Yesterday, as I was finishing my prep work for the podcast, someone sent me an article from another site highlighting the latest comments from Hugh Keevins, the half-witted attention seeker at The Sunday Mail.
The article was from my good friend Paddy Sinat, at 67HailHail.
As everyone knows, Rodgers took aim at some supporters over the weekend for what he perceived as disrespectful singing about Kieran Tierney, which he thought was a calculated snub to Greg Taylor.
I wish people at Celtic would focus more on the trash talk in the media than on trivialities like this. I understand that, in the eyes of the Celtic Park hierarchy, a lot of these media types aren’t worth the time or trouble—but sometimes, I think they are.
This is one of two stories I’m writing today about individuals in the media who are not serious journalists. Keevins, at least, gets named.
I won’t bother naming the other one—you’ll know who I mean—but he fits into a different category. Keevins is someone who has always loved the sound of his own voice and is far too impressed with his so-called knowledge. In reality, he’s one of the most ignorant people making a living in the media.
The comments featured in the article were made on Clyde Super Scoreboard, a show I don’t listen to but often hear about after the fact.
On this occasion, the comments were flagged to me, and they were pretty shocking. Keevins was speaking to Mark Wilson and Gordon Dalziel about Yang coming on, and to say he was disparaging about the player is an understatement.
I’ve shared my thoughts on Yang before. He’s a gifted footballer who would likely excel in another type of team. However, he doesn’t fit into what Rodgers wants from his wingers, which is to run inside with the ball and try to score.
Yang is an old-fashioned winger whose primary job is to beat his man on the touchline and whip crosses into the box. That’s a tactic that doesn’t work against packed penalty areas, which is why Yang often looks less effective than he truly is.
In another league where teams play more openly, Yang could be very successful. But in this one, with Celtic facing entrenched defences, his style is self-defeating. That’s not a knock on him; it’s just the reality of the league we’re in.
Keevins genuinely makes me laugh, though I’m sure that’s not his intention. The sheer volume of what he doesn’t know about football could fill the world’s largest cargo ship. I’ve lost count of the players he’s attempted to analyse and been miles off the mark on.
It’s not just the amazing success stories like Morav?ík, where his ignorance has been exposed, but his constant efforts to stir up controversy where none exists. Time and again, he’s written off players he knows absolutely nothing about.
A sterling example came earlier this season when Lagerbiekle played well against a good side during his loan spell, while Austin Trusty was still settling into the Celtic team. Keevins suggested Rodgers’ judgment on players was so flawed that he let a “good defender” go out on loan while spending £6 million on one who wasn’t worth a damn.
Let’s be clear: Keevins knows nothing about either player. But because the Swede had one decent game against a single opponent, Keevins was ready to anoint him a superstar—so long as it cast Rodgers in a negative light.
It’s hard to take any of his judgments seriously because so much of it looks like bad-faith shit-stirring. But he does possess a genuine disrespect for certain players which is both staggering and grossly unprofessional.
Keevins is quick to climb on his high horse and preach about fans’ lack of respect, but no one has less respect than he does.
As I once wrote, you have people all over journalism who think they are smarter than their readers and a handful – I explicitly mentioned Peter Hitchens – get away with it because they are smarter than their audience.
But Keevins is a clown. His average reader knows ten times more about the sport he’s paid to cover than he does and that makes it mind-boggling to subject yourself to his so-called opinions, most of which are wildly off the mark.
His criticism of Yang was pure nastiness, born of spite. There was no reason for him to get personal, except that it’s the level on which he steadily and reliably operates. It made no sense and served no purpose as commentary; he just felt like being malicious. Keevins has always had a nasty streak.
Keevins isn’t the real problem, though.
The issue lies with a media culture that employs people like him—individuals who lack knowledge, skill, or professionalism, either as broadcasters or writers. It’s a scandal that, in a profession ruthlessly cutting costs, someone like Keevins still holds a job at a national title well into his 70s, while young talents struggle to get a break. If he ever had anything to offer, it was 20 or 30 years ago, and even that’s doubtful.
Media organizations that still pay him a salary deserve every bit of criticism they get. I feel sorry for everyone who works alongside him for less money, especially as no one in the audience believes he has any insight to offer.
Even as a controversialist, he’s not convincing. To succeed in that role, you at least need to construct an argument, even a flawed one, and make some people take you seriously. Keevins can’t even manage that.
Pundits are entitled to their opinions on players—that’s what they’re paid for. But it’s the nastiness and spite in Keevins’ commentary that really grates. It’s unnecessary, unprofessional, and an insult to his audience.
Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images
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Keevins has a personal animus against Celtic due to being put in his place by the club some years ago: a slight which a petty minded wee creature like him has never forgotten nor forgiven.
Add to that his lack of intelligence, his extremely limited journalistic abilities, his cowardly fawning over the huns and his lack of knowledge about football, and you have…………….
Auld Spew Heavins – ” Nurshe ah’ve shat ma nappy again!”
I only hear him on Clyde Superscoreboard now and again and they never seem to have him on when Sevco drop points, last night it was Bartley and some fella called Roger Hannet – Whoever he is –
Maybe protecting him from having to slag Fillipe Fillop…
Or maybe he was just too grief stricken to come on !
I recall Keevins speaking at a Celtic Supporters Club occasion many years ago during Billy McNeill’s second stint as Celtic manager. His leading “joke” was, ” Billy sends his apologies. He is sorry he cannot manage.”