Celtic Should Welcome Crawford Allan’s Departure, But Be Wary Of The Risks.

On paper, at least, the departure of Crawford Allan from the SFA, as revealed by the press this afternoon, should be a net positive for Celtic.

His tenure has been dire. He has been like the Invisible Man at times, hiding in his office out of the way of controversies except in one high-profile case, which of course involved us and had him doing the rounds of the newsrooms trying to explain it.

What makes today’s reports interesting are that they are saying that his departure is the old “mutual” consenting. Without going too deep into that, it does suggest that a lot of people are very unhappy with his performance and that, actually, might even include some of his own officials.

There is still a lot of anger in refereeing circles about Willie Collum, who since the Celtic Park game is yet to get a league match involving the Ibrox club.

Everyone in the SFA structure knows he’s been benched. His fellow officials know he’s been benched. They know the governing body has bowed to the Ibrox mob and that, naturally, has made a lot of people within the halls of Hampden extremely nervous.

Celtic should be glad to see the back of this guy, as he’s done absolutely nothing to improve the standards.

On his watch, the Ibrox club went a record number of games without conceding a penalty in the league. VAR’s implementation has been a disaster and it is loathed across Scottish football, but particularly amongst our fans who see it as having been weaponised against us.

I wish he was going right now. I don’t like the idea that he and his officials might play a role in deciding this title race when he is already going at the end of the season, which means that he cannot possibly be held to account for anything else which happens on his watch. But I am glad to know we’re going to see the back of him nonetheless.

Celtic must be on high alert, not only for the prospect that Honest Mistakes quotient might skyrocket between now and the end of the campaign but for whoever his replacement is going to be. Knowing the SFA we’ll end up with Hugh Dallas back in the building.

An exaggeration, yes maybe, but not actually a joke.

This is where vigilance is needed more than ever.