Tam McManus slams abusive fans as Celtic’s Ryan Christie deletes Twitter

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Former Hibernian star and BBC Sportsound pundit Tam McManus has slammed supporters for forcing Ryan Christie to delete his Twitter account.

The Celtic attacker clearly took some stick after being sent off against Livingston yesterday. His high boot on Scott Robinson put Celtic down to 10 men, and we went on to lose the game and, subsequently, top spot in the Premiership.

It led to plenty of criticism towards Christie on social media post-match. Many of it came from our own support too.

Just hours after the defeat, the former Inverness star got rid of his account. As it stands, it’s currently deactivated, with no return seemingly inevitable. And, as he reflected on the incident, former Hibs star McManus slammed fans for abusing him.

Christie clearly upset – all will be forgotten about in the coming weeks

It’s a difficult situation for Celtic fans at the moment. There’s still a full two weeks to chew on that Livingston defeat. Nothing can be put right until we face Ross County at Parkhead on October 19th.

But McManus is spot on. Having social media may connect you to the fans, but that’s not always a good thing. Sometimes, many can go overboard. That’s not to say that players shouldn’t be criticised. We’ve slammed Christie enough for his red card yesterday, but it was one mistake.

It’s not as if he’s Alfredo Morelos. He knows how to generally control his temper, and given how much he’s provided the club this season with 11 goals in 19 appearances, he’s allowed the misdemeanour.

A good performance vs Lazio and everything calms down

But once he’s back out on the pitch against Lazio, should Neil Lennon select him, all will be forgotten about with a good performance. It was one bad day and one poor defeat to Livingston. League titles aren’t handed out in October, just like they weren’t handed out at Ibrox last month either.

If Celtic are to have a successful season, Christie will likely be at the heart of it. We don’t want him to feel a disconnect with supporters over one bad day. Every player has them.

Now we’ll see how Christie manages to bounce back from the whole situation. He’s clearly taken more stick than he can afford to look at, and he’s likely torn up over costing his team at Livi. But it’s time for the supporters to rally round him and get behind his back instead of on it. There’s a long season ahead.