Imagine being inside Celtic at the moment and reading all the various reactions in the mainstream and fan media about the decision Celtic made to ban the BBC and PLZ from the Brendan Rodgers press conference. Imagine getting to Andy Walker’s.
He is “unimpressed.” Well, what a shame that is, right? How are we supposed to find the strength to carry on, particularly as we had good reasons for this and wanted a message to be sent loud and clear? Walker himself has been axed by Sky.
Who knows where he’s going to pop up next? I would be willing to bet that it’s not going to be at the BBC … he played for the wrong club, whether he slags us or not. So a slot alongside Peter Martin will suit him right down to the ground. It’s that or take up golf.
“I’ve got to say, it doesn’t impress me Celtic banning so many people from press conferences,” he said, as if we were just going around handing them out left and right. We selected two outlets for a bit of treatment because of their attitude. It’s hardly a hanging party. “I just don’t think it’s the way ahead. I think there’s a lot of reasonable people about and if you’ve got any sort of gripe with any individual, why don’t you have a chat about it?”
For openers, Martin runs PLZ so this was our version of telling him that are things that we’re just not willing to put up with. This was our equivalent of a chat, with a guy most people inside Celtic normally wouldn’t break bread with anyway.
I daresay that our issues with the BBC are of a much bigger nature, and which of its pro-Ibrox employees does he suggest we sit down and talk with? Honest to God. I understand someone in the media not liking seeing others in the media getting themselves in bother, but let’s be honest here, there are some of them who richly deserve it and if their outlets aren’t going to bring them to heel then Celtic will just ban the outlets instead.
Some of these people have treated our club like mugs for a long time. It would be better off it people like Walker criticised their own profession once in a while; only those in it can enforce standards on the rest, and only when standards rise will Celtic, and the fans, no longer feel as if this kind of action is occasionally justified.