Woops! Daily Record breaks embargo to twist Martin O’Neill comments

For many years the Daily Record was laughed at by The Sun as the Day-late Record.

When the big stories broke the Record was left in the side-lines, playing catch up as circulation gradually eroded

These days the battle ground is online.

To help their media partners Celtic stage a separate media conference solely for newspapers with a 10.30pm embargo

THE RECORD STRIKES!

That allows time to put the story in place, get it printed and give the appearance of a breaking news story when it goes out at 10.30pm.

Today the reverse happened. At 5.30pm one of the bright sparks at the Record clicked PUBLISH on a story that should have been held back till 10.30pm.

The story was a serious twist on the words of Martin O’Neill.

He was asked about the impact of the boycott by supporters of the Dundee match. Apparently the club has agreed to talks with different supporter groups this week. But not the Celtic Fans Collective.

It’s really important. If there is going to be some communication, debate, whatever, I am really hopeful that something positive can come out of it. We have a lot of big games coming up and that would be nice. It is unusual, I must admit.

I had been watching things from afar but not for one minute realising I would be involved in some aspect. But it is really important that there is some sort of togetherness again.

Those comments look like a breach of the 10.30pm newspaper embargo. O’Neill didn’t use those words at his broadcast media conference. No questions were asked about the impact of the boycott of the Dundee Scottish Cup tie.

There is nothing there about urging fans ‘to pack Parkhead again’.

Since the start of November 245 Season Ticket holders have been suspended by the club, basically by order of Michael Nicholson.

That decision has had a knock on effect on the atmosphere inside the stadium.

The suspension of the Green Brigade, the excessive measures applied by the stewards and constant security checks while moving have impacted the ‘matchday experience’.

CELTIC DRIVE FANS AWAY

Going to the match these days isn’t much fun. And that’s before Nicholson decided to reduce the quality on the park.

Over a 12 month spell Matt O’Riley, Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah have been sold off with no real effort made to replace them.

Nicholson has sent the bank balance and Corporation Tax bill soaring.

Reacting to that six players have been brought in since the turn of the year. All on loan or short term deals.

In December the Celtic CEO raced to tell Celtic TV about how he was planning for the January and beyond transfer windows with Wilfried Nancy.

Nicholson doesn’t have a clue. He has even less credibility. Which explains why Brian Wilson and Head of Legal George Campbell are involved in talks with supporter groups this week.

O’Neill’s comments are aimed at the Celtic board.

They created and accelerated the rift with supporters. They suspended the Green Brigade based on four Breach of the Peace charges. Not convictions.

Back in 1998 Celtic announced the departure of Jock Brown as General Manager at 1pm on a Saturday matchday. The atmosphere then was as toxic as it is at present.

The reaction of the fans was incredible. On the park Celtic won their next two home matches 6-1 and 5-1.

HOW TO SOLVE THE STAND OFF

There area couple of open goals available to the Celtic board. The most obvious one is to lift the suspension of the Green Brigade. Doing that and appointing an outside body to provide a report on the situation with fans before the end of May would bring a massive boost.

With match officials and the fixture list not looking favourably on Celtic the club needs all the help it can get.

O’Neill is giving it 100% to turn around the carnage inflicted by Wilfried Nancy.

It is now upto Brian Wilson to give the club a fighting chance of success this season.

He can lift the Green Brigade suspension, put down iron cast promises and see the supporters flock back in their thousands to support the team.

Or he can do a Nicholson. Hide in a cupboard and send out the messengers to blame Brendan Rodgers and the Green Brigade while Celtic’s season crashes and burns.

Tweet for the story that the Daily Record was forced to delete.