Many years ago, I made the naive mistake of riling up a Glasgow Celtic supporter. Not in a remotely sectarian way. Just regarding the merits – or lack thereof as was the viewpoint here – of Aiden McGeady remaining with the hoops rather than going to a ‘better’ club. You can dress it up any way you like, the top tier in Scottish football is a two-team shootout and has been since 1986. Indeed, there would be validity in an argument which pointed out that Rangers were only hanging onto their neighbours coat tails by a thread.
My detractor that day wasn’t so much arguing in terms of nut and bolt football matters, more emphasising the historical links between Celtic and Ireland and the importance thereof. To their surprise, that aspect of things was not only understood but agreed with wholeheartedly. The counter argument, however, was the fact that the dearth of proper competitive football in Scotland had to be detrimental to players striving to advance their development and/or monetary value depending on their career status.
But the Bhoys’ standing as a massive club in terms of global football is beyond dispute. Which is what makes Tottenham fans’ contention that current Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou isn’t ‘good enough’ for their club all the more odious. Who do Spurs fans think their team are? Mid table mud at best and never far off being relegation fodder.
More pointedly, a one-man team. Albeit a very good man who you’d hope will get the opportunity to play with a proper, big, competitive club before his career ends. He could make the difference Arsenal need to win a title. How sweet that would be!
To be fair to long suffering Spurs fans though, you suspect that it’s not, in fact, with Postecoglou they have major beef. Rather, the continuing incompetence and unrelenting arrogance of the club’s big boss, Daniel Levy. The club have always had top rate players and managers, and been able to attract ample supplies of both. Yet very few seem to stay in the North London hamlet for any elongated period of time. Methinks it mightn’t take my fellow wheelchair driver Mr Hawking to decipher what the common denominator behind that is.
There are none so blind as those who do not wish to see. You couldn’t expect an imbecile like Levy to either realise he’s the problem or admit as such. Mind you, Tottenham aren’t the only ones engulfed by similar shackling. Whatever the hell is going on at Everton, between Mr Moshiri and Bill Kenright they are making a complete balls of a genuinely big club.
Not one that has delusions of being a big club, but one with the record and history to back it up. That’s why it seems a travesty to see the Goodison Park club hovering with their backsides over the bacon slicer.
Where the comparison with Tottenham does carry merit is in regard to the turnover of managers and players at the club. They can’t all have been wrong choices or bad at their jobs.
Whether fan power is actually a thing or not I don’t know. As in, can supporters actually instigate change at their favourite clubs? You’d imagine that at ones which aren’t privately owned there’s certainly a case for fans to ratchet up the pressure on those in charge to shape up or ship out.
Even with those that are in sole ownership, all it would take is for fans to keep bums off seats for a while and it would be like a pry bar rooting the power brokers into action. Money talks. One thing is certain though, until the clubs concerned sort out their sh*t off the field, they’ll get nowhere fast on it.
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