Latest Kent Feel-Good Fluff Has More Than Just Celtic Fans Scratching Their Heads.

There is a new piece of Ryan Kent feel-good fluff in The Scotsman today, another set of bizarre statistics plucked out of the ether and turned into a story, another tale of why he is in fact the most creative player in Scotland although we’ve all missed that.

And not for the first time, I read that story and wondered who exactly it is for.

Ibrox fans who worship Kent? Well, doesn’t it simply serve as a reminder that he’s on the way out of the club? Is it to boost his value? To what end? They won’t get a transfer fee for him when he goes.

Is it to downplay the contributions of our own stars?

Well even if it is, do any of our player’s care about that when we’re on the cusp of a treble?

This is a classic example, anyway, of “lies damned lies and statistics.” This is not the first time that numbers have been twisted every which way this season to get that story, or one like it, into the public sphere. And it’s as nonsensical as it ever was.

No-one who’s watched him really believes it.

Their fans certainly don’t. When people are doing their shortlists for Player of The Year, how come none of them ever put Kent in there if he’s this outstanding creative force? Tavernier, yes, but not him.

Kent is perhaps the most over-rated player who has ever played in Scotland.

I can’t remember any footballer of such limited ability and accomplishment ever getting so much ink, and although I suspect we’ll be reading a lot about Hagi in the summer (until they can shift him, if they manage to) it will probably not come close to the season’s long Kent love-a-thon.

There are Ibrox fans who cling to the hope that they keep him, that he signs a new deal and stays with the club for years to come.

That there are a lot of Celtic fans who hope the same is telling, and damning. That there is a chance that he will, because few clubs down south genuinely have any interest in signing him, says it all.