You have to hand it to The Record; even when the manager of the year award has been made, even when the debate is over, even when the Celtic boss has won a deserved and hard earned triumph, they still try to find a way to cast doubt on his victory.
It is never less than astounding when The Record pulls one of these little strokes. They can’t just allow the man to have his moment in the sun. They have to go and dig up someone – anyone – who can pour some cold water on the win.
Enter the St Mirren player Ryan Strain, who may not even have known how his words were going to be interpreted by that rag. Even if he did know, who is Ryan Strain that his words should be blasted all over the back pages like this?
I’m not denigrating him as a player, I’m saying he’s one player amongst hundreds in Scotland, so what is this?
His position on the issue, that because Robinson was the only domestic manager to beat Ange until this weekend, makes him the manager of the year is plainly ridiculous.
Does The Mooch’s victory at the weekend mean we should have given it to him?
Doubtless there are sportswriters out there who wish they could have.
One win against one club doesn’t make you the manager of the year.
St Mirren overachieved, we’re being told, by getting into the top six, but let’s take a second here to scrutinise what it actually means when we break it all down and crunch the numbers.
St Mirren are sixth and a mind-warping 50 points off Celtic’s tally. 50 points, okay?
We’re on 95 and they are on 45. They have accumulated in 35 games what it would have taken Celtic 15 to do.
They have won 12 games. They’ve lost 14.
It’s the very idea that a record that lousy should put you in the running for a gong that makes our game a laughing stock.
They might make Europe. Wow.
That speaks as much to the shameful “form” of some of the teams above them more than it does anything else.
Three out of five of the clubs in front of them have sacked managers this season. Ange and Lee Johnson are the only ones who remain from those who started the campaign, and most reckon Johnson has been fortunate.
Still, Ryan Strain thinks his boss is the manager of the year for masterminding a victory at home against our team. And The Record thinks this is just credible enough to give the full-scale treatment to.
It’s a weak effort. It is the kind of thing they excel at.
In that game he speaks of against them we made a raft of changes, much the same as we did last weekend against Sevco. That says something in itself.
But you are right James, to try and laud a team flapping around mid table is laughable. On Strains logic ( or maybe it’s someone or some chatbot at the record, because surely it couldn’t be a human being) then the manager of Darvel should be manger of the year. Because the shock against Aberdeen was surely a bigger result!
The Record seems to have decided to make an enemy of big Ange. I hope he continues to treat them with the clever contempt he does. They deserve nothing more.
Maybe Ryan needs to boost his chances of some game time; the Record never fails to surprise, or disappoint mw
James. Celtic just signed a young man Pilip Scorb just in March the daily ranger wrote an article claiming the ibrox team were ready to battle it out with Leeds and Aston villa for his signature. Perhaps you could pick this up from here. Cheers
P.S. I forgot to say, well done Ange. He deserved in on the way he has conducted himself alone never mind the team results. Here’s to many more! Hail Hail! God bless.
Its nothin short of an ibrox fanzine. Pathetic rag crammed wi clown, pro-ibrox ‘journos’, who would be challenged and embarrassed big time, if they had tae try and put over their views outside Scotland. Always slyly, it’s ‘according to’ this yin, or that yin ye’ll notice. Never their ‘own’ statement, always a ‘quote’.
Strain was only talking about his own manager so fair play to him for that. I didn’t take any negatives out the piece. I think St Mirren and the manager should take credit for making top 6.
Good luck to them.
Robinson has done well at St Mirren this season (no argument) and a top six finish is undoubtedly an achievement for them/him but to suggest he should be MOTY is plain ridiculous. 2 years ago the argument that Davidson should have won the award over Gerrard was more than fair because he’d actually won something that year at that point – in fact he went on to went TWO trophies which for a club with average crowds of ca. 5k was an amazing feat and surely had the vote taken place at the END of the season (which is when they should do) rather than February then he would surely have won it. Robinson will be deserving of contending for MOTY awards when/if St Mirren win a trophy at least!
When the euphoria of winning a dead rubber starts to wear off
and it hits you again that Celtic are only one game away from winning a treble .
It’s time to get busy with the snide articles about Ange
‘Sportswriters !’ Dear ,oh dear , oh dear .
In that case surely the Manager of the year must go to the Darvel Manager on his assumption ?
Thanks for reading that garbage for me, I feel much better for it.
Well it wouldn’t have surprised me if Stephen Robinson had been named M. O. T. Y.
As John Hughes got it for stopping Ronnie Deila winning the treble with ICT.
It wasn’t john Hughes who stopped Ronny Deila winning a treble it was the ref who refereed last Saturdays game against RIFC, his name escapes me for the moment.
It,s the daily rancord so not exactly unexpected for them to come out with the usual pointless bullshit , that,s the masonic side showing it,s colours ,world record 8th (EIGHTH) TREBLE coming up
Typical daily rangers (record) to print crap like that who is this guy anyway, but anything to have a go at celtic,
Scumbags
We only find these things out on sites like this, celtic fans don’t buy the “Daily Ranger” or its sister rag the” Hunday Mail “
only in Scotland
Who the hell is Ryan Strain, hope I spelt it right, Ange fucked up twice this season, at St. Mirren and at ibrox,to many silly changes.
The main reason i haven’t bought a daily paper for over 60 yrs is exactly because of the daily untrue drivel they can produce Oh how the Daily Record Rangers Gazette resembles the Daily Fail at being wrong time after time .
I’m a Celtic supporter and my family have been there since the beginning in the East End.
I think you’re being disrespectful to a fine club ( my maternal grandfather’s team ) who have overachieved this season and your wow ! about them qualifying for Europe was uncalled for.
They have a small but fanatical support who at least don’t glory support like a lot of others.
Before bragging about our achievements, has it ever occurred to you when we last win a game as underdogs? Well, it was Lazio in 2019, a long time ago.
It’s a pain living in England like I do when the European games come round and going into work the next day is not good when all you hear is muffled laughter.
Oh yes, it must be great back home in Glasgow dominating a bedraggled hun team but it’s no great shakes down here.
So let’s have a bit of respect for the Buddies as they’re doing very well.