If only Tom English heaped the same amount of praise on “dominant Celtic” as he does on “weird R*****S”, then maybe we could refer to him as a balanced journalist

Last night, the Ibrox side once again proved they are a European anomaly, or is just that they’re a Scottish anomaly, who know how to play football in Europe?

I don’t know, but watching that performance last night, one thing struck me, Jose Mourinho was made to look like the rookie coach, while the rookie was made to look like a world class manager.

If there is one thing last night told me, it told me that Mourinho is a has been.

A bare shadow of his former self.

The reason I say this is because Mourinho was always renowned as a defensive coach, whose sides were always extremely hard to break down.

The Ibrox side should have had five against Fenerbahce, such was the ease with which they tore Mourinho’s non-existent defence apart.

When you’ve been schooled by former Clyde, Kelty Hearts, and Alloa coach Barry Ferguson, you have officially hit rock bottom as a manager.

It’s time to pack it in.

Mourinho should put himself out of his misery when this season is over, and enjoy the trappings of a long and previously successful career.

Because it isn’t successful now.

And the one thing Mourinho doesn’t need is to end his illustrious career being ridiculed for not calling time on it when he should have.

He has one last shot at redemption when he comes to Ibrox.

However, against a partisan home crowd, and at two goals down, he may face further embarrassment before this tie is over.

This is not me praising the Ibrox side, or Barry Ferguson for that matter, this is me just stating the obvious.

Tom English, on the other hand, was falling over himself to shower praise on the Ibrox side, even if he did label them as “weird R*****s”.

If there’s one thing that English relishes, it’s writing about his favourite side.

You can see how much he enjoys his subject matter when he does.

He derives more enjoyment out of writing about this subject than any other.

But his over-zealousness when it comes to writing about the Ibrox side proves he is incapable of being a balanced journalist.

If only English heaped the same amount of praise on “dominant Celtic”, then maybe people might take him seriously as a journalist.

I often wonder what it is about Celtic that he dislikes so much.

What happened to him during his early days as a journalist in Scotland that he formed such an intense dislike for our club?

Whenever he writes any articles about Celtic, they are stinted.

You can detect in his writing that it grates at him to praise Celtic in any way, shape or form.

There are subtle little hints in there that reveal this.

For example, take a look at his description of the current Ibrox coaching team:

This was a glorious night for the ‘Four Bears’ – the interim coaching team of former Rangers men led by Barry Ferguson – and a continuation of the surreality that surrounds this collection of players.

A glorious night for the ‘Four Bears’?

I doubt English has ever referred to the Celtic coaching team in such glowing and affectionate terms.

But I suppose it’s the surreality of what Bazza and co. have achieved that engenders such affection.

English also heaped praise on Cyriel Dessers and his achievements thus far this season, including a lovely big graphic with the number 22 on it.

Apparently, scoring 22 goals for the Ibrox side is a massive achievement.

But spare a thought for a little known Japanese guy called Daizen Maeda, who scored 4 goals in that rather insignificant competition, the Champions League, and has 26 goals for his club Celtic this season.

They play in Scotland too.

But Mr. Maeda doesn’t get any nice big graphics on BBC Sport Scotland for his achievement.

There isn’t even a mention that his primary position is not as a striker, but as a left winger, making his achievements all the more remarkable.

Little Daizen has also bagged two hat-tricks this season.

But no, only the following praise is reserved for the likes of Cyriel Dessers:

On Thursday, he looked like one of the best Rangers strikers of several decades. Classy, dangerous, resilient, he was inches away from an away European hat-trick.

Wonderful.

Proof positive that Tam really does have a soft spot for his favourite club.

And now, clearly his favourite striker, Cyriel Dessers.

In a few weeks, when Celtic most likely wrap up the Scottish Premiership title, Tom English will give that particular achievement a cursory nod.

It will pain him to say anything positive, and he will point to the lack of a challenge presented to us, which ultimately, made it all too easy for us.

He will say that Celtic winning titles is just run of the mill.

Boring.

But he comes to life whenever the Ibrox side or their players achieve anything of note.

I once wrote an article on him on my old blog, it was that article that resulted in me coming to Read Celtic.

I finished it with this:

I’ll leave you with this beauty from that tweet in March (2021), “Mea culpa. I thought the pressure of the job would eat him (Steven Gerrard) up. Instead, he’s revelled in it. Congrats R*****s.”

Newsflash Tom, the job did eat him up, the numbers don’t lie. One trophy out of nine, with tens of millions spent to attain it. Where was your praise for Callum Davidson? The manager who won two trophies out of three in 2021 on a fraction of the budget Sevco used to win their one?

Tom English is to journalism what Sevco are to Scottish football, a permanent embarassment and an occasional disgrace. Scottish football would be better off without both of them.

Last night proves that my sentiments then are the same now.

Tom English and his love affair with the Ibrox side continues…