Celtic social media would exist without the events of 2012.
It would exist because fans have plenty to say about their teams and the monetisation of sites through ads offers the opportunity for people to earn money out of doing something they love.
So whatever had happened back then, I am firmly of the belief that we’d be in a similar place to now.
But the tenor of the conversation would be different in certain ways, and some of us would be doing this job in a very different fashion if we were doing it at all.
Because one of the things that provoked many of us to get involved in blogging in the first place had nothing to do with either of the things I mentioned above; it was because the mainstream media colossally failed at doing its job.
I was doing this in no small part because of them.
There were two things that characterised that period; a lack of imagination and fear. The fear is easy to understand. For some of the hacks, it was their favourite club which was circling the drain. I fully recognise their need to cling to the Survival Lie, I recognise that they needed an intellectual underpinning for that and thus birthed the Victim Lie.
That word is “understand”, mind you. I don’t condone. I cannot condone. I cannot accept the willing participation in the spreading of untruths, no matter the motivation. I cannot accept that people in their profession chose to publish fiction instead of facts, and that the whole media industry in Scotland continues to do so to this day.
I understand that for others there was the idea that their own job might lose all relevance.
That without a big derby to cover Scottish football had nothing happening in it. They prided themselves on covering “the biggest game in the world” and that was really all that stopped them from becoming an absolute joke to their English based peers.
But this is also what I mean by lack of imagination.
Even when the NewCo emerged they wanted it in the top flight. They couldn’t imagine an Ibrox club clawing its way up from the bottom tier. They could not imagine any benefits this would have to the game.
They couldn’t imagine that it might spark life into Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts, Motherwell or others … the second spot was up for grabs, and Scottish football was about to enter a new era.
They didn’t even have the imagination to think about what the club from Ibrox might be if it shed the baggage that had killed its first incarnation. They immediately set about trying to promote “the journey” and talked up “the Old Firm” until they could cover it again. Very few of them recognised that if we’d planted something different something new would have grown.
This failure of imagination sees the whole game through the prism of two teams. Incredibly, one of those clubs feels exactly the same way and will spend every moment from now until the end of the season brooding over how it’s going to stop us.
Today we got a scandalous article from one of the hacks who, during that whole period, was in effective retirement. He should have stayed there. He contributes nothing positive whatsoever to the discourse around our sport. He brings nothing to the table. His article today is about how the Scottish Cup final needs to be between the two Glasgow clubs and he’s even offered the suggestion that this might be a time for the old heated balls.
What a disgraceful viewpoint to hold far less to promote.
What ever happened to the romance of the cup? Whatever happened to talking up the best parts about Scottish football? A lower league team reaching the final … that’s what cup competition is all about.
That’s a showpiece. That’s special even if they never win it. That’s something every one of their players would take pride in and talk about and remember until their dying days.
Here’s exactly what I mean about failure of imagination.
Everyone loves a giant killing story. How can you have David and Goliath if there’s only two big guys knocking Hell out of each other?
What’s the story that would reverberate around football? Celtic winning a treble, which everyone expects, or some plucky outsider taking us all the way?
I can imagine Celtic winning the treble. I can imagine that very easily, because I’ve seen it happen four times in the last six years.
But I have the imagination to consider how amazing it would be to see a bus-top parade as Falkirk or Ayr or Raith’s jubilant squad brings the Scottish Cup to fans who never in their wildest dreams expected it.
That’s why people love the game.
That is the essence of what football is about … and this clown cannot muster up enthusiasm for even the possibility of it? I think his attitude stinks to high heavens, even if he wasn’t obliquely suggesting that the SFA fix the draw in order to get the final he wants.
This is why we cannot promote this game.
This is why every attempt is a bust. The people responsible for doing it cannot imagine it as anything other than the Glasgow derby with a bunch of meaningless fluff around it. Shame on them.
Excellent article but I think PL is of the same breed
This old codger would have you believe Scottish refs are above reproach. Yet wants their employers to fix the draw. Dreadful excuse for a journalist. HH
Oh dear and when fans call SSB when this auld FUD is on it and they call out refs decisions or the SFA on anything, they are told they are being PARANOID and here we have this guy trying rig the draw for a Celtic and sevco final.
Just watching gers trying like fk to win penalties while R Rovers defence is more a threat to any Rangers attack.
Gers fkn embarrasing.
I fully agree with you, James. Whenever I read your articles I get shocked by the way Scottish Media talks about Scottish football. Instead of supporting their football they seem to want to destroy it.
As a Celtic supporter, I do not understand that kind of behaviour towards the sport they are supposed to love.
As usual, a very good article, James. Thank you and best wishes. HH YNWA
Why don’t the SFA just put Rangers* in the final, saving on referee and VAR expenses ?
James
I do like your articles. However, could I ask that you cite the article and the author you refer to when you write? I have long ago stopped reading the SMSM both in hard copy and online. They are a disgrace. However, when someone mentions some particularly appalling example of their writing I do dip in to check it out. I only recently read old Uncle Shuggie’s infamous Ange means Absolutely Not Good Enough offering.
So please cite whatever you write about in your articles to give us some entertainment reading what you refer to.
This is a new site for me to contribute to. Phil seems to have taken offence to something I wrote and is blocking me.
JS.
Let’s see them off in the semi and everyone turns up in the final with those hats with the little corks hanging from them.
The ONLY thing that would be good for Scottish football would be if Sevco FC were to go to wall wall for good this time and take their hatred and bile with them
Pan so true this is what every decent cristian law abiding citizen .not subject. Of Glasgow Scotland football sports fan wants die sevco die and take all the filth vermin scum zombies into extinction.
Talking of impartiality by the Scottish press/media – anyone seen a mention of that non VAR look by Gollum, sitting on his ring in the VAR lodge, of a certain ex hun’s leg chopping of Alistair Johnston in the penalty box whilst the score was still 0-1. Will that too be put down to an honest mistake or incompetence, whilst giving another member of the brotherhood every opportunity, they hoped, of getting back into the game. Is it just another case of blatant avoidance of their funny handshake friend in the press and media, Andy Halliday.
I guess it may be down to ref watch to mention it if they dare after the lambasting they got for last week’s piece of honesty ie ‘who cares what they say’ by a certain SSB puntit – Andy Halliday strangely enough. Is this another case of the (Bloody Bias Coverage) BBC Scotland’s attempt at re-balancing with their Unionist right wing supporting coverage. Hail Hail we gubbed them anyway
The government should be pulled into question for allowing the media to print such lies
I absolutely agree. While Sevco should never have been allowed to jump the queue to get into the bottom tier, getting to the top flight in four years was an achievement any other club would be proud of. Their sense of entitlement prevented them from celebrating that.
The Rangers and their acolytes are killing the game in Scotland. I look forward to pumping them again in the semis.
Either way, Calley or Falkirk will get their day in the May sun, I will wager they are hoping Celtic get beat. For they will then have a better chance of that open topped bus in their home town. As you say, that dream is the essence of the game.