El cormaco gave us his thoughts before the game last night, and I send him my apologies for not posting this before the game. I got caught up in all the excitement of the match.
From the Sofa: A Five point plan to bring back our “Grand Old Team”Sorry, no cheap jokes here, no research (natch) and very little cursing at
Ronnie either.
There are many things going on just now which are pulling the fan base in opposing directions:
Ronnie in / Ronnie out / downsizing/ No Living wage/ no pursuit of “restorativejustice” over the EBT years/ scattergun signing policy ….I could go on, but these are some of the reasons why it seems so many Celtic fans are losing connection with the club at the moment, attendances are down, the “thunder” has left Celtic Park to be replaced by a permanent cold wind, grey skies and unrelenting drizzle.
I aim to try to cheer us up however, not make things worse, so here are five things I believe are achievable to get things back on track.
In light of this the club statement on OBFA act is welcome.
1) Pay the living wage.
Celtic fans, in the main, are left leaning, people on the side of the “wee guy”; the downtrodden and exploited, so it galls many that the club wont engage fully with the living wage. No ifs or buts, no excuses, get it done because it’s the right thing to do and it’s what the fans want – the cost of the gesture would in my opinion be made up in return of goodwill on match-days opening up those wallets in the club shop or lounges
2) Change the manager.
This issue is causing many irate debates at present, and a house divided will never stand. Or something. Ronnie has divided the support, his defenders think those that want to see him gone are having their heads turned by a media who always had it in for him, those that want him gone point to the growing list of perceived failures and serious doubts about whether he can turn things around in futureThis isn’t a debate on the rights and wrongs of those positions, I m trying to think about how to reenergise and unite the support. If Ronnie were removedat seasons’ end the “should he stay or go” debate would cease immediatelyand if only for a short time attention could turn to the new manager (Steve Clarke, Paul Lambert or Martin O Neill for me) and Celtic fans can get united behind a common cause once more, at least until the new guys idiosyncrasies become apparent.
3) Find a player who makes us sing
I think I’ve confessed before to also following West Ham. This is a great season for West Ham and the signing of Dimitri Payet has galvanised the support; skilful, expressive, seemingly committed to the cause, he is the type of player fans at West ham love. And indeed Celtic – a Di Canio, a Moravcik, Naka, jeez even a Mc Geady – some one you want to go to see play as you don’t know what little bit of magic they will show. Currently we have dozens (literally) of players who can play this role of attacking midfielder / tre quartisita but all of them are one paced, predictable, keen to move the ball sideways rather than take a man on and beat him with a piece of skill. At least the ones we’ve had enough time to see enough to make a judgement on, with the possible exception of Allan who does seem to have a bit of vision about him.
Now Payet is obviously out of Celtics’ price range, and players like this are at a premium, but we pad c£300,000 for Lubo and £1million for Di Canio, so with the right scouting it can be done. We should scrap the 3 or 4 “project” signings in favour of one “marquee” player who will give us a couple of memorable seasons, get people coming to see them play before moving them on for profit or not depending on age when
they sign
4) Lose the Dead wood
A consequence of the “project” signing policy is that the playing squad is too big, with too many similar players, too many with questionable commitment to the cause, or who are dreadfully poor, taking up wages and places, disconnecting us from the squad and vice versa. Even if it means paying up contracts just to get guys like Boerrigiter and Ciftci out the door its worth doing to my mind, to make getting in to the team more realistic for more players and concentrate our minds better on those players who really are going to be part of the team rather than wishing time away on players we never get to see play – Allan, Christie, Roberts, Henderson, Nesbitt etc etc. to be clear these are players I d like to see play, but with so many in their way ahead of them its not happening.
5) Reduce Lawwell’s bonus and link it to on field achievement
In these financially straightened times its harder and harder to justify the bonus our Chief Executive gets and causes discontent among fans.I understand his role is on the financial side and he is achieving these targets so is entitled to these bonuses. I also understand the job he has to do is extremely difficult but…
While revenues are falling and the standard of the team is clearly also in decline there should be some parallel reduction in his bonus, and failure to reach stated on field targets such as qualifying for the Champions League should be reflected in how much bonus he gets. Celtic have a great year on the pitch – it will generate more income so Pete gets his big bonus, Celtic have a bad year on the pitch, Pete doesn’t get his big bonus. It may be the case that his bonus system is linked already ( though I don’t think so) in which case it may just be a case of opening our eyes to Celtic’s version of “All in it together “ or if not then renegotiating his deal to one more in tune with what fans believe to be “right”
So that’s five, and in my opinion some board humility over some mistakes in direction in recent times, and a commitment to a new inclusive policies aimed at keeping us pulling in the same direction, underlined by these 5 policies being announced as a suite of positive changes at the same time. For good measure we could throw in openly seeking removal from office SFA / SPL officers involved in Rangers EBT collusion, seeking some kind of official position on new club / same club, blooding more youth players in the first team and FFS stop signing the same type of attacking midfielders and sorting us out with a credible defence!
There’s my thoughts, I’m sure you have your own….
Great plan, works for me.
re the Andy Lynch quotes on the twitter feed, it can no way be related to our current situation. Lynch gave a 100% effort every game and made a positive contribution to almost every match. That is why the fans were so forgiving and supportive.He’s in a totally different class to those who embarrassed the hoops last night and most of this season.
Last night’s performance was, in my opinion, the most inept and insipid of the season; this from from a plethora of substandard efforts available tae choose from. For a team overloaded wi midfield players, we had a gaping hole where they should’ve been. Wi Armstrong on the left (where he does nowt – he’s no a winger Ronny), and Roberts on the right (pass marks but NO back up, which meant going it alone most of the night), and Broonie (he’s done nothing since starting back) and Charlie (slow and off the pace) playing defensively, it left Rogic on his own behind the Wee man (sandwiched between the Dundee centre backs all night). Armstrong (ironic name for the weakest man in the side) is replaced wi a one footed man who’s on the way out, he brings K-R on for Rogic, then (having had ONE shot on target, in the second half, brings on Kris for ten minutes tae try and push for a winner. It might’ve worked tae, if it wasn’t for those pesky Dundee players no gein us a shot of the ball in that ten minutes. I concur wi el Cormaco’s comments but doubt they’ll reach fruition. We discussed the prospect of renewing season tickets on the way game, and unanimously decided against the idea (only three of us, so nae big deal). I reckon there are many thinking along the same lines, wi the prospect of another season wi Ronny steering the rudderless ship towards the rocks. Group stages ? Dream on.
Can’t argue with any of that.
We’ve blown a once in a generation opportunity to build a truly great team with the limited competition in the League and instead have lowered our standards to just slightly above Aberdeen.
As Celtic fans seem quite happy to point out, the football club is indistinguishable from the company, so the on field performance is irrelevant to the CEO as long as profits are high and key financial targets are being met.
You want Celtic to be “more than a club”? Buy it and reincorporate it from a profit maximising machine (the legal responsibility of a listed company) to a cooperative, a Uriel or some other structure that values more than fleecing customers as much as possible in the long run.
Spot on.
Been saying this for years pal Fan Ownership is the only way to give the Support the Club it actually wants and needs.
HH
My phone somehow thinks “mutual” is “Uriel”, but you get the gist.
The “Club” is no longer a Club it’s PLC that maintains the pretence of a Club to keep the fans coming.
It’s purely about squeezing as much money out of it’s loyal customer base as it can by spending as little as it can in the shortest space of time possible.
When those that were entrusted to run this PLC have squaeezed it dry they will up stick ,retire or move on.
The sooner everyone in the “customer base” ahemI mean fanbase realises this the sooner they fuck off and let us get back to job in hand of running a successful Football Club and not a successful money maker for investors.
Wake up and smell the coffee folks if you want change at Celtic then you need to CHANGE CELTIC.
Get it back to what Celtic actually was and what Celtic we actually bought into and believed in.
A Club for all,a Club that existed to help those in dire need of help,a charitable entity and not just a money making machine that pays lip service to those charitable beginnings.
More than a Club?
Fuck of Celtic plc just the same as the rest of the greedy bastards who have prostituted OUR beautiful game.
It hurts to say it but there is only one way to affect the plc and that is to hit the revenue stream. ie stop going, stop spending. The fayre on show is crap anyway.
Dutch prostitutes are OK, having worked in Holland for a while back in ’98, I can confirm 🙂
No Deal a is the man today? Charlie Saiz
I have no issue with Deila bud he has the right ideas for the Club.
Whether or not he gets to see them through is another matter.
Our issues are much bigger than the Manager.
” I have no issue with Deila “?
That is concerning, very concerning.
You concern yourself with FIFA 16.
Deila
Out!
I agree with this well written article, especially Cifti etc but you forgot about Carlton Cole, what a waste of wages!
elcormaco,
Good stuff,
5 changes you are raising would put us back on track I believe.
I have always said that Celtic should have at least one top,top entertainer in the team, a Di Canio type who lifts the support when he get’s on the ball, surely it’s not beyond us to get an individual such as this.
I enjoyed your post. HH
Paddy McCourt?
Paddy McCourt had more natural ability than anyone at Celtic when he was here.
You could count on one hand the amount of times he failed to complete a pass to a team mate.
Such a shame his fitness levels were not up to his ability levels.
canny argue wae that
Totally agree with that mate, never gonna happen I’m afraid.
Thanks for reading guys. Maybe in in a good mood but I think we could actually make the club so these five things and they could get us back into the shape we want to be