FAMOUS FIVE

TO the Four Just Men of Davie Provan, Andy Walker, Charlie Nicholas and Craig Burley, add my name. A sort of Famous Five, if you like.

Let me explain. The four former Celtic and Scotland men now  make their living commenting in the media, both on the airwaves and in newspapers.

And pretty frank and fearless they are. As recently as Sunday, in their newspaper columns, Provan and Walker were highly critical of much that has been going on at Celtic in the last few weeks.

But, in the comments posted on what had been written, Celtic supporters had another take on the insight these two highly informative and interesting observers provided. And that take was just one insult after another.

It's been the same for Burley, with what seems like  a special sort of loathing among those who follow Celtic reserved for one of the best players I have seen wearing their Hoops, Nicholas.

Unless I am mistaken it seems that nobody who ever played for Celtic is allowed to be critical of the club. Instead, in some sort of article of blind faith, they should be cheerleaders for the club, no matter what. Which is not, as any old hack would tell you, the job of a journalist.

As it so happens, Provan is a particular favourite of mine, and I regard his column as one of my weekend highlights, to such an extent, that even when I was writing a Sunday newspaper column I would freely admit mine was merely the second best on the Sabbath.

There was even one glorious spell when I knew that if wasn't giving Berti Vogts a deserved going over in my column, Provan would be taking care of him in his.

Not that I agree with everything in every one of his columns, or with all the views Walker, Nicholas and Burley express. But, as someone with a passionate belief in free speech and democracy, I will defend the right of those with whom I disagree to have a voice.

By all means, disagree. Please debate. Even argue. But there is a limit, and unfortunately there are those out there who have no wish to merely disagree. No desire to debate. Nor even an apptitude for arguement.

However, at least those who can't just disagree, debate or argue, and who are of a green and white, hue only appear to go potty with their four former players when one, or all, of them have a critical comment to make about the Parkhead club.

I though, seem to be in a class of my own, inviting the most vile, and at times seemingly uneducated bile from a section of the population, no matter what my subject matter may be.

Never was this more obvious than over the last few days, in the wake of my blog which sought to put into context what happened when Rangers played in the UEFA Cup Final in Manchester in May 2008.

At first the comments came from many who had been there, and shared incidents they and people they knew had been involved in or witnessed, with many adding that they joined me in deploring the moronic minority who behaved in such a deplorable fashion.

Later  came the abuse, much of which brought a wry chuckle, given the seemingly low level of education and intelligence which marked it. Though of course it could well have come from professional people trying to disguise their status.

Such was the case in the past when a colleague suffered threats. When he called in the police they traced the culprit to a £300,000 house in the leafy suburbs.

I wonder where this particular electronic trail will lead as Strathclyde's finest follow it,  after one comment posted contained the threat that I would be shot.  It will  be interesting to watch the police investigation progress.