In the wake of Celtic’s excellent result last night, bitter Tom English was at pains to point out the bhoys SHOULD have lost 12-1 at Dortmund
Eric Knott 
Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images Sport
I’ve often thought about what the best terminology for Tom English is.
And time out of number, the same thing keeps on entering my thought process.
English is a chameleon.
He blends in to his surroundings.
Well, to a degree.
But when it comes to Celtic, he just cannot hide his dislike for our club.
He un-blends from his surroundings very quickly when he wants to speak ill of our club.
I’ve written about this many times, and in depth.
I don’t pretend to try and understand why he dislikes Celtic so much, which is all the more baffling when you consider he’s Irish, but I can pretty much guarantee I know how it happened.
As we’d say in Ireland, “He fell in with the wrong crowd.”
And when that happens in Ireland, there’s no turning back.
Once you’re in with the wrong crowd, you’re a turncoat, end of story.
You can’t shake off that label, and Tom English seems to wear it as a badge of honour in Scotland.
He’s embraced what he became, and he enforces that with his attitude towards Celtic.
So, on his X feed last night, it was blatantly obvious that it absolutely killed him to give any credit to Celtic and Brendan Rodgers for their performance in Bergamo last night.
His commentary and responses to comments on the result were dripping with bitterness.
Every time he gave credit, it had to be wiped out in equal measure with commentary on what COULD have happened in Dortmund 3 weeks ago.
This clearly displays English’s complete inability to read the room.
Nobody gives a shit about the Dortmund result anymore.
English’s inability to recognise that last night’s result was the exact reaction required to that, shows just how idiotic his comments were.
It’s clear he wished Celtic were on the end of another hiding last night.
And even when they weren’t, English just couldn’t help himself when it came to bringing up the Dortmund result 3 weeks ago.
His bitter disappointment was evidenced by his urge to jump on every comment and talk about what might have happened in Dortmund.
Below is the TwiXt in question, as I don’t know what to call it now since you can’t say tweet anymore:
“It’s not how we play. What do we do? Sit back, have 15% of the ball and probably lose 3-0, 4-0?” That was Brendan Rodgers post-Dortmund. Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with defending in numbers and riding your luck against better opposition. Maybe the penny has dropped at last
— Tom English (@TEnglishSport) October 23, 2024
You can click into it to expand the comments and read English’s responses to Celtic supporter’s comments.
The SMSM is desperate to cling to the Dortmund result.
None more so than Tom English.
I read James Forrest’s article on The Celtic Blog this morning, and in it, James made a very pertinent point.
He pointed out how Dortmund shipped 5 goals to Real Madrid on Tuesday night.
James also stated, quite correctly, that on form, sides like Real Madrid and Dortmund can demolish anyone, and each other.
This is what happens when you come up against elite European sides.
It’s what they can do to not only you, but when everything clicks, how they can give each other a hiding too.
Any journalist worth his salt should be aware of this.
However, when we shipped 5 against Real Madrid, it was an embarrassment for Scottish football.
So then, by definition, Dortmund’s utter capitulation to the same side must be an embarrassment for German football, yes?
You would think so.
But Scottish based journalists like English are too fixated on sticking the boot into Celtic, so they use results like the Dortmund and Real ones as leverage to do so.
Yet there’s no interest in commenting on what befell Dortmund after they beat us.
No urge to point out that they fell to a defeat to Union Berlin the following weekend after they pulverised us.
And then only scraped a home win to St. Pauli following that.
In fact, they have not actually hit any real stride since defeating us.
So, does that then mean their victory against us was a flash in the pan?
A night where everything fell into place and clicked perfectly?
Well, I suppose that’s what a balanced journalist might actually look at…
But no, Tom English was more interested in pointing out what might have happened at Dortmund 3 weeks ago.
He could have left that where it belonged, in the past, and just given credit where it was due.
Instead of countering any credit he gave with a snide remark about Dortmund’s 7-1 victory over us.
We achieved a monumental result last night.
Rodgers and his team were up against the Europa League Champions.
In their ranks, they had Serie A’s top scorer Matteo Retegui.
A player who has also scored 6 goals for Italy in 16 senior appearances.
Our defence kept him very quiet, and very frustrated, to the point where he was taken off in the 59th minute.
Why not talk about the performances of Auston Trusty and Liam Scales?
Scales being a fellow Irishman, English should have had no problem praising him, shouldn’t he?
These are the points he should be commenting on.
This was a great result for Scottish football.
But for the SMSM, and the Stenography corps, it was a result that had them binning their scripts for this morning’s papers in complete disappointment.
I suppose when Hugh Keevins was talking about a double figure loss in his column last Sunday, I should have known we’d get a result.
Anything that man predicts always results in the complete opposite coming to pass.
And that’s exactly what happened last night.
Much to the dismay of Tom English, who just could not hide his bitterness and disappointment.
He expected to be gleefully revelling in a heavy defeat.
Well Tom, we’re sorry to disappoint.
Actually, we’re not.
This was Brendan Rodgers’ two fingered salute to the SMSM.
He, and we, deserve to enjoy it.
Great article. I’m not actually convinced that uncle Tom is a fit and proper person to comment on Celtic. His football knowledge seems to be very limited to say the least. Is he not more of a rugby man blagging his way through the football world.
The result and the performance last night will have upset him and a lot of the so called mainstream media in Scotland which makes it all the more enjoyable to me. No doubt most of them will find a way of putting a negative spin on it but we the fans know better.
The best way for the team to really upset them is to build on the performance of last night in the domestic scene.
Go on another unbeaten run here and really sicken them HH
As I’ve stated previously , Celtic FC could trounce Real Madrid or Barcelona or Man City 5-0 in the final of the UEFA Champions League and the SMSM would find fault with it ! They need Celtic to fail as it gives theRangers hope . They want Celtic to fail because otherwise the clumpany from Govanlandia cannot be successful …the objective of the entire process . For example ,if the BBC in England was to show as much contempt to any particular football club down South as the Scottish branch does to Celtic FC , there would be the biggest outcry from the licence fee tax , paying public imaginable! Keep winning on the park … that’ll fix their wagons ….
Big bowl of soup for uncle Tom this morning.
English Tom
This man is a disgrace to the people of ireland
A west brit w****r!
Said it for a long time – that man is a joke, how BBC Scotland can call him the Sports Editor is incredible, he knows nothing about football and thinks he is an expert on Rugby – even the Rugby fraternity don’t like him ! However you may an excellent point regarding teams from other countries, including Engerlund, when they get beaten heavily – it is never an issue – whenever it is Celtic FC, we are made to look as if we shouldn’t be playing in these tournaments. Most of the English based pundits have heaped praise on Celtic for last nights performance, even the Italian media praised them, and Faddy had to tell others on the BBC that this was a good result. What is the point, they just continue to hate us – Hail Hail.
You’ve ‘written’ about it many times? Don’t make me laugh. Your barely literate contributions hardly qualify. A touch of the green eyed monster there, I would say. English is no Hugh McIlvanney, but let’s keep things in perspective here. Leave the commentary and analysis to the professionals.
Ok Joe, since you are critiquing my work, can you dissect my barely literate latest article and tell me exactly what is wrong with it? You know? Since I’m so shit at what I do. Then I can learn from you, the greatest, to become the best that I can be. Oh, and an FYI, if my work was barely literate, then how is it that you read it and understand it? And another thing, I’m sure as hell not jealous of a twat like Tom English, believe me. He’s clueless when it comes to football and his background is rugby. It shows….
lovely article ziggy
It was a good result for us the team and manager under a lot of pressure from the 7/1 match so different tactics worked” maybe lucky but we go again well done boys. And Welsh and trusty where excellent along with the team.
what a performance by our team.
English has made his bed.
Hail Hail Brendan and the Bhoys.
What a great job by our fans as well!!!!
Welsh?
Great performance by our boys all round,but Scales and Trusty stood out.
You and Forrest are so up each other it’s difficult to know where you start and he ends.
Have you made a wee pact to praise each other.
Aw that’s nice….
We work for the same company Stevie, so I guess that makes us work colleagues and as a result, yes, we get on pretty well. I’m sure you get on with guys you work with as well, it isn’t a crime, nor could it be construed as us having our head up each other’s arses. It’s called common courtesy. If James refers to something I wrote, then he says why, as do I.
Great piece, I’m disgusted the way the smsm & bbc cover our club here and abroad. The only way to shut these f***ers up is WIN an keep on winning,as for English Tom he’s just a clown a sad one at that
That’s the perfect answer Eric, both you and James Forrest are bloggers, and there is no rivilary between any of you and that’s the way it should be.
Keep up the good work.
Tom English –
Indifference is the best response
Good reply Eric which I accept,although I will say you have much better manners than the arsehole that is Forrest.
We were poor in Dortmund, but were hit with 2 pens and 3 screamers from Adeyemi who then went off with a hamstring issue early second half, subsequent games Dortmund have struggled without him. Vinicius Jnr did the same to Dortmund this week, so the levels are high and world class players will do that to you. Playing effectively a 4-5-1 last night allowed us to contain better and less space to move through midfield, classic away tactics that we should continue with in the CL this year. We have the speed on the wings to counter if we win the midfield battles. We forced Atalanta into crosses into the box and Trusty and Scales were awesome, but all set up by 150% commitment to the game plan by ALL the squad for 95 minutes.
Hail Hail and onwards and upwards, shows we can learn from our mistakes.
Tom English is a RUGBY man, maybe he just likes the high scoring games 🙁
The term to describe Tom English is soup taker. Horrible human being
Engish by name,,,English by nature…