Good Evening.
As the title suggests, this short piece is a postscript to this morning’s final Clumpany blog [which can be found at the following link. I would be grateful if Clumpaneers could share it more widely].
Congratulations to Sevco on winning their second ever game against Celtic. By all accounts Celtic were as bad as they have been all-too-often this season.
Yet again, Celtic fielded a misfiring group of demotivated players, acquired on the back of a recruitment policy which has as much to do with ‘coherent strategy’ as Scottish football administration has to do with transparency and evenhandedness. The one thing this group of highly-paid Celtic players isn’t is a team.
Sevco of course are precisely the opposite: a group of waifs and strays who (in the main) haven’t ‘made it’ anywhere else, but who have been turned into something resembling a team. Not a great team, but a cohesive group of individuals all playing for each other who could prevail on penalties in a one-off fixture. And for that, the Warbmeister deserves some credit.
As many others have said today and previously, the blame for Celtic’s predicament lies squarely with the manager, and the failed policies of the board (including – perhaps especially – the Chief Executive). Ronny Deila has to go, and the club has to be remodelled throughout – from boardroom to the first team via the player development operation.
Celtic got it badly wrong today, as they have so often during both this season and (to a lesser degree) last. But that failure is a result of systemic shortcomings throughout the club not just player and tactical failings ‘on the day’.
If the board do not fix it, and if they fail to address the fans’ concerns about the farcical governance of our game then they WILL see a huge drop in season ticket sales. Make no mistake, Celtic fans will not sit waiting for a Sugar Daddy, or – failing that – a pretend Sugar Daddy to effect change. They will vote with their feet, and make a huge amount of noise in doing so.
It’s your move, Messers Desmond and Lawwell.
Finally, my rather disappointing day has been brightened by a superb piece of nonsense from Keith Jackson. The man who brought you a million radar-related jokes, but not one genuine Motherwell-born billionaire.
Over its 436 editions, this blog has primarily discussed the part played (or not played) by our MSM in relation to numerous issues which affect our national sport. I have been so scathing because I think they routinely do it a great disservice. They view the game’s worth through the discredited prism of a dead ‘Old Firm’ fixture. And they consistently refrain from tackling issues which raise the fundamental question of whether Scottish football is an actual sport, or a freakish form of light entertainment.
So what has Keith had to say for himself?
Right there, in less than 140 characters, is the problem with our MSM. If Keith and others just stopped for a moment to ask WHY folk navel-gaze about the Celtic-Sevco fixture, compiled a list, and then tried to get to the bottom of the issues, then they would be doing us all a great service.
Failure to do this would mean that Keith’s tweet amounts to nothing more than putting a sticking plaster over a running sore. It might look OK for a short while, but you can never ultimately stop the foul pus from oozing out.
So which is it to be MSM? Trying to get to the bottom of the issues which trouble so many about the Celtic-Sevco fixture, including the very nature of the new Ibrox outfit and the legacy of the “same club’s” misdeeds?
Or simply gawping at the shiny noisy pretend ‘Old Firm’ ‘spectacle’, no matter how toxic it is?
Thanks for reading Clumpaneers. You’ve been a great audience!
I’ll leave you with a song…
TC.
The Clumpany 