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Some of Celtic’s spoiled fans need to calm down and give the team a break.

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I have a recurring fear. Maybe that’s the wrong word for it—call it a regular wide-awake nightmare.

In this nightmare, we as a club are in a bad place. We’ve found ourselves in a form slump, but not just any slump—something that reflects a deeper malaise within the club, something that will require time and patience to fix.

In this dark thought, I tell myself that we probably have the right people in charge, and it’s probably just a temporary blip.

But the time and patience required? That’s the sticking point.

The reason this nightmare keeps bothering me is because there’s a section of our support that wouldn’t give us that time. They have no patience.

I’ve written about this before, and I’m glad to see that other Celtic sites and fans are now saying the same thing in response to some of the reactions to Tuesday night’s result.

We’re all entitled to be disappointed, but vitriolic? Poisonous?

Nobody is entitled to react like that.

Even if we had lost heavily, that sort of reaction would still be unwarranted.

This is the curse of success. Any institution that has been successful over a long period faces this. Its followers start to believe that success is inevitable, something that just happens. They don’t realise that it requires constant effort, and that the organisation itself must go through periods of renewal. It must evolve and adapt. And as a result, there will inevitably be moments when all the pieces don’t seem to fit together. That’s just how it works.

During those times, people freak out. Some even freak out during the good times.

For those of us who write about Celtic, that makes life difficult. When we ask legitimate questions during the good times, it can seem petty or stupid. I know this firsthand. My colleagues and I in the Celtic blogosphere have taken a lot of flak for daring to ask tough questions when things are going well. But those questions are meant to get answers. They’re about identifying and addressing issues, not creating new ones.

I can’t believe some of the reactions to Tuesday night’s result.

I’m glad I’m not alone in noticing it.

The Celtic Star wrote an excellent piece on it this morning, and other sites have said similar things. The chatter on some of the fan forums has been condemnatory of those who described the result with words like “disgraceful”—adjectives that have no place in any discussion of that game.

It wasn’t disgraceful. I’ve seen disgraceful European results, and this wasn’t one of them. It wasn’t shameful either. I’ve seen genuinely shameful results in Europe, and this wasn’t among them. But for some fans, used to seeing success, any negative result seems to provoke hysteria.

Worse still, any subpar performance from a player gets the same treatment.

If a player has two or three games where they don’t look themselves, the reaction becomes absurd. I’ve written about this before. It’s a trait among some of our support that I find bitterly disappointing.

I wouldn’t use the word “entitled,” but “spoiled” definitely fits. I suspect most of these fans are from a younger generation—those who didn’t live through the 90s and only know David Murray’s name from the occasional mention in the press. They never experienced his sneering arrogance or the sense that his dominance would last forever.

Those of us with longer memories have longer attention spans and are much more tolerant of the small things that can go wrong at a football club. “Spoiled” is the word, and with it comes foot-stamping and demands: this needs to change, that needs to change, this player must be dropped, that player must be given a chance. It’s bratty behaviour. Spoiled brats throw tantrums when the world doesn’t conform to their expectations.

Thankfully, there are more sensible voices out there, telling these spoiled brats to pipe down. I’m glad this generation didn’t have to endure what we did in the 90s.

I wouldn’t wish that on any Celtic fan—not on our side of the city anyway (haha). I wouldn’t mind inflicting it on the other side, though. But treating every disappointing result as a disaster, every misplaced pass as a reason to demand a substitution, and every bad performance as grounds for dropping a player? I wouldn’t want to share a foxhole with fans like that.

And that’s why I worry. That’s why I have this recurring nightmare.

Because I can’t imagine how these people would react if we faced real turbulence. I can’t imagine they’d have a rational discussion about solutions. I doubt they’d give the people at the club the time and patience needed to sort things out. Worse, they’d fill column inches in newspapers that don’t wish us well and would stir the pot at every opportunity.

I hope they learn patience and tolerance and understand that these are the good days. Even in the good days, there will be off days—sometimes even bad days. I hope they never have to see what the truly bad days look like.

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12 comments

  • JT says:

    I am ot convinced this over the top reaction is limited to a younger generation. Some of the comments on Celtic quick News, for instance, might indicate otherwise.

  • frank connelly says:

    Domestically we look unstoppable but this is our first real tilt in Europe with this side. In summary its a major step up in class and sadly it might show us that some of the current squad won’t reach the level needed. That’s not a criticism of any given current player but guys you have to remember as James said previously Brendan has only had one transfer window to get the squad together so just sit back and enjoy the ride. I well remember the bad old days too!

  • jrwalker says:

    Welll said. I couldn’t agree more. We all care but sadly some of the support don’t know how to control their emotions.

  • tonyr says:

    Hi James. I,m not sure that the spoiltness is the youngsters fault. They just don,t know any different and like you and many others I have been through the other side. It does give you a totally different perspective on where we re as a club and a support. Oddly enough, I still have fond memories of those days. Football wasn,t great but 3.00 on a Saturday away days, being in what we regarded as our pubs at 12.00 in whatever town we were, the only way to see us was by going, full houses, terraces,freezing and then back on the bus to our local. Might have been a trophy drought but absolutely loved it and it made me the supporter I am today. Still love winding up workmates about how during their 9 in a row I was probably in their midden more than they were. That really annoys them. HH

  • micmac says:

    Having lived through the 1957/65 trophy drought and the 1989/95 trophy drought and listening to my Uncles and Father talking of the 1937/51 trophy drought I soon learned that the good times when they came had to be savoured. Some of the over the top negative comments from a section of our support are a disgrace. If by some miracle or divelish[Beaton] intervention The Hun get a victory on Sunday, there will be some elements of our support behaving like wee spoiled weans.
    I always start each season with the hope that first of all, Celtic win the League, then maybe a decent show in Europe, then the Scottish Cup and to round it off hopefully the League Cup and the treble. They haven’t disappointed me very much this century.
    Celtic have had a lot of success in recent years, if God forbid we meet a few bumps along the road then as the song goes, “We are Celtic supporters faithful through and through”.
    As far as the game the other night goes, I was reasonably happy with the draw and I’m very happy at where we are in this new format Champions League.

  • Gerry says:

    I have to agree with the comments proffered on here, and your article.

    The sense of entitlement amongst swathes of our fanbase, in my opinion, is a disgrace!

    It really doesn’t matter whether your experiences of Celtic are in this hugely successful era, or the drought ridden years that many of us have witnessed and dealt with. You’re a Celtic fan, through the highs and lows and you act accordingly!

    I can’t believe some of the sh**e that’s been put on social media by numerous so called Celtic fans, post Zagreb game. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear it was Sevco fans in disguise.

    As I’ve said, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but do it with a bit of fair perspective, rather than in a spoilt or ill-natured manner. Similar to all the doubting Thomas’s that called for BR’s head last season!!!

    For what it’s worth, and for where we are post Dortmund hysteria, I thought that another away draw was a decent result. We all know that post match, it may have been an opportunity missed, but in the grand scheme, this new format has provided excitement and freshness to a format that was slowly strangling European top tier football!

    Keep the faith ALL Celtic fans, and let’s get behind our team, to win the first trophy of the season ! HH

  • Pilgrim73 says:

    Lets see if all those calling for perspective and calm will be doing so if we lose on Sunday………..

    • PortoJoe says:

      We may well lose on Sunday – it’s sport and it comes with jeopardy. If it didn’t we would soon tire of it. But regardless of the result on Sunday, we need to maintain perspective and appreciate the position we are in and the progress that this manager and squad continue to make.
      Some players may have suffered a loss of form recently, but as they say form is temporary and class is permanent. I have every confidence in our squad now for this season and for its continued evolution for future seasons with BR steering things.

  • Gerry says:

    If we lose on Sunday there will be the requisite criticism! There’s no given in any football match! You take the highs and lows, and deal with them accordingly!
    We are obviously the favourites, but any victory, as has been proven in our trophy laden years, has to be earned! HH

  • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

    I was very happy with the draw – It sees us in a helluva better place than had we lost…

    This is a fuckin ELITE tournament !

    I wonder are Man City fans irate that we are above them with two to play and PSG as well…

    And are Real Madrid fans apoleptic with rage that they are only level on points and only ahead by one goal v Celtic from that wee backwater of a football country that is Scotland !

    • Gerry says:

      As I’ve said, this format brings a bit more realism and fairness to the supposed “minnows,” in a tournament that was hugely predictable, boring and heavily weighted in favour of the “supposed” elite league teams ! HH

  • SaigonCSC says:

    Many folk have lost the ability to take a step back and think rationally. They lack self control and just blurt the first thing on their mind without being objective and being devils advocate with themselves. It’s a societal issue and our club is not immune to it unfortunately. I used to think it was a generational thing but I see grown men my age (45) and older coming out with the same rubbish. An example is the need to have a fall guy such as Greg Taylor after result or match that hasn’t been perfect while overlooking other players such as Hatate and Kyogo when they have off days.

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