It is an undeniable truism that in football, the next match is always the most important one.
Whatever has happened before can be wiped away.
That is certainly true in the marathon of a 38-game season.
Of course, in cup football, it is more…err…well, final.
Oops!
The League Cup is back at Celtic Park, and there’s no midweek game.
Therefore, the pain and regret linger for Sevco’s klanbase.
The poor dears.
Consequently, the last few days have been highly entertaining.
For the avoidance of doubt, the recriminations have been quintessentially British.
As predicted here, before the final itself, there was an oven-ready narrative if the Hoops retained the trophy.
It is now all about the summer rebuild at Ibrox.
Apparently, there are great days coming soon therefore, please renew your season ticket!
It was ever thus.
The reality is actually more prosaic.
Given the resource landscape between the two clubs, it is largely about the margin of error.
Put simply, Celtic have the finances to make mistakes in the transfer market, and Sevco needs to get it right almost every time.
At the moment, that means it is Ange versus these two superheroes.
I know, I know…
Faced with the prospect of being simply the second best for a long, long time, it would only be fit and proper to feel sorry for those who follow follow.
If that is your point of view, then take a minute then to read this by Andrew Smith in the Scotsman.
He was there at Hampden, and unlike many in the press box, he reported what he heard.
It is newsworthy that he stated that the racism of the Ibrox klanbase wasn’t confined to the cheap seats.
Full disclosure I met Andrew many years ago at the media centre in the Aviva stadium in Dublin when we were both covering an international match between our respective countries.
He seemed well-read, intelligent and self-aware.
This made him a rare enough specimen among the visiting Scottish reporters.
That chat in Dublin was a long time ago, as Rangers were still alive at that point in time.
I am currently reading this fascinating book by Andrew Davies.
The information on the…ahem…career of Billy Fullerton ( he is the one on the book cover) is astounding.
In 1955 the man who is lovingly remembered by the Ibrox klanbase gave an in-depth interview to the Evening Citizen newspaper.
This is from page 384 of Davies’ book:
“Fullerton made one admission to the Citizen in January 1955, revealing that he had joined the ‘Fascist Party’, acting as a ‘section captain’ with 200 men and women under his command. Fullerton was vague as to the details of his involvement, but it is likely that he joined the British Fascists, founded in 1923, whose members-like the Billy Boys-were notorious for confronting Communist demonstrators on the streets. The British Fascists-again like the Billy Boys-were also known to supply stewards for Tory election meetings.”
Dear reader, that is the chap that the Ibrox klanbase chose to laud in song at Hampden on Sunday, even when common decency demanded that they should be honouring a good man like Ron Gordon.
Whatever emotional difficulties they’re facing this week as they consider the appalling vista of a dominant Celtic, it is thoroughly deserved.
Fascists don’t deserve to be happy.
I like to think that the featured image is burned into their racist minds.
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5 days since our Glorious victory & not one mention, comment or criticism of the KLANBASE interruption halfway thru the 1 minute applause for Ron Gordon (Hibs owner…their interruption? Billy boys up to their feet….sad really really sad that they did and no media outlet reported anything about it. Sad really sad!@
Yet just today the latest “operation soothe” story in the Scottish Sun tells us they are lining up a £3.5 million swoop on Preston goalie Freddie Woodman, potentially paid with Monopoly money i assume?, this type of story is essential in aiding the great annual season ticket robbery.
I would bet good money that upwards of 90% of those who frequent Ibrox have never heard of Billy Fullerton, and fully believe that their song is celebrating William of Orange.
I would imagine you’re right, believing that myself for the first 25 years of my life 🤡 that I am 😂
I imagine there would have been camera etc where this vile individual spewed his vitriol at Celtic players
So would be easily identifiable .
The media went into overdrive regards the Douglas Ross banner and the royal family banners
But apart from this brave gentleman reporting what he heard the usual suspects fell deaf
This is not a one off occurrence with their fans in hospitality
More a regular occurrence
I just hope the gentleman who wrote this on the Scotsman has updated his security
The Klan will not be happy with him
And we all know what happens when they get upset
Questions must be asked of Irish government and the
FAI,an organisation that receives tax payers funding, as to why the they would want to co host a future UEFA tournament with the SFA,an organisation that turns a blind eye to anti Irish racism and bigotry.
As we approach St Patrick’s Day Irish politicians will jet all over the world proclaiming their love for the Irish diaspora but it seems the Irish in diaspora in Glasgow and anti Irish racism is not on the radar,a blind eye turned.
Enough pressure , questions asked of the FAI why they feel the need to collaborate with the SFA and then the pressure will come down the line to UEFA to intervene as to why the SFA takes no action regarding naked anti Irish racism.
These people are sick, there is no other word.
The thing I’ve taken from the victory on Sunday is not that the victory has upset Sevco supporters but the nature of the defeat has broken them.
They watched their world beaters unable to compete with Celtic, not on any level.
They have realised that they are not what they thought they were and that is hurting them more than losing any cup final.
They known their ageing squad is at the end of the road and they have no means to get back to where rangers were.
Theses angry bitter men are only going to get angrier and more bitter.
Let them rant and rave and embarrass themselves and thier embarrassing club, they will eventually go to their graves bitter and twisted, then they can then sit in hell watching their beloved rangers.
When will the average bear get smart and realise that they were never the people ,they are simply second best for the foreseeable and their fictitious trophy record is going to be gone,very, very soon. HH
Celtic have spent and made a profit in the same window
As usual 11 year old club trying to buy time please tell me why the Supporters left without cheering their team collecting runners up medals do you call that supporting your team if Celtic had lost the Supporters would have stayed to applaud the team
Left without cheering their medals?!? They left when there was only a goal in it!! If it was us we’d be roaring the team on for the equaliser!
It’s painfully obvious to the Blue Room that the Ibrox club won’t be able to match CFC financially, if at all, for many, many years.
So, why don’t they try and drag CFC down to their level?
As a development of FFP, the Ibrox ‘mob’ could push for e.g. salary caps in the SPL? I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s the sort of p!sh sevco could push for their own benefit – whilst pretending to be the guardians of the Scottish game!
They could unashamedly promote stricter (lower) financial constraints on clubs – with the full support of the obedient SMSM?
I would imagine that they envisage their current inferiority to be merely temporary and they’ll soon be back in their rightful position, so wouldn’t want anything to queer the pitch when they get there.
You, me and the dog, know that’s not happening anytime soon but, bless, they’re incurable romantics. 😉
If they attempted that it would only hamstring them further.
It couldn’t be a flat rate wage cap as that wouldn’t make sense even in Scotland. You couldn’t have Celtic with the same wage cap as Ross County as we would end up with millions in the bank and nowhere to spend it.
If they are only allowed to spend a percentage of their income on wages then they would need to open their books to full scrutiny which they would not want. After all they have only been surviving via share issues and director loans and I think they may be prohibited under the new UEFA finance model.
Anyway 60 or 70 percent of their income would be less than 60 or 70 percent of ours.
Gate sharing could be another route but again they lose there too.