PO Box 306, Glasgow, G21 2AE, Scotland
Dear NTV,
Plenty food for thought after the events of 20 November at Ibrox. Despite the 'Kenny Clark' factor Alan Thompson and Chris Sutton should be ashamed of themselves. Their nine remaining team mates deserve better than the clunking stupidity of these two. Only their particular records in the Rangers fixture in the past save them here. Bear in mind Thompson's atrocious disciplinary record which, for example, saw him suspended twice in Europe last season - crucially missing the final Lyon fixture.
Why is it that Martin O'Neill's gesture with Neil Lennon at the final whistle is deemed by all the press coverage to be so much more serious than a Rangers player being escorted by police to the tunnel area for a warning following his gestures to the opposing fans? (I must relate Scott Booth's classic report from the sidelines in response to this incident: 'he gestured in no particular direction Jock'. I think he'll fit in very well in the Rob McLean gang)
Why was Lovenkrands' action not rewarded with the same punishment as Thompson? He is clearly the aggressor by his initial nasty foul on Jackie and by pointing threateningly at Thompson and he was the first to jut his head forward. If a Celtic player had gone down the way he did after the 'collision' I would personally want him chased out of Celtic Park.
I counted that Rae raised his hands or elbows four times (that TV caught) and was only punished after the melee with Lennon which typically meant Lennon was booked also.
In the week where all English based media debated why the England team did not walk off the park in light of the disgraceful racist chanting by Spain fans in the Bernabeu Stadium - Sepp Blatter, bear in mind said he would have supported them if they did so -why is the racist taunting of Neil Lennon allowed to pass without comment and why do Celtic not consider some form of protest to bring this to the attention of the authorities and society in general?
Kenny Clark has now, according to an article I have read, shown nine Red cards and awarded five penalties in the 10 Old Firm games he has 'refereed'. His inability to be even- handed shines through every time and he is the worst referee in a poor batch.
Anyhow, what now for Celtic? This should be treated as a (domestic) watershed. I would hope that all Celtic supporters now realise that we are in a battle to retain the Championship due to our falling standard rather than any of our rivals improving drastically. I would also hope that perhaps all supporters could maybe see it in their hearts to support the team from the 1st minute (rather than strolling in after 20 minutes) to the 90th (rather than pretending it is anything other than stealing a march on all the other cars) and during the game realising that even characters from comic books cannot make the number of lung bursting 80 yard runs we all expect Agathe to make time after time, week after week. As well as all other unreasonable howls aimed at one misplaced pass or one missed chance. It happens.
If Martin O'Neill would stop talking in riddles and take a minute to remember that a substitution would be best avoided if it involves six unnecessary positional changes and try to remember where certain individuals have been most effective for him. Alan Thompson on the left / Stan Petrov in the middle and Chris Sutton up front spring to mind. Also, if you look at Barcelona, would Puyol be asked to play Left Back, Right Back and Central Defence in three consecutive games? Then why is that the case with Valgaeren? Why was Petta recalled to the bench for two games before being escorted to the car park?
Finally, to the Celtic Board. Just so as you know, I have never heard so many disaffected supporters talking of not renewing season books purely for the reason that our excellent manager is not being properly supported. I personally am fed up paying over £500 to help you lot service a debt. This is not being reckless with money like Murray has done at Rangers but more people will have to do their jobs a whole lot better in sourcing players.
Rant over.
JAMES CAMPBELL
AKA 'The Voice of Reason'
Shotts
live and kicking
Dear NTV,
Having just about calmed down over the week's events I felt the urge to share a few thoughts with some like minded individuals.
The week started badly as all the noises coming from the Laptop Loyal indicated that Bruce Lee was getting off with his kick at the Hibs player. Now am I the only person that thought it was a straight red card? After all, he did kick the player. Admittedly it was an act of petulance, but look at David Beckham's red card against Argentina. You remember, the one where he was looking to see if he had stood in some shit. He was practically burned at the steak for that, and I don't remember anyone saying that was unfair. Anyhow, Novo gets off with it.
Not only that, Willie Young, fearful of being blackballed from the lodge, only goes and apologises to him! Then to really rub our noses in it the wee ******* only scores the first goal on the Saturday. You couldn't make it up.
Now on to the game itself. Novo could have been sent off after five minutes after aiming a kick at McNamara. Then the man with the nose you could flick peas out a cup with has a slap at Camara. Camara reacts - yellow card. But not a word to Rae. Then Lovencrap clatters into a Celtic player and gets off with it (See a pattern forming here?) Lovencrap repeats the trick shortly after. Thommo squares up, lovencrap does a triple somersault with pike and Thompson is off. Sutton then walks for something that probably goes unpunished every week and we are down to nine. I know Camara could have walked but if you look at the incident, Vignal actually kicked Camara first. Not a mention of this anywhere.
Then there's the whole furore about MON and Lennon. Once again a media frenzy. MON was right to support Lennon. What annoyed everyone was that with all the Celtic fans cheering at the end they were stealing the Huns' thunder.
And my final point - after all the recent racial abuse being highlighted in the media, has everyone forgotten the racial abuse Bobo gets whenever the Huns visit Celtic Park? Just as audible as it was when Spain played against England. This is just swept under the carpet, not a mention of it. And they wonder why we're paranoid!
Must dash, the voices are calling.
Yours in hysteria
JOC
by e-mail
racist bigots?
Dear NTV,
The jeers and boos resound around the stadium every time the black player touches the ball but he ignores it and does his best to carry on with the game. He passes to a team mate. The noise stops. He is getting used to it. It's been like this since he started playing in this country. At every ground from every support with every touch of the ball the boos, the jeers, the songs.
Today, however, the noise is reaching a crescendo. His team are playing against their biggest rivals, they are losing and it's a bad tempered match. He gets the ball, the noise starts up immediately, he loses it they cheer, they start to sing 'we are up to our knees in nigger blood, surrender or you'll die'. The whistle goes and he's glad. Unless he is physically attacked this week or slogans are painted outside of his house then it will be finished for a week.
In any other country the media would be outraged at his treatment. There would be widespread condemnation of the blatant racism on show by the home support. But not here. In this country the newspapers condemn his manager for placing his arm round him at the end of the match and taking him to his own supporters in an act of defiance, just to show him he is not the most hated man in the world. For this his manager is vilified.
The newspapers claim, 'he brings it on himself... he courts controversy wherever he goes... he should learn to keep his head down... stop being so high profile... he should be big enough to take it... Anyway, it's only a very small minority who boo him because they are racists, the rest boo him because he is so good' . In fact one newspaper goes as far as showing him ten other players who were booed and only one of them is black so it can't be racism. One ex-player claims it's all the fault of black schools.
Shocked? Far fetched? Unbelievable? Would never happen? Change the words black to Irish Catholic, change the word nigger to fenian, change the word racism to bigotry. Read it again. Still shocked?
Question: When is a racist not a racist? Answer: When a bigot is not a bigot.
KEVIN McSHERRY
Eire Beag
unfit traynor
Dear NTV,
I sent this to Jim Traynor, but I don't think he used it.
Defending the bigots
Mr Traynor, Your comments yesterday regarding Martin O'Neill's actions at the end of the game betrayed your lack of moral fibre, perhaps indicating why you now earn your living in the way you do.
Neil Lennon receives sectarian abuse at every away ground in Scotland, but obviously nowhere more so than Ibrox (Hearts run them close and he hasn't been to Airdrie yet.) Apologists for this behaviour, such as yourself, are quite willing to condemn the moronic abuse directed at Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips when playing in Madrid the other night. I presume the reason you are happy to do so is that you do have the intelligence and upbringing to find such behaviour disgusting.
Lennon, however, is another matter. Here is a guy who does not have a bad disciplinary record, who gives 100% for his club every time he takes the field and who recently has been the one Celtic player hitting anything like his true form. Since signing for Celtic he has received death threats, been attacked in the street and been the victim of malicious reporting which resulted in the low end of the market tabloid - where you earn your living - having to pay him compensation.
After another 90 minutes of continual racist abuse yesterday, O'Neill decided to ensure that Lennon received the credit he deserved for his performance while also protecting him from any further attacks. Remember Mr. Traynor, he was in an environment yesterday where the opposition club are quite happy to stir up the far right politics and bigoted nature of their support. A club who are happy to have a guy sitting on the bench who travels over to Belfast for sectarian marches, signs autographs with sectarian slogans and who yesterday had to be warned by the Police for gestures directed at the Celtic bench. How do this club respond to such behaviour? They bring this player on to the park so that he can revel in the display of triumphalism.
At the beginning of your show yesterday you went into some sort of childish name calling routine about how poor Lennon was upset at having abuse hurled at him. If that is as far as your guts or job security allows you to go then shame on you. Grow some balls, become a real journalist and actually comment on what is going on.
Would it have been pathetic for Sven Goran Eriksson to have attempted to stick up for Cole and Wright-Phillips? Presumably not, even by your way of thinking. Lennon however, he's another thing entirely obviously. Try to step back from the environment in which you earn your living. Look at things rationally and objectively rather than through the spectacles of Andy McInness. If you and your fellow (so called) journalists don't have the courage to report things as they are, rather than reporting what your editor tells you, then you are no better than the bigots and racists whose behaviour you defend.
Lousy show by the way. Any chance of a T-shirt?
JOHN McVEY
Edinburgh
bhoycott?
Dear NTV,
I had my letter published last month in NTV (been boring everyone with it since) about the current problems at the club. While our showing in the Champions League is disappointing you only have to look at the groups across Europe to see Deportivo La Coruna, Roma, and our dear old friends Porto also in bottom place. Only two seasons ago Bayern Munich crashed and burned, so if it's not our season in Europe we have to accept it and rebuild.
My main gripe now is about how the board are treating us. They harp on about the Club being a business and it has to be run as one. Fair enough, but what type of business asset strips (Larsson, Miller) and then charges more for an inferior product?
The attitude of the board at the AGM was shocking; we should thank God for Dermot Desmond! The Celtic board should thank God for us!
Part of me wonders how it came to this. We had the chance to control our destiny after the takeover but since then we've let nameless faces slip in and call the tune to us. Did anybody know the name of everyone on the board at the AGM? What exactly do they do?
The treatment of the fan for asking where Dermot was unfair. I live in London and attend Charlton games. They have a fans' representative on the board, yet our motion gets dismissed out of hand year after year. We have to collect for a Brother Walfrid's statue. A f***ing disgrace! Did Man Utd or Liverpool fans have to collect for Busby or Shankly's? I mean how much does a statue cost? £20 grand? And they won't pay for it. There should be two 7ft statues outside Celtic Park of Brother Walfrid and Jock Stein paid for by the board, but are there? No chance.
The board to me are feeding off our blind loyalty. I said in my last letter about a Ronnie Simpson DVD to cash in for Christmas. I was wrong. It's a Celtic Greatest Games DVD. Ker-ching!
Well folks I feel enough is enough and it's time to organise a boycott. Show the board we are sick of their attitude and lip service. What is the point of us attending the AGM? Anything we say is scolded at.
As for proposing something to benefit the club, forget about it. I feel the only way now is to hit them where it hurts, in their pocket. We have shown our force by bhoycotting the Record now its time to show the board what we are made of. But what to bhoycott? The DVD would be a start, the new jerseys, maybe a game. Scottish Cup and - hopefully UEFA - Cup coming up in January. I don't know folks but something has to be done and this is all I can think of.
My e-mail address is celticwarrior77@hotmail.com. E-mail me with your thoughts because I am becoming disillusioned with the state of things and feel we missed out on a real chance of re-establishing ourselves on the European stage as a power. We've come too far under MON to go back so join me folks and show our might once more as Hoops.
GARETH
SAVAGE
a Celt in London
green day
Dear NTV,
I see the Celtic faithful will be forking out more cash next summer when the club changes its kit-makers from Umbro to Nike. No doubt the new strip, whatever the design, will sell in its ten of thousands worldwide, as per usual. But here's what I've wanted for many years. Produce the kit along the same lines as the one used by the Lisbon Lions. The crew-neck version, the white socks, and the numbers on the shorts, (I know, we've got to have them on the back too). For the away strip, the all emerald green one with the white number on the back.
You see, our colours are emerald green and white: not lime, not yellow, not black, not dark green and certainly not any of the dreadful efforts inflicted on us over the past two decades.
Come on get your act together, give us the strip we wore when we were feared all over Europe. Who knows, perhaps we will become feared again on the football field too in Europe in the not too distant future.
Celtic For Ever ,
JASPER
CONMAN
by email
strip club
Dear NTV,
In answer to Michael Clancy's agonising over the new Home strip (NTV 127), the solution is quite simple - don't buy it. Nobody is compelled to purchase their team's replica shirts, it's their own choice and if they allow themselves to be motivated by peer pressure or greetin' weans then that's their fault.
The whole phenomenon of fans wearing replica tops has got out of hand since it first surfaced in the late 70s, the most blatant example being Newcastle United where, it would appear, everybody wears an Adidas Black-and-White striped top. But even there, if you look closely enough, it's evident that not all the tops are the current ones. Fans of continental teams don't slavishly rush out to buy replica shirts as soon as they appear, so why should we? When they do wear them they only do so to attend games, not to go to Asda or the car wash. It seems to be yet another example of 'rip-off Britain' particularly at the prices charged for these items.
I've actually heard Celtic fans express delight that the current Home shirts cost 'only' £25! If supporters feel compelled to wear their team's jersey, they should buy one and wear for at least three years. The material they use nowadays is guaranteed to last at least that!
As for 'away' kits, ignore them, they are a blatant rip-off whose very existence is spurious to say the least. The number of times I've seen so-called 'away' strips being worn at home proves the above.
Personally, I wouldn't wear anything by Nike, particularly when it also advertises the products of Coors, masquerading as Carling. Both companies are unworthy of patronage by Celtic fans: the former relies to a great extent on Third World child labour at starvation wages while the latter has fought to deny female employees the right to equal wages and to resist legislation designed to help the environment. The modern day custodians of Celtic FC have shown how far removed they are from the club's founding fathers by their involvement with these companies.
Yours sincerely
Robert Jenkins
visionary idea
Dear NTV,
Rummaging through some back issues of your publication I came across this picture of Barton, self-styled 'football expert and visionary', from back in the old sack the board days.
Perhaps the Celtic Trust might consider adopting his style of putting forward their case for representation at Celtic Park. Then at least if they don't get a fan on the board they'll at least have a board on the fan.
BARTON'S
AGENT
Glasgow Cross