Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou believes both his side and Rangers made far more mistakes in last week’s derby than the refereeing team.
In a week which has seen managers dish out wrong verdicts of decisions made, letters to the SFA and even police investigations into abuse received by referee Kevin Clancy [BBC], Postecoglou has sought to bring a bit of common sense to proceedings.
The Celtic manager said in response to reports of over-the-line messages being sent to Clancy [Celtic FC]: “It’s concerning for any person. We shouldn’t even be talking about it, that somebody needs to go to those lengths to invade somebody’s personal life. We understand we work in a public space and with that comes scrutiny but that should begin and end within the profession, not go into our personal lives.
“If you look at last week it was a real derby game, it had a bit of everything, but it wasn’t a great game. It was a game riddled with mistakes from both sides. Players and managers made a lot more mistakes than officials on the day. If anyone analyses that game and thinks one moment decided that, they’re not looking at the big picture.
“There’s a decision there. Everyone’s got opinions on it. It’s not fact-based because it’s not an offside or something you can clearly see. It’s an opinion-based thing and everyone gives their opinion but ultimately one person has to make the decision. That’s where we have to have respect for the officials and allow them to do their job.
“I thought we should have had a penalty at Ibrox, but it doesn’t really matter. That was a mistakes-riddled derby last week from both teams, to isolate the officials as a reason why the contest went one way or another I think gives a false impression. It adds unnecessary pressure to people making the decisions.”
The manager, as usual, is spot on here. Not only is it completely out of order for a referee’s details to be leaked and used by fans for abuse – the whole furore in the wake of last week’s match was ridiculous to begin with.
Clancy ruled that Alfredo Morelos fouled Alistair Johnston and the VAR team didn’t think that was a clear and obvious error. These are subjective judgements. It’s not a bizarre offside ruling or a case of whether the ball was over the goalline or not.
For me, much of the scrutiny on Clancy was a tactic to deflect away from the fact that Celtic have won yet another of these derbies at the expense of a team that just can’t seem to touch us, even when the Bhoys haven’t played particularly well. But that’s nothing new in Scottish football I suppose.
Good on Postecoglou for putting forward an incisive and clear-headed response to a silly week. We need more of this from our leaders in the game.
In other news, Ange Postecoglou delivers Celtic injury update as 4 confirmed out of Kilmarnock clash.
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