When you spend as much time online as I do, as a Celtic writer, days like today can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s great—engaging with the fans, celebrating the highs of supporting a club like ours.
But on the other hand, it drags you into the orbit of a certain group of people who are so emotionally charged it makes you wonder if they really understand the game at all.
Football is unpredictable; it’s a game of wild swings. You can be dreadful for 89 minutes and still come back to win at the death. When you’ve seen that happen, you start to get what makes this sport special. But I reckon there’s a chunk of fans out there who don’t grasp this. Frankly, I’m not sure they’re even temperamentally suited for football.
There are some who make these snap judgments and then can’t help themselves but shout about it. I’ve seen it all day long. It’s mind-numbing. Already, there are folks claiming Arne Engels is a waste of money. Some of these same people were banging the drum against Adam Idah, and one off day is all it takes for them to think their preconceptions are vindicated.
I mean, what would they have said if Jimmy Johnstone misplaced a pass? There’s this generational ignorance—an inability to see past the present moment.
A lot of these fans, I suspect, have never watched a truly bad Celtic side. They’ve been spoiled by the success we’ve enjoyed recently. They don’t seem to understand that football form—both individually and collectively—fluctuates. You can be brilliant one week, but that doesn’t mean everything will click again the next. It’s the nature of the game.
These fans not only expect perfection—they demand it. But perfection is impossible. And they are quick, so quick, to write off players and managers alike, even on days where we secure three vital points. It’s frustrating to sift through their tantrums, and that’s exactly what they are—tantrums, like spoiled kids who can’t handle it when the ice cream isn’t cold enough.
When a team is as successful as Celtic has been, there are always going to be people who take it for granted. We’re cursed as much as we are blessed. The success of the last decade has cultivated a section of the fanbase that feels entitled—just as entitled as those across the city. There might not be the same level of bitterness or hatred, but the entitlement is there, front and centre.
For someone like me who grew up in the 90s, during Rangers’ nine-in-a-row, this era feels like redemption, like retribution. It’s why I’m so hard on the board, so motivated to push for progress. I don’t take any of this for granted. I know we need to stay sharp, to stay committed, or this could all be fleeting. Our success isn’t an accident—it’s the result of hard work. As fans, especially those of us in the fan media, we’ve been driving the club forward, holding them accountable, to make sure that Celtic keeps on working hard, always trying to improve.
My generation understands this because we remember what it was like when we weren’t firing on all cylinders. We know that complacency can quickly lead to decline. But those who’ve only known success—they see it differently. They can’t even imagine a scenario where Celtic aren’t on top, and that breeds an odd kind of arrogance.
And they freak out at the first sign of trouble.
But for those of us with a longer timeline to look back on, we’ve seen genuinely bad Celtic teams. We’ve watched bad players, bad managers, and bad eras.
There was a five-year spell in the 90s where we didn’t even finish second.
In one of those years, we finished fifth, and our top scorer was Pat McGinlay with 12 goals—an ex-Hibs midfielder! So when I hear someone call Idah a dud because he didn’t score in sixty minutes of football today, or who write off Engels after two shaky games, I want to scream. These are the opinions of people who’ve never known anything but success.
Good players can have bad games. Sometimes, even the best players go through rough spells. A bit of patience and support goes a lot further than hurling abuse or trashing someone on social media. I often wonder if these people would have survived the 90s.
Would they still be Celtic fans, or would they have found something else to do with their weekends? Do they even understand what “faithful through and through” means? Or are they just fair-weather fans, the kind who’d vanish the moment things got tough?
These aren’t the sort of people I’d want in a foxhole with me.
They’re too prone to panic, too eager to fire off rounds in every direction. I try to tell myself that some of them are young, that patience and perspective will come in time. But then I look at our success, and I realise we might stay on top for the next decade or more. And with that success comes the burden of expectation. Too much expectation turns into entitlement, and that’s something we’re just going to have to live with now.
It’s part of the modern Celtic support, like it or not.
Thought Ross County were excellent first half and we looked tired (Idah and Engels included). That flipped 2nd half and we were solid and persistent. Bonus of squad players all coming in to do well, Trusty and Valle did well and the subs were all good. And for Kuhn to show that relentless pace and composed finish after 87 mins of frustration was fantastic.
If you can’t win good, win ugly, but that 2nd half was excellent in the circumstances and for anybody to catastrophise the team after 7 games in 3 weeks and the last 3 being away – still unbeaten in the league? Don’t be daft.
“If you know the history” is just a line in a song to a lot of folk.
My first Celtic game was August 13th 1988 and I supported the club long before that. That makes me lucky enough to remember us winning the double the previous season.
People think Tuesday was bad, they should think themselves lucky they didn’t have to endure us getting cheated out of a CWC QF place by Rapid & UEFA in 1984.
“Fans” wrecking the place because we had a bad season under Lennon would have been burning the place down in the 90’s lol.
Macari & Brady at the start of the decade and Barnes to end it, my Lord!
On to the present day and anyone who needs a reminder of the unpredictable nature of
football should watch today’s Spurs game, up 2 nil at HT and cruising. 20 minutes later they are down 3 2 and ultimately defeated. That’s football, that’s why we love it, and because it could be us turning a game around as we did today I wouldn’t have it any other way. HH
I remember that game on 13th August 1988 Pilgrim73 – It was a flag raiser v Hearts I think And was ma third game at Parkhead after Dunfermline in The Championship Presentation game The May before and both were 1-0 wins.
I think Iain Andrews was in goal and after being crowned Champions I think we lost the next FIVE games and never recovered – I was a skinny 18 year old lad back then !
My first game was Celtic v Hearts on 12th March 1983 in a Scottish Cup Quarter Final at Parkhead and The Hoops won 4-1 and I remember McGarvey and Nicholas scoring and Willie Johnstone getting sent off and going mental and refusing to leave the field of play – I think the cops had to drag him off that day – I was 12 at the time – It was a great trip a stadium tour in the morning then the match, went home on the Sunday but spewed buckets all the road home and didn’t wanna tackle the journey ever again…
Then I started drinking booze at fifteen – Got a cast iron stomach from it – And the rest is history…
25 good years of The Good, The Bloody Bad (1990-95) and The Ugly (Two weekends in London Road 1998 and 2008) have surpassed since…
Aah – The memories eh !
Your lucky James only the big bad 90s I’ve been watching since 1953 the late 50s to the mid 60s we didn’t win a league for 11 years it wasn’t till March 65 when big jock came I that we won a trophy our only trophy win came in 1957 when it was hampden in the sun celtic 7 rangers 1we won 65 cup final and the rest is history.our 1st 9 in a row our Lisbon lions the European Cup and crown champions of Europe
Blind faith is for morons
Excellent piece James,,nothing I could add
It’s far too early tae judge these players. Can say tho, personally ah think the jury’s still out on Idah. Aye he’s scored goals, although the goals have been the type ye would expect any striker tae finish, mostly very close 6 yd finishes. For a guy his size, just my opinion, he should be gettin in on the end of a lot more i. e. Sutton-Hartson. Big shoes there aye, tho ah think we need more out of him. That’s no a criticism, just an observation. Early days still.
Bloody Hell – Good article James…
Yes indeed – I well remember that Joe Miller goal in The 1989 Scottish Cup Final v ‘Rangers’ (as they were back then) and that 1-0 win in an uninspired game on a sunny summer day at Hampden…
Little did I know that it’d be SIX FUCKIN FULL SEASONS before we’d lift silverware again…
It’d be bad enough in Glasgow living through these awful times – But ten times worse when you have to share pubs with them – However fear not – Ma revenge has been long in coming but sweet since The Millennium for sure…They even won a Scottish cup at Parkhead with their hoards in The Jungle – Sickening indeed it was living in these times through it all…
Then I read Tambhoy 50’s post and realised there were Celtic supporters even worse off that I was…
My goodness – These are indeed great times – Let’s embrace them and cherish them !
James, your article that included Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was worth
reading. Just below Self-Actualisation is Esteem. The worst response
to a toweling up, is booing your team. Our Fans did not react this way
when we were beaten by Dortmund. However, when Lyon
convincingly took points from Sevco, many of their Fans booed the team,
at the end of the game. Celtic players were on a high, full of belief and feeling the Fans
appreciation up to that UCL game. The loss was a shock, but the Fans reacted the
right way. No Booing. Celtic players were disappointed and they vowed to do better. I especially
remember Alistair’s and Kaspar’s comments.
Entitlement is not a good trait for your fanbase to have (look at how the entitled rangers fans treat their captain when he’s not performing) that’s a scary thought to think the next generation of Celtic fans will think that’s acceptable behaviour .I was born in 1980 and am aware football is a game of swings and roundabouts sometimes your up sometimes your down other times your going around and around chasing your own tail so there should be no finger pointing or complaining it’s so counter productive we should leave that behaviour to the team across the city
Great article ..a reality check all I’d say is remember Henrik Larson and his first mes placed pass vs Patrick Thistle !!! Legend 🙂
First game watching Celtic was 74 years ago, loved every decade since good or bad, sometimes we need the bad times to appreciate the good times. This century has been great, I’ll never belittle winning domestically, some supporters are way over the top with their criticism of players, to me it takes at least six months at the club before a player can be judged one way or the other. Looking forward to the next few months everything to play for in Europe, and domestically Aberdeen are making it interesting, giving us and The Hun plenty to think about, the race for 2nd and 3rd could be close.
I have absolutely no time for the so called modern Celtic support you describe here.
Saying that, I remember some saying Dalglish was overated so maybe it just goes to show that no club is immune to having its share of idiots in the support HH