Be careful what you wish for

There are many ways of exiting European football in a given season and I’ve seen Celtic leave the stage in many of them. There were heroic failures such as losing a penalty shoot out to Inter Milan or giving their all in Seville. There are displays which leave you shaking your head and realising that a once great European side has declined dramatically. We saw that in the 1990s when a moderate side such as Neuchatel Xamax hammered a poor Celtic side 5-1. There are those games filled with injustice which leave you angry such as the assorted thugs and conmen of Atletico Madrid or Rapid Vienna who cheated their way through the tie as UEFA looked the other way. Then there are those ties you lose against sides which you know you are superior to but allow costly errors to kill your hopes.

We had high hopes in Europe this season. Not that we thought for a moment that we’d win the Europa League but we did expect perhaps to get through at least one more round and perhaps take on one of the big boys. After the heroics in Rome where we beat a very decent Lazio side, losing in the manner Celtic did to Copenhagen was a bitter pill to swallow. To see Jozo Simunovic, a player of considerable experience, fluff his lines in the manner Efe Ambrose did against Juventus a few years back reminded us yet again how fatal these errors are in a Europe. There are few easy teams in Europe these days and if you make elementary blunders then you will be punished. It had to end at some point but I’d far rather if my team was undone by a piece of brilliance by the opposition than by the free gifts Celtic handed out on Thursday.

Much discussion among Celts focused on this as another wasted opportunity. We lost to Copenhagen but it was a self inflicted defeat brought about by poor performances and individual errors. Certain players weren’t 100% fit and others looked uncomfortable in the roles they were asked to take on. In the wake of a defeat there is always a lot of soul searching about what could have been done differently. Of course the tactical geniuses out there all seemed to be busy driving taxis, cutting hair or laying out their formations on Twitter but It all comes down to players in the end; tactics help as do formations but if players make basic errors or don’t turn up on the night then all the planning in the world will be undone. 

One bright note though is that this defeat stung a little because it was unexpected. This wasn’t the 90s when you showed up in hope rather than expectation on European nights. This was a Celtic team who strolled a group containing Lazio, Cluj and Rennes. Indeed the high flying Serie A side were beaten home and away on nights we all enjoyed thoroughly. The fact we have higher expectations for the team in Europe than was the case is a positive and leads to the sort of anguish we saw on a Thursday when it went wrong. We notice the defending errors which lead to goals more than the chancers strikers pass up so naturally the defence was dragged over the coals but it’s a team game. We win as a team, we lose as a team, we look to improve as a team and we never stop giving our all. 

Of course there were those who scoffed at Celtic’s misfortune in Europe but sometimes they need to be careful what the wish for as this now frees up Celtic to focus totally on the SPFL which they will do with steely determination. The prospect on nine in a row is tantalisingly close and in a country where history and bragging rights are all that will hurt them despite their empty talk of it not counting as they weren’t in the league for some of the titles. How ironic it is that since they joined the league in 2016 with bold claims of ‘coming for you’ and ‘going for 55’ that Celtic have won every single trophy competed for and handed out some chastening footballing lessons along the way. 

For Celtic the path ahead is clear; focus on each remaining game this season as if it were a cup final and deliver the title. The cup would be a bonus too but the title is the priority as it has been since we kicked off last August. If that can be assured we should pull out all the stops to get key players such as Edouard to stay for at least one more season. They should of course also look to add one or two quality players to the squad too for what will be an enormous season next year. 

The hand of history is on our shoulders and those running Celtic should do everything they possibly can to see that we reach our fabled goal. We have never been in a better position to deliver what our support craves so much 

Yes, Thursday hurt that’s only natural but we see the big picture and we know the glittering prizes which are still within our grasp. Our European exit will be a distant memory if we see the league flag flying once more over Paradise.

Allez Les Verts

When I was a schoolboy, I made my way to Hampden Park with a couple of pals to watch Bayern Munich scrape past a very talented St Etienne team to win the European cup.There was no doubt that we were backing the a French side and it was not just because they wore green:they had also dumped Rangers out of Europe that season too. There seemed to be a lot of Celtic fans at that game, many sporting their club scarves as they backed the French side. ‘Allez les verts’ was the chant of the evening as we watched a very unlucky French side lose to the typically efficient Germans. As kids it was natural to back the team who had bested your greatest rivals and in those days the rivalry between Celtic and Rangers was every bit as fierce as it is today.

There was a good feeling around Glasgow this week after both the city’s major clubs got decent results in the Europa League. Celtic have progressed in their play and results so much that a 1-1 draw in Copenhagen was considered disappointing by some. In that first half Celtic could easily have scored two or three more goals and put the tie beyond the home site.  meanwhile in Glasgow, Rangers came from two goals behind to beat a very talented Braga team. It remains to be seen how both  teams get on in the second leg but I fancy Celtic to progress In front of their own fans in a weeks time. Rangers are in with a fighting chance when they go to Portugal but I saw enough of the Portuguese team to suggest that the Ibrox club will have a real job on their hands to qualify.

There was some debate among supporters of both clubs about whether they were happier if their greatest rivals lost or whether it was more important that the Scottish coefficient continues to rise thus making it possible for a second Scottish club to compete in the Champions League qualifiers in the next couple of years. For some, the idea of wishing their greatest rivals well in Europe is anathema. Regardless of what it does to the Scottish game’s coefficient some fans will never wish their rivals anything other than defeat. One online debate which I suspect may be typical of a good number of supporters of both clubs contained the following comments...

‘The coefficient mob never stop do they? I want Rangers to be buried again and humiliated at every turn.’

‘I want them pumped every time they step onto the field.’

‘Europa League or Ramsdens cup, I want them beat.’

A few clarion voices argued that a better coefficient for Scotland would mean fewer qualifying rounds for Celtic and up to 4 more weeks of rest before the games begin. You can be sure the board would make up for revenue lost from these early rounds by organising glamour friendliest or taking part in summer tournaments.  Scotland has climbed the coefficient table to reach 14th spot which is a reasonable performance given that in 2013 they were 23rd. They now sit a fraction behind Denmark and should Celtic eliminate Copenhagen next week will rise to 13th place meaning that in the season after next the champions of Scotland will go directly into the last qualifying game for the Champions league and avoid three potentially tricky earlier rounds. 

Of course after years of the hoops carrying the can alone in Europe, we now see both Celtic and Rangers garnering the coefficient points this season as Aberdeen and Kilmarnock once more posted disappointing results. Killie especially had a calamity losing to Welsh part timers after winning the away leg. Scottish football won’t be taken seriously if results like that continue but overall there is a sense that the game here is on the rise again after some desperate years in the wilderness. It does rely on its bigger clubs to try and restore the battered European reputation of the SPFL but that’s the case in most small countries. 

There is a school of thought that with the historic league winning run Celtic are on some hoops fans would put Europe second as the mythical ‘Ten’ comes tantalisingly closer. Some want Rangers to stay in Europe in order to stretch their squad and divide their focus as this season’s title race nears its climax. Celtic has a bigger squad and could most likely deal with any injuries and suspensions more easily. For others the dislike is so strong that they want the Ibrox club to lose in every game they play regardless of the competition. It’s a complex picture in the tribal world of Scottish football and opinions will vary. 

There is no doubt that Rangers appalling performances in the domestic game since the new club rose to join the SPFL couldn’t continue forever given the budget they have at their disposal. They may not be world beaters but they are an improved team under Gerrard and this has pushed Celtic to remarkable levels of consistency. Competition drives up standards and that has always been the case and is not to be feared. Is it just possible that Celtic’s improved displays in Europe this season are linked to being pushed harder domestically than was the case in recent times? 

Celtic has a good squad and a robust, healthy club to back it up when necessary. The rise of Scotland in the UEFA coefficient table may make qualification for the a Champions League a little less stressful but of course it also means that Rangers too will get a crack at that tournament in a couple of years. The financial rewards of qualification are huge for Scottish clubs and this can surely only be good for the game here? 

Domestically Celtic still look dominant and their young team is maturing well. The cream will always rise to the top and at the moment that cream is coloured green and white. Long may that continue.

Guns for hire

There was a time when the average football fan got all his news about his club from daily newspapers and some would even hang around the newsagents on a Saturday night to buy a ‘pink’ Times and read all about the game they had watched that afternoon. We generally believe the stories we read and had a fair degree of trust in the reporters to call things fairly. Looking back there were reporters who showed a little bias and others who bravely took on the tough questions of the day. Ian Archer was one I admired as he had the courage to call out Rangers on their sectarian signing policy while most of his colleagues kept their heads down and ignored the elephant in the room. He famously said in the Herald in 1976...

‘This has to be said about Rangers, as a Scottish Football club they are a permanent embarrassment and an occasional disgrace. This country would be a better place if Rangers did not exist.’

Such reporting was rare then as journalists tended to stick to writing about the football and often ignored the wider societal context. 

The rise of the internet and the proliferation of football related websites has coincided with the decline in readership of the traditional printed media. For instance Scotland’s most popular tabloid, The Daily Record, has seen sales slump from around 450,000 copies per day in 2004 to around 100,000 today. This is reflected in the sales of other papers as technology offers readers much more choice.

A much more savvy reading public means that most of us no longer rely solely on the printed press to inform us of the goings on in Scottish football. The internet may have many flaws but it has led to a more democratic scrutiny of stories; no sooner is a story reported in the media than it is dissected by a variety of individuals and websites to check its accuracy. Some of these sites are woefully biased in their approach but others demonstrate some intelligence and will rip a story apart if it is full of holes. This was most noticeable recently when Alfredo Morelos’ now infamous interview with Sky TV raised the hackles of some online who noticed immediately that the subtitles were not entirely accurate. You don’t need a degree in Spanish to notice Morelos didn’t use the word ‘Celtic’ in a sentence which supposedly said ‘Celtic’ fans racially abused him. Once the alarm bells were ringing, folk who actually did speak Spanish got involved and Sky were made to look very foolish indeed. Of course anyone can make a mistake but a broadcaster the size of Sky should surely be able to afford a translator to check the accuracy of subtitles and it seems negligent that they didn’t.

All of this came on top of the ongoing and growing distrust of the sporting media by many in Scotland and has made for sorry state of affairs. There was a time when we were blessed by some fine writers who wrote about Scottish football with eloquence and authority. Those of us who recall greats like Hugh McIlvanney could be treated to writing which was almost poetic in its form and trustworthy in its content. Consider this excerpt from his report on Celtic’s triumph in Lisbon in 1967...

‘Gemmell has the same aggressive pride, the same contempt for any thought of defeat, that emanates from Auld. Before the game Auld cut short a discussion about the possible ill-effects of the heat and the firm ground with a blunt declaration that they would lick the Italians in any conditions. When he had been rescued from the delirious crowd and was walking back to the dressing rooms after Celtic had overcome all the bad breaks to vindicate his confidence Auld – naked to the waist except for an Inter shirt knotted round his neck like a scarf – suddenly stopped in his tracks and shouted to Ronnie Simpson, who was walking ahead: ‘Hey, Ronnie Simpson, what are we? What are we, son?" He stood there sweating, showing his white teeth between parched lips flecked with saliva. Then he answered his own question with a belligerent roar. "We're the greatest. That's what we are. The greatest." Simpson came running back and they embraced for a full minute.’

I don’t expect writing of that quality from the bulk of today’s Journalists, McIlvanney was after all the leading sports writer of his generation, but I do expect integrity and a standard of journalism that goes beyond regurgitating press releases and facilitating planted stories from clubs or other vested interests. They did this in return for access to players, stories and other crumbs off the table of the likes of David Murray. The so called ‘succulent lamb’ style of reporting that some of our journalists engaged in was in effect a negation of the core principles of their occupation. They can’t all be Woodward and Bernstein but Journalism is surely about seeking out facts and expressing an honestly held opinion about them untainted by fear or favour? Alas some were fed stories on the understanding that they weren’t too critical of certain individuals and a certain club. Thus the puff pieces about hover pitches, Superstars arriving, £800m deals and a Vegas like Casino in Govan found their way onto our national newspapers. It appeared that some thought ‘ethics’ was a county in south east England.

A lack of serious scrutiny of Rangers finances in the early years of the new century meant that when the collapse came few were prepared for it. A few voices in the wilderness warned them that a Scottish club carrying over £80m of debt was unsustainable but the majority accepted Sir David Murray’s assurances that all was well. After all he was a financial whiz kid wasn’t he?  I recall one Journalist saying at the time that matters of high finance were ‘above my pay grade.’ Was it too much to seek out someone who did know about such things and actually inform the public about what was going on? Isn’t that what good journalists do?  The financial crash of 2008 was enough of a financial earthquake to rock the foundations and in the end bring the big house crashing down. 

By 2012 the ship had sunk and the metaphorical lifeboats had carried off the guilty and their loot leaving the 276 creditors to the sharks. They, above all, were the victims in all of this. Individuals, small businesses, the Ambulance service, the tax authorities and many others were left out of pocket as those who had sought to enrich themselves walked away. As the media initially lamented the staggering fact that Rangers had been liquidated and had gone out of business there was a brief period of huge uncertainty. Would a Phoenix club arise as had happened with Airdrie and Parma?  What would it be like and which division would it play in? Alas the new club when it was brought to birth was guided by men who ignored the historical opportunity to start afresh free from the baggage of bigotry which weighed down the old club. They pandered to the old shibboleths and began the mythology that Rangers had somehow survived liquidation. Charles Green actually used the term ‘no surrender’ in a press interview and fed the myth that other clubs and their fans had ‘kicked Rangers when they were down.’ This led to a festering resentment among some Rangers fans as they followed the new club through the lower leagues. We then saw some pathetic revisionism in the press which not only defied logic and history but also credulity. 

The role of the media in this shambles was an important one. Roy Greenslade writing in 2013 got it right when he said...

‘One single, simple fact emerges from all this - Rangers football club got into trouble a long time ago and the mainstream media, whether by commission or omission, failed to do its job. Rather than hold the people in charge to account, it acted as a spin-doctor.’

A prime example of this was Jim Traynor’s about turn in the period of Rangers demise. Writing in the Daily Record in the summer of 2012 he said...

‘They’ll slip into liquidation within the next couple of weeks with a new company emerging but 140 years of history, triumph and tears, will have ended. No matter how Charles Green attempts to dress it up, a newco equals a new club. When the CVA was thrown out Rangers as we know them died.  They were closed and a newco must start from scratch.’

                                                           Jim Traynor, Daily Record 13th June 2012

Within a year he was employed by Rangers as their head of Public Relations and was writing that Rangers weren’t a new club and anyone who said they were must be mentally challenged or motivated by ‘sinister’ feelings. These about turns remind us that some so called Journalists are simply guns for hire, who will write whatever their paymasters desire. Traynor also demonstrated a propensity for censorship when he interrupted a press conference by Mark Warburton when a reporter asked about the position of Joey Barton. As a clearly embarrassed Warburton looked on Traynor bullied reporters into dropping that line of questioning-when they should should have got up en masse and walked out rather than be told what questions they can ask. In trying to control the message in this way Traynor demonstrates that he wants control over what the fans are fed. The Warburton press conference and the rewriting of history over the demise of Rangers shows contempt for ordinary football fans who are intelligent enough to discern propaganda when they see it. 

His most recent statement on behalf of Rangers was an almost gleeful message about a 12 year old boy who has been spoken to by Police about alleged racist abuse of Alfredo Morelos. The whole message is so inappropriate given that it is an official club statement. Traynor’s fingerprints were spotted on the rambling diatribe by reporters who know his style. Graham Spiers commented acerbically...

‘How desperate must Jim Traynor be to produce this wafting resentment? On the fate of a 12 year old boy? And, believe me, it is Jim, from the tortured syntax and sheer ineptitude with punctuation.’

It remains sad that our sporting press has reached the point where they are just another voice amid the myriad swirling around our technological society. Once they spoke with some authority on our national game but now for many they have all the authority of a pub loudmouth spouting about his team. There are some honourable exceptions of course but once fans start doubting what you say it is difficult to convince them to take you at your word on important issues.

The decline in sales and influence of our printed press seems assured and while technological changes have played a role in this, the quality of some of the journalism has only hastened it. 

Journalism remains a noble profession when it is done with integrity and honesty, sadly if often bears more resemblance to the profession some call the world’s oldest.

Thirty pieces of silver

Thirty pieces of silver

A Rangers supporting acquaintance said to me this week, ‘I suppose you’ll be buying Craig Whyte’s new book, all you Tims are obsessed with Rangers.’ I told him I wouldn’t as it was unlikely to contain anything we don’t already know and if it did it would be all over the tabloids anyway. He did have something of a point though as some Celtic websites seem to talk more about Rangers than their own club at times. That being said, the demise of Rangers in 2012 and the inept handling of the whole saga by the Scottish footballing authorities has given Celtic supporters plenty to talk about.

The actions of the media during and after the event make for interesting reading too. They initially reported fairly accurately on what liquidation actually meant for Rangers and the implications for the new entity attempting to join the league. The febrile summer of 2012 saw all sorts of machinations from the SFA and SPL to shoehorn Rangers into the top league but individual clubs saw their fans in open revolt about this prospect. There were threats of boycott and not renewing season tickets if this came to pass and the basic unfairness of a club going bankrupt in the manner Rangers did and expecting the Phoenix club to be admitted at the top of the game hit home. There was great suspicion from Celtic fans that the footballing authorities were bending over backwards to accommodate a new club which succeeded one which had basically cheated. The idea that the SFA were up to something underhanded was bolstered when  the late Turnbull Hutton, Chairman of Raith Rovers at the time  stood on the steps of Hampden and said...

We are being bullied, railroaded and lied to. We are being lied to by the Scottish FA and the SPL. We are being threatened and bullied. It is not football as I know it. It was a ridiculous document which came out last week whereby the threat was there that if you don’t vote for an acceptance into the First Division, a breakaway SPL2 will come along and those who didn’t vote wouldn’t be invited. What kind of game are we running here? It is corrupt.’

The SFA and SPL are member organisations and are honour bound to look after the interests of the game in this country but their obsession with tv contracts and money above sporting integrity and fairness caused a huge rift in the Scottish game which has yet to heal. Of course this being Scotland, some saw Masonic conspiracies at work while other saw the old pals act coming into play. When elements of the Rangers support started intimidating officials and even reporters it only confused the situation more. Again Tunbull Hutton spoke with a blunt honesty sadly lacking from those running the game when it was mooted the new Rangers be allowed to join the second tier of Scottish football...

This is the same Rangers whose supporters threatened to torch our stadium and whose manager demanded one of our directors was named over his involvement with an SFA judicial panel. That resulted in TV cameras camping outside his door and threats being made by various outlandish factions. We also had Sandy Jardine publicly calling for repercussions for those clubs who have not supported Rangers. Given that, how could I be expected to roll over and have my tummy tickled by some inducement to allow Rangers to come into the First Division. I gave my opinion to the board on Monday night and the board had a position which was not in any way different from my own.  That does not mean a vote will go the way we want it to go. I imagine some clubs will see some short-term advantage. But if long-term you cheese off your season ticket-holders and supporters and backers is it worth it?  Do you sell your position for 30 pieces of silver for some short-term advantage or take the moral high ground?”

 Some of the quotes released from Craig Whyte’s book, intended to stir up controversy and boost sales, are hardly telling us anything new. He described the SFA in those days with at least some modicum of honesty...

‘They struck me as being completely clueless. They were complete clowns. They had a lot to say about me at the time, but did they say anything about the EBT case? A club effectively cheated the game for years and no sanctions were taken against any of the individuals responsible.’

That remains the biggest scandal of the EBT years, the fact that a member club paid players under the table in complete contradiction of the laws governing the game and did so on an industrial scale for years while the governing body did nothing. It’s all history now but it leaves a bitter legacy as many feel the laws of the game were not applied fairly in the case of the old Rangers who should have had any trophy won whilst fielding improperly registered players, for that is what it was, expunged from the record.

Those of you reading this who follow the Ibrox club and think these words are written by just another hater of Rangers ask yourselves this; what would you be saying if Celtic behaved in that manner? If you’re being honest with yourself you’ll know the truth of what occurred in those years. However, truth is in short supply in Scottish football where media outlets flip-flop on the reporting of the demise of Rangers, pundits are forced off tv for giving an honest opinion and the ‘succulent lamb’ reporting of a decade ago lives on. To often the debate around what happened in 2012 is mired in lies, obfuscation and self interest. 

Oh for a man like Turnbull Hutton who called them out on their unprincipled actions without fear or favour. 

Craig Whyte may have been a convenient patsy in the demise of Rangers and already the sycophants in the press are sharpening their knives to deflect from some of the things he is saying. We all know those responsible for the whole debacle walked away with barely a word of criticism from the media. That is to the eternal shame of much of the sporting press in Scotland and a decade on they don’t look as if they have learned much from the experience. 

At the end of the day it is all about money or as Turnbull Hutton called it, ‘thirty pieces of silver.’

Lost in translation

A century ago Humbert Wolfe wrote a short epigram about the quality of British journalism which came to my mind this week as I watched the unfolding story of Morelos, Traynor and the shady manipulation of stories in the media. Wolfe wrote...

You cannot hope to bribe or twist, thank God, the British journalist
But seeing what the man will do unbribed there’s no occasion to.

The fiasco began when Alfredo Morelos found that someone appeared to be tampering with his expensive sports car. The police were called and a man was taken into custody. Initially it seemed quite a worrying story for as we know all to well certain footballers have to deal with a lot of abuse in their lives away from the field. The Daily Record led with a story the following day which quoted Morelos suggesting the person was tampering with the brakes. There was no evidence to support this assertion but by putting it out there the tabloid fed the wilder imagination of those on social media who have a tenuous grip on reality. Some pointed the finger at Celtic fans and there was wild talk of ‘attempted murder’ and all manner of ludicrous fantasies. The following day, the Sunday Mail led with the more prosaic theory that Morelos’ wife Yesenia had hired a detective to track his movements and had given him access to the vehicle. Whether this was for security reasons or she suspected him of ‘playing away from home’ remains unclear but the moot point is that it wasn’t in any way connected to footballing rivalry.

The whole story was typical tabloid tosh which few of us would give any credence to but in the wake of these frankly embarrassing developments for the player he suddenly gives a rare interview on sky tv where he spoke of his life in Scotland and the abuse he claims to have received here. The interview was subtitled as Morelos has yet to master English sufficiently enough to carry out such an interview in English. Spanish speakers were quick to point out that what Morelos was saying in the interview was at times widely variant to the subtitles one assumes Sky put on the screen as he spoke. Consider this section...

Sky subtitles text: ‘First I’ll talk about the Motherwell match. We were winning a very important match. I scored a very important goal and I celebrated. I didn’t mean to offend anyone. If you look back I have done this celebration at home and away matches. In the match against Celtic we were winning in added time. I fell down. Whether that is simulation or not is up to the referee. Afterwards it was frustrating to hear the crowd screaming at me. They were saying offensive and racist words. I wasn’t trying to instigate of incite anything. I just wanted them to stop. It (the cut throat gesture) was a sort of symbol which said come on guys the game’s over. This doesn’t need to continue! I understand that you criticise me but now it’s over.’

Accurate translation: First I’m going to talk about the Motherwell game. We were winning an important game and I celebrated as I always do with my fans and the Rangers people. The gesture wasn’t meant to offend them. I have always celebrated like that but yes it wasn’t a gesture to offend anyone.Then against Celtic, we were winning 2-0. I don’t know if I fell or whatever but I wasn’t trying to win a penalty. The referee decided to send me off, that’s fine, that’s his decision. But the gesture I made wasn’t racist.’

Now you can argue about Morelos’ gestures towards the Motherwell and Celtic fans but we who’ve been around a while know what a ‘GIRUY’ gesture means in any language and accept it as part of the banter which goes on in football which alas now gets players a yellow card. The cut throat gesture-was a little more naughty though but c’est la vie, folk who give it out from the stands should be man enough to take it back. What sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb in the two translations above though is that Sky’s subtitles have Morelos saying Celtic fans were using racist words while the more accurate translation from Spanish to English has Morelos saying that his gesture wasn’t racist. These two polar opposite translations need explaining.

Celtic FC were rightly furious at the misrepresentation of Morelos’ words in the Sky subtitles and released an angry statement which said in part...

‘Celtic Football Club has today asked Sky to conduct an investigation into an interview broadcast yesterday that accuses Celtic fans of racist behaviour. Translations provided to Celtic between the words spoken in the interview broadcast and the subtitles used by Sky Sports. In particular and most concerning, the broadcaster used the following subtitle on screen ‘Afterwards it was very frustrating to hear the crowd screaming at me. They were using offensive and racist words. Mr Morelos does not use these words anywhere within the extended interview which has been broadcast across Sky’s platforms.’

The club is clearly annoyed at these mistranslations and you have to say who can blame them? There was at that derby match the usual industrial language you associate with such fixtures. I have seen footage where Morelos is clearly verbally abused at that game but no proof of any racist abuse has yet surfaced and believe me if it existed those with no love of Celtic would have spread it far and wide by now.

This fuss was compounded by media pundit Michael Stewart questioning who plants stories such as the brake tampering nonsense which appeared in the Daily Record. He also laid into Rangers PR guru Jim Traynor who he described as a bully and a man who caused division for personal gain. Traynor has form for manipulating the message and spinning stories in Scotland’s tabloids. He reported on the death of Rangers in 2012 with withering words about 140 years of history being over. A couple of years later he is hired by Rangers and describes those who said the club died as ‘sinister.’ The little credibility he had was lost with that flip-flop.

I suspect the constant coverage of Alfredo Morelos’ ‘woes’ in Scotland is little more than a smoke screen for his eventual departure from Ibrox. It is easier to sell the myth he was hounded out of Scotland by bigots and racists rather than admit the club needs the money. Early signs are that the gullible amongst the Ibrox support are already falling for it. The Columbia’s is undoubtedly a good striker but his diving, play acting, snide digs and attitude to the game may be responsible for much of the abuse he receives. Let me make it clear, anyone who racially abuses a footballer should feel the full force of the law and be banned from the game but I simply don’t see much evidence that Morelos is racially abused On a regular basis in Scotland. Much as I love my club I would call out anybody who behaved in that way amongst the Celtic Support but you can’t make accusations without evidence to back it up and in these days were mobile phones are ubiquitous you’d think we’d have seen some by now.

Fair play to Michael Stewart and Graham Speirs in opening the discussion about the often hidden and shady world of the PR manipulators. They’ll undoubtedly receive flak now from those who find their words uncomfortable but they do the game and indeed the wider world of journalism a service by reminding their colleagues that the unspun truth still matters. Credit too to Celtic for speaking up for their supporters as they have in the past frustrated many by their silence on other issues.

Journalism is about speaking the truth and reporting the facts. If it fails in this core duty we are all the poorer.

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