It’s taken several years but we now have a league title fight on our hands. It’s not the way I or most supporters felt it would occur but for a multitude of reasons, most covered here, it’s happening and it’s time for all Celtic supporters to do our part.
I’ve made my views clear many times on Ronny and his coaching staff and won’t go over old ground again as it can wait for another time. At present there’s far more pressing matters that we, as fans, control.
Due to the number of less than impressive Celtic performances this season in Europe and domestically there’s been a growing volume of discontent aimed towards the players that reached a new level of angst during last week’s home draw with Dundee. There was a venom in the criticism primarily born from the dreadful level of performance being witnessed. When it comes to criticism and frustration with the club I hold my hands up and plead guilty as charged. Paying good money to watch international players unable to do basics against teams worth a fraction of their cost (and on a fraction of their wages) is a hard view. This isn’t like a movie when we can switch off halfway through and declare shite. This is Celtic with the emotional investment all of us have in the club that takes up a major part of our time and in many fans cases it is thee most important part of their lives.
The manager and coaching staff (you did say you wouldn’t go there! – Ed) are clearly accountable for tactics, team selection, motivational speeches etc but rather than focus on what we can’t control, the last few days got me thinking about what it is we as Celtic supporters can to do help.
The bigger picture today is not the personalities involved at the club. The far bigger picture is Celtic being crowned Scottish champions for the fifth successive season. Coaches, players and board members will move on but the one consistent is us the supporters. Celtic is our club. Always has been and always will be. Sure Desmond and his cronies may control the day to day power and number crunching decision making but the soul and the spirit of Celtic football club is you, me and in most cases our parents, Grandparents, friends, wider family and forefathers who helped create and shape this incredible way of life that is Celtic. We are on the cusp of winning FIVE league titles for only the third time in our 128 years of existence and this is the time OUR club needs us to remember all we love and care passionately about Celtic and do our part to help OUR team succeed when they need OUR help most.
The venom aimed at our players last Wednesday evening only helped our opponents. A misplaced pass or taking too long to move the ball on (even Gordon got verbally screamed at when he had no one to throw the ball to!) is being pounced upon by a great many fans to let rip a tirade of verbal abuse. Players are human and putting aside their level of technical proficiency and whether supporters believe they should be in the team common sense dictates that it cannot be beneficial to them to shower angry abuse from the stands.
Back in the old Jungle days at Celtic Park every player used to get their name sung loudly prior to kick off. Yes, we still didn’t win every match but this sense of player and supporter togetherness had a galvanising impact as invariably Celtic started every match at 100mph and got straight into the opposition.
Aberdeen have shown great resilience and a fair amount of character to stay on our tails and don’t look as if they are going away anytime soon.
Let’s get the Celtic songs going louder and longer. Let’s get that enthusiasm, desire and passion back in our stomachs for Celtic. If a player makes an error or is having a bad game let’s get behind them and remember they are representing Celtic. When the Celtic support truly vocally backs our team we create an incredible positive force. It’s amazing to be a part of and in addition to giving a wonderful level of encouragement to Celtic it frightens the life out of our opponents.
The team needs all of us to pull together and back them more than ever right now. Not just showing up expecting to be entertained but to play our part as fans in helping win the league title. That’s what supporters do.
Five Scottish championships in succession is staring us right in the face. Come on let’s do our part as loud and as supportive as possible to cheer the League title back to Paradise.
Hail Hail
Hector dead right, Opposition players must grow a go ot taller when they hear The Best Supporters in the World attack the Tic.We can do a little bit by not highlighting individual mistakes or picking on a player we have heard rumours about without knowing both sides and there are always both sides. I still have a photo of the Green Brugades banner about Aberdeen from earlier in the season, priceless. Let us hold the negativity until the double is won and then look to campaign for next season. The media have endured that the players, cos he’s and Biard know how we feel if they want season ticket sales come up
with a plan ghatvwevwill buy into but that’s for later on.
maybe a bit of something from a half doze or so players and from the 3 amigos might go some way to addressing he problem,the fans are showing by not turning up that there is something wrong seriously wrong at CP,not a word from our established board.
we play in a different league than Aberdeen,teams do not set up the same way against them or put in as much effort,Strachan stopped going to see our opponents in scotland because as he said totally different teams turned up when they played us,we are alone we have no friends outside of the club the rest of the country wan,t us to fail by fair or foul means(mostly foul),telling fans to get behind a shit team is difficult put the proper product on the park and the fans will return,and the atmosphere will get better ,the board should have been planning long term for the return of the cheats,in whatever form,our side should be so far ahead that ,the league next season would be a forgone conclusion,right now it isn,t,and even fans who have forked out for a season book are not bothering to turn up,even the family who sit beside me and are militant tims miss plenty of games,even getting tickets for most away games is getting easier,the board are sleep walking and seem not to give a dam about the product on the park,meanwhile we lose millions in revenue and use the selling of our best players to fill the gap
Spot on DH.
We get that DH, but this he article is aboot getting behind the team the now. Ah says before lets get this season ere N done wi as Chhampions. Let the recriminations start once we know the League flag is staying at hame. Wi us. Oor team. Glasgow Celtic.
MON THE HOOPS !!!
Without being rude to my fellow Celts,we are all entitled to our views about what has been happening at our Club this season, but this is the best post we could have read at this time. We have the best squad in Scotland at Celtic. A number of excellent players among them but a number of the same players are not performing to the skills that they. It is plain for all to see that a number of players are letting the fans reactions and criticism get to them.
I saw my first Celtic game in September 1946 and I have been a regular attender since then. I have witnessed some tremendous highs but I have also experienced a lot of pain in that time. If some of our younger fans had witnessed some Celtic teams of the forties, fifties and the early and recently, under Lou Macari, in the early nineties, then they really would know what a bad Celtic team was. The present team are going through difficult times at the moment and need our support at this crucial part of the season. So fellow Tims get yourselves back Paradise, roar the team on to victory in this league championship. Other pressing matters such as Ronny Deila’s future stewardship of this Club can be dealt with after we have landed the 2016 Scottish Premier League and Cup double.
Nailed it Joesey.
The team has a duty to the fans.
That duty is easy.Give your all,do this you will be supported. Play for yourself.hide.dont put the effort in that the shirt you have on deserves,then you will have no place to run.
All we ask is your all.
Stop playing with your mouths.and let your feet do the talking.
When things aren’t happening for you,dig deeper,go to the pits of your stomach and get back in the game.
The fans cant deliver when what they see is not worthy of the shirt they play for.
Hail Hail
but now regardless of how bad our players are playing we have got to get right behind them….they need our support and encouragement now…if we want to win 5 in a row its going to be up to us fans to make sure it happens…..yes the players dont deserve it but now is not the time to get on their backs as it will only make them play worse and drop points……the players need us on side now and we need to be on side if we want to win the league
A la young Tiernet this is all we ask,it is commitment for 90 mins nothing less is acceptable.
Deadhead, one of your best posts ever. I can’t speak for other Celtic fans but coming from a big family with all boys, we fought amongst each other, tooth and claw but any attack from outside the family saw us unite against Them, tooth and claw. We do have stuff to sort out at Celtic: board, coach, players and so on. But right now, we are under attack from Sevco, its media, the MIBs and it is “ourselves alone.” Let’s support our team over the finish line and in The Cup. Then we can get back to sorting out our own problems. C’mon the Celtic, Mon the Bhoys. If you know our history…all hands on deck! Boycott is a good part of Irish history but it must be used right time and right place, not against our own team, not at the moment anyway. Deadhead, we are not a shite team though we play like we are sometimes.Now is not the time.
our performances have been terrible but i think of late we as supporters have made things worse for our team and you are right now is the time to put away our anger and frustration and transform it into total support for the team and players…..if we dont…we may just give aberdeen the league
Hector, couldn’t agree more. What will happen in pre-season will happen then, for the here and now we need to get behind the team for these last remaining fixtures of this dismal season. Let’s bring our own thunder back to the stands.
I have a feeling that despite knowing the media are in the midst of the most brutal pro sevco anti Celtic propaganda campaign ever, the subliminal effects continue.
There are still Celtic fans quoting the push and fabrications as if it’s gospel.
The Scottish media are discredited and are run by theOO. Our sports administration is directed by the same organisation and it would seem, so are the Scottish judiciary. I can say this with some degree of certainty as we were told this by a former director of sevco who observed the same opinion about the football clump any.
I plead with fans to take no notice of the shite spewed out by the media. Get right behind Celtic. It’s OUR club.
Never again purchase these rags. They are below our contempt.
Cant believe any fellow Celt would even contemplate buyin their stinkin rags,and/or believe any of the pish they spew.COME ON THE HOOPS AND COME ON THE HOOPS FANS.
eta bidez Faithful
Hector, couldn’t have said it all better myself….I only wish I could get to the games to cheer on the bhoys with full heart for rest of the season.
I just hope the majority who do go feel the same way, I have faith that they do.
HH
Spot on. Time to get behind the cause
There is a ‘thing’ that could ‘UNITE’ all fans and it has nothing to do with being at the top of the league and going for 5 IAR, (That I ‘NEVER’ thought I’d see in my lifetime) and it has to do with the ‘BOARD’ not doing ‘right’ by the fans and the club. They have allowed us to be ‘CHEATED’ for they new EBT’s in 2005 were not only irregular but illegal (Juninho/side letters) and they done and said nothing, which allowed the club and fans to be fleeced. It’s time for the ‘Board’ to stand-up to be counted, before the fans. Lets ask them if they are a football club or just another PLC who arranges and attend ‘BALLS’ for their board members (no riffraff allowed). If they do not stand up for the integrity of the sport, you might as well cash the bus, better than sitting at the back. Only my opinion. HH
Schoosh, Celtic doing or saying anything would jeopardise the court cases against them the time to do anything is when all the court cases against them are finished.
The team might need us but at the end of the day we need the players to perform for us were in there for them so the players need to be out there to perform for us HH
” Celtic first and Celtic last last and Celtic overall “!
COME ON YOU BHOYS IN GREEN
COME ON YOU BHOYS IN GREEN
GLASGOW IS GREEN AND WHITE
GLASGOW IS GREEN AND WHITE
Superb post Hector well said
got to agree the time for anything else but the home support standing up and singing our hearts out is now. Everything else can wait. Some of the players need to man up& follow KT & LG’s example.
on to the double
Great post Hector,
agree with everything you say regarding getting behind the team.What puzzles me is why our experienced players are not tearing a new arse for the players who don,t seem to give a f*** about their performance on the park.I know Broonie has not been playing to great himself but as this team,s captain he should be getting right up some of them as some of their performances have been utter rubbish to say the least.Regarding our P.R. department they don,t seem to exist.
Totally agree with the case made here – it is time to get behind the team on the park. Howls of derision and personal abuse raining down from the stands does not make for good performances – it only makes the players even more nervous and risk-averse as well as stripping any remaining vestiges of confidence. Compare and contrast: Alan Thompson missed a penalty against Lyon in the CL a few years back: how did the fans respond? We chanted there is only one Alan Thompson – and it was the same with Craig Gordon in the Inter Milan game last season when he was having a rough time.
this is were we come in,lets here it bhoys,lets shut these c*nts up,
Only just caught up on this – Good read Hector and some valid points from all. The extremes of this debate remind me of the saying “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Well (at the risk of sounding as if I’m blowing my own trumpet), I think it’s possible to bitch and moan about the board, the coach, the staff, the players, the direction the club is heading in – and 100 other things that I’m annoyed about until I’m blue in the face and – at the same time – still get behind every single player in the hoops 100% without booing or jeering or hissing (or a totally OTT hissy-fits) during a match.
I’ve supported Celtic through the ups & downs for all of my life – I don’t recall much about my first season on the Jungle (58/59 – I was 4!) but despite the fact that Celtic won absolutely nothing that year – 6th – aye that’s right- SIXTH!!! in the league, 2 losing cup semis – that the quality of football was abysmal and half a team that weren’t really up to standard -… Sure there was plenty of moaning & groaning before & after the games in the pubs & elsewhere – even- there were even one or two “scapegoats” who seemed to attract derision (even then Scotland keeper Haffey) BUT (<big but) I don't remember ever hearing the team or any player being booed.
So, FFS by all means you have a right to vent your rage and frustration – but keep it outside of Celtic Park and whilst their playing for Celtic – good or bad – give every player 100% of your support for 90 minutes.
End of rant
Hail Hail!
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