In years to come, it will surely be a head-scratcher at pub quizzes across the land: Which team was knocked out of the Champions League twice in a month? Not that Celtic fans will have trouble coming up with the answer, given that events of recent weeks will linger in the memories of those associated with Celtic Park for some time to come.
I don’t wish to be late to the table by pointing out that Manchester United have problems. We all know they do. You don’t go from Premier League Champions to languishing in 7th place and outside of Europe in the space of a year without a few things going wrong. But, up until last night’s League Cup tie against MK Dons I was struggling to pinpoint exactly what my problem with them was. Why did I groan whenever they came on the TV?
As Celtic crashed out of the Champions League without even reaching the group stage I was somehow left pondering the appeal of a club like theirs. Celtic were comfortably bested by un-fancied Polish outfit Legia Warsaw 6-1 on aggregate. It was a tie that Scotland’s flagship side were never truly in and surely dented the attractiveness of the green side of Glasgow. And maybe, with it, dented the attractiveness of Scottish football.
This week, Louis van Gaal made the decision that the press had been needlessly badgering him for since he took the reins at Man United, naming his new captain. Wayne Rooney was the man given the armband and the task of succeeding the hugely successful Nemanja Vidić. A decision that would have been almost unthinkable a couple of years ago.
Question: What do you get when you cross a social scientist with a behavioural economist, and invite them to produce a tonne of data pertaining to the beautiful game? Answer: ‘The Numbers Game’, a book that is guaranteed to reduce some fans to tears of joy and despair in equal measure.