The Leroy Sane story was unworthy of Celtic fan media.

I really don’t want to get into the habit of criticising our fan sites, but one of them posted an absolutely ridiculous piece earlier today about Leroy Sané and how his move to Turkey could impact Celtic.

“If he signs for Fenerbahçe,” said the article, “then Maeda will stay at Celtic.”

One paragraph later, the same article essentially admitted that Sané is actually going to sign for Galatasaray instead – rendering the entire point utterly redundant – and allowing them to pivot and write sbout how Celtic fans should be worried because Maeda might still leave for Turkey.

If a mainstream media outlet had written something that terrible, I’d have crucified them for it. I don’t believe that a Celtic fan site should get a free pass for writing what amounts to a spook story, one that contradicts itself twice in the space of a few paragraphs. Even the central premise of the article – that Maeda is wanted by Fenerbahçe and that they’ve got a realistic chance of signing him – is fundamentally flawed.

And that’s the generous interpretation. The other is that it’s utter bullshit.

Look, I appreciate that these people have articles to write, and they’ve got quotas to meet and targets to hit. But this is pure fabrication, concocting something out of nothing.

Sané’s deal with Galatasaray was most likely done a week ago. He was always going there. The idea that Mourinho and his team were ever going to get him was pretty ridiculous. And since the writer knew that Sané had decided to go to Galatasaray – because they literally said so in the piece – then the entire premise becomes not only ridiculous but dishonest as well.

I really don’t think we should be giving fan media sites a free pass when they’re writing fiction. The objective of any media site should be to inform and educate, not to spray nonsense into the air just to hoover up hits.

That puts all of us in a bad spot. That makes all of us look bad. That affects all our reputations. If you’re doing this job, you must have some idea – some concept – of standards. You must have some notion of treating your readers with a modicum of respect.

I know there are people in this industry who are worried – very worried – about the impact AI is going to have on all of this. If you’re one of them, I suggest you stop worrying and simply focus on getting better at what you do. Put some thought and originality and passion and life into your work.

Because AI still can’t replicate those things. But the kind of stuff I’m seeing everywhere right now? It can replicate that. Easily. And to a higher standard.

If you’ve made your living out of clickbait or 200-word puff pieces, most of which are just the regurgitation of stories from elsewhere, then yes – you do have to worry. Because that’s the kind of thing AI can churn out better than you ever will. And that’s the type of content most vulnerable to being replaced.

If that future comes to pass, it’ll be because of terrible publications churning out slop every single day, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live in a world where all the news I read is generated by a machine.

I enjoy great ideas and good writing. I enjoy the humour and the passion that comes from a human writer who cares.

Today I read a piece about Keevin’s latest outburst. When I saw the headline, I rolled my eyes and thought, “Oh God, another regurgitation of some stupid remark he made on the radio.”

In fact, it turned out to be a brutal, no-holds-barred takedown of what he’d said – and it was written by my good friend Paddy Sinat. I should have recognised his style in the first paragraph. It was only at the end, when I checked the byline, that I realised it was him.

In my defence, I’d clocked by the second paragraph that I wasn’t reading something by a clickbait merchant or a bot.

If I sound temperamental right now, it’s because I know this is going to be a long summer. This is a summer without a major finals. They always drag. They always suck. And they’re always horrible. Coming off the back of a cup final defeat and losing out on the Treble, I knew this one would be worse than most.

But it’s going to be an even more brutal slog if we’ve got to wade through rivers of this kind of crap every single day. It frustrates the life out of me.