Mr Heliums

It's McCarry, rather than McGarry. My dad was a big fan. I've tried not to look at the top 50 list because I know it would just annoy me.

Lennon isn’t daft: his outburst was clever in the sense that it changed the discussion. Now we’re no longer talking about his coaching ineptitude, or about him throwing away 10 in a row ,or why he took Julien on a jolly to Dubai, or his club’s corporate incompetence. Instead people are talking about whether he has a point. They were at it on Sportsound last night. At the same time Lennon has frothed up his support's more suggestible element – and it's sizeable – to imply conspiracy. The benefits might come quickly: a reminder to wavering doubters that he’s a Celtic man and that’s the most important thing, a ‘circle-the-wagons’ sensibility that pits club against everyone else. The team will be up for a fight and, who knows, it might be enough to scrape three points against Livingston tonight. Of course there’s a price to be paid: the maligning of other football clubs, the undermining of the government’s response to a pandemic, the condescension towards those who have suffered so much over the last few months, the reappearance of the insidious suggestion, evident in this thread, that writers, pundits, and fans other clubs are secretly sectarian. All a price worth paying, clearly.

Neil Lennon was picked on by other teams' supporters because he acted like an arsehole and looked like he'd be easily wound up. Not much has changed in 20 years.

The sort of people who see 18th century caricatures of an Irishman in that article are the sort of people looking to find 18th century caricatures of Irishmen. They've made him look daft. It's a cheap shot, but it isn't the first time it's been done to a hapless manager.

Would only have been worth it if Steve Brown had read out the statement while miming wee air-quotes between every word.

FS. Why do we humour that moron by issuing statements?

Just can't unsee Lennon's air-quotes mocking the "privilege" of a six-figure holiday to the Middle East, while dozens in Scotland die, hundreds lie in hospital or lonely in care homes, thousands are jobless, and the entire country is asked to stay behind their front doors. And he puts privilege in air-quotes.

Yeah, but it's illegal to take photos without consent, says Neil.

Just as well Neil Lennon has become such a joke amongst his own support. Imagine if a lot of them swallowed that pish.

Or to question whether there's an article on the England page of the website saying that England is trailing Scotland and Northern Ireland. (I'll save you looking: there isn't). I'm willing to bet that if these numbers were to shift so Scotland was trailing, we'd see some coverage of that.

Dave Cormack has been very quiet these last few days. Hope he's not come down with anything.

Callum can't legislate for players missing absolute sitters like that. Still, who is telling May to wallow out on the left for much of the match while Kane is doing nothing much in the box? Not sure of the point of the substitutions so late on – both subs had poor first touches which can't be unexpected. And I do wonder just how bad Melamed is if Kane is getting 90 minutes ahead of him? Kane has good workrate and ran himself silly, but the header he missed was almost comical. On the plus side, we were far, far better than Accies. Great game from Easton though.

Thanks, Santa.

An example of BBC bias by omission. Takes a foreign newspaper to discover that around half the money the UK spent on tackling the pandemic went to companies either run by friends and associates of politicians in the Conservative Party, or with no prior experience or a history of controversy. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/17/world/europe/britain-covid-contracts.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage This is an extraordinary story. It's basically alleging criminality and corruption at the heart of a western Govenrnment. You'd think even if the BBC was too scared to investigate itself it would mention it, but I see they went with a story about the royals this morning instead.

In the summer of 1988, Sergei Baltacha played in the final of the Euros. St Johnstone had just completed a season in the lowest tier of Scottish football with a 2-0 victory over Albion Rovers at a run-down Muirton Park. 24 months later Sergei signed for us before we started our Premier League campaign. And he was still capable of stunning football. Still can't quite believe how we got him.