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.
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? |
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.
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