Thanks for the suggestion, Craig Moore, but Celtic doesn’t need your idiotic transfer ideas.

You know what troubles me? The number of people in our media who fundamentally lack any imagination at all. To me that’s worse than their lack of basic knowledge.

These are people who are paid to cover professional sport in this country—paid to cover football—and their knowledge, both in terms of width and depth, is about a millimetre each.

As a gamer, I sometimes joke with friends who aren’t gamers that one of the problems with the modern football landscape is that too many people on its periphery have played Football Manager or FIFA—or EA FC or whatever it’s called now—and this has given them a sort of skewed understanding of the game outside Scotland. So when they come across a transfer rumour, they can quickly assess a player by what Football Manager or EA FC says about him.

While I think that’s dumbing down, I have to say it’s ten times more detail-based and knowledge-driven than the kind of stuff we get from our sporting press, who, frankly, sometimes seem unaware the game is even played outside this city, and I would far rather listen to someone’s Football Manager knowledge of a guy and his attributes than wait for the media to offer an assessment, which is usually sensationalised guff.

I make a point of keeping an eye on football all over Europe because I take this job seriously. I study hard and try to stay aware of what’s going on beyond our own little bubble. Let me give you an example.

There’s a player called Alex Tamm. He finished last season ranked tenth in the European Golden Boot standings. He’s 23 years old, 6’3”, and an absolute powerhouse. He climbed to that position, despite the list being weighted in favour of players in top divisions, playing in Estonia, where he scored 28 goals in 34 games.

If someone suggested to me that Celtic had scouted Alex Tamm, I wouldn’t bat an eyelid. If someone told me we were considering signing him for £1 million, I wouldn’t see that as a disastrous signing. I wouldn’t view him as a replacement for Kyogo, and I’d be annoyed if anyone tried to sell him as one. But I’d understand the basic concept behind the deal and the thinking that went into it.

This kid has over 200 senior career games and more than 100 goals. A one-in-two strike rate for a 23-year-old is outstanding.

If even one person in our media had suggested a name like this, I’d have a little respect for their knowledge of the game outside Scotland—for having the sense, decency, and good grace to do even a bit of basic research before putting an idea in front of the audience.

Instead, we’re subjected to nonsense like the latest suggestion from Craig Moore. Moore—a former Ibrox player and current football agent—has come out with a spectacularly bad idea: that Celtic should sign Jamie Vardy from Leicester as Kyogo’s replacement. Yes, Jamie Vardy. Thirty-eight years old. Barely getting a game at Leicester unless half their squad is crocked.

Naturally, The Daily Record loves this idea. They salivate over its box-office nature, as though most Celtic fans would be impressed by this sprinkle of EPL stardust. An Englishman at the tail-end of his career, looking for a final payday, and we’re supposed to believe this is a good move for Celtic?

I’m not offended by the ignorance of people like Craig Moore. The world is full of pig-ignorant people who don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. I’m offended that these people are called “experts,” as if we’re supposed to listen to them. That insults our intelligence. It suggests we’re the idiots.

Now, I criticise this board a lot. I don’t have much faith in the people running the club to get these decisions right.

But they aren’t going to get the decision this wrong. Whatever we’re doing, whoever we’re looking at, and however the next seven days shake out, I can say with certainty that we’re not taking advice from people like Craig Moore. His suggestion is about as stupid as it gets. Even the drunkest guy in the sleaziest bar, with a broken telly that can’t even show Sky Sports, wouldn’t come up with something this daft.

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