After two VAR spot-kick calls against Hearts at Celtic Park, Steven Naismith was furious. But I’ll be honest, I couldn’t care less. I’m just more incensed right now at the situation the team finds itself in.
Although I realize that this column is beginning to seem a bit repetitive, I feel compelled to use the term “embarrassing,” which I’ve used several times in the last few weeks to express how I feel about our current position at the bottom of the league.
It’s simply insufficient, and this is once more a direct consequence of the bad hiring decisions made during the summer.
Since I began criticizing this season, a few people have made fun of me and said that I’m attempting to get Naisy fired. However, this couldn’t be further from the reality, mostly because I don’t believe firing the management will bring about any changes.
The team, which depends solely on Lawrence Shankland to score goals to pull them out of difficulties, will remain under the management of the new manager. All we have to do is look back to 2020 to see what happens when someone lets a poor start get out of control.
However, I’m not genuinely concerned about being demoted. Hearts should still have enough to move up the table and into the top six come May, despite their terrible start.
The goal of coming in third is more worrisome. With Aberdeen leading by 14 points and showing no signs of slowing down under Jimmy Thelin, our chances of containing the Dons are beginning to seem slim.
That’s why I’m more curious about what transpires in Paisley the following weekend than I was about what happened at Parkhead on Saturday.
I’ve always thought of playing the Old Firm as a free kick. Nobody ever anticipates success from trips to Ibrox and Celtic Park. It’s not like the radio pundits are trashing you because you lost in Glasgow when you get back on the team bus and head back along the M8 at 6:00 p.m.
In my day it was always expected that the Old Firm sides would get the win – and that’s still the case now, especially with this Hoops line-up who, in truth, are in another league entirely from the rest of the Premiership.
The game I’m more interested in seeing is next week’s trip to St Mirren. Stephen Robinson’s side have recorded back-to-back top six finishes and they’ll present a far better measure of whether Hearts are making progress this season.
The time for talking is over, it’s now about action. But I was encouraged to see Shankland having the balls to run his mouth off at Parkhead.
There’s a social media clip doing the rounds showing the skipper shouting ‘pressure, pressure’ at Celtic new boy Arne Engels as the £11million signing stepped up to convert his penalty.
Fair play, Engels proved he could handle it. But I liked the fact that Shankland was willing to make himself look silly in the hope it could get inside the Belgian’s head.
I never liked to talk to much when an opponent was stepping up for a spot-kick because if they scored, they would be well within their rights to turn round and really take the p**s out of you. But I do think the game has gone a little bit too polite, too nice these days. This generation don’t know half of the stuff that went on in my time.
I came through during a period when it was the norm to have a set of studs raked down your Achilles as you were waiting for a corner to come in or to have a size nine planted on your toes as you tussled for a throw in.
I remember taking a swing at Ryan Jack’s crown jewels one day up at Pittodrie. He was only young at the time and I can just remember the look of shock on his face as I connected with his haw-maws.
Maybe it’s a good thing I’m retired because you can’t get away with that kind of thing anymore, not with VAR watching you closely. Not a minute would I have survived.
Even the trolling was nasty in those days. The worst affected were Alan Thompson, a former Celtic teammate, and myself, a fellow Record Sport columnist Chris Sutton.
It was kind of annoying because Thomo would constantly encourage you to go wash his Bentley in the parking lot because I was driving an old Corsa at the time! All I can hope is that when Hearts play Saints, they will have a little more to say.
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