TIME IS A GREAT HEALER OF THE BANTER YEARS
Seasons of hurt have been replaced by the hilarity created by Celtic
There is no record of hitmen rushing the forecourt outside Celtic Park to fire off a 21-gun salute in honour of Celtic’s fine win over Lille on Thursday night.
Celtic’s board of directors must have been granted a stay of execution or else the firing squad’s mums and dads wouldn’t let them out so late on a school night.
Either that or the would-be assailants put their balaclavas on back to front – and shot themselves in the foot.
But seriously, the story has moved on from annoying adole scent s and the i r disturbed dreams about discharging firearms.
Celtic’s win over Lille was a congratulatory pat on the head as they went out of the Europa League, finishing bottom of their group.
Rangers got the last 32, and the increased prize money that goes with it, after beating Lech Poznan to top their section.
If the Celtic Trust fan group were honest they would cancel today’s planned demo before the game against Kilmarnock out of respect for the truth.
Neil Lennon, Peter Lawwell and Dermot Desmond didn’t blow the Ten, to quote from the most recent banner displayed outside the ground.
Rangers are blowing the Premiership race apart by doing the extraordinary on a routine basis.
Don’t concede, don’t lose and don’t look like being stopped any time soon.
Barring an unforeseen miracle, they will be 16 points ahead of Celtic in the league af ter their game against Dundee United this afternoon.
And, in a season that is becoming about revenge versus retribution, Steven Gerrard’s side are grasping the former and Celtic are stuck with the latter.
Years of hurt have started to be replaced by the hilarity created by Celtic underperforming on the park and appearing not to know what to do for the best off it.
The announcement that Celtic were standing by their manager was greeted with ill- disguised glee by those Rangers fans strengthened by NHS backing. Neil Has Stayed. The memory of court cases, tax cases and headcases has gone. Progres Niederkorn? Graeme Murty ’s headstand at Dens Pa rk? Dav id Gra y winning the Cup for Hibs?
Time really is a great healer.
Record defeats from Celtic? Leigh Griffiths tying a Celtic scarf round a goalpost at Ibrox? Pedro Caixinha going all rubbery in the shrubbery in Luxembourg?
Just a hazy recollection. Rangers are taking a professional responsibility for driving up their own standards and are not concerned by Ce lt ic imploding at the same time. That’s why they are dominating t h i s yea r ’ s title race.
When Rangers and their fans were enduring the farcical years from 2012 onwards, taking eggs Benedict off the menu in hospitality and banning players from wearing green boots, Celtic were racking up titles.
Rangers’ eccentricities had nothing to do with Celtic being a better team.
History is now repeating itself and the Rangers fans are indulging themselves in that most basic of human emotions. Vengeance.
Celtic fans will say Rangers no longer exist and a new club stands in its place but their supporters didn’t go into administration or liquidation.
They have an unbroken timeline of supporting whoever plays at Ibrox and this 10-in-arow business has driven others to the point of distraction and random acts of disorder that have been shameful. The loss of 10- in- a- row is not just a disappointment to the Celtic support. It is a bereavement.
Stopping the Ten is payback time for the misery the Rangers fans endured for eight years.
But those mourning Celtic’s decline now want football’s equivalent of a Fatal Accident Inquiry to establish the cause.
The first witness they want in the stand is Lawwell.
The chief executive is held in contempt by militant Celtic supporters for not doing enough to put Rangers out of business after their financial collapse in 2012. Now he’s being held in contempt for not doing enough to protect his own club while Rangers prosper.
Lennon’s legacy at Celtic is supposed to be irreparably damaged at the same time – but I don’t buy that one.
It is his to keep because nobody, apart from Celtic players, did anything to help him acquire it.
What outsiders think about his legacy is neither here nor there. Hilarity has replaced hurt. Revenge is winning over retribution.
You can’t appeal to people’s better nature because they can’t locate it when they’re being mocked by the rival fans they once mocked themselves.
But if people do gather outside Celtic Park today they should at least be honest with themselves.
Rangers are on top and that has everything to do with football and nothing to do with internal issues at their rivals.
Time to put away the banners and bravado and acknowledge the existence of swings and roundabouts.
Ten is ing the the Stopp time for ack ers payb Rang that endu ry re mise hadto fans reven ge is .. over ing winn butio n retri