James Forrest
The Emperor of Ice Cream
It has been a difficult few days for some of the enemies of Celtic, and I, for one, am delighted that it has been a difficult few days for them. Our title win has shattered a great many of them.
A lot of them have had to roll back on previous comments because they realise their inflammatory remarks have caused real problems for people.
Some of them are trying to rewrite their own personal history. Some of them think merely saying, “I was wrong about Celtic’s chances of winning the title,” will be enough to save them from the criticism they are due.
Every one of those people is wrong.
The way they have behaved is unconscionable. Some of them have revealed a stupidity and a bias that is beyond belief. It is incredible to me that some of them think they have emerged from this with a shred of credibility. They lost any of that they might once have possessed a long time ago, and all this has done is put the tin hat on it.
People like Keevins do not come back from this, because whatever motivated some of their remarks over the last few months, it was not rational, reasonable analysis. A lot of it came down to hatred.
Have you ever seen such a visceral reaction to a side winning a title?
We’re being attacked for what we did before the game. We’re being attacked for what we did during the game. We’re being attacked for what we did after the game. The intent here is to paint Celtic Football Club, from the boardroom to the fans, as some inherently evil gathering of people. An institution this country would perhaps be better off without.
I know it’s bitterness. I know it’s envy. I know the people behind this are motivated by some of the most base emotions. But the fact we can’t get a fair hearing anywhere is disgusting, and it is clear these people will smear the name of Scottish football itself in pursuit of their goals. They don’t care if they have to destroy everything, as long as it hurts us.
How can one title win have broken these people so badly?
We win these things. This is our fifth in a row. Our fifteenth in sixteen years. Is this the straw that broke the camel’s back? Or is this just the one where they caught a glimpse of what victory might look like and let it go to their heads?
Because it seems that way, doesn’t it?
Whether through the Hearts fairy-tale fantasy or the one they manufactured around the Ibrox club and Danny Rohl, these people thought we were vulnerable. They thought we were on our knees and just about finished off. They allowed themselves to imagine a world where we were broken.
Usually, this kind of delusion is limited to a wild, crazy section of the Ibrox fan base. The section that falls for the same trick every single year, believing in its own BS and thinking that a good run of form means they are suddenly world-beaters.
The Ibrox club’s so-called good run of form involved beating us when Nancy was manager, beating Hearts at Ibrox in a game where Hearts crumbled, and beating a managerless Aberdeen twice. A lot of us said at the time that there were obvious extenuating circumstances in almost every one of those games.
Still, they allowed themselves to believe that it made them better than they were. The Celtic result in particular was hyped beyond all reason, even though Nancy had suffered six defeats in his eight games, including against Hearts, who drew the same conclusions as Ibrox and thus were lulled into the same false sense of security.
But the Hearts thing sent other people absolutely out of their minds, and it was never really all that likely. Hearts had never been over the course. The closer they got to the end, the more unlikely it was that they were going to make it over the line.
The moment the fixture list came out and McInnes and Hearts freaked over it, that was the moment you knew the pressure was already starting to tell.
It was already starting to break them down.
On Wednesday night, everyone in the country saw the disintegration in full tilt. It was written on the faces of their players and on McInnes too.
I understand how it happened. That’s what I’m trying to say. I’m not going to deny how it happened. I accept that we stole hope from a lot of people.
They had dreamed of a different Scottish football. They had dreamed of one where Celtic were not dominant. They looked at the mess we made as a club this season and honestly wondered what it meant for the game if we still emerged as champions.
I raised that issue myself, and I’ve said that it does not mean anything good.
In one of our worst years, with one of our worst teams, we still did enough to get over the line.
It took until the final day, yes. But the way the media ignored what many of us had said, about how this team tends to find itself in the closing stages of campaigns if there is still work to be done, was almost unbelievable.
I think part of the loathing poured on us over the last couple of weeks, and in particular over the last couple of days, is because these people feel foolish. They feel stupid. They realise how wrong they were. They realise the last thing they should ever have done was dismiss us.
They realise that we are too strong to be so casually written off.
I mean, if someone like Paulina can see this clearly, and she has only been following the team for a couple of years, why can’t the people who cover it on a weekly basis? Why can’t people who have watched the whole of our five years at the top this time, and the nine successive title wins prior to it, understand what they are seeing?
Which part were they missing? Why didn’t they get it?
Some of these people are making exactly the same mistake right now. They wanted to believe the old order was falling. They wanted to believe Celtic were on a downslope and Hearts were going to be the next big thing. They are still talking as if Hearts will be around in the same form, playing the same football and dreaming the same dream this time next year.
It is not going to happen. I’m amazed that an entire industry made up of people who think of themselves as experts genuinely believes what it is saying.
So let me repeat it again.
A full European and domestic schedule combined will crush that Hearts team. There will be nothing left of it. The title challenge will die within the first two months of the season starting, and people will wonder what happened. Then they won’t question any of it.
For one season, Hearts captured lightning in a bottle, comparatively speaking. But if we had been just a little bit better, if we had made signings who were just a little bit more capable, if we had not appointed Nancy, this would not even have been a contest.
For all the football Hearts allegedly played, this would not even have been close had we been just 5% better.
All those extenuating circumstances we talked about still apply.
Hearts benefited from not having to play European football. They benefited, perversely, from not having any kind of extended run in either of the two cup competitions. There is no sign at all that they can repeat their form of this season in the next campaign, where we will absolutely have to be better than we have been this time around.
So yes, I understand where this grotesque overreaction has come from.
I understand that the vitriol and hatred being poured on this club is partly a consequence of frustration. That is not to give it an alibi. That is not to make excuses for the people behind it, because they have no alibi and they have no excuses.
An awful lot of it is just old-fashioned anti-Catholic, anti-Irish hatred. Bigotry of the most appalling sort. It is ugly and feral and it has heaped shame on this country and the only way to prevent further damage is to say it out loud. This is vile stuff we’re dealing with here and the more people say that out loud, the better.
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The post The reaction to Celtic’s title win has been vicious. At the core of it is pure bigotry. appeared first on The Celtic Blog.
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A lot of them have had to roll back on previous comments because they realise their inflammatory remarks have caused real problems for people.
Some of them are trying to rewrite their own personal history. Some of them think merely saying, “I was wrong about Celtic’s chances of winning the title,” will be enough to save them from the criticism they are due.
Every one of those people is wrong.
The way they have behaved is unconscionable. Some of them have revealed a stupidity and a bias that is beyond belief. It is incredible to me that some of them think they have emerged from this with a shred of credibility. They lost any of that they might once have possessed a long time ago, and all this has done is put the tin hat on it.
People like Keevins do not come back from this, because whatever motivated some of their remarks over the last few months, it was not rational, reasonable analysis. A lot of it came down to hatred.
Have you ever seen such a visceral reaction to a side winning a title?
We’re being attacked for what we did before the game. We’re being attacked for what we did during the game. We’re being attacked for what we did after the game. The intent here is to paint Celtic Football Club, from the boardroom to the fans, as some inherently evil gathering of people. An institution this country would perhaps be better off without.
I know it’s bitterness. I know it’s envy. I know the people behind this are motivated by some of the most base emotions. But the fact we can’t get a fair hearing anywhere is disgusting, and it is clear these people will smear the name of Scottish football itself in pursuit of their goals. They don’t care if they have to destroy everything, as long as it hurts us.
How can one title win have broken these people so badly?
We win these things. This is our fifth in a row. Our fifteenth in sixteen years. Is this the straw that broke the camel’s back? Or is this just the one where they caught a glimpse of what victory might look like and let it go to their heads?
Because it seems that way, doesn’t it?
Whether through the Hearts fairy-tale fantasy or the one they manufactured around the Ibrox club and Danny Rohl, these people thought we were vulnerable. They thought we were on our knees and just about finished off. They allowed themselves to imagine a world where we were broken.
Usually, this kind of delusion is limited to a wild, crazy section of the Ibrox fan base. The section that falls for the same trick every single year, believing in its own BS and thinking that a good run of form means they are suddenly world-beaters.
The Ibrox club’s so-called good run of form involved beating us when Nancy was manager, beating Hearts at Ibrox in a game where Hearts crumbled, and beating a managerless Aberdeen twice. A lot of us said at the time that there were obvious extenuating circumstances in almost every one of those games.
Still, they allowed themselves to believe that it made them better than they were. The Celtic result in particular was hyped beyond all reason, even though Nancy had suffered six defeats in his eight games, including against Hearts, who drew the same conclusions as Ibrox and thus were lulled into the same false sense of security.
But the Hearts thing sent other people absolutely out of their minds, and it was never really all that likely. Hearts had never been over the course. The closer they got to the end, the more unlikely it was that they were going to make it over the line.
The moment the fixture list came out and McInnes and Hearts freaked over it, that was the moment you knew the pressure was already starting to tell.
It was already starting to break them down.
On Wednesday night, everyone in the country saw the disintegration in full tilt. It was written on the faces of their players and on McInnes too.
I understand how it happened. That’s what I’m trying to say. I’m not going to deny how it happened. I accept that we stole hope from a lot of people.
They had dreamed of a different Scottish football. They had dreamed of one where Celtic were not dominant. They looked at the mess we made as a club this season and honestly wondered what it meant for the game if we still emerged as champions.
I raised that issue myself, and I’ve said that it does not mean anything good.
In one of our worst years, with one of our worst teams, we still did enough to get over the line.
It took until the final day, yes. But the way the media ignored what many of us had said, about how this team tends to find itself in the closing stages of campaigns if there is still work to be done, was almost unbelievable.
I think part of the loathing poured on us over the last couple of weeks, and in particular over the last couple of days, is because these people feel foolish. They feel stupid. They realise how wrong they were. They realise the last thing they should ever have done was dismiss us.
They realise that we are too strong to be so casually written off.
I mean, if someone like Paulina can see this clearly, and she has only been following the team for a couple of years, why can’t the people who cover it on a weekly basis? Why can’t people who have watched the whole of our five years at the top this time, and the nine successive title wins prior to it, understand what they are seeing?
Which part were they missing? Why didn’t they get it?
Some of these people are making exactly the same mistake right now. They wanted to believe the old order was falling. They wanted to believe Celtic were on a downslope and Hearts were going to be the next big thing. They are still talking as if Hearts will be around in the same form, playing the same football and dreaming the same dream this time next year.
It is not going to happen. I’m amazed that an entire industry made up of people who think of themselves as experts genuinely believes what it is saying.
So let me repeat it again.
A full European and domestic schedule combined will crush that Hearts team. There will be nothing left of it. The title challenge will die within the first two months of the season starting, and people will wonder what happened. Then they won’t question any of it.
For one season, Hearts captured lightning in a bottle, comparatively speaking. But if we had been just a little bit better, if we had made signings who were just a little bit more capable, if we had not appointed Nancy, this would not even have been a contest.
For all the football Hearts allegedly played, this would not even have been close had we been just 5% better.
All those extenuating circumstances we talked about still apply.
Hearts benefited from not having to play European football. They benefited, perversely, from not having any kind of extended run in either of the two cup competitions. There is no sign at all that they can repeat their form of this season in the next campaign, where we will absolutely have to be better than we have been this time around.
So yes, I understand where this grotesque overreaction has come from.
I understand that the vitriol and hatred being poured on this club is partly a consequence of frustration. That is not to give it an alibi. That is not to make excuses for the people behind it, because they have no alibi and they have no excuses.
An awful lot of it is just old-fashioned anti-Catholic, anti-Irish hatred. Bigotry of the most appalling sort. It is ugly and feral and it has heaped shame on this country and the only way to prevent further damage is to say it out loud. This is vile stuff we’re dealing with here and the more people say that out loud, the better.
Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.
The post The reaction to Celtic’s title win has been vicious. At the core of it is pure bigotry. appeared first on The Celtic Blog.
Continue reading...
