There only thing less surprising than Brendan Rodgers not making the shortlist for the sportswriters manager of the year award was that the Belgian Waffler did.
When the initial, PFA Manager Of The Year nominees were named I sort of understood the names that were on it; I’m not saying I totally agreed with them, but I got it to an extent … the whole idea of these awards is devalued anyway, and it was devalued when Rodgers failed to get the gong for his second treble in a row and then, worse when they didn’t give one to Callum Davidson.
I know nobody at Celtic cares about this stuff. I know Rodgers himself, who might have been surprised by his snub when on the brink of back of back trebles, and being the first Scottish manager in history to achieve that certainly doesn’t. I reckon he just takes it all in his stride. Still, it’s a joke that he’s not on the lists whilst on the brink of a double.
Those defending Clement will say he’s on the brink of a treble. Rubbish, of course, as he was virtually handed the League Cup in the first place and has to go to Celtic Park and win if his team is to have a chance of claiming the title. The fact is, Clement was never not going to be on the sportswriters list. He is their new hero. He is their new great white hope. He is the guy most of them have spent the whole of this campaign sucking up to and pouring honey on.
But the one thing about the PFA list that made it semi-credible, if you don’t just reject these things out of hand entirely, is that it at least reflected the view that neither club has exactly set the heather on fire this season and there are much more deserving candidates to be honoured by their professional colleagues. Neither man making it is at least balanced and fair.
Having one on it and not the other just makes you want to burst out laughing. To me, Rodgers looks the more likely to emerge from this campaign with his reputation intact. If he wins on Saturday, the title race is over and all Manneken Piss has left to rescue his name is the Scottish Cup; if he loses both of those games his appearance on that list is farcical.
You know what? I’d love the votes to be all in before Saturday, and for that man to have to climb to the podium having failed to win in three attempts against the title winning boss who won’t even be in the room that night, a man who’ll be preparing to inflict a third defeat on him and make his record no wins out of four. You might as well give it to Steven Naismith and have Clement present it to him. That’s how ridiculous the whole spectacle becomes.
The manager knows that the only people who matter when it comes to this judgement are us, the fans, the folks in the stands, and Rodgers has won over the majority of his critics in recent weeks and months, and if he wins this title he’ll have won over the rest.
That’s the only verdict in the present day he cares about, that and the verdict of history. He’s on the brink of his third title as Celtic boss. That’s a big deal. It’s the same number of titles that Martin O’Neill has. It’ll be one more than Ange. If he wins the double then he deserves every plaudit he’s not going to get, not from the hacks anyway.
But from the rest of us, yeah, and when he looks over the trophies and titles he’s brought to our club, that will be his legacy. That will be the judgement that matters.
Clemente could win it with a League cup win!! That shows you how credible this award is. Millions spent to win the least thought of tournament.
His predecessor doing most of the hard work and the rangers having the highest spend in transfers/Loanees this season, to win the wee cup. LMAO.
Will make this award all the more ridiculous, when the crowd turn on him and he is out the door before Santa comes for the next charlatan to put on the blazer and brogues and morph into a fully fledged Klan’s man.
Sweet that it comes from the media moochers who would not have a single decent article between them this season.
Those glorified typists don’t really have clue number one about what’s what in Scottish football …do they ? They have nominated the biggest fraud in football -Derek McInnes – to be top coach on their shortlist ! A guy who , on a Thursday evening , rather than prepare for his club’s weekend domestic league game ,would rather moonlight as a commentator for TNT sports at a theRangers Europa league match in Ibrox . Picking up a nice few bucks in the process while Kilmarnock FC – his employers – are reduced to an afterthought ! That’s the calibre and character of the SMSM typists ? A constant embarrassment ! Have another doughnut …that’s what they’re there for !
I’m sure Brendan doesn’t give a Raphael about being snubbed, it will not even register on his list of things that require his consideration. In fact he is probably laughing his head off at our infantile media. He will just continue to scoff at their petty efforts to wind him up, he is far too clever and sensible for them and he will rise above it as normal, especially when he is dropping the next two trophies in the Celtic trophy cabinet.
Please, please, please give the manager of the year award to Clement, and please, please, please let Brendan pick up league and cup winners medals. That would be hilarious, and show up the selection process for that award to be the biased nonsense that it is!
Brendan was never going to be on the shortlist. It hasn’t been a great season and the sports writers don’t need an excuse to snub Celtic in any regard.
All I can say is I hope Clement does win it and all he has to show for it is a League Cup that he didn’t have very much to do to win.
Auld Baldy can add it tae his “Moral Victory” Cup, the “We won 2-1 better than uze” Trophy & of crse the “We’ll have fun too” Cup lol!
I’d consider it a bonus NOT to be selected with that mob…
One night less that nobody of a Celtic persuasion would even want in their Scummy Company !
The arrogance of the Scottish Football Writers to put ‘Peepul’ managing club(s) playing out of Ayebrokes, high upon a Pedestal, still, after everything that’s happened in the last 10(-20) years, both baffles and amuses in equal measure simultaneously.
The waffle and passive aggressive personality of Herr Clementine would absolutely be ridiculed if he was sitting in Brendan Rodgers chair.
After clawing back an artificially inflated points deficit due to postponements made under his predecessors reign( which is the reason why “we took more points in ze last 6 months” coupled with Celtic losing 5 last minute goals at 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 3-2 and 1-1 to throw away 9 points. I digress)
His side 5pts ahead 7th February are now 3 behind and nobody in the Laptop Loyal are saying anything about it.
In a role reversal, it would be the main talking point.
Taking 2/12 points in the lead up to the split, failing to beat the rangers, taking 1 point from Dundee/Ross County and Motherwell would lead to a concerted sacking campaign, every player tarred and feathered, hit with rotten Clementines
Not for the rangers version of Clemoñ, no. He is awarded a nomination for the best manager in the Land, simply not the best, simply because he’s managing Der Hun and they know his fragile ego needs a little boost from his ‘fellow followers’ in the media.