Celtic fans all agree on one thing; none of us cares what Simon Jordan thinks.

Last week, as Celtic fans raged about Robbie Keane, Simon Jordan decided to throw his two-bob into a conversation he clearly did not understand.

It is becoming something of a habit with the man. If there is a microphone nearby and a controversial subject on the table, Simon appears convinced that the world is desperately waiting for his wisdom.

The trouble is that too often what follows is not wisdom at all.

There are people who know football. There are people who know politics. There are people who understand culture, identity, history and community. Then there are people who think being loud is the same thing as being informed.

Simon Jordan seems to spend far too much time in that last category.

As a Celtic supporter, I find it funny when pundits and media personalities try to explain Celtic supporters to the public. We are analysed, dissected, criticised and lectured as if we are some strange species that has wandered in from another planet.

Men who have never sat in our stands, never understood the culture, never grasped the history and never appreciated the emotional connection between club and support suddenly become experts overnight.

Then they wonder why nobody is listening.

The latest debate around Robbie Keane brought that into sharp focus once again. Jordan has reportedly described the reaction from Celtic fan groups as “ridiculous” and “preposterous”, which tells you almost everything you need to know about how little he understands what this argument is really about.

What makes those comments particularly ridiculous is that they completely miss the point.

There are Celtic supporters who oppose Robbie Keane because of his decision to manage Maccabi Tel Aviv during the Gaza war. There are others who oppose him because they question his managerial record. There are fans who simply believe appointing him would represent another lazy decision from a club that should be searching for the best candidate available rather than the most familiar name.

Then there are supporters who could not care less about any of that. They just want somebody through the door. Anybody. They want certainty. They want movement. They want leadership. They want the waiting to end.

You can agree or disagree with any of those positions. What you cannot do is pretend they do not exist. The anger at the Keane idea was widespread. It was not confined to a handful of fanatics as he appears to think.

Celtic supporters are not one giant hive mind. We never have been. We argue. We debate. We disagree. Sometimes passionately. Sometimes loudly. Sometimes to the point where you would think civil war had broken out across the support.

But that is football. That is what supporters do.

What unites all of those different viewpoints is something Simon Jordan appears incapable of understanding: not one of those groups gives a flying toss what Simon Jordan thinks. Not one. We differed as to the finer points of Keane. Some even don’t think it should have been O’Neill. But no-one was waiting with baited breath for Jordan’s view on it all.

The fans who wanted Keane did not care. The fans who opposed Keane did not care. The fans sitting on the fence did not care. The supporters arguing in pubs, on forums, on social media and in stadiums did not care.

Because at the end of the day, Simon Jordan is not part of this story. He is simply another man standing outside Celtic Park shouting his opinions through the letterbox.

There seems to be an epidemic of that these days. Everywhere you look, there are people desperate to insert themselves into conversations that have absolutely nothing to do with them.

Every issue becomes another opportunity for attention. Every debate becomes another stage. Every microphone becomes another invitation to hear the sound of their own voice.

I sometimes think the world would be a far better place if more people learned the value of silence. Not permanent silence. Just enough silence to recognise when they have nothing worthwhile to contribute.

There is wisdom in knowing when to speak. There is an even greater wisdom in knowing when not to. Sadly, that lesson appears to have passed many modern pundits by.

As I sit and watch this circus unfold, my Ginger Witch instincts start tingling. They always do when noise begins replacing substance. There is a particular kind of energy that surrounds people who speak endlessly without saying very much.

It is all heat and no light. All thunder and no rain.

Simon Jordan has become remarkably skilled at generating that sort of weather. The irony is that football itself gives him plenty to talk about. That is supposedly his area of expertise. There are matches to analyse, clubs to discuss, tactics to debate and players to evaluate.

Yet somehow, we always end up here.

Another headline. Another controversy. Another opinion delivered with absolute certainty, regardless of whether it has any connection to reality.

The rest of us are then expected to nod along as though some profound truth has just been revealed. No thanks.

Celtic supporters will make up their own minds about Robbie Keane. They will make up their own minds about the board. They will make up their own minds about managers, players and the future direction of the club.

They do not require either Simon Jordan’s insight or his permission.

The Celtic support was debating big things from way before Simon Jordan discovered a microphone, and it will continue to long after his latest attention-seeking soundbite has disappeared into the ether.

Perhaps that is what really irritates people like him.

Not that supporters have an opinion. Everyone is entitled to one. It is that Celtic supporters do not automatically accept the framing handed down by pundits, broadcasters and people who think football culture begins and ends with whatever they say on air that morning.

That is the thing outsiders always seem to miss about Celtic.

This support has its own memory. Its own politics. Its own arguments. Its own internal language. Its own sense of what matters and what does not. We are less susceptible to BS and spin than many other fanbases, perhaps because we’ve grown up around a media environment which is dedicated to anti-Celtic stories.

You do not have to agree with all of it. God knows Celtic supporters do not agree with each other half the time. But if you are going to talk about it, at least try to understand it first.

Do the reading. Learn the context. Ask why people feel the way they feel before telling them they are ridiculous for feeling it.

Because when you skip all that and jump straight to condemnation, you do not sound brave. You do not sound insightful. You do not sound like the one adult in the room.

That is where Jordan so often lands. He does not analyse the room so much as stride into it, knock over a chair, shout at the wallpaper and then congratulate himself for telling everyone how things really are.

But this is Celtic. People have tried shouting at this support before. It rarely works. The old trees do not ask the wind for its opinion before they put down roots.

The pundits come and go like passing weather across a Glasgow sky. Today it is Simon Jordan. Tomorrow it will be someone else. Another voice, another lecture, another attempt to explain us to ourselves.

And Celtic supporters will do what they have always done.

They will argue. They will disagree. They will support their club. They will carry on regardless of whatever others happen to be ranting about this week.

Which is probably for the best.

Because when it comes to understanding Celtic and its supporters, the loudest voices are very often the ones with the least to say.

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