If you’ve found yourself in the wonderful world of Celtic Twitter recently, chances are that you’ve come across #hoopsupsideyourhead. The hashtag accompanies pretty much every social media post sent out by defender Christopher Jullien.
While nobody quite knows what it means, it is certainly catching on. You only need search the Frenchman’s handle on Twitter to see a number of replies requoting the phrase. The idea is perhaps lacking but the execution is definitely there.
The big 6ft 5in former Toulouse defender is perhaps the most outspoken Celtic star on social media. Pretty much every event on the pitch is chronicled for fans to hear his take. He’s refreshingly honest about it all. Perhaps too honest.
A fortnight ago, Jullien posted a heartfelt message about how he had been “too nervous” in the surprise defeat to Livingston. He even included some images of him struggling in the West Lothian ecounter, along with his standard hashtag.
https://twitter.com/Chri6ViF/status/1184514754271944704
Jullien has a lot to learn on social media – but that doesn’t matter
The Scottish media and rival fans leapt on the post as if it was some sort of admission than Jullien had failed as a Celtic player and would be packing his bags and leaving the club ASAP. That was, of course, a complete overreaction. Tweets like Jullien’s are commonplace on the continent in a time when footballers are keen to grow themselves as brands off the pitch as much as they are on it.
You could argue that the Frenchman would have been better keeping his counsel. But most Celtic fans will have liked the honesty. They were keen to forgive him the 90 minutes presuming he got things back on track in the following matches.
The big man has done just that and played perhaps his best run of competitive matches thus far. He is slowly turning into a top-level defender both domestically and in Europe. If he continues this steady rise then the £7million we shelled out for him will start to look like a bargain.
Make no mistake about it – Jullien is a player. If a few cringey tweets is what we have to put up with while he performs well, then that’s a small price to pay.
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