This is the second draft of todays Diary. The first one consisted of just one word.<\/p>\n
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Bollocks.<\/p>\n
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Celtic crashed out of the Champions League last night as Ronnies Rollercoaster left the rails and exploded on impact with the ground. Early reports say that the new parts required to repair it won’t be available for months, and the existing parts won’t work any more.<\/p>\n
Maribor became the latest ordinary team to make the hoops look even more ordinary, securing a group stage place with a 1-0 win as a nervous Celtic looked bereft of ideas, application and inspiration. Except maybe when Kris Commons came on for the second half.<\/p>\n
Then , for maybe fifteen minutes , Celtic seemed to want to win, but the removal of arguably the first halfs best performer, Beram Kayal, left the midfield exposed again, and gradually Maribor took control.<\/p>\n
Celtic had chances, but they didn’t take them. Calum MacGregor hit the bar, Efe Ambrose was marginally off target with a header, and Virgil van Dijk should have done better when he was in space in injury time, but he elected to pass the ball to the Slovenian keeper instead of trying to score.<\/p>\n
So, from winning the league by thirty points, and at times playing great football using a diamond midfield, Celtic now face a huge rebuilding programme if they are to do anything in the Europa League, where its almost inevitable we will face Legia Warsaw again.<\/p>\n
Is it to early to start to apportion blame ?<\/p>\n
Probably, but I’m going to anyway.<\/p>\n
Dermot Desmond, the clubs largest shareholder has taken a back seat. Some argue that he should “dip into his billions ” to finance the club a little more, but thats clearly never going to happen. Desmond has delegated Peter Lawwell to do the day to day running of the club, while he concentrates on his other business interests.<\/p>\n
Fair enough.<\/p>\n
But Lawwell will not allow the same sort of free hand to his football manager.<\/p>\n
Whilst the bold Peter is undoubtedly a capable and efficient business manager, he is not a football manager. That sort of thing should be left to the guys at trackside.<\/p>\n
With previous incumbent Neil Lennon being mutually consented at best, fired at worst for apparently standing up against Lawwellian interference ( Hey- I just invented a new word ! ) \u00a0and a number of others turning down the position, Ronny Deila, a moderate success in his homeland Norway, was given one of the top jobs in football.<\/p>\n
No matter how much we dismiss the Scottish league, Celtic is a massive club with a worldwide fanbase. Certainly the biggest where the support is concerned. Even standing on the outside looking in, you sense it’s a world away from other supports. For us, its not about money , its not about big signings and multi million pound wages.<\/p>\n
For us its about the team we support, and being proud of it. win , lose or draw.<\/p>\n
The way the club, from Desmond to Lawwell and the rest of the board and the \u00a0major shareholders have treated the fans is a form of neglect. A form of abuse. We’ve been taken for granted, and in a sense they are right. We will always turn up. We will always support the club.<\/p>\n
But thats no reason to give up and do things on the cheap. Money has been spent, just not wisely, as the policy of downsizing continues.<\/p>\n
Downsizing. Its when you have a nice big car, or a nice big house, and then decide that you don’t need it anymore, and can get a smaller one and keep some money in the bank for a rainy day. Or a sunny day. The point is, the money stays in the bank and you toddle along at a slower pace settling for less than you have been used to.<\/p>\n
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With Ronny Deila, I think we’ve settled for less than we are used to.<\/p>\n
Of course, there will be cries to allow him time, to let him build his own team and impose his own ideas.<\/p>\n
Frankly, so far the only ideas he has had have been awful, and the one player he can probably claim to be his own signing is someone who could probably do a job for Stromgodset, but not for Celtic. Unless we needed someone to catalogue “haircuts you shoudn’t ask for. ”<\/p>\n
Berget- I can’t even be arsed trying to remember his first name, it’s Janice or something , I think, is little more than a wasted jersey.<\/p>\n
Aleksandr Tonev, another brought in on loan hasn’t featured, and anyone and Jason Denayaar, whilst obviously potentially top drawer, is a mate of one of Peters mates. Or something like that.<\/p>\n
Craig Gordon is the exception, but he was here before Ronny.<\/p>\n
To return to Ronnys ideas, whatever they might be , last night we had one striker ploughing a lone furrow in a home European game. Our top scorer from last season has been in and out of the team, and only featured for a quarter of this tie.<\/p>\n
Instead, we saw Berget out wide, Stokes often out wide, backed by some full backs out wide, and eventually just flung Virgil van Dijk up front like we did against Morton last year.<\/p>\n
It didn’t work then either.<\/p>\n
Deila seems to have taken a few bad ideas from Lennon, added a few of his own and come up with a whole new level \u00a0of ineptitude. After the game, he spoke to the press;<\/p>\n