The recent news that James McFadden has told Birmingham that he is for the offski has inspired this particular rant in that here we have a player who has asked his agent to look for a new club and now he has become a 'Celtic target' without quote or comment from the Club, the manager or even the player or his agent!
Now this speculation may indeed come true, but why the need to print without substance? I would have more respect for these so called journalists if they at least stated that the Club declined to comment or they could get confirmation from the player's agent but why fill our heads with rumour?
As I scanned through the pages of newsnow this morning I was tempted onto the Daily Record's website with the headline "No Celtic move for James McFadden" and no sooner had the page opened before my disbelief rose. The crux of the article is that Celtic will not move for James McFadden unless they have to replace McGeady or Nakamura.
This is a perfect piece of non-story manipulation from the hacks on this one. On Friday McFadden states that he is off, on Saturday most of the papers link him with Celtic, on Sunday they have quotes from has-beens stating what an impact he would have and then on Monday they say that Celtic are not interested in the player unless they "get an offer they can't refuse" for Naka or Aiden! So what has changed since Friday? If Celtic were not interested today why would they have been interested in the first place?
Why? To sell papers.
In other words they create a story, get two days editorial out of it and then they put it to bed without a quote or a comment from any of the parties involved.
And they call this journalism. The state of the Scottish Sports press continues to drop and the integrity of the profession loses another piece of credibility with every clichéd use of words and phrases such as "war chest" "Record Sport understands".
How about trying to unearth stories on players that Celtic have confirmed their interest in? Or if you are struggling for a story why not try and find out if Celtic are to resurrect interest in players that they have missed out of in previous years?
The written press in this country have no integrity left. Year after year they create story after story that fails to come to fruition. Who can forget Hugh Keevin's stating categorically that "Artur Jorge will be the next manager of Celtic only for Wim Jansen to be unveiled, or Daryll King's annual proclamation that Rangers will have a "£20 Million warchest". These people make ridiculous unfounded speculations year in year out that never come true. If they had any professional integrity whatsoever they would admit that they were wrong and resign or indeed be sacked. If I were to make such glaring errors on a bi-annual basis then I am sure I wouldn't last long in my current position!
McFadden may or may not sign for Celtic, but please do not subject us to three days of speculation without at least making an attempt to contact the club for a quote
I have now made a resolution; no longer will I read any of the speculation from any of them. I will find out about potential target speculation from Celtic fan sites, as most of them will have a thread that will list all the players that Celtic have been linked with, minus the commentary from these Muppets that call themselves Journalists! Yes I will have to concede that many of these "targets" will have been created by the very people I decry in this article, but at least I get this information without having to read the lies created by these imposters and more importantly I don't have to pay for the "privilege".
Rant over.
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt