This tit for tat over titles is just a lot of twaddle

STATEMENTS, statements everywhere and not a drop of sense. When it was suggested last week that Rangers and Celtic were currently indulging in a three-year-old argument, a waggish colleague piped in with: ‘You mean 300-yearold …’ Quite. If anyone thinks that the bullish declarations from Dave King, at such odds with his earlier apologetic tone, were intended to enlighten and shape the revived debate over tax affairs and title stripping, they clearly haven’t been paying attention. King is banging the drum in order to whip up a sort of defiant fervour and feverish loyalty from supporters, hardly a novel tactic at a club where Charles Green was able to hoodwink so many with his regular intemperate outbursts. And good luck to the Rangers chairman. You won’t find anyone in the business of selling newspapers complaining about juicy quotes that could have been written with a headline in mind. That doesn’t mean we have to buy any of his arguments, of course. Supporters of other clubs have been predictably riled by his veiled threats and belligerent swagger. Which was also kind of the point, right? Celtic’s pointedly-mild interjection in the EBT/Big Tax Case/title stripping, meanwhile, was aimed firmly at keeping their supporters onside. No clarity is introduced to muddy waters, nothing is gained beyond Brownie points from those who, if you can follow this, believe a club no longer in existence should have a history they no longer possess permanently amended, robbing them of honours that don’t belong to them any more, anyway. It all feels a bit tit for tat…