GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 27: Hugh Keevins during a Scottish Cup match between Clydebank and Clyde at Holm Park, on November 27, 2021, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Rob Casey/SNS Group via Getty Images)
As ever on this blog, I am eternally grateful that I have so many friends in Celtic cyberspace. Some send me information about what is being said in those corners of the mainstream media where I cannot bear to go.
Others produce work I genuinely enjoy reading. Some also flag things I would otherwise know nothing about.
Tonight, the nod goes to Paddy Sinat over at 67 Hail Hail, who has again done an excellent job tearing down the errant nonsense spoken by the most embarrassing and cringeworthy old man in the sinkhole of Scottish football journalism, Hugh Keevins.
I am a little reluctant to write about him because I know Paulina wants a crack at him tomorrow. But she is writing about his general comments on Celtic.
Paddy has highlighted his remarks from today, which I would otherwise have known nothing about. When talking about the Celtic Fans Collective, he gets things as spectacularly wrong as it is possible to get them.
I know there has been a lot of ignorance about the Collective out there. I know there has also been a lot of garbage written about them. But Keevins’ claim today, that the ceasefire has somehow been violated by the Collective’s latest statement, completely misreads and misrepresents what is actually going on.
First, the ceasefire has been called by the Collective, and they are very clear in what the terms and conditions of it are. The Collective is correct to say that the crisis does not end just because this team is in a title race. The Collective is correct to say that the campaign will continue for as long as the present board remains in place.
As for the call to delay season ticket renewals, Keevins is not the only person who has failed to understand the point of it. So let me explain what I think that point is.
But before I do, let me say this; the idea that a delay in season ticket renewals affects the team or the manager in any way is preposterous. How can it? This is next season’s money. This is next season’s funding.
By the time this season ends, Martin O’Neill will not be at the club unless Celtic gets smart enough to offer him the Head of Football Operations job, in which case he will already have plenty on his plate. So Keevins’ assertion on that front is ridiculous.
It has no basis in fact at all. He clearly does not understand why the Collective is calling for a delay in fans renewing tickets. So let me explain it to him, and to anyone else who does not yet grasp the significance of it.
Celtic is used to supporters renewing automatically and without question. The club relies on it. The people running the club treat season ticket renewals almost like a referendum on themselves. That is miles from the truth, of course, but they clearly draw comfort from the pattern of automatic renewals year after year.
Any delay disrupts that comfort.
Any delay leaves them uncertain about how many fans actually will renew.
The longer they do not know the answer to that question, the more precarious their own positions feel and the harder it becomes for them to convince themselves that everything is fine. The longer it takes, the more reason they have to worry that season ticket uptake could be significantly down, depending on how the season ends, with the blame laid squarely at their door.
That is the point. It creates uncertainty and doubt. It forces everything to the last possible minute so that, when Celtic supporters do make the renewal decision, they make it with more information than they have in their hands right now.
That is exactly why the Collective has asked fans not to renew immediately. Renew when you know more. Renew when there are more facts in the public domain about what it is you are renewing for. Force this board to give you reasons to renew rather than taking it for granted that you will.
That is a smart strategy. It is a clever use of strategic ambiguity. I am sorry that Keevins does not understand that, although I suspect he would try to spin it even if he did, because he is a snake. That is what people like him do.
Paddy zeroed in on one particular comment Keevins made, and I want to echo his disbelief at it. Keevins talked about how Martin O’Neill and the players had righted the ship, as if still being in this title race somehow cures everything that is wrong at the club.
That is the point where Keevins stops being merely a rancid little poison pill and starts sounding so befuddled that he has confused even himself.
Let me remind him of something.
He is not viewing Celtic through the prism of stability. He is not viewing Celtic as a side that has snatched a positive outcome from the jaws of defeat. Keevins has been saying for weeks, if not months, that we are not good enough to win the title. So how can he then turn around and claim that it is the fans who have jeopardised that?
He has spent weeks talking about the balance of power in Glasgow having shifted. That is how he has framed it.
There is another thing he said, which Paulina is going to write about tomorrow. It is even more extreme than that.
None of it is consistent with his line today that O’Neill has righted the ship. Nothing suggests that everything was fine until the Collective made its statement. It is not just nonsense. It is contemptible garbage from one of the leading purveyors of contemptible garbage.
He talks about Dermot Desmond and how Desmond sits at the centre of all power in the land. He then makes the same mistake other people make by assuming Desmond is untouchable.
I have never believed that, and I will return to that subject tomorrow.
Everyone knows I am not generally impressed by the standard of Scottish journalism as a whole. But other than the Village Idiot himself, this is the worst individual writing for a mainstream title.
For all the scorn I have poured on Jackson, for all the contempt that radiates from me in the general direction of people like McGowan and Lindsay and others who should know better than to write some of what they do, those people are heavyweights and icons of the industry compared to this guy.
For years, people have talked about the poor standard of the current crop of Scottish sports writers.
Would any of them ever make a Hall of Fame?
There is very little doubt that Keevins would be the first entry in the Hall of Shame.
He is that ignorant of his subject matter.
It should be impossible to be this dense and this disengaged in an era where every piece of information you could possibly need to do your job better is available with a few taps on a phone or a few clicks on a keyboard.
The fact that he still manages to be this bad at what he does is almost breathtaking.
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For the life of me I have no idea why there is another Keevins story on this site. All your doing is giving the man value.
James hes always been the same wants to have the attention,i can think back maybe 20 years or more ago when he had a “rep” i said to a friend that i didnt think he actualy stood by what he said he was only make it about him! He didnt agree till i pointed after a game we lost we werent talking about what went wrong it was all about his anti celtic rant!
Jimmy @ 11.43pm…
You canny give a man that has no fuckin value ‘value’
He just seems to detest Celtic from what I read on here !
So why is he getting stories written about him Clach.
He is a nobody and should be treated as such.
Attention James For Anti Catholic songs & Anti Irish Racist chants
My reply to First Minister Swinney when I received an email asking for a donation to the SNP
I listened too The Falkirk V SEVCO game on BBC radio Scotland.I hear the establishment team SEVCO followers spewing out anti Irish and and anti Catholic vile songs.
It is 2026 the SNP have done nothing to stop Sectarian and Racist hate speach despite all the years that they have had control of the Scottish Government.
Seems that the tag Tartan Tories that once haunted the SNP may have been justified after.
I would like First Minister Mr Swinney to pick up a pen and write the Law outlawing all Sectarian and Racist comment in the Land Know AS SCOTLAND!
Unless Mr Swinney gives me a written promise to address this particular problem which has plagued SCOTLAND since the 1690s
I and many others may pursue an effective campaign titled!
“Not One Penny More and Don’t vote SNP”
A similar campaign is proving very effective in the East end of Glasgow and is about to change the balance of power in the club most affected by this vile behavior.
Mr Swinney if you proposed too write the Law I have propose BEFORE THE NEXT ELECTION. Donations would floud in to support the SNP.
Most people in Scotland and Scots living overseas were shocked to see the most recent events at Ibrox.
First Minister Swinney The time is now!
Have the intestinal fortitude to pick up your pen and end this vile situation once and for all.
TAKE Scotland forward to a brighter future.
Staying silent is no longer an option in a globally connected world.
TAKE ACTION NOW OR LOOSE THE ELECTION
Is the stark choice!
A reply to this email would be much appreciated.
Regards
TERENCE EARDLEY
Sorry we have to vote SNP, after Scotland is independent, you can then pick which ever party suits best but please vote for independence first. After that the SNP might actually do what is best for Scotland.
You and Paulina are giving this imbecile exactly what he wants, the oxygen of publicity! Most people with a modicum of common sense treat this man exactly the way he should be and that is by ignoring his pathetic and inane ramblings, something that you also need to do James. I appreciate that you may need variable subjects for your articles, but please spare us from the garbage served up by Keevins because the majority of us don’t have the slightest bit of interest in the guff he spews up and you are only winding yourself up by repeating it!