Rogne and Hooiveld articulate dressing room feeling

For Celtic’s many opponents Jos Hooiveld and Thomas Rogne would be fairly low in their list of hate figures.

Neither of them tick the boxes that brought Neil Lennon, Artur Boruc and Aiden McGeady streams of abuse.

Hooiveld and Rogne are unlikely to be sent bullets in the post or death threats as most people would call them.

After being parachuted into Scottish football a year ago from Scandinavia Rogne and Hooiveld would have been told some wild tales about what life is like in the Glasgow goldfish bowl where there can only be one winner and second place is failure.

The intensity of the rivalry would have been part of the attraction for the players and bring about comparisons to Manchester United-Liverpool, Ajax-Feyenoord and Inter Milan v AC Milan.

Along the way they would have heard some more colourful tales from Celtic supporters about the unique circumstances of Scottish football and how the establishment had it in for Celtic.

Hearing those views would have brought a smile to the faces of the players as they dismissed the notion and put it down to the partisanship of the supporters.

Twelve months into their Celtic careers both players will be having doubts about whether it really is  Tales of the Unexpected that they have stumbled into.

Hooiveld’s twitter account recently suggested: “Can someone get me Babel’s number – have to get some photo-shopping done.”

A clear reference to Ryan Babel who’ll be appear in front of the FA to explain a photo-shopped picture of referee Howard Webb in Manchester United kit after Liverpool’s FA Cup exit at Old Trafford.

Much as Jurasic Peat would love to charge the Celtic defender even the zealots of the SFA Committee’s won’t be able to hold up a charge against Hooiveld.

According to translated Norwegian reports Rogne said: “The referee had no luck in the game. The Hamilton goal was three yards offside. I am amazed by it. We were also cheated out of an obvious penalty.”

A comment surely lost in translation between New Douglas Park, Oslo and it’s return to Scotland.

Rogne is a smart boy, in the aftermath of the Dougie-Dougiegate scandal at Tannadice he neatly sidestepped the issue at a media conference to promote Breast Cancer while Gary Hooper earned himself headlines and a visit to the SFA.

What Rogne and Hooiveld have articulated is the feelings of the Celtic dressing room- a largely cosmopolitan group of players who had barely heard of Celtic before signing and who could just as easily have signed for Rangers if it wasn’t for the FOR SALE sign up over Ibrox.

With only a couple of exceptions Neil Lennon’s squad will have next to no idea about the historic ways of Scottish football.

Will any of the new bhoys have heard of Jim Farry and his successful attempt to delay Celtic’s signing of Jorge Cadete at a crucial stage of the season?

No.

But since the events of Dougie-Dougiegate they will be starting to wonder about the lurid tales they’ve heard about Scottish football.

The twitter bhoys will clearly be reading on-line what supporters think about the on-going issues with the SFA and asking others at the club about it.

After more than a decade playing football outside of Sweden what will Daniel Majstorovic think of the penalty awarded against him for Kirk Broadfoot’s dive in October?

Most of the Celtic players will have watched the Rangers-Kilmarnock match on telly on Monday night open mouthed at the succession of fouls on Alexei Eremenko.

Forty-eight hours later they’ll have watched James Forrest get a straight red card for a similar type challenge and saw Niall McGinn booked for diving by a school-teaching referee with absolutely co concept of the game other than using it as a vehicle for self promotion.

Neil Lennon has only two options as he prepares for a make-or-break six week period of the season which coincides with his own touchline ban.

He either uses the increasingly regular honest mistakes to enlighten and motivate his players or gets them to roll up the white flag.

Off the park supporters can debate about boycotts and secret dossiers but Lennon has the delicate diplomatic task of putting out a winning team against all the elements.

If Celtic can overcome the odds to win this season’s title it’ll go down as one of the club’s greatest ever successes achieved in the fiercest of circumstances.

Just ask Rogne or Hooiveld, in private.

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