Next season, would the fans regard a season without Celtic winning the league as successful?
After the mayhem that was last season, I think most fans were happy to get a break from it all but I feel that the break has gone on for too long now. I know the players and staff at the club need a break and I don’t grudge them that at all but it feels like the break is dragging in.
I know my question is a difficult question to answer but, before the Scottish cup final, I heard a radio presenter (on TalkSport) asking how can Celtic fans be happy with the last season?
The point he made is that we were knocked out of both European competitions at the first round, had the chance to win the league and blew it and never turned up for the League Cup Final.
When you are in a pretty strong position for a treble and only win one cup some folk will ask where things went wrong ?
I guess when you look at a club like Celtic, who are expected to win things, the above doesn’t make for very good reading but who does it look bad for?
I can only assume that it would be for people who look in from the outside and don’t really know about all the extra, off the pitch events that the club had to deal with – bombs, threats, lying refs, record punishments etc.
As for next season, most fans will agree that we must win the league, not that we should win the league or it would be nice to win it but that we must win it.
Unfortunately, with the fact that a club will no longer be fined or punished for a fan attacking opposition staff members, I feel that we could be looking at another season where off the pitch incidents ends up dominating things more than on the pitch action does.
My hopes are that we can qualify for the Europa league and, at the very least, give a good account of ourselves in the competition.
The fixtures are out for next season and if we do reach the Europa League group stages, five of our six matches in the competition will be followed by a league match away from home.
Moving off on a bit of a tangent, five of Rangers six matches after European ties will be played at home. Damn the pesky computer that decided that should happen instead of both teams playing three home and three away games after the six European matches- the same pesky computer that a person must have written a program for at some point!!!
Traditionally, teams struggle after a mid-week European match so on that basis we are going to be up against it again.
With Ally McCoist being in charge at Ibrox, I would like to discount him as a failed TV presenter but there have been other managers who have done well in their first jobs, so hopefully he isn’t one of them.
I believe that we are in a position where we will win the league, the players have got a taste of victory from the Scottish Cup and if the atmosphere and emotion of the last match of the season doesn’t make them hungry for success then they shouldn’t be at the club.
So from the outside, we had a dramatic failure but from within the Celtic support, we had a season unlike any other in living memory.
I don’t regard is a failed season, I see as a season where we made a massive improvement on the previous year.
For next season, we have a lot of players who want to play for the manager who now know what it is like to win something for Celtic.
Hopefully, with the addition of two or three new players, remember we already have two in Kelvin Wilson and Adam Matthews, we will be in an even stronger position than last season.
Last season we racked up a points total that would have been enough to win the league in the majority of the last 10 seasons.
I am optimistic about the new season and lets hope the rest of our fans are too. More so, lets hope the players and management are in the same frame of mind and that we can turn Parkhead into a ground that opposition teams hate to come to.
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Very well put Joe, as usual. As you say people from outside may wonder why we are so optimistic considering we havn’t won a league for 4 years, but that’s no concern of ours.
We are in a terrific position at the minute and as you say with a few more signings (2 of which i believe are more or less done: Wanyama and Damari) we should be strong favourites for the title.
Hail Hail and Happy Birthday 🙂
We really need to win the next league title, unfortunately in Scotland it’s not always the best team that does win it and with the severe financial situation at Ibrox it will probably be harder than it should be, i think if we are given a level playing field we will run away with it. Just cant see us given a fair chance, Rangers desperately need the CL money and were handed the 2 titles before last on a plate.
To answer your opening question…..
Yes it will be a failure if we don’t win the League.
By his own admission…that’s Lenny’s top priority..
he is being backed again by the Board , as best as they are able, to bring in some quality new faces…
so if we don’t win the league…then we will have failed…I don’t even want to think about it.
Last season , despite winning the Scottish Cup,was a disaster IMO….the loss to ICT and, more importantly, Sammi’s penalty miss gave the Title to a Club which was on it’s knees ( as opposed to being up to it’s knees)and our shocking performance in the League Cup Final rubbed salt into the wounds.
I don’t think that “off the field” situations affect the players one little bit and we shouldn’t use that as an excuse…….
Yes there are times when the refs. get it wrong and we suffer…but in the three previously mentioned games …there were no such incidents ..so we have no excuses there.
At the end of the day…it’s about the team and tactics that Lenny picks on the day…( he got this so wrong at Inverness) and it’s about the players performing to their best..and that includes scoring penalties….these two games defined our season..and we fell short.
As bhoylondon67 said..the best team doesn’t always win the League…and that was proved last year….
So no excuses for this year..let’s go and win it in style.
I dont think referees were as bad last year once Dougie Mcdonald and Hugh Dallas were shown the door but if they hadn’t been caught out as cheats and bigots we wouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near Rangers in the league table, the 2 seasons before last were absolutely sickening, the bias was relentless and blatant, the seriousness of Rangers financial problems meant it was a case of letting Rangers win the league and gain champions league money at all costs, if Rangers were not HANDED those 2 titles they would more than likely be in administration right now, i have never witnessed such open cheating in my life in any sport, absolutely disgraceful, the current Barcelona team wouldn’t have stood a chance of winning the SPL during those seasons, still angers and sickens me when i think back to that shameful, desperate “save Rangers at all costs” campaign.
I think it is absolutely paramount that we win the title next season. Sheer stupidity has given Rangers THREE titles in a row and only gross incompetence will give them another. Lennon is certainly under pressure, but then the club brought that upon themselves, appointing a rookie and allowing him to make mistakes at our own expense.
We can all point to other influences, but we lost the title through our idiocy…3 home draws, poor tactics / team selection in important games AND a hugely poor performance at Inverness.
Last season can be dressed up anyway you like, but was and never will be a success if we don’t win the league. Cups are mere fixture fillers, mean nothing without the league flag.
If Celtic don’t hit the ground running, the pressure on Celtic / Lennon will really mount. While the utter nonsense about not yet having a first choice keeper leaves me shuddering, an absolute disgrace this has not been settled long before now. Forster was adequate but little more…hope we don’t go back down the old route of cheap options in goal…quality keepers WIN you BIG games. Arsenal will testify to the problems of not being secure at the back.
I don’t buy into this crap about outside assistance, Barcelona would have won the last 3 titles without taking their tracksuits off and won by a country mile. Stop looking for or making excuses…talk is cheap, lets DO IT where it counts on the park.