Kris Boyd has gone on a classic rant against Celtic harking back to season 2007/08 when the SPL season was extended by four days to favour one club while six teams had their last match delayed.
Celtic’s trip to Dubai has hit a raw nerve with the former Kilmarnock striker who accused the club of arrogance and being out of touch with reality.
Five days training in the sunshine between two fixtures seems fairly innocent to an outsider although Celtic season ticket holders may be questioning if it is the best use of funds as they wait to discover the additional value that they bought into.
Celtic’s trip to Dubai was approved by the SFA and Scottish Government but with no action this week it has dominated the headlines and clearly the thoughts of Boyd as he explained to readers of The Sun:
Celtic’s decision to go away stinks of arrogance, frankly. It’s little wonder their supporters believe their board has lost all touch with reality these days because that’s the way this whole episode looks.
Here’s what I think. Celtic shouldn’t have gone to Dubai or anywhere else for a winter training camp.
They should have been at home in Scotland playing at least one of the games they’ve got in hand. In fact, thinking back to how we at Rangers were forced to play three league games in just five days at the end of the 2007/08 season, maybe they could have got two of their extra matches out of the way.
It could have been Rangers at Ibrox last Saturday then Livingston on Tuesday, Aberdeen on Friday and Hibs on Monday night. That kind of schedule was good enough for Rangers 13 years ago, wasn’t it?
Remember when sporting integrity was all we heard about and how the season had to be finished before the Scottish Cup final.
Hang on a minute, didn’t Celtic just beat Hearts to lift the trophy seven months later than it should have been? I’m going off topic. The point is Celtic seem to live by different rules from the rest of the clubs in this country.
Boyd has perhaps overlooked the postponement of a match against Gretna on 8 December 2007 to give Walter Smith’s side 11 days to prepare for a Champions League game at home to Lyon which was lost 3-0.
At the same stage of the season Celtic played Shekhar Donetsk on November on November 28, Hearts on December 1 and AC Milan on December 4. That’s three matches in seven days while Boyd and his team-mates had a mini-break to prepare for their match against Lyon.
With the SPL season extended because of that break given to Rangers the final matches of the season were played on Thursday May 22 which left Celtic with 11 days between their second last match, a 2-0 home win over Hibs, through to the title clincher at Tannadice.
Two of Celtic’s three outstanding fixtures have already been rescheduled with plenty of options for the other match to be played.
Since 2007/08 the SPL/SPFL season has never finished on a Thursday.