He Might Be An Ex-Celt But Mark Wilson’s Player Of The Year Comments Are A Joke.

Mark Wilson might be an ex-Celt in the media, but as this website has written before, he seems to take an almost perverse pleasure in giving opinions which you more expect to hear from the likes of Kenny Miller.

When, on Monday, he suggested that James Tavernier might challenge two Celtic stars in the player of the year awards I don’t know which aspect of it I found more absurd; the suggestion that only Hatate and Kyogo were in the running or that Tavernier might snatch the prize which, let’s be blunt, only a Celtic player deserves.

There is no question whatsoever about this; someone from Celtic will walk away with the player of the year award. The only question is which of our players it is going to be.

You could make a compelling case for a half dozen of them.

Taylor has had the season of his career and looks like the most improved player in Scotland. Kyogo looks as close to Henrik as we’ve ever seen, and he will snap up the top scorer award to prove it. He’s already on the brink of 50 goals. Mooy has been a revelation and I think he certainly deserves to be part of the discussion. Hatate has been astounding, and could walk away with it. Jota has been excellent, consistently, and Carter Vickers has been magnificent, of course.

This is to say nothing of Callum, or Daizen Maeda and if you got the award, or could get it for playing just half a season then I think the conversation could not possibly be had without a mention of Alastair Johnston … and there might have been no stopping him.

All of these players – every single one of them – has had a better season than Ibrox’s penalty kick taker. Wilson’s suggestion that he might surprise people by snapping the award up is one of the most pitiful examples of playing to the audience I’ve ever heard of. He certainly does not want to say anything that pisses the Peepul off, does he?

Tavernier hits a good free kick and he scores a lot of goals, which has a lot to do with the number of spot kicks his club gets. But the truth is, he’s not a player who would have gotten into the Celtic team.

Ewan Murray is no friend of our club but he points out that we have, in the last two years, sold two better right backs than Tavernier. There is certainly no question that we have a far better one playing in our starting eleven right now.

He talks about Tavernier’s number of assists, as if that alone should put him in the top bracket. It’s less than Jota has, and Wilson doesn’t mention him as a contender.

And if you don’t want to have a full Celtic shortlist, you would get the front men from Motherwell, Aberdeen and Hearts all staking a far better claim than the Ibrox right back who cannot defend.

In the meantime there is Mark Wilson, who has become increasingly annoying and who a lot of Celtic fans are now questioning. He has his foot in the media door.

He seems to know what he has to do to keep it there, and give him this; he’s going all out.