Taking a pop at Celtic, vulnerable Heynckes

I’m not going to tell you it’s right to post tickets by Special Delivery, or pass on a £7 charge, because I know many would, if given the choice, opt to take their chance on regular mail, with a lower (or zero) charge. The value of Special Delivery only really kicks in when your tickets have yet to arrive but all your pals have theirs. Which isn’t going to happen to all of us.

What I will draw to your attention is the gleeful rush to print an inaccurate story that the club gave fans no option to collect tickets in person, thereby forcing them to pay a Special Delivery charge, running in one of the country’s newspapers of Record yesterday.

There are probably upwards of 100 decisions made by Celtic each week. While clearly the club get most right, they absolutely get some wrong and others remain open to debate. If you are going to have a pop, at least pick on something they’ve actually done, not something you are fantasising about.

Or seriously upgrade your fantasies. Having to write, “Earlier we wrongly reported there was no option to collect from Celtic Park but you can in fact pick up from the club ticket office” is just demeaning.

Jupp Heynckes (72) looks like getting the job of preparing Bayern Munich for the Celtic doubleheader. There’s little Heynckes doesn’t know about the game, but despite his successes, he’s always struck me as an unlucky manager.

He was the man who ended Real Madrid’s wilderness decades when in 1998 he won their first Champions League since 1966, but was sacked days later. He exacted revenge over Real when at Bayern in the 2012 Champions League semi-final, but blew the final in the Allianze on penalties to Chelsea.

That defeat did for him, although Bayern took most of the following season before announcing he would be replaced by Pep Guardiola in the summer of 2013. Heynckes duly destroyed Guardiola’s Barcelona on the way to winning another Champions League, before the door hit him on his bum on the way out.  Despite his glories, a vulnerability surrounds him.  This is a Champions League winner you can look in the eye and sack, apparently.

I hope that vulnerability remains for a few weeks yet.

NEW CQN PODCAST FROM CELTIC PARK ON SATURDAY

Kevin Graham is back with a new CQN Podcast from Saturday. He talks to supporters on the bus on the way to Parkhead, interviews John Paul Taylor outside the ground and captures the atmosphere and action inside the ground before getting some more supporters’ views on the bus home after an eventful afternoon at Celtic Park.

Apologies for a few sweary words in this podcast near the end.