Infamy, infamy, they've all got it...

I'm sure I saw that George Peat running away...

It's nice when the non-Old Firm devotees out there are given yet another reason to dislike one of the "big" two. They are not, in fact, at their worst when they are gloating at the never ending cycle of triumphs.

Gloating and arrogance is the tribal default of the victorious football fan. Celtic and Rangers aren't unique in this - they simply get more practice than everyone else.

Rather they reach the nadir when they are wading through a pitiful mire of self pity, belching out tear soaked regurgitations of their most ludicrous bouts of paranoia.

When they choose to do this in a week that they should be concentrating on the woeful shortcomings of their team the sheer awfulness of it increases with every hate fuelled, spittle stained sentence.

Parkhead minded blog The Celts Are Here provided a stunning example of this the other day.

In the past fortnight his (if it is a he) side have apparently lost, then apparently won and then somehow lost again in the SPL title race. Inept against Rangers, jittery against Dundee United and woeful against Hibs, Celtic have bottled this one. The manger must take some of the blame.

So constructive criticism from The Celts Are Here? Not a bit of it. Rather a lengthy tirade about Scottish football corruption. Or rather the ongoing Anti-Celtic conspiracy that pervades every facet of the game.

Somewhere in the midst of this yodel of self pity we hear that such is the extent of Scottish football's rotten core that "it would shame Ceaucescu's Romania or Saddam Hussein's Iraq."

Really? Are Celtic players living such desperate lives that they use foreign games as a way of seeking political asylum as Romanian sportsmen once did? Are any of Celtic's millionaires living under the threat of imprisonment, torture or death at the hands of the top official in football as Iraqi footballers were?

No probably not.

There is also a remark about international relations between the UK and Ireland being damaged by the massed ranks of the Govan choir. Hmmm. In the long and complex history of Anglo-Irish relations a few Neanderthals threatened our now peaceful, fruitful even, co-existence?

My guess has always been that if the fans insist on not moving on then the Irish government are more likely to be thankful that the lunatics choose Glasgow rather than Dublin as their asylum.

Maybe the real brilliance of the article is that this year's conspiracy (Rangers playing Hearts at home three times) is so flimsy an attempt at subverting the natural course of the league that The Celts Are Here must revisit last year and take up the cause of Queen of the South and the Scottish Cup Final. I can't speak for the Doonhamers but I'm sure they can live without this kind of myopic madness on their behalf.

Results come and go. Officials get it right and get it wrong. Celtic could and should have put the SPL title out of reach. Now they seem destined to lose. Clearly some of their fans have already lost it.

Regular readers of this blog will know I have very little time for the powers that be in Scottish football. But it is this sort of hate fuelled, idiotic and offensive rant that shows that it's some of our fans that are really rotten to the core.

I'm sure in his blackened dungeon of despair the author is beyond caring but there is always a silver lining. In Scotland his rants provoke embarrassment, bemusement and derision. In the Iraq he appears to have known so well it might just have provoked Uday Hussein.