James Forrest
The Emperor of Ice Cream
This is far and away the strangest article I have ever had to write for this blog.
Nothing else even comes close.
I have never written an article where I ask someone who may be on the brink of coming to Celtic to think again. Not to do it. To walk away while he still can.
I don’t write this with any expectation that Robbie Keane will ever read it. I don’t write it because I think it necessarily has to be read. But someone on our side of the fence has to say this, and I don’t think anyone else will.
By our side of the fence, I mean those of us who are concerned about this appointment. Someone has to spell out the full implications of it in a way that leaves no ambiguity.
So here we go.
First, it has to be said that whoever led Robbie Keane to this part of the process has done him no favours.
When he was unveiled here as a player all those years ago, supporters turned up at Celtic Park to cheer a loan signing in the January transfer window as if we had just signed Ronaldo.
I guarantee there will not be similar scenes this time. There will not be similar acclaim for this homecoming.
If the people who have brought Keane to this point have not told him that this is going to be difficult, they have done him a gross disservice. In truth, I think they have done him a gross disservice by bringing him this far at all.
Because this is not going to be difficult.
It is going to be many stages beyond that.
There are a lot of people in the support who plainly and simply do not want him here, and who will never be reconciled to his appointment no matter what he achieves or does not achieve. For those people, this represents a slap in the face.
There are many thousands of them amongst the fan base.
So “difficult” is an understatement. It significantly downplays the obstacles that are about to be placed in front of him. Fair play to him if he wants to try to overcome those obstacles, and I am sure those on the board have told him that he can handle it, that he will be fine, and that the anger will pass once he starts winning games.
With all due respect to those people, he should ignore them.
Because they are not the ones who will be out there on the touchline, unable to make the slightest mistake. They are not the ones who will be out there every day, inching further and further out on the limb. They are not the ones whose backsides will be twisting in the wind.
When they say they will be behind him, that much he can believe. Quite possibly a considerable distance behind him. Quite possibly behind a locked and bolted office door.
If he thinks these people will absorb blows for him, he has not been paying attention. These people will not defend this club even when it is under attack from every avenue, even when the truth is on its side, even when the facts are on its side.
They send a 74-year-old man out to do their fighting for them.
The largest shareholder sent his son to read a prepared statement with quivering hands rather than face supporters himself at the AGM.
These are not people you want with you in a foxhole.
I have read enough books by football managers and listened to enough of them talk to understand one thing clearly: when they say the touchline is a lonely place, they mean it.
No matter what else is going on at a club, no matter who else is under the spotlight, no matter which defender is not playing well or which striker is misfiring, no one is in the crosshairs more than the manager.
The manager is the rod that catches the lightning.
Standing on that line, you are surrounded by people, but you are on your own.
The decisions you make are yours to live with. The cost is yours to bear. No matter how many people tell you they are in your corner, you will go through every one of the agonies of hell by yourself.
Robbie Keane already knows this. He has walked that touchline before.
But I assure him, never like this.
At Celtic, every decision he makes will be measured against the fact that some people never wanted him here in the first place. The season has to start with a bang. Champions League qualifiers are coming up, and while a new manager would normally get some benefit of the doubt, there will be none to be had here.
Keane has to remember that he is not walking into a benign environment.
He will be walking into one that was explosive before the announcement, and which afterwards will be positively thermonuclear.
This appointment needs to unify people. It needs to bring the support together. It cannot cause further division and disharmony.
The people who have brought Robbie Keane this far without explaining the awful reality of what his appointment will do to this fanbase, or without caring about it, are putting his neck in the noose. I cannot be more brutal about it than that. They are throwing him to the wolves before he has even given his first press conference.
Because they know this will infuriate a section of the fan base. That may even be part of the attraction for them.
When you are being hired by people, and one of their reasons for giving you the job is that it will annoy a significant part of their own customer base … man, those are perhaps not people you want to work for.
So please, Robbie Keane; according to the news, you are going to interview with the club tonight. Tell them you don’t want the job. Walk away.
Do us a favour. Do yourself a favour. Do the club a favour.
This board may not get that yet. The people running the club may be lost inside their own little bubble, inside their own little fantasy existence, unable to realise that they are about to inflict another act of harm on Celtic.
That is where people like us have to stage an intervention.
I am writing this. Keane is the one who needs to do the truly difficult part.
This is not a job you are going to enjoy.
This is not a place where you will be welcomed with open arms. These are not people you can trust to have your back when the going gets tough.
And the going will be tough from the first minute of the first day.
Do us all a favour and tell them thanks for thinking of me, thanks for your consideration, but I’ll take my chances somewhere else.
If you care about Celtic at all, do it. Give the club the greatest service you can.
Do not come and work for it.
Spare us, and yourself, what follows.
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The post Robbie Keane, if you care about Celtic do not take the job. appeared first on The Celtic Blog.
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Nothing else even comes close.
I have never written an article where I ask someone who may be on the brink of coming to Celtic to think again. Not to do it. To walk away while he still can.
I don’t write this with any expectation that Robbie Keane will ever read it. I don’t write it because I think it necessarily has to be read. But someone on our side of the fence has to say this, and I don’t think anyone else will.
By our side of the fence, I mean those of us who are concerned about this appointment. Someone has to spell out the full implications of it in a way that leaves no ambiguity.
So here we go.
First, it has to be said that whoever led Robbie Keane to this part of the process has done him no favours.
When he was unveiled here as a player all those years ago, supporters turned up at Celtic Park to cheer a loan signing in the January transfer window as if we had just signed Ronaldo.
I guarantee there will not be similar scenes this time. There will not be similar acclaim for this homecoming.
If the people who have brought Keane to this point have not told him that this is going to be difficult, they have done him a gross disservice. In truth, I think they have done him a gross disservice by bringing him this far at all.
Because this is not going to be difficult.
It is going to be many stages beyond that.
There are a lot of people in the support who plainly and simply do not want him here, and who will never be reconciled to his appointment no matter what he achieves or does not achieve. For those people, this represents a slap in the face.
There are many thousands of them amongst the fan base.
So “difficult” is an understatement. It significantly downplays the obstacles that are about to be placed in front of him. Fair play to him if he wants to try to overcome those obstacles, and I am sure those on the board have told him that he can handle it, that he will be fine, and that the anger will pass once he starts winning games.
With all due respect to those people, he should ignore them.
Because they are not the ones who will be out there on the touchline, unable to make the slightest mistake. They are not the ones who will be out there every day, inching further and further out on the limb. They are not the ones whose backsides will be twisting in the wind.
When they say they will be behind him, that much he can believe. Quite possibly a considerable distance behind him. Quite possibly behind a locked and bolted office door.
If he thinks these people will absorb blows for him, he has not been paying attention. These people will not defend this club even when it is under attack from every avenue, even when the truth is on its side, even when the facts are on its side.
They send a 74-year-old man out to do their fighting for them.
The largest shareholder sent his son to read a prepared statement with quivering hands rather than face supporters himself at the AGM.
These are not people you want with you in a foxhole.
I have read enough books by football managers and listened to enough of them talk to understand one thing clearly: when they say the touchline is a lonely place, they mean it.
No matter what else is going on at a club, no matter who else is under the spotlight, no matter which defender is not playing well or which striker is misfiring, no one is in the crosshairs more than the manager.
The manager is the rod that catches the lightning.
Standing on that line, you are surrounded by people, but you are on your own.
The decisions you make are yours to live with. The cost is yours to bear. No matter how many people tell you they are in your corner, you will go through every one of the agonies of hell by yourself.
Robbie Keane already knows this. He has walked that touchline before.
But I assure him, never like this.
At Celtic, every decision he makes will be measured against the fact that some people never wanted him here in the first place. The season has to start with a bang. Champions League qualifiers are coming up, and while a new manager would normally get some benefit of the doubt, there will be none to be had here.
Keane has to remember that he is not walking into a benign environment.
He will be walking into one that was explosive before the announcement, and which afterwards will be positively thermonuclear.
This appointment needs to unify people. It needs to bring the support together. It cannot cause further division and disharmony.
The people who have brought Robbie Keane this far without explaining the awful reality of what his appointment will do to this fanbase, or without caring about it, are putting his neck in the noose. I cannot be more brutal about it than that. They are throwing him to the wolves before he has even given his first press conference.
Because they know this will infuriate a section of the fan base. That may even be part of the attraction for them.
When you are being hired by people, and one of their reasons for giving you the job is that it will annoy a significant part of their own customer base … man, those are perhaps not people you want to work for.
So please, Robbie Keane; according to the news, you are going to interview with the club tonight. Tell them you don’t want the job. Walk away.
Do us a favour. Do yourself a favour. Do the club a favour.
This board may not get that yet. The people running the club may be lost inside their own little bubble, inside their own little fantasy existence, unable to realise that they are about to inflict another act of harm on Celtic.
That is where people like us have to stage an intervention.
I am writing this. Keane is the one who needs to do the truly difficult part.
This is not a job you are going to enjoy.
This is not a place where you will be welcomed with open arms. These are not people you can trust to have your back when the going gets tough.
And the going will be tough from the first minute of the first day.
Do us all a favour and tell them thanks for thinking of me, thanks for your consideration, but I’ll take my chances somewhere else.
If you care about Celtic at all, do it. Give the club the greatest service you can.
Do not come and work for it.
Spare us, and yourself, what follows.
Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.
The post Robbie Keane, if you care about Celtic do not take the job. appeared first on The Celtic Blog.
Continue reading...
