MOTHERWELL, SCOTLAND - MAY 13: Celtic manager Martin O'Neill at full time during a William Hill Premiership match between Motherwell and Celtic at Fir Park, on May 13, 2026, in Motherwell, Scotland. (Photo by Ross MacDonald/SNS Group via Getty Images)
For Celtic fans, one of the infuriating things about the last couple of days has not simply been the nonsense. It has been the in-denial nonsense, which is a different thing entirely.
I understand nonsense. People who are acting emotionally often talk nonsense. It is easy enough to recognise it. But in-denial nonsense is different.
People do that when they are acting emotionally to the extent that they are willing to warp and deny reality. For Celtic fans, a lot of the coverage we are getting at the moment is exactly that. It is denying reality.
Of all the absurd claims out there, and there are many of them, the one that astonishes me most is the idea that Celtic won the title because of the decision at Motherwell. As though it was a single game, in a single moment, that decided who won the league.
People saying this know it is not true.
One of the reasons the idea of Celtic winning the title via a dodgy penalty is so compelling, and so easy for some people to understand, is that if you are talking about Celtic winning it in controversial circumstances, you are not talking about Hearts and Derek McInnes losing it.
That would be a little bit difficult, narratively speaking, if your entire shtick these past few months has been based on McInnes being some sort of footballing genius and the Hearts operation being a well-oiled machine.
Now, I absolutely refute the idea that Hearts lost this title. We won it. We won it because we were the better team. We were the team that dug in, dug deep, and got results no other team in this league could have got. The 3-2 victory at Kilmarnock was astonishing, and it was a foretaste of what we saw in the last week of the campaign.
The fact we had to come from behind in all three of our last matches is not evidence that we were lucky. That is what champions do.
To suggest we won it via a single decision, which some people dispute, is a piece of errant nonsense. All those pushing it know it is nonsense. To hear former professional players indulging that kind of bullshit, when they know that is what it is, has been one of the truly embarrassing things about the last few days.
It is not just that Celtic were brilliant in the run-in, although in terms of the results we were. Hearts had to slip, and they did. Several times.
They can do all the finger-pointing they want. They can cling to whatever fantasy they like to tell themselves about why this title ended up at Celtic Park.
But if they are being honest, they know Hearts away form was dreadful. They know their manager was far too cautious in the final weeks. They know there was perhaps even a touch of fear around the club. Then there was the frustration that boiled over on Wednesday and carried forward into Saturday’s game.
There are some moments in every season which stand out as critical. But there is no one moment that decides a title race unless it comes on the final day and directly gets a team over the line. Even then, the road to that place is full of landmarks and all of them are significant. We had big moments on Saturday. Maeda’s goal put us top. But it was a lot of goals in a lot of games over the 38 matches that got us there.
The simple fact is that Hearts came to Celtic Park on the final day still top of the league and needing only a draw. That is the truth of it.
I do not mind a narrative based on emotion. I do mind one based on lies. I do mind one that is wholly dishonest in every sense of the word.
So I could not care less what Gary Lineker and others are saying if the line they want to push is that a single decision cost Hearts the title.
Deep down, they have to know they are full of it. They are former players. They are former professionals in the game. They know how it works.
They know trophies are not won in a single moment, but by attritional warfare over the course of a season. That is how football works.
So, I have to wonder exactly what they are doing when they push this line. Are they being wilfully dishonest, or have they momentarily taken leave of their senses? It is one or the other.
Either they are in denial about the reality of this, or they recognise the reality perfectly well and are pushing a narrative they know to be entirely false. Either way, it is impossible to take them seriously.
The media can bring as many of these clowns out of the woodwork as it likes. They can all indulge in the same foot-stamping fury. It is not going to change the outcome.
Those who are truly neutral, watching all this from afar, must be astonished at the lather these people are getting themselves into.
One thing that did amuse me was Simon Jordan saying he did not know if he could watch Scottish football any longer after the events of the last few weeks. Personally, I did not know that he did watch it nor did I care. If only he would take a vow of silence and no longer talk about it, the level of discourse would markedly improve, and the average conversational IQ in the media would go up by about three or four points.
It is not just that their arguments are ignorant this time.
It is that they are childishly simplistic, weak, easily knocked down and, to be frank, unworthy of some of the people making them. Some of the people. Not all. For those like Jordan, Ally McCoist and Jim White, childish, simplistic, weak and ignorant is simply par for the course.
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They’re all a bit like the Johnny Vegas character in Benidorm, The Oracle, when he lost the quiz he had been boasting for days of winning.
Complete hysterical meltdown (reminiscent of Boyd at his best) ending in him being laughed at and rejected from the premises to the jeers of the crowd, Vaya te Conyo ringing in his ears.
Look it up and enjoy the similarities.
ejected. Oops!
Had we drawn at Motherwell I believe we would still have won the league. MON set out his team on Saturday to win the match. All the tactics, formation, team selection was based on winning alone. Had we needed to win by 3 goals then those tactics, team selection etc would have been different, and we’d have won by 3 goals.
FFS, James. One minute you’re telling us we should now be talking about the squad building positivities and forgetting about all the bitter bigots negativity etc. And here you are with another article on these fanny’s. LOL
One of the worst I’ve read was that guy Calum Crowe in the Daily Mail yesterday
No praise or congratulations for the winning team
Just all poor Hearts and Celtic fans are coked up thugs
Every sentence dripping with disgust
Derek McInnes lost Hearts the title, his game plans in the away games were not up to it. His meltdown after Celtic’s penalty against Motherwell would have confirmed to the players he then feared Saturday’s match against Celtic as they then did not have to win by three clear goals. If he had said he could only control what happened in Hearts games and said he looked forward to Saturday and was confident to get the result, his players would have been more calm and positive. Repeat of sir Alex and Kevin Keegan. Rookie mistake
Here you go, folks. From The British Bullshit Corporation (BBC) describing these scenes as brilliant etc. The Hun hypocrisy just oozes out of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGnUojcS7AI
The BBC, SKY and TalkSport are the 3 worst anti-Celtic platforms. Three platforms that are supposed to be neutral. Glad i don’t contribute one penny to any of them.
MarqueeMoon2 @ 1.03pm…
You do realise I trust by purchasing such evil rags that you are actively keeping these utter Scummy Bastards like that guy in a (probably) well paid job…
My recommendation is – Please desist !!!
There are fuckin NUMEROUS title winning games where Celtic could’ve won the title from…
The first one late McCowan winner v St.Mirren…
September- Idechencco 90+6 v Kilmarnock…
October – Media 90+2 v Motherwell…
November – McGregor 90+6 v St.Mirren…
February – Ox 90+1 v Livingston…
February – Ajeuro 90+7 v Kilmarnock…
March – Hetate 90+1 v Sevco…
May – Meida 88 v Hearts also Osmand 90+8…
The dogs in the street could print what I’ve dug out but that wouldn’t suit evil narratives would it for The Scummy’s !!!
Absolutely spot on
I think it’s time to let it all go. If we as Celtic fans desire the runners up and thirds and also rans to accept we are champions, then we should simply do that ourselves. Surely even McInnes himself, as well as the media, knows that Hearts would have been nowhere near either us or Ibrox (sorry to say it) if both clubs hadn’t had such dire spells which weren’t entirely to do with their football on the pitch. So what if we went on to a more advantageous position in the final game because we beat Motherwell? We got a penalty; we scored it; we accumulated more points and won the title.
I love this blog, but I really think we and everyone else need no more analysis other than over the 38 games we got the most points. We are champions again. We are used to it and so should everyone else be by now. HH
And I would like to add that while everyone was lapping up the Hearts fairytale bullshit (following O’Neill’s reset after the Dundee loss it was never going to happen), Falkirk have absolutely smashed their season. Far more impressive than Hearts, regardless of how many days we are told they spent top of the table. Top of the table mattered once and once only and we all know the rest.
The worst comment I’ve heard is from Gordon Smith, saying a points deduction should be imposed for the pitch invasion.
Everyone in football usually says the best team always win the league over a season. That seems to have been forgotten.
The best team wins the league ( unless cheating involved, original rangers, side letters ect), one game or a contentious decision does not decide a championship. Although I do believe Hearts lost the league on wed, not because of a dodgy decision(clear pen) but because of their leader’s reaction to it! Â
Most managers would have ignored the noise and waxed lyrical about their team’s 3-0 win, not the bitter one he allowed himself and through him his team to lose focus! Instead of talking his team’s achievements up, not lost to Celtic all season, just beat the rangers ect, ect he started looking over the fence.
Hearts turned up at Celtic Park without a game plan and very few tactics( can’t say none there was the long ball into box), Angry players wound up by a manager suffering from a great injustice( even though his team was not involved in the game where the criminal decision was made). He fell for professor Boyd and senior lecturer Robbo’s new physics!
Outplayed by Celtic and out smarted by MOM all that was left was a huff, his players attacking fans and more made up stories on why hearts had to leave early. Not sure Tony Bloom won’t see through it. Mr Bloom will be hoping to pass this dud off to sevco for a million or two, if not he will be binned long before next season is out. No one likes a bottler, especially not a greeting faced bigoted one.Â