CRAIG GORDON apparently doesn’t like Neil Lennon is the bad news story that is in the papers today. After what was a particularly good news weekend for Celtic it was back to earth with a bump reading this, just the latest of these type of stories we have come to expect ahead of a big game.
Let’s look at this ‘story’ for a minute. Craig Gordon hasn’t said anything. They are quoting a former England goalkeeper, who has expressed his opinion on the competition for the gloves at Celtic with Craig Gordon, Fraser Forster all Scott Bain all having had game-time in the Celtic first team this season.
Robinson, speaking to the Football Insider website said this: “Take Craig Gordon out the team, he doesn’t like the manager now, he’s not going to, so it can be very, very difficult for a third choice goalkeeper to break into the team, given what’s ahead of him.
“He’s got two very, very good, old, experienced goalkeepers so for him to break through you’ll probably need injury or suspension or look elsewhere to get game time.
“He’s been excellent for Celtic for the last couple of years, I think he’s been outstanding.”
Perhaps Robinson knows more than us, he seems to have a few articles on that very same website absolutely gushing about the brilliance at the Rangers this season – go check if you must. But anyone closer to the action at Celtic – ie anyone watching our games, would regard Gordon as the second choice keeper, not the third. If Robinson is wrong on that, then any ‘in the know’ stuff suggested by the gleeful tabloids, should be taken with a large dose of salt.
Does Craig Gordon like Neil Lennon? Who knows, this guy Robinson clearly doesn’t know one way or the other but it’s his opinion that gets the clicks and it’s on-message for the red tops, particularly the Daily Record who dutifully lift and cover the story HERE.
It’s reading these type of stories that usually appear in the build-up to a big Celtic game, that makes you wonder about the logic in it all. A quick look at the Press Gazette in the middle of the month is where you will find the latest year on year sales updates for the newspaper industry and the trend is always the same. Downwards.
There are three Scottish newspapers included in the national category, the previously mentioned Daily Record, its sister paper Sunday Mail and Sunday Post. In the 1980s the two Sunday papers had combined sales of around 2million copies per edition and the Record would have daily sales of around 3/4million copies. Big and very successful businesses back then but what about now?
The year on year figures for September, comparing 2019 with the sales for the same month in 2018 are as follows: Daily Record recorded sales of 109,908 copies, DOWN 12% on September 2018. Sunday Mail faired worse, DOWN 14% year on year to just 108,742 copies. Sunday Post, which was the first of the three to fall below 100,000 sales per edition a few months ago, is now down to 94,559 copies, that’s a 15% decline year on year.
It was a psychological blow for Sunday Post to fall below the 100,000 sales mark and it’s only a matter of time before the other two Glasgow based sister papers, Daily Record and Sunday Mail, also fall below this figure.
There would have been weekends when the three papers could have touched 3million combined sales, now they are struggling to sell 300,000 copies in a weekend between them. Read all about it below…
National newspaper ABCs: Daily Mail closes on Sun’s position as top-selling title
