I’m sure I’m not alone in being highly amused by what happened at Hampden yesterday. The fans and players doing their little lap of honour.
There are people who will say it was one of the most pathetic spectacles they’ve ever seen on a football pitch, but we’ve seen worse. They celebrated a 3-3 draw on their own ground last season, which put us on the brink of the title.
Yesterday was nothing by those standards.
What we witnessed yesterday was born out of desperation and relief.
Relief for the manager that he still had a job, and relief for the players that they faced a side that wasn’t all that great. Especially for Dessers, whose goal was given under controversial circumstances if we’re being generous with the description.
There was relief among the fans too, who are just grateful to still be in the cup, though how much longer that lasts depends on how lucky they get with the draw.
If they get Celtic in the next round, it’s all over.
So, I understand what that rather embarrassing spectacle was all about.
What’s slightly harder to comprehend is why the manager sat in front of the media afterwards and tried to make out that this one result had fixed all the problems at the club, and showed them up to be a better team than we all know they are.
None of it fixes the underlying issues they have over there.
None of it plugs that gap in the finances.
None of it sorts out the divisions in their dressing room.
That’s still a club in a world of hurt and in a pile of trouble. That’s why those celebrations yesterday were painful and humiliating and should have been set aside.
A smarter manager wouldn’t have done what he did yesterday.
He claimed it was to thank the supporters, but there were other ways to do that. He could have done what the Celtic boss did last season at Motherwell and simply walked across to the fans to give them a round of applause. Instead, they danced yesterday as if they’d just won the Cup all over again. And yeah, it looked ridiculous, not just to outsiders.
That club has a history of celebrating worthless results as though they signified some seismic shift. But that result came against a side that finished in the bottom half last season, a side managed by Craig Levein, for God’s sake. And this was just days after they were humiliated in the Champions League and knocked out by a very poor Kyiv side.
Not a time I would have chosen for celebrating.
Tomorrow, after we play Hibs and after the cup draw is made, when things settle back into a focus on league business and the final two weeks of the transfer window, all their problems and all their issues will be waiting for them all over again.
Remember what I wrote yesterday?
That Philippe Clement is now in the unenviable position of having to ask himself before every match: “Is this the day?”
At the end of the game yesterday, we saw a man heartily relieved that it wasn’t the day and that he lives to fight another one. But for all he knows, next Saturday could be the day, at home against Ross County, where they dare not drop a single point…
Because, of course, the following week they’re at Celtic Park.
And if he hasn’t had his day by then, well, it would be our pleasure, as the hosts, to make sure that he does on 1 September. And that’s really what this comes down to; he’s a guy racing the inevitable, a guy and a club swimming against the tide.
That won’t last forever.
For that club and that manager, the reckoning is coming. And all those celebrations yesterday signified to me was that they know it, and they’re just happy to put it off for another time. They didn’t escape that fate yesterday; they only delayed it.
I did not know about the celebrations. Joke of a team joke of a Klub.
Maybe they will celebrate every time they don’t lose. Cringeworthy.
Celebrating in front of a half empty stadium.
What a week that has just passed, and again highlighted the contrasting ‘fortunes,’ of our beloved club, and those of the Phoenix one, currently residing at Hampden.
All comprehensively & eloquently covered by yourself & other Celtic sites, as per usual. Excellent articles and an assortment of comments!
Starting with their demise from the CL, which was as predictable to us, as it was disastrous to their profligate bean counters, and the deluded dreams of big Clement Freud! Witnessing the live meltdown from him and the panel of Sevco supporters bus members, post match, was comedy gold!
As was watching their manic celebrations/relief from yesterday, after winning the 2nd round Cup trophy!!!
Another helping hand from their ‘friends,’ on VAR…surely not ?
The timing of big Adam’s signing ( finally,) could not have been better. Regardless of how the large fee may be perceived, it is now done and we welcome the big man back to the hallowed turf, and hope that this is the start of a prolific time with us…starting today !!!
Contrast this with the young fella, Kelly. Very sad that these young lads feel ( or are being advised,) that they have to move to the Championship, rather than work harder here and get that chance, offered by our manager, to get in the first team plans.
Something is clearly amiss with the amount of talent we see prematurely leaving our club, and it can only be hoped our elite manager, is currently overseeing a change to the status quo, and this is being rectified going forward.
Finally, our manager’s recent statement, exuded the class, honesty and intelligence that we’ve came to expect from him…but would like to hear (a lot more, or at all,) from others on our board.
From correctly asserting to all, that the ticket issues, belong solely at the desk of Mordor, and that those who represent the Sevco Mainstream Media, should clearly report that! ( never going to happen!)…
To laying out, how our transfer policy should look like…quality over project.
We still await those 3-4 quality signings that might just be the difference between excitement or exiting, in Europe.
Whilst we wait, we can look forward to the next episodes of Ibrokes’ Faulty Towers…
Obviously, we have to look to yourself, James, and the other sites, for any true reporting of events !
A continued well done !!!!
Brilliant post, Gerry.
Hail Hail.
Thanks Magua…
All I can say after that is….
THANK FUCK THAT I FELL FOR MA BELOVED HOOPS !
Even their own must be embarrassed and ashamed by that lot and such open and naked falseness…
The Comedy Gold Continues unabated –
If it wasn’t for The Scottish Cheats with Whistles, Flags and Monitors that keep them afloat it’d actually be seriously funny…
These Unashamed Scottish Cheats with Whistles, Flags and Moniters make me ashamed to be Scottish so they do !!!
Never be ashamed to be Scottish.
You know the truth.
Always be prepared to put our detractors, of both Club and Country, right on any misconceptions they have.
Show them the proof. Show them what we’re up against.
You’ll feel better for doing it and even prouder for doing it.
Hail Hail
Saor Alba.
Super post, well said that man.
Ach more said in jest SFATHENADIROFCHIFTINESS but you are indeed correct that they must be shown both Celtic and Scottish Independence detractors about the beauty of both Celtic and Freedoms in life…
With Celtic it’s fairly easy as we simply own Scottish Football and have EVERY record going and hopefully more to come going forward…
With Independence and Scottish Freedom it’s a little bit more complicated as around these shores I know Sevco fans who openly voted for SNP (not sure if they’d admit that too much in Glasgow though) and Celtic supporters who voted for Butchers Apron loving political parties like Lib Dem’s And Labour as well so the waters are a wee tad more muddied in that particular sphere around here anyway…
But Aye indeed SFATHENADIROFCHIFTINESS…
HAIL HAIL agus SAOR ALBA !!!
The 18,000 loyal fans who did not do /walking away’ yesterday and had to endure the St Johnstone fans taunts of ‘What a shitey home support’ were the real winners here when they were entitled to enjoy the well deserved celebratory scenes at the end, They got their just rewards and the missing 32,000 surely will regret missing out on such a glorious victory.
Given that their next round opponents will more likely be Spartans and will of course be at home / Hampden then the RFC Bandwagon rolls on aided and abetted by the Brothers at The SFA, The SPFL and The corrupt Scottish Referees whilst Celtic will of course be away from home in the next round to the 3rd highest ranked team in the competition.
I can see another Luz Truss scenario on the horizon,now just what is the date on that lettuce again.
Getting to the ¼ final of the League Cup solves nothing for them. And even the 14,000 who turned up yesterday would be hard pushed to disagree. Eejits.
They won the effing thing last season and it got them absolutely nowhere. The result against Kyiv was a fatal blow. Baldermort can’t save this now. And the good thing for us is the new guy will come in and tell the board he has to start from scratch. Which is what Baldermort was supposed to have done when Beale got the bullet.
It’s a never ending downard spiral for them. I hope their torment never ends. They really are the peepul.
That was cringeworthy stuff man. And dessers?! This guy celebrates naff goals against poor opposition as if he’s a superstar. Givin it the ‘who am i ‘ postures. Another yin, like cantwell (remember him) who’s wrapped up in his own, vastly over- inflated ego and ability.