ON THE SPOT Michael Grant

WHAT is it they say again about Britain? That it builds people into celebrities, puts them on a pedestal and then tries to knock them down. Everyone from Tim Henman to David Beckham has come out with that old line at some point. Lucky neither of those two lived in Glasgow. Here they really would have been given something to complain about. Here they wouldn't just have been knocked off their pedestals, they'd have been smacked over the head with them and given a kicking for good measure Neil Lennon was battered unconscious and hospitalised last Sunday. A Celtic supporters' website carried Nacho Novo's address in a "chat" about whether there should be attacks on Rangers players as a reprisal for what happened to Lennon. Some see these as legitimate ways to treat our leading players. Football as the national blood sport.

Speak to Rangers supporters in actual real life and they condemn what happened to Lennon; talk face-to-face with Celtic fans and they say people shouldn't be subjected to the intrusion and stress Novo faced. That is the sensible majority view. On partisan fans' websites it's a different story: there grown men hide behind made-up names and sneer, their sympathies lie with the perpetrators rather than the victims, and they accuse the likes of Lennon and Novo of deserving what they get.

There is a sliding scale of "offensiveness" in which every Celtic and Rangers player takes his place in terms of how he is perceived by opposition supporters. Say from Andreas Hinkel and Mark Wilson at one extreme in the Celtic squad to Artur Boruc and Aiden McGeady at the other. In the Rangers squad, from DaMarcus Beasley and Sasa Papac at one end to Barry Ferguson and, so it seems, Novo. All of it is based on their behaviour on and off the field, how much they have to say for themselves, and just how much they embody what their club is seen to stand for, which brings sectarianism into the toxic brew.

Players invite trouble for themselves from the very first time they make any sort of gesture during a match which is designed to antagonise the opposition. From then on they are marked men. If they are of a certain temperament they feed off this attention and respond with another deliberately provocative act which keeps the wheel turning. That's where we are now with Boruc; he gets abuse from Rangers fans all through every derby and then gives them the finger to guarantee it will be just as bad next time.

Events of the last few days have shown that Old Firm games aren't just about adults giving each other the middle finger, though. The idea that Novo or Lennon "deserved" what came to them last week - it was said particularly of Lennon, who seemingly should have "known better" than to go out for a pint after an Old Firm game - is offensive and unjustifiable because it is based on the idea of justified physical violence. We don't stone criminals to death in this country and if we're going to embrace civilised behaviour let's go the whole hog. Let's get our heads around the idea that we can dislike someone in another team without attacking him from behind in the street or putting his address on the internet.

Glasgow isn't the football city it imagines itself to be if its main players start to fear for their safety. The Lennon and Novo episodes haven't made life any easier for Gordon Strachan and Walter Smith when it comes to selling their clubs to potential signings: go to Stoke City or West Brom for a lucrative contract and an easy life, or come to Glasgow for less money and your weekend evenings under house arrest.

Lennon's attack seems to have been caught on CCTV cameras and an electronic trail will expose the identity of whoever posted Novo's address on the internet, so there is the hope that all will get the justice they deserve. Figures like Lennon and Novo are the lifeblood of the Old Firm rivalry, even if that fact cannot be accepted by the prejudiced cretins who would like to see them hurt. Varying degrees of verbal abuse are an inescapable fact of life for a Celtic or Rangers figure but if the daily existence of the most controversial of them is threatened to the point where they are hounded out, what sort of derby will Glasgow be left with?

A couple of weeks ago I saw Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink in the centre of the city. His son was sitting on his shoulders. No-one was making any fuss beyond a few looks of recognition and the occasional friendly remark. Let's hope he won't stop to think twice before doing it next time. If he does, something has been lost to those who see a Celtic or Rangers player's life as an opportunity for bear-baiting.

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SO George Burley got a clip round the lug in a couple of media quarters for describing his latest recruit, Kirk Broadfoot, as a player of "limited ability".

A couple of points about that: firstly, if that was in any way inaccurate, and the extent of Broadfoot's talent actually should have been described as "limitless", then most of us have been watching the wrong game.

Secondly, and much more to the point, why do we want our players mollycoddled by managers? Some candour and grown-up straight talking is long overdue. A few of us have spent months waiting for Burley to say something half-way interesting. Let's not jump down the man's throat when he finally does.