Yesterday I did my favourite gloating piece, Fear and Loathing, and I highlighted, amongst other comments that Ferguson made after the game, the one where he said that their club is no longer feared.
I wholeheartedly agreed with him on that. They are not feared, not by anyone. And this is something I said several months ago. Clubs have figured them out. Clubs know not to be intimidated by the pinstripes. You’ll remember that analogy.
When you read the press, and indeed just listen to anyone connected with the club across town, the sense of entitlement is almost overwhelming. They genuinely believe that the game owes them, that they only have to show up to win matches, that the opposition is expected to roll over and put up no fight at all. It offends them to think that no club is afraid of them. It offends them that clubs now treat them with a certain amount of contempt. But it’s a fact.
Aside from that, they have an all-consuming focus on Celtic.
They think about nothing else, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are on their minds. We are in their heads.
We don’t feel the same way. As I’ve said before, our triumphs are for their own sake. We celebrate being champions because of what it means for us, not because we want to rub a rival’s nose in it. And this myopia they have — this view that every triumph must be seen as a victory over us rather than something worthwhile in and of itself — blinds them to a lot of otherwise obvious facts.
That’s why I was delighted to hear Cameron Carter-Vickers completely dismiss any suggestion that we are going to Ibrox this weekend with anything to prove. What do we have to prove? We’re the champions. We’re on the brink of a treble. We’ve won four titles in a row. This will be the second treble in four years. Overall, we’ll have won 10 trophies from the last 12.
Even if they somehow get a result against us, what does it mean? It means nothing. It’s the hollowest of hollow triumphs. It won’t even give them a lift going into the next campaign because the guy in the dugout won’t be there next season. It’ll be someone else’s team, starting again from zero.
And although Ferguson may take some momentary satisfaction out of it and out of his record as having played us twice and beaten us twice, that’s all he’s ever going to have. He’s not going to get the job on the back of it. He’s not ever going to get to hold a championship trophy aloft.
When it comes to the crunch, he’ll be back at the Daily Record when this campaign ends, and Rodgers will have another trophy in his vast collection.
What will it prove? That Ferguson’s a better manager than Rodgers? If Ferguson was a better manager than Rodgers, he’d have an equivalent career. He has no career to speak of. Will it mean that they’re a better team than us?
Well, the league table and the trophy count don’t reflect that, and those are the only things that matter.
Will it prove that some of their players can raise their game for individual matches? That’s not anything we don’t already know.
They don’t even get bragging rights for it, because how can you brag about being simply the second best? How can you brag about a blow you’ve inflicted on a team that will just shrug it off and go on to wrap up the domestic Grand Slam?
It would be embarrassing to think there are bragging rights at the end of a campaign in which you failed, and failed utterly. So what exactly is it worth?
Carter-Vickers doesn’t fear a negative result. In fact, he sounds positively bullish about our chances of going there and getting three points, and I’m pretty bullish about it myself. But the idea that we have to win the three points to prove some point? Someone’s going to have to explain the point to me first. Someone’s going to have to explain why they think we’ve got something to prove.
On the final day of this campaign, we’ll be presented with the league trophy. That’s a done deal. We have nothing to prove.
We’re going to win the league. The League Cup’s already won. We’re heading for the treble and everyone expects us to win it. The manager will be named Manager of the Year if there’s any justice in this world, and if there’s any sanity in our game. Maeda will be Player of the Year. I don’t know whether Engels will be Young Player of the Year, but he sure as hell deserves to be. Our footballers, our coach, our club will dominate all the awards ceremonies and take all the prizes.
So exactly what is there still to prove? The idea only exists in the fevered minds of those who think about Celtic all day, every day, who cannot even consider their own club without considering it in the context of ours. Our campaign does not come down to a handful of games against them. If we lose a third one out of four and still finish as champions, we’ll have demonstrated that quite clearly.
I know that every Celtic fan wants to see us win that game — but then, I want to see us win every game. If we’d lost the last two matches against any side in the league, I would want to see us make up for that by beating them the third time.
But I wouldn’t consider it a matter of any real consequence if we had already won the title and then failed again. I would be disappointed. I would wonder how they got one over on us, and I might think that perhaps that was something our team had to work on over the summer. But it wouldn’t cause me sleepless nights, and it won’t cause our players any either. It’s just another game, as far as I’m concerned.
And that’s really what Carter-Vickers is saying. Not only do we have nothing to prove, as we’re already champions, but it’s just another football match. We’ll want to win it, we’ll go out to win it, and I expect that we will win it.
But any suggestion that it’s about anything more than just another three points is for the birds, and just another part of the Ibrox delusion — that we are as obsessed with them as they are with us, when in reality they define themselves by us and we don’t define ourselves by them.
This war’s already won, and the result of one game won’t change that. Whatever the outcome might be, they will not redefine what we know about this season. They will not rewrite the history books or devalue what we’ve done.
Could agree more James. How we celebrated under McNeill when we won 3; 0 and knocked them out the couple, and Macaris team won 2-1 all in the early 90s showed our weakness as a club, we grabbed at these precious little victories’
So if we win great! If we don’t if has no more significance than our loss to St Johnstone.
The game at the weekend is just another dead rubber, it’s as simple as that. However, despite CCV’s assertion that we have nothing to prove, I’m certain that deep down both he and the rest of the team will be very determined to prove that we are the better side and I’m expecting them to show maximum effort and consequently deliver the victory. The Hoops owe it to the fans.
Years ago, when Blackburn Rovers won the EPL title, a lot of the chatter (including from a few media pundits) was that they weren’t real champions because they hadn’t beaten Man U in the course of that season. That same season, funnily enough, Rangers won the league but Celtic took 7 points off them, losing only 4. I don’t recall a single person suggesting that Celtic were the true champions that season. I wonder what the chatter will be on Sunday should we drop more points.
James for me this is not a meaningless game. Like you said Celtic must win all games and I am gutted when we do not.
If they win, no matter what you say, the narrative will be they have won more points than us, Barry is back but more importantly their dum fans will live in hope that they can get near us over the summer with the ‘just two more players’
For us with hopefully a treble, a win will make the summer so much better.
Sorry, the team folded in front of 50,000 baying morons at Ibrox with Scales and Hitate being the worst offenders and only Nawrocki getting pass marks.
They have everything to prove.
Forrest, whom I like, has scored over 100 goals but only two against Sevco and cannot perform against them.
I would put Maeda on Cerny and if they can subdue him they have a chance.
Both Clement and Ferguson have outgunned BR so even he has something to prove.
Yes indeed Brendan and The Bhoys have won the war and won it well at that…
However – It’ll not be a good look if they schooled us again and three times in a row…
We still might have to change our tactics to win this one I’m afraid…
Over the top with ball a few times might just outfox them…
Make it so Brendan – Just beat them !!!
The race is over. The league is won. The gap was 17 points when we crossed the finish line. For us (& sevco) the remaining games are meaningless as they change nothing of any importance. If they snatch a few points more than us from the remaining matches, I would liken it to the sprinter who keeps driving beyond the tape and narrows the gap on the victorious Usain Bolt who is coasting his way into a celebratory lap of honour. They would be kidding themselves if they pretended the gap was that narrow.
We crossed the finish line 17 points ahead. Mind the gap!
Jimmy, consider this, Celtic won by having vastly superior resources and despite what that idiot Nimmo said these do give a a team a great advantage.
Celtic are the only team to benefit from the 5 sub rule, brought in during the Covid period, as they can field half a fresh first team squad at any time unlike other teams whose subs are literally second choices.
Celtic play that idiotic passing game like a lot of European teams and like them cannot cope with Sevco’s schoolboy tactics.
BR will have to change if he wants to beat them but I doubt he will.
” . . . that idiotic passing game . . .” is what won us the league, the league cup and has got us on the cusp of a treble. I wouldn’t swap any of these for a victory over the new club. Let them think they are “back,” because it is the hope that kills them.
I do think however, that the ability to vary things by going long to Idah for instance, keeps teams guessing and gives us the edge. It’s neither new nor rocket science. We have done it before and with Jota out of the remaining games, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more of it. But always remember, our success stems from looking after the ball.
I appreciate what you are saying but it was only a couple of weeks back that people were leaving early due to the endless passing. It is also about entertainment as well as winning.
I would certainly have given up the league cup to Hibs or Aberdeen to have hammered them 7 nil just once.
Aye as long as you could garauntee that it actually WOULD be Aberdeen or Hibs that would win it and definitely not Sevco !
The remaining matches are dead rubbers but we might still win them all. If they get a result against us again then it’ll be the basis for their hope for next season and guarantee them the close season cup but in reality, it is a meaningless game. The first Glasgow derby of next season is when I fully expect us to be at our best.
A meaningless game but one full of danger. Just look at Jota – a fairly standard foul (not given) and his knee twisted and out for months probably. As a professional footballer why would you put yourself in harm’s way in a dead rubber. We have a cup final to win, they don’t. I would completely understand if Brendan played the B team.
It will have no impact on league positions but it is not a dead rubber.
We keep telling ourselves that we are the biggest club with the best players.
Time to prove it.