{"id":13261,"date":"2018-08-15T11:07:24","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T10:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=13261"},"modified":"2018-08-15T11:07:24","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T10:07:24","slug":"celtic-diary-wednesday-august-15-where-did-it-all-go-so-wrong-so-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=13261","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Wednesday August 15: Where Did It All Go So Wrong So Quickly ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though perhaps a more poignant question should be why was it allowed<\/em> to go so wrong so quickly ?<\/p>\n

There is a lot of blame around this morning, all aimed in different directions.<\/p>\n

The reason for that is that everyone, from the players to the coaches through to the management and the boardroom are\u00a0 to blame.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

All of whom have not been doing their job of late, which culminated in a Champions League exit to a side that were workmanlike, but professional.<\/p>\n

Simply, they knew how to beat us.<\/p>\n

All they had to do was watch a couple of videos from last season and this one.<\/p>\n

When their manager told them what to do, they went out and did it.<\/p>\n

AEK Athens were up against a side who concede daft goals. They were up against a side where the midfield lacks guile and creativity. And they were up against a side who have three outstanding strikers who bizarrely only get to play together when the team is losing…<\/p>\n

They just let us get on with it, and waited for us to give them a chance.<\/p>\n

Everyone will have their own scapegoat. Usually they decide that before a game, and wait until he does something wrong, which allows them to point triumphantly and announce that they had told us so.<\/p>\n

For the first Greek goal last night, that would have been those that like to tell us Mikael Lustig is done. This is the Mikael Lustig who performs admirably in the Swedish set up, and somehow manages to avoid being told he’s “done.”..<\/p>\n

And yet, have a look at this picture..<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Eight Celtic players in the box.\u00a0 One AEK, and a couple “hovering”, and not one Celtic player is looking at any of them. Not one is considering covering the only area the player in possession can realistically even try to play the ball.<\/p>\n

Fair enough, you block the cross, you stop the goal, but if you don;t, you should be relatively confident that someone else is picking up the other forwards…<\/p>\n

So at best , its a hopeful cut back…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

and still no one is even looking at the goalscorer…<\/p>\n

Thats when its time to start asking questions of the coaches.<\/p>\n

Such as<\/p>\n

“Why don’t you collect your stuff on the way out<\/em> “?<\/p>\n

And the second goal ?<\/p>\n

The guy didn’t even have to jump to head home. And it was the proverbial “second ball “.<\/p>\n

Celtic didn’t win the first one either..<\/p>\n

Dedryck Boyata has come in for some stick after he downed tools when his move to another club was denied.<\/p>\n

He , too, had he played, would have been a scapegoat, and its more than likely he would have made a mistake or two.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, however,\u00a0 having been involved with another coaching set up, the one that took third place in the World cup,he’s decided that he doesn’t want to be involved at Celtic because he’s sick of taking the flak for other peoples mistakes…<\/p>\n

It would certainly have been a factor.<\/p>\n

And that might be a factor as our other “top” players ponder another wet and windy winter in Glasgow when Spanish or Italian sides come chapping at the door this month.<\/p>\n

A winter without champions League football…<\/p>\n

The midfield are not exempt from criticism, they should help out the defence, and the attack.<\/p>\n

Its even simpler at Celtic as the shape of the team is neatly divided into two lines, one of two to help at the back, and one of three to help the forwards.<\/p>\n

In actual fact, the midfield, when not in possession, resembles a fox hunt with everyone charging around trying to get the ball….<\/p>\n

And when they have it, they pass it gently to each other, until the opposition defence gets tired of this and allows them to play it where it will do the least damage.<\/p>\n

Or where they can simply crowd out a forward when the final pass is played.<\/p>\n

No guile, no invention, just a set pattern..<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then we have the forwards. On paper, the strongest forward line in many, many years.<\/p>\n

On the pitch, they seem to need an awful lot of chances to make one count…<\/p>\n

Anyway, in his infinite wisdom, the manager chooses to field one of the three at a time. Unless we happen to be losing,. then he pops another one on.<\/p>\n

Without considering that if he had used two to start with, we might not actually be losing.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to the manager, and his stubborn refusal to face the reality that his system has, after two years, been sussed by opponents.<\/p>\n

Even Craig Levein has masterminded two victories against it in recent months, and he’s never going to be, even by the wildest stretches of the most fervent imagination, a top class manager.<\/p>\n

Then, realising that this season is merely a continuation of the rot that had set in last year, he decides to blame, publicly, the board , for not concluding the deals that he wanted.<\/p>\n

Publicly.<\/p>\n

So the players then see that he’s not happy, and he’s not happy because he can’t get the deals done to replace them.<\/p>\n

A spectacular example of bad man management which he had to rectify by assuring them with what he called a “stabilising ” meeting.<\/p>\n

Except, it won’t have stabilised them.<\/p>\n

Far from it, in fact.<\/p>\n

Rodgers criticised the board for not providing the funds for him to strengthen the team, and yet its a bit late to strengthen for a campaign when its already underway..<\/p>\n

That should have been done in January, and guess what ?<\/p>\n

Rodgers thought it was… after that window, he said; ( thanks to The Mire CSC for reminding us of this.. )<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On Hendry he said…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And it was Rodgers who went out o f his way to secure Marvin Comperr..<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which in turn, brings us to Lee Congerton, Rodgers’s partner in crime when it comes to recruitment..<\/p>\n

Last night, only two of Rodgers own signings started the game.<\/p>\n

After two years, he felt that only two of his own signings were up to the job last night…<\/em><\/p>\n

Little wonder the board are reluctant to buy any players that this set up recommends …<\/em>but I’ll come back to that.<\/p>\n

Sure, there were injuries, but how many of those injured last night, and indeed during the campaign so far, picked up those injuries during a first team game ?<\/p>\n

A remarkably low, and worrying percentage.<\/p>\n

So we could conclude that not only are the coaches not up to the task tactically, their fitness programme is detrimental to er, the players fitness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When the wrath of the fans is vented over the next few days, it will mostly be aimed at our board.<\/p>\n

Of course, they should shoulder the blame, and yet when planning for this campaign, remember what rodgers said about them.<\/p>\n

Its only now that he has turned on them, in the full knowledge that he’s made an arse of it, not them.<\/p>\n

But they have taken their eye off the ball, presumably because its been focused on their bonuses.<\/p>\n

We’ve new lights, \u00a34m worth of new lights, which suggests that they may have got their priorities a little mixed up. Still, they’ll look good at that rugby final we’re due to host soon, and in all honesty, the chaps on the board are more your rugby type anyway…<\/p>\n

Perhaps instead of buying new lights, we’d have been better selling all the old ones, and then opposing teams wouldn’t be able to see how poor the team is.<\/p>\n

The board have allowed a sum in the region of \u00a340m to slip through their fingers.<\/p>\n

Their job is not to decide which players we buy.<\/p>\n

Thats the managers job.<\/p>\n

If he has concluded the guys he first thought were up to the job weren’t, then they must back him with replacements, and the funds for those replacements.<\/p>\n

If they don’t, then it is a sign that the working relationship has broken down, and someone has to go.<\/p>\n

Directors should not be allowed to judge players. They have to trust the manager to do that.<\/p>\n

If the manager is big enough to admit he has got it wrong, then they have to support him.<\/p>\n

Its only when he keeps getting it wrong, its time for change.<\/p>\n

Rodgers record, domestically at least, means he deserves to be backed by the board.<\/p>\n

They didn’t do that, and frankly there’s little sign that they intend to do that.<\/p>\n

Their next meeting won’t be about speculating to accumulate, it will be about filling that \u00a340m hole in the accounts.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, this last month has been an almighty fuck up.<\/p>\n

There’s no one person to blame, everyone has played their part in this farce.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Saturday, Celtic face Partick Thistle in the League cup, and they will be optimistic that they can spring a surprise.<\/p>\n

Anything less than one hundred per cent on the field, with one hundred per cent from the stands, will allow the media, who have a massive Stop The Ten campaign already under way, with full backing from the SFA , to drag the support apart.<\/p>\n

They are enjoying this.<\/p>\n

We. on the other hand have picked our scapegoats, and we will stick to them.<\/p>\n

But there isn’t a scapegoat as such, there is more that same old Celtic feeling.<\/p>\n

That feeling of not building from strength, that complacency that comes with six domestic trophies out of six. Perhaps even an admission that European success is beyond a club of our means, but its a great source of extra income.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From the board room to the support, to an extent, there is a feeling that Celtic have found their level.<\/p>\n

Well, thats bollocks.<\/p>\n

Frankly, we have lost the drive required to maintain progress at any level, we have little desire to improve whether thats on the pitch and off it, and that mojo, or Eye Of The Tiger, needs to be rediscovered very quickly before we forget how to.<\/p>\n

You see, when one is happy with his lot, some bastard will come along and take it away from you. Normally when you’re not looking, or having an afternoon kip.<\/p>\n

But if you keep moving , and keep coming up new ideas, he will never catch you.<\/p>\n

And Celtic need to get moving again, and we need to get moving again right now.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though perhaps a more poignant question should be why was it allowed to go so wrong so quickly ? There is a lot of blame…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/quote-if-you-ever-take-your-foot-off-the-gas-pedal-things-will-spiral-out-of-control-snowball-sam-altman-129-79-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-3rT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13263,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13261\/revisions\/13263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}