Clement’s deflection tactics after yet another defeat to Celtic

The Celtic Star

·16 December 2024

Clement’s deflection tactics after yet another defeat to Celtic

Philippe Clement doing what he does best and that is deflecting the focus away from his own failings when playing against the most successful club in Scotland…

Daizen Maeda celebrates after scoring the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

Play to the whistle and not the crowd

We got ourselves back in yesterday’s game through the aid of a deflection, then theRangers did the very same thing for their own equaliser to make it 2-2. However the biggest deflection came after the game from none other than Philippe Clement.

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Philippe Clement reacts as Mohamed Diomande looks on during the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and theRangers at Hampden Park on December 15, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

As he always does, the big Belgian was quick to blame everyone else for his sides failure to win a big game, and on this occasion it was yet again the match officials.

Straight from the Derek McInnes book of excuses, big Phil yet again point blank refuses to admit that Celtic were the better side and deserved to win while completely ignoring his own sides failures. His side had half an hour of extra-time to try to get a winner but instead sat in, wasted time and hoped to win in the ‘casino’ of a penalty shoot-out.

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Nicolas Kuhn celebrates his goal during the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

The Belgian Waffler has yet to win against Celtic since being appointed manager of theRangers, and he’s managed to fool almost all the gullible mob into believing that it has always been outwith his control.

Complete nonsense of course, but he knows it appeases the Ibrox hordes and it will buy him some precious time.

The main distraction yesterday was the ‘penalty incident’ involving Vaclav Cerny. The Czech was fouled by Liam Scales just outside the box, but some stills have showed his foot to have been on the line. The foul took place outside the box and John Beaton was quick to blow his whistle. Had he waited a few more seconds and the incident was allowed to continue then a penalty may well have been given. But the whistle had gone for the free kick and that is why there was no VAR intervention.

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Daizen Maeda scores to win the Premier Sports Cup Final for Celtic at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

The two players did seem to tussle after the whistle, which the Celtic supporters certainly had a better view of, but that was irrelevant. You play to the whistle and it had already gone. Maybe Beaton’s haste to award the free kick in a very dangerous position backfired but it was a marginal call and had he waited a few more seconds the VAR would certainly have got involved.

Clement has stated that he went into the match officials’ room after the game and was told that VAR had not asked him to go to the monitor. Why? Because they would only consider what happened before and not after the whistle was blown and before everything happened outside the box. Afterwards? That’s the screen shots that are doing the rounds today and which Clement said was overloading his phone.

The average supporter of the latest Xbox club doesn’t have his number so who is sending these messages?

Maybe someone should send him some other images, including this offside call that won the first Rangers a trophy, one of their combined 118 which Celtic with our unbroken history surpassed yesterday. Offside Philippe?

John Hartson offside? That call won Rangers FC a trophy. Photo The Celtic Wiki

Tellingly theRangers players didn’t even complain at the time so that tells its own story. That hasn’t stopped big Phil from claiming that ‘his phone was pinging non stop’ after the final whistle due to this ‘injustice’ that he jumped on to as his latest excuse.

That in turn has led to a media and theRangers supporters outrage. That ladies and gentlemen is what we call a deflection, the classic squirrel, and big Phil has played them all like a fiddle in a bid to take the heat off himself once more.

One other thing, theRangers have written numerous letters to the Scottish FA about refereeing decisions with Willie Collum and Kevin Clancy being targeted for their own unique reasons. Yet despite their toys going out the pram on a regular basis, their support complain that the club’s ‘dignified silence’ policy is the cause of the problem. They are seldom silent and never dignified that mob.

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Celtic celebrations after the Premier Sports Cup Final victory over theRangers at Hampden on 15 December 2024. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

When Celtic supporters complain about decisions they always say ‘never beaten always cheated’ yet they should listen to themselves they actually will too with various penalty incident podcasts taking place tonight and there will be a few calls to Clyde Superscoreboard too for us to enjoy.

It’s back to Scottish Premiership duties for both sides at the weekend and Celtic go into these fixtures 11 points ahead of Clement’s side having already lifted the first trophy of the season. Clement done well to save his job but another Celtic Treble could be too much for the Bears patience. Indeed if he loses the Glasgow Derby at Ibrox on 2nd January then it’s hard to see him surviving.

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