Celtic Slang | About Celtic | Celtic’s Foundation
Details
Reference to: Ex-Celtic players now columnists in tabloids
Derivations: From famous novel titled “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
Started: Probably 1990’s onwards when columnists became increasingly common.
Definition
The term is a reference used mostly in humour as a dig or sometimes even in a pejorative manner. It is aimed at former Celtic players who are deemed to have used their status as an ex-player to get an analyst role on a TV football programme or in a newspaper as a columnist, but then use this platform to take potshots at Celtic in order to curry favour with anti Celtic colleagues and media proprietors.
The media have generally had a bias against Celtic historically for various political and social reasons (e.g. their own bigotry), and so to secure their new roles some former players feel they have to follow suit and fall into line. Problem is that they can then be become over zealous and this can lead to outright offense against Celtic supporters.
A major reason for the continued media bias against Celtic has been that there was a lingering sycophancy to Rangers through owner David Murray who showered and pampered journalists with flights and holidays. It’s hard for some to get over this loss now that David Murray is no more in Scottish football (not that it’s an excuse).
Times have changed but the result is mixed. Since the early 90s, shock-jock analysis has been the norm, with columnists who ‘give it to you straight’, ‘tell you like it really is’ and so on. So as most footballers aren’t the most erudite, this is the general route they take as it’s simple, short, snappy and gives them the attention they need to keep them in their job. They are never going to match such great journalistic luminaries as Hugh McIlvaney. Sadly, this has led to the Uncle Tim problem.
In fairness to various former players now in the media, we’ll leave out a debate on who is and isn’t an Uncle Tim. Where the line is drawn can be best decided by people themselves, and in truth its use can be little more than an unnecessary cheap shot by a few. In any case, voicing a view not in favour of Celtic does not put anyone automatically against the club. Celtic also haven’t always helped, where the club generally doesn’t pamper every former player (not that necessarily they should). Frank McAvennie has complained that at West Ham he pays for nowt and is treated like a king, whilst at Celtic he has to pay for everything. This can create a childish grudge and it feeds through, although those with such petty grudges should really grow up and look at the wider world (not something that McAvennie has ever been good on).
On the other hand there can be those few amongst the support who seem to want to be offended by anything so they can jump on a soapbox, and some columnists can just play along with this. Those columnists play to what sells, and as one former Daily Record journalist let slip once, bad news Rangers stories don’t sell papers, so anti-Celtic stuff as a rule has been accepted by editors over the years. So to keep their roles, the ex-Celtic players just played along. Their name was all that was wanted anyhow to attract readers.
It helps that Celtic fans don’t have a reputation for bullying journalists like others. The Hun support especially after the collapse of Oldco (2012) have mounted a bullying and threatening campaign against anyone who deviates from their twisted line, and some journalists are afraid of this and pander to them instead (or more disturbingly wish to be with them and be aggrandised by them!).
In any case, the importance of the traditional media has been in drastic decline. The views of former players are still noted by all (especially as they are more commonly employed on the newer formats like satellite TV), but as there’s more platforms than ever before, we can pick or ignore more easily who we want to listen to (except on the tele to some extent).
The only thing we’d ask is that if any self-styled football analyst (even an ex-player) bothers you, then ignore him. Unless he’s said something extreme then save your energy for more important matters. There’s lots of great Celtic content by the support out there on the web and that in our opinion deserves greater attention, and Uncle Tims & the rest should just best be sidestepped.