It is however, closer to home that we see many column inches and sound bites on Radio programmes being dedicated to decisions that have favoured Celtic in recent times. Whilst I have no truck with anyone who wishes to improve the standard of our referees by publicly questioning the decisions that they make it does appear that these criticisms are exponentially louder when it would appear that Celtic have benefitted from them.
Last season we had a mini furore inspired by Daryll King in relation to a couple of decisions that went Celtic's way towards the end of the season - i.e. the free kick awarded to Naka that was the only goal of the game against St Mirren and the 'corner that never was' at Tannadice last season.
I have no doubt that many would excuse the elements listed in the above paragraph as being due to how close the league race was last season, but I for one cannot remember similar consternation in previous seasons when the League went down to the wire. Dare I suggest that this is due to which team won the league on this occasion?
As the journalistic storm clouds continue to gather we then have an incident at Love Street during Celtics game against St Mirren which adds fuel to the fire - should Artur Boruc have been sent off for his tackle on Dargo?
The simple answer is no, of course he shouldn't have been sent off. He wasn't the last man, the replays showed that he made little or no actual contact with the player and despite the protestations of Gus McPherson and 'celebrity' St Mirren supporter Chick Young it was not a dangerous challenge. In fact I would argue that Jack Ross's straight legged lung at Scott McDonald was the only red card challenge in the match. So why the media furore?
Cast your mind back a few seasons to a match at Celtic Park, which ended in a nil-nil draw between Celtic and Rangers. With Celtic shooting towards the Celtic end, a high clearance was lofted all the way up the pitch which was misread by the Rangers defence. Craig "Lightbulbs for ankles" Beattie chased the ball like a whippet and Rangers Keeper came out to close him down. As both players came towards the ball Klos jumped straight into Beattie shoulder first and took him out of the game. What was the result of this last man assault? Klos was booked.
There was no post mortem in the press after this incident; no Radio shows dedicated to it so what was the difference? Similarly there were no comments from the esteemed gentlemen of the press last season when Alan McGregor nearly killed a Hearts player in the box at Tynecastle.
It is hard to tell if this agenda is being driven by the fact that it was the player involved or whether it was the Club, but given the lack of response from the press in similar situations one can only assume that this is agenda driven journalism.
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt