Today The Record shamelessly twisted the words of an alleged Celtic transfer target.

Sometimes, something happens in the media, and I just need to have a quick rant, get it out of my system, and move on.

Tonight’s rant is about yet another example of the Daily Record manufacturing a story where there wasn’t one. They’ve written about Gustav Isaksen, from Lazio, and the possibility of a transfer this month. In doing so, they’ve dredged up the old story about how he turned Celtic down in the summer, complete with the claim that he allegedly described a move to Celtic as “boring.”

Now, I couldn’t care less what someone who didn’t sign for us in the summer thinks about the prospect of moving here, but Isaksen deserves backing because he didn’t actually use the word “boring” in the way the Record claims.

Earlier this week, I called them out for taking Brendan Rodgers’ comments out of context to make it look as though he’d had a go at the fans. To have to do this again so soon shows just how dire the standards at that paper have become.

This is what they do: they take fragments of a story, twist them, and cobble them together into clickbait nonsense. That isn’t journalism, and it sure as hell isn’t news. News is supposed to relay facts, not distort them for the sake of an eye-catching headline or a pre-determined spin.

If anyone wonders how we ended up in this age of lies and misinformation, newspapers like this bear a large share of the blame. They’ve poisoned the well with this kind of rubbish, and I’ll gladly keep calling them out for it.

What’s particularly galling about the Isaksen article is that the Record knows exactly what it’s doing. They’ve printed the player’s actual comments in full, which make it clear that the supposed “boring” remark wasn’t aimed at Celtic or Scottish football at all.

“It would be boring to have spent a whole year getting to know everything at Lazio to go somewhere new and then have to learn it all again,” he said.

That’s not a swipe at Celtic—it’s an understandable sentiment from someone who had just settled into a new club. But Mark Pirie, the writer of this piece of trash, has twisted it into something else entirely.

I’m sick and tired of seeing the media pull this nonsense. We catch them out time and time again, but they keep at it. What’s their agenda here? Maybe Pirie thinks this move is a genuine possibility, and this is an attempt to sour the fans on the player, the player on the move, or the manager on the player. Or maybe it’s just the same old lazy, cynical, click-chasing journalism.

Whatever the motivation, it’s disgraceful. It’s gutter-level stuff. Once upon a time, this wouldn’t have flown. Editors wouldn’t have tolerated writers who pulled stunts like this, and rival newspapers would have called them out. Now, they just steal each other’s garbage and recycle it.

For what it’s worth, I think Isaksen is a very good player. If this is the calibre of player Celtic are looking at, I’d be pleased to see a deal done. But I certainly wouldn’t base my opinion on the Record’s twisted interpretation of his comments. Having read them myself, it’s obvious he wasn’t knocking Celtic, Scottish football, or the prospect of coming here. He was talking about staying put after settling into a new club.

Circumstances, however, have changed. He’s been told he’s not part of Lazio’s first-team plans, and that kind of clarity tends to shape a footballer’s thinking. A move to Celtic now wouldn’t be a climbdown or a reversal of previous comments, as Pirie has shamefully suggested—it would simply reflect his current reality.

That word, though—reality. No wonder Pirie and the Record struggle with it. They haven’t been familiar with that term, or had to live within its walls, for a long time.

Photo by Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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