but not in the papers, it seems, which, it appears, are moving even further to just being a collection of opinions.

Sitting here with this mornings paper and my phone  battery, I managed to work out the difference. The battery, at least, has a positive side.

Looking back at yesterdays papers, however, and theres a more sinister side to the family title “Sunday Post ” , the rag which once held the record for having virtual saturation amongst its possible readership.

From its own website;

Sunday Post

The Sunday Post is nothing short of an institution. Scotland’s favourite family newspaper, for 100 years we have reflected our brand values of fairness and decency. The paper is loved by our loyal army of readers, with over 214,000 copies sold every Sunday across the circulation area of Scotland and the north of England. 

Fairness and decency ? Unless you were, up until relatively recently, catholic and wanted a job at owners D C Thomson, , there may be something in that.

Of course, the Sunday Post is synonymous with Oor Wullie and The Broons, and the antics of these legendary comic characters still give pleasure to many thousands of young and old readers every Sunday. 

Now they have a new feature, in the sports section.

Oor Dick.

Or Gordon Smith, billed, incredibly, as “The Man In The Know.”

Except , of course, when the questions get a little tricky. Like when he’s asked about Dave King, or Craig Whyte .

As the shareholders and fans have already shown they appreciate, the new man in charge of Rangers is someone who knows the club very well.

Dave King has spent his life supporting the team, and is a former director who was on the Board when I was Director of Football.

At least, I think he was!

I never knew for sure because Craig Whyte never held any Board meetings.

It sounds bizarre, but it was true. John Greig, John McClelland and Gary Withey were directors. I knew that because they used to come in to Ibrox. But while I understood King was also on the Board, I couldn’t be sure – in much the same way I never knew what Whyte himself was up to.

Anyway, yesterday, The Man In The Know Except When He Isn’t gave us his tuppence worth on Scott Allan moving to Celtic. Within it there is everything that is wrong , not only with journalism in Scotland, , but with the perception of society in certain circles.

For those of you who think this diary spends a little too much time on stories from Ibrox, you might have a point. but try to look at the bigger picture. We are witnessing the end of an era, an era that may have gone some way to defining who we are as well, and as predicted when the old club died a few years ago, the old guard are intent on taking as many down with them as they can.

Plus, their ramblings are funny as fuck.

SCOTT ALLAN must be a brave man. 

How so, oh wise one ?

 Rangers have missed out on their number one signing target, his choice of Celtic as new employers rubbing salt in their wounds. 

Thats because, according to John James of the RSl, one of the things they could not give their number one signing target was, in fact, a signing on fee. And the boy wants to play at a higher level.

Hibs have seen their Championship challenge diminished through the loss of their best player.

They have got Liam Henderson in as part of the deal, but that will only marginally soften the blow. 

Smith has obviously never seen Henderson play. Or Stephen McGinn, brought in earlier, or Dylan McGoeuch, who joins Hibernian permanently, at no charge, because the team sheet compilers at Celtic couldn’t spell his name. Well, no-one can. not even him.

Ultimately it is the 23-year-old Allan himself who is going to have to live with the consequences of his decision. 

Medals, fan worship, Premier League football, champions League football, improved quality of player around him, financial long term security, top class coaching excellent training facilities, sports science facilities and a signing on fee.

Yeah, it’s going to be tricky.

As a lifelong Light Blues fan, he surely knows what he has done. 

Followed a path taken by the likes of Danny McGrain, Kenny Dalglish and Davie Provan ? Didn’t do them any harm.

The Ibrox support, of which he was part, will regard him as nothing more than a turncoat. 

In the same way they rejected the re-appearance of Kenny miller, still the only player to play for all three ” Old Firm ” clubs ?

His move to request a transfer in the wake of successive failed bids from Rangers signalled a clear desire to move to the club. 

Er, no. It signalled a desire to move.

The Light Blues’ faithful know he could have waited out Hibs’ “we-won’t-sell-to-Rangers” stance for a year to join for nothing under free agency next summer. 

Note the attribution of the opinion to the Ibrox support, when in fact he’s stating his own.

And that he could have rejected Celtic’s approach to ensure himself hero status on Glasgow’s south side. 

Football is an unpredicatable game. He had the chance to join the top club in the country, and took it. Just like every single  player at ibrox would, given the chance

I also believe that the judgement from fans of his new club is not going to be kind, either. 

And here we have it. The perception that we , too, are bigots. The old two sides of the same coin argument. One of the more recent “turncoats ” who joined Celtic after playing at Ibrox , Stepehn Pressley, said , in april 2011;

“They (Celtic] embraced me with open arms. I had a fabulous two years at the club. ” 

Many of them will see him as a mercenary Bluenose. 

None that I know of.

So if things don’t go well, Scott Allan has a real test of his mental strength ahead of him. 

Thats the same for any new player at any new club.

At the moment, Rangers and Celtic are in different divisions. But in a year’s time, he could easily find himself asked to run out at Ibrox in a Premiership fixture. 

Yes, he could. Footballers play against their boyhood heroes all the time.

If selected. 

Yes, if selected. It’s possible because Deila will probably rest a few players against a newly promoted side with his eye on bigger, more important games against European or domestic opposition.

Don’t forget Allan has joined a squad with no shortage of attacking talent. 

It’s called moving up a level. A career move, to test yourself amongst the best.

Stefan Johansen, Stuart Armstrong, Gary Mackay-Steven, James Forrest, Kris Commons and, for the moment anyway, Anthony Stokes, are all contenders for the three advanced midfield roles. 

At Hibs he had an elevated status as a player, acknowledged as the club’s best and, last season, the Championship’s most exciting talent. 

Is he hinting the lad should have stayed in the second tier, having reached his level ? a sort of “know your place ? ” .

At Celtic he is going to have to scrap for every opportunity.

So will he be good enough to justify the gamble he has taken? 

I think the point he is missing here, and making in a round about way, is that he is not good enough for Celtic, but would be a star at Ibrox. Why not come out and say that, despite the pain it would cause ?

It is a question that has run in tandem with speculation over the midfielder’s future over the last few weeks.

Having learned the answer to the first question, I believe we will soon also know the answer to the second.

Allan once again has access to regular top-flight football and – more enticingly for the player, I am sure – could soon be playing against some of the world’s very biggest clubs.

Whether Celtic will compete in the Champions League or the Europa League group stages remains to be seen.

Either way, they have some massive matches ahead of them.

I think Allan is a talented young player. But as to whether he is going to be good enough at European level, I am just not sure. 

But he’d be a star at Ibrox, in the second tier. Perhaps other footballers should take note. Play at a level beneath your capabilities and you’ll be a hero.

This is a guy who failed to make it in England with West Brom, after all. 

but would be a star at ibrox…..

So why have the Hoops bought him now?  

Ronny has seen something he likes. My concrn, and only concern, is that the Norwegian has a habit of using a one in one out policy. Who could be leaving ?

Stokes ?

Commons ?

Clearly Rangers fans will say it has been done for devilment. That they have signed him because they can and the Light Blues can’t. 

There might be something to that. They know the rivalry will be back soon enough, so moving to deny Mark Warburton the services of his top target must have held some appeal. 

Ah, it’s to make Rangers weaker. Next year. when they will be pushing for a champions league place.

One argument I haven’t seen made yet amid all the hullabaloo is that Celtic have actually moved to help Rangers get up to the Premiership and get money-spinning Old Firm games back on the agenda. 

Yeah, there’s a reason for that…

That by buying Hibs’ best player they have deliberately weakened the club who are the biggest threat to a Rangers’ title win, and made it more likely they will be champions. 

So, Celtic have weakened Hibernian by taking their best player, and simultaneously weakened Rangers, as he pointed out at the top, by taking their top target.

Well, you can’t say he hasn’t covered the waterfront.

Remember where you heard it first! 

I think one or two of us will not only remember it, but remind him of it in the months and years to come.

But wait, he might have a point. !

“Scott wasn’t even in the dressing-room door and Charlie Mulgrew was winding him up. It will remain behind closed doors but was great banter from the likes of Charlie and Scott Brown.

“It was good fun but I am sure Scott will take it right in his stride.”  

So says Leigh Griffiths, who was not spotted standing on the treatment table singing about roaming in the gloaming with a shamrock in his hand.

I never understood that song. The words I mean.

” Right, dear, i’m off out for a roam. Have you seen my shamrock ? “

Many of us have friends who supported the Ibrox side. some have friends who support the new club. There is a lot of harmless banter between the two sides, and there is a minority who are full time idiots.

I’m quite sure that the heckling will be good natured, and it’s more a test of whether Allan can give it out as well as take it, a common theme in dressing rooms all around the world.

I very much doubt, for instance, that kit man John Clark will be refusing to look after Allan’s gear.

Griffiths continued;

 “I’m not surprised he got a good reception. Celtic fans will welcome anyone.

“It won’t be an issue. It doesn’t matter if you support Rangers of East Stirling. As soon as you pull on that Celtic jersey the fans will take to you straight away.”

The forward had said last week that he hoped he stayed at Hibs, what could he have possibly meant by wishing the top man would stay at his boyhood heroes ?

 “I was talking from a Hibs perspective and them getting out of that league. It’s great to have him on board and we’ll welcome him to training on Monday. He’ll want to prove a point.

“I know him really well from the Under-21 games. He’s a good player who likes to make things happen. I am sure he will be a good addition.”  

Another article caught the eye yesterday, in the Sunday Mail;

Gordon Waddell: If field of Scottish football is

fertile enough for Celts to sign up best, why can’t they grow their own?

 Celtic’s Academy, it seems, isn’t doing it’s job…

They spend £2million-plus every year on an academy set-up, on getting their younger kids hundreds of extra hours with the ball at their feet at their own performance school at St Ninian’s.

Yet there’s clearly a glass ceiling for their development players to actually develop.

It’s a proven fact that only first-team experience can turn you into a fully-fledged first-team player.  

Quite a few from the Academy at Lennoxtown are making a living from the game, which is why they learn their trade in the first place. And there are more than a few currently on loan elsewhere getting, er, first team experience..

A little bit of research before you put pen to paper next time, perhaps ?

I shouldn’t really criticise him. sometimes he does do research, and lets us know what he found…

Er, thanks for that. but it’s The Rangers, or Rangers International, or something like that.

Happy to help.

Need to be careful what I say here, as Irish journalist Phil MacGhiollabhan criticised the article yesterday, and Waddel was none too pleased.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/gordon-waddell-field-scottish-football-6257545#ICID=sharebar_twitter … Deflection. Damage limitation.   

@Pmacgiollabhain Y’know, so many people have told me what a total fuckwit you are, I just never bothered to check. Saved me the trouble. Ta.   

Back to Celtic, and there is talk of Gary Hooper returning to the club.

No, not for the Malmo game, but as a striker.

It’s in the super soaraway Sun, oh, okay.

He’s not coming then.

It’s the traditional buy or sell prelude to the champions league group stages.

If we go through, we can spend money.

If we don’t , we won’t.

So the press tell us, and to be honest, this might be about the only thing that they consistently get right.

It’s not just a case of whether Celtic will spend, but whether the player sought will actually come. The Champions League is a big selling point.

Significantly, the policy is top prospects from Scotland, and top prospects from England who have seen their careers stall.

Boyata saw what Celtic did for Jason Denaayer. Janko a little less clear, but maybe Lustig is van Dijks replacement, and Janko his if he moves to centre half.

 The Scots lads knew what they were getting into, and have become, if they weren’t already, Celtic Minded.

We know we should have got the top men in to make the group stages, but sometimes we have to shop in the market available to us.

And to be honest, I’m not iverly comfortable with the idea that players have endured the stress and effort required to qualify, should they do so, only to be discarded in favour of another mercenary who might not do what it says on his tin, and chuck it the first time it rains in October.

In that sense, I’d take Hooper. He knows where the net is, he knows what the clubs about, and for those who say you should never go back, ask this guy what he thinks…

The monkey at the typewriter got some great replies yesterday, so we’ll do another caption competition today;