No backing leaves flops facing music
It’s a recurring nightmare for every boy band member and Premiership footballer.
Discovering the backing track has failed and they’re all alone on stage to face the music.
That realisation that no amount of fancy dancing or lip-synching will disguise the fact they can’t actually sing or play football.
One of many trivial asides of this pandemic is highlighting the basic lack of talent amongst many who ply their trade in our top-flight.
There’s no crowd participation which camouflages shortfalls and the poor standard of some of our most esteemed performers.
It’s no coincidence so many players appear so out of tune since we’ve returned.
The bum notes which have been hit in the last few months are many.
High horsers will decry the negativity but how many good games have been seen in this new normal of sterilised, atmospherefree grounds?
Outside the Old Firm, very few who kick a ball for a living have been able to carry a tune which suggests their talents deserve a bigger audience.
Many of these games have been so technically deficient that players are getting away with murder.
Footballers of limited ability can mask their flaws by going down the all-action commitment road where the crowd react to their enthusiastic efforts and vice versa.
Cue the fact we as a football-supporting nation cheer unlike no other when it comes to a crunching tackle which achieves no more than a throw-in.
To hide in the hustle and bustle of it all is for many the way to go as touch, awareness and creative spark are beyond them.
Every now and again a Gary Breen comes along and states a belief that our game’s sub-standard and the usual suspects go on
the ultra-defensive. Breen is entitled to his opinion and in many regards he’s right to point out just how poor our top league is.
His belief that it’s a backward step for Shane Duffy to sign for Celtic and play in an environment riddled with bad habits is true.
Anyone who thinks Duffy’s in Glasgow because of our game’s merits is delusional. It’s about money and his connection to the club he’s signed for.
Celts misfit Marian Shved’s boss Wouter Vrancken blamed Scottish football’s “low level” for his weak start on loan at Mechelen.
He says he will take time to adjust because the Belgian league is far higher than the level Shved’s arrived from. Again, he’s spot on.
The proof is in the pig’s breakfast of a pudding we have to endure each season when our clubs stray on to the continent.
Europe this week was predictably two through and two out as Celtic and Rangers again save the embarrassment.
Spare us the pride and what might have been by Aberdeen or Motherwell as they were dumped out the Europa League by a depleted opponent and a who’s who from Israel. Two clubs and two failures.
So let’s stop kidding ourselves, it’s time to expect more from our best-paid performers.
On current evidence most face a long wait before being top of the pops or getting a gig on an open mic night.
Players of limited ability mask their flaws by going down the allaction road