Celtic Diary Tuesday June 6: Here We Go Again

Since the last appearance of the diary, quite a lot has happened, and it’s fair to say some of it has been good, very good, in fact, and some of it, well,

The good stuff…a world record breaking eighth treble, a clean sweep of the domestic honours largely playing football the Celtic way. A team built from the ashes of the Second Lennon Era in the image of the great teams of the past, a joy to watch and one which held great hopes for the future.

And then, even as the treble was being secured, this image flashed up on the telly…..

Which told us that all was not well.

And now we know that Lawwell told Postecoglou he would never , ever interfere with his work….

We’ll come to that later.

Within hours Tottenham Hotspur, a football club and not a bloke in a cape from one of the marvel comics, had swept him away to the bright lights of old London town, promising the earth ….and he believed them.

At the time of writing, he hasn’t signed, though to be fair I can’t be arsed checking, and anyway, if he doesn’t join them it’s unlikely he’ll be back at Celtic .

Something changed his mind about our club, that’s beyond doubt, although to be fair he was spot on when he told hacks that they would be surprised how long he’d be at this club.

I certainly fucking was, as it turned out.

The current view amongst fans is that Ange, no, bollocks, Postecoglou is a bit of a rat. Similar to the original Antrim rat who left under a blanket when he had declared undying love at the feet of Danny McGrain, who would later tell us that was all a load of shite as well.

But, as hands at the ranch realise the Diary was merely taking a break and not fully retiring, certain things have come to light that would have come to light if the fat lazy bastard who types this guff had been paying attention.

We’ll try to make some sense of things that have happened while I’ve been away.

Some of what we found out is undoubtedly true. some may be partly true, and the rest, as is our wont when putting this stuff out there, is entirely made up.

Anything that draws the attention of anyone’s legal team, is , of course, the bits that are entirely made up.

And Lawwell especially is aware of this, as when he offered us a few titbits to increase hits, I told hi we just make everything up anyway.

As we don’t carry adverts, which means you can read our stuff uninterrupted, “hits ” are not why we do this.

Though admittedly it would be stretching it a bit to declare we are searching for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

From the outside, it looked very much like the manager was being allowed to build the team he wanted, with complete and absolute support from the board.

That meant he was able to dismiss any talk of moving south with relative ease, which meant that although his chum Scott Munn was getting the director of football job at Tottenham, it didn’t really matter.

Ange was happy, his family were happy and anything else could wait.

And that sense of security allowed him to persuade others to join him. Would the asian players have travelled halfway round the world to join him if he wasn’t convinced himself ?

Would they have joined him if they didn’t believe in him ?

With south Korean striker Oh and Japanese player of the year Iwata joining in January, we can reasonably deduce things were going well up until then.

So why would he have hos agent touting him for a job down south just a couple of months later ?

Some suggestions of interference from board level caused him to hesitate on a new, improved contract, and that hesitation later turned to rejection.

The tipping point appears to be the new contract handed to Scott Bain, who Postecoglou promptly played against Hibs, who then promptly flung a couple into his own net.

Postecoglou didn;t want to keep Bain, largely becuase he isn’t very good, and in that one game sort of proved his point.

Let’s be honest, we were all surprised when Bain signed a new deal.

Bain was probably surprised when he was offered one.

Postecoglou didn’t offer him it.

So who did ? And why ?

Was that the final straw, or the first one ?

Or was it the result of the board deciding to take back control ?

Things accelerated after the St Mirren game, it seems, and the players have known since then they would have a new manager at the end of the season.

A deal was agreed between Tottenham and Frank Strimboli, the agent of Postecoglou, which was left on the table until the former wizard of Aus could sign it with a clear conscience that he’d at least left us in better shape than he found us, and done what he said he would do until he felt he could do no more.

And that, as they say, is that .

Here we are again, looking for another manager, albeit we are in a healthier state than when we usually look for one.

Although that in itself means it’s becoming a regular feature of our club.

Manager’s can’t work with our board, or at least with one or more of them.

Can’t figure out which one.

Can you ?

As for a replacement, we’ve all got our own personal favourite.

Brendan Rodgers has apparently ruled himself out…he hasn’t, by the way, and one wonders if he is seeking a guarantee that he won’t have to defer to the board every time he makes a decision.

Scott Brown will be sitting by the phone, and whilst he is a Celtic legend, and certainly wouldn’t leave if he was approached by southern clubs, the fear it’s too soon for him is far, far outweighed by the fact that he would not stand up to board interference, at least not at first.

We will be able to work out what has gone on when big names turn us down….people in the game talk, and if we have just lost one of the best managers in the modern game because someone behind closed doors tried to, er, take back control, then we really are waist deep in something the dog left behind.

And sadly, I can’t shake that thought this morning.

And I’ll tell you for why, shall I ?

In the late sixties and seventies, Celtic were a force feared and respected throughout Europe, which more or less ended after the 1974 european cup semi final, a tie Celtic should ahve and would have won if Atletico Madrid had not adopted a robust and enthusiastic style.

With one of the top managers at the helm, we were still competing at the highest level despite selling the core of the side, none of whom wanted to leave but felt undervalued.

This culminated in the loss of Kenny Dalglish, the star of the show, to Liverpool, who built their side around him and dominated Europe for a few years after that.

Within twenty years , the board that had dismantled that side had almost dismantled the club as well.

Whilst our board have admirably kept things in a way that means that won;t happen again, they have failed to get the club back onto the elite clubs list, and one suspects, especially given their reluctance to totally withdraw from the tainted Old Firm brand, there is a worry that they are happy enough to remain a big fish in a small pond.

We had a manager who had the ability to get this club noticed again, to build towards respect on the continent, and we let him go.

We’ve just turned the wrong way during a pivotal moment on our history, and like liverpool before them tottenham…neither deserve a capital letter….will benefit.

Time will tell, but I’ve a feeling that Tottenham , if they allow him to do what he wants the way he wants to, may go on to have an unprecedented high spot in their history.

They might even win something.

It’s easy to say that Postecoglou went for saxon gold, but that never struck me as his raison d’etre ( It’s French…look it up. I had to. )

He struck me as someone who loved his football, and the money was just a bonus.

He struck me as someone who felt he had landed on his feet at Celtic, at least until someone pushed him over.

Whilst there is no name on a door in the ground that is bigger than the one on the door outside it, we’ve made an arse of this.

And the problem is, the people who made an arse of this are the ones in a position to make an arse of the next appointment.