Ronny Deila speaks up for Lawwell but he doesn't speak for the fans

Well, surprise, surprise - Ronny Deila has decided to tell Celtic fans that we have no right to criticise Peter Lawwell.

In doing so, he has demonstrated something about both why he got the manager's job in the first place and why it proved to be too big for him.

I dare say that if I had been given a lucrative, high-profile job which I was poorly qualified for, I might also feel inclined to defend the person who put my improbable progress ahead of the club's.

 But one of the features of Celtic in recent years has been the fawning to the corporate strategy of a succession of coaches, even when players were foisted upon them or sold from under them against their wishes.

 Ronny, like the others, is unlikely to burn his bridges in terms of a possible  return but while there have been inklings of dissatisfaction when each coach going back to, and including, Martin O'Neill have left, these have quickly been airbrushed away in a disconcerting manner.

Can you manage Celtic without being prepared to kiss Peter's ass? It's not clear that you can and there is suspicion that contract clauses to that effect have been signed.

But Ronny also shows that he has never yet got to grips with the expectations Celtic fans have.

Despite the usual claims from PLC fans, acolytes and online shills,  few, if any, Celtic supporters want the club to “spend money we don't have” - we just want players signed on the basis of what they can contribute to the team, rather than the balance sheet.

Is it really too much to want to see good players playing good football and an improving team? Is it unrealistic to want to keep the good ones for  a few seasons, instead of selling them at the first opportunity, while we get to keep the crocks, the bottlers, the bad boys, layabouts and other assorted dross?

Shouldn't we want players and teams to become legends, rather than recalling them primarily for their plus-or-minus contribution to the profit-and-loss statement?

Does Ronny think we don't deserve better, that we just aren't as smart as Peter?

Perhaps he also thinks we are wrong not to have meekly accepted being cheated out of titles and Champions League participation, the acknowledgement of the fact of Rangers being liquidated and the innumerable flagrant rule breaches which Peter has remained silent on, if not actually being complicit.

Under Peter Lawwell's period of tenure, most of the values that have made Celtic special have been erased and, worse, the fans who wanted them upheld have been mocked and derided by the PLC/Lawwell camp.

Ronny Deila is a nice and good man, who should not be condemned for genuine loyalty.

At the same time, he should not seek to lecture Celtic fans on issues that  we understand rather better than he does.

We - and generations before us - are the ones who have sustained Celtic and made the club great. Ronny's two years of service do not qualify him to dismiss our concern at the decline of Celtic and declare Peter's way to be the only way.

Ronny Deila is entitled to speak for himself and still contracted to speak for Celtic PLC. He need not think that he speaks for the fans.--

Anyone need a Number 2?

Don't ask me - I'm saying nothing!

Amid all the recrimination and justification of all and sundry over Ronny Deila's tenure as Celtic manager, some have pointed to the backroom staff.

Any manager is entitled to an assistant and coaches he can trust. These guys are not just professionals carrying out the training and tactical instructions of the manager but they are also his allies and friends, his extra sets of eyes and ears.

It is vital that he can trust them. When the going gets tough – as it inevitably will, especially at a club with the pressure associated with Celtic, these guys are the rock that the manager will lean on.

Any rebellious player will find himself facing a solid, indivisible phalanx of comrades. Gordon Strachan had Tommy Burns; Neil Lennon had Johan Mjallby and Alan Thompson; Martin O'Neill had John Robertson and Steve Walford, Billy McNeill had Tommy Craig and Frank Connor; Jock Stein had Sean Fallon.

Ronny Deila had the two Johns.

Now, I have no reason to suspect that John Kennedy is anything but a good guy. I just fail to see what he brings to the team. Having a “defensive coach” sounds oh-so-modern, and yet, Celtic often defended abysmally, persisting with a zonal marking system that the players lacked the wit to implement – and rarely appeared to understand.

And, individually, to see Dedryck Boyata running forward, losing the ball, tracking back and pulling a player down was to despair. If John Kennedy couldn't knock that out of him, what the hell was he doing?

But I was reminded recently of Eric Black, when someone touted him as a potential Celtic manager. Black, as some will remember, had a coaching role at Celtic under Wim Jansen. Wim was not the saint he portrayed himself to be but he once curiously dismissed Black as “Brown's man”, referring to the then “Manager”/Football Director Jock Brown.

It was a comment dripping with sinister undertones.

Black is a curious figure, having been appointed as caretaker manager four times in his career, on each occasion taking over from the man he was appointed to assist.

And I can't help thinking of similarities between Black and John Collins. Maybe it's the silky-skilled play they both once demonstrated, maybe it's the fact that they both went to the French league for the best payday they could get, maybe it's just the suntan.

But Collins was widely said to be a divisive figure when manager of Hibs and similar rumours persist around his dealings with Celtic.

I recall when Gordon Strachan was verbally abused by a steward at Pittodrie, having answered back some fans who had been baiting him. Clearly upset, Gordon didn't speak to the press that evening but, instead, Tommy Burns gave the TV interview in as noble and comforting a show of support as anyone could have wished for.

When Mark McGhee refused to shake Ronny Deila's hand, Ronny decided not to take the interviews. And John Kennedy gave what seemed like a professional performance, without any words of support that I read reported.

But where was John Collins? In fact, where has John Collins been at any time when the pressure was on his boss?

Remember, Collins is the one with the Celtic connection, who knows the pressure attached to the club, is familiar with the Scottish game and how the press react.

And Collins should have been the first one standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ronny when the going got tougher than any manager in the Tippeligaen has ever had it.

Perhaps the fact that Norway is a non-EU member meant that Ronny's coaches would have found it difficult to get work permits, as happened when Christian Gross went to Spurs, from Grasshoppers, though Haakon Lunov, Ronny's academic analyst, would have had skills that were not readily available in the UK, allowing him to come.

But some of the pressure on Ronny came from statements like committing himself to winning the treble, which is the sort of comment that anyone who understands the Scottish game would advise against.

Maybe Collins is being hard done by. Maybe he was just too shy to back his manager in the media – and when Kris Commons acted so disgracefully. But I hope that he didn't have the impression that Ronny's failure could have been his opportunity to step into the breach.

If he did, he must be a very disappointed man that Ronny has chosen to see out the season, rather than allowing Collins the chance to show how he could transform the team overnight.

One of the best gifts that the next manager could be given would be vacant positions to fill with his own assistant and coach – and that should happen soon.

Good luck to them both, especially Collins in finding another managerial position. He'll need an assistant. I can't recommend any individual but would it be wrong to hope that his next number two is a hedgehog?
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Six good reasons why Neil Lennon should not be Celtic manager

Wanderer: "I wonder if I could get back to Celtic"

Neil Lennon is “open to a return to Celtic”. Let the bells ring out!

Now, I'm not going to forget the service Neil gave to Celtic as a player or as a manager.

On the other hand, anyone entertaining notions of bringing him back should allow themselves a reality check.

Neil got the Celtic job – his first in management – because he was prepared to take on a position in circumstances that other, better-qualified, candidates refused to consider.

It was a huge gamble. The last managerial rookies to be given the job had been Liam Brady and John Barnes – and look how those experiments worked out.

He did well – nobody could reasonably say otherwise – winning three titles and two Scottish Cups. And he delivered some memorable European nights, most notably that incredible win over Barcelona.

When he left, it was with the best wishes of most of the fans and he was quite within his rights to do so.

But, that doesn't mean he should be back – and there are several reasons why he should not be given the job.

Firstly, Neil left for good reasons. One of those was his wish to pursue higher aspirations; another was that the wheels were falling off the cart before he left.

Most of us could see that – a 6-1 humiliation at the hands of Barcelona being the worst kind of confirmation of that downward spiral Celtic were in.  I thought it was a smart move at the time, indicative of a club recruitment-and-sale policy that was leading us to on-field ruin.

I recall a Norwich fan joking with me that I must be crying in my beer, as he was expected to go there at the time. I replied that I was relaxed about his leaving. I thought he would do a good, professional job but not set the heather on fire.

That was more-or-less how things transpired at Bolton. He made a big initial impression and, admittedly under difficult circumstances, the endeavour turned out to be a damp squib.

So, reasons 1 & 2:

There is nothing to suggest that the conditions at the club are better than those that Neil left and there hasn't been a cavalry charge for his services, since he parted company with Bolton Wanderers.

When he was on the way up, Celtic wasn't big enough for him, But now it appears he thinks the job should shrink to fit inferior managers, who have tested themselves at Championship level and would like to make a big splash in a small pond again. Thanks, but no thanks.

Reason 3: As has been pointed out recently, Neil's record in his last two seasons was very comparable to Ronny Deila's – which was just not good enough, right? QED!

Reason 4: Some of Neil's conduct has not been exemplary and while we are all entitled to a private life and to our transgressions, I do not want to see the sort of news story – “blackmail” or not – that he endured at Bolton coming to Celtic Park.

Neil endured horrendous abuse in Glasgow – and, no, he did not bring one bit of it on himself. But anyone who had ever met his hooligan bouncer when he was still a Celtic player would have been surprised to see him given the Celtic job.

We make mistakes and we grow up but I don't want to see the veracity or otherwise of certain stories being freshly tested for our manager. Yes, I'll say it – there are question marks around his character that most of us probably overlooked due to our natural desire to defend him against threats and violence.

We don't need the complication of the Scottish media looking for fire where there is a fair reek of smoke.

Reason 5: And, for me, the most damning of all. A few months ago, Ronny Deila was riding high but around the time that Neil's encounter with Bolton was clearly coming to an end, certain people started undermining Ronny.

Several of those people had close connections to Neil Lennon. His agent said that Neil and Celtic “needed each other”. His former teammate, Chris Sutton (remember how much we admired him?) had been criticising Ronny for some time – many of us blaming him having sold out to the tabloids.

Then we had John Hartson talking about conditions which should lead to Ronny being sacked.

And let's not forget the contributions of some of Neil's favourite players – like Charlie Mulgrew furiously denying being a little too ready to hide on the sidelines in a European match, with some questioning just how injured he was as he left the field.

Charlie, you may recall, was brought back to Celtic by Neil, Gordon Strachan having been prepared to let him go, allegedly due to issues with his attitude.

And that other favourite of Neil's – Kris Commons (who I would like to see kicked out of Celtic tomorrow). Who could forget his outrageous diatribe towards the bench when he was being substituted – again in front of the cameras for all of Europe to see. Commons should have been given his belongings in a bin bag the next morning but Ronny wasn't getting that sort of backing and was seemingly too decent a guy to demand that his lucrative contract (which Ronny had apparently questioned) be terminated.

And then there's Anthony Stokes – currently at Hibs, following his public criticism of the coaching staff for daring to reward his laziness with a seat in the stands.

Now, far be it from me to accuse Neil or his advisers of having actively undermined Ronny Deila to improve his chances of getting back a job he willingly gave up when there were few, if any, other options but you know how folk talk.

And I, personally, would never want there to be a hint that anyone could benefit from insidious attacks against the incumbent Celtic manager.

That would be a dangerous signal to send, enough to make Reason 6 – his playing the Level5 “same club” game to garner media support – almost obsolete.

So, thanks again to Neil for his service to the club as player and manager. I hope he continues to enjoy visits to Celtic Park as a VIP guest. And if there are no Championship clubs that want him, surely there must be some League 1 or 2 clubs or even some other Scottish teams he can manage.

But when anyone aims high and the arrow falls short, it would be a poor show indeed if “redemption” was achieved as a result of proxy stabs in someone else's back.

Enough of the Lennon talk; let's move on.

Related link:

• Could any coach sort out this mess?
• Neil Lennon or Malkay Mackay for Celtic? Our survey says...

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Ronny Deila leaves Celtic with his head held high - others should be in our sights

So, Ronny Deila has gone. And, typically of the man, he has gone – or at least announced his departure – with dignity intact.

Like many Celtic fans, I had come to the conclusion that he wasn't going to be able to turn around the foundering ship that is Celtic at the present time.

So, yes, all things considered, it seemed it had to be this way.

But Ronny leaves with the respect, gratitude and admiration of this Celtic fan and many thousands more – seemingly the overwhelming majority.

We know that he didn't ask the Celtic Board to break with all precedent and appoint someone to the most important position at the club, with only experience at small Norwegian clubs to draw on.

We can see that his role in developing players who were sold on at a profit, including Martin Ødegaard, was what attracted the great player traders, keen to cash in on transfer fees to the detriment of the team.

We remember that he said he didn't want loan signings as then “you're developing other people's players” – a job he was given with Jason Denayer, who then promptly left. And we remember that the same board sold Virgil van Dyke, the other half of our central defensive pairing, leaving us with Tyler Blackett and Dedryck Boyata for the new season.

We can see that he was never given the support that he needed from the boardroom, certain team members and maybe coaching staff.

We could see the people from outside the club undermining him, many with their own selfish agendas.

We remember the ideals, the dedication, the standards with which he conducted himself and the trophies – hopefully a second league title in two years, to boot.

This Celtic fan has as much gratitude, respect and admiration for Ronny Deila tonight as I ever have.

There are many others remaining at the club and outside it – with big Celtic reputations – who I cannot say that about. In fact, the conduct of some has been shameful.

I hope Ronny goes to a club with an adequate structure to allow him to develop fully as a coach. If he comes back to Celtic Park with another club on a European night and wins, I won't be happy.

But a part of me will see it as just reward for a man who gave us total commitment in keeping with the finest ideals of our club.

We should not miss our targets in identifying those who have made his tenure so difficult.

There should be “blood on the carpet” – and on the training ground grass – at Celtic Park in the coming weeks and months. But Ronny's hands are clean.

All the best, Ronny – and thanks.

Related link:

• A (respectful) open letter to Ronny Deila

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Legitimate questions for Scott Brown as Celtic captain

Firstly – and this is likely to disappoint some – this will not be a diatribe against Scott Brown.

Scott has his detractors – even “haters” – amongst the Celtic support. The latter group have been comprised of some of the most unthinking Celtic fans I have ever known. The sort who harboured ridiculous suspicions and nurtured them as all evidence rendered them absurd.

Brown has his faults, notably a tendency to carelessly give the ball away through slack passing that I always expected him to iron out. But, though that has been a perennial flaw, we're not talking Steven Gerrard bad.

No, but his use of the ball in the middle of the field has always been the major flaw in his armoury, even if he did “boss” that area against England's Gerrard and Frank Lampard in 2013 (a contribution that both of those English midfielders were generous enough to acknowledge – it was a friendly, after all).

The next year, Gordon Strachan watched his team claim an unlikely equaliser before replacing Brown with the returning Darren Fletcher, conveniently side-stepping the issue of who should be the permanent captain. A Scotland team, outgunned in the first half, immediately collapsed.

When faced with a performance, such as the one Scott turned in at the weekend, it is understandable that criticism should be directed towards him. And he has rarely sustained his top form over the past two or three seasons.

• The first question is: Why has his form rarely matched his experience, endeavour and aggression in recent times?
• The second is: Why, for all his passion, energy and standing within the game, do the Celtic players never seem to respond in times of adversity?
• Question number three is: Is this the (beginning of) the end?

Only Scott Brown can answer questions one and two but I''ll add my tuppence-worth.

I suspect that injuries and even excessive loyalty account for much of question one.

It is no secret that Brown has sustained a number of injuries and been left in that terrible players' dilemma of missing games in order to fully recover or play, through pain and slightly diminished ability, when performance margins are slim. [See update below 02/05/16]

That's a tough call for both player and manager. I recall Jock Stein praising Graeme Souness for offering to play with a pain-killing injection in his toe. Jock chose to think of the player's welfare first.

With Brown, one of the reasons that those who doubt his character should hang their heads in shame is that, above all, he has shown loyalty both to his teams and managers.

Brown stood alone in standing up for Ronny Deila when the press vultures were first circling. He also turned out for Celtic and Scotland, dropping hints that his international career might come to an end.

Many a professional has done the same thing, extending his club career by allowing his body the rest time that it needs.

It is no secret that Gordon Strachan urged him to remain the central mainstay of the Scotland team and Mark McGhee's recent comment that Brown had been the stand-out player of the Strachan era should not be taken lightly.

The best thing for Scott Brown's body and reputation would be to announce his international retirement, rest and play to something like his full potential for Celtic. He seems to have chosen the harder option.

It could also be speculated that his coaching interests may have further distracted him from developing his game but that would be to play the devil's advocate.

This is all speculation.

To question number two, there seem to be three possible answers:

1. Brown lacks leadership skills or credibility with his teammates
2. He is surrounded by a group of players so spineless as to be impossible to encourage
3. There is so little belief instilled by the coaching staff that it is impossible for an on-field leader to compensate for it.

My view is that number one can be ruled out due to the fact that the last four Celtic managers have named him as captain, one making him captain of the national team.

Number two is, sadly, more credible. Anyone who has watched the flat performances, the mysterious injuries, the players who would rather go to UFC fights than watch their teammates or who have gone into hiding when the pressure was on would doubt the mettle of the senior players.

But it's rarely wise to make swathing generalisations.

Number three is more vexing. Ronny Deila sets great store by his ability to lead, develop and inspire players.

But reactions on the field of play – as well as reticence when the head coach needed support (and outrageous abuse by Kris Commons) – suggest that the lack of belief may well come from the bench.

Can a captain give courage when the accepted senior leadership cannot? Roy Aitken was famous for urging his charges on for club and country, not least in the centenary double season. But, then he had Billy McNeill as his manager for most of that time – and Alex Ferguson for Scotland.

The question of this being the beginning of the end is a more delicate one.

I believe that Brown can have two or three years as Celtic captain (maybe four). But, if he insists on going through another Scotland international campaign, that scenario will be increasingly unlikely.

At this stage, he should have deputies, people ready to take on the responsibility of running the midfield, allowing Brown respite – to play 75 minutes, instead of the last punishing 15, when his body is tired and hurting.

And that is what a less loyal, less courageous player might seek. It's hard to imagine Brown holding his hamstring, gesturing to the bench that he has to come off and making a miraculous recovery when he realised that there was no sub to allow him to leave the pitch.

I'm a Scott Brown fan – I admit that. And this may be taken in that context.

But I just don't see the performances we have seen from Brown in recent times reflecting the true player, fit and on form.

At a time when many of us have been calling for guts, maybe we should consider what the most courageous player at the club is taking for the team.

• I shouldn’t have been playing, as I’ve got a dodgy hamstring. It’s good to help him out in any way possible and give something back

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Could any coach sort out this mess?

With just a few weeks to go to the end of the season, most fans are asking who will be the Head Coach next season. Here's a personal take on some of the candidates:

Ronny Deila

Sorry, but no. Most fans seem to like him but few seem to see any evidence that he can vary his

tactics for the team he is facing, reliably pick the best players, motivate a side or adapt to changing circumstances during the match.

That's quite a collection of shortcomings, which perhaps reflect his lack of top-level experience. It can't go on.

John Collins

Absolutely not. Collins has the air of a self-annointed aristocrat of football. Rumours of him rubbing people up the wrong way seem all too credible because he just exudes smugness. Sunnier climes await to keep that tan topped up.

Neil Lennon

No. Celtic were on the way down when he left, which seemed like a smart move at the time. Now, Neil's coaching career is on a downward trajectory, why should he be expected to make things better? And his “same club” nonsense may have won him friends in the media and the Celtic boardroom but it has lost him some admirers amongst the support. Time to move on, Neil.

David Moyes

Maybe. But would Moyes take on the job without a clear assurance that he would have funds to recruit players of his own choosing? Moyes's stock is not as high as it once was but he could do a good job at Celtic – only if the conditions were right.

Gordon Strachan

In our dreams! Probably the best candidate by far but he knows too much about the machinations of Celtic PLC to walk out on a crack at qualifying for the World Cup with Scotland.

Martin O'Neill

Forget it! This is the man who spent circa £6m each on Chris Sutton, John Hartson and Neil Lennon. He is not going to come back to Celtic under the current strategy.

Roy Keane

Let's hope not! The man punches people who ask for his autograph. Enough said.

Eric Black

Not on your nelly. One of the more bizarre internet rumours. Black has a long history of taking over as caretaker, having been someone's number two and then being let go. There's a reason for that and we don't need to find out precisely what it is from a second stint at Celtic.

Henrik Larsson

Seems like madness. Why sully a near-flawless reputation as a player by appointing him as manager of a club in the eye of a storm. Helsingborgs are currently 12^th in the Allsvenskan and Henrik's win rate with them is around 35%.

Alan Stubbs

A solid season with Hibs but nothing yet to suggest that he is ready to step up to the Head Coach's role.

Mark McGhee

The perennial stage-door Johnny no doubt reckons he has the club connection, coaching experience and lack of scruples to woo Dermot Desmond and is probably pleading with his mate Strachan to put a word in. Gordon should give him two words: “Get tae!” © John Brown

Derek McInnes

When hell freezes over.

Robbie Neilson

Not as bad a candidate as some might think and seems to know the game but he would be a hard sell to the fans.

Mark Warburton

Celtic plc wouldn't weaken the new club they have done more than most to create by wrecking their management structure.

John Hughes

A left-field candidate whose credentials shouldn't get him anywhere near the running but would probably do a decent job for a club with no European ambitions. At least he can coach, organise and motivate.

Brendan Rogers

A named that's bandied around more in hope than expectation but he sort of fits the bill in that he has top-level experience and is currently out of work. Slim chance.

Michael O'Neill

Hotly rumoured at one point and has done well with Northern Ireland but would the board really take on someone who they fans would struggle to accept? They would – the plc damned well would appoint him. Just to piss us off.

Malky Mackay

A name only suggested by a mainstream media pundit to stir things up. He would be a PR disaster and has a reputation for liking to spend on players.

Steve Clarke

One of those guys who is definitely well-respected in the game and knows his stuff but who is also bandied about by those who like to think they are smarter than your average fan. Doesn't feel right.

Steve McLaren

Just the sort of tosser Celtic plc would like to foist on us, accompanied by a puff piece on a well-known blog, telling us how smart a move it is.

Paul Lambert

Is currently with Blackburn Rovers, sitting 18^th in the Championship, having lost six and drawn one of their last 10 matches. This probably makes him the hot favourite.

Owen Coyle

Refused the job before Tony Mowbray, because he saw the conditions he'd be working under. Hard to imagine he'd leave the States to walk into the same conditions, having seen how hard it has been for the last three managers.

Jackie MacNamara

Ha! Just messing with you, Jackie!

Pep Guardiola/Jose Mourinho

Likely to be mentioned around season-ticket renewal time. You never know.

In conclusion, Ronny is on his way out and unless the board changes its policy, we're in big trouble.

Neil Lennon or Malkay Mackay for Celtic? Our survey says...

The power of the Scottish football media is once again manifesting itself in terms of all things Celtic,

yet another reason for depriving the smudged ink brigade publicity.

Of course such a statement always leaves room for the response that, by writing about them, you are fuelling the notoriety that you are advocating denying them. However, the alternative is to write in such obscure terms that very few people know what you're talking about.

So, let's cut to the chase and mention two new “candidates” for the Celtic Head Coach's job – one that our esteemed hacks seem to have forgotten is not actually vacant.

Firstly, we have Keith Jackson touting Neil Lennon for a return, now that he has been mutually consented out of Bolton Wanderers.

Jackson is as much a friend to Celtic as he is of truth, literary style and sartorial elegance. However, his idle speculation that Neil might be on for a second spell as Head Coach is, for some reason, being taken seriously.

Let's be clear. Neil has been a great servant to Celtic, both on and off the field (as well as the balance sheet, Mr Desmond!). He endured abuse and intimidation that no one should ever have to experience, far less because of his association with a football club.

For that reason, his standing rightly remains almost unassailably high; a position that could only be threatened by – say – co-operating with someone from a contemptible rag in order to shoehorn himself back into a job that he left voluntarily. (That's not to say that he has entertained Jackson and I hope he would not).

Let's not forget that Neil left for his own reasons, one being that it was no longer possible to have a team punch above its weight sufficiently to share the same space as a decent European team. It wasn't Neil's fault that the club was already on a downward trajectory before he left but then neither is there any evidence that the circumstances have improved in any way, rendering his return illogical.

I won't try to communicate that type of logic to anyone currently earning their living at the Record.

Then you have the absurd notion of Malky Mackay, one that was only put forward by Hugh Keevins, who matches Jackson in conceited absurdity while adding a splash of thinly-veiled bitterness.

Keevins was his usual attention-seeking self in proposing a candidate who he knew would instantly be savaged, if he was ever appointed, due to controversies around him. He has also faced accusations of wasting transfer cash, something that would immediately exclude him from the position.

Celtic's strategy needs to change – that much is clear to all but the most zealous board apologists. But, until that is done (which might well necessitate the replacement of Peter Lawwell, both in terms of allowing a new approach and regaining lost trust) coaches who have managed “down south” but currently find themselves short of options need not apply.

However, this is simply another illustration that Celtic fans should step up their efforts to smother what is left of the struggling mainstream news titles.

When these stories become widely circulated, their originators are often forgotten allowing malicious, destabilising myth to assume the status of rumour “from those in the know”.

We need a dignified discussion about the potential for our current coaching team – and these are not the types of conversations typically originated by self-promoting scribblers.

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Lovable lazy goal machine Stokes providing all the wrong answers

THE BENCHMARK: Stokes takes a much-needed rest.

Like everything else, it was Ronny Deila's fault.

With a  team struggling for goals up front – that didn't come from Leigh Griffiths – Ronny looked to Nadir Çiftçi, who only marginally failed to live up to his name as the lowest point in the heavens.

Then he signed Carlton Cole – a striker recruited in a move reminiscent of Gordon Strachan's capturing of Dion Dublin. In fairness, Cole's record of eight goals in the previous two seasons eclipsed Dublin's tally of five in the two years prior to signing for the Hoops.

But they were both signed to bring “experience” – AKA a lack of pace – to the forward line and educate younger players from memory on the training ground. It would be unfair to compare Cole unfavourably to Dublin until our current star returns from leave and has had another seven games in which to match Dublin's goal tally of one.

By these standards, our current feint hope, Colin Kazim-Richards, is positively prolific with a whopping 12 goals since 2013, albeit having failed to score at all for approximately 12 months prior to that.

All of which should seem to point inexorably to Anthony Stokes, who had become increasingly frustrated by Ronny's “mystifying” decision to overlook his precocious talent, sometime effort and occasional anti-social behaviour.

It can't be easy being Stokes, balancing being a full-time Irish Republican hero with a part-time career as a professional footballer. Which of us hasn't felt moved to express public condolences for a friend who just happened to be a senior figure in the Real IRA?

Who among us has had to contend with a father barring the queen from his family boozer? Who hasn't seen an Elvis impersonator and wanted to grab him by his sideburns, leaving him all shook up?

So much for empathy – what about the player who, in the past, has rejected an offer to sign for Celtic under Gordon Strachan, withdrawn from an international squad because he was “tired”, been given a serious warning by Neil Lennon and overlooked by Ronny Deila?

It's fair to say that the weekend hasn't been a dream one for Stokesy. Having failed to add to his two championship goals in the League Cup final, it can hardly have cheered him to read Martin O'Neill's comments in the Irish Independent.

"It's important that he's back playing again," said O'Neill, "Anthony won't mind me saying 'Anthony is Anthony' - he's a talented player and I would say possibly (one of the) three laziest players I've ever seen. Lazily talented or talented lazily. I'm never sure which way it goes.

"Stokesey has got ability. He has been with me in a lot of squads before he had the altercation with Elvis."

It will be interesting to see how those fans who claimed to be flummoxed by his exclusion from Celtic squads react to such a frank dressing down from a manager whose stock is still high amongst the majority of supporters.

"Stokesie will not be happy now, I know this. You have ruined my relationship with him. Sorry, I have ruined my relationship with him," O'Neill quipped, like a man not overly perturbed by the potential loss of such mercurial talent.

The words of John Hughes – who, as a player, demonstrated how to make the best possible use of his abilities through hard work, determination and professionalism – must be echoing round the echo chamber that is Stokesy head:

“I then said to him – and I know this myself – 'When you leave Glasgow Celtic the only way is down, trust me son. Trust me. Do me another favour son. Go get yourself as fit as you can, get your head down and let your football do the talking'.”

Celtic's problems up front remain but it can safely be said that “Stokesy has left the building”.
--

Only a record score will save Ronny in Cup Semi Local Derby

With the jitters setting in amongst an increasing number of Ronny Deila's estwhile supporters, the Scottish Cup Semi-Final draw offered a tie that was a potential minefield or a possible hope of redemption.

Little more than 12 months ago, in another semi-final, much was anticipated by a slavering media pack, hopeful that Deila's resurgent Celtic could be derailed by an Ibrox side marshalled by that wily old fox, Kenny McDowall.

The event proved something of a damp squib with the national stadium's surface the nearest thing to a leveller on display, a field more appropriate to the lower reaches of junior football.

On that occasion, the then Championship favourites failed to record a shot on target, something that will surely be a more realistic aim this time around, going strongly in their domestic league, a chance of Petrofac Cup glory and, at the helm, a coach who is the envy of Europe's elite clubs.

Anyone who has listened to Mark Warburton's pronouncements on the finer points of commerce, tactics, advice on refereeing, the science of artificial playing surfaces and football etiquette will realise that Celtic, who have been on shaky form of late, will face a very different prospect to that rag-tag assembly of hoofers, journeymen and cultural icons who last faced the Hoops in the south side of Glasgow.

And yet, such have been the demands placed on Ronny Deila and so profound have been the fears around developments at Celtic Park that, for the first time in more than 125 years, a Celtic manager will almost certainly be expected to deliver a record victory to have any hope of retaining the faith of his most ardent partisans.

Few would envy him on 16th April, facing a team currently 37 points ahead of Morton, who Celtic beat 3-0 to set up the clash, yet being required to match, if not better, that result to remain in a job.

The choice is a stark one – a historic win or you're history, Ronny.--

Tom Boyd – the ambassador's reception is understandably mixed

26^th August 1998. It would be an exaggeration to say that Celtic fans' three months of joy – following nine years of pain – had come crashing to an end. The preceding weeks had been more traumatic than that.

Wim Jansen had walked, throwing as much dirt as he possibly could in the direction of Fergus McCann, Jock Brown and “Brown's man”, Eric Black.

Murdo McLeod had volubly spat the dummy in the same direction after he had failed to be anointed Jansen's successor and a search for a replacement manager – with Gerard Houllier, John Toshack and a host of other “big names” splashed across the sports pages had resulted in the appointment of Dr Jozef Vengloš.

Predictably, the sort of people who could confidently state that Celtic would appoint Artur Jorge, greeted the appointment with derision, labelling it “a farce”, “an embarrassment”, “a shambles”. You name it – they said it of the process through which Lubomir Moravcik would eventually be enticed to the club.

Croatia Zagreb 3-0 Celtic, Champions League

Any residual euphoria or belief that Celtic's troubles were behind them were duly Scotched that night, with an abject performance. It was a display worthy of a protest with a hapless captain allowing Silvio Marić the easiest of opportunities to open the scoring before giving away a penalty to dispel all doubt before half-time.

Bad night for the captain: and Celtic went two goals down

A tough night, which even very good players endure sometimes. You might have expected that captain to apologise to the fans, tell them that the team's performance, as well as his own, had not been good enough.

You might have imagined a strident defence of the manager and a promise to the supporters that this would not be repeated.

But, no, because what we got – to the further delight of the Scottish sports media – was a string of “no comments”.

But that was understandable. After all, the players who had just let down the club so badly were unhappy with the first ever Champions League bonus payment which would have been due to be paid to any Celtic players.

Years of several of the same squad having been party to some humiliating performances by Celtic had apparently been wiped out by one league title that had become so rare that it was deemed to be as precious as a Faberge egg.

The Jimmy Johnstone Faberge Egg

Vengloš was left alone to face a howling, gleeful press pack with the twin weapons of a crushing defeat and an excuse to attack Fergus McCann. Vengloš was as decent a man as you could have wished for: dignified, knowledgeable, experienced and respected in the game.

It was a shameful episode in the history of the club. Vengloš would face a torrid season of cruel attacks including the fiasco of signing a player from that very Zagreb team, Mark Viduka, who promptly got on a plane to Australia and tried to wriggle out of the move.

There were credible stories of players, whose technical abilities didn't match Vengloš's aspirations for the team, actively undermining him.

There has never, to my knowledge, been an accusation that the captain was one of them but I struggle to recall any robust defences of Vengloš, the like of which Scott Brown has laudably offered for Ronny Deila.

Oh, and the captain? He went on to be a “legend” by the name of Tom Boyd.

Boyd was, overall, an excellent player for Celtic – let's be absolutely clear about that. And, more, he has often been one of the few ex-players to challenge the negative press narrative surrounding all things Celtic.

Arriving two years before McCann, Boyd's career covered the ridiculous through to the sublime when Larsson, Sutton and Moravcik were running fine teams ragged and taunting city rivals.

But our newly-appointed club ambassador seems to look back on those days through a curiously selective lens, when using them for perspective against which to judge current “hysteria”.

“You only have to go back to the days when I first came to this football club and we couldn’t even finish in second place. We don’t have a divine right to win every game; to win every league.”

The latter comment is one of many straw-man arguments put forward by those who brook no criticism. I have yet to hear any fan claiming a “divine right” to win – only a constant ambition to do so.

Boyd seems to forget that it was sack-the-board “hysteria” that finally drove out a self-serving and incompetent board of directors and contributed to him winning the many honours he enjoyed at Celtic.

“Criticism doesn’t help out on the pitch. Players start to hide and don’t show for the ball. The most important thing is that the players and management get encouragement and unity.”

I'm sure I recall Billy McNeill making similar pleas and the anguish caused to a true Celtic great, who could also see that change was needed at the club, even while the anger of the fans was creating an often-toxic atmosphere in the ground, which could only have affected the players.

“Maybe defensively, Celtic haven’t been as good but there are a number of reasons for that. Last season, there was a settled defence with Virgil van Dijk and Jason Denayer,” Boyd goes on as if the fans don't know that we cashed in on one defender, knowing that the other wasn't our player.

That's a defence of Ronny Deila but not of the management of the club. And this is part of the issue that so many fans have with the comments from Boyd, a man of whom there was scarcely a negative word said before his latest intervention.

Celtic seem to be determined to go to war with a growing section of the club's fans, leaving them casualties in pursuit of a corporate plan. In doing so, there is room for suspicion that they are seeking allies from amongst the club's most respected servants to create division, despite Boyd's ironic call for unity.

Celtic fans don't need the club to tell us who our ambassadors are. We have always known – they have earned our trust sufficiently for us to believe they speak for the good of the club as a whole, 

starting with the fans and the team; not simply representing the executive view that they are "really spoiling us".

McNeill, Auld, McGrain, Burns, Aitken, McStay, Larsson, Moravcik and, yes, even Strachan – all ambassadors without having needed a title. In fact, the club ought not to think that by turning an accolade into a position of official authority, they can take ownership of it as a tool for the marketing and communications departments.

If the ambassadors get some sort of payment or benefit, good luck to them. If that impinges on their ability to speak out when things are wrong, they risk becoming people whose words the fans will view with increasing distrust.

Peter Lawwell: Is he really spoiling us?

Some ex-players, such as Sutton, Walker, McCleod and Provan are have had their reputations irreparably tarnished for unfairly abusing the club.

Other's reputations may suffer the same fate if they take potshots at fans who care about the club, all to please people who appear to be letting us down with a “plan” that is highly suspect.

“People were craving competition in Scottish football. Do people really want that? If the minute you get a close competition you then say, ‘crisis’ for a club sitting at the top of the league, do you really want the competition?”

The implied accusation of hypocrisy amongst the “lifeblood of the game” – the fans – should be duly noted.

Tom, there are two ways to achieve competition – encourage a raising of general standards or let the best team deteriorate – and it is insulting to the intelligence of fans to suggest that they cannot distinguish between the two or see which of the two options is currently in effect.

--

Remember our philosophy: EK-ing out a win is not good enough

"We did it by playing football; pure, beautiful, inventive football. There was not a negative thought in our heads."

Paul McStay: Beautiful football exponent

Firstly, we should get our priorities right. This is an example of tautology. Tautology is, as every first-year philosophy undergraduate knows, effectively, saying one thing that becomes obsolete because it is a condition without which the fact could not exist.

“Three different people said so”. Tautology. Could three of the same person have said so?

“Begging the question” is different. The popular meaning of begging the question is to make it obvious that a question should be asked.

“Stokes chose to join a championship side when there were Premiership clubs interested, which begs the question: does he have any ambition?”

This would prompt apoplexy in any common-or-garden philosophy academic. Amid Glasgow Uni's cloistered halls, it wouldn't even warrant a “Byres-Road-Level” put-down (intended to denote that any couple of arseholes trying to sound clever by audibly debating in Kelvinside accents could come up with such reasoning).

From this, we can deduce that few Scottish football journalists are philosophy graduates.

“Celtic should have beaten East Kilbride more comfortably because a Scottish Premiership side should be considerably better than a Lowland League team” – this is “begging the question” in a way to attract criticism from Byers-Road-Level first-year philosophy undergraduate arseholes.

Fortunately, and it's one of our few current comforts, Celtic fans need not yet resort to metaphysics in order to have our club understood. We exist.

Sumus, we might say as if we hadn't had to use Google Translate to think of a grammatical way to say, “We are”, in a slapstick homage to cogito ergo sum. We think but, luckily, we also are. We do not have to ask judges to imagine our existence in ethereal terms involving butterflies in the stomach.

Great! We still exist!

And, first-things-first, we should praise East Kilbride, who also exist and have done for six years, for their performance against Celtic.

They are many years younger than us and, therefore, perhaps we might expect their youth to offer a telling advantage. A six-year-old may not have learned much about football but you would expect him or her to outlast your average centenarian.

But I am more generous than that. I think East Kilbride did rather well in their contribution to a match in which they looked like a relegation-battling Championship side again a promotion-chasing Hibs.

As a fan, afflicted with “Big Club Syndrome”, I think I must offer generosity in such a way as to appear gracious to the plucky club whose players and coaching staff indisputably performed admirably against my “big club”, which has all the hallmarks of one considering its pension and a smaller homestead, without so many stairs to climb, now that the kids have flown the coop.

And I do respect and admire East Kilbride and their personnel. Their (presumably sore) heads will be held high this week. They'll tell their kids and grandkids about the time they held their own against Celtic, who beat them with two scrambled goals, one of which could have been disallowed for handball, had the fates been on their side.

And yet I am caught between superlatives, comparatives and expletives.

Celtic are – we suspect and hope – the best team in Scotland.
Celtic were, marginally better than East Kilbride.
Celtic now consistently provoke the club's most passionate followers to turning the air a colour that they would normally prefer not to think about.

Celtic should be disappointed because we should have done better – tautology.

And yet when Leigh Griffiths was asked if he should be disappointed, despite the win, he protested. Let's be clear, Leigh is not one of our problem players. He is one of our must-haves.

And yet our best player of the season's comments surely reflect something of the philosophy at the club.

“It would have been hard if we’d lost today so it was a crucial victory but I was comfortable during the 90 minutes,” said the manager.

Is there a commitment to excellence at Celtic? If so, where is it manifest? Is there any ambition?

To this observer, a complacent group of players felt that they had to do “just enough” to overcome non-league opposition – a view supported by comments from players and management.

How many fans share that opinion?

“A club like no other,” said the branding – as if a slogan aping “mes que un club” would somehow suggest comparisons between Celtic and Barcelona. “Because Celtic” is, thankfully, now rarely mentioned.

It appears that the coaching and playing staff have no idea about what is expected of Celtic.

Is that the result of indoctrination by people with more “pragmatic” aims, instead pursuing projects?

What about the club's philosophy?--

A (respectful) open letter to Ronny Deila

Dear Ronny,

This isn't easy for me to write. Why? Because I like you.

Not only that – I respect and admire you. I like the way you conduct yourself. You demonstrate a dignity that is all too rare in football.

You display admirable self-confidence without coming across as arrogant. You seem like a man who has a strong sense of values; who treats people with respect.

And more – you are clearly intelligent. When I watched you deliver that lecture in Norwegian about developing people, I was hugely impressed.  For the record, I also think your are good at your job.

The trouble is, as one of your supporters, I'm experiencing gnawing doubts about your ability to do your job at my club at this time.

People talk about a football club being “in the blood”. And I understand that. But that could suggest that supporting a club can be a passive, programmed experience.

For me, it's much more than that. Celtic is a part of my identity. I'm a reasonably well-educated guy with what I believe to be an above-average level of intelligence. And yet I think about Celtic every day, many times a day and have done for as long as I can remember.

If I am lucky enough to end my life in the comfort of my bed, I will be thinking about Celtic that day.

If I'm ever given that dreaded news, I'll be wondering what will happen to Celtic after I'm gone.

What happens at Celtic matters to me profoundly. It matters where the club is going, how we play, if we are meeting the standards we should, if our values are being upheld and, also, how we treat people.

When I meet with people, we talk about weighty matters and those that cause us to experience high emotion. Life, politics and Celtic. We flit from one to the other seamlessly.

For my part, I want our club and fans to treat you well but I also need something from you. I need to believe that you can do the job we require.

And I hope you will think of yourself, too. I'm not calling for your head. I don't have any pet candidate who I would like to get the job.

David Moyes? Sure he could be good for the club if the conditions were right.

Neil Lennon? He gave us everything he had but he left for a reason and I see no evidence that that has changed.

Alan Stubbs? Paul Hartley? Some day, maybe, but several years from now.

Owen Coyle, Ryan Giggs, Michael O'Neill? No, no and no again.

And part of the reason why I wouldn't want even David Moyes is that I don't believe the conditions at the club are conducive to anyone taking the team forward.

I don't trust Dermot Desmond. I have read too much about his past business dealings to have any confidence in him and his strategy for Celtic.

Desmond, apart from anything else, buys low and sells high, which is great for business but soul-destroying for football fans. Desmond, I suspect, wants to manage Celtic “efficiently” (which is political-speak for frugally) and jettison the club if circumstances allow him to make a massive return on his investment. He did something like that with City of London Airport.

Planes take off and land, hopefully with a monotonous safety that becomes mundane. We do not need exciting flights.

But, to apply that wait-and-build-value in football requires patience and a disregard for how the club performs in any area not immediately recorded on the balance sheet.

I do not trust Peter Lawwell's stewardship of the club. I believe he is competent, professional and utterly disinterested in Plebeian concerns such as watching a team fans can be proud of.

I hear people saying that he is just following Desmond's orders but that's not how a Chief Executive works. A Chief Executive devises and implements a strategy to achieve the aims of the Board of Directors. How he does it is largely up to him and he stands or falls by his decisions.

If that is not true, I will offer to take his job “following orders” for one-twentieth of his £1,000,000 per year take-home pay. Yes, I'm that easily-bought.

I now have no faith in John Parks. I remember when it was supposed to be a real coup to have landed him from Hibs.

There was a scare story that we might lose him – the man who found Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Garry O'Connor and Derek Riordan, apparently.

But it seems to me that our roving international scout has been taking a scatter-gun approach to player recruitment.

Frankly, most of the players we sign from outside the UK are not very good but let's not be accused of racism – neither are a lot of the players from the British Isles. We appear to be scouring the globe, mining shovelfuls of coal in the hope of coming across a saleable diamond.

Exciting for Desmond, spinning the wheel of fortune until the arrow lands on the jackpot, but tedious for the fans watching movement without purpose.

And, now, the Celtic men. Ronny, I don't rate your coaching staff. Like many Celtic fans, I feel an almost protective instinct towards John Kennedy that would be pretty ironic to anyone who had seen the young man at full power before a Romanian thug named Ioan Ganea ruined his career through sheer malice.

John should be looking at the end of his playing career right now and I badly want him to be a success but there's the rub – he's “defensive coach” and the defence is absolutely, utterly, abysmal. You must have seen that, too, right?

So, either John is responsible and just not very good at his job or you are to blame for the relentless screw-ups that have scuppered most of our ambitions for the past season-and-a-bit. But, Ronny, if you are in charge of your coaching staff, you are also responsible for their performance. And that alludes to one of the big questions. Is John just carrying out your instructions or are you entrusting him with teaching the defenders how to defend?

Looking after our own is laudable but we don't owe people a living at the expense of the team. If John is responsible for giving us a defence that can defend, I'm sorry to say that he has to go. Could you sack him if you wanted to?

Would you be allowed that authority? And, if John is not to blame, perhaps you could explain why, as Head Coach, you have disregarded that simple wisdom that the first thing you have to do is stop losing goals.

87 minutes of work to create six scoring opportunities and two goals can be undone in three minutes if your team can't defend. It's like slogging your guts out to make money that you stuff into pockets with holes in them. You must know this.

 I also have my doubts about John Collins. Now, let's get this straight – I watched him play for Celtic from the Jungle. He was damned good at what he did. Skill, movement, passing, always with an eye for goal.

He had his own little tackling technique, sliding in and trapping the ball between his legs so he could jump to his feet in possession when many other players were content to just knock it away from the player who had been on the ball.

I was there – in what we used to call the “Rangers” end (named after a defunct club that once challenged us strongly) when Celtic overturned a 2-0 deficit against Cologne.

You should have seen Collins that night – magnificent, imperious – choose your own adjective. We thrashed them and he was the best player on show.

You should have felt the atmosphere that night, and witnessed the goal he scored to make it 3-0. My God, he could play.

When he left us, it left a sour taste because we were really stiffed over the move that made John a very wealthy man. The Bosman ruling covered employment in the European Union but he went to the tax haven of Monaco, a non-EU member, enjoying the full benefits of the free transfer as if UEFA and Europe were one and the same.

It hurt us badly because, if we were going to lose the player, we needed some transfer cash to replace him. But I – more-or-less – forgave him because there were also rumours that had Rangers had tried to gazump his move from Hibs to Celtic and he would have earned far more money there. So much for “full disclosure”.

What is he bringing to Celtic? I have heard many great things about his knowledge of football and coaching. I would like to see the results of this at Celtic. So, I would ask again – what is John Collins contributing and, if the answer is not clear, could you sack him if you wanted to?

Would two Norwegian coaches help you to realise your vision?

 Ronny, in that Norwegian presentation I mentioned earlier, you talked of a time when things had started to go wrong with your team in Norway.

Your response impressed me. You asked the players and were disappointed with their answer.

Then you asked someone else – an agent, I believe – and he gave a similar answer. And you were open-minded to the possibility that you might have been wrong. That's a fantastic quality to have.

Do you have a similar response to what is going wrong at Celtic?

I'm only one fan and I speak only for myself. But, as a randomly-chosen sample fan, I need to know that you can see how to make this better.

I want Celtic to be Scottish champions again. I believe that we will win the league under you. If the defence of the title starts to crumble, I WILL be calling for your replacement.

But, as one fan, I need something from you. I need to see that you can put a team on the field that can defend as well as attack, that doesn't overly rely on Leigh Griffiths for goals, that can keep 11 men on the park and that doesn't crumble when tough questions are asked.

And here is my proposition to you – which should benefit everyone.

Between now and the end of May, please show that, having learned from past mistakes, you are the guy to lead us into your third European campaign, confident that you can take us to the Champions League as contenders for second-place in the group, not grateful to be in the Europa League because we fear what might have happened against a higher standard of opposition.

I think that's a reasonable request.

Win us the League and use the next four months or so to show us that you can take us forward.

And I believe you should make whatever tough decisions are necessary to achieve that. Read about Jock Stein giving Bobby Murdoch – who he described as the best footballer he ever managed – to Jack Charlton at Middlesbrough. Or replacing Tommy Gemell with David Hay for the 1969 League Cup final.

Tough decisions that hurt people who deserved better. But tough decisions have to be made sometimes.

If we win, but without answering the questions about how you put a decent team on the pitch, I would urge you to resign from a position of strength and with your reputation intact.

You are not to blame for everything that is wrong with Celtic. Most of us know that you didn't create the mess masquerading as Celtic, treating the fans as fools.

And, sadly, I doubt that anyone replacing you will make things much better. But we need a manager who can show us that he can deliver a team capable of competing in the way that we should. If you are that man, please prove it.

If you are not the man (yet), then it would suit all of us if you took what you had learned from managing in a high-pressure job and moved forward with your career. As a Celtic fan, I don't want to see another European campaign like the last two.

And I don't want you to experience how it will feel if we are humiliated again. It won't be pretty to watch. And I could even say that it's not you; it's us.

I hope you do turn it around and I believe you have it in you. One more thing – if you are Celtic manager next season, don't talk about trebles.

Really – no one at the club told you that? --

Stokes lack of ambition befuddles Matt Lindsay

Befuddled: Blame Stokesy

In a world of austerity and belt-tightening, many in Britain are staring at uncertain times.

A cruel Tory government is launching a relentless attack on the poor and vulnerable, with the bedroom tax and hacking cuts to support services bringing misery to many.

But there's always someone worse off, so they say, and at present that someone appears to be Matt Lindsay.

Matt's a curious chap in that his writing is often surprisingly upbeat. Vying in healthy competition with his close colleague, Chris Jack, he has had a laudable tendency towards (royal) Blue Sky thinking, admittedly mostly when predicting halcyon days at Ibrox. (Giving succour to the suckers, you might say).

But in recent days Matt seems to have been turning lemonade back into lemons – and, not for the first time, Anthony Stokes is prompting the disharmony.

Stokesy, it seems could “start a fight in an empty hoose” but he has exceeded all previous expectations by creating conflict in the inner sanctuary of Matt's comfortably-furnished mind.

A mere fortnight ago, he was on fine form, lauding Mark Warburton's capture of two players from Accrington Stanley and mentioning a whole clutch of Celtic failures to boot.

This was Matt in his pomp. Sycophants have come and gone, tilting for his crown but Matt shows a deftness in his lionising of the club currently calling itself The Rangers, urging those with a less nuanced appreciation of the game to recognise the unique qualities of lower-division football.

Stokes:All mouth - no ambition

But in a matter of days, the bachal that is Stokes and Ronny Deila somehow contrived to upset the cart leaving Matt floundering under a deluge of them apples that he clearly doesn't like at all.

On Friday, he was citing Ronny's decision to loan Stokes to Hibs (after agreeing terms with at least two other clubs) as causing “Rangers concerns”, noting “the striker could help to prevent Rangers from winning promotion to the Premiership”.

“The switch has been queried by many in Scottish football,” he wrote without naming anyone who had queried the move outside his own swivel chair, “because Hibs are currently vying with Rangers, who are just five points clear in the second tier table with 16 games remaining, for a place in the top flight.”

Scurrilous stuff and the fact that other clubs should be allowed to strengthen their squads to challenge for the Championship title, is indeed cause for concern.

By today, Matt had found a new one of his not insubstantial broadsides to deliver. The fact that Stokes chose his former club suggests to Matt that Ronny: “had good reason to harbour misgivings” about Stokes.

“The fact the 27-year-old decided to go to a lower league club which is situated within a short commute of his West Lothian home leaves him open to accusations that he lacks ambition and a desire to resurrect his career,” Matt thwacked, apparently forgetting that Championship football is where its at and where the UK's most prolific goalscorer-cum-penalty-taker has his stamping ground.

“Is O’Neill going to be bowled over if he scores against Alloa or Dumbarton?” Matt asked, seeming to have forgotten that victories over such clubs have appeared to have got Matt very excited indeed in recent memory.

In questioning the ambition of a player choosing the Championship Matt sails dangerously close to the rocky waters of denigrating players at other lower-division teams.

Matt concluded that success or failure for Stokes would be disastrous for Deila: “But he is in a no-win situation here. If Stokes does shine at Hibs – and he started his time there in an encouraging fashion at the weekend when he came off the bench and scored in a 3-1 victory over St Mirren at Easter Road – it will give ammunition to those who maintained he should have been featuring all along at Celtic.”

But, something about the flimsiness of that barb seemed to suggest that our esteemed sportswriter had lost heart.

It is difficult to see how this can end well for Matt. Perhaps Michael O'Halloran will yet leave St Johnstone to sign for a Championship club and that might cheer him.

But, of course, much will depend on O'Halloran's ambition.

--