When the SMSM is resorting to encouraging the departure of an Ibrox manager and not a Celtic manager, you know the Clement love affair is over…
Eric Knott 
Craig Williamson - SNS Group/SNS Group/Getty Images
Yesterday, I did a spoof article based on Hugh Keevins’ alter-ego, Kew Heavins, and although tongue in cheek, it was a prime example of the SMSM’s desperation to get rid of managers who are rampantly successful at Celtic.
Such is Kew’s ability to pretend to be oul Shug, that a ridiculous amount of people actually believed it to be him.
The article itself got a huge response, and is still racking up reads today.
As I stated at the outset, its very much tongue in cheek, but it fooled a lot of people and I suppose that was due to the language contained in it.
Its a language we’re all too used to.
Any time a sniff of a job comes out of the EPL, the Celtic manager is touted as the bookies favourite, and so it goes, blah, blah, blah.
This is simply because the media are desperate to influence the departure of successful Celtic managers.
Or at the very least, scaremonger the Celtic support into believing the manager is leaving.
I did not intend to scaremonger with my article yesterday, but so conditioned are people to this kind of behaviour in the SMSM, that they took the article to be the real deal.
And so conditioned are they to Hugh Keevins inane ramblings on a Sunday, they believed it was really him and not Kew.
So, imagine my shock today when Mark Walker AND Gavin Berry joined forces to to make current Ibrox boss Philippe Clement the favourite for the Anderlecht job in Belgium?
In a very long winded article in today’s Record, I was met with the below headline:
Philippe Clement touted as next Anderlecht manager as ‘modern’ Rangers boss gets gets ringing endorsement
Now, as ringing endorsements go, this one is a hundinger.
None other than Nordin Jbari, has a lot of really great things to say about Clement.
Who is Nordin Jbari, you might ask?
Well, I must admit, I’ve never come across him before today, but it would appear he was a journeyman throughout the clubs of Belgium in his heyday.
And in a staggering 193 appearances for 10 clubs as a striker, he managed to score an equally staggering 49 goals.
An average of 4.9 goals per club.
Capped off with two appearances for the Belgian national side back in 1996/97.
So clearly, this guy’s opinion carries an AWFUL lot of weight.
Current plying his trade as a TV pundit, this was what well known striking legend Jbari had to say about Clement:
Philippe Clement likes to play modern, attacking football. He would be a very interesting option, even though he used to play for and manage Club Brugge. There’s obviously a financial aspect to it too because he’s at Rangers and whether he would even consider a move to Anderlecht. But he’s definitely an option for Anderlecht alongside van Bommel.
How’s about that for an opinion?
And you know what interests me even more?
The level of journalistic research you’d have to go to to find such an opinion.
Because you’d have to look REALLY hard.
Those intrepid guys at the Record never fail to impress, do they?
But are they really trying to impress us?
Or is there an ulterior motive to their expert reporting?
Could they, in reality, be starting to think that Philippe Clement is a busted flush at Ibrox?
This is the first time I’ve seen the old “bookies favourite” for this job, or that job, in relation to an Ibrox manager being used by the SMSM.
Now, we all know what Berry’s leanings are, I’m not sure about his partner in crime in this journalistic masterpiece of three whole paragraphs, Mark Walker.
But I’d hazard a guess he likes a certain club from Govan too.
And it would appear both are desperate for change at Ibrox.
Otherwise, why would they go to such lengths to find the opinion of such a WELL known pundit?
Imagine the level of work that went into those three paragraphs though?
It really shows what good quality journalists there are at the Record.
Just picture Berry and Walker joining forces in journalism school to do a journalistic project.
I’m sure their lecturer would be well impressed when they presented three whole paragraphs on a foolscap page.
It must be a tough place to get a job, the Record.
Then again, I guess you when can learn from the most expert sports writers in the SMSM like Jackson and Keevins, the only way is up, isn’t it?
Well, its either that, or there’s a lot of pain and suffering going on when it comes to the Record’s favourite club.
Because things must be pretty bad when you’re seeking out the opinion of a Belgian journeyman.
Looks like the SMSM wants Ibrox to eat, sleep and repeat it’s yearly manager cycle.
Wishful thinking, I reckon.
Looks like the Clement love affair is well and truly over.
As the transfer window is closed. The only desperate opportunity to raise some compensation for the crumbling club. Also his wages are not affordable.
“This is simply because the media are desperate to influence the departure of successful Celtic managers.”
Wrong. They want to sell advertising space, which these days is through click-bait. Best ignored. Don’t click. Don’t react. Hugh Keevins, since you mention him, is just a one of many very poor journalists who has had to gnaw on the rancid marrow that is sectarianism in the bigoted Glasgow sewer to survive in his profession.
Maybe the Celtic board should send em the biscuit tin withoot the keys
Kin ye imagine the looks of delight the confusion oan thir faces
Priceless
HH
Ah , the old QEII ! I have a sneaky suspicion that Del boy McInnes will be receiving all kinds of superlative press from the daily Record in particular,in the coming days and weeks .For a guy like McInnes ,- the biggest fraud coach in Scottish football – to be sitting second bottom of the league with his team Kilmarnock ,yet every picture of him recently has him grinning like a Cheshire cat , doesn’t make sense ! It’s almost as if he knows something that we should know about …kind of scenario ? Please ,please ,be true . That would really make my year .Fingers x’d ….