Scott Brown is in the news today for a remark he made during a TV interview, one that I think sums up his attitude and reflects our own. He was talking with an English pundit who said he’d never been to an “Old Firm game.” And immediately, Brown corrected him and said, “You mean a Glasgow derby?” Which was 100% the right thing to do.
Now the media has Brown “trolling” the Ibrox club. Nonsense.
He was doing no such thing.
This isn’t trolling, and it actually has very little do with them.
This is about how we want to be defined and people need to get that into their heads, they need to wrap their brains around it. This is how we feel about this, and we have a right to be referred to in a manner we find acceptable. We don’t want to be labelled that way, most us hate it.
The Old Firm was an artificial construct even when there were still two teams in it instead of us just us and this Rangers Tribute Band we share a city with. Celtic made its intentions very clear when we pursued the first separate sponsorship agreement, which the media by the way told us was mad as we’ve never realise maximum value doing that. But whose sponsorship deals turn out to be worth more? We knew that at the time.
If memory serves me, it was around about the time of the UEFA song investigations when we all, collectively, stopped using the expression and the club followed suit.
We made it clear, we’re not one side of anything, we’re an entirely separate body and we don’t want to be judged by their standards on the basis of their deplorable conduct.
As far as I’m concerned that’s as true as it ever was. We want nothing to do with the term. We want nothing to do with the idea that underpins it, that they are some mirror image of us. It is a lie.
The term is used by various people in various ways and none of it is good for us, none of it is acceptable to us. Ibrox uses it to bind us, like a jilted ex still calling every day for validation. They need to find that validation somewhere else, they aren’t getting it here.
Some in the media use it because they are heart lazy and won’t self-censor. Others do it because they know that it insults us and they do it for that explicit reason and as far as I’m concerned that’s not far short of using it as a sectarian term.
A bunch of them use it because they are intellectually inflexible and it reflects the bygone era in which they started their careers … in refusing to acknowledge our very real, and explicit, desire to want nothing to do with it they remind me a lot of people like Souness decrying that football has women commentators and will soon have female managers.
It’s a term that no longer has any application or connection to reality and one day every single person connected with Celtic, everyone in the media who used to be a player here, will talk about the Glasgow Derby and there won’t be an idiot like Andy Walker or a media climber like Mark Wilson using it to keep his gig open … even the media will quit it and consign it to the bin where it belongs.
As far as I’m concerned, that day can’t come quickly enough.
Well said agree with every word there is no Old Firm Derby.
I never say Rangers (unless referring to the team that no longer exists) and have hated the “Old Firm” expression before 2012.
I am glad it’s a thing that we don’t acknowledge them how they want to be acknowledged. We owe each other nothing. I don’t want anything to do with them. And that’s not a slight. I don’t want anything to do with Aberdeen or Hibs. Why is saying the same thing about the current Ibrox side any different?
The term became redundant in 2012.
I’ve actually saw journos and commentators looking quite uncomfortable using it,but still doing it,because they don’t know what else to say.
James, the PLC may claim to detest the OF label, but in reality they are up to their necks in collaboration with the Ibrox outfit. Since 2012, their actions have spoken louder than words. For decades under Murray, we were systematically cheated, season in, season out.
Imagine, that in an alternate universe, it was Celtic that went bust in 2012, under the same circumstances. We would have been dead and buried…and that would have been that. The then CEO at Ibrox would never have allowed a new Celtic club to come into existence. There would have been no 5WA or LNS enquiry. The authorities would not have lifted a finger to help us. That is the difference.
Hail Hail.
Have a word with Mr Lawell see what he thinks
Couldn’t have said it better.
That’s probably a reflection on why you’re doing this and not me.
Seems the only ones to use the expression are the Ibrox club themselves. Every Sevco supporter I know also refers to the Glasgow Derby and refuses to have anything to do with The Old Firm.
I’m back after a week down in England watching the favourite Championship team twice…
Not many down there interested in The farce that is Scottish Football –
But quite a few that I was talking to seemed to prefer Sevco…
A marked change since I started going down there for football 14 years ago when plenty liked Celtic –
Not sure the exact reason for that but anyway ‘Old F#rm’ wasn’t thankfully mentioned at least…
However I find myself having to correct plenty of Celtic fans on this topic…
Probably The Daily Record reading and Raido Scotland listening Celtic contingent –
But there still tragically Celtic supporters out there that prefer to use a term that died in 2012 instead of using The Glasgow Derby…
And pistol Pete and his merry band of old grey men will be quite content with the latest score of Celtic 0 v Hearts 2…
He sure has an ‘exciting’ Old F#rm (Glasgow Derby ma words) title race on now for sure –
With Lawwell’s record at poker not very good put a fair wedge on Sevco winning this title…
saturday 15.52 hrs…HOW can an “elite coach” – your words james, not mine – not see that mikey johnston is a COMPLETE waste of a jersey……can anyone answer me that??? a prick like me spotted it over two years ago…!!!
we are about to drop another 3 points….huns will win first silverware of the season tomorrow..and they WILL take all 3 points when they visit parkhead on the 30th…
another “covid” season by the looks of it…but wait, there are no covid restrictions in place…so who can we blame….??? the media ? var ? ref ?…no doubt, we’ll find someone or something…
what a shambles of a club we have become…no doubt you won’t like me saying that james…
since martin oneill, celtic have only made 1 bold appointment as head coach…2016-brendan rodgers…but they quickly saw that his appointment would cost them money ie in the transfer market, and ensured he walked…they STUMBLED into AP’S appointment….RODGERS SECOND COMING WAS A MAJOR ERROR….even if we score 5 in the 2nd half…it’s a disgraceful performance – AGAIN.
FUK THE BOARD OF CELTIC FC.
“A CLUB LIKE NO OTHER”
FAIL FAIL !!!
Auld Firm RIP 2012
Haha, treat it any way you want, it matters not, and is clearly the boards ‘raison d‘etra’ , there is absolutely no other explanation for their actions. Old Firm plc is alive and well, regardless of what we call it, and the supporters as always, will go along with it.
I for one certainly won’t Jim !
What was wrong with my last comment. I said I couldn’t put it better and on reflection that was why you’re doing it and not me ?
Well said Broony