Have it your own way. And let me do the same.

I am a disgrace.

This is not the start of a heartfelt confession, but simply a repeat of the word that was directed towards me by a young, female Celtic supporter as I reached the top of the steps outside Hampden's main entrance on Sunday afternoon.

I had walked to that point from the press car park in the company of Morton manager Jim Duffy, a fellow member of the Superscoreboard team for our coverage of the League Cup final between Ronny Deila's team and Dundee United.

If you've been taking pelters from the callers to the programme on a subject such as Celtic's captain Scott Brown being photographed while slumped on a pavement after a night out then it's best to choose the company of someone who looks like one of the Mitchell brothers from the old episodes of Eastenders.

The young lady, as Jim will verify, continued to harangue me from the top of the steps to the entrance to the media centre. The gist of her loudly expressed criticism was that I wouldn't dare have a go at Broony to his face and that great players of the past had enjoyed what Glaswegians lovingly refer to as a 'Swally.'

The truth is I have gone head to head with Scott in the past. On one memorable occasion at The Cameron House on Loch Lomondside our full and frank exchange of views was only ended when his then team-mate Paul Hartley took Broony away to allow both of us a moment of quiet reflection.

Another former international player, who shall remain nameless, came into the press room on Sunday and asked me what I'd done to irritate the young lady outside Hampden's main entrance.

When i explained I had been critical of the way Celtic's image had been tarnished by the photographs of their captain much the worse for wear the former player said that was why he always avoided getting involved in any kind of controversy while discussing the game on television or radio.

Sorry, but that's not good enough for me.

I looked up the definition of a pundit in the Oxford Dictionary and it said, "A person who frequently gives opinions about a subject in public."

Precisely.

If you want someone who is reluctant to give an opinion in case it causes a stir and brings him a bit of private grief then get yourself another boy.

Being opinionated doesn't make you a disgrace. It simply means you have a view that runs contrary to the one held by the person who's shouting at you in a public place.

And I would love to know what Celtic's Chief Executive, Peter Lawwell, thought of his club captain being photographed on the front page of a newspaper while suffering from the effects of over indulgence.

Peter can keep his own counsel as his prerogative. If I'm asked what I think about something on Superscoreboard then I'll give you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth as I see it.

And I've being doing that for long enough to know that, on occasion, this will lead to being spectacularly wrong and having to take public derision as your punishment.

This has never been, nor will it ever be, a problem. You dish it out and sometimes you have to take it back.

I was the one who said I thought the job of Celtic manager was too much for Ronny Deila. The oven in the Superscoreboard kitchen is at gas mark five and a humble pie is nearing readiness for consumption.

Deila is one-third of the way towards winning Celtic the treble, an accomplishment only achieved by two former managers of the club in their 127 year history.

If Ronny's name is added to those of Jock Stein and Martin O'Neill then I will step up to the plate, consume the humble pie and admit that I got it horribly wrong when I came to the conclusion that the Norwegian was in the wrong movie at Celtic Park.

This will not make me a disgrace for having said what I said in the first place. It will mean I was guilty of an error of judgement and too hasty in delivering that point of view.

There will be no apology along with the admission because then I would be saying sorry for having an opinion and expressing it.

But there will be, without equivocation or any other form of ducking and diving, an admission that I got it wrong. If it happens then it will not be the first time and it almost certainly won't be the last.The people throwing condemnatory statements towards me can have their free shot. They might have shared my opinion of the manager to begin with and then changed their minds with the benefit of hindsight for all I know, but that's neither here nor there.

I said it. If I'm proved to be wrong then I cop it. Rules of the the punditry game.

Neil Lennon should have won a treble while he was Celtic manager and Rangers were removed from Scottish football's top flight. The fact that he didn't is for him to contemplate at his leisure. If Ronny Deila does it then he should be justifiably proud of himself and no-one should look for a caveat before congratulating him on his achievement.

Meanwhile, Broony had a quiet afternoon as Celtic won the League Cup and might even have been sent off for a last man challenge that the referee deemed unworthy of a penalty kick. That's life.

He could also mock his own behaviour by patting his stomach for the benefit of the crowd. A gesture to make light of his pavement takeaway at the end of that now infamous night on the tiles in Edinburgh.

He's not a disgrace in the eyes of the fans. The newspaper that photographed him, and the pundit who questioned his behaviour as a consequence, share that denunciation in the eyes of the fans.

That's the way it is today. The old ways no longer apply. Where once a player who prompted front page coverage of a negative nature would have been condemned for letting his club down there is now only an outpouring of support from his adoring public.

Have it your own way, but that doesn't prevent those who keep to the dictionary definition of a pundit from speaking their mind.