Celtic Fans Assailed By Another Boring, Pointless Article Linking A Player To England.

Get ready for another sleepless night, folks. That notorious purveyor of rumours, gossip and tittle-tattle, Football Insider, has the mighty Brighton “planning” a summer bid for Reo Hatate.

There is no direct quote. Not even the merest hint that this is real information. Just speculative guff, easily deniable as there’s not a single verifiable fact in it.

And even if it were true, so what? Brighton?

There is much play on the fact that they are sitting seventh in the EPL right now, and this is supposed to convince of us precisely what? That they are a massive club?

They aren’t, they are Brighton, who last won a major honour … eh … never? Unless we’re including lower league titles (League One as it is right now, in 2011) and the Charity Shield, which they last won in 1910.

Brighton has exactly one selling point, other than their beach-front location, which is that right now they happen to play in the EPL.

Other than that, what’s there to credit this?

They can give him a massive salary, sure, but there’s no realistic football argument to be made here.

He will have bigger opportunities. He will have vastly better options.

As a Celtic fan I get sick of this.

We play in Scotland but we’re a gigantic club and Brighton are a wealthy one by an accident of geography. They aren’t a big team though. They aren’t an iconic name, and no amount of money will make them one.

I mean come on. The biggest thing ever to happen to them is still Brian Clough.

Normally I’m not the sort of person who pours such scorn on other clubs (except for the one across town haha) but honestly, this is all very tiresome. If Reo ever fancies being by the seaside, then I recommend Brighton. It’s a nice place, it’s all very friendly and touristy and he’ll have a fine time although there are better options abroad.

If he wants to play in the Champions League, if he wants to win things, I recommend staying here. That’s what Ange will tell him, that’s what any sensible person in his orbit would tell him, and if he has an agent urging a move like that on him I recommend swapping out the agent.

The story is a nonsense. Even if there were facts relating to it – and I don’t see a single one – it would still be a pile of steaming excrement. I mean what does it mean to “plan a bid” anyway?

You know how much money you have to spend, so you either make the bid or you don’t. Anything else is posturing, and you should only try that if you have the scale to pull it off.