In the most recent Etims Podcast, we ended with Danny Wilson singing ‘Marys Prayer’ as we all felt quite positive about all things Celtic and the opening line “Everything is wonderful, being here is Heavenly” felt appropriate.
Sadly, as the lyrics descend into regret, they have become even more apt following the Legia Warsaw result. The 4-1 defeat ( going on 6, 7, 8) had many questions being raised and here are a few below:
Board
Can the CEO really say hes kept his eye on the ball while dealing with Commonwealth games, Murrayfield and also winning a seat on the SFA board while team quality subsides?
How much exactly does it cost to run Celtic..the books suggest we are doing okay yet Nothing spent on Management and Nothing spent on Team, Is there something we should know?
Were we banking on early big sales to pay for purchases? With recent Goalkeeper deals in England, has that ship sailed ( or sunk!) ?
If the board knew Lennon was leaving way back, where was the contingency planning player wise: Offer Sammi baubles and hope for the best ?
New manager who made clear his intentions of creating a dynamic, energetic team. Does it make sense to offer him no additional first team players prior to our biggest games of the season (Berget 24 hours before on loan), especially as the team was down Sami, Brown and Forrest from the end of the season?
If the manager said he was happy with no new players – an idea I find hard to comprehend – would the board not insist on strengthening the team with so much financially at play?
The Champions League has massively increased payments to teams from this season. With this in mind and the importance to Celtic, the board should have ensured 2 or 3 new first team players were brought in to give the new manager every chance. To not do this is dreadful business practice. Agree or Disagree?
Old adage. Invest to keep moving forward. Does no one on the Celtic board understand this?
Will we now see a number of players leave, either for better football challenges or to pay for lost revenue, causing us even more upheaval?
Management
At 2-1 we lost a defender so a defeat wasnt a total surprise but Ronnie, 2 missed penalties and an end of game collapse, please tell us a lesson has been learnt?
Ronnie, you say you will give clearer instructions to the players? How thick are they if they cant follow a managers guidelines on how to hold a result at 2-1?
Ronnie – Was Izzy unavailable due to injury or Board demands or did you choose to leave out our dependable left-back and play Adam Matthews on the wrong side of the pitch alongside a totally new face in the most important game of your Celtic career?
Is it time we had specific coaches for defence, midfield and striker areas?
How Good\Bad\Stale was the squad that Ronnie and Jonnie inherited…new face Craig Gordon in training isnt exactly turning up to see all the bases loaded is it?
You complained about the players energy levels. Why havent you got them into shape yet or have you and John Collins pushed them too far causing fatigue?
Our best player has been a boy who wasnt even near the club last year….have we went backwards?
Ronnie, you said two weeks ago that you only wanted first team signing or young players that you can develop. Why the sudden change in bringing a loan player?
Ronny – Why play such an attacking formation in your second ever away
game in the Champions League against a team 3 weeks ahead in preparation?
Ronny – Why not “park the bus” after the first goal? Worst case extreme
pressure but ability to hit on break?
Ronny – Why stretch your back line the full width of the pitch and push
full backs so far up that there’s at least three bus lanes either side of
a stretched 2 x centre halfs? And then leave a full 30 yards space in
front of them when attacking also? And then not alter that after 10
minutes when it was apparent?
Ronny – What you doing to sort out (3) above before next week?
Jonny C – Who’s getting 10000 sit ups down the Coo Market 10 minutes
before kick off next week?
Will Celtic EVER play NOT to lose a game…..cant we approach a game with the idea of getting a decent result and then win on home leg, its not rocket science is it?
Fans
Faithful thru and thru or feeling like a Mug?
MUG!! Looks Like a Barnes,Dalglish scenario all over again..
HH
Faithful thru and thru……we lost, every team loses at sometime….a new manager a new way of playing, this is a rebuilding year…..we’re not out of CL yet (although its looking very likely of course) we have a full season ahead and still a good chance of a decent run in Europe, we’ve the league (always the priority) to play for and we MUST give RD a chance. This is not the end of the World….
Usual board strategy.
Go as far as we can with what we have.
Spend as a last resort and sell when we can without re-investing.
The board has been takening us for Mugs for a long long time, the circus at Ibrox has taken our eye off the ball a bit at what is happening on our own doorstep, and has indeed greatly helped PL downsize as he feels apprpriate, after all he says there is no chance of Admin or liquidation at Paradise, therefore we should all be happy about that. But when you take into account player sales and CL money with the pittance that has been invested in the squad over the last few years, then yes I am afraid that the board are giving us all a right good shafting. Lets see if we will be nowhere near admin or liquidation when the fans simply stop turning up and buying products…..we know we can’t go ans spend £10m on a single player but we also know that this board have no ambition and seem determined to underline every manager and player whose walks through the doors ambitions…..they are making our club a laughing stock in Europe…….get rid of Lawell and get DD to get his hands in his pockets!!!
It’s hard to disagree with much of that. I don’t think the lack of investment hurt us particularly last night as we still have a squad that cost far more than Legia’s. How much more should we be spending to beat a team of Legia’s calibre? However, I do accept that a new manager needs to be given money to bring in players he has identified and put his own stamp on the squad. Did he have the time to do that? Would he have been given the money even if he had?
The main criticism of the board is that they oversaw a situation whereby a relatively experienced manager walked out and a relatively inexperienced manager walked in just a few weeks before the qualifying campaign. Neil Lennon achieved great things for us in horrific circumstances and I feel he wasn’t really given the respect or credit that he deserved for that from the board.
The main problem last night was a horribly naive tactical showing in a game that was absolutely vital to our season. We started with too many attackers, needlessly pressed too high up the pitch and were unable to move the ball quickly resulting in panic any time we were closed down. We had to give our defence more cover and stop VVD wandering aimlessly out of position (see the first 2 goals and Efe’s red card). We inexplicably dropped our best LB and played a Cardiff City reserve ahead of 2 established strikers (Stokes and Griffiths).
If RD is trying to unsettle the squad he is doing a great job. Scottish footballers should go to bed at 10pm and be dedicated, ruthless athletes. However we live in the real world and those kinds of people rarely play in leagues like ours and the players we already have don’t fit that mould. Play the hand you’re dealt with not the one you want!
Gutted and wil be for weeks after this.
Craiginho
Don’t understand how you can say we started with too many attackers when we dominated first 10 mins, scored a great goal, and our “captain” and Efe Ambrose let us down, some blame goes to Ronny
, of course, but these players are meant to be experienced European players whove played against Barcelona and Juventus, and that Cardiff reserve you talked about kept Messi and Pedro in his back pocket in one night at LB, he should never have played there, but don’t start calling him a Cardiff City reserve, I think Mulgrew should never play at this level again and we need a bit of balls in midfield while Brown is out, i blame Ronny 30% and the team 70% for last nights result, and Callum McGregor, love this bloke more and more, rather him play than nearly everyone else in the first team squad at the moment
Think he meant Berget was the Cardiff City reserve, not Matthews.
Totally agree about the Board.
We received the best part of £20m last year for selling 3 of our best players. Plus on top of that we had the Champions League money for reaching the last 16. Yet spent a fraction of this money on 3 players all for small sums. No surprises then that last years CL campaign was forgettable.
Then we let Ledley and Samaras go despite Lennon wanting to keep them both. Ledley may have wanted away but we could have sold him the year before or given him a deal like we did with Petrov. I.E. Payrise followed by a transfer.
Its August tomorrow and so far we have a guy on loan (who walked straight in to the first team 24 hours after signing) and Craig Gordon on a free. Who to be fair is a good keeper but its a clear sign Forster is going.
Todays Herald (if they are to be believed) has us missing out on a player from Nice because Standard Liege are prepared to pay just £300k more. Whats going on??
But what really really annoys me is that Commons, who for me is our best player, is now in the last year of his contract. How many more of our best players will we allow to get in this situation? What else are the board concentrating on that’s more important than retaining our best players?
If previous players are anything to go by then Commons will get sold in Jan for about £200k – shocking.
There – rant over.
Hail hail – 3 – nil next week and through on away goals.
Let’s get it right!
Lawwell is only the messenger.
The man making these decisions is DESMOND.
This is a man who , by his own admission , isn’t even a football man . His forte is horse racing and golf.
He’s a true “absentee landlord” , who rarely attends any games.
With all his other business interests, I wonder just how far down Celtic is on his list of priorities.
Exactly what does he bring to the table?
I’d like to know why every time I watch a Celtic tv clip on you tube Charlie Mulgrew is acting like a child around lennoxtown. He’s constantly joking or mocking other team mates. Is training not a place of work? If I behaved like that I’d be out the door were I am. Grow up Charlie and put you head down and work. Man up Mulgrew your suppose to be a main player at Celtic. He was made look like a fool last night.
I believe celtic need a season in Europa League. When Lenny was building his team the season we got into Europa(by de-fault) massively improved a poor team.
The stroll to the league in Scotland is damaging us now – witness last seasons CL and domestic Cup performances. This squad needs to be re-built and RD requires a season to do that.
On signings, Celtic have wasted a lot of money on mediocre players who do not improve – Boerigter, balde, zaluska, griffiths, forest..stokes
if we get humped out by legia,theres the small matter of another qualifier for the Europa.
Lessons from history:
* Celtic’s greatest season in recent times (2002/2003) started with us being knocked out of the Champions League by FC Basel.
* To qualify for the Champions league last year, we had to beat a team 3-0 in the return leg – we can do it again.
MUG. true but that game was played at home. Making the GLASGOW support travel up the M8 for CL games shows complete contempt for us. Sorry but cardiff loan deals aint going to win any prizes in Europe nd not really the place to find out hes pish either. We got done like a kipper last night because of our charge of the light brigade tactics and thats down to the manager that was put in charge. I cant be bothered to look up if he has ever managed a game in europe before. more contempt for us Iam afraid. Samaras who pretty much guaranteed us CL footy last season punted. Theres that contempt word again. They even picked a manager and pointed his arse at us.
What is starting to worry me is the Zaluska comments and if there is indeed something that the board are not telling us. Are we in a very tight financial situation? Are there problems? Something smells a wee bit off…… And I have had a shower today as well so it shouldn’t be me
Were Legia even that good a team? Quite a few are asking if we can get a result next week but based on last night, would we want to? How many would a top CL team put past us if we played like that? How did last night compare to the 6-1 Barca game?
Last season we had a look at Alfred Finnbogason and chose not to get him. Tonight he’ll be playing for Sociedad against the sheep, wonder if he’ll play better than Berget?
Mr Lawwell, what do you get when you pay peanuts?
Bergetae…he mince
The door to England being firmly shut, I imagine DD would accept any reasonable offer and fly the coup.
lets hope so
Forgive me delila , I just couldnt take any more
Guys,
I think we might be a bit hasty with the criticism…
The Board have run a good club, developed the best infrastructure we’ve had at Celtic ever, made money, sold players and overseen a period of significant on the field success – I find it hard to criticise them. Perhaps they could spend more on players but there are no guarantees and our model must be about developing players rather than spending….surely common sense makes that clear to all of us??
We were very positive about the recruitment of Ronnie (if not johnnie) and we must give him time, perhaps a season.
We let Lenny go given his big mouth, rich demands and failure to grasp the busines plan of the club – develop players, make some money, improve at football, etc…rather than, well, look around you..
The players last night were pretty bad, perhaps awful. Maybe they’re exhausted, maybe they’re complacent, maybe just getting to know the new set up.
The consequences of failure last night could be no UCL this year, so be it. Lenny spoke often about the value of the Europa League in developing our players, team etc, and no doubt himself.
Ronny has 6 years more experience as a manager than Lenny did when he got the job. He also has a championship more, with a budget around 10% of that of Rosenberg and Molde.
Let’s stay behind Ronny, johnnie, the board, the players and each other. We have a bit to go before any meaningful judgements can be made. Funny, there were outcry when Lenny lost two qualifiers in same month, and after Bratislava, but we took a doing off arsenal without a whimper, and look what happened with each of them…
See you all at murrayfield I hope
developing players rather than spending….surely common sense makes that clear to all of us??
so you are saying our managemnt has no common sense? otherwise why did bergetae… get a fucking start? riddle me that one
Well said Brendan,Would rather see us in Europa league than getting embaressed in cl till we get our feet or find out we have them.
You say “The players last night were pretty bad, perhaps awful. Maybe they’re exhausted, maybe they’re complacent, maybe just getting to know the new set up.” So whose fault???!! It’s Mowbray all over again
FFS we lost a game – we were crap, but was last night unexpected?
I didn’t expect last night’s result, neither did Ralph and neither did a lot more of us.
I’m not happy, but it was one result. If we manage to overturn the defeat and win 3 – 0 next week, will we be happy again.
now is not the time for knee jerk reactions.
get yourselves up to Murrayfield, get behind the team and maybe, just maybe, we can turn this around.
No matter what happens next week, Ronnie & Johnnie need to be given time to turn things around.
Faithful through and through?
pure kick in the Ali Mcgraws, for sure. But ah think we can pull this off, 1-0 eary goal…2 – 0 up by 60 mins then go hell for leather.
HAIL HAIL!!!
MON THE CELTS !!!!!!!
Aye, right! so if a miracle happens and we win 3-0 it’s all OK then? Catch yerelf on. The down-sizing and the new manager has left us woefully short of class
This is less of a deficit to overturn than Artmedia which we came close to, so maybe the miracle can happen.
Unfortunately it seems like it would be a miracle for us just to keep a clean sheet on wednesday