SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

Not much happening in Celticland at the moment as we wind down from our opening match of the season and our first in almost five months. We all know that the team could do with a bit of a tweak in certain areas,but there is additional uncertainty caused by the uncertain futures of Ryan Christie,Kris Ajer and worst of all,Odsonne Edouard. All three of them are showing a marked reluctance to sign a contract extension,and with all three contracts due to run out in less than two years,I suspect that the club will be looking to protect its position by selling them during this transfer window. 

In normal circumstances,that would give clubs less than four weeks to raid the piggy bank and hunt down the back of every available sofa,but as we know,these are not normal times,and the window remains open until October the fifth. That’s almost nine weeks of waiting and wondering,not knowing who will be available to the manager after that date. I don’t want any of these players to leave as they have been very important to us,particularly in the last two or three seasons,and I honestly can’t see how we can replace them with players of a similar or better quality,but the harsh realities of the game nowadays are that you don’t hold on to a depreciating asset,no matter the temptation brought about by what they actually bring to the team. 

And as we know,not only does money talk,it is of paramount importance in what was once known as The Beautiful Game. 

Which brings me to another wee snippet which emphasises that very point. Monday brought us an interview on Talksport-which was at one time a very good radio station for those who loved the game but has deteriorated to a parody of itself in recent years. It was with the manager of Billericay Town,a certain Jamie O’Hara. Now,I’m not going to lag off the mighty Town,who are probably much-loved by their handful of supporters. That would be cheap of me. You can google them yourself to find out where they stand in the English Football League pyramid as I can only assume that they’re a very strong team indeed-holding the rest of them up from their position near the foundations. And I’m not going to slag off the underachievements of Mr O’Hara,as I don’t know whether that was caused by injury,lack of application or simply being rubbish.

I do know,though,that he talks absolute garbage as a pundit. 

For him to suggest that Bournemouth,freshly relegated,are a bigger club than Rangers-and by extension in the eyes of those down south,Celtic-and that Stevie Gerrard would be well-advised to go after the job of managing them for that reason isn’t just the talk of a deluded fool,nor is it simply an aspersion on our game in Scotland. It’s a manifestation of everything awful that has happened to the game since the advent of TV money

I was really disappointed when Bournemouth were relegated as I’m a big fan of the plucky wee underdog. It’s just the way I am,always have been. I loved every minute of their five or six seasons in the big time,beating every team they faced,no matter how big. Just over a year ago,they were taking four off Chelsea,for instance. And who couldn’t fail to listen to an interview with Eddie Howe,their manager who took them from last place in the old Fourth Division-on the brink of being lost to the land of the Billericay Towns of the world!-as he spoke quiet and modest sense about his team’s performance over a preceding ninety minutes. He was tipped for big things,but had spent over twenty years at the club,and loved it like we love Celtic. But he has gone now,and left a yawning chasm where once there was a bright and optimistic young manager. 

And Jamie O’Who thinks it’s tailor-made for the manager of Rangers-because they’re a bigger club?!!! I mean what the actual f…  And as I said earlier,by extension,you can conclude that he and most of the listeners include Celtic in that. This is a guy-and an audience-who have no idea of tradition,of history,of the great players to have played for teams outside of their little insular bubble. Bournemouth have a capacity of 11000 at their Dean Court manor,while ten times that frequently fills the two grounds in Glasgow. We can point to an illustrious past,not only domestically,but in Europe too. And this twat and the producer who encouraged such bilge actually believe that Bournemouth is a bigger club. 

But we all know why this should be,don’t we? It goes back to the aforementioned TV money,the game’s very own Trojan Horse. History,tradition,fanbase,they all mean nothing as the only thing that matters is the £100m+ that each team in the EPL gets just for being there and boring the pants off us most weeks. 

Football will eat itself? It already has…

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Above article by BMCUWP. If you have something to get off your chest,I know just the place. Mail it to MAHE

sentinelcelts@gmail.com