Well that was the Champions League 2012-13. What a great campaign. It may have petered out towards the end but to reach the Final 16 in Europe was beyond all our expectations way back when we began considering who we might have to play in the opening 2 Qualifying rounds. From away wins ( multiple!) to home wins including a certain Barcelona, there were plenty of positives to be taken as well as a little dash of reality as we reached the end of our CL road for this Campaign.
Desimond considers whats been and whats ahead and offers a few points :
Departures at Platform 67. Well it looks like its the end of the road for Hooper and big Victor. Fair play to them, they did their best for Celtic and Celtic did their best for them. Others such as Forster, Matthews and possibly even Sammi may join them. The most important point is we retain Neil Lennon and John Parks. These 2 men are crucial to Celtic current path of upward progression. We may stumble occasionally but we are always moving forward with these guys behind us.
Horses for 3 Courses. Watching Sammi jumping, heading,running, falling, dribbling at Juventus showed the mans worth in Europe. It also showed how certain players work in certain games. More experimenting with personnel, line-ups and set-piece practise could pay dividends as well as help keep a hungry squad happy.
Open to Discussion. While its been a good campaign with a touch of greatness here and there, a harsh realist looking at the Squad is open to asking “Well, is there any you couldnt replace?”. Who’d be a Manager eh? Thats what Lenny and Co. now have to consider, who must stay, who can go, who will exit off their own accord and who need challenged for the greater good of the club.
Location, Location, Location. Watching Victor Wanyama playing at centre half possibly because Efe Ambrose missed the team bus to training ( and really..how do such things happen..arent there co-ordinators? – Ed), once again highlighted a Celtic tendency to see at least 1 player out of their favoured position. Reaching outside ones comfort zone is all well and good but theres a time and a place for such things. If we want to step on from being a team consisting of “Jacks of all trades” to possible Masters then patience and a different squad plan will be needed.
A left back, my kingdom for a left back. Izzy has been getting dogs abuse after recent errors and Lenny will know that its time we looked for a suitable alternative\back-up\competition. Competition that isnt Joe ledley or charlie Mulgrew shuffled back and left. Its a tough position to fill but John Parks has did it once already. Injuries to Matthews and Lustig show how easy it is to find ourselves exposed in positions.
Leave Loans alone. Someone on Twitter offered the theory that Miku against Barcelona was our best forward performance of the CL. Miku, you remember him. All high hopes have diminished and saldy its one move that hasnt worked. Will he get a fruther chance after his family moved to Scotland? Its doubtful. The keeper we took on loan, remember him, nope me neither. While loans seems a good idea, its a half way house that hopefully we can avoid visiting next season. Hopefully we can buy what we need rather than borrow someone another doesnt want. Although if Lukaku is available from Chelski, yes please! Then again, we already have this guy waiting in the wings!
Class tells. As Lenny admitted in the post-match interview, class is key. Many of our players are decent, some are good. None as yet are great. This campaign has helped educate as well as bring any ego’s and down to Earth, including Supporters estimations. Will Phase 2 of The Park Model include identifying available proven class purchase ( coupled with the lure of SPL football mind!) or has the Miku experiment put paid to that?
Trim the fat. Celtic have some decent players but also have quite a few surplus players. Time to be cruel to be kind and as the Project plan progresses, its time to get rid who either havent made a big enough impression or have started to wane. A big squad can be handy, but better a smaller squad with higher quality then plenty of personnel with various limitations.
The new Football Calendar. Summer football arrives at last! Given the priority is the CL, it means we all have to get used to changes in perspective and the football calendar. The draw in June will provide a path towards 3 pre-qualifiers. Lenny has already told the current squad to look at early holidays with their families. Expect to see plenty of the soon to be departing fringe squad members and the kids getting games between now and seasons end, bar the remaining Scottish Cup games. Could we also start to see some major experimenting for the last 6 SPL games?, lets hope so. As for next season, fans will also have to appreciate how many games the players have to face despite any Media talk of weak opposition.
Time and Time again. Kelvin Wilson,our player of the Campaign? Big Timber has came on leaps and bounds and perhaps embodies the current “project”. Patience has proven out and how our settled centre half has prospered after an awkward beginning. If we can see other players come on with more time in SPL and especially the CL, then concentration levels should improve throughout removing those match losing mistakes.
A New Celtic Way. Will the Celtic support and Lenny begin to see the value in playing Not to Lose rather than always playing to win? Can we further develop the counter attacking side to our game? Can we start to confidently say “A draw will do just fine” and mean it? As concentration in our defence personell hopefully increases, the occasional 0-0 might not seem the worse result after all when we gather more experience and start considering the long term play rather then racing hard at every obstacle.
Whats your thoughts? Let us know in the Comments section below or mail us any articles for posting to etims.contact@googlemail.com
It never fails to amaze me how popular and well respected Celtic and Celtic fans are all across Europe, even in defeat their dignity always shines through, just this match against Juve we see the swapping of scarfs, Juve fans singing Celtic Celtic and this behaviour is replicated time after time.
If we look at the MSM across Scotland we see this being largely overlooked, infact the opposite is reported in our press the demonisation of our manager and victimisation of our fans but we know we are ambassadors for Celtic and across Europe we are winning through, heads up be proud. HH
I have to agree with most of your points however
Loans- Its a pretty low-risk strategy that has worked in the past with big Fraser. If Miku, Gershon and the keeper aren’t good enough then we are free to dump them when we please. I am not too fussed about it.
Lennon – He has proved himself a capable coach but needs to make some changes to his approach. Your point about playing folk out of position is valid but I’d also like to see him stop playing people who aren’t fit.
I can’t complain about the group stage much other than the game in Lisbon. However, over the two legs against Juventus we were fairly wasteful in front of goal, took too many risks at the back and made too many mistakes at the back. In the end we were gubbed.
Juventus probably should beat us 9 times out of 10 but we shouldn’t have made it look so easy. We were better than 5-0.
Pretty much agreed altho I have no problem with loans. If we hadn’t taken Miku on a loan we’d have a player on decent wages for next 3 years not getting any games.
Ironic that Juve did to us what we did to the other teams in the group stages, allowed us to have loads of possession, and then picked us off with lightening counter attacking (albeit we did it thro set pieces mostly). Agreed that there was never a 5-0 in it but when you concede inside 4 minutes in the 1st leg that is mana from heaven for Italian teams.
To my mind the big mistake in the first leg was not playing Ledley and also playing all three of Commons, Mulgrew and Forrest – undoubtedly our 3 most creative players but Forrest wasn’t fully match fit and was completely lost – would have been much better taking him on for last 15/20 mins.
I think we’ll defo lose Hooper and most probably big Vic albeit I think his contract has a further year to run than Hoopers. All depends on what is offered and who is offering it.
I do think since coming back from his injury Izzaguire has pretty much lost all interest in defending unless he absolutely has to – all too often I have seen him trotting back to his position whilst opponents are belting towards our goal on counter attack!!
Anyway all in all it’s been a blast, we got to last 16 and Neil, players and supporters have done us proud.
Lets face it if we’d been told before hand we would last longer in competition than Chelsea & Man City and be knocked out at same stage as Man U and most probably Arsenal we would have thought whoever it was saying that was made – & we would have snapped their hand off at that prospect.
Time to get rid of Ambrose. The man is a joke.
Mmmmm. Not sure I agree on Izzy. He was in an attacking play and then we gave the ball away cheaply. I used to hear Agathe get the same criticism but its unrealistic to expect players to get back so quickly. Blame the player who gave the ball away and left others exposed.
Wilson has far to go. He has improved from a low benchmark but still suspect for me. If he keeps the rate of improvement up though he should do fine.
What a brilliant campaign.
We too often leave ourselves exposed at the back compaerd with other teams in Europe. Lennon should get the defence right and build from there.
A wonderful Euro adventure, totally exceeding all reasonable expectations. The most galling thing about last night’s game, and the 1st leg, is that we are not that far off being genuinely able to strongly compete at this level. A domineering centre half to marshall (not Gordon or Scott!) the defence and keep silly errors and ballwatching to a minimum, and a creative player to deliver that final killer ball or cross in the last 3rd.
Our biggest failing last night, apart from the dozy defending at the goals, was our complete inability to play the final pass or provide a decent cross after some good possession and build-up play.
Like I said, we are 2-3 players away from genuinely being able to really compete at this level, instead of being patronisingly called “plucky” and forever punching above our weight. The problem being that, as the article states, our squad will look different next season. But, as long as we have Lenny at the helm to worry about these dilemnas we will continue to progress. No-one’s stock has risen higher that Lenny’s in Europe this season and he will continue to improve.
Please, please let’s get right behind Lenny and the Bhoys for the remainder of the league and cup campaigns. Yes, I’m talking to you Saturday absentees!
Desi
Enjoyable appraisal. I am considering a few comments of my own even though they will not of your standard.
H H
Read Pensionerbhoys excellent appraisal here :
https://etims.net/?p=2219