Brendan’s shot at Celtic fans was well off-target

There’s an old story — which may or may not be true — about Jock Stein’s attitude to the fans. The tale goes that a game wasn’t going well and Jock had chosen to drop Dixie Deans, much to the disgruntlement of many of the fans.

When Jock finally decided to make a change and told Dixie to warm up, the fans started to chant his name. At that point, it’s said, Jock told Dixie to put his tracksuit back on and sit on the bench — a strong message to the supporters that he, and he alone, decided who would play for Celtic and when.

I was reminded of this by Brendan Rodgers’s decision to berate supporters who chanted for Kieran Tierney during the win against St Mirren.

Brendan usually has his communication spot on, so it was interesting to witness the tetchiness in his response, after a solid win. You can argue that he was simply defending Greg Taylor at a time when he has still not signed the contract extension offered to him, drawing speculation that he may leave Celtic in January or at the end of the season.

Some will say that’s good management; that it’s the job of a manager to publicly support his players when there’s a perceived lack of appreciation from certain quarters. You could say that the message he is sending to the dressing room about having his players’ backs is more important than the signal he sends to supporters.

However, I can’t help feeling that Brendan has called this wrong on a number of levels and has only made a delicate situation worse with his strident comments.

Only recently, Brendan was talking about “narratives” deflecting from victories. Why, he then chose to introduce a negative post-match narrative after a solid recovery, following an abject defeat to The Rangers, only he knows for sure.

Was it partly inspired by petulance, still smarting from the defeat at Ibrox? It seemed a possibility.

Yet Brendan, along with others, has talked about the winning mentality and pressure to perform at Celtic. If fans are often over-the-top with their criticism when let down by the players, perhaps that just goes with modern football.

But Brendan shouldn’t kid himself. The tensions towards Greg have been largely driven by the player and manager themselves.

Greg has an important decision to make and he’s entitled to take his time making it. At 27, he no doubt sees that the likes of Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie and Kris Ajer have left Celtic to make excellent money in the English Premier League and probably feels confident that he could make a similar move to a team in the lower half of that competition.

In that sense, Greg probably feels it’s now or never for him. To sign on, I’m guessing that the main considerations are likely to be a long contract near the top of what Celtic can offer within the pay structure and that he will be a major first-team player in what promise to be exciting times ahead.

As well as these factors, is his position in the Scotland squad where he faces fierce competition and will have to be playing regularly if he is to have any chance of featuring in the next World Cup.

These concerns are all quite legitimate but, by the same token, fans tend to get restless when players fail to make the big gestures of loyalty that supporters kid themselves they’d all make in a heartbeat.

And, frankly, that hasn’t been helped by Greg’s form this season, which has been somewhat patchy. That’s something else that can come from a player having other things on their mind and, while understandable, isn’t helping anyone.

Then we come to some of Brendan’s own comments. When asked recently about Greg’s contract situation, Brendan was careful to praise his contribution to the club and emphasise that he would like Greg to stay. However, it can’t have been lost on Greg or his representatives that Brendan continually used the word, “squad”.

Any player with the concerns listed above would surely be concerned that that was code for saying that his position would be diminished in future. Saying this at the same time as the growing speculation around Kieran Tierney’s possible return was unusually tin-eared of a manager who usually prides himself on his diplomacy and media-handling.

Now, Brendan has gone one further and made the narrative around Greg being that it’s him or Kieran — which is not just crass but follysome.

Personally, I’ve always been firmly in the KT camp, though Greg deserves more recognition and appreciation than he has sometimes received. But, with Kieran still to prove that he can get over the injuries that have affected him (and that explosive power he has always carries the risk of some injury recurrence), Celtic may well go into February with a top fullback being managed into performance condition and a loan player while Greg explores pastures new.

That’s largely on Brendan, in my opinion. He  is often eloquent in his managing of sensitive issues. Sometimes, however, the great communicator would be well advised to heed the words of fellow Irishman, Ronan Keating: “You say it best when you say nothing at all.”

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.

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