CELTIC TUNE HITS A BUM NOTE

ONE can only wonder if the ghost of Sir Alexander Gibson is stalking the boardroom and dressing rooms of Parkhead and Lennoxtown.

And ponder if the legenadary conductor of the Scottish National Orchestra is even joined by the spirit of Sir Henry Wood, the man who founded that most British of musical institutions, the Proms.

For it certainly may appear to some, that there is a presence within Parkhead, wielding the baton and orchestrating a symphony  in Major  moan.

Gary Hooper was the latest soloist to step up to the mic and blether about how put upon Celtic are. In doing so, we saw things move from one end of the scale to the other.

Billy McNeill had used his column in the Sun to once again claim that referees have always had it in for Celtic and that the club never got any 50-50 decisions, and that this situation stretched back over 50 years.

It's the second time McNeill has used his Sun column platform to sing this song, the first co-inciding with his appointment by the club as a Celtic Ambassador.

So much for the Old Bhoy. Next up on the songsheet was Gary Hooper, the recently signed Englishman, who, as a striker, has impressed.

His verse to the old chorus was a new one. Celtic, according to Hooper, are victimsed by referees because they are a big club, and as such are the target for refs who are just itching to give a decision against a big club.

That's a lyric I do not think anyone has ever heard before. The usual verdict, from smaller clubs in England and throughout the world, is in fact the opposite, and that big clubs, with huge and vocal supports, get more than their fair share of the decisions.

There is also another glaring flaw in the Hooper song. A bum note, if you like. It is quite simply, if that were to be the case, then Rangers too would suffer from being a big club against whom referees can't wait to give a decision.

Which is hardly in harmony with all the other songs the Celtic support has been singing for as long as I can remember - just short of the half century of McNeill's recall.

According to what many with Celtic DNA have been saying for all of those years, Rangers have had more than the lion's share of refereeing decisions, while Celtic have had an equal number against them.

Hardly the lyric which Hooper gave a rendition of. In fact, almost the opposite.

When you are writing a musical - as Richard Rodgers and Larry Hart, Cole Porter, and the Gershswin brothers showed, setting the mood for the suspension of disbelief is the key to it all.

Whoever is writing the current words and music for a show which has beeen running for years and has every chance of warbling away for years to come, is off key, and flat.

Sir Alexander Gibson and Sir Henry Wood would not approve