The disparities this season, a six counties playbook and Celtic being asleep at the wheel

It is fair comment to suggest this season has seen a lot of self-inflicted wounds impact on Celtic’s deterioration on the field of play. Tactical aberrations, poor in game management and a team that lack the fitness to exert themselves beyond the hour mark have all impacted on Celtic’s ability to hold a rival’s feet to the fire, one who habitually collapsed under pressure has felt nothing of the sort from Celtic and has extended away from us in the Scottish Premiership like a thoroughbred Ascot performer up against a Kempton fibre track bully.  

Neil Lennon of course paid for all of that with his job and on the face of it he could have no complaints, the only objections indeed came from a confused support wondering just how a manager stayed in post as it all slowly unravelled.

Lennon however in his defence pointed to ‘mitigating circumstances’ that ‘I can’t divulge publicly’ having an impact on Celtic’s season. It’s left to everyone else to hazard a guess at what those influencing events may have been of course but it’s fair to assume not all were down to malcontents and wantaways in the dressing room.

Celtic this season, alongside other clubs in the Scottish Premiership also, have been held to different standards off the field, in a season where traditional injury lists and suspensions have been impacted by Covid-19 protocols, their implementation and how they are enforced. To say there has been little balance in their administering would be an understatement.

First up was Bolingoligate alongside the Aberdeen Eight, as various Aberdeen players were photographed out in city centre bars after their opening day defeat to theRangers at Pittodrie and shortly after that Celtic’s Boli Bolingoli headed over to Spain for a sleep-over after Celtic opening day victory over Hamilton. He arrived back, was on the bench for the game at Kilmarnock and came on in the closing stages.

Nicola Sturgeon’s anger was apparent and both Celtic and Aberdeen were told by the First Minister that they would not be playing for their next two games – something that put Celtic on the back foot in the league from pretty much the early stages – and Scottish football was also issued with a yellow card by Nicola Sturgeon, who pointed out she as using language that football would understand and that we all know what comes after a yellow.

Celtic at the time, and Aberdeen, both took the punishment on the chin assuming there would be a fair interpretation of the rules going forward and of course to avoid unbalancing an already precarious position with both the footballing authorities and the Scottish government, the alternative, a halting of the Scottish football season, would have been disastrous.

Strangely however such confidence in an even-handed approach as the season progressed was already misplaced. We had already seen prior to the official season kicking off that a level of parity was not in operation.

theRangers had already fielded a team in a pre-season encounter against Dundee United and had done so without receiving the results of lateral flow testing carried out earlier in the day. That game was played and risked their own team, officials and the opposition, but little was heard in the mainstream press and there was certainly no punishment meted out. It certainly wasn’t something missed as it occurred as Sky Sports reported on the evening kick off being delayed against Motherwell by two hours as the results were required to allow that match to kick off, and also commented on the protocol breech from a few hours previous but there was no real follow-up:

‘Rangers and Motherwell were forced to delay Wednesday night’s Ibrox friendly by two hours when results of tests carried out on Monday failed to arrive on time for the scheduled 6pm start. ‘Both squads came back negative but the JRG is now looking for answers after it emerged several members of Steven Gerrard’s first-team had played earlier that day for Rangers B in a bounce game against Dundee United.’

Celtic could also count themselves somewhat unlucky as they lost several players to Covid 19 infection alongside self-isolation periods enforced for close contacts, particularly with players leaving their club bubbles to join up with their international squads. The decision to allow friendly internationals and Nation League games to progress could be questioned of course, but in one particular case so could the interpretation of the rules.

As a close contact of the tested positive Stuart Armstrong both former Celt Kieran Tierney and Ryan Christie were forced to self-isolate prior to Scotland’s game with Israel. On the face of it there is no problem with the decision being reached, on this occasion by a Track and Trace employee with the Lothian Health Board, yet Kieran Tierney was permitted to play against Manchester City and Ryan Christie was not permitted to play against theRangers.

At the time we asked someone we know whose wife works at a pretty high level in the NHS to see if he could get some rational for us to calm us all down. Here’s the response we got.

“Just spoken to the good lady about the Christie situation. She’s scratching her head here. She says that only the Lothian Health Board – who made the original decision can make the decision around the 14 day isolation period and no-one else.  Apparently the 14 day isolation period is a harsh one in any case. 97.5% of cases apparently show positive up in first 6 days. The 14 day period is for the 2.5% of tests that have returned later positive results, there is a school of thought 14 days is excessive.”

“That aside, she says there is only one difference based on what she can make out between the two cases. Tierney had a positive test before and had the virus and is now recovered, and as such may have raised antibodies to the virus, while Christie – who hasn’t is unlikely to have done so – however even with a test that shows someone has raised antibodies the guidance is due to not being able to second guess the variances of the virus and therefore the ability to have raised antibodies to one version but not possibly another variant then the 14-day isolation, harsh as it may appear, should be consistently delivered. Therefore, both players should be continuing to isolate.”

They didn’t. Ryan Christie missed out; Kieran Tierney played. Neither the Lothian Health Board nor the Scottish government did explain the disparity.

Then at the end of last year two players from theRangers, Jordan Jones and George Edmundson, were issued with Fixed Penalty Notices from Police Scotland for being caught breaching the lockdown rules by attending a house party – believed to be a birthday party for a teammate who appeared not to be there – a Scottish Government spokesperson released a statement COMMENDING theRangers for taking swift action against their two Covidiots.

Then there was the second breach from theRangers squad, this time involving FIVE players – Nathan Patterson, Bongani Zungu, Calvin Bassey, Dapo Mebude and Brian Kinnear – and the SFA Tribunal into their breaches of the Covid rules was heard late last week, with a decision expected on tomorrow. Remarkably these players have been allowed to continue to play – Patterson has actually played in Europa League matches and came on as a substitute at Celtic Park in the Glasgow Derby.

There was also the thorny issue of Celtic’s deeply divisive trip to Dubai. Morally the decision to travel was questionable to say the least but it was given full clearance from the Scottish government. Whilst out there, pictures emerged of a lack of adherence to social distancing. Defender Christopher Jullien tested positive for COVID-19 after the team returned to Scotland ahead of Celtic’s Premiership clash with Hibernian. Although all other squad and staff members returned negative tests, Lennon, assistant John Kennedy and 13 first-team players were told to self-isolate after being deemed close contacts.

In a statement, Celtic said:

“Clearly we are hugely disappointed, as we know our supporters will be. The contacts were identified during the period from Wednesday last week, primarily around flight and team coach travel, during which time Celtic applied the same rigorous protocols used for pre-season training camps, UEFA match travel and for all domestic match arrangements in Scotland. 

“Celtic has done everything it can to ensure we have in place the very best procedures and protocols. From the outset of the pandemic, Celtic has worked closely with the Scottish Government and Scottish football and we will continue to do so.”

Neil Lennon also broached the subject in his infamous press conference and it certainly appeared the goalposts around social distancing protocols had been moved after the fact:

Are you disputing that you should have been without that many players? 

Yes. On the plane they were saying you had to isolate if you were two seats forward or two seats back, which wasn’t the case. We were told it was three metres.

Is it inaccurate? 

“I disagree with and I’m not convinced that was what we were led to believe. On the buses, the way we’ve been travelling and the way every team has been travelling up and down the country, now – the way the government has set out the protocols since we’ve come back, you can only have three on the bus out of a 52 seater.”

“We played Hibs and we had six players who couldn’t drive so we had to bus them. We couldn’t put all six on one bus. We had to get two busses to take six players. That would have meant in Dubai, we would needed 20 buses. If that’s the case, every team in the country is breaking protocols.”

You feel as if the goalposts are moved? 

“100 percent.” 

Is there an issue with the guidelines? 

We followed the protocols and it’s backfired on us, we’ve been punished for following the protocols so for me they’re a complete waste of time.”

So have Celtic and indeed other clubs, who have their own stories to tell, been unlucky or is there enough from just these incidents to suggest that there has been mitigating circumstances both on and off the field for Celtic this season?

Post Dubai Celtic played shadow teams in draws against Hibs and Livingston then as players returned to the fold there came a home defeat to St Mirren after another draw with Livingston away from home. Any hope of Celtic turning around the season ended there and then. It could well be argued the decision to go to Dubai meant the fallout was self-inflicted and I’d have little truck with that argument, however it doesn’t take away from the fact Celtic were punished by an interpretation of the rules they had up that point not even been aware of.

The mainstream media and indeed many commentators and government officials have been quick to pounce on Celtic’s errors, the laundry is washed very publicly indeed when it comes to Celtic whilst it appears when it comes the new club operating on the other side of the City there is little appetite to criticise publicly in any shape or form never mind punish. Why is that?

It could be that from a PR perspective Celtic have been a shambles all season and it could also be that on the other side of the City the man who replaced Jim Traynor is well versed in the ways of media manipulation. As Celtic’s approach regarding Covid, the engagement at a PR level with the press, government and even Police has been by Queensbury rules yet has the same approach been taken across the City?

When Jim Traynor-or theRangers board -finally realised, when the PR guru is more often than not the actual story it’s rather poor form and as such decided to change things up, the heir to the throne was going to be an interesting appointment, and in terms of their ‘Everyone, Anyone’ inclusive campaign it certainly was that.

They appointed David Graham as Head of communications and media relations and the man to take forward their public relations into a brave new era. A man who according to his register of interests with Belfast City Council is also a member of a Royal Black Preceptory – a protestant fraternal society. 60 of these preceptories exist organised into 11 districts across Scotland so Mr Graham was always going to be just fine when it came to making new friends in a new country.

In October 2019, Mr Graham’s lodge – Belfast’s George Telford Memorial Orange Lodge – was investigated by Belfast City Council, after video footage emerged of the Govan Protestant Boys flute band marching through Belfast’s city hall while playing The Sash during the lodge’s 100-year anniversary dinner.

Perhaps I’m missing something here. Why appoint someone with little or no PR history bar a spell as a special adviser to the Northern Irish education minister, or indeed someone with no knowledge of the Scottish media or politics? Someone with connections to political parties and secret organisations not exactly renowned for inclusivity and tolerance of other beliefs and faiths? Indeed, theRangers managing director Stewart Robertson summed it up when commenting on David Graham’s appointment: “David shares our vision, passion and enthusiasm for the club.”

Well, it appears David Graham does things a little differently to predecessor Jim Traynor. Whilst Jim enjoyed the limelight it’s fairly clear David Graham does not, we have seen little of the man publicly, yet behind the scenes he appears to have got a tight grip on the information flow in the press. Something the hapless Traynor couldn’t replicate and nor have Celtic.

Whilst Celtic appear to roll over and have our belly tickled when it comes to press coverage, a credible source has advised us that the tactics employed by the blue side of the City are altogether more robust. Rumour has it theRangers PR department headed by new guy Graham is employing Northern Ireland political strategies and with that information the decision to replace the local knowledge of Traynor with the alternative methods learned in Northern Irish politics, perhaps makes more sense than it did at the time of his appointment. We have been advised the behaviours employed have been tough. Those in the Press are apparently complaining about the methods employed to control what fills column inches and photographic imagery of events on and off the field for the Ibrox club. We’ve heard of allegations of threats of bans have been made.

Controlling any narrative of the mainstream press of course would be beneficial, and considering the delays and even the commending of the club’s actions by the government, it would seem the influence may extend beyond the press, again indicating why a political operative like Graham was more tactically astute than Traynor knowing where the odd skeleton was buried of the sport journalists.

Take the issue of theRangers Covid testing. The use of a Belfast company Randox to carry out the club’s testing is one thing to consider, particularly when the Northern Irish Company had a light shone on its serious failings by Channel 4’s Dispatches. Yet there has been no challenge in the Scottish mainstream press to this questionable lab being used by theRangers from the Joint Response Group, in much the same way there has been little attention paid to the self-certification of what constituted close contacts to the likes of Filip Helander, because the Rangers simply advised there hadn’t been any. But then you don’t worry too much about self-policing comeback when you have the assistance of the real deal.

This season needed more influence than football hacks and so it has proved. Even in the aftermath of theRangers maiden title win and subsequently the European tie and the fallout from it with Slavia Prague, there has been much to influence. The victory parade to George Square and the Police escort to facilitate it. The assault resulting in a fractured skull for the Slavia Prague goalkeeper, the shall we say ambush in the tunnel at Ibrox as Slavia Prague were alleged to have been locked out their changing room and assaulted,  and then the recent death in Easterhouse, with alleged sectarian connotations following the Glasgow Derby last weekend, all gained less or delayed coverage than Glen Kamara’s despicable racist slurs towards him from a Slavia Prague player and the extensive media coverage of a 17 year old being charged for racially abusing Alfredo Morelos on social media.

It appears theRangers are not only winning on the football field, they also have far more of an influence in the media, with the Police and even within the Joint Response Group than any other club in Scotland, those trying at least to play within the rules of a pandemic that has cost thousands of lives. Remember the Green Brigade also got a Police escort last year, the difference was they were kettled and marched away from George Square. Compare and contrast the photos of Police posing for selfies and standing by watching the George Square carnage unfold.

As Covid breaches are conveniently swept under the carpet or the punishments delayed by weeks at a time so too has the season on the filed seen a blind eye being turned. theRangers have yet to concede a penalty in the league, indeed they are the only team in the top flight who hasn’t, nor have they had a man sent off in some 33 games, that certainly seems imbalanced when you consider in a solitary tie against Slavia Prague they had two men sent off alone. Then again if influence is exerted in the corridors of power is it any wonder the referees are more than aware of the consequences.

Kevin Clancy pointed out even before a ball had been kicked this season when he said “I can absolutely guarantee you that the referees officiating in the Premiership know exactly what’s at stake this season.”

Considering the scrutiny he was no doubt alluding to its incredible how many clear penalties have been missed and how often theRangers have been in front of the compliance officer as on-field decisions required rectifying, after the event of course, once the damage had been done. Much like the Ibrox Five and the results of their Covid breach tomorrow. You’d fully expect a punishment to be handed out, now there is little consequence. Just as you’d expect a late card or two in a controversial game to even the score and much as you’d expect two or three penalties in the post-split encounters to head the way of the opposition now the league title has been secured.

There is no doubt Celtic have played their own part in their downfall this season, we simply haven’t pressured our opponents enough to see if, as the tended to do in previous seasons, they wilted under pressure. Yet it is clear there has been a set of rules followed by one club whilst others have been held to account altogether differently.

On the field next season Celtic can address the issues that have blighted us in this campaign, but it would also be foolish not to address the PR issues and political influence the opposition have gained since employing a new approach to their Public Relations playbook.

Neil Lennon mentioned ‘mitigating circumstances’ and was clear he wouldn’t comment publicly prior to leaving his post. Yet it is evident Celtic and other clubs too appear to have been held to a higher standard than some. It is important going forward that Celtic challenge that as much as what they can influence on the field of play. No-one else is going to do it. The Police, the governing bodies, sadly even the Scottish Government have all been happy to employ an uneven approach. It is up to us to be aware and challenge this moving forward. We may have been caught unawares this season, believing in the midst of a pandemic all would engage sportingly for the benefit of the greater good, whilst some simply recognised an opportunity when it arose.

There is no excuse to be seen to repeat the same mistakes, not now that we know what we are up against. And whilst we need not employ the same tactics as some, we must be ready to challenge and fight our corner. We have to be ready both on and off the field next season and lessons must be learned. We’ve been asleep at the wheel this season. We must wake up.

Niall J