{"id":17414,"date":"2021-12-24T07:02:54","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T07:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=17414"},"modified":"2021-12-24T07:02:54","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T07:02:54","slug":"celtic-diary-friday-december-24-so-this-is-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=17414","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Friday December 24: So This Is Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Merry christmas everybody.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Maybe this year it&#8217;s right to be a little bit more sentimental than usual, to treat those around you with a little more love and respect, and maybe it&#8217;s right to remember those who have departed with a little more than just a raised glass.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Westminster has stopped shy of banning household mixing altogether, but a simple &#8220;cabinet meeting in progress&#8221; sign on your door will keep things nice and legal.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a feeling of here we go again throughout the real world and the crazy, topsy turvy mixed up world of Scottish football.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You want to know why ?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Because we, as a society, have forgotten how to deal with bullies.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For example, Suzie McGuire, the radio DJ , was in a video where she mimed &#8220;fuck the huns &#8221; as a tag line on the christmas hit Merry Christmas Everyone.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On seeing this, some outraged wet wipe contacted her employers, and now she hasn&#8217;t got a job.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The problem here is with Nation Radio, who failed to tell the outraged citizen to go and fuck himself, as if it offends him then he shouldn;t watch it, but instead, they took the easy way out.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Bullied.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been happening in Westminster for years, it happened when Trump got elected in the USA, though they finally came to their senses last year, and it happened to Corbyn , the last Labour leader, when he pointed the NHS was going to be sold off, and to anyone who suggested Brexit might not be a good idea.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Decent people get shouted down, demonised and finally silenced.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Scottish football has it&#8217;s own shouty bullies in the form of a new club\/company operating out of Ibrox.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When the Holyrood government, admittedly somewhat confusedly, decided that larger public events would be banned and crowds restricted to just 500 for a couple of weeks, most clubs suggested, quite reasonably, that the upcoming winter break should be moved from Jan 3 to December 26;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Presumably the virus was having a week off for christmas, but it was clearly a compromise between carrying on and the more draconian idea of just shutting down completely.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Two clubs, Ross county , who feared they would have to invest in a few new fans to take the total attendees to 500, were placated when it was explained it was a limit , and not a target, and shouty bullies &#8220;rangers &#8220;, who weren;t quite sure what they were saying &#8220;no &#8221; to, but said it anyway.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Predictably, no one in the Scottish media asked then why they were saying no, and at least one outlet , the Glasgow Times, through the staunch Matt lindsay, even pointed out that<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"headline \">The SPFL risk incurring the wrath of Rangers again by bringing<\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"headline \">the winter break forward amid more Covid chaos<\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The implication that the wrath of Rangers is to be considered ahead of public health is bizarre, but it&#8217;s there.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s what they do, intimidate, harass, bully&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With their friends in the media always keen to jump on board anything that will prop up their piss poor sales figures, regardless of veracity or fairness, it&#8217;s little wonder that no one seems to know who the bad guy is any more, let alone how to get rid of him.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Common sense , sort of , did prevail, with the season halting after the Boxing Day fixtures, which isn;t ideal, but will serve as a compromise.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Things might not be any better when things restart after the break, but they might be.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And thats certainly a better idea than carrying on and hoping this leg of the plague just goes away.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the overall feeling of doom and gloom has contributed to the reaction over the 0-0 draw with St Mirren in the week.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly, the Ange Express has slipped off track and we&#8217;re all doomed again. Suddenly the league is over and he&#8217;s back to being an unknown manager who won the lottery.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Just a few days after he won the first trophy, and so far only one available, of the season&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/card_img\/1473345859836424192\/c94HGE1Y?format=jpg&amp;name=small\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As usual. Mikey Johnston, just back from injury, was the scapegoat again.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Johnston is often thrown in and expected to perform immediately at the level of whoever he replaces. When he doesn&#8217;t, supporters claim he&#8217;s not Celtic class, and ruthlessly expose any mistakes or wrong decision making.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Then his form and confidence suffer, and he makes mistakes etc&#8230;.it&#8217;s known as bullying.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What chance does he have ?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There are others who have been and will be pilloried for anything short of a world class performance, some who aren;t even old enough to drink in some US states, but somehow it&#8217;s right to scream abuse on field and on line at them ?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Give it a break.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Save it for where it really matters.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Celtic won&#8217;t be employing Bernie Higgins, the former Reichsfuhrer Police Scotland. They never were, and now they can pretend they&#8217;ve listened to the fans and acted on their behalf.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Which, of course, will mean they can get on with their business in the background, and they did when they announced the appointment of the new CEO.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Celtic Football Club is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Nicholson as Chief Executive with immediate effect.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There won&#8217;t be any press conference, as Peter Lawwell isn&#8217;t available to stick his hand up the new man&#8217;s arse and do the talking for him.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With confirmation that Nicholson is now the CEO comes confirmation that Celtic, as they did the last time a club\/company at Ibrox was in trouble, will bend backwards to help save another Rangers, and they&#8217;ll use our money to do that.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nicholson is not so much a step backwards, but a full blown retreat with horns and horses<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Like I said, we seem to have forgotten how to stand up to bullies.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Though i meant it when I said Merry Christmas, I meant it when I said cherish those around you and remember those who aren&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Today , i&#8217;m going to go out and give christmas presents to hundreds and hundreds of people.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Mind you, I get paid for it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t for one minute think it&#8217;s because i&#8217;m a nice guy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Oh, by the way&#8230;.have you seen this years &#8220;must have &#8221; gift for the discerning Celt about town ?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/FHMN2DwXMAIc_zu?format=jpg&amp;name=900x900\" alt=\"Image\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes you just have to shake your head and leave them to it&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Merry christmas everybody. &nbsp; Maybe this year it&#8217;s right to be a little bit more sentimental than usual, to treat those around you with&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3686244-John-Lennon-Quote-And-So-This-Is-Christmas-And-What-Have-We-Done-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-4wS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17416,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17414\/revisions\/17416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}