LIVINGSTON, SCOTLAND - APRIL 05: Hearts' Claudio Braga looks dejected at full time during a William Hill Premiership match between Livingston and Heart of Midlothian at the Home of the Set Fare Arena, on April 05, in Livingston, Scotland. (Photo by Ross MacDonald/SNS Group via Getty Images)
This afternoon I was on the BBC website trying to get a sense of what the Celtic team was likely to be. The Hearts game was on in the background and I read a very unusual comment, allegedly from a Celtic fan writing saying that he was hoping for a Hearts win.
It dawned on me at once that this guy simply doesn’t believe we are going to win this, and he is hoping Hearts will.
Well, I’ve got news for that guy. You were dead wrong. Perhaps not about us not winning it, because I still wonder if that’s going to happen myself. But you are absolutely, positively, 100 per cent wrong to think that this title was ever going anywhere near Edinburgh. It is not, and it never was. I’ve been saying that from day one.
This title is staying in Glasgow.
All that remains to be seen is which of the two Glasgow clubs it ends up with. People need to get rid of the illusion they’re clinging to, that if we don’t win it then Hearts might. Hearts are not going to win the title.
Hearts are not good enough to win the title. They were never good enough to win the title at any stage of this campaign. Even with ourselves and the club across the city enduring seasons of such chaos and turmoil that it barely seems credible; we will still finish first and second. Neither of us is out of it yet, and that says it all.
People should spare themselves any illusions on this front. If it is not going to be us, then it is going to be them. Pure and simple.
Hearts are capable of dropping points to any side in this league. All those people hoping for a Tynecastle game between the Ibrox club and Hearts to finish the season, all those people in the media telling you they want it because it’s going to be a title decider, are kidding themselves. It won’t be.
It is perfectly possible that the two games which decide the title will both be at Celtic Park, the one against Hearts and the one against the Ibrox club. If we go into those games still in this and we win them both, then we will probably get there.
Hearts are not coming to save us. I don’t want Hearts to save us either. Because if the final-day battle is between the Ibrox club and Hearts, that means we are third, and I would rather see us finish second to the Ibrox club than finish third behind Hearts.
I may be in a minority on that. It may not be a popular point of view.
But I’m a Celtic fan first, and if it’s not going to be us who wins the title, I don’t really give a damn who it is. What I do know for certain is that we cannot afford to end this campaign in third place, because the damage that would do to us would be severe.
I would rather we avoided that at all costs.
I will write a little bit about Derek McInnes tomorrow, because Derek McInnes is a whole piece in himself. At the end of this weekend, nothing has been decided, obviously, but we have again seen what the Tynecastle title challenge is really worth. As I said earlier, they probably do have the two best front men in the league, but that is partly because of the poverty of our own club and the situation we are in.
Livingston was the real surprise package of the day. I thought they were excellent, and I think they have been excellent since Marvin Bartley took over there. Had he been the manager at the start of the season, they would not be in the trouble they are in now. They are capable of giving any team a game on that ground, and that is why I thought they had a chance today. I wasn’t surprised by the result. He deserves a lot of credit.
There are a few managers in this league who deserve a lot of credit. McInnes deserves some, and it would be churlish not to say so.
I don’t think his team will win the title, but that’s not because they aren’t having a good campaign. By their own standards, they are having a great campaign. That, in itself, is the problem. By their own standards. Their standards are generally not this good, and even now they are still not quite good enough. Even so, he deserves to be in the conversation for Manager of the Year.
Askou over at Motherwell should be in contention too, and not just because he has been linked with the Celtic job. His side have been very good. A handful of teams have piled up points in a way they haven’t done for years. Dundee United deserve credit as well.
But all the credit in the world is not going to put silverware on the table. The best hope any of these sides still had was winning a domestic cup, and St Mirren already have one. They are what stands between us and another cup final.
Incredible though it is to consider, this is yet another season where we have reached Hampden and could have been playing for a treble, and it would not have taken a whole lot for us to be favourites for one.
It is our own mistakes, our own lack of spending, our own board’s complacency and arrogance, and their decision not to give Rodgers anything that might actually have helped him, that have got us into this mess. Regardless, it is now coming down to what I always suspected it would. A straight gunfight between us and Ibrox.
Hearts are not out of it, but they have blown it, and everyone not connected to Tynecastle knows it. They still have to go to Hibs and to Celtic Park. They still have the Ibrox club to play.
If they get through all three of those games with nine points, then they deserve to win it. But they won’t. They are now the club with no margin for error, because their one shot was to get top and stay top. That run ended yesterday and, although they did climb back to the top today, they won’t be there for very much longer.
True Glasgow style, this is now Us versus Them, us versus the club across the city. Do not hope for a miracle out of Tynecastle. If Ibrox are going to be stopped, we are the ones who are going to have to do it.
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I remember saying after Hearts strung a few results together that every year the press push Hibs, Aberdeen or Hearts for the title but they just don’t have it in their character. Unfortunately, I can’t see Sevco losing a match and I am sure with the help of the officials it is probably a done deal.
The board have lost the potential for £40 million with their stupidity and boosted the Ibrox club but who would argue against that being the plan all along!
Our board might have lost 40 million not one season but two..
Remember they fucked up at the start of this season when we got dumped out of the ucl and now we might not even have a shot of getting there next season
But by fuck doesn’t the club bank account look fucking brilliant
Whats the point in having however many millions in the bank when the team is as shite and the ones Brady and Macari managed- i thought we were done with those dark days but some how Desmond and the dicks have landed us right back there
James, 2 weeks ago you said our title challenge was over. Why the change of heart? (Pardon the pun)
I’ve always thought we would win it.
The game v the Ibrox mob should be the clincher. We should ban their fans from that one for a bigger advantage….they should be banned anyway.
I agree 2nd is better than 3rd no matter what. All 3 teams are shite though. I dont know why MON cant get a tune out of our lot. They are only winning because the opposition is absolute garbage.
You might as well go the full hog James and call them rangers, and restore the old firm entitlement.
We have two big advantages over the remaining six games – we play both Sevco and Hearts at home and 4/6 of our games at home. Sevco have 4/6 of their games away. And both Sevco and Hearts have all six of their games against top 6 sides. We can’t take St Mirren at home (or anyone) for granted and that is now the most important game of the season for us.
We created good chances today and should have had the game won in the first half. If we can get Iheanacho on the pitch for each of our six league matches our chances of winning this league will be greatly improved.
To your earlier post James, this isn’t a league that needs fillet mignon performances, more burger and chips – and we have enough about our squad to be the Five Guys to their Burger King and McDonalds…
Very good post Porto
One final thought from me on today’s game. The pitch looked in pretty good condition – how can Tannadice, literally next door, have a sandpit of a pitch in comparison? They can’t blame the weather or the number of games played …
That’s why they’re known as the Arabs
Both Dundee clubs have a deal with the council re drainage on Tannadice Street. It’s horrendous as they have an underground silo which can’t contain during heavy rain, causing the water to seep into the pitches. It happened to Dens Park up to they got fined for the state of the pitch and then took steps to block the flow, which has now moved to Tannadice. It’s a complete sham and they all seem to be sworn to secrecy due to whatever sort of shady deal they’ve made.
Going to Sevco tragically in ma opinion…
Think if Hearts had won today they might have had a better chance…
But we simply don’t have enough for it…
Hang your fuckin head Lucan…
Better still – Go and do us all a fuckin favour and hang yourself !
If that other lot win it then they will get a 30+million bonanza and they will spend it.
Can’t trust our board to match it so we need to win this League or I daren’t think what the future holds.
The more I look at things, the more optimistic I get, the game this Saturday against the Buddies becomes the most important of the season, 4 home games 2 away, Get Engels, Johnston or Araujo back, keep Iheanacho fit, stop the tippy tappy stuff in the M/F and we can still win this League.
The one thing in our favour is, that once we’re into the split, the teams we’re playing won’t shut up shop, everyone of the top six have managers who like their team to go forward.
This could be dangerous, for us but this Celtic team hate playing teams who park the bus, the last 5 games are going to be open and expansive, our defence will have to be on their top game, but we’re pretty decent on the break, defend well, take our chances and remember that the opposition isn’t all that good, and we could be cookin wae gas.
Ach we’ll win this League nae bother lol.
Agree Micmac
One last thing, message to the Board, FFS get the GB back for these last 4 games, that would give the stadium and our players a lift. If the onion bears are in Celtic Park when we play Them, and the GB aren’t, then it will show this board up for what they are, a shower of craven barstewards.