Hugh Keevins: The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth

I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with being told live on air that I talk a load of rubbish.

Not even when the Superscoreboard Open Line caller making the accusation on Saturday night could understandably have been called a lady of advanced years.

So advanced she was actually talking to someone who would have been in the years beneath her at school had we attended the same one, and it's not often I find myself in that position.

The age issue is an indication of how much the game in general, and certain teams in particular, has a grip of the public's imagination and a stranglehold on an individual's affections.

As well as being a pointer towards the audience for Superscoreboard having no age limits or gender issues.

Being told that your point of view is unworthy of consideration is an occupational hazard. If your business is delivering forthright comment then it's understandable that you're occasionally told your point of view is a waste of breath.

Where I draw the line between fair comment and unfair criticism is when the insinuation is made that any opinion offered by myself is deliberately dishonest and designed to pursue an agenda against anyone, such as Celtic's Head Coach Ronny Deila.

My contention is that if Celtic fail to beat Malmo on aggregate tomorrow night, and are prevented from making the group stages of the Champions League as a consequence, Ronny's standing within the Celtic community will have been diminished at a stroke.

He won't be the man they thought he was the day before the game was played.

My senior citizen caller denied this was the case and declared that I had something personal against Ronny.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

When I recently celebrated thirty years on Superscoreboard Ronny was good enough to record a jocular message in which he suggested the job was too big for me.

That was the accusation I had made against him at the time of his European calamities twelve months ago and subsequently withdrew when he won the title and the League Cup at the end of his first season in charge of team affairs.

His message was proof to me of Ronny being a class act as a human being. We're all big boys and we can get on in spite of the occasional disagreement.

But when the Norwegian was recruited to replace Neil Lennon he was sold to a public largely unaware of his reputation as a visionary practitioner of modern day methods designed to look after the well being of players on and off the park.

When Celtic subsequently suffered the embarrassment of being eliminated from the Champions League qualifiers by Legia Warsaw and Maribor, in spite of getting a second chance after the administrative error that led to the Polish club's dismissal from the competition, Ronny pleaded for mitigating factors to be taken into account.

He was new to the country, un-used to the club and un-familiar with the Celtic players he'd inherited from Lennon.

Delia then asked to be judged a year on from that time and the requisite amount of slack was cut for the coach's benefit.

The time of his re-trial is now at hand.

Malmo are not drawn from European football's top drawer and if Celtic, who should have won the first leg against them more convincingly than they did, fall down to them this week then the ramifications will be sorely felt.

And high among them will be a re-appraisal of Ronny's merits as a Head Coach.

No-one is suggesting Deila will be in danger of losing his job, but Celtic can't go on not gaining access to the riches that come with Champions League participation.

Not when the compensation paid out, a place in the Europa League, offers a vulgar fraction of what they could have had in the bank.

Not when league matches have to be moved to a Sunday to accomodate Thursday night football in Europe and attendances suffer as a result.

It would be naive to think that un-conditional forgiveness would be shown to Deila in the wake of elimination. The saintly and the eternally optimistic might be in a position to overlook failure, but a high percentage will feel a sense of loss and the box office will be the first place where that mindset will be exhibited.

The Celtic fans take the league title as a given while Rangers are in exile from the top flight. What makes the difference between an ordinary man in charge and an extraordinary one is what he can do for the club in Europe.

The audience should never be in any doubt that this column wishes all Scottish clubs well in European competition and therefore hopes Celtic are triumphant in Sweden.

By the same token, the barrage of criticism that will come down on my head if Ronny does roar in Malmo will be readily accepted as par for the course and dealt with during calls that will be the verbal equivalent of un-armed combat.

But don't tell me I'm dishonest.

Mis-guided. Dim-witted. Unable to tip a bin. They would all sound like compliments by comparison to that charge.

I tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth as I believe it to be on any given subject. Trust me.