Ryan Stevenson’s piece on the Celtic fans reeks of hypocrisy … and stupidity.

Sometimes I wonder whether there is a competition running inside the Scottish sports media. It is not one Celtic fans should know about, but it certainly feels like it exists. The objective appears to be simple: employ ever more foolish people in the belief that stupidity somehow counts as controversy.

Being a controversialist is actually difficult. It requires a certain degree of skill.

Most of the people attempting it clearly lack that skill. The Wilfred Nancy Shoe Story stands as a perfect example. That was not controversy. That was simple stupidity. When your first piece of journalism looks that absurd, credibility disappears before you even begin.

So of course Stevenson feels eminently qualified to step into this debate.

This has been a week of ridiculous reportage.

The coverage has leaned so relentlessly to one side that you start to feel like screaming. Yet Ryan Stevenson has managed to outdo even that miserable standard today with a piece so preposterous that readers must have been laughing out loud.

People know how often I mock Stevenson’s work, so his articles reach me regularly.

I am grateful to the people who forwarded this one because it truly is a masterpiece of nonsense.

Let’s start with his central claim. Stevenson argues that no one outside the Glasgow clubs will now want to see either of them win the league. He even claims that Hibs supporters will now want Hearts to win the title.

It took about five seconds for a commenter under his own article to demolish that argument completely.

I did not even have to visit the Hibs forums to know it was nonsense. The idea that Hibernian supporters would suddenly rally behind Hearts because of events at Ibrox is so detached from reality that it defies belief.

Celtic supporters already understand that most of Scottish football would rather see someone else win the league. That is nothing new. Remove Hearts from the equation and you could probably add Aberdeen supporters to the list of people who would prefer anyone other than Ibrox lifting the trophy.

None of that has anything to do with last weekend.

Stevenson also claims he was offered three tickets for the match.

Apparently it had been on his bucket list for years, but he decided not to go and now feels relieved about that decision.

Curiously, for someone who was not actually present, he seems remarkably confident about describing events inside the stadium.

He speaks about scenes of Celtic supporters bursting through turnstiles, yet to the best of my knowledge there is no public footage of such an incident. The Celtic Fans Collective has already issued a statement suggesting that the situation may not be as straightforward as some of the media hysteria implies.

Despite that, Stevenson is happy to present it as fact.

He also insists that Celtic supporters entering the pitch to celebrate with the players was some kind of extraordinary aberration that should never happen.

That claim is equally foolish.

He even asserts that such scenes have never occurred in an Edinburgh derby. A quick search reveals at least two examples involving Hibs supporters. One occurred after a Derek Riordan penalty at Easter Road, when Hibernian fans spilled onto the pitch to celebrate. Another happened at Tynecastle after a Hibs victory.

Pitch invasions are hardly a uniquely Glasgow phenomenon.

Stevenson attempts to frame the issue as a peculiarly Glasgow problem, yet even his own city’s football history contradicts that narrative. At Tynecastle there have been occasions when Hearts supporters had to be restrained from entering the pitch to confront their rivals.

Does that sound familiar?

Had those supporters crossed the line and caused serious disorder, one suspects Stevenson would remember the incident rather differently.

While he is busy climbing onto his high horse to lecture the Celtic fans about behaviour, he might also reflect on one rather unpleasant chapter of Edinburgh football history.

During Neil Lennon’s first spell as Celtic manager he became one of the most hated figures in Scottish football. He received death threats. People sent bullets through the post. Someone mailed explosive devices to him.

Lennon managed at Ibrox many times during that period, and one suspects those visits did not provide especially enjoyable experiences.

The only stadium where someone physically assaulted him, however, was Tynecastle.

A supporter ran onto the pitch and attacked him while he was simply doing his job.

Ryan Stevenson was actually playing in that match.

Perhaps he has forgotten.

That incident alone makes his moralising about the Celtic fans rather difficult to take seriously.

What astonishes me most is the continuing collapse in standards across Scottish sports journalism.

This is an industry that should be fighting harder than ever for credibility. Instead, some outlets appear determined to undermine their own survival by publishing increasingly poor content written by increasingly ill informed commentators.

The Record in particular seems to have discovered a remarkable ability to get worse and worse.

Ryan Stevenson’s latest effort is simply the latest exhibit.

Yesterday I wrote that we would not be dragged into the gutter by liars and their lies. My position remains the same.

If people stop telling lies about the Celtic fans, we will happily stop telling the truth about them. It seems that now we must extend that principle to people who simply talk nonsense as well.

Or perhaps I’ve misjudged the piece and its intent. At a time when Scottish football has a very serious incident to confront, maybe The Record was aiming for low comedy.

Either way, it’s not a good look, is it?

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