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Off The Pitch: 2010-2011, Part 2

Discussion in 'TalkCeltic News' started by obonfanti1888, Jun 22, 2011.

By obonfanti1888 on Jun 22, 2011 at 1:06 PM
  1. obonfanti1888

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    Off The Pitch: 2010-2011
    Part 2

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    Something Inside So Strong: Tribute to Neil Lennon

    In Part One, Celtic had just been drawn against Rangers in the cup, and in an enthralling game at Ibrox, the ten men of Celtic heroically secured a 2-2 draw to take the game back to Paradise for a game under the lights. By now it had emerged that Neil Lennon had been sent a nail bomb to him in the aftermath of the 2-0 victory at Ibrox, something which at first had been considered a hoax; an assertion that was proven false a few months later when it emerged they were in fact viable bombs capable of maiming and killing (see below). It also emerged that due to the actions of these bigots and racists, Lennon and his family were living under 24 hour guard, had moved house and had had a panic button installed. On at least two ocassions, Lennon and his family had to be woken up in the middle of the night to be taken to a safe house after creditable intelligence from the police that their safety was in threat. A disgraceful set of circumstances for what is allegedly a civilized country.

    Therefore, it was with this in the background that Rangers came to Celtic Park in early March for the replay. It was clear from early on the Rangers sole tactic was to try boot Celtic off the park, so it was little surprise when Steven Whittaker was sent packing for two bad tackles that earned him a red card in the first half. At this point, the sewer rat (copyright Neil Warnock) El Haji Diouf who had joined Rangers on loan from Blackburn elbowed the Celtic physio as he ran on to the pitch to aid Izaguire, which angered the Celtic bench who made their feelings known to him. At that point McCoist and Diouf lost the rag, both trying to get into the Celtic technical area and having to be pulled away by Walter Smith and Roddie MacDowall respectively. The game went on but now with a red hot atmosphere; as the teams came into the tunnel at half time, Bartley and Diouf laughably tried to square up to assistant manager Johan Mjallby, Celtic's very own Thor. This writer would dearly have loved to see what big Johan would have done to those two if given the chance!

    Celtic came out fired up in the second half and the 'goal machine' Mark Wilson nailed his third goal of his Celtic career to make it 1-0. Cue bedlam in the stands as the merciless taunting of Rangers began in earnest. Rangers were clearly just out to kick and maim, with Bougherra's shocking and potentially career ending challenge on Hooper met with only a booking. Bougherra was then sent off after a rash tackle on Kris Commons but the scenes that followed had to be seen to be believed. Maurice Edu, Diouf and Bougherra could be seen screaming in the referee Callum Murray's face and astonishingly, Bougherra manhandled the referee to somehow try and prevent him showing the red card!

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    Bougherra manhandles referee Callum Murray

    A referee's strike would surely follow such an intimidating and threatening act of disrespect to a referee.

    Or not, as it turned out again undermining the whole alleged basis of that strike. Diouf and David Weir could be seen trying to get Bougherra's arm off the referee, surely expecting that such an act would be met with a severe punishment. Diouf was sent off after the final whistle for dissent yet proceeded to march towards the Rangers fans and throw his shirt into the crowd despite being told not to by a police officer. Whoever caught that shirt surely must have thrown it back, considering how poor this mercenary Diouf's input in that game aswell as his time in Scotland was.

    At this point, Neil Lennon went to shake Ally McCoist's hand, and could clearly be seen smiling as he offered McCoist his hand. McCoist then said something undoubtedly provocative as Lennon's body language suddenly changed from conciliatory to angered in a split second, resulting in a shoving match that was quickly broken up. This kind of rowdy affair in a Glasgow Derby is oddly enough quite rare considering the level of rivalry between Celtic and Rangers. Surely the press would recognize that Rangers had simply lost the rag and that having three players sent off and having their assistant manager instigate a touchline skirmish was evidence of this? How naive were we?

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    A picture of "snarling,angry psycho" Neil Lennon we always see

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    A picture of "cheeky chappy 'Coisty'" we never see

    Incredibly, the Laptop Loyal tried to spin the blame on both teams and as a direct result of this, First Minster Alex Salmond, seeing an opportunity to win some votes and free publicity pre-election no doubt, called a "summit" to address this 'Old Firm' problem. Such is the way things are reported in the Scottish media when Rangers lose the plot yet when the shoe is on the other foot it is without fail, a "Celtic" problem. The less said about the summit the better, it was a PR stunt that did the square root of nothing and wasted a lot of column inches.

    The reaction to the game itself took the breath away. Apparently it was all Neil Lennon's fault that the Rangers players lost their heads, something not helped by currently suspended Rangers chief executive Martin Bain indulging the paranoid lunatics who create myths on Follow Follow by speaking in vague terms about "significant verbal provocation" from Lennon et al at the previous 2-2 game, ignoring the fact that another Glasgow Derby that Celtic won 3-0 had passed in relative calm between the two cup games.

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    The "Summit": a shoddy political stunt

    Martin Bain increasingly came across as pandering to the paranoid in the Rangers support, incredibly criticizing FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) for having the nerve to report the bigoted and racist singing of Rangers fans in Europe to UEFA and demanding to know who "grassed us in"; the implication being it must have been a meddling Tim. Of course, by in large the Scottish media followed the fake tan man Bain's lead, investigating the known members of FARE more deeply than they ever have of Rangers mysterious new owner, Shooter McGavin lookalike Craig Whyte. One paper ran with a totally unfounded allegation of racism against Neil Lennon, much to the disgust of Lennon's lawyer Paul McBride who confirmed, as we all know, that the allegations were libelous and completely without any semblance of truth. Indeed, Diouf, the alleged 'victim' of this abuse, himself came out and denied this ever happened, much to the disappointment of Rangers fans and the tabloid press.

    Paul McBride QC was to come to prominence off the pitch late in the season, despite having represented Neil Lennon earlier at his appeal against his touchline ban. It was in the aftermath of the SFA's incredible decision to let McCoist, Diouf and Bougherra off scot free for their actions in the cup game whilst Neil Lennon received a four match ban for a second misconduct offence that provoked McBride to say on national television that the decision was "thoroughly dishonest" and most explosively, "bias". Hugh McDonald in the Herald newspaper agreed, calling it "embarrassing, shameful and against the rules". The SFA reeled from the accusation and laughably threatened McBride, one of the top QC's in the country, with legal action, a threat that McBride dismissed with barely concealed contempt and ridicule. To this day, the SFA have not made any move towards legal action; McBride apologized for his remarks but notably he did not withdraw them either.

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    Bougherra and Diouf; a picture of sincere contrition after the shameful decision by the SFA

    Paul McBride was just getting started however. The SFA had intended to make Lennon's two four match line bans run consecutively meaning Lennon would miss 8 games in the title run in. Yet Celtic accepted the punishment, knowing that they had spotted a glaring flaw in the SFA's own rules; it stated that the second touchline ban was to start during the first one meaning the bans could run concurrently instead. Much to the fury of Peat and his cronies, Celtic showed up their rules as the product of rank amateurs and as it was, Neil Lennon served only 5 matches, including the CIS cup final against Rangers that was marred by an 120 minute barrage of anti Catholic and anti Irish songs being sung by 20,000 Rangers supporters, something that was predictably met with complicit silence; this was to have repercussions later in the season at the Scottish Cup Final which is discussed later. He was back in the dugout to watch Michael Duberry decide basketball is really the sport for him in a 1-0 victory at St Johnstone.

    With such a quick rise to prominence as Neil Lennon's lawyer, it is sadly unsurprising that McBride became a target for the deranged among the Rangers support (let's not kid ourselves who else would it be?). Along with Trish Godman, from Govan of all places, a Celtic supporting MSP whose crime was wearing a Celtic top on her last day in Parliament, McBride and Lennon were sent improvised explosive devices designed to maim or kill. So much for a "hoax" bomb eh? The news sent shockwaves across Britain and indeed the world, if not Scotland where for years people have excused this kind of treatment that Lennon receives as somehow his own fault.

    After all, Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, is perhaps the only Western country that still genuinely believes that the Catholic education system is the root cause of sectarianism in Scotland, a view not just shared by troglodytes that attend Ibrox or those who proudly proclaim their hatred of Catholics every marching season, but by many respectable middle class types such as Herald journalist and rector of Edinburgh Univeristy Iain MacWhirter, someone who no doubt loathes bigotry in all its forms, who in a recent article called it "educational apartheid", an utterly ridiculous and provocative statement. Due to it's acceptance as a "cause" of bigotry, media mouth pieces like Chic Young, Jim Traynor et al often use our "segregated schooling system" as a reason for religious tension in Scotland, as if it were as bad as apartheid in South Africa or racial segregation in America; which is of course, absolute rubbish. The idea that somehow it is Catholic schools that are responsible for anti-Catholic bigotry is an argument this writer has never been able to comprehend. But Scotland is not easily understood, not when people are getting bombs and bullets sent to them on the sole basis of their ethnicity, creed or what team they support. Two men have indeed been arrested and are awaiting trial.

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    Lennon, Godman and McBride; targets of terrorism

    These threats to Neil Lennon's life united the Celtic support like never before, and despite the disappointment at missing out on the title after throwing our advantage away by losing to our bogey side Inverness, those who had the pleasure of being at Celtic Park (myself included) on 15 May 2011 will never forget it. Defiant in defeat, the Celtic fans sung and supported the team in the only way we know how, by singing, doing the huddle and generally having a right good time. The 18th minute tribute to Neil and his speech afterwards raised the roof.

    This was merely days after perhaps the single most shocking incident of the season at Tynecastle, when a deranged Hearts fan assaulted Neil Lennon on the touchline, having evaded security, in the aftermath of Gary Hooper making it 2-0 Celtic. Although the Celtic fans did slip into some of the far more dodgier tunes that night, the image of the wild staring eyes of the attacker jumping a startled Lennon was haunting. Credit must go to Alan Thompson who got in the way of the attacker, who for all anyone knew, could have been carrying a knife. Despicably, the Hearts fans cheered the thug as he was frog marched off the pitch by police officers.

    This is where we had come to. A man being attacked for doing his job and for being who he is. It's that simple.

    Of course condemnation was lukewarm at best, with only Andy Walker, never the most sympathetic of ex-Celts in the media, calling it for what it was, an attacked based solely on religious and racist prejudice; bursting the cosy and convenient little myth that many Scots like to tell themselves; namely, that bigotry is only a "Glasgow/ West coast of Scotland" problem. Also, the role of the media in Scotland, particularly the tabloid media, has to be looked at; they stoke the flames of hatred against this man yet when it blows up in their face they plead mea culpa. They, to quote Neil Lennon, have to take a long look at themselves in the mirror. Indeed, it was not till after the attack that the men who sent bombs to Neil were arrested; five months after the threats were first revealed.

    As for Hearts, they have still to issue a public apology to Neil Lennon and Celtic and indeed had the nerve to tell us all that they are considering cutting Celtic's allocation of tickets to Tynecastle! They should be looking at the disgraceful behaviour of their own fans before those of Celtic. On top of this, the SFA have so far shown no sign of punishing Hearts for their failure to control their fans. It's perhaps apt that Hearts have been confirmed as the dirtiest team in Scotland for the seventh year in a row. Relegation is the least this writer hopes for them next season, as unlikely as that is.

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    Wild Staring Eyes: Neil is attacked by a Hearts supporting thug

    And so we come to the final game of the season at a rain soaked Hampden which saw Neil Lennon lift his first trophy as Celtic manager after a rousing 3-0 victory against Motherwell in the Scottish Cup Final. The game itself, bar an inexplicable handball by Majstorovic which he could have got a second booking and a deliberate handball by Stephen Craigan which prevented Samaras from going one on the keeper, passed off fairly controversy free. The controversy was in the stands, or rather what BBC Scotland thought they heard in the stands.

    During the half time break, prompted presumably by a producer, Rob MacLean falsely accused the Celtic support (note use of the word 'the'; not 'tiny minority' which routinely proceeds debate about the Rangers support's bigoted songs) of singing sectarian songs without actually naming what allegedly 'sectarian' songs they were singing! Pat Nevin, a psuedo intellectual who probably thinks wearing glasses is a sign of his inherent superiority to all others was allowed to rant for a bit, finishing by appointing himself moral arbiter on sectarian singing and promising to speak out whenever he hears it.

    Interesting then that he and the BBC did not feel it was "editorially appropriate" to comment on tens of thousands of Rangers fans belting out songs of hate throughout an entire game, that the law of the land has deemed illegal: the Billy Boys, Famine Song, No Pope of Rome, (you name it, it was sung) at the CIS cup final earlier in the season? Why the sudden change in policy? Mysterious is it not? Then again hapless Justice Minister Kenny McAskill praised the atmosphere at that game as a "credit to Scotland". So clearly what we heard at the game or on our televisions and radios is a figment of our imagination.

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    Rob MacLean and Pat Nevin: slandered the Celtic support with a false accusation of sectarianism

    Some suspect that the BBC in Scotland may have done this to back up their frankly, * poor, shoddy and downright amateurish "investigation" into Scottish football, Bombs, Bigotry and Football (a show which oddly made no mention of bombs and bullets at all) which fudged the issue and more or less told us nothing new; peddling the same old myth that "both sides are as bad as each other/two sides of the same coin." A teenage Modern Studies student could have complied a far more relevant and accurate investigation.

    The BBC, in patronizing stock, generic replies to hundreds of complaints pointed out that before the Cup Final, Celtic had released a statement asking fans to not sing offensive songs and chants, such as "Ooh Ah Up the Ra' during the Celtic Symphony, which should be dropped or at least altered (Ooh ah Mon the Hoops for instance) in this writer's opinion. (Although the Celtic statement, rather like the BBC made the same mistake in not naming for the avoidance of doubt what chants they meant). Yet that statement made no mention of sectarianism because frankly, there is no 'sectarian' problem at Celtic. Presumably, what the BBC Scotland production team construed as 'sectarian' were Boys of the Old Brigade (whose memorial the Queen of Britain recently visited in Ireland), The Soilders Song (the national anthem of Ireland) and the Fields of Athenry (an Irish folk song), songs regularly sung by the Celtic crowd.

    Notice a pattern here? All Irish songs. And all not sectarian in the slightest. The general ignorance to this fact in Scotland is embarrassing.

    The truth is, too many people, whether highly educated or not, in Scotland don't have a * clue what the word 'sectarian' actually means. If Irish Republicanism is 'sectarian' against Protestant's then how can it be that Wolfetone, the man who first articulated Irish Republicanism, was a Protestant? Of course, most Scottish people think Wolfetone is just a "bigot" band that sings "taig" music.

    The failure of BBC Scotland to even name what songs they are talking about however means that this lie has not been set straight. The Celtic support as a whole has been slandered in the most public fashion and it cannot be allowed to stand; indeed, many of those who originally complained have let it be known to BBC Scotland that they shall escalate their complaints until a full apology and retraction is forthcoming from BBC Scotland. We must wish them luck and hope for the best.

    So that's it, that's what happened off the pitch in season 2010-2011, Neil Lennon's largely successful first year in management. The thunder is well and truly back. I must confess, this season has been one of the most memorable in recent times, for the good and the bad. More than anything else, this season was the season Celtic rediscovered it's soul, one that had been diminishing since the latter days of Gordon Strachan and the disaster of the Tony Mowbray era. If next season is anything like last season, next seasons report will be ten times longer! And just think. We only need to wait 31 days till it kicks off again!

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    Celtic celebrate their Scottish Cup win

    Hail Hail :shamrock:
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 6, 2011