Celtic legend Scott Brown spoke to the Celtic Fan media today ahead of his last game for the club, at Easter Road on Saturday. Broony being back where it all began for him seems appropriate enough but what is far from being appropriate is the way in which he has been let down by those around him in the dressing room this season ( honourable exception being given to Callum McGregor and James Forrest). The rest? Less said the better.
Celtic are struggling to come to terms with the emergence of the fans media and with James Forrest (not the one mentioned above, this one of The Celtic Blog fame), Joe McHugh (Video Celts) and myself all there, we didn’t miss the opportunity to grill the Celtic staff about the new manager and the season ticket difficulties that the club might be about to face, while we waited for Broony to arrive.
What you can say is that Celtic are at least now engaging with the fans media, although today the Cynics decided to boycott, citing the lack of access that they’ve had since March. The rest of us might point out that they’ve actually had more access to our club that the rest of us put together but they weren’t there to hear that point being made.
Next week Celtic are planning a meeting with the fans media to discuss how the club can work with the various websites, podcasts and TV platforms for next season and beyond. Credit where it is due, they are at least engaging but the proof is in the pudding.
Yet again we were allowed to ask a question near the end, despite the massive audience that this site attracts. We reckon that they are simply calling the fans media out alphabetically, not great if you are The Celtic Star or Video Celts.
We learned today that Celtic are delighted with the coverage that they’ve received and the subsequent audience interest in the women’s side that is really breaking through this season, ignoring the fact that they excluded the site that gave them the most coverage (more than all the rest put together actually) when inviting selected fan media to the recent Glasgow Derby at Celtic Park. Only Celtic could miss out the biggest supporters of the Women’s game when inviting fans media to a Women’s game. The Celtic Star’s match report from last night’s goalless draw with Glasgow City was the only one I saw…
Still, being able to tell Celtic that we remember Brendan Rodgers pointing to the Upper Lisbon Lions Stand and him pointing out that his job was to put bums back on those seats on that gloriously sunny day when he arrived in Paradise…an that those empty seats are in danger of making an imminent return. They got the message.
We then got ANOTHER call from Celtic today, quite incredible really. Not about the new manager – as hoped when the number came up – but on another, unremarkable matter. Still they are at last trying to engage.
Video Celts have a well deserved reputation for being on the ball in terms of their knowledge of the various Celtic academy sides. Accurate and impressive reporting, we heard today, was met by Peter Lawwell calling his own media people to complain that Video Celts were scooping them on stories. He never really got it, did he?
I know one very famous Celtic player who doesn’t like another one very much, because he reckons to this day that the other former teammate deliberately didn’t pass the ball to him, but instead would go to the other side of the park simply to noise him up! You don’t believe that? This is CELTIC we are talking about and of course it’s 100% true.
Our club is STRENGTHENED by the emergence of fan media and there is no direct competition with the club’s own media staff – and it is a disgrace that the club puts their own media staff under pressure because of the success of the fans media. And this has been going on for YEARS. It has not helped anyone and it’s surely something Dominic McKay is going to clarify not only for the Fans media but for the media staff at the club.
McKay met the Fans Forum this evening. Brian Wilson apparently told everyone that this has been a successful season, because we won a Quadruple Treble and Dominic McKay, we are hearing wants to draw a line under this season and for us all to move on. He does want to modernise things, so that’s one bonus.
Which brings us back to Scott Brown and his Fans Media appearance today. The skipper was relaxed, spoke well and gave plenty of insight. He’s well worth a listen…
