GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 19: A general view of Rangers fans during a Scottish Gas Men's Scottish Cup match between Rangers and Fraserburgh at Ibrox Stadium, on January 19, 2025, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Rob Casey/SNS Group via Getty Images)
The media never ceases to amaze me with how they scrape the bottom of the barrel when it comes to pro-Ibrox stories. And yesterday was no exception.
They’ve got a story in the papers about how they’re going to sell big-money signings on the idea of moving to Glasgow by stealing something from the Leeds playbook; Leeds try to entice players by showing them footage of their fans in full song during a game from a couple of years ago.
The theory goes that they can show potential Ibrox signing targets similar scenes from their own ground and tell them, “this is what you’ll be playing in front of,” and that this will make a difference.
Most top players have already played at Celtic Park and rave about it, so the chances are good that the guys we want to sign will have heard about the ground and the atmosphere long before they ever set foot there. Imagine us having to sift through footage to find some semblance of an atmosphere. It’s almost hilarious.
Players don’t want to be shown footage. They want to experience it for themselves. There’s nothing better than the experience of actually walking out for the first time into a packed Celtic Park. Even as a fan, you can feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up on a big European night when you reach the stairs and walk out into the arena itself. So it must be even more impressive to do that as a player.
The Record even uses the bizarre term “Ibroxonia” in the headline – whatever the hell that means. I just think that if you’re going to show clips of the ground in full voice, you have to be careful what clips you show.
And there must be an awful lot of editing getting done to make sure you don’t get the ones where the fans are up to their knees in fenian blood or belting out “kill a fenian before you die.” We could show them a few of those clips, though.
Honestly, whatever the Record’s got to do these days to get a headline out of the so-called Leeds connection, they’ll do it. They’ll use whatever they can find without worrying about how ridiculous it is. I mean, it’s not enough that these people are completely ignoring the fact that they haven’t been taken over by the 49ers – that the Leeds connection is limited to a guy who shares both boardrooms. A story that, believe me, I haven’t even started covering properly yet.
When you have to resort to cheap gimmicks like “look at our fans on this big night” in order to get a player to sign, you’re already desperate.
The simple fact is that for most players, the same factors – the same common denominators – will be present in getting them to sign. That’s how much money you can afford to pay them. What guarantees you can give them for the future, their development, and their chances of winning things.
And Celtic can do those things better – which is why I very much doubt we have to resort to measures as dumbed-down as this.
Maybe I’m wrong, though. Maybe Celtic does do this. Maybe Celtic does play video footage to all its potential signings. Big Champions League nights at Celtic Park. Funny that’s never been in the newspapers. Funny that nobody in the media regards it as a particularly important fact. Funny that it hasn’t generated a single headline. And if, in fact, this is something we do, then where’s the story?
Because if we do this, and Leeds do it, then isn’t it probably something that every club does to one extent or another? I mean, is walking a guy out into an empty Celtic Park not just a variation of the same thing?
Is Real Madrid taking a possible new signing on a tour of the trophy room and showing him all those European Cups not just a variation of the same thing?
Maybe I’m just a dummy. Maybe I don’t see what sort of magic spell this is intended to cast. Maybe I don’t think there’s anything particularly innovative about what Leeds do, or the idea that the Ibrox club might copy it.
I think it’s a pretty cheap thing for Leeds to do actually.
If Leeds have to resort to that in order to get players to sign for them, then I have to ask you – isn’t that a bit tragic? Isn’t it a way of saying, “Look, we have fans! Look, our fans sometimes sing!” Do you think Celtic has to advertise its supporters? Do you think we have to make the point that our fans occasionally get the party started?
The Daily Record really does like to get excited over not very much.
It really does like to push this Leeds connection as if all kinds of stunning new radical departures from outdated ideas are suddenly going to come to the fore at the club across the city. But have they now gotten so close to the bottom of the barrel that they’re scraping the gunk off the sides? It’s one of the most pathetic pieces I’ve read since this whole saga began.
And really, that is saying something.
I knew a guy who had a bad case of Ibroxonia, it’s like bigoted Tourette’s with a fever. Explosive verbal diarrhoea.
Brattbakk,
I’d heard that Ibroxonia was very similar to pneumonia, only the phlegm was blue!
Heavy fever, regular bursts of bigotry, bouts of delirium and hallucinations as the patient moans about whether you can see us yet! Accompanied by regular headaches, stiffness and severe brass neck .
Does not surprise me in the least they will stoop to any level of turd polishing and think it will sway a transfer target. Showing them one night of a joyous full house but leaving out the many occasions of fans booing them, leaving in droves, the sectarian bile etc etc won’t wash. Any player worth his salt will research them throughly and see the smoke n mirrors.
They are so used to similar tactics when selling potential targets to their gullible fans. We have seen the well past it bling players being sold on past glories. The latest one is a guy being sold to them also on the basis of one game ie Max Aarons who played one game against Vinci Junior at Real. He was subbed, played one more game and was sent packing. He has plummeted since leaving Norwich despite being the subject of £20m interest from ManU, Barcelona, Bayern, Liverpool and Arsenal according to the DR.
Another is Poku where their main selling point is they beat Celtic to the signing so he must be good. They will lap it up until they see the reality.
Celtic as you say have no need of this. Our European Cup win, not just that, has made us a household name across the footballing world. The Ibrox lot need all the help they can get.
It’s all smoke and mirrors, Leeds and 49er’s tie in. The press know it I am sure but don’t want to deliver that to the thick Klanbase majority.
I am sure a lot of them also know they are about to face a hostile takeover that has the potential to cost them jillions. No transparency, profit is key long term, silverware sold.
jelly and ice-cream for years to come.
James the media scraped through the bottom of the barre al long time ago regarding sevco
Maybe they can also show potential signings how the klanbase regularly tell the team to fuck off while gesturing and booing constantly, always were and still are Scotland’s embarrassment, a Klan rally pretending to be fans
Ibroxonia – Fuckin laughable for cunt’s that DETEST Scotland to the core and wanna be wannabes English Tory loving bastards…
They still wanna steal our lovely songs of SCOTTISH FREEDOM though…
Just like the thieving Bastards steal ‘The Fields of Athenry’
Just like the thieving Bastards steal ‘To Return To My Old Hometown On The Foyle’
That said Scummy Scottish Labour are Butchers Apron loving imbiciles as well and The Liberal Democrat’s to a lesser extent…
C’mon FREE Scotland – ‘Soar Alba’ – SCOTTISH SINN FEIN – All the way goin forward !!!!