Does Keith Jackson Even Know He’s Lying When He Writes About The Celtic Boss?

I read Keith Jackson this morning with a familiar feeling; this guy writes without the first clue what he’s talking about. I will refrain from doing the full dissection of his piece, because today he’s just not worth it. What I do want to talk about is one assertion he made; that Rodgers was somehow playing to the gallery with his comments on Saturday.

This is what I mean. It’s times like this when I find myself wondering what sort of person Jackson really is. Is the guy really this stupid, or is he smart and pretending to be? Is he just not understanding what’s in front of his face, or does he deliberately misinterpret what it is that he sees and hears? Is this guy or an idiot … or is he a liar?

I can’t believe someone this dumb can be working at a national title, and I say that knowing that there are some proper fools in the business. This blog regularly writes about both The Village Idiot and the Ancient Embarrassment. But let’s be honest, there is only one Keith “Jackass” Jackson. The Village Idiot is scandalously biased. The Ancient Embarrassment is angry and bitter, although I bet even he couldn’t tell you why that it is anymore.

Jackson is just terrible at the job. He gets more articles devoted to him than anyone else, by far, and the Monday tear-down of his work has become an habitual feature here.

I love the Jackass pieces; it’s been ages since I wrote one, because he has proven so resistant to satire, because it’s hard for some people to tell the difference between the jokey pieces and his real work. Last year I published half of one of his articles under the Jackass heading and people just assumed that it was a joke; I had to put the truth in a postscript at the bottom. “This isn’t me taking the piss, this is the real deal. He actually wrote that and his paper published it.”

Today, he’s repeated a piece of utter nonsense that he’s written before and, in fact, has been writing for several months; that Rodgers makes statements calculated to win over a section of the fan-base which still isn’t reconciled to his return to the club.

Let me tell you, that section of the support is vanishingly small, and Rodgers will never change their minds. They are zealots on this, they are absolutely convinced that they are right and that Rodgers should be condemned to the darkness forever. Fine. Let them stew in their irrational hatred, the rest of us will get on with supporting the manager and the team.

People leave clubs. Are they this pissed at everyone?

If you study the events of that season in any detail you know that Rodgers had his reasons and we might not like the way it was done but if we’re being honest all of us can understand the why and we can understand just who was to blame for it. I cannot continue to hate Rodgers whilst people consider Ange Postecoglou an honourable man. His departure was every bit as selfish and could have hurt this club every bit as much.

I have assembled the evidence that proves that Postecoglou never intended to be here long term, including his own statements to that effect, and still people believe he acted with integrity and in good faith; in my view, he did neither of those things, he refused a contract extension which would have guaranteed us a substantial pay-out if a club wanted to sign him … he didn’t sign that extension because that might have put some of those clubs off.

I cannot hold it against him. He came here, did what he was hired to do and left us in a better state than when he took over. He gave us two outstanding seasons. So did Rodgers before his departure, and he left us well placed for the success we enjoyed in the third one. I am over it. I was over it the day he came back, and I sat in front of him and heard him offer his apology; he was honest enough to say he had no regrets about going (we all knew that; it was important he said it) but that he regretted that the manner of it had upset so many people.

Rodgers most certainly does not pander to that tiny number of fans who, in any case, he will never win over. He has the vast, vast majority of us onside. What does he need their support for? They aren’t in the stadium booing him every week, there are none of them as far as I’m aware in the fan media to harass him every other day and even The Green Brigade has gotten over their initial burst of silliness to accept that he’s the right man at the right time.

And yet Jackson wrote this today;

“Rodgers, for his part, appears to be very calculatedly reaching out to the hardcore elements within his club’s support – the ones who never really wanted him back at the helm in the first place – and bringing them back on board for the final stretch.”

Eah? When was this, then? If he’s referring to the “we’ll have some fun” comment on Saturday then he’s either woefully inadequate at reading the situation or he’s trying to frame a separate narrative around that comment for his own ends. It is perfectly clear that Rodgers was both taking the pressure off our players for Saturday and mining the field in front of Clement, who stumbled into it like a drunk wearing clown shoes.

What Rodgers was absolutely not doing was pandering to a group of fans. Nobody who heard those comments – nobody – has drawn that conclusion. Nobody but Jackson, and this is why I find myself asking again that question; can he really be this thick?

As if that wasn’t enough, he then added this for good measure;

“’For those I need to convince, I’ll see you here in May,’. That was how his own Celtic story – or at least the sequel – began back in June last year when Rodgers was unveiled as Ange Postecoglou’s successor, amid a significant amount of shoulder shrugging.”

Shoulder shrugging? Yes, the number of doubters might have been larger that day than it is right now, but much of the support, most of it in fact, were fully onboard with the man. Certainly, the guys I sat with in that press room that afternoon were committed and all-in. We were pleased he was there. We were glad to have him back.

I do love Jackson’s quoting of Rodgers’ famous words outside in front of the crowd; I do believe I can speak with authority on who they were directed at, and it was certainly not the fans. I have written this before. I was the one who drew those very words from Rodgers, at the end of the fan media conference when I asked him a cheeky after-the-proceedings question as he was going out the door.

I told him that there was much media hype around Ibrox and that a lot of the journalists were saying stuff about how he had not faced a real challenge the last time he was here and that this time the Ibrox club was ready for him. “Do you have anything to say to that?” I asked, with a grin, and he answered with a grin of his own. “See you in May,” he said. And everyone in the room laughed. It was a perfect answer, an absolutely brilliant moment.

Then he went outside and said the same thing. And to this day there are still hacks who will tell you it was directed at our own supporters, and who either don’t know, or choose not to acknowledge, that in fact he was sending the message to them.

Jackson really is in a class of his own at this stuff. Does he even realise that he’s misleading people with this nonsense? And who is it he’s trying to con? Himself maybe. He certainly isn’t fooling anybody else.