Today We Got Another Hystercial Anti-Celtic Screed From The Sunday Mail’s Resident Loon.

Yesterday, at his presser, Brendan Rodgers was asked if he thought that there was something of a celebratory atmosphere after the game. He rejected the idea flat-out. The fans, he said, are staying as grounded as the players and as the coaching staff and as everyone else at the club. We all know that there is still work to be done here.

As he pointed out, that’s the attitude that permeates everything at Parkhead at this moment in time. No complacency will be allowed to creep into things. Everyone is in good spirits. That comes from confidence. Arrogance is difference. If there was arrogance at Celtic right now then I wouldn’t need to be writing about it, because the media would be way ahead of me in urging the Ibrox players to be pinning stuff to dressing room walls.

As per usual, the only people getting excited are the media, and Ibrox fans who require some motivation. It’s them freaking out over Rodgers’ “have a bit of fun” comments yesterday. The hacks are publicising it as if it’s a declaration of World War 3. The reaction on the forums of Sevconia is a little bit more mental than even that.

They obviously need to gee themselves up for the coming seven days.

An almighty amount of pressure is about to start squeezing in on their club. They have at least managed to dispatch ten-man Kilmarnock this afternoon, but anyone who endured the match until Lawrence got the third would have seen how horrible a performance it was and how utterly devoid of real quality they are. Next weekend, we could really hurt them if our players perform and we take our chances when they present themselves.

So, it was obvious that The Sunday Mail’s resident clown, old Ancient Embarrassment himself, would choose today to focus on the pressure on the Celtic players and the manager. And make one of his unsubtle digs about the Celtic fans as well, as though we were all lunatics prone to leaping off the deep end diving board at the first setback, something that he’s been proved colossally wrong on time and time and time again this season.

Hell, the narrative around Celtic all season long has been of a club in crisis, even when we had that seven point lead they bang on about so much. And old Ancient Embarrassment has been one of the loudest voices predicting doom, gloom and darkness whilst heaping so much praise on Manneken Piss and his team it’s a wonder they can walk upright.

Read this for utter garbage; this is the level this geezer operates at, this is the kind of hyperbolic guff that spews forth from his pen these days.

“The word “unforgiving” is synonymous with every (Glasgow) derby. But this one takes living with the consequences of defeat to an unprecedented level. Two sides with very few Scottish players have to understand the affect on the lives of their supporters that their performances will create. A Celtic team made up primarily of English, Canadian, American, Danish, German and Asian players is now confronted by the biggest game they will ever have played in.”

Maybe I’m missing his point. But let’s go over this nonsense.

The English player is Joe Hart who has played in title winning Celtic sides. In fact, Hart has played in an EPL title winning team as this eejit admits. The Canadian is Alastair Johnston; he made his debut at Ibrox in a massive match and has played in several of them since. The American is Cameron Carter Vickers. Hardly a babe in the woods. The Danish player I struggled to place. And then I remembered; he’s talking about Matt O’Riley. Matt O’Riley is going to crack under the pressure of playing in this game. Matt O’Riley whose second or third match as a Celtic player was against the Ibrox team in a game to put us top of the league. Who performed brilliantly at Ibrox in front of none but their fans (and had a bottle chucked at him) and scored a critical penalty. The German is Kuhn. We’ll see how he performs, if he starts the game. And the Asians … well I think Maeda, Kyogo and Hatate have all done sufficiently well in these matches before that none of us should be worried how they’ll sleep in the build up to this. It’s just another game for them.

I re-read that part again, by the way, in case I was hallucinating it. The Asian players might crack under the pressure. Kyogo, who has won games against them single-handed. Hatate, who like O’Riley, was only in his second or third appearance that night at Celtic Park in February two years ago which put us top … and he scored a beauty that night. And Daizen Maeda, who Tavernier dearly wished he’d never have to see again, except when he caught the odd Celtic match on the telly over in Saudi Arabia. Surprise! You’ll be seeing plenty more of him!

And with his dire article today, he has, in addition, made one of his lamentable predictions, based on nothing more than whatever he sees through those thick specs of his; “All will be forgiven if Celtic win. All hell will break loose if they lose.”

All hell will break loose if we lose? Really? There aren’t still two games to go, with the teams just about level? No, if by some hellish confluence of circumstances we did lose next weekend there would be no “hell” breaking loose; there would, instead, be the same disciplined approach to the last two games that there have been to the games up until now. We would know we had to win them both, and win them both well … that would be the reality.

I am supremely confident about next weekend. Supremely. They were as dire today as we were exceptional yesterday. I have no fears about them, they are not a good side, and with our boys capable of upping their game I feel sure we will dominate from start to finish and as good as secure the title. I don’t expect old Ancient Embarrassment to give us credit when we do, because he’s already pushing the “two poor sides” narrative, which is especially unusual for someone who sang the praises loudly and lustily of the one across the city for long enough this season.

But I don’t expect he’s concerned about the double standard, or that he even recognises it. The man is a muppet. The man is a clown. The man should have given it up years ago. He is a relic of a bygone era when hacks could write this sort of dreck and not be called on it and those days are over.