Oh dear, Hugh Keevins has done an Artur

- Jorge, that is, not Boruc

First, the facts. The Daily Record is a rag. Not only that, it’s a pro-Rangers rag as was shown when Messrs Murray and Bain (along with one or two SFA bigwigs), decided to hold off their “reaction” to the refusal of their request for a second league extension as an exclusive to the paper.

Beforehand, there were only complaints, suspicions, insinuations and, of course, an assessment of the output of a supposed newspaper where Rangers only “drop their interest” in potential signings whereas players Celtic have never even spoken to always seem to “snub” us.

Then, of course, there have been attacks on Celtic players, not least the world’s number one goalie, Artur Boruc, who has been continually abused in Scotland for his religion. However, Hugh Keevins felt he had to join in.

Keevins is a curious beast. It is probably true that Celtic fans working in the media face suspicion from both sides. The Celtic-haters demand that they show their impartiality by regularly indulging in unwarranted criticism of the club, while Celtic fans accuse them of selling out before a word is crayoned in.

But Keevins is almost unique in the calibre of his vindictive prose against Celtic. It was he who was banned from press conferences during the tenure of Kenny Dalglish.

It was also Keevins who mercilessly attacked a very intelligent, dignified and respected man in Dr Josef Venglos, haranguing him in post-match radio interviews and trying to ridicule a man who was superior to him in every qualitative measure.

But let’s not forget it was also Keevins who once told us of the fact that our next Celtic manager would be the Portuguese Artur Jorge. He was so certain and so wrong on that one that he was shown the door at The Scotsman, his credibility having gone the way of a claim of a £700million Ibrox superstadium.

Yesterday, however, he went one stage further. He clearly and verifiably lied about a named individual to convince readers – and there are mercifully few Celtic fans amongst them – that Shunsuke Nakamura was the subject of interest from Bologna.

It is almost unprecedented for the president of an Italian club to feel it necessary to respond to a story in a Scottish newspaper with Alfredo Cazzola declaring emphatically "that he has not released the long and detailed statement which appears on the website of a British newspaper talking about interest in Nakamura".

Cazzola went on to insist that "the statement was completely made up, and that he is appalled in the face of this scandalous way of doing journalism".
People in Scotland may be appalled; we may be angered but we are not surprised. How the numerous other titles that quoted the story in good faith will react will not be so clear.

However, the Daily Record has now been exposed to international ridicule and that will impact on the credibility of its news reporting as well as its fawning sports homage to David Murray.

His mischievous little story is surely a step too far. Or to paraphrase the man himself, it's time to “release the Clydebank one!”

He will not be missed.