bustergonad
Well-Known Member
The Celtic Way.
An ironic setting for the squalid, shameful scenes that had riot cops scrambling and players fleeing last Sunday night.
After all, isn’t The Celtic Way meant to be about style, about grace, about looking after those under the greatest pressure? Isn’t it meant to be about charity?
That’s what we’ve always been told. They even erected a statue of Brother Walfrid outside the main stand as a permanent reminder of all these values and more.
Yet in the midst of a first poor run of form in ten long years, it all appears to have gone…well, I was about to write out the window, but in truth it feels like the more fitting image is that of a crush barrier smashing against the glass.
Because today, The Celtic Way has been hijacked by a vigilante mob whose watchwords are intimidation, intolerance and violence — storming the stadium after this latest defeat, attacking police, forcing all inside to flee through side doors.
Bullying a manager with a history of mental illness. That last one, that’s the truly disgusting bit. The fact Neil Lennon has been so brave and so honest in speaking up about his own deeply personal issues.
The fact he’s laid himself bare to try and help others cope with what’s going on in their own heads — and yet, he’s currently coming in for the sort of targeted abuse that can cause untold psychological damage.
Not that the vigilantes give a toss. All they care about is ten in a row, this mythical achievement which has robbed thousands of their senses, of their perspective, and their basic decency.
All they know is that anyone whose imperfections threaten to deny them what they see as their right should have their character torn limb from limb.
Well, I don’t care if they are right and that Lennon should be sacked. I don’t care if they are right when they claim he should never have been hired in the first place.
But I do care, very much indeed, that their means of getting what they want is a never-ending campaign of verbal abuse that has morphed into physical threats.
Especially when they then justify their own appalling behaviour by claiming they have no option.
That’s how it reads on social media at least, that what happened in the wake of Celtic’s 2-0 home defeat to Ross County in the Betfred Cup was the fault of the club’s board for not listening to the fans, and emptying the dugout after the 4-1 loss away to Sparta Prague.
So, is THAT The Celtic Way?
Do what we say or we’ll tear the place down? Wield the axe when we click our fingers, or we’ll haul Big Billy off his plinth like Saddam?
I’m guessing that, for nine out of ten diehards, these attitudes are abhorrent.
I’m guessing nine out of ten will be way more sick at how their colours are being dragged through the mud than they are at a rank rotten run of results.
Yes, many of them will also want a change of manager. Yes, many of them will also be gutted that the Blessed Ten is slipping away. But most will also be capable of understanding they have no more of a right to success than they have to employ mayhem as a reaction to failure.
Trouble is, it’s the one out of ten who have the loudest voice these days. It’s the one out of ten who hog everyone’s attention.
It’s the one out of ten who Peter Lawwell, below, and Lennon himself, have helped elevate above the herd, who now believe themselves to occupy a higher tier than common-or-garden punters.
They get their own designated corner of Parkhead. They get to stand when everyone else has to sit. They get the league trophy placed in front of them on presentation day.
So who’s surprised that, like all spoiled children, they have developed such an overwhelming sense of entitlement? That they commandeer whatever section of away grounds they fancy, whether or not fellow fans have paid to sit there?
That they revel in getting Celtic in trouble with their pyrotechnics and pseudo-political banners?
That they have the brass neck to use Parkhead as the backdrop for publicity stunts demanding Lennon Must Go?
Who’s really surprised that they see what panned out last Sunday as some sort of duty to the badge, that they regard themselves as the only ones who truly care?
As it pans out, of course, the truly laughable aspect of their outrage is had they stayed home, Lennon WOULD most probably be gone by now.
The word coming out of Parkhead is the board were ready to act, until it all kicked off and they decided not to make it look as though they were pandering to mob mentality.
Done in by their own self- importance. How brainless can some people get?
But even if Lawwell and Dermot Desmond let the dust settle and then announce Lennon’s gone, which, for me, wouldn’t necessarily be the right call, because it’s shoddy recruitment more than poor coaching which has landed them in the mire.
The truth is that it will only mask the real issue facing a troubled club. Which is that these vigilantes and their outrage when the world doesn’t roll over at their feet are damaging The Celtic Way far more than a chronic inability to defend set-pieces.
Values? Really?
Ask Gordon Wood what he thinks of Celtic values