Sutton is right. Celtic are too busy looking up to look down.

It was a strange week for Celtic fan media sites, and every single one of the people on those sites—except for that handful who pretend not to care what the club across the city does, as if that’s nothing to do with us—has probably experienced it the same way I did: in a sort of disbelief at the nonsense being talked about across the city and the way people are getting themselves overexcited, indulging their craziest, maddest, most unrealistic fantasies.

I know there’s a longstanding joke over there that if you want to know something about their club, you go on a Celtic site. But it’s got a core of truth in it. And I know that these people want to continue to deny the simple fact that we have been right every time we’ve made a major prediction about them, but it remains a fact nonetheless.

I don’t want to be a killjoy at the party, but let me remind these people of something they seem to have forgotten.

We were right.

We were right about Murray. We were right about Whyte. We were right about Green. We were right about Ashley. We were right about King. And we were right that this club of theirs was in serious trouble in the last couple of years before any of them realised it.

So when my inbox fills with people saying that I sound scared, that I sound worried, that I sound as if I’m having a nervous breakdown because their club is about to be taken over by billionaires who will pour money into it, I want to remind them of all the times when similar crazy predictions have been made and I’ve told them—and you’ve told them, and we’ve all told them—that it’s insane and that they’re insane to believe it.

Not one of us is scared.

We’re just stunned—stunned at how stupid these people can be. Stunned at how carried away they get with what is, quite obviously, complete nonsense. Almost everything that’s been printed in the media over the past couple of days is utter rubbish.

The Daily Record had a post up yesterday about Graeme Souness in which it says that his £50 million plan is “becoming a reality.” This is the same Souness who said that’s what they would have to spend on players to catch Celtic.

First off, that wasn’t a plan—it was a half-formed thought that came out of his mouth because he’s too dumb to keep it in there. And “becoming a reality”? That’s not anywhere near reality.

Let me repeat what I said yesterday:

Leeds United are aiming to get to the English Premier League. Their board of directors—the same people these deluded fools think will shower money on their own club—spent less than Celtic in trying to achieve that goal. That’s not a Celtic website making things up. That’s a fact. Go look it up if you don’t believe me.

So if they’re not spending that money in pursuit of Premier League football for Leeds—which would quadruple the value of the company and the club—why the hell would they spend it trying to boost the fortunes of their feeder club?

It’s demented.How can these people be dumb enough to fall for that?

The best commentary on all this in the mainstream media—because actual scrutiny of this has been embarrassingly small, with most outlets just printing the fantasy rather than trying to find out what’s actually going on—came yesterday from Chris Sutton.

Now, I’m not counting on anyone in the mainstream press actually doing a deep dive into this subject, not in the way some of us already have. But Sutton has a way of cutting through all the BS and getting right to the heart of it. His comments were casually dismissive, and that’s what made them particularly effective.

He said people at Celtic won’t care what’s happening across there because we’re too busy looking up to look down.

And whilst I think we do care—because we have to care—we care only in the sense that we want to make sure that this is not some scheme that will embarrass the game or endanger our club by enabling sleight of hand.

But in terms of whether or not it concerns us from a footballing perspective, it does not. I am certain of that.

When Sutton refers to looking up rather than down, he treats this whole thing, and their club, with the contempt both deserves. This notion—pushed by some in the media—that Celtic’s dominance is over before anyone knows anything concrete deserves the complete disregard Sutton showed it in his column.

The truth is—and I know that’s a word that jars with these people, so let me say it again—the truth is that if we do what the manager wants us to do, and what the fans are asking the club to do, we don’t have anything to fear about what happens elsewhere.

If we take care of our own business, if we reach for that next rung of the ladder, if we decide to be all we can be, then what do we have to worry about?

Unless these so-called investors are nuts—and I mean certifiably insane—should we get to the Champions League next season again, and they fail to get through the qualifiers, that’s another £30 million in front of them we move. And people who want a return for their money aren’t chasing us to that extent.

So when Sutton says that we’re focused on looking up and not down, he means Europe. He means that we’ve got the Champions League on our minds.

We won’t take our eyes off the ball in Scotland—of course we won’t. The manager will never allow that to happen. But our sights are set somewhere bigger now. And so we don’t have time to worry about the little people and what’s going on with their little club.

The people in Celtic’s football department are far too busy keeping us on our current trajectory because if we manage that, then those little people can spend as much time in their fantasy world as they want.

It’s the only place where they’re ever going to win things.

In their own minds.

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