A hotel visit, an autograph request and another Celtic headline: Novo’s latest intervention deserves scrutiny, not the usual hero treatment.

Novo’s Celtic sideshow has returned, this time outside a Glasgow hotel with a microphone and an old rivalry.

As reported by The Herald, the former Rangers striker visited Celta Vigo’s Glasgow hotel before their Europa League match at Celtic Park. Speaking to En Xogo, he joked about asking Iago Aspas to score against Celtic and provide a signed shirt.

There we have it. A visiting team, a television interview and Novo offering the earth-shattering insight that he would quite like Celtic to lose.

Someone alert the tactical analysts.

Novo’s Celtic sideshow in the hotel lobby

Novo is entitled to support Celta. He can ask Aspas for a shirt, a photograph or directions to the nearest souvenir shop.

However, I find the resulting publicity painfully predictable. Celtic have a European match to prepare for. Celta have their own ambitions. Yet somehow a former Rangers player’s wish list becomes another headline.

What exactly are supporters supposed to learn from this?

That Novo retains his Rangers loyalties? That he enjoys a Celtic wind-up? Neither revelation requires a television crew.

To my eyes, this is a desperate relevance routine: attach yourself to Celtic’s opposition, produce the obvious line and wait for the familiar reaction.

And the headline treatment helps. A jokey request becomes a “demand”, giving an ordinary bit of rivalry the packaging of a major intervention.

Aspas scarcely needs Novo explaining that scoring would be useful.

The record behind the hero label

The relentless “Rangers hero” description also leaves rather a lot outside the frame.

In December 2004, Sky Sports reported that Novo was found guilty of stamping on Celtic’s Stephen Pearson. The SFA imposed a one-match suspension and disciplinary points that triggered two additional matches.

That deserves remembering whenever his Celtic-related antics are presented as nothing more than lovable mischief.

There was another disciplinary episode at Glentoran. Novo was dismissed for an attempted headbutt against Crusaders in January 2017. The News Letter subsequently reported that half his six-match sanction was suspended for six months, leaving three matches to serve.

The appeal outcome matters. So does the original conduct.

Then, following an East Kilbride street altercation in March 2020, the Daily Record reported, in coverage syndicated by inkl, that Novo received a recorded police warning. That was a police warning, not a court conviction, and should be described accurately.

None of those incidents makes this hotel visit an offence. They do, however, complicate the relentlessly cuddly presentation.

Celtic have bigger concerns

As a Celtic supporter, I want our players concentrating on the match. I want serious questions about performances, recruitment and European standards.

Novo’s Celtic sideshow can wait.

Perhaps that is the most withering response available: recognise how little substance there is beneath the provocation.

He has supplied no tactical revelation. His comments offer no serious assessment of Celtic. His contribution amounts to hoping somebody else scores against us.

If that is enough to generate another round of headlines, the publicity machine is doing considerably more work than the story warrants.

Celtic have a European contest to play. Novo has a shirt request.

I know which deserves the attention.