Strach slaps ban on Setanta TV
GORDON STRACHAN today blasted the critics who questioned Celtic's third goal at Kilmarnock yesterday - and praised Shunsuke Nakamura for keeping his discipline in the face of extreme provocation.

The Japanese international appeared to be hit on the back of the head by Killie defender Frazer Wright after winning Celtic's second penalty, which Georgios Samaras converted, and Strachan was bemused at the lack of coverage for the incident.

The Hoops boss was insistent that had the same action been carried out by a member of the Old Firm that it would have been headline news.

He said: "If you look in the rule book you'll see that if you pull someone by the jersey it's a penalty," said Strachan. " On TV you didn't really see it properly because the camera was at the wrong side, but if you see it from where the referee is you can see it right away.

What I am surprised about is that the TV didn't show too much was Nakamura getting a slap on the head from one of their players.

"If that had been a Celtic or a Rangers player it would have made the front page of some of the tabloids.

"But it has been swept under the carpet. I am proud of my players because to be provoked like that and not react is fantastic. In any walk of life, if you get a smack on the head from somebody then you'd have some-thing to say about it.

"Nakamura was pulled, he was pushed, he was shoved and then he was slapped on the head. And he walked away from that and showed that no matter what you do to him he was still the best player on the park.

"There was a small glimpse of it on TV, but I can assure you it would have been different had it been a Celtic or a Rangers player.

"Can you imagine if it had been Neil Lennon in his heyday if he slapped someone like that."

Such was his irritation at the coverage of the incident, heasked that a Setanta TV cameraman leave this afternoon's press conference ahead of tomorrow's cup tie against Livingston.

Fucking hell, what a mess

Cleaned up just for you (or anybody else trying to read it, Fucking evening times)

Hahahahaha, this is what happens when small man syndrome is mixed with paranoia

His comments regarding the 'cover-up' aren't too far off the mark, it was utterly gleaned over and I do have no doubt that had it been the other way round it would have been headline news. Not because of any perceived bias or that, just that Setanta and the media in general know that they'd knock a few sales (of whatever) out of it.

They'd have called for executions had it been one of the following ex/players: Ricksen, Lennon, Keane, Novo or Sutton.

Interesting with this quote, and with Smith's after the poor decision at the Aberdeen game, how both managers are keen to view the two bigot clubs as one entity.

You are of course right but the OF Managers need to rise above it all - it's what separates them from the likes of the perennial deflectionmeister's such as Yogi Hughes, Craig Levein and Wee Gus

All us bigots need to stick togther.......or something like that.

after the singing incidents highlighted last week I was beginning to think we were merging.

you can't mention one without the other.

Indeed.

As it happens Strachan has some semblance of a point here. However he should be utterly ridiculed and his point completely ignored due to his laughable attempt to pretend that was a penalty incident.

I think after a 3-1 win you should just get on with it and not really give a fuck. Strachan seems to have wanted Wright red-carded/banned - who would that help? Not Celtic, he'd be back to play them later in the season, who've Killie got this week?

One can only imagine. In Scotland it would be front page news for 9 days and the sectarian assaults and abuse he receives daily would be well justified.

Yeah he has a point, but as Earendil just mentioned why lose the plot and kick a cameraman out the press conference just for him to end up on the back page the morra.

This is typical of the inane old firm based non story type drivel that fills up the sports pages of Scottish newspapers on a daily basis.

The wee twat obviously forgot that rule when JVoH had a handful of Haining's shirt even before the entanglement in the penalty box.

Ach I reckon Strachan's just covering up the real reason he kicked a Setanta employee out of the conference. I bet he had cause to phone their Customer Service department at the weekend and he got so pissed off with their sheet incompetence that he's taken it out on the cameraman. Who can blame him...

Best post ever

The thing that stands out most for me in this story is that Strachan thinks Nakamura was the best player on the park yesterday.

I thought he was completely anonymous.

Crosas, Brown, Samaras and Maloney for Celtic, and Bryson for Killie were all much better than Nakamura. Samaras was the best player on the park by far.

Wright definitely did slap Nakamura in the face after he dived. Had the referee spotted it, he would have had a yellow, or possibly even a red card. However, very rarely do we see the SFA use video evidence to punish players, and when they do it is for very serious offences.

If the SFA do decide to punish Wright, I assume Nakamura will also receive a yellow card for his dive. Gordon Smith's big clampdown on divers was meant to come into force this season.

Stuart, if you're expecting them to come and change your bedcovers, it's no wonder you get annoyed at them

The BBC have Samaras as MOTM and Sellick's own official website gave it to Gary Caldwell

Strachan is a tit but he makes me laugh

Only one person deserved a Red Card and that was that diving bastard Nakamura. Can't wait until scum like him leave the Scottish game. Wankers like him, Mikolinius etc who give football a bad name with their cheating.
What kind of example is that to young kids playing fitbaw? It's made worse when the referees give them the Penalty they dived for...

Fuckin wankers. Nakamura, It's time to go home...

there would have been no slap had celtic not been a team full of cheating b*****ds with a ref that gave them everything just to prove he isnt biased against them

if strachan wants setanta removed then setanta should remove celtics tv money and distribute it amongst the other teams

Racist

I think you should take your own advice that you have written as your signature.

What about the Scottish divers? Where are they going to go if they can't go "home"?

Yes he sent off one of our players and gave a penalty against us to prove he wasn't biased against us. Deary me

yeah, after the game was already won, very brave of him what a fanny

Strachan is spot on tbh

Aye, how dare he apply the rules correctly.

That's what he did fairly consistently throughout the game. I thought McCurry made 2 mistakes of note in the game.

The first was the yellow card to McManus which seemed harsh. The second was Celtic's second penalty.

The highlights are just about to come on Scotland Today

It was only a wee slap.
If it was me then i would boot Nakamura in the face, that would give that wee p***k something to complain about.

Of course you would, you'd put yer smarties down and kill him, no really kill him, with punches and everything, ye widnae bite cos that's for lassies, like kissing and eh stuff, but you wid ye'd kill him


I thought McCurry got lots of decisions wrong yesterday, the one mentioned here was huge, and Srachan was right if it had been Neil Lennon it would ahve been on TV and front page for weeks, moaning old bassas Jefferies/Brown would have wanted the international war crimes jury involved. For Setanta to gloss over it without mention is a disgrace of the highest level for pundits covering a game.it was a straight red

I'm very disappointed in Frazer Wright, he should have smacked that cheating wee c**t alot harder.

Wright should be applauded, as he was teaching Nakamura a lesson, and the sooner that wee w**k learns how to stay on his feet the better.

There is one rule for foreigners, papists, politically suspect types etc. and one rule for staunch Ayrshire boneheads with a clan name for a first name and similar 'connections' to many in the SFA.

Surely for a team covering the game it was worthy of mention, I actually seen it at the game and Naka's reaction , I assumed that he's not been actually hit. Major mistake by McCurry and even more so by the Setanta and whoever was covering the game

sad thing is.. they'll all make more of a big deal about strachans response rather than the actual inccident.. pretty shocking if im being honest.. no player or person should be allowed to lift their hands and get away with it.. no matter if it wasn't a blatant pen or not. still doesnt have any excuse to lift his hands. i hope the sfa fling the book at him.

I agree with that, and indeed with Strachan for the most part. However it was never a penalty in a month of Sundays. Not convinced Nakamura was looking for a penalty either though.

I don't think it was a penalty either, that's neither here nor there in this story nor McCurry's lack of action, Stracahn is making the point that Setanta did not even comment on the incident other than the debate about naka. If this had been a Celtic player that ghad struck out and screamed at Nakamura then the SPL forum would be full of threads about it. Boruc was booked for less.

Having said that I suppose the diddy teams on teh SPL board are busy slagging off Boyd who was booked for a dive yesterday, are they not?

Shockingly poor spelling!

It's supposed to be biggest I take it.

Regardless of the referee in the game, does anyone think Strachan was right to kick Setanta out?

Surely being journalists (of a sort) they are supposed to be impartial, and ignoring Nakamura getting a slap is a bit bad tbh.

The papers i read yesterday seemed to think it was a penalty.

I think it's pretty hilarious that Strachan did that, although a bit harsh on the camera operator who is just doing his/her job. Strachan (and every other manager) uses the newspapers for their own sake as they know full well they can blatantly lie and nobody questions a thing. An example:
Journalists; "why did you drop your keeper?"
Walter Smith; "just to give everyone a game and keep players on their toes"
Journalists; "fair enough, so"

The majority of newspaper sports journalists blithely copy down anything any football manager says and assume it to be the truth. They don't have a discerning bone in their body, apart from the odd one or two. Look on the bbc website, it wasn't a penalty.

This sums up exactly the point Millfield and I made the other day.

You aren't interested in a horrible decision which McCurry gave, that gave Celtic a goal, but you want an indepth discussion about a decision he didn't make which didn't lead to a sending off

Your bias is incredible!!

Cameramen at a press conference are generally impartial in that they point the camera at the table and leave it rolling. There isn't much scope for editorial bias there.

In any case I doubt that Setanta are supposed to be impartial towards Celtic given that Celtic and Setanta are media partners.

Kind of like with Celtic and Rangers, the fans, players, coaching staff and manager can play at being rivals all they want, but the people who truly matter - those steering the PLC - are best buddies with them.

Strachan has previous for this as well. With his hilarious one-word-answer interview with a pretty junior BBC reporter after a game last season.

The sooner we have an OF newspaper and radio station, where the bigot clubs can pander to their idiot fans on a daily basis without polluting the rest of the us the better.

I'd happily have Radio Scotland refusing to interview either Smith or Strachan, because you just get a steady stream of nonsense from the pair of them.

Do you even read what I write, obviously you don't because you even quoted part of what I said in that



I was ruling out talking about the incident as what happened onfield had no bearing on Srachan's actions in throwing it the poor cameraman IMO. He was reacting, correctly to the fact that Setanta never thought that a player getting hit by another player was even worth talking about, let alone making it a issue. He also said, again correctly IMO if Lennon had did that then it would be fromnt page news for 6 months....we most likely could not move in the SPL forum for the level of abuse for him we'd have.

If you are talking about bias, you should looking in the mirror

Yeah i don't think he was taking it out on the camera operator, more the Setanta station in general.



I'd have no issue with the same, but the problem is they get pandered too, and i will probably sound paranoid, but they pander more to the huns and David Murray than anyone else.
Everytime on the news it is Mr Murray or Sir David and shit, whereas wee Fergus was 'the bunnet'
The only person to stand up to Murray was Spiers and it is shocking his fellow journalists didn't stand sholder to sholder with him.

I can honestly say that I've never heard Fergus McCann called "the bunnet" in a serious news article

The last part is true enough. The last time I saw Murray really getting questioned was on that BBC documentary about sectarianism.

He is allowed to say the most outrageous nonsense without anyone except Fascist Fascist members raising a peep, and because it's FF doing the questioning the questions are often 1) wrong and 2) phrased very badly

He has everyone over a barrel, basically.

Err, yes, quite clearly, because Lennon is a much higher profile player than some Kilmarnock no-mark.

How dumb is Strachan?

Does he think 9/11 would have been reported so widely had it happened in Pakistan?