Shaun Maloney’s injury against Inverness Caley Thistle has re-opened the captaincy issue that has dogged Celtic throughout the year.
Gary Caldwell, Darren O’Dea, Glenn Loovens, Scott Brown, Shaun Maloney and Daniel Majstorovic have all worn the armband at some stage over the last twelve months.
There’s an old adage that you should have a team full of captains but the current Celtic squad is closer to one without a captain.
Maloney is expected to be out for at least two or three weeks and hasn’t had a regular run in the team since returning from Aston Villa in August 2008.
The captaincy issue can be a very British affair with many continentals seeing it only as a ceremonial role to be bestowed on the longest serving player at a club.
At Celtic the club captaincy means much more. Jock Stein and Billy McNeill set the standards in post-war captaincy with others such as Danny McGrain, Roy Aitken and Neil Lennon cut from the same cloth- leading by example and not afraid to growl at team-mates to get the desired effect.
Looking across the current squad it’s difficult to find any candidates currently ticking the right boxes.
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You don’t have to look far to find Brown’s detractors but co-incidence or not results have nose-dived in the absence of the former Hibs midfielder.
Maloney was perhaps the surprise choice to stand-in for Brown but has enough issues to deal with without having the captaincy added to his list.
The Dougie-Dougie incident at Tannadice would be difficult for any captain to handle but forgotten amongst the controversy the dear departed referee was allowed to get away with a quick drop ball to resume play with no Celtic player available to contest the ball.
Early injuries against Rangers and Inverness has seen Maloney pass the captaincy on to Daniel Majstorovic at the exact time that the Swede has hit his worst form in a Celtic jersey.
Sorting out his own form and establishing a partnership with Thomas Rogne seems the obvious priority for the former AEK Athens defender which leaves the captaincy issue again up for grabs.
There are no real inspirational figures in the current team, a Paul Hartley or Barry Robson type would get the armband instantly, which leaves Lennon looking for other qualities from his captain.
Being a first team regular and natural English speaker would point towards Joe Ledley but six months into his Celtic career the Welshman has still to find consistency of form to justify being made captain.
As he discusses the issue with Alan Thompson and Johan Mjallby the lack of captaincy candidates will be obvious.
A title winning run could see characters emerge but until the return on Brown the captaincy issue looks impossible to resolve.
Neil Lennon- ten years at Celtic
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I don’t understand why Mark Wilson is not in the mix at this stage. He’s not injured, he’s been at the club for a long spell, and he’s not the greatest player we have, but at least he can perform with some modicum of consistency that a captain is supposed to portray.
I can’t imagine he’d have issue ripping into the young guys either.
Good suggestion J-Rod but his injury record puts him in the Maloney category- getting fitness and nailing down a run of a dozen matches is more important than the captaincy
It’s a sad indictment of where we are at as a club.
As you mentioned the old Bhoys- Aitken and McGrain etc , that was the generation when I was introduced to the Jungle.
And you had a starting X1 full of captains, guy’s who new and and understood the true meaning of pulling on the Hoops,and what it meant for the fans- ‘Living the Dream’.
A squad of around 30 players and we’re struggling to find one captain is a kick in the haw maw’s.
I voted For Majstorovic, as I feel he is the best of a bad bunch, when I watch him he is a talker and motivator at the back but he has his moment’s with lack of concentration, blunders etc.
A few months ago I thought I would never hear myself say or write this in this instance, but Scott Brown is someone IMO we have missed these last 4 or 5 games.
If we overlook the headless chicken, giving away possession, misplaced passing stuff etc, he has that ‘Get intae em spirit’ that has been lacking in the middle of the park.
Maloney was having a decent start to the season, then he was handed the honour of Celtic captaincy, and his form started dipping for some reason.
Was it that the responsibility was too much?
We need a’ MAN OF STEEL’ signed in January, someone who is captain material.
I haven’t seen much of that Danny Shittu playing, but we where trying to get him here on a trial a few months ago,as he was a free deal.
So someone with his presence is needed as a priority signing as there are too many nice guy feather weights in our Squad,’Beef it up a bit Lenny’.
So my choice at the moment, is Majstorovic, and if we can’t find someone in January to hand the captaincy to then I’d give it back to Broony when he returns.
Although listening to Mark Guidi the last month on the Radio phone in, he has mentioned/hinted on a few occasions about Brown maybe departing in the January window ??
Where has all the skillfull, gritty, manly footballers of Scotland/Ireland gone? They seem to be a dying breed.
I suppose this is due to it becoming a ‘sissyfied sport’, to protect the delicate little Iniesta’s and Xavi’s of this world.
Bring back the crunching slide tackles and the physical game of old, players like your Aitken’s, Souness’s, McGrain’s, Keane’s- those guys couldn’t play in this modernised namby pamby game of today.
Forever Celtic
SB67 Hail Hail
Scott Brown may not yet be ready to boss a midfield himself (though I feel he is not far away), but he certainly makes it difficult for opponents to do so. And we have been getting overrun in midfield a bit more since he has been out.
I feel he plays far better when he is smiling. His whole body language changes and he becomes the smooth operator we have seen at times. Unfortunately, of late he seems to be far too tense.
If we can get the happy and relaxed Scott Brown back, I feel we have a very good player.