Celtic fans are not “entitled” whatever The Record’s resident clown thinks.

The Wilfried Nancy shoe guy who now writes for The Daily Record is bumping his gums again, this time telling our fans, and the fans across the city, what we actually think. As if he knows. As if he has any real understanding of the mood around Celtic right now.

This is a guy who I doubt knows what he thinks from one minute to the next unless someone has written it on a big whiteboard in front of him, so it’s more than a little bizarre to see him presenting himself as some kind of authority on the mindset of Celtic supporters.

Stevenson says that we should park our “entitlement” and admit that we’re enjoying the current title race. It’s that word that makes me immediately switch off. The moment you hear that word, you know exactly what is coming next. You know the tone. The attitude. You know the lazy thinking behind it.

And it proves something I’ve said before.

There are people all across Scottish football, former players, former managers, former coaches, ex officials and plenty of people in boardrooms, for whom the phrase “football is nothing without the fans” is nothing more than a slogan. They repeat it when it suits them. They absolutely do not believe it.

Because if they did believe it, they would not talk about supporters the way they do.

Almost everything that comes out of their mouths about fans is condescending, patronising and idiotic. The tone is always the same. Sit down. Be quiet. Be grateful. Stop asking questions.

I have very little patience left for that attitude.

There was a time, early in the Collective campaign, when I thought some people in the mainstream media might actually try to understand what Celtic fans were doing. I thought some of them might even find their way towards fair coverage.

Instead, too many outlets, too many writers and too many broadcasters have chosen the opposite route. They attack. They dismiss. And they do it using exactly this kind of language.

Now, I don’t mind doubt. I’ve written about people who doubt the effectiveness of supporter pressure. I wrote about McGowan’s piece the other week, where he argued that it was all futile because you cannot pressure someone like Dermot Desmond.

That position misunderstands Desmond’s relationship with the club.

It misunderstands how power works. More importantly, it misunderstands how perception and legitimacy shape decision making. But I don’t hold that against people. If you don’t understand how campaigns work, you are going to struggle to see how supporters can influence outcomes.

Doubt is fine. What is not fine is questioning motives.

What I object to is the suggestion that this is about ego, self interest or selfishness. The idea that Celtic supporters are somehow entitled because they want higher standards is absurd. The idea that fans should simply sit down and accept whatever they are given is even worse.

Supporters care because it matters. They want the club run properly. They want the team properly resourced. Fans want standards maintained. That is not entitlement. That is exactly what supporters are supposed to do.

And let’s be honest here. What does Stevenson actually mean when he talks about entitlement? I would be amazed if he could explain it. He clearly does not understand this moment, or the mood behind it.

Celtic fans are not acting out of entitlement. They are reacting to declining standards. Standards in recruitment. In decision making. Standards in leadership. Standards across the club. This is frustration, not arrogance.

When supporters say the club should be better, they are pointing out reality. Only someone with no understanding of supporter culture could interpret that as entitlement. Unfortunately, there are plenty of people in the media who do exactly that.

The irony is that Stevenson himself has talked about standards before. When he was mocking Wilfried Nancy’s shoes, what was he really doing? He was talking about standards. He was making a point about professionalism and presentation.

So it’s acceptable for him to question standards.

It’s acceptable for media figures to criticise the board.

But when supporters do exactly the same thing, suddenly it becomes entitlement.

That tells you everything you need to know.

And let’s deal with another part of this nonsense.

Nobody is complaining about a close title race. I’ve waited years to see a genuine challenge from outside Glasgow. I’ve written about that repeatedly. It is good for the game and it raises standards. It makes the league more competitive.

The fact that Hearts have stayed in the race this long deserves respect. Nobody is denying that. Nobody is dismissing what they have done. I am disputing their ability to get across the line, but that’s about McInnes as much as anything.

But recognising that they’ve done well does not mean Celtic fans cannot also point out that our own club has made a mess of this season. Those two things can both be true at the same time. We have dropped points we should not have dropped. Celtic have recruited poorly.

We have made avoidable mistakes. That is not entitlement. That is analysis.

If Hearts win the title, it will be because they did their job better than everyone else. Fair play to them if that happens.

But context matters.

They have not had European football. They have faced a dysfunctional Celtic and an equally dysfunctional operation at Ibrox. Even then, the margins are tight. That is indicative of the quality level across the league this season.

Joe McHugh has already pointed out that the winning total will probably end up somewhere in the 80s. Over the last decade, Celtic have averaged points totals in the 90s.

That is the real story.

If a non Glasgow club reaches the mid to high 80s, that would be an excellent achievement. It would deserve praise. But at the same time, Celtic supporters are entitled to ask why a club with our resources is not operating at the level it should be.

That is expectation based on evidence. That is not entitlement.

The truth is simple. With the resources available to Celtic, the expectation should be high performance. The expectation should be a well-run operation from top to bottom.

When those standards slip, supporters will react. They should react.

Stevenson’s comments do not just misunderstand the situation. They misunderstand the culture. He does not know Celtic supporters. He does not understand what drives them. And if he is going to position himself as someone offering serious commentary on the subject, he might want to do some basic homework first.

Instead, he talks down to people he clearly does not understand.

And the wider issue here is the platform.

The Record seems to believe that personalities like this, combined with paywalls and hot takes, are the way forward. If that really is the strategy, then you don’t need the skills of Magellan to know the direction that organisation is heading in.

Because if you treat your audience like they are fools eventually they stop listening. This kind of commentary is not analysis. It is not insight nor journalism. It is noise. And it is exactly the kind of noise that serious supporters have long since learned to ignore.