Celtic Are Still Top, But The Media Is Counting Ibrox’s Champions League Money Already.

Today The Daily Record has published the sort of article that only they can; fantasy fiction masquerading as a sports story. It is absolutely bonkers.

Before we get to it, here’s a question; do you remember a few months back when they ran a story about how the Ibrox club might make more money from the Europa League than we stand to for this season’s Champions League campaign? I scorned that story at the time, thinking it piece of banal trash. In that scenario, Sevco would have to get to the final and win the tournament, but that didn’t stop the paper running lurid headlines and promoting this rubbish.

Today’s is in some ways even worse; they have an article up where they are counting their Champions League money whilst we sit top of the league, and they’ve concluded that because of co-efficient rules the Ibrox club could even make more money out of that tournament than us if both of the clubs are present in it.

It was ever thus.

They will bend the numbers however they need to get the conclusion they want.

I mean, this is just nuts.

Neither side is certain to be in that tournament, and whilst we all know there’s a huge pile of money at stake for getting there, we’re certainly not counting it, not by any manner of means.

What made it funny for me is that we’re suddenly being reminded again how poor Europa League income is in comparison to Champions League cash … that’s a strange realisation to have dawned on that rag after all this time.

I said in a previous piece that you can detect the rising level of arrogance over there again; they think because they are on form – they lost more recently than we did, didn’t they? I’m sure that I remember that – that they are world beaters.

It manifests itself in lots of different ways, like the casual dismissal of every other team in this league bar us, and in the way their players are suddenly strutting about think they are champions elect to garbage like this … counting money that isn’t in the bank yet, which every gambler knows is a bad idea.

The article itself actually carries no byline, except by something called “Scotland’s Co-Efficient.” Whoever, or whatever, that is, I am certain that they’ll be surprised to read the screaming headline on the piece bearing their name; “(Ibrox) to hit Champions League jackpot IF they win title as Celtic pay price for Euro woes in major shake-up.”

Even more ridiculous is the picture on the piece; Manneken Piss himself, holding the League Cup and roaring in triumph.

The picture and the headline both make it clear that someone at The Record has sniffing the Bostick again. As I said in the first paragraph, this isn’t sports journalism. With the spin they’ve put on it, this is fantasy fiction.

This is tempting fate big time because if we win this title this article is getting filed away for a day in the future when a Europa League run is again valued more highly in the press than getting to the top competition … a story which only the Ibrox club will ever inspire.

They could only have inspired this one. What utter nonsense it is.

We really need to get back on form and put this lot back in their box again. I knew the media was going to go hysterical over them before long, but it’s already almost unbearable.