I don’t often think of Brendan Rodgers as a cold-blooded, ruthless assassin. I don’t normally think of Rodgers as the kind of person who would swat aside another readily and comprehensively. But the truth is, to succeed in any field, you need to be a ruthless assassin. Every person who has ever succeeded—in business or whatever it may be—has had to deal with competitors and rivals along the way. And after a while, you develop a kind of coldness about it. It’s just business.
Yesterday, Rodgers said things that showed him at his most brutal. And it wasn’t the stuff he said about the summer window. It was the stuff he said about Alan Muir.
His comments about how the man would be happier walking around the supermarket, I thought, were among the most savage I’ve ever heard Rodgers speak. His soft tone did nothing to hide how pitiless those comments were.
The distinct lack of sympathy in what he said overall provided its own context—and confirmed what we said on the night the news broke.
Celtic took out Alan Muir. Nobody else.
And Rodgers yesterday sounded like a gang boss being asked how he felt about the execution of his rival, or if you prefer it, a football boss being asked how he feels about a big win getting his opposite number the sack.
These are just points on the same spectrum. The same ruthlessness exists across all professions and all walks of life, and if Rodgers wasn’t dancing on Muir’s grave yesterday, he certainly wasn’t putting flowers there.
Because Rodgers has no sympathy for Muir, and neither should he.
Rodgers knows what happened. Rodgers is well aware that Muir made his mind up to chop off that goal the minute the ball hit the back of the net. It didn’t matter what the footage showed—if he could justify it in any way, shape or form, he was going to. Rodgers knows this. Rodgers knows that on another day, that result could have cost us more than just points.
That could have been a cup game. The league race could have been on a razor’s edge. Muir’s decision wouldn’t have changed. Only the consequences would have. And Rodgers knows that it was only a matter of time before something like that happened.
A very dangerous piece has been taken off the game board, and we’re all entitled to be pleased about that. Celtic, for a change, have pushed something as hard as they could and as far as it would go, and we’re very entitled to be pleased about that result as well. Not everyone in Scottish football is as pleased as we are.
Derek McInnes’ outburst was absolutely pathetic, and it just goes to show you how deep the wound is and how badly this has affected some of the people out there who do not have our best interests at heart and occasionally let the mask slip. The fact that Celtic have been seen to have won a major strategic victory has McInnes so outraged that he’s said things which everyone knows are ridiculous.
The only thing that should count, if he’s coming at this from an unbiased perspective—i.e. if he’s coming at this from the perspective of someone who allegedly wants the best officials in the game—is whether or not the decision is right or wrong.
He knows that, and he knows he can’t defend his anger any other way … so he’s praised Muir as an official and as a person, and in doing so he’s tried to introduce emotion where none belong and he’s mounted a defence of Muir as a ref which few others in the game would agree with.
It’s complaining for the sake of complaining. Is the outcome right? That’s the only question. Is Muir trustworthy or competent? Those are the only things that matter. This guy is a bad official and everyone agrees that he is. Surely the only thing that matters is that he’s no longer going to be.
Buried deep in there was a conspiracy theory, of course, another suggestion that we’re getting special favours. In case he hasn’t noticed, it was a decision that went against us. So where were the special favours at Easter Road? If we’re so influential and powerful, then how come the decision went against us in the first place? If we dominate Scottish football, as he appears to believe, then we shouldn’t have needed to complain—because there shouldn’t have been anything to complain about.
If McInnes has problems with other referees, as he indicated in his rant, he should tell us what they are. If he thinks that Muir’s a good guy, that’s fine—but I can only revert back to something I’ve said many times on this blog. It always reminds me of Alec Baldwin’s searing cameo in Glengarry Glen Ross, when he tells David Moss, one of the salesmen, that he doesn’t care if he’s a good man or a good father—that he should piss off and play with his kids, because he sucks at his job.
What’s worse is that McInnes chose to end on the wholly disingenuous point that he doesn’t know why it has happened.
Everyone in Scottish football knows why it happened.
Did nobody play the audiotape to him? Did nobody play that VAR recording which sealed Muir’s fate? The simple fact is, we caught this guy bang to rights. We caught him. It was there on the audio, and he couldn’t survive it. And to be perfectly blunt, McInnes is the only person I’ve heard giving Muir his support. Even the SFA hasn’t done that. Even his fellow officials have been oddly silent on the matter.
Everybody knows why. Including McInnes. So I don’t want to hear any of his “whaaaa whaaaa whaaaa” on it. Rodgers was unequivocal yesterday, but even he was too polite to put it as harshly as I’m about to put it.
Muir got what he deserved. Hard lines if McInnes doesn’t like it.
Fk the 2 of them , 2 cheeks of the same arse in my opinion.
One just has to look back to last seasons rugby park league cup game. There were 3 game changing decisions that day the Muir allowed to go in Kilmarnocks favour.
The Kilmarnock goal, never showed a clear angle whether the player was onside. A clear elbow on a Celtics players face and a clear penalty in the last minute.
You just need to look at the joy on each others faces when they shook hands at the end.
We were cheated that day.
Derek McInnes is just annoyed at the fact that he won’t ever have another chance to be photographed, smiling, whilst having his knuckles massaged by his referee friend at the end of a football match.
He is just another fan of the Ibrox club, pissed off because Celtic won yet another case against an establishment who will do us us down anytime or any way they can.
Motherwell Dundee Hibs should have also fought with the same fervour when each of them recently had perfectly good goals chalked off, most notably the Butland punching it into the net, all of which were against the Ibrox side and all of which would have put the game beyond them.
Unlike us those goals could play a massive part in getting a top six, a European place etc but they chose not to highlight and remove the appalling referees and officials we have to endure every week. If Scottish Football is to prosper we need professional full time referees fully accountable for the appalling decisions we see every week.
I still fervently believe however that in this league, with our resources we should never have to rely on any referee here as we should be capable of ab skelping any of the teams in Scotland every time we play them.
The Sevco Hun Hoards hate Muir as well in their eyes because he never gave them a penalty in The League Cup Final…
Is McInnes’s snivelling and cock sucking to his cheat perhaps due to a potential new ownership at his favourite 12 year and as of today 257 day old club called Sevco !
And him knowing that he hasn’t got a snowballs chance in hell of getting the gig when Fergushun flops !
Ferguson may yet get the gig. I’ve followed with great amusement Joe McHugh’s perspective on the so called takeover or as he calls it the fakeover.
If as he alludes it’s not going to happen, it’s all a con to sell season tickets, then a manager on the cheap is Ferguson.
As for Muir, I know we pushed for his dismissal but I wonder how much of it is actually down to his failure to deliver the hun bastards a pen in the cup final.
That was a better performance today finished in style by Tony Ralston’s goal. The title is ever nearer now and I do hope our 1st post split match is at Paradise