Disappointing from Celtic today, sending a very short email stating that The Celtic Star, scheduled to appear at the pre-match media conference today, would not be allowed access, despite the rota being set by the club back in the summer…
Conor Spence was attending on behalf of The Celtic Star and would have welcomed Wilfried to Celtic on behalf of the Celtic support and would have asked him about his impressions of the team in the matches he watched while the negotiations were progressing, and what he thought not only about the victories achieved by Martin O’Neill but any lessons from the Europa League defeat against FC Midtjylland?
And as none of the hacks had asked about team news ahead of the game against Hearts on Sunday he may well have asked the new Celtic manager how the squad was looking and if he had any fresh injury worries.
Conor would NOT have asked about the ongoing fan protests for a number of reasons, firstly it was a day for welcoming the new manger to the club and secondly because the mainstream media hacks had already asked those questions anyway.
So no official welcome from the Celtic support for a new manager, no team news to report on and no additional insight into what Wilfried Nancy made of the team that he has been watching over the past month or so. And the other fan media site would have had their own questions too.
The Celtic Star has certainly NOT broken the rules that the club set out yet today just over an hour’s notice our access to the media conference was revoked. And at no stage did we agree to be simply a mouth piece or a propaganda service for the club.
This is the email message that The Celtic Star received this morning from Celtic FC at 11.31am as we prepared to attend the media conference with Wilfried Nancy at Lennoxtown…
“There is no * for fan media today. We are currently reviewing access arrangements for fan media.”
*Access missing in more ways than one.
Here’s just about everything that was said at today’s media conference ahead of the Scottish Premiership match on Sunday against Hearts. Oh and welcome to Celtic Wilfried…
Q: Wilfried, welcome to Glasgow.Can you tell us how happy you are to be finally sat here as Celtic manager and why you think that this club was the right move for you?
Wilfried Nancy: “Really, really proud, really excited. Celtic is Celtic, I like to say that, this is a big club but also the story behind it. That’s why I’m here also. To accept the project, it is important to understand why I want to go there and why they want to connect with me. So when I read the story of Celtic with my background, the fit is good. I am happy to discover a new culture.I have been travelling a lot so it is going to be good for myself but also for my family. So I’m really happy, really excited and happy to get a start with my first session today.”
Q: The Celtic fans will be keen to know what you are like as a coach. What can we expect to see from a Wilfried Nancy Celtic team?
Wilfried Nancy: “Listen, it is not a secret regarding Celtic and the way that they play. So I think that if we work together because they want to play in a certain way, so play offensive football. But what does that mean offensive football? This is more about everyone wants to score goals and so on but for me it’s about productivity. Trying to attack the ball as soon as possible. We’re going to have moments where we’ll suffer to the idea is to be good defensively. So step by step, I arrived two days ago, so we have two days to prepare.”
Its a shame that responsible fan media wasn’t given access, however, elements of fan media can’t be trusted at present to conduct themselves in a responsible manner. As is frequently leveled at the board, no one is bigger than the club, which is true and also includes the certain fan groups that wrongly think they can speak for all fans.
Well said Ellbee.
So we are back to collective punishment? If any fan media outlet break the agreed rules then of course they could suffer the consequences as Celtic could say you broke this or that rule so you are banned for however long. I don’t listen to the podcasts, with the occasional except, but I do know that The Celtic Star hasn’t broken the rules. I don’t take from the message I received yesterday from the club that they are saying that we did – but obviously they feel that some outlet or outlets have and therefore they have withdrawn access to all sites. There are Celtic supporters in the North Curve who weren’t even at that Falkirk game who have found themselves banned via the first example of collective punishment.
Green hun
Big jock knows this and hes not happy.
Big Jock would have skelped the arses of everyone on this pathetic board.
Big Jock would have been equally quick to tell the kids who masquerade as fans that they should either grow up or get out of the way to make room for real fans. THATS what the Big Man meant when he said football is nothing without fans!
REAL FANS
Not wee nappy filling whiners!
But you are a fanny Joe and an embarrassment.
He would have wondered why the board of your old club that died shoved fans into a death trap. Ignoring what happened twice in the decade before.
Disgusting club that died hilariously
Not a penny