THE SCOTTISH MEDIA JUST SHOWED BEYOND DOUBT: IT REALLY IS ANYONE BUT CELTIC
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 17 minutes ago
- 4 min read
I can understand the sentiment behind painting Celtic as the Pantomime villains of this season, to an extent.
We are the video game last boss, that some plucky little player has managed to battle their way towards to achieve a final showdown. We are to most Scottish football fans now what Manchester United were to most football fans in England throughout the 1990s.
We are the team that most neutrals will want to see lose on Saturday. This is an unusual position for a club like Celtic, a club whose entire identity, whose very existence is built around a fundamental solidarity with the underdogs of society.
We are not the sporting underdogs at the weekend, even if we remain a rallying point for the underdogs in wider society.
Anyone But Celtic Narrative in Full Flow as Media Go All in on Hearts
Now we are the champion everyone wants to see dethroned. We are like Chris Eubank at the peak of his boxing powers back in the day. Many of us watched his every fight because he was a brilliant boxer, but most of us watched in the faint hope that somebody, anybody would finally knock the arrogant pr*ck on his backside.
However, as Eubank himself once said, after walking out to Tina Turner’s “The Best” a song which has become something of an ironic anthem among the Celtic support this season, “Until someone beats me, I am simply the best.”
Celtic are in that position on Sunday. Our media has done everything they possibly can to manufacture the David and Goliath narrative ahead of our must-win final game against Hearts.
A wee reminder, Hearts were nowhere near it last season. It is a fresh injection of both cash and expertise behind the scenes that has changed that.
As much as I may not like some of their fans, I do have a sense of respect for our opponents this weekend.
When they faced financial troubles in the not-so-distant past, there were no tantrums, no threats or seeking to blame anyone but themselves. They took their medicine, rebuilt and acted with genuine contrition.
Hearts have excelled this season. Yes, both Celtic and the troublesome teenagers over at Ibrox have regressed this season, but there is a definite improvement from the Edinburgh side. For that, they deserve respect, and I would go so far as to say, a fair degree of praise.
What they do not warrant, nor do they need is to have the entirety of the Scottish media seeking to vilify Celtic at every opportunity to try and construct some kind of “superhero vs supervillain” false narrative ahead of Saturday’s final match.
Celtic won last night by the narrowest of narrow margins. But we did win. The utter hysteria that followed what has proven to be a perfectly legitimate penalty award was nothing short of disgraceful.
It’s one thing to cheer for the perceived “little guy” in a fight. It’s another to throw all sense of balance and impartiality to the wind as you cheer for the one team that still has a chance to stop the team you see as “the enemy”.
Again, I think the Chris Eubank comparison is quite apt here. Eubank, as a successful, articulate and outspoken champion, from a tough background, growing up first in London and then later New York’s South Bronx, was every bit the underdog that we should have all got right behind.
The British Press didn't like that and took every opportunity they could to cast him as the villain of the piece.
Personally, I always liked the guy, if nothing, just for how angry it seemed to make all the usual suspects in the tabloid press when he kept on winning.
That didn’t suit the prevailing narrative at the time though. And Celtic are now in the same position. We find ourselves cast as the “establishment club”, the all-conquering force that must be stopped at all costs.
It’s childish, it’s pathetic, but it’s exactly what I’ve come to expect in the years since I decided to walk away from Scottish mainstream journalism in 2006.
In a country where “Anyone but Celtic” is deemed acceptable as “impartial and unbiased” reporting, I think its time for us to show everyone else that it is us, Celtic, who are, and always shall be “Simply the Best”. We shall not be mastered, nor shall we be belittled by the leeches and parasites that dominate our tabloid press.
The final battle of this season is at hand, and may the best team win. If it turns out to be Hearts, they will have my respect and sincere congratulations.
I only ask in return, that if Celtic, as I hope, prevail on Saturday, that we are treated with that same grace and courtesy, by a neutral and unbiased media.
I won’t hold my breath on that one though.