Interim Celtic manager John Kennedy has confirmed that the Parkhead club will not be giving Rangers a Guard of Honour at Celtic Park this weekend.
The Gers will face off against their Old Firm rivals in their first match as newly-crowned Scottish Premiership Champions this coming Sunday.
Under pressure to respond, Celtic have been left rather embarrassed by the whole thing – something evidenced by the somewhat bitter comments of coach Kennedy regarding a similar incident in 2019.
Celtic came to Ibrox as Champions and Rangers – quite rightly – refused to give them a Guard of Honour.
However in the aftermath of that smug Celtic voices aplenty criticised Rangers regarding the move with ex-manager Neil Lennon even claiming the Parkhead club would’ve done it if the roles had been reversed [Scottish Sun].
Back then we believed that was categorically not the case and unsurprisingly it’s been proven to be that way with Celtic fans aplenty scrambling to explain the moral high ground.
On that moral high ground – the same one their salty Twitter account has been banging on about for the last few weeks – you can’t claim it with stipulations.
Yet – with no brass neck – that’s what Kennedy tried to do when he finally put an end to this nonsense discussion ahead of the clash with Rangers.
“It is something that we have discussed. It is a subject that has been brought up and I have seen several people talking about it,” said Kennedy [Sky Sports].
“It was the same two years ago when we were champions and if I am being honest, I don’t think such a fuss was being made about it. I don’t see it as a big issue.
“For us, we spoke collectively about it and we won’t do it. It is not about lacking class, nothing like that, because we are a club that always shows class and dignity and do what is right.
“But ultimately this same group of players went in as champions and didn’t get the respect that time if you want to call it that.
“They are the same players who are being asked to stand there. We have decided collectively as a group.
“We will just get on with the game, park that, so we will focus fully on the game and just put that to bed.”
Ah so it’s Rangers’ fault you’ve not got the bottle to practice what you preach, I see.
In true Celtic style, they’ve managed to deflect it back onto the one side that they apparently do not remotely care about – they’re a real classy outfit indeed.
Let’s be clear here too – not a single bear anywhere has asked our rivals for the honour – as evidenced by the hilarious reaction to one newspaper column calling for it.
