Appearing on the Celtic State of Mind podcast should have given John Barnes the opportunity to put his Twitter battles in context. Instead he has started digging new holes. Holes that he has no idea about.
Since being sacked by Celtic in February 2000 he hasn’t been reported to have been back in Glasgow to attend any match.
While trying to claim that Black football managers are given less time to succeed than their white counterparts Barnes has drawn attention to his own chronic failings at Celtic. Tony Mowbray lasted marginally longer, both men were badly out of their comfort zone at Celtic.
Gordon Strachan got a colder welcome at Celtic than Barnes. He was part of an Aberdeen team detested by a large proportion of Celtic fans. He knew that when he took the job on, replacing Martin O’Neill and used everything possible from his managerial background to bring success. In any walk of life success is ‘tolerated’.
Both men were up against an opponent that they weren’t fully aware of, a cheating scam at Ibrox that saw Dick Advocaat and Walter Smith use players that weren’t properly registered with the SFA and SPL, or with the tax authorities.
On CSOM Barnes went down a ridiculous path, one that he has clearly picked up second or third hand, one that discredits any sensible viewpoint that he may have.
Listen to “John Barnes with A Celtic State of Mind” on Spreaker.
7 minutes 30 seconds
And they are talking about Kenny Dalglish being a Protestant, and Jock Stein and saying we accepted them. Accepted them because they were fantastic, great players, great managers, they did well.
If Kenny Dalglish or Jock Stein, being Protestant, were bad players they would have been given less support than a black Catholic player. And that is obvious.
Good or bad players get the same treatment at Celtic regardless of their background. Dalglish and Stein and dozens of others weren’t accepted they were welcomed. Dalglish got the same respect and encouragement as Danny McGrain, Lou Macari, Vic Davidson and Davie Hay.
Stein was warmly welcomed to replace Jimmy McGrory, possibly the greatest ever Celtic player. The fans knew change was needed, players were stale while a former Celtic reserve coach had been pulling up trees at Dunfermline and Hibs.
Derk Boerrigter and Teemu Pukki were equally as useless as Mo Bangura and Amido Balde. No fans quizzed their DNA, questions were asked about the recruitment regime and the thinking that considered them upto the task of playing for Celtic.
Virgil van Dijk was liked and appreciated, after a brief spell in favour John Guidetti’s ego became quite annoying, no one minded when he left the club.
The Celtic support is perhaps made up of 70% of fans that went to Catholic schools. Less than half of that amount will attend Church on a Sunday and receive the sacraments.
Inside Celtic Park on any given Saturday I would doubt if more than 20% of the support will be inside a Church in the next 24 hours.
Whatever the state of their religious beliefs it isn’t followed like some dogma into judging footballers on the park. Fans know the players that can play and the managers that can manage, Barnes couldn’t manage.
John Barnes is entitled to his views on every topic under the sun. He wasn’t a very good football manager due to the thoughts inside his head and glaring man management issues. Plenty of top players have suffered the same issue, it has nothing to do with his skin colour.
