Scotland’s top football reporter is looking over his shoulder at Internet Bampots

Celtic’s Champions League exit last week was inevitable but that didn’t numb the pain of defeat and failure.

A week earlier the club was in full back slapping mode as they hosted their AGM on the back of record turnover and profit. Only Brendan Rodgers and a few malcontents didn’t join in with the laughter as Peter Lawwell and Michael Nicholson cracked the jokes.

The defeat to Lazio prompted a wave of anger, game by game the European profile built up by Gordon Strachan and Martin O’Neill is being dismantled with some grim statistics emerging.

No wins in 15 group stage matches isn’t likely to be celebrated at the AGM, neither is one group stage win in a decade or the 10th anniversary of the last home win, against Ajax in a group stage that ended in a 6-1 defeat away to Barcelona.

There was plenty of analysis of the Lazio defeat, where Celtic stand in Europe, horrendous recruitment and the lack of interest from the Celtic executive in the trashing of the club/brand in Europe. Who cares when the bank balance has never been healthier?

Call them bloggers, keyboard warriors or simply Internet Bampots there is no getting away from the fact that in 2023 digital content has completely marginalised their printed competitors despite the privileges granted to old media.

When it comes to Celtic content there is no-one online or old school with the contacts and authority of Stephen McGowan, when he clicks ‘send’ hoops supporters take notice regardless of whether they agree or disagree with his content. He tends to be very accurate in his reading of events.

A year ago he was the only Scottish based football reporter at the World Cup in Qatar, a networking jamboree with the great and the good of the sport all housed within an area half the size of Strathclyde.

With his finger on the pulse it seems that McGowan has been keeping a close eye on Internet Bampots, not only what they think of events at Celtic but also how they view the status of the top man at the Daily Mail.

Let’s take a nice result to the Vatican, says Brendan Rodgers

https://t.co/eoqweKomJ5 via @mailplus

— stephen.mcgowan (@mcgowan_stephen) November 28, 2023

Three years ago in the darkest days of Covid I had some Twitter exchanges with McGowan, fortunately with the new normality in place that came to a half until Thursday, the day after Celtic’s return from Italy.

James Forrest of The Celtic Blog seems to have caught the attention of McGowan, he tends to be a bit more direct, less diplomatic than myself in sharing opinions.

As 2023 comes to an end with newspaper sales across the board down 20% year on year it is clear that the shift to digital is only going to accelerate.

There are quite a number of well established Celtic outlets whether that is a traditional website like this, podcasters or Social Media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Independence is the real joy and advantage of the blogger. Having access denied to media conferences or an angry editor warning you to tone it down just doesn’t happen.

Every week the world of the Internet Bampot is evolving. It moves quickly as reach expands and it’s good to know that our content is being monitored by the most successful reporter in the old media.

It’s glaring – we need more quality, admits Rodgers after Celtic crash out of Europe… with a £4m deal for Araujo a January possibility https://t.co/VTnfOBbbvL via @mailplus @ScotMailSport @mcgowan_stephen pic.twitter.com/ClLVmyJ8BK

— Mail Sport Scotland (@ScotMailSport) November 28, 2023