{"id":8317,"date":"2015-12-22T11:02:11","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T11:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=8317"},"modified":"2015-12-22T11:02:11","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T11:02:11","slug":"celtic-diary-tuesday-december-22-procedure-to-avoid-meltdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=8317","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Tuesday December 22: Procedure To Avoid Meltdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think it’s safe to say that the support are divided at the moment.<\/p>\n

Hector Bandido’s well though out and interesting article on the site reflected a viewpoint which is not consistent with that of the diary, but contains several good points, and for probably the first time during the current civil war-or should I call them the Troubles-we now have rational argument on both sides of the debate.<\/p>\n

Now, lets get into that Tardis, and go back to the 22 of September last year, and the diary of that day…<\/p>\n

\"Celtic<\/p>\n

CELTIC DIARY MONDAY SEPTEMBER 22: CELTS CONSOLIDATE TOP SIX POSITION<\/h1>\n
September 22, 2014<\/abbr>\u00a0\u00b7 by\u00a0Ralph Malph<\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u00b7 in\u00a0Diary<\/a>,\u00a0Latest<\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0Edit<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\n

A hard fought draw with a resurgent Motherwell saw Celtic keep in with the big boys in Scotlands top six, thus ensuring a good shot at a place in Europe next season.<\/em><\/p>\n

Alright, you try to find something positive from that garbage yesterday.<\/em><\/p>\n

A Kris Commons penalty cancelled out John Suttons first half goal to mean that Ronny Deilas\u2019 side have now won just three of eleven games against full time opposition. \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Whatever it is he\u2019s trying to do, it isn\u2019t working. In fact, it\u2019s becoming more apparent that it isn\u2019t going to work. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well, bugger I down dead. It appears the author ( me ) used to think Ronny was a diddy as well.<\/p>\n

After that game, Ronny told the papers..<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I\u2019m not happy with the result. We deserved to win but we made it so difficult for ourselves with a poor first half.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018We had bad tempo, no passes forward and didn\u2019t break them down once in the first half. That\u2019s not good enough.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018In the second half, we had two good subs coming on, they brought energy into the game and we played quite well.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut you cannot rely on one or two players. We need to get the whole squad up at the right level.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to build leaders out on the pitch, for when Scott and Kris aren\u2019t there.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe six changes was too much. But I don\u2019t want to rotate that much, it was just needed.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had many players out with injuries, new players coming in who we\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

need to play into shape.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut of course I worry that we might have more days like this. That is why everybody in the squad needs to improve.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will get injuries, we will have players out, so we need to build everybody up.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Which I interpreted thus;<\/p>\n

So , correct me here if I have misunderstood\u2026is he saying we won\u2019t play our top players because we need to get the second string ready in case we, er, don\u2019t have the top players out there ? \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"facepalm\"<\/p>\n

Fuck me. He\u2019s really gone this time. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Only two changes need to be made.<\/em><\/p>\n

Quickly .<\/em><\/p>\n

\"ronny<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Who do we bring in to replace them and set the ship back on course ?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

My suggestion at the time was Tony Pulis, which was no worse than some of the other names bandied about just now.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the replies, quoted in part here, was from Desi Mond, another Etims colleague;<\/p>\n

Right, for whats its worth, i think its apt to remember that after winning his first game 6-0, a certain Mr Stein also soon got humped 4-2 by Hibs and 6-2 by Falkirk and was known for a side losing goals and for giving the players instructions they found difficult to comprehend.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now Im not saying thats a perfect comparison but lets calm the jets for a while please. Ronnie Deila stepped up when others walked away and he said \u201cHere is my plan!\u201d. Celtic hired him and he should be allowed to try and implement the plan accordingly. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

First of all, I’d like you to note that everything currently being said about the current management was said back in September of last year. I couldn’t see what he was playing at, and thought that we were on the verge of a major disaster.<\/p>\n

Thats what happens when you offer a knee jerk reaction.<\/p>\n

But as Desi pointed out, Ronny did step up, he does have a plan, and we should at least allow him to give it a go.<\/p>\n

Well, fourteen months on, where are we with that plan ?<\/p>\n

Should I do yet another about turn based on what we can see in front of us, or should we calm the jets a little longer, and see where we go from here.<\/p>\n

If we do the latter, what should we base it on ?<\/p>\n

Well, we are still gunning for a treble, and we have a promising set of players, arguably not performing, but promising and tied up on long term contracts.<\/p>\n

And for a couple of years at least, they are unlikely to have their heads turned south every time they hear a window oipening.<\/p>\n

So we do have something to build on.<\/p>\n

One criticism levelled at the club in the past was the policy of selling our best players every six months. Sure, it raised money, but that money was never invested in players of the same quality. Instead, the idea was to send out a few scouts to see what they came back with. Like heading to a car boot sale hoping to find some daft old sod has chucked out a Rembrandt.<\/p>\n

Might happen every now and again, but hardly the way to run a railroad. Eventually, you will get sick of churning through the boxes of crap and decide its not worth it anymore.<\/p>\n

And all you are left with is stuff that isn’t worth putting on show.<\/p>\n

Which is where we are at now. Which clearly could not be allowed to continue.<\/p>\n

So, the board changed tack, and brought in a manager who can build things, from scratch, if given time. He has a clear set of ideas which may not be accepted by all at first, or even after eighteen months, or maybe even by the end of this season.<\/p>\n

But they are there, and there are signs that some players, such as Leigh Griffiths, have taken that on board. Without getting into the argument over who has been a success and who hasn’t , its fair to say that those who have look like they are here for a while, and those who haven’t won’t.<\/p>\n

Change takes time, and after realising that this is a long term plan to avoid changing players and managers on a regular basis, and there is more to Ronny’s game than just the 4-2-3-1 , then i’m prepared to wait.<\/p>\n

I can see what he’s trying to do, and he deserves to get a chance to do it.<\/p>\n

If only for putting up with what must be bewildering abuse, despite winning two out of three-ach, never mind the stats, its well documented-from supporters who appear to be far more knowledgable than him.<\/p>\n

Lets quickly dispel a couple of oft spoken myths here, before we go on.<\/p>\n

“I could win a treble in that league ”<\/p>\n

No, you couldn’t. And please, the louder you say it doesn’t make it more accurate.<\/p>\n

“We pay the players wages ”<\/p>\n

No, you don’t. Otherwise they’d be at your kitchen window every Friday signing for them.<\/p>\n

And my favourite…<\/p>\n

“These bloggers are all doing the work of Lawwell, so that we put up with mediocrity ”<\/p>\n

Aye, they’re an insightful bunch.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, anyone who has ever been in an overly well paid job will tell you that you will do anything to keep it. If your boss decides they are having a meeting at ten o’clock on a Friday in Norwich, you will be there. You do what you have to.<\/p>\n

And you do not make an arse of it deliberately, because you will lose that job, so quite why anyone imagines that Lawwell isn’t doing what he thinks is right is beyond me.<\/p>\n

Upset the customers too much, and you lose that job. Why would he risk it ?<\/p>\n

Whatever criticisms I have of Lawwell and the Lapdogs, it isn’t that he genuinely doesn’t believe in what he’s doing.<\/p>\n

Back to Ronny, and what is bewildering criticism.<\/p>\n

Have a look at this, it appeared on facebook and then on twitter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Players read this sort of shite.<\/p>\n

Then we wonder why they incur bowel problems during home games.<\/p>\n

The away performances of late have been more than decent in most cases. The atmosphere generated by the hardy souls who travel the highways and bye ways allows the players to relax. The singing and cheering is from at the very east a whole stand. surprisingly, although the fans are much closer to the players, there is more encouragement than damnation.<\/p>\n

Now, to Celtic Park.<\/p>\n

Teams come out, a cheer. The huddle, a cheer. Kick off, and the clicking of tens of thousands of seats as punters sit down, fold their arms and get ready to moan.<\/p>\n

They pay the wages, you see.<\/p>\n

Now, at an away game there is moaning too. But it gets drowned out , by and large, by the atmosphere. Thats because roughly the same amount of people sing at games whether they are at home or away. Its just that they are all in one end of an opponents ground.<\/p>\n

The silent arena that Celtic Park has become has the singing congregated in one corner, with perhaps an occasional outburst from other sections.<\/p>\n

When something goes wrong, the players know about it. A misplaced pass, a poor tackle and they know about it.<\/p>\n

So is it any wonder the home form and performances are a little below par ?<\/p>\n

It would be easy to say that the players should give us something to sing about, which is in part true, but we should also consider the term supporters, and what that means.<\/p>\n

Then , after a duff game, players already having had their confidence shattered, and perhaps not feeling at their best, get to read all about it on social media, on forums, and in the mainstream media.<\/p>\n

And boy, the mainstream media are loving it.<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

And we, as a support, are feeding this frenzy.<\/p>\n

And the players will read it, and guess what ?<\/p>\n

They, too, will start to have doubts about the managers ability.<\/p>\n

That, according to Lawwell, was what happened when the press laid into Tony Mowbray, who, as an honest and decent man, refused to take advice on how to deal with the vultures who feed on the bones of a Celtic in crisis.<\/p>\n

Some of us are falling for it now.<\/p>\n

Back to the board, and they , if anything , need a wake up call. Its only a few weeks since the furor over Lord Livingston and his accusations of racism. We were led to believe the police were investigating, and then nothing.<\/p>\n

We were led to believe that action was imminent on the years of cheating, and then nothing.<\/p>\n

Either they don’t give a toss, and want the cheats back as soon as possible, perhaps fearing that their jobs are at risk without them, or they are keeping their cards close to their chest for a major play later in the game.<\/p>\n

Time will tell, but with the exception of a couple on the board, the others are merely there to tell people they are on the board of a football club. They have no significant input.<\/p>\n

It’s time they did, or made way for people who are prepared to work for the good of the club, because right now thats not happening.<\/p>\n

And again, the attention on the players and management is deflecting from that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All of that sounds fairly glum, and perhaps we should be more worried than we are.<\/p>\n

Or maybe we are going in the right direction, which leads me to my final point.<\/p>\n

The club has little or no effective public relations.<\/p>\n

We’ve no idea whats going on at any level. Fans appear to be excluded from all decision making, which in itself is preposterous, and for a club like ours, thats unacceptable.<\/p>\n

There are regular fans forums, so an attempt is being made to engage the support, and there are signs the club is listening. Theres a lot to be proud of, such as the statue of McNeill, the work of the Foundation and the support of the foodbanks.<\/p>\n

But not enough is made of that, the only place you’ll find out about it is on the club website, which is not where most of us head for news. Whether we admit it or not, the MSM still hold the majority of us in its grasp.<\/p>\n

And we don’t trust them in the slightest.<\/p>\n

Theres a lot wrong just now, but it can be fixed, and first and foremost everyone needs to calm down and start to offer constructive suggestions.<\/p>\n

Once you realise that top players won’t come, top managers aren’t interested, and the way forward is to build our clubs reputation back up by laying new foundations then that will be a lot easier.<\/p>\n

Trouble is, too \u00a0many want to start kicking them away already.<\/p>\n

We should be concentrating on the issues in the Scottish game, dealing with the corruption and collusion at the top.<\/p>\n

We should be dealing with directors who have their own interests at heart, and not those of the club.<\/p>\n

We should be dealing with those in the media who run us down every time they get the slightest chance.<\/p>\n

We should be letting the team and the management do their talking on the park, with our suppport.<\/p>\n

We should remember who we are, where we came from and that there are enough people out there who want to rip us apart without ripping each other apart.<\/p>\n

We are a club like no other, sometimes though, its not enough to just say it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

I think it’s safe to say that the support are divided at the moment. Hector Bandido’s well though out and interesting article on the site…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8318,"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\/2015\/12\/14255677-business-tactics-and-strategy-in-word-tag-cloud-on-3d-sphere.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-2a9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8317"}],"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=8317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8319,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8317\/revisions\/8319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}