Hubris is coming home

With only minutes remaining in Atlanta last night for England to hang on for a historic victory, I had a flashback to May 16^th and Celtic Park.

The basic truth was that Argentina battered their hubristic opponents into submission and England Hertzd it.

Now, just like back in May, the defeated must deflect from their defeat.

The English media today is full of the Argentine players and a banner about the Falklands/Malvinas dispute.

Well, when you have supporters dressing up as Crusader Knights, then any complaints about bringing politics and past conflicts into sport don’t really wash.

Consequently, English bleating about the Argentinian players having that banner can be dismissed with the same ease as England’s claim to be a major power in world football.

Outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer clearly wanted a final cheer by weighing in on this non-issue.

That said, the 1982 war and the dispute over the islands are still an open wound in Argentina.

Of course, it is a conflict between European colonialists with no genuine indigenous claims to that island archipelago.

Readers of Native Shore will know that I put the Falklands/Malvinas dispute into the plot.

Here is a sample:

Major General Zhang Wey Chen allowed himself a smile as he saw his

two aircraft come into his field of vision at the Rio Gallegos military

airbase. At that point, he had no idea if their mission had been successful,

but if anything untoward had happened to either of the Chengdu J-20

fighters, it would not just have cost him his career but almost certainly

his life. Despite his family connections in the Party, he was part of a

very, very high stakes game that was not going to be confined to some

inhospitable rocks in the South Atlantic, or the airstrip in Patagonia

that had been his home for the last two months.

I inserted this into the novel to demonstrate Britain’s powerlessness in the 21^st century and the myth of the “Special Relationship” with Uncle Sam.

For the avoidance of doubt, Keir Starmer will be fully briefed on those realities on Day One of his tenure as Prime Minister.

Consequently, his Al Murray intervention.

Argentina has the largest Irish diaspora population outside the Anglophere.

The blood is strong.

Unlike in Fair Caledonia, it’s ok there to be publicly proud of your sangre irlandesa.

It’s been many decades since your humble correspondent and his green passport were greeted at Buenos Aires airport.

I suspect it wasn’t the same response that Brits would have got.

As Baby Doctor is currently finding out in Mayo, we belong to a very special little island.

I can’t imagine doing anything to give up that gift of heritage for any temporary advancement.

Therefore, I think it’s appropriate to take a moment and consider Declan Rice at this particularly hilarious moment.

Sin scéal eile fella!

This weekend, Celtic are back at the scene of that magic victory in May.

The club defined by its Irish ethnicity has an immigrant backstory that generates undiluted hatred in nice, fluffy Scotland.

There is much to be done before the 2026/27 campaign starts.

Moreover, the work experience recruitment efforts haven’t gone away, you know.

I got a message yesterday from a well-placed source stating that the interim chairman had to defer to Desmond Dauphin.

I have every faith in the integrity of my source.

However, I was prompted to ask myself, just exactly what is the interim chairman actually doing?

What does he have to get sign-off from Desmond Jnr for?

That isn’t a criticism of Brian Wilson.

It’s a genuine question about who does what at Celtic.

From the outside looking in, it would appear that no one in any position of authority at Celtic has access to a calendar.

August 3rd, lads.

Seriously.

With a massive financial advantage over everyone else in the SPFL, only Celtic can stop Celtic.

At the moment, that appears to be taken as a challenge by “the owner”.

Indeed, a ” hold my Cerveza” moment.