Ange Postecoglou has completed his transformation from innocent Australian coach to full-blown Celtic dad as the Parkhead manager gets in a few cheap VAR soundbites after the 2-2 draw with Rangers.
Always the Victim FC certainly know how to get their employees onside and stopping short of referencing some bonkers documentary on the Freemasons Society, their Aussie boss was out pandering to old refereeing stereotypes in a droning rant.
The days following any Old Firm match that doesn’t go Celtic’s way have become routinely associated with coverage of referees that lean into daft conspiracy theories about handshakes and Masonic fraternities running Scottish football and awarding Rangers penalties.
This from the club who have directly benefitted the most from Rangers’ relegation to the bottom tier, the team who prevented fixtures being rescheduled during the UEFA Cup Final run in 2008, and the club who was awarded a league title over a Zoom call.
What an entitled bunch of miserable so-and-sos they really are.
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That we have to put up with Celtic-leaning pundits and cerebral powerhouses like John Hartson and Chris Sutton peddling this nonsense is bad enough but now Postecoglou has been indoctrinated into the League of Extraordinary Cranks the game is officially a bogey.
Ange Postecoglou panders to cranks in Celtic VAR rant
“Before we even started introducing VAR, it’s always been a penalty,” said Postecoglou.
“To be honest, there were only two saves made in the game – one by Joe (Hart) and one by Connor.
“I have seen people doing all sorts of mental gymnastics trying to show why it’s not a penalty, which probably suggests it is. If it wasn’t, it would be a simple explanation.
“I don’t think it is just confined to us as a club, there are other clubs in the same boat.
“It’s just really confusing now for players to know what they can or can’t do because it seems to change depending on who’s in charge – because there is zero consistency.
“In 25 years of coaching or managing I have always abided by the referee’s decision. You would be hard-pressed to find me really criticising any referee, because I have always believed they even themselves out. They are human beings, they make mistakes, we make mistakes, players make mistakes.
“But when I look at the introduction of VAR and the decisions that have gone against us, there is zero chance that’s going to even up between now and the end of the year, because it’s remarkable we have had at least three major decisions go against us.
“You can just say it comes down to interpretation or whatever people want to say but I guarantee if that game had finished 2-2 and it was Rangers that were denied that decision, the talk this week would be how that was a title-defining decision.
“The fact it wasn’t because we still got a result doesn’t mean we should ignore it, because a team could get relegated on a decision like that.
“When you see such a vast inconsistency, there is obviously an issue that needs to be resolved and the best people to resolve it are the officials, not me or anyone else outside.
“Even now I don’t place any criticism on referees. My issue is there’s a real confusion about what is a penalty and what isn’t a penalty, what gets referred and what shouldn’t get referred. And I don’t think I’m the only one in that boat.”
How wonderfully presumptive of you Ange, mate. Postecoglou has seemingly looked into a parallel universe and can “guarantee” us all Rangers would be moaning if X was Y. Yawn.
You’ll find better analysis in the back of the Saracen Head at closing time.
It’s funny how we never hear media darling Postecoglou – what a job this man is doing etc etc – slating referees whenever calls go in his favour (see the League Cup win over Hibs last season or THAT offside goal v Hearts in the same campaign).
But when a call – which everyone of a Parkhead persuasion seems to be ignoring was the right one – goes against Celtic then suddenly everyone is out to get them.
Here’s the truth: there is no conspiracy, the decision was the right one, VAR is imperfect and won’t always get everything right across a season but it will ensure there are more correct decisions. There will always be errors interwoven with subjective opinion but the job of the referees is to correctly apply the rules. Which they did in this instance. End of discussion.
Any credibility Postecoglou had outside of Celtic Park has certainly taken a dent in the last few days and it’ll feel especially good when Rangers and Michael Beale have this two-bit Celtic dad out on his backside in the months to come.
It’s game on under Beale at Ibrox and that’s part of the reason why they’re all squealing so loudly over the referees.
Meanwhile, one player’s cheeky post-Celtic celebration has gone viral.