Don't shoot the messenger

Published 12th Aug 2019

This could become embarrassing.

If Celtic and Rangers are going to start disposing of their opponents by fives, sixes and sevens then their two horse race for the league title could take on a faintly farcical aspect.

It'll get to the stage where an off-day for either of them will constitute winning by just a one or two goal margin, home or away.

Not that either set of supporters will care one iota if the total subjugation of the also-rans in the league is part of the championship-winning process.

This is, after all, all about the bragging rights and the less well-off are simply innocent casualties of a private war of nerves among the better off.

The mind boggles how many Celtic and Rangers could score against Dunfermline and East Fife respectively this weekend in the Betfred Cup, assuming they have their serious game heads on and don't let complacency get the better of their predatory instincts.

Even the European qualifiers in midweek against FC Cluj Midtjylland and could become goalfests given the way the strikers at Celtic and Rangers have started the season in redoubtable form.

But at some stage along the way, even if it is only against each other or when Europe gets serious, defending is going to become part of the equation.

Genuine tests will be few and far between, but they will arise and present a form of examination which will have to be passed with flying colours.

Celtic's subs bench at Motherwell on Saturday comprised one goalkeeper and six forwards.

Johnny Hayes is an emergency full-back but a winger to trade.

That is where he was bought to play, so, for the avoidance of complaint, the bench was made up of a goalie and six attackers. In other words, Celtic's defensive cover is negligible.

Tomorrow night's game against FC Cluj is finely poised at one-all. The smart money says Celtic go through to the last Champions League qualifying round against Slavia Prague because the Romanians look a pedestrian, uninspired side who will find a full house in Glasgow as big an ordeal as they will the assault force which Neil Lennon has assembled from middle to front in his team.

But you can't discount the fact the visitors will get chances to score during the match.

Celtic will, therefore, need to defend more resolutely than they did in the early stages of the game at Motherwell.

Lennon said afterwards it was "very, very unfair" of the critics to isolate Boli Bolingoli for negative comment. These critics will include the Celtic fans in the crowd who were in a state of apoplexy over Bolingoli's first half performance and were captured in television close-ups hurling abuse at their player.

The callers to Superscoreboard after the game chose to unite behind the full-back and turned on those who have not given the former Rapid Vienna players time to settle into his new surroundings.

The world of punditry is always littered with the bodies of those messengers shot because supporters did not care for the message they were delivering.

But I would offer two words in defence of the ones slain for having the temerity to offer an opinion.

Marvin Compper.

He was brought in from German football by Celtic on what could only be called a handsome annual wage in excess of one million pounds.

Compper was given one first team game and then deemed to be such a bad player that he was never seen again.

One game.

Pundits did not take the decision to bin him. Pundits did not have to pay the price of having to keep him on the books while he took no part in the club's fixtures. Pundits did not fail to make allowances for Compper adjusting to a new way of life.

Marvin was an outcast simply because he couldn't be trusted to play under any circumstances imaginable.

There was no injury epidemic, no suspension crisis and no fluctuation of form on the part of other players so great that it would have given Marvin a game.

The club made him a designated dud and continued to pay him a fortune until someone came along and took him off their hands.

So don't tell me the critics are guilty of anything other than offering an opinion on Bolingoli based on the evidence of their own eyes. If it was good enough for Celtic where Compper was concerned, it's good enough for the rest of us where any other player is concerned.

In the game of football, you do not get two chances to make a first impression.

The tie with Slavia Prague, assuming Celtic get there, will carry a £25m side-stake.

Lennon doesn't have time to bed in multi-million pound signings. They need to be competent from the off when big games present themselves on a weekly basis.

Rangers, meanwhile, scored four goals away from home in the first leg of the tie against the Danes. They will have no problem getting through the return leg at Ibrox on Thursday.

The Danes will also get chances to score in Glasgow but Steven Gerrard's defence would need to suffer a total collapse of the central nervous system in order to put the outcome of the tie in jeopardy.

Fire away if you don't like that message. The shooting gallery is open from six o'clock until eight o'clock tonight.