SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

This really is not a good time to be writing articles for a Celtic site. I worked for a newspaper for seventeen years,and knew and socialised with some of the journalists at the time. They were all of the opinion that writing about bad news was the way ahead,how to forge a career and make a name for yourself. No-one was interested in good news,either writing it or reading it.

The only person who disagreed was the football reporter! And I have to say,he had a point.

Even though this is hardly a place with a reputation for slavishly pro-board articles,nothing would please us more if we had nothing to complain about. Sadly,we know this not to be the case. There can be no Panglossian view,no emperor’s new clothes,no distraction via politics. The simple facts are there for all to see-and they are summed up by pointing out that our reputation is in the gutter,on and off the field.

Meantime,our rivals are gearing up for the biggest pageant of supremacy since the annual Spithead Naval Reviews. And we are a laughing stock,with the most useless board since Ratner,the worst management team since Sid Bassett,and a team with as much balance as me coming back from a wedding reception. The huns will have the bragging rights about stopping our quest for The Holy Grail,and will rightly say that we couldn’t beat their total from the nineties,despite having no competition for much of it.

Is that though a fair comparison,when they were signing players from tax havens-given what we know now about their tax shenanigans? Given that Bank of Scotland could tip them off about the trigger prices which would force rivals such as the Edinburgh and Dundee clubs to sell their star players? Given the cosy relationships with such as journalists,politicians and even referees and senior officials which have since come to light?

I don’t think so. And if I ever get back home and any of my pals is stupid enough to want to talk about football for the first time in a decade,I’ll deal with that decade first thank you very much. No competition,lads? Whose fault is that,why did it come about,oh dear could some of that explain some of the success then that you keep crowing about.

GIRUY,shut up and learn.

Sadly of course,our masters have never learned anything. They might never have seen this day coming because when you are the smartest guy in the room,you don’t. The only certainty about being the smartest guy in the room is that,actually,you aren’t. They thought that the only thing that mattered to the support was being in front of Rangers,and maybe for some it was. Not for most of us,I believe. Most of us wanted them Third Lanarked,and the only red white and blue at Ibrox to be the carrier bags at the Tesco built on the site. The green of Asda might have been too much for them-it certainly was for me trying to match it to a Pantone reference 25 years ago!

But it is perhaps unfair to blame our board for allowing their resuscitation,it could not be done on their call alone. It took a confluence of influence to do that,the SFA,SPL,the clubs and the TV companies. Sell your soul for the blue pound or accept no pound. Difficult choice for the smaller clubs,not so much for us. We could have opposed it,knowing it would still have been voted through,paid lip service to that. Instead,we were probably the drivers of it-and against the better instincts of more principled outfits.

One in particular headed by a man who had seen his dying father denied of a trophy by the kind of cheating which that club and its acolytes have embedded into their history-pre and post 2012.

All is not lost though as our own Gang of Four took the rule breaking to both Celtic and the SFA. Also to UEFA and various media outlets. Strangely,although the ultimate arbiter EUFA took their side,Celtic chose to ignore the silver bullet-no smoking gun in the PL household!-and so did every single authority or media outlet-including some who are known for their investigative journalism.

So now,the only two options available to Celtic fans who are either nonplussed or pissed off at how things have transpired is to boycott the merchandise and refuse to buy new season tickets-neither of which are the kind of thing that comes naturally for the faithful through and through.

We could of course join the Celtic Supporters Trust,and I genuinely hope some of you will. Better to be inside the tent,etc-or in this case,to make sure that those outside the tent are pointing at the same target! Such as…

Lying to Celtic fans AND SHAREHOLDERS AT AN AGM should have seen Lawwell removed-and charged-but if he can survive that,we have to go nuclear. That’s the boycott,the CST-or anyone else who can mobilise the troops.

On which,AULDHEID has an arsenal of his own. I asked his permission to reproduce it here,but it will probably be better for him to do so in the comments. However,I also asked another guid pal if I could repost a comment of his from CQN,and he kindly agreed. I won’t reference him or the person he replied to,but I will be happy to do so if they ask.

Given that we knew they were cheating do you think our board strategy was correct in not pursing

1) Res 12 case?

2) The small tax case?

3) The improperly registered players decision and non-stripping of titles to the original Rangers?

4) The decision by the SPFL/SFA allowing the transfer of trophies from the original Rangers to the tribute act?

5) The refereeing cabal to continue?

If you agree with the board strategy, can you explain the logic in doing so, in your view of course? Do you feel that the strategy our board had was that they needed to have a Rangers in existence in any form in the league irrespective of their cheating ways (Old Firm-sic)?

The second 9IAR and quadruple trebles has been an amazing time and all good things always come to an end, but do you not think we have just somehow missed an opportunity from such a position of strength to perhaps maybe achieve a 10IAR and even put the new team Rangers to the sword for their cheating and provide a level playing field for all to play?

Final questions: Given that we had such a financial advantage over this new club, what do you put this seasons (2020/21) failure so far, down too? Did we fall asleep at the wheel or not take their challenge seriously?

Above article by BMCUWP.