Celtic’s future captain? An early prediction — but no pressure, Luke!

Callum will be our captain for years to come but we’ll soon need to prepare a successor

It's the international break, there's no real football, so it's time for nitwits and fools to indulge in idle speculation.

Here I go. Something that's been on my mind recently is who will follow Callum McGregor in taking the captain's armband when Callum finally hangs up his boots.

Hopefully, that's years away but, unlike the last few years of Scott Brown's captaincy, when Callum was the obvious candidate, there are few players who look to be both suitable and likely to be at Celtic in around four years time, when Callum will likely be ready to move on.

Step forward, our new midfield signing, Luke McCowan. Celtic through and through, 26 and with an impressive attitude as his most recent press conference demonstrated, we might just be looking at the man right now.

Now, I’m not saying McCowan’s ready for the captaincy any time soon—he hasn’t even played a full game for Celtic yet—but there’s something about his attitude that makes you wonder.

In his recent press conference, he came across as a player with not only ambition but a solid, grounded mindset. At 26, he’s the right age to grow into a leadership role, and would be around 30 when Callum would likely be winding down so the timing might just align.

Of course, we’re talking about potential, not guarantees. McCowan still has to prove himself on the pitch and show he’s not just a solid squad addition but someone who can inspire and lead.

But the fact that he’s a true Celtic man, combined with his previous captaincy experience at Dundee, makes him a name worth keeping in mind when we look to the future.

It was also notable that Luke left Dundee with the universal good wishes of his club, coaches teammates and fans. That's a rare occurrence and it speaks to a solid character.

Listening to him talking, Brendan Rodgers must have been beaming, as he said everything you expect of a new signing, humble but confident, focussed on working hard, learning from everyone around him and doing whatever it takes to make the most of his opportunity.

There’s always a need to plan for the long-term leadership at Celtic and the captain’s role is more than just wearing the armband; it’s about embodying the spirit of the club, guiding players, and maintaining the standards set by legends like Callum and Scott. 

Greg Taylor might be another candidate, but with McCowan’s age, attitude, and work ethic, he’s certainly one to watch as the years progress.

For a Celtic man at heart, the ultimate reward for Luke could just be the bhoy's own dream.--

Blood on the screens! Celtic content family goes to war … over what again?

There’s a time to choose your battles and a time to keep your powder dry. Wazzocks, take note!

There's trouble at t'mill! Or at least the Celtic blogging community. By community, I of course mean the those-and-such-as-those content creators who see themselves as inside the tent pissing out, with the sense of self-importance and entitlement that comes with making an income from daily talking the kind of pish that this blog gets around to occasionally.

Any parent will tell you of the risks that the school holidays give idle little hands some devilish work to do and, for Celtic, it seems that the accursed international break is doing the same.

Excuse me while I put down my tiny violin and explain that this is all about - drumroll - the transfer window.

Happy with the window - aye, naw, mibbes?

I have to confess that, as we were doing our usual due dithering, I considered breaking off from my important tasks to write a piece with the working title: “The Celtic transfer window — the annual betrayal”. However, I wisely kept my powder dry — and, after all, we’ve had successful windows in at least three of the last 15 or so. Accuracy is important, and there’s always next year.

The latest transfers in have left many Celtic fans excited in a way that was once only experienced by torchlight under the covers and, I am also optimistic.

However, as every adolescent learns, such unfamiliar ecstasy often leads to premature reactions and the immediate crowing from certain quarters with an undisguised adoration of Celtic’s corporate plan is perhaps ill-timed. 

The attempt to eviscerate the arguments of all and any who question whether there’s an alternative to signing players in the last 48 hours was delivered with a quite brilliant blend of smugness, pseudo-intellectualism and downright idiocy befitting a forum attracting the Aloyisians and Hutchesons’ old-boys within the Celtic support, along with those still feeling resentful that mater and pater cursed them with comprehensive education. (Say what you like but we’re inclusive.)

That led to the shedding of blood on the screen as one of those who found his platform there before branching out on his own threw a barb and was then rounded on with some fairly vitriolic abuse.

This, in turn, prompted an alcohol-fuelled lament over receiving the sort of nastiness that, by his own admission, he dishes out but is less comfortable receiving. In doing so, he alluded to a long list of people who tell him what they think of him in language that he uses himself, bizarrely blaming his political past. (I think he meant he’s the kind of “socialist” who tries to win debates with the F-word and personal insults. Basically, he’d like to be Irvine Welsh but is actually an alloy of the rhetoric of Kevin Williamson and the preciousness of Mike Small).

Perhaps the most farcical element of this is the timing. There’s plenty of room for being cautiously optimistic, but It might be wiser to hold off on the statues and banners until we’ve actually seen the new signings on the pitch.

The signing of Kasper Schmeichel has been met with a universal acclaim that is understandable and securing Adam Idah and Paolo Bernardo, turning their loan deals into permanent moves is welcome and sensible. 

I was one of those particularly pleased to see Luke McCowan joining the club and I am as excited as anyone to see how our record-breaking signing Arne Engles performs. As for Auston Trusty and Alex Valle, I am as hopeful as anyone.

But there’s an important caveat — hope is rarely a solid platform for the sort of in-your-face derision delivered by Peter Lawwell’s most trusted independent blogger.

And nor do we need to start raining on parades when the team isn’t even active.

But haven’t we been here before? Has everyone else fallen victim to the same Orwellian memory hole that has allowed the summer 2020 to be something we just don’t talk about?

Then, too, “the board spent big” on sure-fire stars like Christopher Jullien, Vasillias Barkas and the legendary Boli Bolingoli-M’Bombo, joined by the loan signing of Shane Duffy. All would feature prominently in our losing the chance to win ten-in-a-row — or even a trophy that season.

I believe that there’s a different feel to this window and, coupled with strong performances at the start of the season, there are grounds to believe that we are taking an important step forward.

But that will only be proven with victories over the likes of Slovan Bratislava, Young Boys Bern, Club Brugge and Dinamo Zagreb — all of whom have lower resources than Celtic and who play outside the Big Five leagues.

There are many lessons to be drawn from this tawdry situation (and dishonourable mention goes to the other content-providers calling critics ”c&&&s” for challenging their analyses). 

One is that presuming the success of new signings who have played approximately 50 minutes for Celtic combined is a fool’s errand.

Another is that the internecine warring between self-important fans with laptops yet again explodes the myth of the “Celtic family”. (I say this having been the recipient of efforts to actively sabotage this blog when it was actually read occasionally. Yes, it was quite obvious where it came from.) 

The Celtic support is increasingly divided, with more and more fans seeking their own niche and their own platform, demanding acclaim and being motivated by self-interest, arrogance and jealousy. The term, “wazzocks,” springs to mind, in the interests of politeness.

Fight on boys — knock yourselves and each other out! But, first, it might be wise to have a clue what you’re actually fighting — or even talking — about.

--

Is it time for Scottish football to embrace new realities?

The would-be supremacists are facing up to life as Scottish football's Hunderclass

The dust is still falling from the Sunday swatting of The Rangers and perhaps the most remarkable thing to digest was how routine the 3-0 victory was.

Most of us have too much experience to take anything for granted in football but, for me, I was finding it hard not to expect a comfortable win.

I couldn't see how we could lose, draw or even win narrowly and the 3-0 score seemed to be the likely acceptable minimum.

For fans of The Rangers, it seems, the expectations were exactly the converse. The saying goes that it's always darkest just before the dawn but for the antisocial neighbours, it seems that the dawning was of the realisation that their position is now cemented as Glasgow football's (possibly permanent) Hunderclass.

Listening to the media phone-ins and post-mortem discussions following such fixtures can be a task for fools, usually a mixture of delusion and denial, punctuated with some genuinely funny moments of anger. The aftermath of the latest statement of Celtic’s superiority, however, had an altogether different tone.

Pundits had run out of straws to clutch and fans of The Rangers took to the internet and airwaves to declare their hatred and contempt for everyone representing their club and utter despair for the future.

Where once everything was an act of defiance, bloggers, vloggers, Twitterers and callers lined up to sing from the same sheet: “Celtic are superior in every department and the gulf can only get wider.”

Suddenly, the notion that has sustained Scottish football that it must be an endless duality between a Celtic, still unloved by most paid to comment on the game, and the indestructible, immortal, risen Rangers seems shattered.

Fans and media shills who could not and would not accept the fact of the death of Rangers in 2012, now seem increasingly resigned to The Rangers MKII languishing eternally in purgatory, ever looking upwards to Celtic revelling in Paradise.

If many Celtic fans who endured the daily “in-your-faces” experience of the financial doping years will be hesitant to display the same hubris that came before the Rangers fall, there is nevertheless a compelling emerging narrative — that, this time, it’s different.

Strange things do happen in football — often through corruption nodded through by authorities that are more than willing to turn a blind eye to financial unfair play — so The Rangers may yet find a wealthy saviour of similar character and competence to the rogues gallery that have held sway at Ibrox since the 1980s.

But, without moving goalposts to artificially level the playing field, the dominance Celtic enjoys looks set to remain. 

After finishing last season as champions but with a squad that most supporters agreed was inadequate for the challenges ahead, Celtic emphatically dominated the match with outfield players who had all been regulars when title 54 was secured. On the bench was approximately £30m of new talent, including our two record signings.

The game was all but won before Celtic paraded Arena Engels, Luke McCowan and James Forrest for his 500th club appearance.

With the transfer window now closed until January, it’s difficult to see what circumstances could allow The Rangers to close the gap and, with Celtic enjoying the superior wealth of the Champions League, the club looks likely to be set for further development over the coming 12 months.

Anyone who has seen a football club die, only for its imitators to be hailed as the real thing by authorities and media alike will know better than to take anything for granted. On the other hand, as an increasing number of The Rangers partisans are coming to terms with, the difference between our dominance and the old Rangers’ swagger show is stark. Ours is founded on a solid structure while their’s was built on sand.

And, if that does come to pass — “Espanyolification”, as it was once known or “being Everton to their Liverpool” as one desperate caller put it -- would it be such a bad thing? Paul Lambert may believe that Scottish football needs a strong club accepted as Rangers but their demise might well provide an opportunity for clubs from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Ayrshire and Dundee to find new opportunities and build something sustainable as Scottish football is realigned.

Before that is allowed to happen, we can expect the sort of dirty tricks that would put a referendum campaign to shame but, with fair play, it looks increasingly likely that Scottish football may have to be ready to accept new realities along with the surrender of the would-be supremacists.

No, Celtic don’t need “a strong Rangers” and neither does Scottish football. However hard The Rangers may scramble to reach for it, it seems that penny is finally dropping.