After trashing Brendan Rodgers while slipping into Derek Johnstone’s cheerleader outfit, Hugh Keevins has finally admitted defeat with Brendan Rodgers about to deliver Celtic their 12th title in 13 seasons.
Whoever is in place as manager of Celtic can be guaranteed the hostility of the broadcasting veteran who still manages to extract salaries from the Daily Record and Radio Clyde.
Back in 2016 Keevins proudly boasted the title winning credentials of Mark Warburton while dismissing the arrival of Rodgers to take over and transform Celtic ahead of winning an invincible treble.
After Ange Postecoglou lost his first SPFL match in charge of Celtic Keevins was beaming under the headline of Absolutely Not Good Enough. He’d worked all through the summer to come up with that whopper.
At the start of this season there was no stopping the Brains Behind Gerrard as Todd Cantwell and Nico Raskin prepared to dominate Scottish football. After a few furlongs Keevins switched saddle to put his faith in A Proper Football Manager.
In February Celtic slipped to second place in the SPFL Premiership table, excitement was mounting at the prospect of a dream coming true.
On March 3, continuing a recurring theme in his Sunday Mail column, Keevins stated:
I would be amazed if Brendan Rodgers is still Celtic’s manager at the start of next season, whether or not he wins the league title in May.
The baiting of Brendan made for an uncomfortable listen and watch over the past week. Resentment, rejection and retribution, the manager has had to face all of those negative reactions in the space of days. There must have been moments during the public fall-out from Rodgers’ verbal exchange with BBC reporter Jane Lewis on Sunday when he wondered what had come over him in June at his home in Spain.
Brendan is the highest-paid manager in Scottish football history, of course, and money may soften the blow of having to take abuse at every turn. But the events of last week, from the Celtic support to the wider media and even the hired gun from a university background, must have given Rodgers cause for reflection.
You don’t stay where you’re not wanted and all that. We shall wait and see but it will be a source of light relief for the boss today to immerse himself in some good old- fashioned paranoia. Conspiracy is always a comfort for fans. It takes their minds off the real world.
Criticising Celtic for their performances, or an unfathomable signing policy, is perfectly legitimate. Always business, never personal.
But character assassination and abuse from his own fans, and others from outwith the football-related media, is another matter. Rodgers can mull that over while addressing if his team have what it takes to overtake Rangers in the league.
Based on a few loony tunes phoning in to Super Scoreboard Keevins forms his view on Celtic and Celtic supporters provided it agrees with his own. Character assasination has come from Keevins who has learned SFA about football since tipping Warbo to sweep to the 2016/17 SPFL title.
On air and in the fast declining Sunday Mail Keevins has criticised Rodgers at every turn, usually citing a caller to SSB while drooling over the Brains Behind Gerrard followed by A Proper Football Manager.
Of course there is an element of trolling in everything he does but now into his seventies someone in the family ought to take him aside, button up his cardigan and strap him into his rocking chair away from his typewriter and Nokia to hang onto a grain of respect.
After 10 months of personal sniping and attacks today he has had to admit defeat, again. Would he ever admit to being miles off target, of course not, it was all those nasty fans who were trying to undermine and oust the Irishman from the job in which he has a 100% record on delivering the SPFL trophy.
Even the staff can’t spell the name of their star writer.
This morning discussing Rodgers, Sunday Mail readers are treated to:
On Saturday, he banked a fortune for Celtic instead, having foregone blue skies for the climate of suspicion that is Scottish football and proved wrong the supporters of his own club who denounced him in the most public fashion when he replaced the outgoing Ange Postecoglou at the start of the season.
Later on he added:
The man has been pilloried and vilified. But, throughout it all, Rodgers has maintained his composure and presented a public face which doubtless masked how he was feeling.
He would have been well within his rights on Saturday to have given full vent on the subject of how he has been treated. But temper in the midst of triumph isn’t a good look, and last week’s photo of Rodgers and 41 other Celtic employees to mark his Manager of the Month award for April was more in keeping with the club image he is intent on promoting.
And there’s more
Rodgers deserves recognition and commendation, for standing on the verge of a title in spite of, as opposed to because of, the resources he had to work with. Those who called him a “Judas” for going to Leicester might now have to stand by and watch him plant the league flag on the moral high ground.
The moral high ground is where Keevins likes to think he is placed, in reality he has been a desperate sniper at all things Celtic for the best part of 20 years, drooling over every ‘Rangers Revolution’ in the hope that it would return Scottish football to the cosy duopoly of sharing honours to make life easy as he dished out the cliches from the O** F*** template
There were some Celtic fans hostile to Rodgers returning as manager, understandably. In the cold light of day with the limited contact books of Michael Nicholson and Peter Lawwell the former Leicester boss was clearly the best man for the job.
After drawing 0-0 at home to St Johnstone in August there was some anger inside the ground at the final whistle, it happens across the world in football.
When Celtic lost 2-0 at home to Hearts in December there were chants inside the ground of ‘Lawwell, Lawwell Get Tae F**k, not aimed at the manager. Unfortunately only one family member has complied with that request.
In the real world of fresh air, supporters, Season Tickets, scarves and tammies, pies and bovrils Rodgers has the backing of the overwhelming majority of the Celtic support, an approval rating in the high nineties in percentage terms.
If Rodgers leaves Celtic this summer it will be on his terms, the promises made by the club in pre-season haven’t been delivered while he is this morning one point away from delivering another SPFL title. The future of the Sunday Mail is less certain, led by the Brains Trust that is Keevins and Kenny Miller.
Last month circulation dropped below 48,000, the fading Glasgow publication might hobble into the new season with print sales close to 40,000- whether it makes it through the 38 match marathon is open to debate.
With Keevins slagging the Celtic support at every opportunity it seems like the Sunday Mail is locked into a suicide pact with the accelerator on the floor as they head towards the cliff face.
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