I’ve not been in this game long. And to he honest, compared to James Forrest at The Celtic Blog and Joe McHugh at Videocelts I’m a relative young pup at this game.
Not too long ago, Joe McHugh of Videocelts published a piece on Mark Lawwell where he questioned the background of the new Head Of Recruitment and whether or not he held a high powered role within The City Group prior to his appointment.
Now whether or not you agree with Joe (have a read at the link above) is entirely up to you, but that is exactly the type of piece Celtic bloggers should be writing on the club because that, at least, holds the club to account. Joe, wrongly, got a lot of heat for that piece on Twitter from some sections of the Celtic support.
Remember the night that Neil Lennon got appointed in the showers after sealing the Treble Treble? My good friend James Forrest let rip at the appointment and, in hindsight, he was 100% correct and, again, was wrongly abused on Twitter for holding the opinion that Lennon should never have been given the job permanently or allowed to head the club for the ten in a row bid.
Here’s where I’m putting my two bobs worth in.
Both Joe and James are correct, and both bloggers have raised serious questions about the appointment of Mark Lawwell and you know what?
They are both correct to do so, regardless of whether or not Ange Postecoglou said he has a history of working with him or not because that’s the job of a blogger.
To hold the club and manager to account and to let them know that we, the fans, are always watching.
What concerns me is the “If it’s good enough for Ange, it’s good enough for me” approach by some Celtic fans because even now, the Celtic gaffer is not infallible.
He will make mistakes, of course he will, he’s only human.
Right now, Ange enjoys the adulation of the Celtic fans, and rightly so. But that does mean he is above question? Absolutely not.
And I’m willing to bet Ange would WANT to be held to account by the fans if things weren’t right. He wouldn’t want preferential treatment.
And both James and Joe were to highlight their concerns about the employment of Lawwell.
The minute the bloggers STOP doing that, you may as well just tell the board they are free to run the club without any scrutiny.
Imagine if we had that mindset in the 90’s?
Who appointed the bloggers, they are a new facet of society.
Holding the club to account is fine and well if there is indeed a definite misgiving. I also feel that we should have appointed a bigger name to lead the pursuit of 10 in a row.
However, Lenny was approached and being a Celt answered the call to the best of his ability. Blame, not Lenny’s. Now that leads us to Lawell, the ‘let’s get stuck into him at every possible opportunity’ witch hunt.
Yes, he is responsible for some errors in judgement, aren’t you all? Just look at how many failed relationships you’ve had to see where your character judgement skills are. 😉
I would say there is holding the club to account and a witch hunt. It seems wherever the name Lawell is uttered, the pencils are sharpened and the mass investigation gets underway. We all make mistakes as you say, including the very human Peter Lawell.
Yes we didn’t win 10 consecutive titles, just as we never lost 10. In order to lose something, you must first possess it and we never possessed 10 in a row to lose. While Lenny was the head coach in season 2020/21, there is always disappointment when our club doesn’t win anything, such as Martin O’Niell experienced during season 2002/03 in which we reached a UEFA cup final. I don’t recall the bloggers ripping him apart for a trophyless season as they did to Lenny, a legend that had given us a number of years service as a player prior to becoming head coach.
Horses for courses I guess. Bloggers are just fans with the time, space and opportunity to give their opinions and are self appointed. Every fan has a story to tell, something interesting to say. While we enjoy the presence of bloggers for giving us their opinions of all things Celtic, there must always be a feeling of gratitude within their ranks. It is a privilege and an honour to write about Celtic, not an entitlement. I always feel that there are ways of voicing concern without annihilating club figures.
Negative press always holds the target of such negativity in a poor light. The mainstream media have withdrawn somewhat with their attacks on our club over the past couple of decades. Yes, they still attack us, but nowhere near as often, because we have a lot of attacks from our very own. Divide and conquere is still a thing. That doesn’t mean we have to join in with or support any attack on our club or officials (not self appointed).
I agree that club be held to account, but so too should the media when they accuse without evidence for example. I don’t know, therefore there is a crime in progress. 🤔