GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 02: The Celtic players applaud their fans at full time during a cinch Premiership match between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox Stadium, on January 02, 2023, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Rob Casey/SNS Group via Getty Images)
As we go into tonight’s game, and then into tomorrow’s, try to remember one thing. No matter what happens in either fixture, the life of the average Ibrox fan will not improve one bit.
That is the great secret of grievance politics. No matter what you take from someone else, your own life does not get better unless what you take from them actually helps you. The unspoken truth of grievance politics is that this is not how it works.
Say you are one of those people who believes in “strivers and skivers.” Say you believe the problems in this country are caused by a high welfare bill. How exactly do you think taking money from vulnerable people helps you in any meaningful way?
No one is giving that money to you. No one is improving your life. No one is meeting one of your basic human needs. You are punishing someone else for their perceived sin. You are satisfying a grievance. You are taking pleasure in someone else being hurt, even though their pain does not heal yours.
That is the trick. That is the sickness.
Try to remember that if Hearts win tonight and Celtic drop something tomorrow. Try to think about how deeply abnormal it is to take pleasure in someone else’s failure when that failure has no real benefit to you at all.
The way we have always seen this rivalry is obvious enough. When that club is failing, we usually succeed. In a system largely shaped by two competing clubs, that makes sense. Two organisations. Two armies. Two countries. Two businesses. Two rivals. When one is up, the other is down. When one is doing well, the other is usually suffering.
That is competition.
But taking pleasure in someone else’s failure when it brings you no benefit, other than satisfying your own grievance, is not the same thing. It might be human. I will grant that. It might be understandable in a warped sort of way. But do not let anyone pretend that it is normal. It is a symptom of a wider disease. As I said in the lengthy piece I wrote this morning, grievance culture is perfect for them and for their supporters because they come from grievance culture.
The whole of this week has been about trying to give them motivation for Sunday based entirely on what it might do to us.
It is all about us. Their lives revolve around us. Their thoughts revolve around us. Their emotional state depends on what happens to us. Tonight is about us. Tomorrow is about us. Their season is about us.
If Celtic were not involved in tonight’s game in some respect, I would not even be watching. But they will all be watching. Of course they will.
Tomorrow is not about a moral victory for them. It is not about pride. It is not about restoring dignity. It is about Celtic. It is about stopping Celtic.
Beyond that, they have not thought at all.
How many of them do you think will be cheering on Hearts tonight? All of them, right? Almost one hundred per cent.
But if Hearts win tonight, it ends their own title race officially before they even arrive at Celtic Park tomorrow. Think about that.
If Hearts lose tonight and they win tomorrow, the gap between themselves and Hearts is four points with two games left. Hearts would suddenly feel pressure from two directions. Hearts would still have to come to Celtic Park on the final day. There would be a scenario, however unlikely, where they still had something to chase.
Do you think more than a handful of them have done that calculation? My guess is no. Most of them will not care. Most of them will want Hearts to win tonight, regardless of what it does to their own club’s last remaining mathematical hope. They will cheer the result that kills them because they think it damages us.
That is grievance culture in its purest form. I do not know about you, but tomorrow I am going to Celtic Park to cheer for us.
That is what it is all about for me. I know that is what it is all about for you too. I want to see Hearts drop points tonight because that gives Celtic our best chance. If we lose this race to Hearts, I will be able to live with it. It will be because we did not do enough when it mattered and they did enough when it mattered.
But I will not take one single shred of satisfaction from where a certain other club finishes. I will be gutted for us. I will be devastated for us. I will be angry for us, and angry at the people who put us in this dire position.
If Motherwell get a result tonight, the next seven days are all about Celtic. My only point of concern about the club across the city starts and stops with the fact that we play them tomorrow and we need to win. Just as we need to win on Wednesday. Just as we need to win next weekend.
They are just another opponent. It is just another game we have to win.
It has no special significance outside of that.
I genuinely believe our chances are good. I genuinely believe we can make this one of the best weeks any of us will ever have. No, it does not feel great to be relying on another team doing us a favour. But the truth is that over 38 games in a long league season, you are looking for favours every week.
You are looking for the team that gets a result against your closest challenger. You are looking for the game that helps you open a gap, close a gap, hurt someone else’s goal difference or improve your own.
That is the nature of the beast.
But never in my entire life watching Scottish football have I cheered for any club whose result did not directly affect Celtic’s situation.
Not once. Not ever.
Maybe it is an age thing. I was born in 1976. The years when Aberdeen and Dundee United were still winning trophies came before I was even in my teens. So maybe this just feels different to me because, for most of my lifetime, when the Ibrox club has lost, it has helped us. When they are up, we are down. When they are down, we are up.
That is how it has always worked. It feels strange to be in a place where there is a third element in it.
But I can tell you this: last weekend, I really did want the draw. I would have preferred the draw. I know the Hearts win almost fatally wounded our rivals across the city. I know we can drive the nail into their coffin tomorrow, and yes, that will feel good.
But I would have taken the draw. I would have preferred it.
That was the result I had on my personal dance card. Damage both your rivals at the same time. Make up some ground. Put yourself in position to win it at Motherwell on Wednesday. That chance is gone now. I lament that.
But three wins from three will make Celtic champions. I do believe that. Tomorrow is first. Beyond tomorrow, I could not care less what the Ibrox club does in its final two games. If we beat them tomorrow, those final two games do not exist for me. The whole universe narrows to what Hearts do and what Celtic do.
They will still be thinking about us, of course.
What else is new?
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So it was a draw, a good result for us but both teams looked pretty good and it’s a big ask for us to win our final 3 games but that’s the challenge. Starting tomorrow. One game at a time…
Back in our own hands. And as always, one game at a time for us and see where it takes us.
That draw tonight keeps Celtic in it as such but makes it more difficult for Sevco…
I wonder did McLean (cheat with a whistle) deny Hearts a stonewall penalty as if they won that was Sevco gone, gone, gone…
That said I’m fuckin glad that he did but if I was a Jambo (Heaven forbid) I’d be pure ragin about that stamp in the Motherwell Penalty Area !
It’s always been one game at a time ! How can you look at it any other way.
My feelings for the last while is that we will win this title.
This has been in spite of what has been a truly dreadful season from a Celtic fan point of view…BR going, dreadful/lack of signings, incompetent board, unrest throughout our club et al !!!
I’ll not deny that I’m a hugely positive person with strong faith, but I’ve hated the majority of this season for the obvious reasons that I’ve already stated.
The positivity and faith has kept me believing we’d do this, and the fact that once again, this is back in our own hands, is testament to that.
Tonight’s game should have been over by half time as M’well were so dominant, but in the end, a draw was probably the fairest result.
To witness a ref ( McLean!!!) being called to the monitor and stick to his onfield decision, defies belief, and goes against most decisions we see on a weekly basis…but I think he got it right, and well done to him for doing so!!!
To then witness Boyd and McInnes’ fury, is then, just the icing on the cake.
It is indeed one game at a time and we have to beat Sevco today, to keep this title challenge in our own hands and pile the pressure on the Tarts !
Let’s do it Celtic ! HH
I think he got it right too, if he’d just gone down instead of that ridiculous dive he might have got the penalty but not long after that Motherwell had a claim that was similar, there was contact again, but not enough and the guy threw himself down, VAR said no.
The Hearts goal should have been disallowed when Shankland fouled the Motherwell defender just prior to scoring the goal and surprise, surprise, no one even mentioned that incident. Swings and roundabouts, the penalty call evened that one out.