Celtic chief takes aim at 'deep-seated resentment' and narrative after Hearts clash as budget discussed

The Parkhead side prevailed 3-1 over their Tynecastle counterparts to win the league by two points, with thousands of Celtic supporters invading the pitch after Callum Osmand’s stoppage-time strike sealed the win.

It led to the Hearts players - who had lost their place at the summit for the first time since September - leaving the pitch after being accosted by some fans and boarding the team bus while still in their kit.

Celtic have since been fined £7500 and given a suspended 1,000 seat ban at Celtic Park should a further incursion take place in the next two years. Wilson accepts the ruling from the Scottish Professional Football League, but takes umbrage at what he labelled an “absurd” debate in the days after the game.

Speaking in an in-house interview on Celtic TV, Wilson said: “We took a conscious decision in the immediate aftermath of the season and the Hearts game in particular not to join in exchanges of words with anyone.

“We were celebrating a double and we were not going to get bogged down in what actually was an absurd series of debates about issues which didn’t really exist. And one by one, they’ve been chopped off.

“You there was nobody attacked. The game did finish. What else was there? The Hearts players were not advised by police to leave the stadium promptly. It was all rubbish.

“And yet people who should have known better or people with axes to grind who couldn’t quite conceal them made this into a running narrative until it ran out of steam. So we weren’t going to get involved in that stupid debate.

“Anyway, we let all that pass under the bridge. At the end of the day, what matters is we won the double. We won it in great style. None of these issues that were turned into great mountains of controversy by artificial controversy held any water whatsoever. If anything had or did come to light, then we deal with it just as we have done in the past.

“I just think that what it brought to the surface were attitudes that you’d prefer didn’t exist and where the opportunity was taken partly out of deep-seated resentment of Celtic’s success and partly just out of sheer ignorance and opportunism to run these stories, not just for days, but for weeks and then as I say, it all proved to be froth.

“What was there at the end of the day was that Celtic won the league, won the cup because Celtic deserved to win both of them without any of these noises.”

On the pitch invasion, Wilson added: “Of course there were incursions and incursions shouldn’t happen. But they were in very particular circumstances, very emotional circumstances and you don’t have to look very far to see other examples of the same thing happening, in fact on a far bigger scale.

“So we do what we do, what we can and we note, the supporters will note the warning that if it happens again, there are further sanctions likely.

“But you know personally I wouldn’t be too censorious, things happen in emotional circumstances and you don’t get much more emotional circumstances in football than the conclusion to the last couple of games of the season.”

Wilson has also promised that manager Martin O’Neill, who guided Celtic to last season’s successes, will be backed in the transfer market. The 74-year-old’s one-year contract was confirmed earlier on Thursday and he will be given resource to bolster the squad.

“Absolutely, and that is very much part of the basis on which he’s wanted to come back, and we’ve wanted him to come back,” continued Wilson. “It’s going to be a very active next few weeks, and we must come out of it with a stronger squad.

“It’s worth mentioning maybe for all the criticisms last year, that eight of our players are at the World Cup. We have a lot of very, very good players, so we want to not only retain that strength, but also to build on it.”