The Sunday Mail’s resident bitter, old Celtic hater is at it again today, with a shocking piece. He opens it up by pointing his finger at Celtic’s perceived “vulnerabilities” and then he praises the Ibrox manager. You know why this is unusual and justifies an article on him?
Because he does it in a piece which is, ostensibly, about the sickening chants directed at Martin Boyle last weekend. “(Ibrox fan) chant an affront to human decency and alien behaviour must perplex club’s sophisticated leader” is the headline.
The piece barely scratches the surface of that.
It is cowardly of him to say the least that he has framed at least part of the article around us and our form when the headline maintains that those chants are the subject matter. In fact, those chants are mentioned in passing, and he only mentions them at all because he wants to say something nice about Clement. It’s another anti-Celtic rant.
This is how he opens it.
“Philippe Clement says there is “zero challenge” for him with regard to motivating his players sufficiently well to win … a domestic Treble.
Should they accomplish that feat there will be zero tolerance among the Celtic support for the side who started the season as Treble holders and finished it trophyless.
Tolerance is an optional extra within Scottish football, mainly conspicuous by its absence on a historical basis. How embarrassing would it be for Celtic to lose everything they once had to a club who sacked their manager Michael Beale seven league games into the season and had at one point trailed Brendan Rodgers’ side by eight points in the league? And lost the first two Old Firm games of the season to their greatest rivals into the bargain.”
You can see straight away what the actual intent behind this piece is, and you can see just as clearly what the article is not. It is not a real exploration of those disgusting chants at Easter Road.
In fact, the article offers a bizarre alibi for the Ibrox boss’s failure to call out those chants. The writer maintains that the Belgian must be baffled, and even troubled, by the cesspit that surrounds him, and then lauds him as intelligent and academic. But he then trashes him own argument by essentially suggesting that the Ibrox boss is somehow living in blissful ignorance of all the hatred that surrounds him and which is baked into that club’s DNA.
Which is absolute garbage, as he certainly knows full well.
The Ibrox boss is simply doing what every boss who ever worked at that stadium has done; he’s chosen the path of least resistance. He knows full well what those songs are and what they are about. Tell me how an intelligent, academically qualified man fails to understand chants wishing a rival player dead?
Why didn’t he make a clear and definitive statement condemning them?
That would have been a meaningful article, one that basically said “most people think you are a good and decent man; why didn’t you act like it last weekend?”
But of course, the writer of this dirge was never going to do that, and instead he offered that pitiful stunted defence of the Ibrox boss, and that’s a clear sign that all this article ever was intended to do was praise Clement whilst also having a pop at us.
The truly serious issue which the headline suggested he’d tackle was no more than an afterthought, thrown in there as filler. He opens the piece talking about us, and about how fans are unforgiving; am I crazy or is there a clear inference here that a little restlessness in the stands and vile, even evil, chants about a player lying prone on the ground are on the same spectrum of supporter behaviour? Nothing could be further from the truth.
Nobody really wants to take this issue seriously, and we should not expect that from one of the people who has consistently ignored it. His Clement love-affair is hilarious when you place it in context with his drooling over The Mooch and Van Bronckhorst before him.
At the same time, his obsession with charting everything he perceives as being wrong at Celtic long ago became tiresome, even if he is just stating the obvious.
His condemnation of the Ibrox support has no teeth because he limits it to a couple of paragraphs and because he hasn’t put pressure on the club over it. He continues to push this “small minority” garbage as well, and we’re all aware that this is not the case. He and his profession have been hiding behind this stuff for years and this was not a serious effort to change that.
This was an article slagging us, with a couple of other things thrown in to disguise that fact. This joker hasn’t even done that particularly well. His article is a gutless fraud … much like its writer.
Join today’s discussion over on An Internet Bampot …
Celtic Are The Real Beneficiaries After Today’s Embarrassing Dens Park Debacle.
He’s NOTHING, more than a twisted old astard with his agenda against us since he got tossed from the celtic club .
He really thinks he’s clever and a step above, in reality he’s nothing more than a shrivelled up old bitter hack that ceased to report anything meaningful decades ago .
God knows how he’s still got a job with that rag as he’s nothing more than a washed up embarrassment.
Even THAT radio station must realise he’s a busted flush due to no-one listening to his drivel.
The msm will always spin to certain point on there pro ibrox agenda,Rodger’s is barking back now who else inside our club has it to bite back?
What else would u expect from the Daily Fail,this rag is never calling out either version of it favourite club , new old , claiming 55 titles in 11 years ???
This old deadbeat is best ignored. On Clyde he cant stop saying sevco’s managers name,in a weird accent.Absolute throbber.
Find myself always repeatin it. There’s no been an ibrox managers arse he hasnae had his nose up. Personally, ah don’t think it’s so much that he hates Celtic, as it is that he’s just a cowardly wee media fraud, who avoids goin too deep when it comes tae ibrox. A scared wee man, who’ll come away wi all this ibrox crawlin, as well as Celtic negativity, so that he gets peace tae walk down the street. Remember well, his brown nosin w smith, was some of the most cringeworthy ye could ever get. He’s no gonnae change, so his opinions no worth takin seriously.
How dare you: please replace Smith with WALTER.
“THE MAN WITH NO SURNAME” !!!!!
The guy you are referring to is actually a Celtic supporter, I know that for a fact, he is only pleasing his employers because he is still in a job when he should have retired years ago. If you were in a high paying job that you loved what would you do? If you go back over the years you will find that he has criticised The Rangers and also the original club and praised Celtic to the highest.
He is only gotten worse since he reached retirement age, like I said he loves his job and is well paid for it, I ask again, what would you do in his shoes?
@ MC. Nae idea, wouldnae wear them. Ahm commentin through yeras of experience listening tae this clown and one of the things that became more noticeable, was that aye he did criticise rangers, tho with naewhere near the deep rooted arrogance and sarcasm he showed against Celtic, or even the supporters callin in his radio programme. That wisnae imagination that was fact and his attitude towards smith was stomach churnin. Ffs he even classed gerrard as ‘refreshingly honest’. Ah stick by my previous comment.
Another son of pinocchio
Absolutely. Couldn’t believe how he tried to spin it.
Is it fear,from the reaction to their words and opinions from the Hunnish hordes,that makes them write such gibberish.Not that far fetched
Maybe he’ll write about how it was the weather that blew the rankers away today and not a comprehensive performance by the Celtic’s Women’s team.
A strong and overwhelming victory today ladies and a St. Patrick’s Day massacre. HH
Great article, James. I had very similar thoughts as I read through the original article but couldn’t quite articulate them as well as you have done. Thanks for calling it out. HH from Oz – Martin Boyle’s nationality !
it’s unbelievable. I imagined that finally someone in the Scottish press was taking the huns to task. I could not believe what I was reading.
The statement read:
“We are aware of the reported tragedy chanting…and we will be liaising with and supporting [the] Police.
“We strongly condemn any offensive, abusive and discriminatory chants in football stadiums, and we are determined to stamp this behaviour out. It is entirely unacceptable and can have a lasting and damaging impact on people and communities within our game.
It must stop, and we support any club and their fans who try to eradicate this from the terraces.”
That was a statement from the English FA, calling out offensive chants during the
ManU v. Liverpool game yesterday.
IF only we had a proper journalist within the SMSM who could ask our
very own SFA, why they choose to – continuously – ignore offensive chants
in the Scottish game – when the English FA calls it out publicly…?
Writing about it later mate defo.
This guy has become a total embarrassment to the community he sprung from, praise everything from down Ibrox way, criticise everything at Celtic Park seems to have become his mode of so called sports journalism.
Anything to keep on the right side of those who run the sports desks in the press and broadcasting media of this narrow minded wee so called country called Scotland.
His job is to sell newspapers and he can only do that by pandering to the majority Blue Pound.
Truth doesn’t matter.
They (The Sevco Huns) claim to hate The Scummy Scottish Football Media John…
But lots and lots of them still buy the rags –
Less so The Celtic support I’d guess…
However some sadly still do !