Celtic Diary Monday November 8: A Time And A Place for Everything

At Dens Park yesterday, the minutes silence for Remembrance Sunday was cut short, largely because for some reason, a section of the support doesn;t want to acknowledge the slaughter of the Great War.

Whilst it’s true that the memorial has been hijacked by those with little concern for those who were cajoled into a boys own adventure to protect imperial interests, it’s also true that many men, just like me and you, were butchered on European fields, something that should never have happened and should never happen again.

Thats the point that we’ve been allowed to miss, and therefore the memorial is no longer about remembering, but about arguing over who honours the dead the most.

If there’s a minutes silence to be observed, then observe it. Save your distaste of empires for another time, and not for the game.

I understand that this generation is far removed from that particular catastrophe, and the true horror perhaps escapes them, but then that’s kind of the point of Remembrance Sunday, or at least it used to be.

All any failure to take part does is harm the image of the club, and make the support look, quite frankly, like arseholes.

Keith Jackson of the Record was one of the first to step up. And what’s even worse is that it’s hard to disagree with some of what he says.

Celtic fans’ embarrassing minute’s silence disruption was a toe curling affront to decency

…..what went on before kick-off on Tayside, when a tiresome, hardcore element of the travelling support shouted and bawled their way through a minute’s silence, was a toe-curling affront to human decency and a reminder Celtic have some serious housekeeping to attend to where the club’s reputation is concerned. 

Instead of leaving it at that, though, he continued….

That the club opt out of wearing poppies on their shirts is a knee bend to the obnoxious militants who didn’t think twice about doing such damage to their own club on national TV yesterday lunchtime. 

I don’t wear a poppy.  Therefore, I’m an obnoxious militant.  And not someone who has tired of the glorification of mindless slaughter, which is what the whole of Novemeber and most of October has seemed to become.

As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough that they could not bring themselves to stay silent out of respect to the dead for 60 seconds, they then opened up a song book which belongs to a very different time and place than 21st century Scotland. 

Quite unlike songs which have been getting criticism about immigrants going home or Glasgow streetgangs of the early twentieth century, which you hardly hear these days, unless you happen to listen out for them.

There’s the problem, by allowing the media to harp on about songs of the old country, none of which glorify murder or promote hatred or bigotry, a section of our support is legitimising the real songs of hatred and division in the eyes of nuetrals, and perpetuation the two cheeks of the same arse myth.

So, how about we grow up and show a little bit of respect ?

There are other ways to make our views known, such as, er, throwing twnnis balls onto the pitch.

The point of any protest is to make, well, a point.

And if your protest is greeted by puzzled looks and a “what the fuck was that all about ? ” line, then you’ve failed.

The car park was invented purely for protests, and the pitchfork is there to help get your point across.

Some time after all that, a game of football broke out, and Celtic stormed to a second away win with yet again some wonderful football and great goals.

Thats the sort of stuff we shoud be talking about.

Yeah, we still concede the odd daft goal, and we’re certainly missing Carl Starfelt at the back, as without him, the goals against are more frequent.  Thats because he gets to the ball before joe Hart gets the chance to metaphorically fling one into the net, as he did yesterday, and as he will do again.

Hart is a great leader, and a great organiser, but some practice at catching the ball and a little bit of work on his decision making wouldn;t go amiss.

You’re never too old to learn….

Tony Ralston celebrated his new deal with another solid display, and surely he must rue being around at the same time as Ibrox wonderkid Nathan Paterson, who is ahead of him in the Scotland pecking order.

£20 million rated Paterson is not a reference to his value, by the way, it’s how much the SFA predict he will generate in revenue if Steve Clarke shoe horns him into the national team to keep “rangers ” fans interested, with the added bonus that he’ll never miss a match as he won;t get injured because he can’t get a game for his club ahead of James Tavernier, who remains at Ibrox , along with a few others, because no one else wants him.

The protests yesterday allow the media to further ignore the good things in our game.

Such as the fans managing to compose a song for our exotically named manager, which delighted and surprised him…

“I’d say they did well.

“I thought that would be the biggest challenge: trying to fit Postecoglou into a song.

“But they’ve managed it, and credit to them.”

By re-writing bits of the classic George Michael hit “Last Christmas “, fans have shown originality, creativity and a sense of humour.

Which is what supporting a club is all about.

The style of football being played is a joy to watch, the players in possession has plenty of options and enormous support from team mates at all times, a massive change from the sidieways hesitancy of just a few months ago.

The atmosphere is bouyant, the mood is upbeat, and there is the promise of more to come.

Oh, and the icing on the cake…..

The new club/company over the river continue to rack up debt, and are on record as saying they need £7.5m just to complete the season. some reports indicate a major high street lender is going to help them out, but as usual its short on detail, such as which one.

The bottomless pit of directors money isn’t bottomless, even if the media would have you think otherwise, and sooner or later it will run dry.

Yes, we know that the authorities will shift heaven and earth to save them, and there will be more honest mistakes on the pitch, and some downright dishonesty in our board room.

If we are to let the board know what we think of them, we must do it in straightforward terms, dividing and conquering in much the same way as they divide and conquer the support.

An emphatic and plain message needs to be sent, and more importantly needs to be heard.

Boycott the stalls and shops inside the ground.

Stand next to them, facing away with arms folded in silence. I remember going to Ibrox and seeing this at the pie stalls. It’s more impressive than it sounds.

And you won’t disturb the players concentration, or attract the wrong kind of headlines.

There are great times ahead, but only if we want them.

On Thursday we pondered this….

Woof Charlie 

 Life as a Celtic fan; Every time you climb a ladder there’s a snake on the board waiting to bring you down.   

Today….