Tom Boyd isn’t a man scared of giving his opinion.

This week the former Celtic treble winning captain was announced as one of the Glasgow club’s new ambassadors along with Davie Hay.

Boyd took advantage of the opportunity to state that the recent uproar regarding Ronny Deila’s position at the club was all down to hysterical fans and ex-Celts out to make a few quid in the media.

Probably pointing towards the likes of John Hartson, Chris Sutton and Andy Walker, Boyd said:

There are enough people out there who like to criticise the club without ex-players doing it as well.’

Now for all that I think Boyd makes some decent points regarding the current situation like the fact the team are still top of the league after all, he loses a lot of momentum when he starts to suggest supporters and ex players should just back the club blindly no matter what.

Surely that’s the wrong message in this era of football.

Many accused Rangers fans of blindly following the tune of Sir David Murray in the late nineties and early noughties without any opposition and look how that went.

I honestly think it’s always a good thing that a club’s support challenges the custodians and even the managers when they think things aren’t going swimmingly. Basically it keeps everyone on their toes.

Look at how the Liverpool fanbase fought against the raise of ticket prices at Anfield. They voiced their opposition and they were heard.

Now Boyd surely has to concede that certain fans and ex-players have a few decent arguments regarding the current manager and the team. They’ve gone backwards since Neil Lennon’s tenure and even since the end of last season. Deila’s record in Europe has been pretty poor, to say the least. European competition has to be seen as the yardstick for this Celtic squad and managerial team.

I think Tom Boyd is right to praise Aberdeen but he cannot ignore the fact that the Hoops have taken their eye off the ball domestically too.

Boyd stated:

‘It’s someone sitting at the top of the league, who can possibly win a double. And a lot of people are calling for his head.’

‘I don’t think that has ever happened in Scottish football. You can enlighten me if I’m wrong.’

Well to be honest it happens all the time. I remember certain Celtic fans getting bored of Neil Lennon and happy that he left. I also recall Gers supporters questioning Walter Smith during his last winning season in charge at Ibrox. This is Scotland Tom, we always demand more, even if we are being ridiculous.

It’s funny, I wrote last weekend about Ronny and the misgivings fans have about him at the moment. Some people responded by backing him, which is fair enough I love debate on here and I can see why some would support him. But those backing him were quick to point out that those ex-Celtic stars such as Sutton and Walker were just spewing rubbish to gain some much needed media coin.

But surely we can look at Boyd’s view and wonder if he has now become a spokesman for the board and earn his wage from the club by backing them continuously.

His ex-teammate Marc Rieper said as much:

“Tom Boyd defended Ronny Deila but he is employed by the club and if he spoke out against the manager then he probably wouldn’t at the club tomorrow!”

It’s certainly and interesting argument but not one that I subscribe to. Davie Hay wasn’t as staunch in his support for the current Celtic boss.

I’m not Boyd’s biggest fan, I always thought he was an ordinary player who was often overrated plus I still blame him for that OG against Brazil in 98 (That may not be rational I know).

But in fairness I don’t think he’d say all this if he didn’t believe it.

I just think he did it in a bizarre way that seemed to be too critical of the ordinary Celtic supporter.

He would have been better served to state the positives of having Ronny Deila at the clubs helm rather than go on the attack… But maybe that’s were the problems lie!

Let me end by stating that I think Celtic have chosen well in appointing Tom Boyd as one of their new club ambassadors. Not because he is a yes man but because he has earned it with a strong playing career and by being a model pro at Parkhead,

Posted on February 11th, 2016 by scott
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