Let It Rip - But Get A Grip

It's people that make Glasgow according to the advertising boards dotted around the city still patting itself on the back after the undoubted success of hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games last Summer.

But what kind of people have taken the place of those who supported the athletes of all nations in a way that made a native of the city, like me, well up with pride ?

Surely not the kind who would attempt to rip up crush barriers from their place in the ground outside the front door at Ibrox on Friday night amid fears that they were going to enter the stadium as a protest against Mike Ashley's attempt to give Rangers a ten million pound loan which involved the club's home, and their training facility, being used as security ?

Surely not the kind who then attempted to storm another part of the building after the abandonment of the game against Hearts and became an internet embarrassment as they were pursued by police trying to quell a public order offence seen by a global audience ?

Surely not the kind who have forced one pub chain to pull the plug on showing any television coverage of Celtic's League Cup semi-final tie with Rangers a week on Sunday for fear of inc inciting trouble ?

Surely not the kind who provoked one Police Scotland spokesperson to predict a "Tsunami of violence" surrounding the Old Firm game that would ultimately engulf the West of Scotland ?

Are we to accept that the sight of one team scoring one goal more than their opponents would be enough to have pub patrons scattering for fear of being caught up in a serious disturbance ?

Are we to simply accept as a matter of fact the increase in domestic violence which will automatically occur because Celtic are playing Rangers, regardless of the outcome ?

Football supporters of all clubs are quick to tell us that players are role models, looked up to by children and seen as a massive influence on them, therefore requiring to be upright citizens of stainless character.

Are the same standards of conduct not expected of people who attend football matches or watch them at home or in licensed premises ?

Is it not possible to be passionate about your football team without being inclined towards worrying bouts of misbehaviour at the same time ?

If it isn't possible to be a fan and a normal human being at the same time then you shouldn't bother about football and leave the city to those who distinguished its name while the rest of the world was looking at them a few months ago.

And don't bother telling me, as frequently happens, that the media whipped people up into a frenzy with the saturation point build-up to the derby match.

If you get carried away to the extent that you throw a punch, or anything else, in the name of a football team that's because you were at fault. It's got nothing to do with people who write or speak about the game, unless you're looking fgor a feeble excuse to explain away violent tendencies.

The irony is that those who are moved to anti social behaviour never stop to ponder the sporting background to the first Old Firm game for three years.

Rangers have wasted that period of time while failing to re-structure the club, on and off the park, that fell into administration and then liquidation in 2012.

They have arguably the most mediocre side ever to represent the club waiting to face a Celtic team whose less discerning supporters are gleefully predicting a goal laden victory for Ronny Deila in his first experience of the fixture.

That prediction must be the work of those who no longer go and actually watch Celtic playing, because there isn't a massive win in the players who are currently in the side.

When Superscoreboard broke the news that Kris Commons believed he was going to play his last game for Celtic at Hamilton on Saturday, and would be staging a farewell gesture when the final whistle blew, it prompted the television cameras to follow him when he emerged from the dug-out area to throw his boots into the crowd.

It was Commons' way of saying, "In case I don't get the chance to see all of you again, this is my way of saying thanks for the memories."

But why is he going and why can't a compromise solution be found to keep the guy who is still Scottish football's reigning Player of the Year ?

So far as I understand it Commons was offered a contract renewal on less money than he currently earns and for a shorter period of time than he wished to undertake.

When teams win league titles, and Commons thirty-two goals last season did more than anyone to wrap that flag up, they are supposed to progress to the next level.

Celtic would appear to have elected to go in another direction.

This involves signing someone like Dundee United's Gary Mackay-Steven on a pre-contract agreement rather than pay the £250,000 United were looking for to release him straight away. And when the hyphen goes to the Hoops it'll be on a fraction of Commons' wage packet.

Unless Celtic wait until the last day of the transfer window and see if United's chairman, Steven Thomson, will be tempted into taking a reduced sum of money for a quick sale rather than get nothing in the long run.

Penny pinching or shrewd wheeling and dealing ?

Have it any way you like, but the over-riding issue is that Celtic are cutting back and the club that once revelled in the Champions League and those dramatic nights when Barcelona could be beaten in Glasgow has now drawn up a different set of plans for the immediate future.

Rangers, meanwhile, are supposed to fear losing players in the transfer window due to financial necessity. Would you like to name one and where he might be going ?

Lewis MacLeod reached the dizzy heights of Brentford when he left at the start of the month and I don't detect a rush to take anybody else from Ibrox.

So the moral to the story is, what are you getting so worked up about concerning February 1 and the cup tie at Hampden ?

And what, exactly, is it that would move you to extremes of behaviour, because it certainly isn't the quality of the football.

The least supporters could do, whether they are at the national Stadium in person or watching at home or in social surroundings, is view the match in a civilised manner.

It's not as if it's El Classico. Eldorado would appear to be more of a concern for Police Scotland.

The teams might not be in the best shape possible, or stand comparison with those who have represented both clubs in days gone by, but the people who make Glasgow could surely allow the day to pass off without the kind of incidents that will blacken the city's name.

We must surely think enough of ourselves to believe that has to be possible.

If Glaswegians have come together in the face of two unspeakable tragedies to have affected the city in recent times then sure they can't be torn apart and divided into two warring factions over a football match. Can they ?

• Hugh Keevins