Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton has been left alarmed by the lack of condemnation coming Alfredo Morelos’ way after the gesture he made to Hoops supporters at Celtic Park last week, writing in his Daily Record column.
As reported by The Record, the 23-year-old striker appeared to make a ‘throat-slitting’ motion towards Celtic fans after being sent off upon the receipt of a second yellow card.
It’s something that could land him in further hot water.
Rangers chose to vigorously defend the striker following the incident, claiming that the player is singled out for special attention and scrutiny from media pundits and rival fans (The Scotsman).
However, Sutton is aghast that the incident hasn’t been dealt with properly.
As quoted by The Daily Record, he said: “This week has alarmed me. I was shocked and I thought I’d seen everything. We all witnessed what happened, so why the pretending, the joking, the making out it’s trivial?
“If this incident happened down south there would be an outcry. There was about three weeks of debate after a picture surfaced of Raheem Sterling sporting a gun tattoo. In the end, he came out and explained the inoffensive reasons behind it but if one of the top players in England did a cut-throat sign it would be a huge deal.
“What I can’t fathom is if the player had meant something else why did he, or his representatives, not release a statement apologising for the misinterpretation and say it won’t happen again?”
Sutton goes on to slam the ‘journalists, fans and pundits’ who have shrugged it all off, suggesting the whole thing has set a bad example.
Common sense needed
Much of the rancour between the two clubs following the derby has been sad to see from my perspective and my thoughts align with much of what Sutton has had to say.
There’s still time for the Scottish FA to take action on Morelos too, with The Scottish Sun reporting this week that the compliance officer hasn’t ruled out taking him to task for the incident.
The report states that he could face a ban until February, with suspensions potentially added on to his current three-game spell on the sidelines.
It would be a common-sense approach for the Hampden authorities to take action. As Sutton suggests, we don’t want this kind of thing to become acceptable in Scottish football and the video evidence of wrongdoing is strong.
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