Earlier, I wrote a lengthy piece about the staggering re-evaluation some in the media are facing if Celtic wins this league title. But I knew I had forgotten to add something, and in fact it was a significant enough miss that I thought it merited a separate piece. We need to win this title in style. We do not want to give the media a single shred of hope to cling to.
I know exactly what the media is going to say if we don’t win all five games but we still come out on top here, and it’s the bell they will be ringing all through the summer; they will say that this is two bad teams and the winner is the one that has managed to scrape its way across the finish line.
That’s the narrative they will spin, but with one twist; that Rodgers will face “a different animal” next season when Clement has his own players. They will choose not to acknowledge that Rodgers will be more formidable when he has his.
We should seek to deny them even that fig-leaf to cover their embarrassment. If we finish this season strong, as strong as we’ve looked all season, they will have no choice but to acknowledge that over the course we’ve earned it and proved we’re the best in the country. If we contrive to make this harder than it has to be they’ll simply claim that nobody won it, that it was thrown away and that only at the end someone managed to scramble across the finish line.
And look, yeah, history won’t care. Their pathetic rationalisations won’t ultimately matter, but I’m going to be honest with you; I can do without a summer of their nonsense. I can do without another close-season like the last one, where it was all full of the media drooling with anticipation of what The Mooch and his newly assembled super-side would do.
If we are champions, we will be entitled to a Hell of a lot more respect than that. We’ve had to put up with a ton of garbage over the course of this season and our players have been playing under dark clouds under unfriendly skies for the whole of it.
So, I think it is crucial that we don’t just win it but win it well. We don’t need five wins out of five; if we win the next three, we’re champions because we certainly won’t lose the last two.
But the fact is, if we do beat them at Celtic Park we can win this title with three wins, a loss and a draw … but we’re better than that, we’re a better team than that, and Rodgers is a better manager than that. We should be looking to demonstrate that fact clearly in what is left of this campaign.
It is five wins out of five and two out of two in the cup, to win the double, that will erase their last shred of hope and send them into the summer despondent. We will need to be at our very, very best to do it … but this is what Rodgers has traditionally done.
And I have not the least doubt that this team is good enough to get us there. The final push starts tomorrow. Get us to the final, Celtic, and then five wins out of five in the league to send us to Hampden with the swagger not just of champions but deserved, undisputed champions. We will deserve it. We will have earned it.
What does it say about the credentials of Mr Clem- on as the Rangers head coach when he and his entire clumpany ” bottled it ” for championship victory when only a few short weeks ago he could see the reflection of his face on the Sterling Silver league trophy ? Everything was in his favour , from one of the weakest Celtic squad’ s in living memory ,to a Celtic confidence loss on the field at the most crucial time ever seen on the pitch ! He even had Inaction Jackson of the daily Record publishing a winning scoreline in his favour when the game was cancelled . Talk about Divine Intervention ? If the tables were turned around and Brendan Rodgers was about to blow the league in the fashion of a the Rangers victory , he and Celtic FC would get slaughtered all Summer long from the SMSM and everyone else …quite rightly so ! Now it shall be ‘ operation damage limitation ‘ ? Oh ,and where will the tens of millions come from ,required to rebuild Clem-on’s squad ? To lose your dignity on the pitch is embarrassing ,but to lose a potential £60 million sovs in the process will take a very ,very ,very long time to get over from …if ever !
Yes a clean sweep is needed but you know they’ll find something, anything to bring us down.
yea james…we have put up with a lot of garbage…most of it self inflicted…let no-one forget we were 8 points clear at one stage,,,EIGHT…the league should have been won by this stage…yea, yea…injuries etc etc…
IF BR leads us to the league title – and it is NOT over yet…..it will be despite the bastards in the boardroom…AND BR’s own errors..
IF we go on to win the league, the huns should hang their heads in shame…apart from the utter anomaly of the 10IAR fiasco season…this may have been their best chance for some time…because SURELY, BR will not allow the board to hamstring the recruitment process…and as your article from the other day – which was excellent – about the arrogant bastard lawwell…it’s IMPERITAVE he is jettisoned at the and of the season – HE IS A MALIGN PRESENCE IN THE BOARDROOM….GET TO FUCK LAWWELL !!!
THE TITLE IS NOT WON YET….
HH
Excellent points and exactly what we want to do as Celtic fans, re our philosophy of “playing football”. Hopefully we will be celebrating getting to the final tomorrow night, Melbourne time ?. Still think we need to sign Miovski, end of the season. Need to watch him tomorrow, big threat.
What the main stream media if so would be forgetting, is we, if we win will have more than enough already banked to strengthen the team significantly nevermind the CL money.
On the other hand Clements hands would be tied to bring in his own players as their skint and already have to get shot of dud players on expensive contracts .
Absolutely James. No complacency. Just full throttle ahead to the last game. The swagger comes at the end of the season. HH
If Celtic won 38 outta 38 games these bastards would still find a negative to focus on regarding Celtic…
And as you predict James it’ll be Rodgers going to England –
Scotland and Scottish Football can be such a strange, strange, strange wee backwater world…
And the Scummy Scottish Football Media are the biggest part of it…
Well there is the cancer of Sevco as well I guess…
And then there’s The Cheats with whistles, flags and monitors as well –
Oh man – (sigh) – Just where does it all end !
As Brendan said recently, “this is when Celtic come alive”. When the trophies are up for grabs that’s when you see Celtic outplaying, outrunning and outbottling the broken brothers, this will be no different!
James, I’m not so sure of the ethos here. If we cruise it and they drop points to create a bigger gap our board may tighten purse strings in the summer. You know what they are like. In the event that we do scrape it, yes, it does give them hope and probably wind in their sails but it may push them to over stretch next spend season. I like to see them with hope, as it is all the sweeter when it goes awry. I really don’t mind if we scrape it or not just as long as we do it. Doesn’t matter what happens the media and their fans will be doing what they always do, spinning gold from flax. We just need to get on with getting 56 scraping or not, that’s when the real respect will need to be offered