Celtic Are Quite Right If They’re Standing Firm Over Letting Abada Leave On Loan.

The “news” today that Abada’s agent wants to fly to Scotland to have it out with Celtic over his client not being allowed to move to the US on loan has been greeted with predictable contempt across fan media.

Why should our club not call “bullshit” over this?

Abada, we’re told, is mentally unfit to play.

As I said in a previous piece, this smells suspect to me.

If he’s mentally unfit to play what good is a loan in the MLS going to do him? Will he somehow get over his “concerns for the family back home” who are apparently enduring a particularly tough war as their nation’s military buries uncounted Palestinian civilians under the rubble?

Let’s not piss about. Abada just doesn’t want to play for Celtic. You might think he has a case and you might not. The “Zionism” banner at the weekend, I thought was typical Green Brigade nonsense, a completely un-necessary provocation we could have all done without … but let’s not let that conflate this issue.

Abada is effectively on strike, and people can dress that up in whatever language they want.

If he’s mentally fit enough to play in America he’s mentally fit enough to play here in Glasgow and if he simply doesn’t want to do it in front of the fans, most of whom have given him unwavering support, then he can piss off to whichever club will take him.

Maybe he’s unaware of the tens of millions of Americans who want their own country to put a tight leash on Netanyahu and the other mad dogs in the Knesset. This issue doesn’t depart with him when he gets on a plane to leave Scotland behind.

Celtic seems resigned to taking a loss on him to get him off the wage bill; I personally think we should dig in all the way and refuse to let him go on the cheap. But even our clear desire to bring this chapter to a close doesn’t mean we should take a total loss. It doesn’t mean that we should let ourselves be messed about here, and right now I can’t shake the feeling that he and his agents are taking the piss.

Abada has just signed a new deal.

This club has been good to him, and nobody can say otherwise.

If his agents want to come here and make a song and dance over our holding him hostage on tens of thousands of pounds per week, they are welcome to come and make that case to the bloodless, calculating, money-oriented ghouls who run our club … but there’s a reason they are leaking their displeasure to the press in advance.

Because if we’re digging in our heels its because we’re right to and because we can’t afford to let ourselves get messed about any further.

If Abada has an issue with the Celtic fans, or if people around him are making issues for him, then let’s have it out in the public square, let’s have the debate, let’s drag it into the sunlight for review.

Whatever’s going on here shouldn’t be getting played out in the shadows. If people want to smear our club or our supporters, they should be willing to do it in public, and if they thought they had a case they would do that.

I’m well past bored by this phony baloney drama being played out behind the scenes. He’s either fit for duty or he isn’t. If he’s simply not willing to play for Celtic he should be fined for every week he sits in the stand. And that’s where he should have to sit.

Because if he’s not up to playing for us then he damned sure can’t claim he’s up to doing it somewhere else.

Why should we, as a club, accept that? It’s simply not on.