Only Celtic’s players can shut down the dire media narrative of clowns like Stevenson.

This morning, I got an email from someone asking if I had seen Ryan Stevenson’s latest comments in the Daily Record, about Celtic. I was honest with them. I hadn’t seen them there, because I’m not a Daily Record subscriber. I’m not one of the people willing to pay that rag money to read the inane ramblings of a halfwit.

I am, however, grateful to the Celtic fan sites which picked up on the comments, because through them I did read what he had to say.

I’ve been round the houses on Ryan Stevenson.

Everyone knows how I feel about him and his output, which has been almost uniformly preposterous since his first column, that one focused on the colour of Wilfried Nancy’s shoes. If that’s how you start your so-called journalistic career, you don’t have a journalistic career. You’re a rabble-rouser and an attention seeker.

We’ve all met people like that. Toddlers screaming for attention. Loudmouths in pubs who think they’re the centre of the universe. There is no point engaging with them on their level.

Stevenson has now accused Celtic players of chucking it. He offers no explanation. No justification. Just his belief. Good for him.

In 2018, a YouGov poll in the United States found that 2% of Americans believed the world was flat, and another 2% who previously believed it was round had started to have doubts. He wouldn’t be the first person to believe something without a shred of evidence, even when it flies in the face of reality.

The Celtic side he’s talking about is the one that went to Ibrox for a cup tie with a depleted squad and got a result. It’s the same side that was two down at half-time in a league game there and came back. The same side that was two down at Kilmarnock and won 3–2. I could go on, but you get the point.

This Celtic team might not be very good right now, but there is ample evidence that they are not “chucking it.” So, he can believe whatever he likes.

It’s such an exceptional level of stupidity that it almost isn’t worth engaging with. Almost. Because there is one thing worth saying.

If Celtic players are reading that, if they’re angry about it, good. They should be. But they should also look at themselves and ask if they are giving everything, and then redouble their efforts on the pitch.

Because the only way to shut people like Stevenson up is on the pitch. The only way to put these comments back where they belong is to prove them wrong, decisively. We can all express outrage. We can all point out how ridiculous the claim is.

But we can’t silence it. Only the players can do that.

Most journalists, and most sentient human beings, are smarter than this. Most have gone out of their way to say it would be madness to write Celtic off with seven games to go, with the margins this tight. Derek McInnes said as much today. He went further, in fact, and said only a fool would write Celtic off.

He might want to have a word with his fellow Tynecastle cheerleader. Making those remarks public hasn’t done anyone there any favours.

I trust my instincts when it comes to Celtic. Right now, I don’t feel we are in a good enough place to be confident of winning the title. But I also wouldn’t put money on the outcome of this race. All three sides are capable of dropping points.

That’s why any of them could still win it. That’s why this kind of commentary does nothing more than make Stevenson look like a prize idiot, like someone from that very small cohort of people whose brain couldn’t power a two watt bulb.

There’s also something else at play here, and it’s worth saying out loud. Comments like these don’t exist in a vacuum. They feed off uncertainty and inconsistency. They feed off those moments where Celtic haven’t looked convincing, where performances have dipped below the standard we expect.

That’s the oxygen this kind of nonsense breathes. Take that away, raise the level, impose ourselves properly on games, and suddenly these voices disappear. They always do. Because they’re not built on analysis, they’re built on opportunity, and the moment that opportunity vanishes, so do they.

So, that’s the way I’d choose to look at it. If those words sting, if they get under the skin, then maybe they serve a purpose. Maybe they become fuel. Because the suggestion of unprofessionalism should stick. It should irritate. It should motivate.

The players shouldn’t need that, but if it’s there, they should use it. They should take those words and ram them right back down his throat, and if they do that, then perhaps Ryan Stevenson has done Celtic a favour.

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