Gary Keown article on hypothetical Brendan Rodgers scenario betrays his inner fear of Celtic’s continued domestic dominance.

By Tony B — 18th June

I don’t buy the Daily Mail, I don’t read the Daily Mail and I have that particular publication muted on social media.

As far as I am aware, they are the only mainstream UK newspaper to have been banned as a source by Wikipedia for being ‘generally unreliable’. To put that into context, Russia Today, the Russian State media news channel and propaganda outlet for Vladimir Putin regime, is still considered an acceptable citation for Wikipedia articles. Quite the achievement. 

Every once in a while, though, my attention is drawn to a headline that piques my curiosity and draws me in. Credit where it’s due, their subbies certainly earn their dough with their headers.

This morning I had a couple of folk alert me to an article by Gary Keown with a headline that suggested Brendan Rodgers period as Celtic Manager between 2016 and 2019 was somehow a failure. It’s an interesting take on a man who won precisely 100% of the domestic trophies available to him in that timeframe and left his successor well placed to see out the league title and in the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup en route to the 3rd of 4 consecutive domestic trebles.

The fear and pain at the prospect of Rodgers potential return was palpable throughout every paragraph. I think its fair to say that the prospect of a Rodgers return has ruined the summer for poor Gary.

It was an astonishing article and an incredible attack on a top class manager, who only be desribed as a failure by a failure if you were either deranged or a completely bitter man. I’ll let Gary decide which one of those categories he belongs to. Perhaps both, eh Gaz?

I’ll dissect the thrust of Keown’s article in a bit more detail in a minute, but a brief look back at some earlier articles give the indication that Gary might not exactly be objective in his outlook when it comes to Celtic.

The most astonishing thing about the article? It was based on a hypothetical scenario that exists only in the authors head. Unless I have missed a significant media release from Celtic, no managerial appointment has been made and there have certainly been no pronouncements from Brendan Rodgers on his European ambitions and looking to lead Celtic to a European final within 5 years. As I said to my old man this morning when speaking to him about it, one person who won’t be privy to internal discussions between Celtic and any managerial candidates and the fine detail of their contracts is Gary Keown.

Keown hasn’t always worked for an outlet deemed too unreliable for citation by Wikipedia. Back in 2015 he had unfettered access to Mark Warburton and The Rangers in his days with the Glasgow Times. The Rangers were still stuck in the 2nd tier of Scottish football in those days and in October 2015 (after 10 games) Keown had seen enough of then Manager, Mark Warburton, to decide that it was a huge coup for the Govan club to have him and that he wasn’t long for Scottish football and would be lured south, citing Fulham as a possible destination where their then gaffer, Kit Symons, was under pressure and would soon be dismissed.

Keown wasn’t alone in getting ahead of himself about the Rangers gaffer with fellow reporters touting him as a future England Manager. It’s a peculiar outlook that defines successas being 10 games unbeaten in the Scottish Championship whilst deeming a man who has had unparalleled domestic success as being a failure.

The following year, after seeing the much-vauntedWarburton side easily dismantled 5-1 going on 7 or 8 in the first Glasgow derby of the season, Keown delivered a puff piece ahead of the teams meeting in the semi final of the League Cup making all manner of excuses for their performance in that game and outlining how it’d be different and that we’d see the ‘real Rangers’ in the upcoming tie.

Rangers got out of Hampden with a 1-0 defeat but even the most ardent Rangers fan would concede that the scorelineflattered them as Celtic dominated and outclassed their opponents that day. It was as comprehensive a 1-0 win as you are likely to see.

Warburton never lasted too much longer and moved south back into obscurity. Keown, too, was also on the move from his employ with a Wiki credible newspaper to the ‘generally unreliable’ Daily Mail. In 2020, he penned an excitable article outlining how Steven Gerrard winning the title as Manager with Rangers would eclipse his achievements in Istanbul where he dragged his Liverpool team from a 3-0 half time deficit to become Champions of Europe.

Time and again Keown has shown he is simply incapable of objectivity in his reporting of Scottish football and bashes up an article which reads like something lifted from Follow Follow. Maybe it’s fitting then that he works for an outlet deemed less likely than Russia Today to be capable of accurate reporting. A joke reporter working for a joke organisation.

As for today’s article, where the hell do you start? I don’t routinely (well, ever) respond to articles from the SMSM. Life is too short. After a blether with HWS though, I agreed to fire over my response. I doubt Keown will ever see this, but he’ll probably consider it job done given the attention his article has received elsewhere across social media.

For a start, Rodgers would know – unlike Keown – that following this season, clubs will no longer drop down from the Champions League to the Europa.

I’ve already covered that the premise of the article was based on a fictitious version of events by Keown where Brendan Rodgers had stated he would lead Celtic to a Euro final in 5 years despite the fact he is yet to be appointed for a 2nd spell at Celtic Park and no such statement of ambition has ever been mentioned.

Lets face it, the only realistic potential route to a European Final for Scottish clubs remains via the Europa League or the Conference League.

After this season, participation in either competition would mean domestic failure for Celtic and would almost certainly see Rodgers replaced before the following seasons euro journey commenced such are the standards at the club.

Keown followed this by stating that Rodgers failed in his first (and as yet, only) stint at Celtic Park. How winning every possible trophy available to him can be construed as a failure is simply beyond comprehension.

You could draw parallels with Walter Smith and his first spell in charge of Rangers where Rangers were routinely embarrassed in Europe at a time where the gap between the big 5 leagues and the rest was nowhere near as vast as it is today. If anyone was to suggest that Walter Smith was a failure then they’d quite rightly be laughed at and dismissed as a bitter halfwit whose opinion could simply not be taken seriously. Smith won 7 titles in 8 years with 3 League Cups and 3 Scottish Cups.

For the bulk of that time he was up against a Celtic team on its knees because of the incompetence of the Kellys and Whites. Was it Rangers fault that Celtic were a shambles on and off the park? Of course not.

There was no invincible treble, no double treble and more from Smith as Rodgers managed to achieve. Was Walter Smith a failure, Gary? Of course he fucking wasn’t. Starting to see how foolish you look now?

Smith was understudy to Jim McLean at Dundee United when they made the European Cup semi final against Roma, he was assistant to Alex Ferguson at Mexico 86 and had won the European Youth Championship with Scotland under 18s in 1982. His Assistant, Archie Knox was at Aberdeen under Alex Ferguson when they won the Cup Winners Cup against Real Madrid. 2 proper football men. Did Rangers underachieve in Europe in the 90s? Probably, but Smith and Knox were far from failures. However, Keown’s logic would dictate otherwise.

The prospect of Brendan Rodgers returning to Celtic was first mooted on Monday afternoon as Ange Postecoglu move to Spurs neared completion. Poor Gary, he’s clearly been distraught at the thought of this for nearly a week to deliversuch a poisonous, hate filled article. He refers to ‘crash barriers’, dropped in cutely enough for him to plead plausible deniability if challenged on use of a term that is rhyming slang for a sectarian slur used by some of the more extreme elements amongst the Rangers support.

The rest of the article is so full of inaccuracies, half truths and bitterness its incredible that it wasn’t spiked by the editorial team – even for a publication noted for being ‘generally unreliable’.

He also bizarrely manages to shoehorn a reference to a proposed Celtic tour of Japan in 2008 as somehow having any relevance to Brendan Rodgers who wouldn’t turn up at Celtic Park for another 8 years. Again, Gary’s pain at yet another title triumph for Celtic still causes him hurt even though 15 years have passed. What Gary omits to mention is that the league that year was extended for the only time in its history for the sole benefit of one club. No such offer was available, nor expected 5 years earlier when Celtic also reached the UEFA Cup Final.

It was an article riddled with contrived negativity and one that betrayed the fear of its author and his almost acceptance that Celtic will continue to dominate the domestic landscape for the foreseeable future should Brendan Rodgers indeed seal his Celtic return in the coming days.