Ange Postecoglou explains his responsibility to club values as Celtic prepare for Raith Rovers in aftermath of David Goodwillie outcry

It doesn’t feel it is a football club that Celtic will be confronting in the Scottish Cup on Sunday in visitors Raith Rovers so much as an organisation in danger of immolation by ignominy.

The decision to sign David Goodwillie has cast a pall over the Kirkcaldy side from which it is struggling to escape. It doesn’t matter that they have subsequently apologised and sought to cancel the contract of the 32-year-old they recruited from Clyde on transfer deadline day. They were forced into this rethink by the outcry – global in reach – over employing a man a judge in a 2016 civil case decreed was a rapist.

Many issues have been raised over football’s attitude to the personal conduct of players in Goodwillie being able to pursue a career for many years before the Rovers move. Some of those issues have found echoes in West Ham continuing to play Kurt Zouma this week after footage emerged of him violently assaulting his cat. In the Scottish parliament there have been discussions over the establishment of a fit and proper person test for footballers. Fairly or otherwise, there appears a desire to hold the game to a higher standard than other industries. Ange Postecoglou has no enthusiasm for being prescriptive on such matters. The Celtic manager does, though, have a personal standpoint that would seem to align with football clubs requiring to be aware of wide-reaching responsibilities.

"It’s impossible for me to comment on it [the Goodwillie situation] because I know if that was a club I was involved with and it was going through a situation like that, I wouldn’t like other clubs or managers commenting on it,” he said. “Not because of any reason other than you’d never have the full information. Each issue has to be dealt with by