Chris Sutton has taken aim at the critics quick to belittle Celtic’s 3-0 win over Anderlecht.
Before Wednesday’s match we were told about Anderlecht’s great European record, how they ran Manchester United close in the last eight of the Europa League last season and of their superior spending budget.
On Thursday morning Belgian football was dire despite being ranked fifth in the FIFA rankings and being the first European nation to qualify for the World Cup Finals in Russia.
BBC Scotland’s Chris McLaughlin was one of the chief detractors as he showed his concern at the Anderlecht performance.
Sutton’s BT Sport colleague Rob MacLean wondered hopefully if there would be a sting in the tail going into the last ten minutes.
With all those lovingly assembled statistics sent to the shredder the pain was obvious among many at the BBC as they attempted to deal with a good news story about Scottish football just days after another ‘Old Firm’ reality check.
Responding in the Daily Record Sutton hit back saying: “Celtic secured a terrific result in Belgium in midweek and I’m sick of the naysayers trying to take the shine off it by saying Anderlecht weren’t up to much.
“In this country it just seems to be that if there is a positive result for a Scottish team it’s because everyone else is c***.
“I am getting absolutely sick, tired and bored of people saying Celtic beat a bad Anderlecht side.
“That is what I’m hearing generally but they showed great maturity to react to a heavy beating from Paris Saint-Germain in their opening fixture.
“Sometimes you just have to give credit. You have to give Celtic all the praise in the world. It wasn’t great early on but they stuck with it.
“Remember, this is Celtic who hadn’t won in 16 European group stage games. This was Anderlecht who have a bigger budget than their Scottish counterparts.
“And they win a game away from home 3-0 and all we hear is ‘Anderlecht were awful’. Well, Celtic made them look awful.”
