Billy Brown’s Celtic Rant – Priceless

Former Hearts assistant manager Billy Brown has had one hell of a rant about Celtic in the press this morning, and for a change he seems to have actually made his points
rather well.

Brown was always someone who tended to find controlling his emotions difficult whilst in the Tynecastle dug-out, and since his arrival at Kilmarnock with Jim Jefferies he would appear to have continued along that vein, often embarrassing his club with ill-advised spur-of-the-moment comments shortly after matches, whether it be about match officials or the opposition. Indeed this well-known Hibbie has also been no stranger to a dig or three about our own club in recent times either, and for many Hearts fans he’s actually gone so far as to sour what was once a pretty decent bond with a series of unnecessarily snidey comments.

But his article in the gutter press this morning in response to Celtic’s public whining about the ‘physical’ treatment they received in their recent CIS Cup tie at Rugby Park actually makes for both entertaining and factual reading, and it’s nice for once to hear a representative of an SPL club other than our own getting genuinely stuck in!

His main point focuses on the sheer hypocrisy that both halves of the Old Firm tend to display when it comes to matches against the other SPL sides, highlighting things that they are equally if not more guilty of than their opponents. In this case it was Nakamura and Scott Brown complaining about some of the challenges being inflicted upon them by the Killie players that night, which is incredibly rich for several reasons, not least the fact that Brown himself is one of the nastiest, most malicious players in the country. Brown (Billy!) chose a pretty good example of how his own club’s approach to this sort of thing clearly differs from Celtic’s, by saying:

‘It’s time someone stood up for Kilmarnock Football Club and put forward our case because Celtic have had a go at us a few times after matches at Rugby Park.

‘When we first played them this season all the talk after the match was about Frazer Wright slapping Nakamura, an incident so serious it wasn’t reported by the referee, neither of the linesman, the fourth official or the SFA match delegate.

‘But guess what everyone was talking about for the next few days after Celtic made a big issue of it.

‘That’s not how we go about our business at this club.

‘Two seasons ago, David Fernandez was on the receiving end of a really bad Gary Caldwell tackle.

‘Nobody at Killie condemned Gary because I honestly don’t believe he tried to hurt our man and David even came out and said it had not been deliberate.

‘I’m afraid these things happen.

‘But David was out for 18 months with an appalling injury that almost finished his career.

‘Despite this we still didn’t have a go at either Celtic or their player.

‘Nakamura was fit enough to be on the bench four days later. Notice any difference?’

Of course we do, but the difference is that because the press practically worship the ground that any Old Firm representative walks on, then the public message is conveyed exactly as the Glasgow clubs want it to be regardless of the actual facts. It probably wouldn’t have even mattered if Killie HAD complained about the challenge on Fernandex, as the press would have found something to either draw everyone’s attention away from it, or simply lie to protect their most-valued customers.

Brown’s article then descends into full-scale rant-mode – it definitely reads as though he’s gotten himself more and more annoyed with each passing sentence and has gone from a reasonably balanced and controlled, patient build-up, to all-out attack on the Old Firm! He continued:

‘I laugh when I hear fans of Celtic – and Rangers – complain they get a raw deal from referees. In fact, everyone from outside those two clubs finds it incredible. A joke.

‘The Old Firm get everything.

‘Now we are not even allowed to put in a challenge without them complaining.

‘Are we just supposed to sit back and allow them to walk all over us?

‘We have two big games coming up – at home to Rangers on Sunday and then Celtic away the following Wednesday.

‘All I’m asking is a fair kick of the ball. It seems to me that every 50-50 decision goes the way of Celtic and Rangers. There is no doubt at all about that.

‘On the rare occasion one doesn’t, or even when they just feel things are against them, they are in the papers moaning about their lot.

‘There is absolutely no need for that kind of behaviour.

‘It is difficult enough for a club such as ourselves to compete against these two giants without all of this nonsense going on.’

Regardless of what you think of Billy Brown, his comments here and extremely difficult to disagree with, and I applaud the guy for going public with this. Like Craig Levein did at Ibrox
last season after that truly disgraceful Mike McCurry refereeing performance, Brown is merely coming out and telling it how it is in Scotland. It’s just a pity that those with the power to do something about it never want to listen……..