Craig Burley is emphatically not on the side of the badge kissers.
In voicing his disdain for the admittedly nauseating practice of ingratiating oneself with the more aggressive elements of one's fanbase, he may have succeeded in uniting the warring tribes, the royal blue and the hoops, the staunch unionist and the Scotch-Irishman. Albeit, against himself.
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Burley signed for Celtic ahead of the glorious season of 1997-98, when the blue ten in a row was staved off.
Unlike the hordes on the terraces, he was not motivated by panic at the thought of Rangers winning ten in a row. In fact, he claims to have known nothing about it.
In a defiant interview with the Scottish Sun today, he proudly painted himself as a hired hand and said he feels no emotional attachment to Celtic.
And he won't be watching Sunday's old firm match either. He has the far more important matter of his golf handicap to attend to.
Why would I watch it? Why would I watch a bang-average Rangers team that’s won the second level in Scotland playing against one of the worst Celtic teams in recent memory?
In his years down south, he paid no attention whatsoever to Scottish football. Clearly.
When I came back people were bombarding me with all this stuff about stopping Rangers winning ten titles in a row. I didn’t even know that Rangers had won nine titles in succession — that’s how little I knew about what was going on.
He wants to make it exquisitely clear to Celtic fans that he returned to Glasgow in 1997 purely as a 'career move'. He won't be turning up at Celtic Park in a pristine club blazer and his irritation at the intensity of the rivalry screams from his twitter feed.
I’m pretty active on Twitter and it amazes me the number of people who regard me as a traitor to Celtic because I’m not going around with the club blazer on.
He left the club after Rangers regained the title in 1999. He did not write an emotionally incontinent open letter in the Evening Times on his departure. Man of his time.
