for himself with his core support. Because their fans don’t want him to be mates with Ange, they think that was part of the problem with Van Bronckhorst and it’s why Beale pandered to them in the first place with all that talk of our manager being lucky.

But I’ll tell you what I know of Ange and why I am resoundingly unconvinced.

Ange respected and liked Van Bronckhorst, and not once did he ever hear any of this kind of nonsense from the Dutchman. He also has a tremendous amount of sympathy for how Van Bronckhorst was treated by the fans, the club and by The Mooch himself. Ange knows, as we all know, that he callously undermined him and stole his job.

If you listened carefully to what Ange said during the whole Leeds kerfuffle, he was basically talking about how loyalty isn’t something that he should have to make a pledge on. The Mooch did exactly that in front of the press and the QPR fans even as the negotiations with Ibrox were underway. Ange was sending a clear message; “I ain’t like that guy.”

So forgive me if I have my doubts about this mutual respect of theirs. For openers, The Mooch cannot be trusted because what comes out of his mouth changes from one day to the next, and secondly, I don’t think someone so underhanded, so slippery, and so fundamentally untrustworthy is the sort of person Ange would want to be buddies with.