Celtic Diary Tuesday August 13 2024: There’s No Pleasing Some People

On the pitch, Brendanball continues to impress, a 2-0 win at Easter Road means Celtic lead the way at the top of the league, and have still to concede a goal in this campaign, despite having a plethora of defenders who aren’t very good.

One would think that the way the team is playing, and not only are they playing well, they are entertaining, there would be much more of an optimistic feeling amongst the support.

Liam Scales would disagree, one fumble and immediately the crowds call out for less….less of Scales, that is. Greg Taylor was relieved, as it meant they were moaning at someone else for a change, though next week it’ll be Cameron Carter Vickers, already hearing rumblings that he was below par as well.

Hearing this, the Celtic board swung into action and finally secured the services of Adam Idah, who along with other new permanent signing Paulo Bernardo, combined a few weeks ago to win a double for Celtic.

Try before you buy suited both players and the club, and around £12m later everyone should be happy.

The board deserve a bit of praise for their skilful negotiation with Norwich, where it seems they have not only met the asking price, but chucked in a few add ons and a sell on fee as well.

However, had the bloke from Royal Antwerp not been injured, one suspects the price for Idah would not have been so high….

What doesn’t help, however, is the endless stream of fans complaining that Celtic have the money and should spend it. That kind of pressure affects negotiations and also gives the likes of Norwich a little bit of a heads up when they plan their own arguments…

Like the clowns who trumpet the free money and so on for refugees, which then gets printed in the Express and Mail, and vice versa, which serve only as a sort of holiday brochure for those poor sods selling everything they have to get a seat on a dinghy.

I digress…..but just as the media have an agenda in the world of politics, and play social media accordingly, maybe we should be a wee bit wiser to their tricks on humble Celtic fans.

With Matt O’Riley being hawked around Europe by all but Matt O’Riley and Celtic, the feeling is that a deal to sell him may have been arranged, if only to pay for the outgoings on Idah and Bernardo, but what they won’t say is the money for Oh and Bosun Lawwal, who joined Stoke City, more or less covers that.

Whether or not O’Riley gets an offer he can’t refuse is out of our hands, but he still has a while to go on his contract, and enjoys working with Rodgers and playing for Celtic. He’s certainly not daft enough to take just any offer that comes along, and he will consider each of them on it’s own merits.

But as far as I can see, there hasn’t been one yet and Rodgers doesn’t want to sell him anyway.

With Ange Postecoglou spending money in exactly the same way Celtic won’t, worries that he may plunder Celtic for any or all of the Japanese trio have eased, and since honour is a major part of their culture anyway, we can probably relax on that front. After all, Shunsuke Nakamura could have gone anywhere, and he was of a similar mindset, and he didn’t.

Although it’s taken probably just over a year, Rodgers has put his stamp on a team that gave the impression they weren’t overly happy with him at first. What was directionless and probably lacking in enthusiasm on the pitch has gradually been turned back into a side that looks like they’re having fun, something which was definitely lacking around twelve months ago.

We’ve a lot more to look forward to than we probably think, though, as ever, i reserve the right to change my mind after the first couple of Champions League games.

Kasper Schmeichal , the badly spelt Danish veteran keeper is an important cog in this new machine, picking up from where joe Hart left off, his experience and enthusiasm is helping the defence, which needed and still needs an old, cool head.

The goalkeeper position is hopefully sorted for the next few seasons, and there may be one or two others here for the long haul.

When Calum MacGregor announced his retirement from international football, that showed his commitment to Celtic, although in fairness he was only joing his Scotland team mates in retirement, as they had quit about halfway through the Germany game.

But we do need more depth in the squad, if we are to make an impact in Europe.

However, given the relative success of “try and buy “, I’d expect a couple of loans as opposed to outright purchases.

Unless we’re waiting on a couple of top class players giving us the nod, and in all honesty if they’re hanging around waiting for something better they can take the proverbial flying fuck at a rolling doughnut, then we will find a couple of players in, either youngsters who are surplus to requirements at their current club…which used to be Manchester City when the Younger Lawwell did the planning…..or anyone else that is fed up with Benfica.

Though Benfica must be fed up with us just now.

With Champions League rules limiting non Scots, we may be forced to shop locally, especially as currently we are very light on local players…..that’s why Scott Bain is still around.

Well, probably why he’s still around.  Him not being very good could be another.

To build a team to compete at the highest level takes time, and probably money, neither of which Rodgers has in abundance.

Under Postecoglou, we seemed to be getting somewhere, the margins were becoming increasingly finer, and there was a feeling that we weren’t too far away.

We’re probably still , european wise, at the first and most basic stage, but there is evidence to suggest that we’re moving forward.

It’s not a matter of getting in top quality players, although that would help, and they probably wouldn’t want to come anyway, and even if they did they would demand wages that would disrupt any feelings of unity in the dressing room.

Even finding a quality back up player is going to be more or less impossible, Adam Idah being the exception, and that’s probably why we paid a little bit more for him than we wanted to, he’s the man for the job, and he’s already shown that.

Which is another reason to suspect a couple of loans might be next on the managers list.

We may not like it, but both on and off the field, it’s working.

Last week, we had this…

Today…..