DAVIE PROVAN doesn’t take much joy out of anything these days and even when Celtic Park is rocking and the bhoys pull out a result against Lazio the first thing that comes to mind to appease his paymasters at The Sun is to discredit the opposition.
Had Celtic lost we would have got it in the neck but seeing as we’ve won Davie wants to go at the teams we’re beating.
“The Hoops boss was havering. Like all coaches, Neil talked up the opposition pre-match. Over in Porto, Steven Gerrard was doing the same thing.
“If managers bum up the opposition, it makes them look better when they get a result. Bottom line is neither Lazio nor Porto have real quality at the moment.
“Had it been a Champions League game, it’s more likely Juventus would have provided the Italian opposition.
“Instead, a Lazio outfit that finished eighth in Serie A — 31 points behind Juve — got an automatic Europa League group place because they won the cup.”
Celtic are trying to find their feet on a European setting again after Brendan Rodgers refused to impose a different philosophy against teams who were technically better than Celtic. The former Celtic manager would try to go toe to toe with his opponents and it resulted in some demoralising defeats.
Nobody said Lazio are world beaters but they are a very good side and Celtic beating them is worthy of praise.
Provan did praise the Celtic support and conceded the game did have a Champions League vibe because of the atmosphere. There’s no sort of stock take or reality check by guys like Provan who think the best thing to do is run down his old club whenever he gets a chance.
I sort of agree with Mr Provan. Man Utd and Arsenal are run of the mill teams that have also found their level in this “inferior” joke of a tournament. Surprisingly, Arsenal and Chelsea were complaining last year when they couldn’t easily travel to the Europa League Final. Lots of noise in the English media when they had an all English final. Hypocrites the lot of them.
Provan might have a point when he says Lazio and Porto don’t have ‘real quality’ at the moment..i.e,they’ve been better in the past,but they’ve also been much worse too.
Ok, granted ! What i’d like to know is, what the fuck are we supposed to do about that,given that we operate in a less competitive environment with probably less cash than either of them ?
We also have a very young,relatively inexperienced and growing team (in which Provan in his pomp would not have found easy to get a start in)
We only won 8 in a row because: everybody else is crap..
Treble Treble ? Everybody else was crap.
2-0 at Ibrox: Rangers had an off day.
Draw in Rennes ? They were overrated.
Lazio game on Thursday: they’re nothing special these days.
Cluj in Europa league? We should be winning that anyway.
What the fuck do we have to do Mr Provan,eh ?
For a reasonably intelligent man,you don’t half talk some shite…maybe it’s
time you just shut the fuck up..how about it Davie?
You’re not even controversial..you just come across as a bitter wee sniper of a man.
BBC Sport app,Report bt Colin Moffat: Motherwell in the lead at Ibrox today and he suggests its early days to get carried away since the haven’t won there since 1997.
I seem to remember ‘Well humping Rangers 6-1 on aggregate in 2015 play-off,if i’m not mistaken ?
3-1 at Ibrox and 3-0 at Fir Park.
Maybe i dreamt that mind you.