From the performances since Celtic played and won against Lazio in Rome, it’s clear that there’s maybe been a need for an injection of enthusiasm. Everyone, including the manager, has been running-if thats the right word, perhaps shuffling is better-on empty.
Having won eight consecutive titles, the players are entitled to perhaps think they’ve been there and done that, even those who’ve only been around for a season or even less will perhaps fall victim to that malaise, that complacency, that feeling that everything will be alright in the morning.
Although one could argue with merit that there isn’t that much to the main rivals domestically, they’ve delayed the run to nine in a row, and perhaps even taken the initiative away from Celtic, there is still that feeling amongst the support that Celtic will do exactly what they did last year and storm towards the title, while “rangers 2 will do what they did last year and fall apart again.
There is no evidence to suggest that is what lies ahead, and in fact, it could be said that the “rangers ” players and management have learned from the lessons of the last year or two. It’s taken a while, but Gerrard is not noted for his mental agility, but he could not have achieved the respect he has in footballing terms without having a certain nous about him.
“rangers ” may well be about to benefit from that.
No other club could have given him the time and space-and loyal support from fans and media alike-that he has had at Ibrox.
No other club in any other country would have been able to parachute him into a position where he can get the attention and the attraction that he has had as manager of the second biggest club /company in the land, and at the same time allow him to have the time and space to learn the job as he goes along, and not even so much as asking him why he hasn’t won anything yet.
What’s more, Morelos apart, there isn’t a single player in his squad with anything approaching the resale value of pretty much everyone at Celtic, and there is even less demand for them.
Though the two defenders, Katic and Barasic should go on to bigger things, perhaps even sooner than expected.
The media don’t do proper grown up analysis of football in Scotland.
Though you have to say, there’s an outlet that makes our media look like there isn’t a sheet broad enough to print it on…
This will be an awful hire, he has never shown any ability to have his team play creative soccer , win ugly , defend, don’t attack , kick and chase coach #nycfc
Do you agree with this particular analysis ?
The team are tired, lacking in spirit and imagination…the manager appears not to give a toss any more, his comment on not even bothering to watch the League Cup final ahead of the league match with “rangers ” a betrayal of the trust he has fro the club and support alone.
Thats not to say there isn;t a position for him in what is a crucial period in our history, remember to get to this point again should we fail to secure the nine, will take until 2028 at the earliest, so the pressure will be intense as the weeks go by, and Lennons body language suggests that he’s starting to feel it.
He needs help.
He needs someone who knows the players-well, most of them…he needs someone who understand the club and it’s support…and he needs someone who can get a bit of fire back in the bellies….
You know what I’m going to suggest, don’t you ?
The original plan was to bring Deila, a young and imaginative coach to Celtic as Lennons number two. Maybe it was the right idea at the wrong time, maybe even for the wrong reasons.
Right now, it would be the right idea at the right time for the right reasons.
It would bring in new ideas and new enthusiasm and really annoy Kris Commons.
I discussed tactics and football with Deila a few years ago when he first came to Celtic, and he outlined how the 4-2-3-1 would-or should -work, with the two wide players alternating as a second striker, an idea that came to fruition under Rodgers when the ideas of Deila were backed with the reputation of Rodgers-snake oil sales ability apart- and there was an invincible season on the strength of it.
Then, of course, opposing teams worked out how to play against it, and we saw a return to the ponderous side to side football that made Leicester look a viable option to the ratman, before we all sussed his lack of ideas out.
In short, he didn’t have a plan B
Neither does Lennon, and worryingly, his idea of a plan B seems to be to look for a big bustling striker , revert to wing backs and and rely heavily on a big yellow wall at the back.
If we can see the faults in that, then so can opponents, and so will Gerrard. Gerrard is starting to shift from a players mentality, to that of a manager.
He knows his players cannot do on a pitch what he could do, so he isn’t asking them to. A crucial leap when anyone enters management in any profession.
While he has Morelos, who like it or not, like him or not, who scores goals that team is a threat to eight in a row.
During that conversation with Deila, I asked what happens when opponents learn to thwart that style, the likeable Norwegian said he’d have taught them something else by then.
Intirgued, I asked if he was teaching them anything else now…he replied that he would , as soon as they had mastered this idea…
The squad are ready to learn something else, something that will give the required lift to get to nine and then ten in a row.
Ronny Deila, if he is available, should be offered the role of head coach, Lennon can do the PR, and we might just relight the spark we’ve seen extinguished of late.
I said it was time for something completely different…
Elsewhere, it appears Glenn Murray of Brighton is on the radar, along with anyone else piss poor and ill informed hacks can think of.
I’m not even going to list them as only the Lawwell lapdogs will know whats going on, and they’ve clearly been told-sorry, he’s clearly been told not to say anything.
It’s gone quiet over at Celtic, not only is everyone on lockdown even the slightest hint that you know something frightens the living daylights out of those you ask, simply because Lawwell is beginning to look almost Orwellian in his final days, which means no one gets to know anything and even of they do they won’t tell you you’re right.
In one sense, when there are potentially millions of pounds at stake, this makes a lot of sense.
Moussa Dembele, Oddsone Edouard and Olivier Ntcham are examples of a scouting network that is making an awful lot of money, and will continue to do so, for the club, and if another club were to get a whiff of potential targets, they may be in a position to gazump Celtic, rendering months of patient negotiations worthless, which in turn means that the club has to start all over and possibly end up with panic buys that don;t quite work out.
Thats why we get surprised a lot.
Or don’t.
So don’t pay much attention to what you read in the papers.
There may be a big week ahead, as Celtic have remained silent on the antics of the media and SFA regarding last Sundays-is it really a week ago -defeat to “rangers “
Especially tomorrow, as the club are not going to let things lie regarding the charges levelled at Ryan Christie.
Peter Lawwell takes more out of Celtic financially than anyone else in the history of the club.
We need to see what we’re getting for that money, as I’m sure that there are others out there who may be able to do at least as good a job as him, for a hell of a lot less money.
So far, he’s presided over a period that saw Celtic lose money and trophies , and therefore potential sponsorship and investment, to a club that cheated.
Indeed, the signs are he may well have been aware of it, and as his work with Martin Bain, his equal at the doomed Rangers , to try to get into the English league suggests that he was informed of the potential financial meltdown that was coming to the Ibrox club.
For someone that said at the time Celtic was a stand alone entity, he sure as hell appears to have been content to work within the Old Firm business model.
Which leads me to wonder if he was aware of the Five Way Agreement, which allowed the “rangers ” to take up the identity and customer base of a morally and financially bankrupt business.
What we are aware of, as you will see in the coming days, is that there is little or no chance that Lawwell could not be aware of it, despite what he told shareholders at the recent AGM.
In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if Mr Lawwell is a little bit of a stranger to the truth, though to be fair, ensconced in his office at Celtic Park, staring at his bank balance as his phone pings with each and every deposit notification, it would be hard to concentrate.
My own experiences, when he requested and then hid the smoking gun that would have blown Resolution 12 wide open and exhibited the cheating years for all in world football to see make me think he has become a little complacent, and when the man at the top is complacent, it’s not long before the guy making the tea can’t be arsed either…which is where we came in.
I wrote an open letter to him once, asking how he would like to be remembered by the Celtic support when he’s gone, and he still has time to improve what is a pretty poor record.
Yesterday, we had this…
Today…
Hay conn dalgleish and jardine ??
Not Conn but John Blackley of Hibs
John Blackley of the Hibs
And Ken Diddy Dodd.
Also thought Delia would be a good addition to the coaching staff
That’s John Blackley not Alfie Conn.
Caption………
……..seriously! Ronny(fkn)Deila.
Henke…was Deila the original Norwegian blue. Dead from the neck up?
Caption, left to right:
Good guy, cant, good guy, cant….
Caption
Chris Sutton travels back in time to stand to the right of Kenny Dalglish
Excellent Diary once again.
“Hold The Press” must have been the call in 2013 and collect all the copies still available, too late for that because the Genie was out of the bottle. How can you un-see what the pictures of the Scottish press front pages showed, coffins, hearses wreaths as they told the story of The “Rangers” demise. How much their own truths must irk them now as they try to change the narrative to “It was the company, not the club that passed away”. Now They record that black is white and bend over like an Egyptian Belly Dancer trying to circumnavigate the truth, liars one and all. How Hugh McIlvanney is missed.
The Scottish Police, treating supporters like criminals, the new word (for me) Kettling, videoing and harassment, but still the fans turn up looking to see an honest game, even that is denied them because of trying to fit the Huns back into the league, treating the supporters like idiots. We are not idiots just people with a love of sport, a love of our cherished club. To hell with governing bodies, those institutions that put all else before sporting integrity, the very thing that they are charged to protect, to hell with those that put lucre and greed before our club. They will all be exposed for what they are, the sooner the better.
Caption: ‘Right, lads. Next question … Point to where your brain is.’
you are at the wind up ralph aye?
I am considering a late career in Politics so I agree and disagree with Ralph! I agree that NL is feeling the strain and that he needs help. When he was first appointed efforts were made to get a more experienced head in to assist him. These efforts failed then and they will fail again this time round. The current management team lacks broad experience. Kennedy has only ever been at Celtic and Duff is a neophyte in management. NL is an SPL level manager who is unlikely to get another job at a club of Celtic’s level. The latter is harsh and may change if he adapts. His management of the media has certainly improved since his first term and maybe his ability to read a game and make adjustments will also improve. It is in these areas that NL needs help but I doubt that he will neither accept it, nor get it.
Where I disagree with Ralph is on the Deila suggestion. He is a con artist…great in seminars and interviews but shallow otherwise. There was no rush of top clubs looking to sign him after he left Celtic. The Ronny Roar says it all! When the players walk over to the crowd they bet a better and more genuine response from the fans than he did.
Rebus
I was referring to the deila shout, my thoughts on lennon have not changed since the summer.. October/November looks like being the exception
to not learn from the cup final is honestly a disgrace, 10 mins into the league game you knew we would be losing the game
the fact that the sports scientists have to step in and over rule lennon when he wants to give days off after every win says it all
BGB,
I agree. The evidence from the last two games against Sevco is damning. I was prepared to accept that I was wrong about his appointment, given his successes in early season but the failure to learn plus the poor performances over December, indicate that there is a severe problem. Like Paul on the road to Damascas, I have been slowly converted to the view that PL is the main problem. There was no coherent recruitment strategy to replace BR because PL wants control. I think PL has been good for the club in many areas but he is now an obstacle to progress. Having had BR as a manager raised the profile of the job, indicating that the club could attract international quality managers. That opportunity was thrown away. It will not end well for Celtic or NL.
I tried to kick my addiction to the club when NL was appointed but I failed to quit cold turkey. I even took out streaming services for Liverpool and the EPL in general, only to find I had no emotional involvement in either.
Yes, there have been far worse times supporting Celtic, but is there much worse than watching opportunity being thrown away?
Rebus
correct, this season looks like resulting in a chance to bury the scum on and off the park for good. they would not recover from 9 in a row. if 9 happens I honestly think we would end up with 15 or 16, even more…
most people you speak to when they heard lennon was appointed after the cup final it actually put a dampener on the celebrations.. the fact that the scum rejoiced in the appointment also tells you a lot
yes beating Lazio in rome was a massive result but what did it actually achieve? the same as finishing 3rd in your UCL group, a tournament we failed miserably to qualify for again.
the board got away with murder in the way Rodgers left us, if he walked in the summer citing our lack of ambition I doubt the board could have survived the backlash
but we are where we are, we will be out of Europe by march, we are not getting near the last 8 of the tournament, and unless we are progressing in the UCL I don’t really care for beating rennes and cluj
Charlie,
Can you expand?
Rebus
1) Beating any European team that is in the EL is mandatory. If, as you say we belong in the CL then we should be atop the EL group stages. To think we are above this competition is mind-blowing.
2) To pump money into Liverpool and the league that has been belittling Scottish football for a decade, ruins our best footballers by buying them on the cheap and not playing them is criminal.
3) “rangers” are kicking and grabbing their way along this season aided by the Masons In Black.
4) All of our home grown first team players who we can normally expect to dig deep for Scottish matches are in the top 10 for most minutes played.
5) While I understand you feel going back to Lennon was a bad decision he has done better than any other manager in recruitment and Europe since MON.
CS can probably provide any statistics you may need.
He got you thinking, though!
Rebus
Caption ..
Four Tops tribute band practice their “Reach out and I’ll be there” routine….
sorry Lennie is now being exposed by a rookie learning the trade’cant remember what game it was’ but we were down at half time, but won the game in the dying seconds and Christie was asked about half time team talk tactics, and he said there was no tactics as such but to keep going as we were, which brings me to the conclusing ,because we had the better players he was leaving it up to them, half of the support were devided by his appointment, and I think they are going to be right if we don’t get to nine its over for me i’m 80
Marion,
Good evening dear, always good to see wenches on here.
Caption: Broadmoor lifers stage a rooftop protest after The ‘Deila for Celtic Maniac’ is admitted.
Doesn’t time fly, it seems like only the other day we were celebrating the New Year but here we are at the beginning of April already. 😉
One of the things that I really liked about Brendan Rodgers was his ability to “tweak” tactics during games, to shift players wherever he saw danger,his attention to detail was second to none. He did make the odd mistake with his signings which he readily admitted to, like Compper, the other ones are not known to us because of our self proclaimed DoF. I will never forget Odsonne playing alongside Moussa, what a combination they were. The other thing that I loved was seeing the team pressing high up the pitch, chasing goalkeepers down, harrying defenders into mistakes, like the Man. City and Gladbach games. Of course when you ask players to play WAY to many games, the “high press” goes out the windy. Far to many league games and then of course the International games that our players are asked to play, viz a vie compared to the other Scottish teams, one drawback to having so many great players. This mid-season break is a big benefit to our players, but still they need help on the pitch, great to see Elhammed and Moi back, we need them all fighting for the cause.
Warning! You’re seriously off-message, please stop dreaming and get on the beam.
Rodgers was a one-trick pony who only had a Plan A and no ability to do anything else.
This is why he was found out and hounded out by the titans at St Mirren/Hibs/Rangers (take your pick).
This is why in fear he fled to pit his wits in the gentler waters against infinitely lesser adversaries like Klopp, Pep etc.
Cha… Am I supposed to laugh at the final sentence?
Foxtrot Oscar, I was always on message! 😉
Good comment but and a big but he inproved a lot of players especially Forrest. Rogic tierney all improves under his tutelage and he didn’t have favourites. But if a visionary lacking in pragmatism which lennon has in spades
Hope to get a manager who has more off a mix of qualities.
Mike,
The difference in games played between us and Sevco is down to international appearances. Sevco had to qualify for the Europa and also played the group games. They went all the way to the LC final, as we did.
Citing our schedule as a reason for our poor displays in December does not fly. It is the manager’s responsibility. Buying more players will not resolve this. It is tantamount to saying better players will swamp the opposition with their quality while avoiding the real issue.
Rebus
Rebus,
Yes of course it was the International games, perhaps I phrased that poorly because that is what I meant to say. But it was only Sevco that matched us game for game in the Europa and got to the league cup final. Also we had the better chances in last Sunday’s game and like the League Cup final we should have won that game too.
I understand your point about the manager and I thought that I had made that point clear, but where I disagree slightly with you is,in that better players can react on the pitch without needing a coach to tell them what to do to correct the tactics on the pitch.
Year on year we are overburdening our players, it seems like fatigue is creeping in, the players are not robots, so get rid of the chaff and bring in more wheat. 😉
Had a problem getting a settled defence. Lennon showed the way here. His performances in Europe were terrible the worst in the clubs history. Maybe Lawwell should shoulder blame here. No scope for growth with Lawwell he retracts at the wrong moment.
Also tried to play out of the back with Gordon in goal. Fucking calamity after calamity
Caption
Does anyone know a good barber lads?
Lenny at times suffers from brain freeze, he has shown this previously where he is unable to change tactics.The wankers played there usual way, high balls, high press, bullying tactics, he should have been aware.
Rogic and Ncham Bauer would have been better in coping with the Wanker tactics. As for Delilah as coach, possibly under Brenda, but Lenny has JPK anyone else would do
However the team is tired considering the season started in a June, we need fresh blood or things could get dire.
“There is nothin’ like a dame
Nothin’ in the world
There is nothin’ you can name
That is anythin’ like a dame”
Caption:
“Ah’m suing that barber fur giein’ me hair like a hedgehog. £25 fur the haircut an’ ten grand fur bein’ run ower by a lorry oan the road hame”.
I’m just popping out for a loaf (5/1/76).Wonder if I should get Mothers Pride or KINGSMILL?……SMH…
Rob… But you’ll wear it well…
Ronnie fcking Delia. ffs maybe we just arent cr@p enough yet. mjallaby is only about a million times a better punt.
He gets naked. In Norway of all places gave tierney his chance
Ah Ronny Delia the football guru who could talk for hours on power point about how the game should be played , how all Scottish players had to follow Johansens lead to be better , what a self proclaimed genius.problem is his team played nothing like his amazing philosophy,infact it was so boring the top teir was closed when we were top of the league! . I wouldn’t have this guy anywhere near Celtic park again
Think Ronnie deserves credit for bringingTierney thru, getting to the heart of Forrest’s fitness issues, winning two Leagues, more than some illustrious Celtic men did, albeit there was little challenge and we had the best players.
Come to think of it we still do, which is why we will get to 9 IAR. It will be a tight run in, always was going to be with their improved squad, improved but far from invincible.
a guy who never faced the hunz in a league game
Did what he did with what he had though!
The fires relentless a lot to be said about living in a concrete jungle. Only the rats to muster concern though they are unobtrusive. Watching koalas kangaroos and introduced species like bovine and ovine creatures perish. A scorched earth and gteta thurnberg isn’t a startled retard talking shit about an unproven warming of the planet.
Top gear genius Jeremy Clarkson saying we are living in a land that’s basically Not conducive for habitation. He may have a point, the smoke and haze of the sun is laughing at our efforts. It really is a bad situation over here and there’s no sign of an end on a worldwide scale we’re just another winters tale . One billion species charred to fuck apparently koalas and kangaroos with no pelt smoking down to their last layer of skin. A topographic picture shows devastation the size of Spain and France combined. Yet Ronny Delia gets the news.
I’ve seen pictures of the Koalas and Kangaroos, it’s terrible, it saddens me. Here we are about to fight more wars over the oil that made it all possible. I’m terribly sorry all of you in OZ are going through this. Are there any tales from the indigenous people that tell of this happening before?
Dunno. Though they used an ancient burn off technique that quelled the spread of fires. The greens party lobbied for that to discontinue. Burn offs have been a part of aboriginal culture for years
The Australian govt should have a word with the no 1 coal exporter in the world. Reducing this from 220 mil tons a year with the lions share going to China might help the planet and them.
Caption: We washed two in our powder and two in our rivals. Will you take the Bold Fenian Men challenge?
Caption: Morelos is coming.
Mike Bassett ^
Who gives a fuck?
Caption: ” Now then Dim, what’s this about a new way then brother, pray tell dim “
Caption: “Aw there was toilets after all, back there, look.”