The other day, Spanish club Athletic Bilbao published a post commemorating the anniversary of a game they played against our club.
It was in honour of a special relationship between the two clubs that goes back a long way. There are long-standing links between their fans and ours, and many of us in the independence movement understand the plight of the Basques just as we do the Catalans. We understand why those regions don’t feel like part of Spain.
We have warm and cordial relationships with clubs all across Europe, but there has always been something special with Bilbao.
A lot of people I know have gone to watch their games when they’ve been in Spain, and they speak of a friendship that goes beyond mutual admiration. This is about a real bond of brotherhood—something much deeper than the usual affinity you sometimes feel with another club and its supporters. A good example would be Dortmund. The Bilbao relationship is much deeper than what we have with the Germans.
I regarded it as a great pleasure to go over to Germany earlier in the season and meet up with their fans. I sat with them at the game, and it was a genuine pleasure to do that. But, as I said, this is more than that.
That’s why, when a number of Ibrox sites highlighted Bilbao’s post and claimed it was a dig at their club, I found it frankly unbelievable. Unbelievable in its stupidity. Unbelievable in its ignorance. Unbelievable in its self-obsessed, ego-driven arrogance to automatically assume that. Anyone who took five minutes to check it out would know that these two clubs have close links.
When I heard what the draw was going to be, I was delighted.
The only thing that would give me greater pleasure than seeing someone clean Ibrox’s clock is seeing a club I genuinely respect do it. I had already fully intended to cheer Bilbao all the way to the final, but I’ll get a special satisfaction out of watching them eliminate the Ibrox club along the way.
They flatter themselves to think the world revolves around them. It really doesn’t. Bilbao wanted to pay tribute to their relationship with Celtic. That had nothing to do with the upcoming game against them. Only a very short-sighted, narrow-minded, self-obsessed group of people would believe otherwise.
Bilbao has absolutely no need to treat this game as anything other than another tie to be overcome. They’re sitting in a Champions League qualifying spot right now in the biggest league on the planet.
They’re not thinking about one-upping the rivals of their Scottish friends. They couldn’t care less. As I said, this is simply an obstacle to overcome. They attach no special significance to this game, and they attach no special significance to its opponent.
Every Celtic fan I know will be crowded around the TV watching both legs and cheering our Spanish brethren on. But some of us would have been doing that regardless of who they played. I was delighted when they got past Roma, although I have nothing against the rivals of Lazio, as you can probably guess.
I understand that their fans just don’t get this stuff. Who, after all, are their friends out there in global football? They claim some relationship with Chelsea, but I know Chelsea fans who want nothing to do with them.
They mistakenly believe they’re beloved by all sections of the fanbase at Liverpool, which is farcical when you consider that they’re the only other fans in the country who belted out “Lizzie’s in a Box” with as much gusto as we did.
The only two clubs we can ascertain that they have a friendly relationship with are the far-right, fascist, neo-Nazi nut jobs at Hamburg and the far-right, fascist, anti-Catholic bigots at Linfield.
They say you’re judged by the company you keep. Well, I think we can make a pretty sound judgement based on those two teams.
Based on what passes for culture in their stands. When your cultural friendships are based on supremacist nonsense and mad far-right politics, you’re going to find the number of your friends is quite limited. Believe me, that’s a subject I’ll be returning to before the weekend is over.
Our friendships are not permanent, but one of the reasons why they’re not limited is that they are based on the things that make friendship worthwhile: respect, camaraderie, optimism, hope. They’re not based on lording it over other people.
They’re not built on mutual loathing of others’ countries or cultures, or “woke ideology,” as they so crassly put it recently.
That’s why their outlook is so different from ours.
They approach friendships from a very different place. And because of that, they don’t recognise what a real friendship looks like when they see it. So naturally, when a club they’re about to play puts up a message extolling the virtues of their friendship with us, they automatically assume it’s about them.
That’s their blind spot. They just don’t get it.
The latest Trinity Tims podcast is out now.
Nobody likes them, they don’t care.
Fk them all, the long and the short and the tall.
Oh they care Johnny – For sure they care…
I’m in a place where I can say things that I wouldn’t in say Oswalds in Glasgow City Centre (It’s probably their only pub in the town which is really good and hopefully it stays that way)…
But even if I said that it would be “Ah ladee da de do da day, Ah la de da de do da day”
They are incapable of debate on any scale whatsoever…
It’s just denial, denial, denial – What a tragedy for them then that I’m a statistical anarok that gives it to them left, right and centre…
I am their utter WORST FUCKIN NIGHTMARE ! – And it’s great fun !!!
I have to say I don’t care about alleged relationships between clubs, more often than not it’s actually fan bases who build the relationships.
I totally get why these bonds are created & that like everything in life people fall on different sides of a sword & so you align with like minded people & it just so happens certain fan bases align.
What I do like about these is knowing when certain fixtures are drawn you can gauge fan safety based on perceived relationships. i.e being drawn against Dortmund you know you could walk the streets of Germany in a Celtic top with minimal issues.
Where as when you are drawn against the likes of Lazio or Ajax then some due diligence is required.
I remember going to Milan for the second leg against Inter & we met Dortmund fans who had come down from Turin to watch Celtic after Dortmund had been playing Juventus. But we never once felt any fear in Milan in fact I think that game built a relationship of respect from the Inter fans as they queued outside the stands to applaud the away support that day despite it being a disaster of a game with VVD being sent off so early.
Aye, very fast tae offend and just as fast tae take offence with anythin. And theyre just lovin the water bottle saga. Gettin their wee digs and puns in at every angle imaginable. We even have thick as shite, over rated ibrox duds, playin with water guns at concerts. We’ll see what happens, if a Celtic player or fan gets their own back at some point. There’s an obvious ott ibrox ‘love in’ goin on right now. An over inflated attempt at puttin themselves in the ‘feel good’ spotlight. Its all over social media, the tabloids, you name it. All deliberately orchestrated since the 3-2 game. Because regardless of their win, they know theyre winnin fuck all this season and our celebrations are once again imminent. They can put across their pseudo blithe image all they like. WE know better and trophies talk.
Naebuddy likes thum and they do care.
They can’t understand why. They are so immersed in thur Kultchur that they think that it’s the norm and that ‘everyone and anyone’ else are the outliers, thu peeppo thit don’t get it.
They can be rehabilitated but only if they are removed completely from the clutches of Ibrox and thur fellow, follow follow knuckledraggers.
When they move outside Scotland they quickly learn that their Kultchur is not acceptable and they change fast lest they be ostracised in new surroundings. They get away with their nonsense here only because Civic Scotland tolerates them. There is an Institutionalised affinity due to their shared Unionism and love ( subservience to) of the Monarchy.
Those shared ideals buys The Klub and The Klan a lot of free passes from the Scottish Establishment.
@ SFA….. And ah think we all know, the only reason their media get away with their slabberin, over-excited, hype and utter rubbish, is because apart from blogs like this, they go unchallenged up here in Scotland. This is their ‘safe’ zone. Anywhere else, their opinions, views and laughable articles, would be challenged and they’d be exposed for the fkn clowns they are. And naebody knows it better than them.