JUST when the dust looked like settling on Auston Trusty’s red card against Hearts and the subsequent appeal kicked out by the Scottish FA, up pops the man himself with the hot take to trump them all.
‘The majority of the world probably has the same opinion as me on it,’ ventured Celtic’s American defender, ‘but the decision is made. I can’t do anything about it.’
Chapeau, big fella. No messing about with the old ‘anyone in the stadium could see I shouldn’t have been sent packing’ line. Not even a mention of ‘anyone watching on TV could see it’. No, noooo. That’s small potatoes. Unambitious. This is way bigger than that.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, for example, to see how things really panned out during the week in Beijing when the fitba’ popped up on the agenda.
Keir Starmer presents Xi Jinping with the match ball used during Manchester United’s 3-2 win at Arsenal last weekend. The Chinese president gratefully accepts, leans in to the PM and whispers in his ear: ‘Aye, but whit aboot Beaton on the VAR at Tynecastle?’.
‘They’ll no’ tell ye that oan the BBC News but, wull they? They’re aw in oan it. IT’s a ConSPIraCy,’ slavered one caller to an unhinged West of Scotland radio ‘phone-in during the week. Probably. His name might even have been Martin O’Neill.
Celtic defender Auston Trusty collides with Hearts striker Pierre Landry Kabore
Trusty was initially given a yellow card before VAR advised referee McLean to upgrade to a red
Listen, let it be said here that O’Neill’s return to the Scottish football landscape as interim Celtic manager (twice) over the course of this circus show of a season has been so welcome, so entertaining.
First up, he’s managed to get this underperforming and badly-assembled squad at Parkhead grinding out results and back into the title race along with securing a place in the play-offs of the Europa League. That’s a major achievement in itself.
What’s most amusing, though, is that, right from the get-go when he first came in to replace Brendan Rodgers and again after the Trials and Tribulations of Wilfried Nonsense, he’s done it while carrying this magnificently comedic air of some mildly confused OAP who has just been let out of the care home for the day, is almost certain to spill some soup down his front before home time and finds comfort in going on and on about all our yesterdays.
O’Neill certainly tapped into all his yesterdays a couple of days ago when asked about Scotland’s officials and the fact that Trusty’s appeal against his red card, upgraded from a yellow by referee Steven McLean after he’d been sent to the pitchside monitor by VAR John Beaton, had been kicked into touch.
‘It’s never been a problem before, has it, really? I’ve never had a problem with it in my first spell here 25 years ago. I just expected no decisions to come our way,’ he said.
‘It is interesting now to see managers and pundits all talking about being surprised to see Celtic getting a red card, which did make me laugh because our disciplinary record is actually very good.
‘Maybe it’s me. I have a lot of paranoia about me, but I’m seeing a shrink at the moment, so I am perfectly all right.’
He certainly is that. Seventy three years old or not, O’Neill is as pin-sharp as ever. Almost every media appearance he makes these days feels like part theatre, part stand-up. He’s been fantastic value.
O’Neill seems keen to foster a siege mentality at Celtic as they seek to retain the title
The veteran manager is as pin sharp as he ever was, even at the age of 73
Yet, as someone, back in the day, who spent endless Fridays as part of the media scrum, talking to him around a table in one of the suites upstairs at Celtic Park, it is clear to see that the same glint in the eye is still there.
The same competitive instinct still reeks out of every pore, even though a lot of the old dodderer schtick makes it tempting to regard him as some kind of avuncular Great Uncle. O’Neill has the eye of the tiger, all right. He’s built on winning, seeking advantages, and that’s kind of what this entire week with him and Celtic has felt like.
Since he came back in the door, the Northern Irishman has spoken at length about the need for unity within the club. It has been in painfully short supply, though. Until now, that is.
There hasn’t been much chat about sacking the board since last Sunday’s 2-2 draw in Gorgie. No sprayed bedsheets. No flying crush barriers. It’s been about McLean and Beaton and referees and the SFA.
If there is a painted bedsheet to be brandished at the Falkirk game today, chances are it will read ‘Justice For The Tynecastle One’.
Even Celtic’s official club statement on the Trusty appeal falling couldn’t resist trying, with all its might, to prise open a can of worms with references to ‘other decisions’ that have created displeasure over the course of the campaign.
‘We await the written judgement, but will be ensuring further discussions with the SFA on the matter as we seek to understand the rationale for this and other decisions,’ it read.
There’s no getting away from it here. This feels like a concerted campaign from within the walls of Celtic Park.
VAR intervened to suggest referee Steven McLean upgrade Trusty’s yellow card to a red
Trusty insists the ‘whole world’ could see he should not have been given a red card
An attempt to deflect attention away from their own boardroom and get the punters lined up, for these closing three-and-a-bit months of a season that still has everything up for grabs, against a common enemy – the SFA’s refereeing department.
What makes the campaign all the more admirable, of course, is its sheer audaciousness. Amid all the outcry, teeth-gnashing and big foamy slabbers, it’s easy to forget the one inconvenient truth underpinning it all – that Trusty absolutely deserved to go. All. Day. Long.
Yes, Hearts striker Pierre Landry Kabore is not in control of the ball when he moves to connect with a forward pass from Sabah Kerjota. It is moving wide of the target and so is he before he is brought down by Trusty. All of that is completely irrelevant.
He has got the run on Trusty. He is going to get the ball and be able to run in on goal and have a shot. Dane Murray is too far away to be deemed to be offering cover. Liam Scales is never going to catch up with play. It is a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Celtic feel VAR protocol was breached because you can’t argue it was a clear and obvious error by McLean to give Trusty a booking. But it was. Trusty stopped Kabore from running into the area and shooting.
That’s been largely lost in the whirlwind, though. Celtic and their punters are on the warpath. The pressure on whistlers is going to be ramped up to 11 for the rest of the run-in and an already-mad campaign suddenly has the potential for even more mentalness.
It might prove to be a masterstroke or it may backfire, but it definitely appears that Celtic have viewed Trustygate as an opportunity to try and harness all that raw anger residing within their fanbase and redirect it elsewhere. Whatever the consequences.
It just feels crystal-clear, so indubitably crystal-clear that the majority of the world probably has the same opinion as me on it. Don’t you think?
