Greg Taylor Did Well Today, Especially As Most Hacks Don’t Want To Talk About Celtic.

The pre-match press conferences were today, of course, and Greg Taylor did an excellent job of representing the club at his. I’ll get to the manager a little later on, but Greg was up first and although we were on the brink of a cup semi-final against Aberdeen, quite a lot of the questions turned out to be about another side and the SPFL title race.

What is it with our media at times? Could they not have parked that particular subject until after the cup games were out of the way? Imagine you had wanted to know what the club preparations for that game were like! The questioning bordered on the ridiculous; one hack made sure to ask him if that particular trophy was more important having lost out on the first one … the level these people operate at really is quite shameful.

Half of the questions were about the title race. He was even asked if he was surprised at the Ibrox club’s poor run of form. His answer to that was excellent.

“I don’t really take much notice of what other teams are doing. I know their results but in terms of performances across the city that’s for them to worry about.”

All the guy wanted to do was talk about the cup semi final. He had made that clear as early as the fourth question, when he was asked about the SPFL title race and said “For now and this week the preparation has been fully on Aberdeen and the semi-final of the Scottish Cup.”

He was asked numerous questions about momentum and mindset. There was an entire series of questions about the Aberdeen managerial situation, and Peter Leven; how bizarre to ask a Celtic player to comment on the performances of the manager he is coming up against, and about what to expect from a guy who won’t be here until next season.

Taylor stayed calm and focussed. He talked about his fitness. He talked about his focus and that of the team. But he didn’t asked much about those things. The whole thing was odd, and the more they tried to get him to talk about the title race the clearer he made it that he wasn’t interested in discussing it. Had the questioning been scheduled to last ten more minutes I think the subject would have taken up half that time again until he brought it to a halt.

For all that, his message on the cup itself was loud and clear; “It’s the business end of the season and we always want to finish strongly. It’s been a big part of the success we have had in previous seasons … It’s vital that we win silverware at this club. Every season, every competition we enter we try and win. The Scottish Cup is no different.”

He seemed to be the only one there today who wanted to talk about the cup game and Celtic. He must have wondered if he had walked into the wrong room.

STV News did their own little show this evening, when they previewed the matches just then. They took time to mention that Celtic are the holders … but their interviews were with someone at Aberdeen, and, of course, Phillipe Clement.

Once again, the biggest club in the country is going to Hampden to defend their trophy … and we’re just an afterthought to some of these people.