Videos – Outstanding form that threatened Celtic’s 9IAR, “We could extend our lead at the top,” Scott Brown

CELTIC keep stating that the club wants the season to be played to a finish on the park. Today the skipper Scott Brown popped up on Sky Sports and re-stated this position.

Yesterday it became clear that there is going to be little to no chance of watching football in stadiums in Scotland this year and this morning there was news that the Rangers had changed their stance on Behind Closed Doors (BCD) football, backing a call from Aberdeen to move in this direction.

Hopefully Celtic will come out and add their weight, as the dominant club in Scottish football – the one with the most trophies, the most season ticket holders and the most money, to this Aberdeen proposal.

Playing the games behind closed is possible and frankly would give the good people of Scotland, and the Zombies, something to look forward to after a pretty dismal period in our nation’s history.

Celtic TV are we believe currently making plans to be able to accommodate vastly greater audiences going forward – that means the Celtic season ticket holders who will continue to support the club and maintain our status as the premier Scottish club, when the coronavirus is beaten and we can all return to the games.

Apparently there is some opposition to the Aberdeen plan at the SPFL – surely it will suit the broadcasters to have the games played so why would that be a negative for them? Get them involved and allow all the games to be shown, a little bit of creative thinking, doing things differently and working to ensure that all fans of all Premiership clubs can see these games if they so wish.

“We obviously want to play the games,” the defiant Celtic captain told Sky Sports this morning, as reported by Daily Record. Incidentally newspaper sales in Scotland have apparently fallen off a cliff and there are now calls, according to a report in The Times today, for the Scottish Government to bail them all out. We could see a few titles disappear as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

“We think if we could continue playing, we could extend our lead at the top,” a confident Scott Brown said. When you look at the form of Celtic and the Rangers this year, it is hard to argue with that logic, although as Phil Mac Giolla Bháin often points out the Rangers are at their very best when there is no football being played.

Every blue towel bar none had been thrown in by the time they lost to Hamilton at Ibrox at the beginning of March, highlights below.

But since play stopped they have regained their belief that the title could be won, indeed in their heads they have overhauled the 13 point and 25 goal deficit, recovered from the 3-1 Europa League home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen to win the tie in German before going on to win the Europa League.

Their imaginary Scottish Premiership title will sit alongside the other 54 that they imagine that they’ve won and even that imaginary claim is somewhat imagined as one of their claimed titles – won by the bust Rangers FC – was actually shared with Dumbarton. You get a half for that as Asterix Johnston recently explained.

Despite imagining Premiership and Europa League glorious recoveries, which are nothing really compared to them imagining that their club came back from the dead, there is very little that they can do about the Scottish Cup.

A favourable quarter final draw away to the bottom side in the Premiership should have been no problem for their team of world-beaters (anyway remember that Paul Gascoigne chant, “If ye canna beat Ajax beat yer wife)…here’s a reminder of how that one turned out.

“We’ve had a fantastic season. We are 13 points clear with eight games to go, our goal difference is a lot better as well, so we’re in a privileged position,” Scott Brown told Sky Sports.

“It’s been a long, hard season already but we are also in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup but we’ll need to see what happens,” said Broony.

The Rangers had already played at Tynecastle at the end of January 2020. Here’s what happened in that one…

“We obviously want to play the games and finish the season. But if the government decide to call it, that’s up to them,” the Celtic captain continued.

The Rangers like to call Celtic all sorts of horrid names but for the rest of the teams in the league they simply refer to them as “Diddy Teams” and back on 23 February they travelled up to Perth to face the local “Diddy Team” at McDiarmid. Park. Here’s how that one turned out…

“It’s hard. We want to finish the season. But no one in the world thought this was going to happen so we need to play it day by day,” Scott Brown said.

Dropping those two points at McDairmid Park was somewhat problematic for the “Title Challengers’ given what had already occurred earlier that month. On Saturday 1 February Aberdeen left Ibrox with a point after a goalless draw…

Then on Wednesday 12 February they played another “Diddy Team”, Kilmarnock down at Rugby Park and this happened…

The Celtic captain also stated that he had sympathy for the management team at the SPFL and the SFA who have been getting it in the neck, mostly from the Rangers, their blue-nosed pal Mr No, up at Inverness Caley Thistle and the teams that look like being relegated – all of whom had a much better chance of beating the drop than the Rangers had of overhauling a points deficit of 13 and a goal difference deficit of 25.

“It’s hard position for anybody, to be honest. A lot of the leagues are exactly the same as us. It’s day to day, waiting to see what UEFA say, and we have to follow that,” Scott Brown continued.

“It’s like any league in the world. We want to play. That’s our job, that’s what we get paid for, and what we love to do as well.

“Everyone wants to see football back – but we need to make sure it’s as safe as possible when it happens.”

INVINCIBLE by Matt Corr

The Celtic Star’s very own Matt Corr – who you may also know as a Tour Guide at Celtic Park – publishes his first Celtic book, titled INVINCIBLE – early next month. This beautiful hardback book will be the definitive story of Celtic’s magical2016-17 season – it truly is wonderful, a real joy to read, and brilliantly written by Matt.

If you have been reading Matt’s regular contributions on The Celtic Star or indeed in the Matchday Programme or in the Celtic View you will know just how talented a Celtic writer he is. The book is published by The Celtic Star and you can pre-order below.

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About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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