Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v St Johnstone - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - April 9, 2022 Celtic's Matt O'Riley celebrates scoring their fifth goal REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
As regular readers will know, I do not listen to Radio Clyde, but people around me inform me of stories there which might pique my interest. I also read the other blogs every day and so I have a pretty good overview on what’s going on.
Last night someone sent me a series of quotes from Mark Wilson, who this site has written about a couple of times before. He was talking about Matt O’Riley, and like any number of people in the media he talks like someone who is almost keen to see our best players departing over the course of next summer.
This stuff really nips my nut.
“I think there is a good chance that he will go,” he said, about the player who has said he’s happy at the club and who has just signed a bumper new deal. “I say that as Celtic knocked back a substantial bid this summer – £10m. Now he’s a full international and on the back of the six months he’s had from summer to now, you see him getting better.”
First, £10 million is not a “substantial bid” for this guy, it’s an insult.
But it’s true that we did turn down that offer, and in the aftermath, he signed the new deal.
So O’Riley knows that interest was there, and he signed the contract anyway.
“I just think someone will recognise (his talent),” Wilson went on. “I think people will already have recognised that. It will take a big bid and I think it will be a lot of money. But my fear is Matt O’Riley won’t be at Celtic at the start of next season.”
Unbelievable. This guy is a former Celtic player, so he knows those kinds of remarks will generate headlines. He knows what he’s doing.
He’s promoting the idea, yet again, that nobody would stay in Scotland if the big money from England is on the table, something that we’ve seen disproved time and time again, by the way.
It talks down Celtic. It talks down the attractiveness of playing in that revamped Champions League next season. It talks down Scottish football. It creates negativity when we’re on the brink of a transfer window where the manager intends to strengthen the side, not weaken it.
The purpose of signing these guys on long-term deals is so that when those continental games come in the next campaign we are more ready than we are right now.
If the offer is ridiculous, and I mean absolutely record-breaking and impossible to ignore, then I can see Celtic sitting down with Matt O’Riley and asking him what he thinks, but Wilson is talking like it’s a done deal, that the minute we get an eight-figure bid he’s gone.
There is no such bid on the horizon.
The clubs being quoted with interest in him are not competitive. I think O’Riley is the kind of player who wants to win things, so it’s an insult to him as well.
All in all, I think Wilson’s comments are a joke. Who needs anti-Celtic elements stirring the soup when this is what our so-called friends are doing?
Wilson is no friend to Celtic.
He knows that the key to staying on his current SMSM ‘medjia’ path is to write negative Celtic stories.
Walker & Nicholas have created the route map. Downplay Celtic unsettle players. Belittle the Scottish game.
It’s the ‘soup-takers’ Bible.
He’s being honest. I fear the same thing, don’t want it to happen, but believe money talks above all else. I’ve had my heart broken too many times with Celtic players, and managers, leaving after professing all the same things O’Riley does. Contracts mean nothing in soccer, unfortunately. Tierney signed a 6 year extension and was gaga over Celtic, so he said, then left quickly after the deal was signed. Some are loyal like Forrest and McGregor, but the vast majority are not. MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA contracts are not so easily torn up. I don’t understand the world culture with soccer where everyone seems to excuse and understand when soccer players up and leave. Worse, management of clubs come right out and say they don’t want to stand in their way and must let them go for the good of the player. A grown-ass man signed a legally binding contract to work for the club, so screw the good of the player. They certainly don’t pause and think of the good of the club when dollar signs are in their eyes.
And now you know why these anti Celtic media outlets employ Wilson primarily ? They need a patsy who will answer their disruptive questions in a way which suits their agendas …. to make it seem like there is trouble , division and unhappiness within the Celtic camp ,on any given day or time .
I listened to it the other night for the first time in ages
The pretend Motherwell fan host , Wilson and that other guy Dalziel think they’re some kind of comedy trio
Awful show that’s steadily got worse and worse with hun bias and anti Celtic narratives
Time will tell
James why don’t u phone RC and challenge these people let them and others hear your voice instead of your endless diatribe that u write tell Wilson and the rest you’re not having them talk down our club or players.
Soup Stirrer ? Or Soup Taker .
I’ve not been listening to Clyde Superscoreboard for a while now and tend only to when Sevco drop points (Schadenfreude and all that)…
But Wilson seems shit scared to slag Sevco yet is very very comfortable happily putting as his negative bullshit about Celtic out live on air constantly –
We paid his wages for fcuks sake…
And he was constantly injured and one of the biggest wage thieves in the history of Celtic FC –
You’d think he’d show a little humility and be grateful – but no – He’s the complete polar opposite of that…
If I for one ever meet him in a pub or a shop, he is getting it verbally from me –
And I’ll cast up his wage thief shame and the reasons I’m doing it…
He should take lessons from Miller and Halliday about how to treat their former 12 year old club on air…
Then again – He wouldn’t be in a job for much longer without his negative Celtic mantra –
I don’t mind so much an ex player having a go if the team play poorly…
I always prefer unpalatable truths to comforting lies any day –
But there is no reason for Wilson to be doing that on this occasion and to have done it on many, many other occasions also !
Wilson, crap player, even worse pundit.
Rolled into the meeja to give the Celtic balance but with a hun narrative to pick up his pay packet.
Every club is a selling club, why talk loyalty? Enough money Celtic will march the player out the door, simple as that. Goes for any player. Enjoy the guy while he is at Celtic.
At the other end of the toon the only player they are talking about superstar punting is a young guy with a handful of games to his name. They really are struggling for cash whereas Celtic have many high value assets who may move on but under Cltic terms and timeline.
Hi Guys
The absolute bottom line is if
The FEE is right and the CLUB is right
He WILL go
Let’s just enjoy the wonderful football and encourage him while he’s at Paradise
HH
Around around a month ago when discussing reductions in away tickets on RC, the soup taker that is Wilson said “ Celtic and Rangers started this between themselves”. Weasel.