As the debate over the guard of honour issue starts to get real, a debate which I think is about as pointless as wishing the sun didn’t set, or that summer wouldn’t end, because we’re just not going to get one from the Ibrox club, a few things come into focus.
The first is that some in the media are at pains to remind us that we were the last club to refuse one. Which is true. John Kennedy said no to providing one to the Ibrox club, but his rationale for it was absolutely flawless.
The same players had been denied theirs by the same team and by a lot of the same people who made that team up.
One of them, of course, was their captain. What a lot of folk reminded him of at the time was that he has actually got previous on this subject, and his comments left no wiggle room.
For him not to want to honour Celtic in that way was twofaced at best.
Because in 2016, James Tavernier thanked Alloa for providing his club with a guard of honour after they had won the Championship. At the same time, he aimed a barb at Hibs.
“Great respect to @AlloaAthleticFC for the guard of honour today!! True sportsmanship unlike some!!” is what he said at the time.
The rank, reeking, insincerity of those words was ably demonstrated in their refusing Celtic the same respect and “sportsmanship” just two years later, and when it came to their turn to make the demand John Kennedy did not miss when asked if Celtic was willing to do them the courtesy they had singularly failed to do us.
“It’s something we’ve discussed and it’s a subject that’s been brought up enough,” he said when asked if he, as interim manager, would be willing to get the players behind the idea.
“I don’t see it as a big issue. For us, collectively, we’ve spoken about it and we won’t do it. It’s not about lacking class or anything like that because we’re a club who always show class and do what’s right. Ultimately this group of players went in as champions and didn’t get the respect at that time, if you want to call it that. They’re the same players who are being asked to stand there, so we’ve decided collectively, as a group, to park that and focus fully on the game.”
Things have changed at both clubs since then.
But Tavernier is one of the players still at Ibrox, and that’s why we’re fully entitled to press him on this and see if his comments and desire to show “sportsmanship” still hold up.
At the end of the day, you either care about this stuff or you don’t and The Mooch got some rather nice headlines when he allowed Thistle to score in the Scottish Cup after his own player had breached one of football’s unwritten rules.
This is another of those unwritten rules, and at the time of the Thistle thing he made quite the song and dance about how much dignity his club has.
“This club is built on high standards and we want the best for the game,” he said, to much media applause and praise.
A short time later he got into the first phase of his public bickering match – in which he has been righteously slapped around – with Chris Sutton because Sutton dared to suggest he wouldn’t have done it against Celtic.
Well let’s find out what these “standards” are actually worth.
These Peepul only get away with this because folk in our media allow them to.
Rather than calling them out on this they let it pass without controversy.
But you know something?
That’s what we’re here for, to keep on reminding these folk over and over again of the words that come out of their own mouths.
No, we’re not going to get a guard of honour from this lot … but what we can do is show them up for the hypocrites that they are in refusing us one.
Standards? Don’t make me laugh.
Running the gauntlet would be a better alternative with our players armed with shillelaghs, for their own protection of course against a hostile crowd.
Celtic and rangers have zero standards when it comes to dealing with each other.. hence the reason there is no fans at away games . They did start that to be fair.. and we returned the favour. This whole guard of honour thing is ridiculous though.. could you imagine Muhammad Ali, and Joe Frazier, or Chris Eubank or Nigel Benn giving each other a guard of honour. These two clubs despise each other with a passion, and won’t give each other an inch. This talk of a guard of honour, is Wizard of Oz stuff, this is pure fairytale stuff. Let’s move on from this and concentrate on winning at ibrox and trying to get a record points total, which will set us up nicely for the cup final.
No one cares James all that matters is Ange sends out strongest team to destroy sevco hail! hail! COYBIG in Ange we trust.
Wonderful James, as ever! Oh masterful one!
How I worship and glorify thee!
Listen Mr Multiple Personality, you need to stop stalking me.
It’s becoming … creepy.
I desperately love you!
(Although I am obviously too fucking thick to get what’s happening here!)
You can say that again …
Please, please, please, please pay me attention!
I love it when you get angry!
(Note to self; this is torturous this. This is torturous this. This shows you up as a sad clown Meat. Why do you do this to yourself over and over and over again? I need to get a life … I need to get a life … I need to get a life …)
I think you do truly understand me James. Your wisdom is so great and vast … why do you insist on treating me this way?
Because you’re a pathetic stalkerish bastard maybe?
But I love you! Why are you behaving this way?
I renounce everything I ever said I once believed in! I renounce it, all of it, gladly!
Yours is the superior mind!
I live just to kiss your feet oh masterful one!
Glad we understand each other now.
Now piss off and haunt some other forum you absolute mentalist.
James, you owe me an apology!!!
For years spent ignoring me!! For years spent not taking my calls!!
All I ever wanted was love and understanding, and I didn’t get it from those people who in life are supposed to give it to you!!!
So I wanted it from you!! I wanted to share with you my theories and ideas and inspirations!!
I worship you oh master of all you survey!!!
And you ignored me!!!
For years I wondered if I’d been hacked. Or you’d been hacked. So that my comments didn’t get through!!!
Because it couldn’t be … could it … that you considered me … not worth bothering about?
James, say it isn’t so! Oh glorious one!
Oh spiteful one!
Oh wonderous but cruel one to leave me like this!
Before today, I knew I was dealing with someone who wasn’t playing with a full deck.
But I didn’t realise quite how stupid, quite how thick, quite how utterly brainless you actually were on top of that.
And you know what? Don’t bother to respond, you won’t get a reply. You’re done mate. Your fun is over, and although it’s been nice toying with you this afternoon to the point I think, based on some of the comments I didn’t publish, that I’ve driven you half mad this is all the attention you’re getting, it’s all you’re ever gonna get because you are just not worth it. You are just not worth a minute more.
Regular readers of the comments will have encountered you from time to time in your numerous guises and under your numerous user names and you’ve pissed off more than a few of them over the last year or so and that’s another reason you’re done here.
You’re a joke, and I was glad to spend a wee while this afternoon fully and completely turning you into one in a way which gives you no platform, no voice and none of the notoriety you seek. Seek it elsewhere.
You’re a sad bastard son and the management just ejected you from the building once and for all.
Squeal. Rage. Rend your garments. Send a hundred more comments. A thousand of them.
They’ll be deleted without even being read.
You’re nobody.
I know I should stop now James, but I am utterly, totally, completely obsessed by you!
Otherwise, why else would I expend so much time and energy and effort on trying to post on here literally dozens of times every single day, using various shit nicknames?
I admit it James, I don’t have a life. You are my life.
Just keep tweeting it, James! Gie him some riddy 🙂
I wouldn’t want a guard of honour from the tribute act. They have no honour or credibility, so it would be meaningless. No 55, no 150 years of history, no Old Firm, no guard of honour.
Still think it’s a bigger issue with how the other 3 teams react than the scum merchants do this weekend, especially as it is never going to happen.
If the other 3 teams follow the same lead as the scum then this guard of honour nonsense can finally be put to bed.
If they should however break ranks and offer it then the pressure will only increase upon the scum and highlight everything they stand for and the false claims they continue to make.
Is that approach really going to be allowed within Scottish football?
Thought not
A sevco guard of honour would be the ultimate oxymoron.
They and their fascist fans have no understanding of the concept.
Can see why tavernier should be called out. Potential for hypocrisy there, tho does anybody actually give a tam tit if they give a guard of honor or no. Literally ( and ah mean literally, no just the way some people use the word, just sayin ) couldnae care less maself.
Not the slightest bit interested in a guard of honour from sevco, my main concern at ibrox is not the result, it’s the safety of our players and staff. This is an organization whose fans attacked our bench,l scarring for life, one of our own backroom staff, those same fans threw broken glass onto the field in the goalmouth area,glass which, if it hadn’t been spotted,could, conceivably, have injured their OWN PLAYERS, if that’s the level of disregard they have for the safety of their own players, it’s plainly obvious they have a lot less for ours. The same club who’s own women’s team coach, attacked Fran Alonso, from behind, I might add, the same club who openly admitted they could not guarantee the safety of a sports pundit within the confines of ibrox. As far as I’m concerned, I just want this next fixture to be over, with EVERYONE, getting home safely.
Apart from the usual bile barrage, tbh ah don’t think there’ll be any severe crowd disruptions, even if we get a result. Cannae see it. Personal concern, is the poss of 1or 2 of our key players durin the game, bein targeted and injured by some numbskull in a blue jersey wi a serious gripe. We’ve no completed the treble yet and ah suspect there’ll be a few in there who would like tae weaken our team before the final.
Who cares, they haven’t shown us any respect the whole season, it’s not going to change now.
They always start these things and go in a huff when challenged about it, trying to spin things.
I am personally more interested in the penalty situation at Ibrox, I’ll leave that for another day.