Ryan Christie has spoken with Record Sport about what the last week has been like for him after his sending off at Livingston. Plenty of players pick up red cards in their careers but for some reason, Ryan’s red has brought more attention than most.
Maybe it is because it was so out of character for the Scotland international or maybe because he has been Celtic’s and the SPFL’s best player by a country mile this season.
The heat got so intense after the game it forced the player to delete some of his social media profiles. Now the dust has settled, Christie is ready to move on but he took some time to praise Livi manager Gary Holt and the player involved Scott Robinson.
“He was alright. The Livingston manager was alright as well. It was nice speaking to them and knowing they had no ongoing feelings after it.
“I think they realised I am not that kind of player and I hold my hands up. I knew straight away it was a shocking challenge and I had no complaints with the referee or anything like that. It was a terrible challenge.
“But it’s important, and my gaffer at the club said it, that the most important thing is you bounce back and you learn from it.
“You need to find the line with controlled aggression. I was just frustrated with the way I started the game and I ended up lunging in. That’s when you can hurt someone and I was gutted.”
Ryan was grateful for game time on international duty even though Scotland’s chances of qualifying for another tournament are all but gone.
“I’m over it now and it helped getting back onto the park in Russia, even though the result was not what I or we wanted. At one point, I just wanted to bury my head in the sand a little bit.”
“It was nice not to be suspended for these games and get a chance and, hopefully, I can get another chance on Sunday to bounce back.”
The shame in all of this is some of the comments coming from Celtic’s own fans towards a player who has got them out of jail on more than one occasion already this season. It’s worrying how quickly some of these fans can turn on a player, they have obviously never kicked a ball in their life or they would have some empathy for a player that gets a rush of blood to the head and makes a silly tackle.
