Celtic Underground
Flashback: Leicester Turn Down Bid For Lennon
It's Friday 4th August 2000 and the Rev Al Green is sitting in on another MON press conference...
Today's PC was preceded by the assembled hacks standing at attention as God Save The Queen was played over the tannoy in honour of the Queen Mum's birthday.
Erm...only joking.
Martin O'Neill certainly seemed to me to be a bit tetchy today and I just wonder if he's finding the ways of the Scottish meeja a bit wearing already? I only caught the Broadcast Media section of the pc, so I missed his exchanges with the newspapers - they might make interesting reading, though.
The event got underway with Peter Martin asking for the latest on the situation with the three signing targets. "Which ones?" asked MON, a tad sharply. "Er, Bosnich, Lennon and Thompson.", Peter Martin responded. "I can give you another five if you'd like?" said MON.
Now that got the interest of the meeja, who sat forward, ears pricked. "Well, let me see, I went to see Villa versus Celta Vigo the other night, so I saw Benni McCarthy and about five other Celta Vigo players that I liked...."
The press boys knew they'd been had.
Here's the serious stuff he revealed on the three, though, plus other snippets.
In Whom Do We Trust?
(Everything that follows assumes the FTT find in favour of HMRC and against Glasgow Rangers leading to questions on Rangers future.)
Whilst the main stream media have focussed on the commercial loss to Scottish football if Glasgow Rangers are lost to it, there has been very little focus on the loss of two other aspects that are of higher importance to the future of our game than any commercial considerations i.e. integrity and trust. Without them football stops being a game subject to the vagaries of sport and becomes just another manipulative dog eat dog business, where anything to get advantage goes, including rule dodging, bending or breaking and all that apparently matters is escaping the consequences.
Whatever the outcome and consequences of the EBT case against Rangers, the fact that they indulged in tax avoidance to gain competitive advantage , their questionable response to HMRC’s consequent tax demands and the unfolding role the Scottish media have played in first avoiding the issues and then advocating that the very commercial considerations that have brought about Rangers demise should continue to hold sway, means that a large section of the Scottish footballing public have lost all trust in those who govern Rangers (past and present), those who govern our game (SFA/SPL), and those responsible via honest investigative reporting for seeing that all three previous are held accountable and responsible for allowing things to come to their present sorry state.
Rangers, the SFA/SPL and, The Media might at this point benefit from being reminded of the definitions of the two core intertwined values that have been lost and which need to be rediscovered if our game is to be saved.
The Bhoy In The Picture - Matt Lynch
Matt Lynch was a Celtic player between 1934 and 1947 although personally I recall him more as an intimidating but fair Maths teacher in the old Saint Gerards’ secondary school in Govan.
The boys learned quickly from the other teachers that ‘wee Matt’ had played for the Celts and we were keen to discuss all things Celtic at every opportunity. And so was he. He had us enthralled with Celtic tales of the past although it has to be said that he played during a difficult period of Celtic’s history especially during the war years.
He was a modest man when discussing his own abilities and we learned from others that he was part of the legendary Celtic team who reached the Exhibition cup final in 1938. The great Jimmy Delaney returned to replace Matt in the final and Celtic defeated Everton 1-0 but he always said that Celtic’s success had been the most important thing, far outweighing the disappointment of any individual.
For The Good Of The Game?
Last night I watched Stewart Regan tweet that Scottish Football needs Rangers. Now if that wasn't the biggest indicator as to how the demise of the Ibrox club is going to be treated then Mervan Celik is a stick on for World Player of the Year once he settles into life on the Southside.
Today I settled down to watch this team. This team of whom we all rely on according to the esteemed Mr Regan. For one second I glanced at my couch as I thought it may have changed into a Delorean and I was in fact back in 1987. There was the famous blue sea of Ibrox. The blue sea of empty plastic chairs. I thought I had missed some clarion call for a boycott then I remembered this was Rangers. Their fans don't believe in that, they much prefer deference and to demand other people acquiesce to sort out their problems or else. They are the people after all. No, no boycott just the call echoing around the empty stands of Where Are The People!
Then we get to the actual football.