Some folk betrayed Celtic yesterday, but others kept their honour.

So, not for the first time this season, Celtic’s team leaked online the other night. I’ve got two separate things to say about that, and I want to commend a bunch of people as well — but I’ll get to that in just a moment.

Brendan spoke about this.

He talked about how it’s people with egos who do this. People who think that being in possession of a piece of information, and sharing that information, makes you look cool. It doesn’t make you look cool, mate — it makes you look like a little bitch.

It causes problems for our club, because instead of focusing on improving and progressing Celtic, there are now people at the club who have to waste time looking for you, trying to identify you.

So the boss was right to say that, whatever else you think you might be, you are not a Celtic fan. That is not how a supporter of the club would behave. Putting that kind of information online where the opposition can see it — and perhaps gain some advantage from it — is the sort of thing an enemy of Celtic would do.

And if you’re one of the people who received and then shared this information — what are you doing? Any leak, no matter how significant, can be contained if only the people who are in receipt of it decide not to use it. But every person you send it to is another step outside the bubble in which that information was supposed to be contained. And that’s another person who can then share it with ten others.

Think of it in terms of a virus spreading. We had lockdown procedures during COVID explicitly to stop the spread. The idea was that if you’re in your home, there’s less chance of you getting it, but also less chance of you spreading it if you already have it. Simple stuff. Easy to understand. And that’s what this is.

Say you found yourself in receipt of information that should not have left Lennoxtown. What do you do with that information? Do you go out and cough all over everybody else? Or do you keep it to yourself? Do you put the club first?

Our society is full to the brim with selfish little twerps. Is that how you once thought of yourself — as a selfish little twerp? Is that how you want other people to think of you? Do you think there’s some value in what you’ve done, even if it’s just to discuss why there’s no Nicholas Kühn, and whether the geniuses who thought selling Kyogo without replacing him still think they’re the smartest kids in the class?

Were those conversations that couldn’t wait 24 hours, until the team had actually been announced? You think it’s a blinding revelation that proves you’re “in the know” because you’ve got some viral message that’s doing the rounds? How can you look smart for being in the know if everyone else is in the know?

See, the thing about being privy to privileged information is that it’s no longer privileged when everyone’s openly discussing it. The thing that makes being in receipt of information like that special is that it’s contained within a very small number of people. The larger that number gets, the less impressive it is.

And that’s why I want to commend certain people too. I want to commend everyone who received that message and then deleted it.

I want to commend every blog that knew the story and chose not to share it. It would have been very easy for bloggers to put this out there as the big exclusive — “No Nicholas Kühn in the squad!” But to what purpose? To chase a couple of hits? At whose expense? The manager, the team, the club itself?

It’s not just the bloggers either.

I want to commend every person who got that and didn’t pass it on, didn’t broadcast it in public. And when I say “in public” I mean even within their WhatsApp group chats. Because what exactly would the purpose of that have been?

As I said — think of this like a virus that has to be contained. Every time you go public, you risk giving it to somebody else, and you don’t know how careful that person is going to be. You might post it in a private WhatsApp group and think there’s no harm done… and then someone in that group sticks it on Facebook or Twitter.

But ultimately, like every virus, this one has to be traced to its source. Our club, as I said at the start, now has to expend time and effort looking for patient zero.

And I hope they find that person. I hope they find that person and stamp on them like a bug. I hope that person loses their job. Because Rodgers is right — that’s close-hold information. That’s information known to only a small number of people. And all of those people work at our club in one capacity or another.

So this is literally an enemy within.

That person needs to be tracked and rooted out. And they can cry all they want. Others before them have gone crying and bitching to the media.

But they should get no sympathy. They will certainly get none from me.

They will certainly not get the respect they clearly crave. That respect belongs to everyone who refused to put this out there.

You all put the club first. You all deserve the credit.